MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 202

Episode Date: August 25, 2014

Featuring Alexander Gustafsson, Frank Mir, Rener and Ryron Gracie, Edson Barboza, Mike Ricci, and Audie Attar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for the show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. Introducing O-DU. It's the only business software you'll ever need.

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Welcome, my friends, to the Sunday stretch of the calendar year. You know what I'm saying. I already broke this down for you. October, in my opinion, this is our first show of the month here in October. And to me, it feels like Sunday morning. November feels like 3 p.m. on a Sunday and then December is nighttime on a Sunday and you know that work is coming and you know you don't like January. You're not all that excited about it. This feels like, all right, you're still glowing from the summertime.

You're still glowing from the beautiful weather in September and August. So that was Saturday night. But now you're kind of getting used to the fact that you have to go back to work tomorrow. And you usually go to work on a Monday. And now here we are doing our usual show on a Monday. You feel me? You get where I'm coming from. We got a good show planned for you all and happy to be here.

And you know what's interesting? One of our big guests on today's show is obviously Alexander Gus was in. I was thinking about this. I feel like the fact that the UFC hasn't had a show for the last two weekends feels to me like it has raised the importance and the legend and the stature of that UFC 165 main event because nothing has. replaced it on the calendar. Now, once Damia and Jake Shields fight this Wednesday in Brazil, we'll have something else to talk about, to analyze, to recap. But until then, it's still Jones and Gustafs, and that's the last thing that we saw inside the Octagon. And I think that has made the fight even more special in its aftermath. At least, that's what I'm thinking right now.

That's how I feel. You're joining the back, as always, by New York, Rick, Alfred, Will, and Buzzkill kind of make an appearance here and there. We don't really know what he does these days, but he is somewhere in the house. And of course, as always, we are taking your questions and comments. Hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour or leave them in the post below. Like I said, last week,

we're giving a lot of love to the people who leave questions and comments on the website. So hit us up over there as well. Via Twitter, you can get these tops cards, best one, maybe one or two this week. We're not sure. You heard about them.

We've been talking about them for the last couple weeks. So that's what's at stake this week. I'll run down the show for this week, and then we will get to our first guest. New York Rick is telling me, okay, all right, I understand. All right, so here's who's joining us this week. We've got Huron and Hennar Gracie. They'll be stopping by talk about some interesting news coming out of their life.

Adi Yattar, who's a rising star in the world of MMMA management. Edson Barbosa, he'll be stopping by. Mike Ritchie, recently released from the UFC. We'll be talking to him. and the aforementioned Alexander the Mahler Gustafson. But first, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in. Good friend, long-time friend of the show. UFC heavyweight veteran, former champion Frank Mears stopping by.

Frank, how are you? Good, thanks. Thank you for coming on. I want to know, obviously, you were supposed to fight Alistair Overeem at UFC 167. We found out last week that's being moved to UFC 169 on February 1st in Newark. Why is that, in your opinion? I think just we give us more time to prepare. I think both of us just happen.

It's a pretty important fight for both of us in a career. As far as I know, there was no reason as far as officially to move it. You know, obviously, I don't know his results while his testing, but everything I had done for the Athletic Commission came back clear and positive. So as far as, you know, I can move forward for the fight. So as far as I know, just more time to prepare. The UFC put out a release saying that the Nevada Commission, wanted you to have more time coming off your last fight against Josh Barnett.

Do you feel 100%? Do you feel like you need more time? You know, obviously more time is just to make some better to prefer an opponent. But as far as if it was a necessity now, I felt fine. Did they make you do any special, you know, testing or anything like that for, you know, just, you know, concussions or anything? Like, was there anything that came out that said maybe this is a red fly, that maybe we have to keep this guy on the sidelines for an extra two months? No, nothing at all.

So are you disappointed? You know, I would have been nice to have another fight before Christmas. But other than that, no, you know, it's the way the fight game goes. People pull out due to injury or, you know, things get moved shows. So, I mean, you know, it's nothing I'm not accustomed to in the 12 years to be on the UFC. That was a special card. It was the 20th anniversary show. Are you upset that you're not on that card?

That was kind of, you know, a nice thing to be a part of. but as far as, you know, once you're getting ready for a fight, you kind of might are so consumed with who you're fighting, that as far as, you know, all the circumstances of the side of the octagon and kind of fall to the wayside. Have you even started your training camp? I mean, when you got this news, did it even begin? Yeah, I was already in the middle of training.

Wow, so what do you do now? Obviously, you're not like a week out of the fight, but how do you then take your foot off the gas, so to speak, and readjust for a fight that's now, what, little over two and a half months away. Just that, you know, obviously, sparring is going to be put on the top of the list as far as the intensity, but just, you know, take a step back and just, you know, worry about doing training that's not going to cause so many injuries and worry about more like, you know,

looking to be long-term in the gym, not so much, you know, short term. And by the way, when I say two and a half months away, two and a half months away from when you were supposed to fight in mid-November, of course. Will you spend time at Jackson's once again? Yes, I think that's a little. It's been a very positive thing as far as how I've come out prepared and not for fights. I don't see change for any reason. So even though someone looks at your record and says,

all right, on paper you lost your last two fights, you still feel like Jackson's is the place for you. Yeah, absolutely. I think that sometimes outcomes don't really tell the full story. You know, I think as far as how I'm prepared, it's better preparation. I've been less prepared for fights and come out to Victor. Because I think I've got mixed mistake or something that happens in the fight. Whereas these last two fights, it's all very prepared.

You know, not, you know, on the, you know, giving a W, can't be the sole reason for the evaluation. Speaking of which, have you watched the Barnett fight since it happened the end of August of this year? Yeah. And do you still believe that that was an early stoppage? Absolutely. I think that I didn't lose muscle tone when I went down.

If I'd been hit and fallen to my chest, but the fact that I would put my hands down and catch myself to my hands and my knees, I think it shows that I'm still there and the rule kind of goes is if you can't defend yourself intelligently. I was never even given an opportunity to defend myself intelligent because there's no follow-up strikes that were thrown in the fight. Had been, you know, Barnett had been throwing them, you know,

even just mild shots and teeing off on me. I think there could be an argument that, well, you know, you weren't protecting yourself. You can't even make an argument for whether he was or wasn't, or I was not able to defend myself intelligently because there was no attack. The referee never even gave it enough time to... Right.

We aren't to do the next maneuver. I think that itself said that it was stopped too soon. You're usually calm, cool and collected, but you seem very upset at the post-fight press conference. How mad were you, and how long did it take for you to get over that fight? I was extremely angry about it. I think the referee really dropped the ball line. You know, and that sucks because there's a lot of ways to lose a fight,

but, you know, having somebody else just not properly able to do their job and crack into the pressure of being a made-a-interpremed-int or a combative of a UFC. It sucks, you know, and so it's upsetting. Do you think that's what happened that he just got consumed by the moment? It was a big deal, big fight and all that. Yeah, I just think that other fighters, you know, and I think they're going to wrap it up. Even the guys with a ton of experience, make mistakes.

Why would you, you know, have somebody having their, you know, do you know, someone on the favor or something to be in that type of situation with little or no experience as far as I know in that type of fight? Did you ask the UFC for an immediate rematch? No. I kind of know that there wasn't going to work out. I wasn't going to go pound my chest in that direction. I figured that I, you know, the decisions

and decision that was made at the fight is if I want to rematch, I have to put myself in that situation to, you know, upcoming fights, not sitting on a stream and belly aching about it. I'd be more proactive. What did you think when they offered you, Overim?

You know, I think overreem is a dangerous fight. I think that, you know, he still had a lot of good attention to children. I think it's a great opportunity for me to turn things around. I definitely don't consider him You know, there's last two fights I know they're considered losses

But I think they're kind of, you know, he was definitely winning the fights You know, I still have a lot kind of respectful And I think that it's a pretty scary A fight for anybody The fans have dubbed this fight, loser leaves town And people have asked Dana about this Asking if, you know, the winner You know, you have to win, if not, you have to go elsewhere

Do you agree with that? Do you feel like if you don't win, you shouldn't be in the UFC? Um, well, lot of them, though, I think it just depends on how much we're able to draw. I've always, you know, trying to help for that argument. When people ask about certain explanations, why certain guys get title shot, some guys don't, and I've always told people there's entertainment business.

You know, there isn't just so much less than a 30-and-all record, but, you know, if no one wants to come watch you fight, it doesn't matter. As far as if the UFC's willing to release us, I mean, I've heard the San Bernard Dana says absolutely. I remember, you know, if I'm not hard to believe that they're going to allow Alster to be picked up by another organization. I still think he could sell a ton of tickets. So, you know, myself, I don't know.

I keep my opinion, I guess. Sorry, would you say you keep what? I keep my opinion myself on me. I don't know. I guess I'd have to see, you know, what I'm selling afterwards. Are you even thinking of retirement these days? No, I wasn't, but obviously I have no real desires

to fight for another organization. So if I were to be let go, then I think that would be, you know, a huge step in the first. a form of retirement. But do you feel as though there will be pressure going into this fight

because, you know, the losing streak, the fact that both of you are, you know, coming off losses, do you think that will be a big theme and that's something that will be weighing on your shoulders

going into this fight? No, I mean, I think weighing in my shoulders is not getting need by Alistair in a crunch. It's pretty much not with the fans thinking about what will happen after the fight. I try to stay focused on the pocket hand.

So pretty much, you know, I think that Alistair, you know, I've shown weaknesses in the clinch in my past fights, and I think Alistratz probably has the best clinch me, and all of them in that way. I think he's probably the most dangerous guy in that area.

So you don't think he slowed down despite the two losses in the UFC? No, I think that, I mean, if he had my referee in the last fight, then I think he would have to win. Sure. And then I guess a big foot, you know, I had winning the first two rounds and just he got fatigued. I think that, you know, from my standards, changed up his camp, and he's leaving the...

Black Zillions. So I really looked at a few guy who has conditioning back put on notch how he was when he saw Brock the first time. And, you know, so now I don't see somebody who should be taken lightly

or, you know, is not really forced to be reckoned with. You heard he's leaving the Blacksilians? Oh, in the industry of rumors and stuff where he's training and whatnot and probably has no truth to whatsoever, but I do, you know,

I guess I always put myself in the worst situation possible. I was a match of guys that could be at their best. Right. And I know you have to go, so I'll just ask you a couple more questions, and we'll let you go.

Thank you so much for the time. Alster told me this a couple of weeks ago on this show. He said, quote, I'm telling you this. If I lose to Frank Meir, I'd better start doing something else. If I lose to him, and that's three in a row, then I better start doing something else, right? So what do you think of that? What does that say to you about how he views Frank Meir?

I don't really have to me per se. I just think he says he loses three in a row that he realizes that review of few awesome truth, by him to let them go. Okay, so you don't think that that means that he feels that, you know, you're below him, and if he can't beat this guy, then he can't do this job. No, I didn't take it that way at all. I think if he was on the win streak, so he lost me.

He had to go find something else. I guess I took that as insulting. But the fact that he mentioned the three-in-a-row loss, and with everything else going on for the fight, I think he's just weighing in on what the circumstance is about me, and the total fanfare and with the U.S. State. John Jones would be the main event of that card. Does that work out for you?

Do you guys even train together when you're at Jackson's? Oh, yeah, no, it works out great for me. It's actually a huge benefit. Okay, and final thing, Frank, I wanted to ask you, are you familiar with this whole thing that Danny Castillo started? I always wanted to ask you this, the Frank Meirface thing on Twitter, and what do you think of it? Do you like this, or does it annoy you?

Oh, no, I find it. I think it's cool. I have no problems with it. But, I mean, it's something to my family and I, like, just my wife, one of my kids does it or something. You know, it's always a laugh when we make jokes, and I've always took it in the paws right. So were they talking about the Frank Mir face

before it even became a thing on Twitter? No, actually, no. Ben, I can see that they take full credit for that. You know, my wife rose your mark about my facial expressions, but she never actually gave it a term. And now when you do it, do they mention it? Oh, all the time.

Flavis, my wife, and it's actually caused a few arguments to end in laughing. You know, I still say something, and, you know, obviously, remarkably made, and, you know, my facial expression will follow, and next thing you know. You catch yourself doing it. You think you do it sometimes.

Oh, she'll catch me doing it. Then I should be like, just shrink me and face me. I'm like, shut up. That's amazing. Great stuff. Frank, I got to say, disappointed the fight's not happening on the 20th anniversary show, but happy to hear you're okay and that the fight will happen in February. Thanks for stopping by, as always, and good luck in training.

Oh, I appreciate it. Thanks. There he is. Frank Mears stopping by. Says he's okay, but Keith Kaiser, the executive director in the Nevada State Athletic Commission, thought otherwise. And UFC came out with a press release a Thursday evening saying that they, they aren't going to be able to put on this show. This was on the November 16th show. This was the big UFC 20th anniversary show, UFC 167, Johnny Hendricks versus George St. Pierre.

And it wasn't the co-main event. The co-main event, of course, was Chale Sondon versus Rashad Evans. And a nice card, Roy McDonald, Robbie Lawler's on the card. Interestingly enough, Dana White told me that the fight that will be replacing it on the main card was, or is, Tyrone Woodley versus Josh Kosteck, which I found to be interesting because I thought that was already on the main card, but apparently it wasn't. Apparently it was going to be on the Fox Sports 1 prelims. Now it's on the pay-per-view card.

That's a great fight as well. A fight that I actually thought the UFC should have booked when Woodley and Lawler came into the UFC earlier this year, I thought Lawler versus Jay Haran, and Woodley versus Kosteck made more sense. We know how all that turned out. Lawler and Woodley got big knockouts, but since then,

Woodley lost to Jake Shields at UFC 161, June 15th in Winnipeg, and now he's looking to get back on track, as is Josh Kosteck. So the new fight date for Frank Meir and Alistair will be February 1st in Newark, New Jersey, and the main event is going to be John Jones versus Glover-Ther. and why that card is interesting for many reasons.

Typically, the UFC puts on its Super Bowl weekend show in Las Vegas, of course. Last few years, it's been very successful. It's a good time in Las Vegas. One of those dates that the UFC you didn't think would try to, you know, veer away from Las Vegas because a lot of people come to gamble on football and whatnot. But because the Super Bowl this year is going to be in New Jersey, the New York, New Jersey, Jersey area. That's how they're billing it. But really, it's in New Jersey at the MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets. And it is airing on Fox. They wanted to really make that a very big weekend. Here in New York, it's a huge weekend for sports, all kinds of events. Nick's playing the heat

that Saturday night. The Rangers have a very big game. I think they're playing the Islanders at Yankee Stadium, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, there's a lot going on. UFC wants to be a part of it. Unfortunately, they can't be at MSG, but they will be at the Rock, the potential center, February 1st. So, uh, unfortunate news there, but the good news is for East Coast fans, you're going to get to see that fight. And I don't, I don't like necessarily the term, uh, loser leaves town. I, you know, I, I, I think sometimes we forget that this, you know, this is real life. And these are people with jobs and families and kids, wives and, and, and, and, and all that stuff. And it seems like it's unfair pressure to put on them. But when you look at their

resume, I can see the UFC having an easier time cutting top. And, and, and, it seems like, it's unfair pressure to put on. And, ties with Alster, given his big contract, given the fact that he's not a mainstay of the UFC. If he loses this fight, he said it himself. If he loses, he thinks he should probably go out and do something else. But with Frank, I feel like it's going to be one of those situations where if they feel like he can't cut it anymore. And remember, you know, he did lose that fight to Josh Barnett, but it was somewhat controversial. The Cormier fight, he didn't get beaten up, but, you know, it was a decision fight, and somewhat one-sided, he did come back in the third. And Cormier seemed to be off his game that night.

And then he lost to Junio Dost Santos. Prior to that, had won three in a row defeating Crow Cop, defeating Nelson, which, you know, obviously is impressive, considering how Nelson has been doing as of late, save for the Scipia Miochich fight. And then the big submission went over Bignog. So I don't know. We'll see.

If he loses, this will be his fourth in a row, but it doesn't sound like he wants to retire. And I think the UFC will tread lightly. He is a legend. after all he is a multiple time champion and he's a guy who is part of the UFC from the old days and they usually take care of those guys. I got into the Frank Mear interview rather quickly because he was short on time so I failed to mention that today's show is being brought to you by our good friends at Glory. You see the gloves there. We talked about it last week. This Saturday, they make their Spike TV debut at 9 p.m. Eastern at the Sears Center Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. and the main event is Tyrone Spong versus, or the main attraction fight is Tyrone Spong versus Nathan Corbett.

And also have notes some names. If you're a casual kickboxing fan, that's what we're talking about here. This is the new kid from the world of combat sports on the block. And if you're a casual kickboxing fan, you may have heard of the names Gokansaki, Daniel Gita, these fighters will be performing on the card. Anderson Silva, not the same Anderson Silva, he'll be on the card as well. So it's this Saturday, October 12th, Spike TV, 9 p.m. Eastern Time in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, which is, I think, like, 45 or so minutes away from Chicago, and it is rather close to Indiana as well.

A lot of MMA events have been held at the Sears Center Arena in Hoffman Estates. And everyone says, Mr. New York, Rick, while we have a few minutes here, you're there, right? I'm here. Everyone says this is like the best kickboxing card of all time. Is that true? Yeah, it's definitely up there. Just based on the strength of the heavyweight tournament alone. And then you throw on one of the most anticipated rematches ever.

It's definitely up there in terms of pure kickboxing matchups. Well, you really sold me on it. Your enthusiasm about the card is just off the charts. It's a good card, man. Isn't there a heavyweight? tournament going on? That's what I said. Oh, you did? The heavyweight tournament. That's what I led off with. I mean, the two... Gokan Saki, Daya Gita. Saki and Gita are widely considered two of the three best in the world. So, I mean, that says it all. And then Verhoeven and

and Anderson Silva are in the top ten as well for heavyweights. So it's stacked. Isn't there a video of Anderson Silva, the MMA version of Anderson Silva training with Verhoven? Didn't I see that somewhere? That, yeah, that might have happened. I know... It was in the morning report today. Was it? Yeah, I know Anderson Silva was over at...

I think it was King's MMA at some point. He was over in Europe training. So it's highly possible that he was training with some high-level kickboxers. Yeah, I'm looking for the video now. I think it was Verhoeven. Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, it is.

there's a couple of videos there's two videos of him training and talking to Verhoven but these subtitles are in Dutch so if you can understand Dutch or you just want to see them train, check it out in the morning report which by the way I should mention our pal David St. Martin who

took over for Sean Alshadie in the morning report is doing a great job so in a couple minutes we're going to be joined by Alexander Gustafin and thank you very much to our good friends at Glory for being a part of the show again October 12th this Saturday 9 p.m. on Spike TV.

And a couple of minutes we'll be joined by the Mahler. And like I said, you know, I don't know. Do you agree with me on this one

before you call him? Do you feel like the fight is even more special because nothing has replaced it as far as the UFC's calendar is concerned?

I'm sorry. I was about to make a phone call. Say again. It feels to me like this fight is even more special because we have had time to marinate over it,

to let it kind of settle. No other fight cards, no other fights, big fights have happened since then, and I think that has actually benefited the fight. You understand what I'm saying? You're talking about the UFC card. I'm talking about Gustafson and Jones. It feels like the... Oh, I see. Because something didn't happen the next weekend, it was kind of out of sight of mind. It's the last fight that happened inside the Octagon officially. So it feels like it's almost even more important now. I've definitely noticed

like, you know, there's been a simmering of, you know, people talking about the fight and how great it was. But I definitely agree that we're kind of still stewing in the juices of that fight. And that's the way it should be. That was a fantastic fight. We've gotten to a point where it's just move on to the next card, move on to the next card, move on to the next card. Move on to the next card. So it's kind of nice to experience that.

But I definitely agree that I kind of feel that. And the next one should be just as good. Well, the next one's on Wednesday. It's Jake Shields and Damien Maia, and we'll get to the picks later on, including Mama Nose's picks. But I always talk about, you know, the shows. And at this point, this. almost no point in talking about it because as long as this UFC and Fox deal is still intact,

and it's a seven-year deal, and we're coming to an end of year number two, there's going to be a lot of fights. So you might as well just accept it at this point. But oftentimes, sometimes, there are these stretches where there's a fight, and there's a couple of weeks before it, you get some time to really pump it up, think about it, and analyze it. and cover it. And then there are times when that happens, which kind of happened with this one, but then after the fact, if it's a good card and they're, you know, two, three weeks off, you really get time to think about it. And this one, I mean, it really helped them that there were no fights, in my opinion. It helped the, the stature of Alexander Gustafson,

even of John Jones and what he did. It just feels like we've been talking about this fight longer than usual. And that, in my opinion, is simply because there haven't been any other fights. There haven't been any other fights to talk about. And remember, the UFC fight this weekend is on a Wednesday. So, by the way, there's no UFC tonight. There's a pre-fight show at 4 p.m. And then the prelims on Fox Sports 1.

All the fights are on Fox Sports 1. From 5 to 10 p.m. Eastern Time, main card, quote-unquote, is at 7 p.m. And then the ultimate fighter is on at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Fox Sports 1. But there's still a lot going on with Alexander Gustafsson and the UFC said recently that he will be fighting around the time that John Jones fights,

which is, of course, February 1st in Newark. He's going to be fighting in Sweden. But we don't know against who just yet. I was talking to Eric Del Fierro of Alliance MMA, and we'll get to that. When we talk to Gustafsson, about who would be out there. He emphatically said that, you know,

he doesn't want Gustafsson to fight Phil Davis. He doesn't think it makes sense to have that rematch now. Two guys up there as far as contenders are concerned, and what's the point of having them fight, especially because they train together? And I agree. I don't think there's any point in doing that rematch now, especially with, you know,

the Cormier coming down to 205. And I still think it, you know, I know his camp keeps saying otherwise, but I still think it makes a hell of a lot more sense for Musasi to stick around at 205 as opposed to 185. There's a quicker path to the title, in my opinion. And I think that fight would make a lot of sense, especially back in Sweden where it was supposed to happen in April. But his team is very much set on having him go down to 185. And they seem to think that a win over Alir Latifi means more than a razor-thin decision-win

or decision loss, I should say, to the champion John Jones, arguably the greatest of all time. Whatever, we'll see when he's ready anyway. There's also Littlenog who's out there who Gustafsson was supposed to fight in Sweden last year before Littlenog got injured and Tiago Silva replaced him. That was a very big moment for the Mahler getting to fight back at home and in the main event of a UFC show and beating up the veteran Brazilian. But, you know, Little Nog is getting married in November. and his manager told me that he'll be looking to fight early next year, so that might work out as well.

For now, well, let's get the answers from the man himself, and let's welcome in the mauler Alexander Gustafson, who is on the line right now. Alex, how are you? I'm good, thanks. How are you? I'm great. Thank you so much for stopping by. You know, before you came on, I was saying that it feels to me like this fight has, your fight against John Jones has become an even bigger story. The stature of the fight has grown because no other.

UFC fights have happened since then. So we've had a lot of time to think about it and dissect it and digest the whole thing. Do you understand what I'm saying and do you agree with that? Yeah, yeah. You know, it's been a, it's been a, you know, two weeks since I fought and it's been it's been crazy, more or less. So when you say crazy, what do you mean? Do you feel like you're a much bigger star in Sweden after that fight, even though you did lose it? You know, I'm a, yeah, you know, it's been a whole other position right now in my career. It's been a lot of media. I had a lot of, a lot of Swedish fans, a lot of European fans, a lot of fans over the world.

And it's been, it's been, you know, it's been great. A lot of media, good media. and, you know, it's been a lot of things happening these two weeks. Were media that, you know, didn't cover you beforehand, now, you know, big media over there, and now giving you attention and noticing that the sport's a big deal and that you're a big deal? Yeah, you know, take the sport more serious

and they take, you know, our athletes and me. And, yeah, it's been, you know, two good weeks with media. Do you think that anything would have been different as far as how people perceived you after the fact had you won the fight? Or do you feel like because it was so close, because you came off looking so great, so tough,

so much heart, so much desire, and it feels like you've received so many fans because so many people sympathized with you, wanted you to win, thought you won, that it kind of ended up being the same thing. With the belt or without the belt, people perceive you the same way. Do you feel that way?

Yeah, you know, I don't know how my life would be with the belt. So, but, yeah, you know, it's been just good things, has been, you know, coming off with this fight, just good things, you know, and, you know, I just, feeling so I'm feeling very you know very comfortable in my position

I just in my mind in my head and my thoughts I'm still you know when I think about it I'm very disappointed because the belt for me is the most important thing nothing else not the media nothing else just the belt and

I didn't get it with me this time so I'm disappointed but but the whole thing around it, it's been great. How do you feel physically? Hello. Alex, can you hear me?

Alex? Yeah, I hear you. You hear me. How do you feel physically? I feel good. I feel good. I'm back in training. Staying busy here and try to, you know, work with my body again, you know, make it strong.

And I work a lot of my techniques. And yeah, so I feel good. Did you take any time off after that? Yeah, yeah, I've had a week or, you know, 10 days off and now I'm back. I'm just, you know, it's easy training. It's not, it's not, you know, it's not a camp training. It's just, you know, having fun and, you know, enjoying the training right now. How many times have you watched the fight since it happened?

Just, just once. Not even, I didn't even watch it for the full fight. just almost one time. Why not? No, I've had a tough time to watch the fight because I lost it and they will take, take it, you know, a certain time for me to, to, you know, I have the, you know, I don't know what to say, but to have the, to watch the fight, you know, it's, it's, I don't so good, you know, because I lost

and I'm probably the plan is worst loser ever and just take time for me. So there are a lot of people who still think you deserve to win the fight. Are you at all intrigued to see, all right, let me see, let me try to score this thing and see if I really did deserve to win it.

Yeah, you know, yeah, you know, like, you can say, you can, you know, people can say that I won the fight, that I didn't want the fight, and, you know, I won the scorecard and everything, but, you know, it's all up to judges, and I didn't do enough to win the fight. That's enough for me, you know, that's enough for me.

I don't need to know anymore. I would just feel worse knowing anything else. So it's so, but, you know, I'm not in this fight, and it's just going to make me stronger. You know, John, you know, he can fight where he wants to fight, and he can take. forever, but I will be around him all the time, and I'll be ready for another fight with him. You know, he told me that he watched the fight. This was last week that he watched the fight,

you know, over 10 times, and he thinks he decisively won at least three of the rounds. And a lot of people were upset after he said this, because he said that now he thinks it's time to move on, and then they gave him a fight against Glover-Teshirea. Did you hear these comments? And what did you think? that he was saying that he doesn't think the immediate rematch is the right call that he should fight someone else next. Yeah, you know, he can say whatever he wants to say. The thing is, I'm not done, I'm not done,

and I'm not happy how everything ended. So I want that, that's my big goal. And, you know, I will have my wish. match, and I will get that one day, and he knows it too. And, you know, so, I can't wait. Do you think, you say he knows

that too? Do you think he's trying to duck you, you know, to put it bluntly? Sorry? Do you think he's trying to avoid you? Do you think he's trying to duck you? I don't know. I don't think John himself, and I will

try to duck me. You know, he's a fighter, and he's, he's a champ I'm thinking that he will try to duck me or anything like that you know, we're both professionals but you know, let's see you know, it's

all up to the UFC and they want him to fight Glover and you know, I want to see that fight and I don't know, I want to and I'll probably fight someone else. I don't have any name yet or any place but you know, I'll be around all the time and I'll be ready

for John when he's done when the fight is over with the Glover. And we'll get to that in a second, but I'm just wondering, were you hoping to get the rematch? Like, I know what you said to me after the fight, but did you think deep down that they were going to do it because it was so close and so many people loved the fight?

Yeah, yeah. I really thought so. And in my head, it was a done deal. But now we are in this now in this situation and yeah, I'm just waiting for my opponent. How disappointed were you when they told you you weren't getting the rematch?

I was disappointed. I was disappointed, but, you know, I just, it is what it is, and that won't stop me. I will fight wherever the UFC gives me, and after that, I'll be more than ready for a title fight again. Are you rooting for John to beat Glover so that you can get the rematch against him the title.

Yeah, you know, it would be a great fight. You shouldn't, no one should like say that Glover, you know, it can't come out because he's a strong guy. He's hit super hard and he's just a strong guy. But I think Jones has too many tools for Glover, and I think he will beat him. And, you know, for me, the big goal is the belt. And, you know, first fight Jones again and take.

the belt from him, that's my dream. Did the UFC tell you, you know, flatly that if you win your next fight, you're fighting for the belt next, no matter what? No, they haven't. No, they haven't. I just know that I will fight someone else and not jump. So I'm just waiting and see what that opponent is. And I will, and now we get ready for that one.

In Sweden, right? I don't know where it's going to be. I heard rumors, Sweden, but nothing is said and done, nothing is confirmed. And so I'm waiting, and I will fight whoever and wherever. Do you have a preference? Do you have someone in mind that you think makes sense for you next? I don't. I actually don't.

I only thing that makes sense for me is John Jones again. And that's the fight I want. That's the fight in my head still. And it will be in my head to target another opponent, and I'll put all my focus on that one. I don't have any preference and nothing like that. You still think about John a lot, you know, two and a half weeks later or so? Yeah, you know, I think I think about the belt, and I think, you know, it's been a lot of thoughts these two weeks, but, you know, I have to move on and the focus on my training and what I can do better. And speaking of your training, there was a report that came out last week that said that you are no longer going to be a part of Alliance and you're going to stay in Sweden to train.

Can you clear this up for us? Is that in fact true? No, not at all. Not at all. You know, I'm still part of Alliance. You know, my gym here, all-star training center in Stockholm, has a close relationship with Team Alliance. You know, we work together as a team. and I will

I'm based in Stockholm and training in Stockholm and that's what I will do but I will still go with San Diego and for short period of times and you know

and Eric DeFiero the head coach of Tim Alliance will still be in my corner who will still have a close relationship with my head coach and Drus Michael and you know just as it's been

the last year the last year so and this is how it will be in the future too the they put a quote out that people translated saying that you didn't want to be training with Phil Davis because one day you might fight each other again and you didn't think it makes sense. Did you say that?

No, I didn't. No, I didn't. Wow. So that's not true at all. You know, we're close friends. We are teammates and I prefer not to fight him. If the UC wants to fight for a title or, you know, who knows what the future will bring. We will take that question then, but I will not fight Phil Davis if it's up to me. You're still part of Alliance. All that was BS. Yeah, I am. I am. It's just that, you know, I'm training in Sweden, I'm based in Sweden, and this is where my home is.

But, you know, we still have a close relationship with Team Alliance. You know, after the fight, and we'll let you go in two minutes. Thank you very much for the time, Alex. After the fight, you posted a picture on your Instagram that became a huge hit, and in my opinion is maybe the picture of the year, you and John. Whose idea was it to take that picture? That was actually John's idea. Wow, really? Yeah, yeah.

And we took the picture, we were joking around, and, you know, we showed our respect to each other for the fight, and we thanked each other for the fight, and, you know, just having fun. What did you guys say to each other? No, I don't really remember. We just, you know, we just talked. And he gave him a lot of credit for the fight. I gave him a lot of credit for the fight. And, you know, we just talked, normal talk. And did you take some, I don't want to say pride,

but did you think it was somewhat interesting that he's on the hospital bed? He's more banged up than you, but yet you lost. Yeah, that's what happens if you leave to the judges, right? Right. that is what I saw an interview with you after the fact and you said that you already know what you'll do differently next time. Is that true? Do you already have it in your mind? If I do this, I got him.

Yeah. What is that? Just train harder on everything. That's it. You know, breaking records and push the limit even more. That's what you, that's what I have to do. You know, and I just, you know, I'll be a big training, you know, for them back now for a couple of days and we haven't really, I haven't sit down. I haven't sit down with my team yet. And we actually have to break down the fight and see what I can do much better and what I did wrong in the fight and so on. But that will come. Final question for you, Alex. And again, thank you very much. It's been great talking to you.

I asked you before the fight if, you know, you are going to be the Inghamario Hansen of Swedish MMA. You'll do what he did back in the 50s when he defeated Floyd Patterson. You didn't win the fight, but do you feel like you did put Swedish MMA on the map? Maybe like what he did way back when was Swedish boxing? You know, both yes and no. Yes, because I am in a whole other position. It's been huge. The MMA has been a huge hit in Sweden.

It's been on the biggest media, the TVs. So yes, in that way, but at the same time, no, because Emma Johnson, he took the belt and I didn't. So I wouldn't say that I did what he did, but the MMA is much bigger here now, and it's just getting bigger. So the future looks very good. Well, I speak for everyone. I hope

you do get another shot, and I think you will get another shot. You deserve it. I'm still in awe of you. I'm still in awe of what you did there in Toronto on September 25th. It was unbelievable, and you should enjoy everything after the fact, and hope to see you back in the Octagon very soon. soon. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Thank you. All right. There he is. The Mahler, Alexander Gustafen. I said September 25th, September 21st, UFC-15, getting my dates all messed up. But I really am. I was watching the fight last night. And I think it's one of those rare occasions where the guy loses the title fight, but his

stock just so much higher than it once was for Ali. You just view him differently. You know, a lot of people didn't give him any respect, didn't give him any shot going into that fight, and you just view him differently now. You just see him in a whole other light. He is a superstar now, in my opinion. This guy stood toe to toe with the best fighter today, arguably the greatest of all time. And I say that even though he doesn't have the amount of fights and title defenses that won Anderson Silver, George St. Pierre, has.

But in my opinion, he has defeated tougher competition. That is John Jones. Stood toe to toe, had a chance to defeat him. you know, the thing was essentially tied going into the fourth, in my opinion. For a guy who had no shot, who was such a big underdog, that no one was, you know, thinking it was going to even have a chance to go two rounds with John Jones, the way he handled himself after the fact, the way he handles himself now, you know, three weeks later, it's just great. I'm very curious to see who they match him up with next.

I'm very curious to see if it will be in Sweden. and if so, how will the Swedish fans react to Alexander Gustafin? We know he was a big deal. Those first two shows that the UFC put on in Sweden were massive deals. Unfortunately, for the second one, he couldn't fight. Eleventh hour gets cut, Alir Latifi steps in. But those shows were big and sold out. Could they do it in a soccer stadium this time?

Probably not in February, but you get my point. The man is a very big star, and I think it's great that he's still. still somewhat with Alliance, but you can kind of understand what he's saying, especially if he's fighting at home in Sweden, kind of makes sense to keep training at home. But, you know, Alliance certainly helped get him back on track after the loss to Phil Davis at UFC 112. And I think it would be somewhat of a shame for him to, you know,

break up with Alliance, so to speak. But just a great fight. And I'm happy that there have been no UFC fights since then so that we can really give it the respect and attention that it deserves. because in my opinion, it is still the fight of the year, and it is still, in my opinion, forget fight of the year, best light heavyweight title fight, best fight period.

Interesting that he hasn't watched it really in its entirety since. I get that 100%. I have a hard time watching this show after it's done, especially when I feel like it's a, you know, subpar show. Point being, it's hard watching your work when you feel like you fell short. Obviously not comparing a regular, Monday show to a UFC light heavyweight title. You know what I'm saying. Here come the haters.

Let us move along. Let us discuss Mike Ritchie, who will be joining us in a matter of seconds here. He last fought on that same card, September 21st in Toronto, UFC 165. He fought Miles jury and lost to jury. And after that, the UFC decided to release Ritchie, who ends his UFC run 1 and 2. Of course, the last time prior to UFC 165 that he fought, he defeated Colin Fletcher in Montreal, in his hometown of Montreal, lost tough 16 finale to Colton Smith. Did get the knockout of the season award for that season that was coached by Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin.

But after that fight in Toronto, parted ways with the UFC, and now we welcome an end via had the magic of Skype. There he is. Mike Gritchie. Hey, Mike, how are you? Good, man. How are you doing? I'm doing great. So, like I said, unfortunate news for you, you know, getting released from the UFC after the loss to Miles Jerry. Were you surprised when you found this out? Well, I mean, I felt it could have went either way, you know. I don't really disagree with the UFC and with their decision. I understand the circumstances and they have to, you know, they have to make decisions,

tough decisions. And I feel like, you know, coming out of tough, they had a lot of expectations for me. They gave me some big fights, and they didn't really work out the way they wanted to. So, you know, that was the decision they made. You look at that last fight. What happened there?

Because the fans were obviously not very happy with it. They were booing, even for Miles, who had the victory. Why did it turn out that way, in your opinion? In all honesty, I mean, the fans are getting more educated, but hopefully this can further educate them. The fight really does. takes place months before, you know, it actually happens. Like, me and Miles, our training happened months prior to that, and the fight happened

a thousand times over in the gym, and I think the way that he trained for the fight and the way that I trained for the fight, you know, he really wanted to counter a lot of the things I did. He really knew what I was going to do, and I knew what he was going to do, and I was trying to counter him, and I think it just created a stalemate. So, you know, that's what happens. Guys train a certain way, and then fight night, the way they trained, it's going to, you know, show in the fight, and the fight is a direct product of training.

I think that me and Miles kind of just canceled each other out. I'm wondering, you know, the crowd is booing and people are getting restless. Do you hear that, and what are you thinking when you hear that? Yeah, I heard it. And a few times, you know, it was going to get the better of me. I wanted to, I was saying to myself in the cage, I was like, you know what? I'm just going to knuckle up, you know, and go at this guy and start a war. And then I realized that, you know, Miles is a high-level fighter.

And if I did that, I probably would have made myself look even stupider, you know. So I just, I tried, you know, to implement something, to look for something. But there really weren't very many holes in his game. Do you feel like if you would have done that but still lost, you would have had another shot in the UFC? I think so. But at the same time, I could have done that and got knocked out or finished. And then, you know, really been in.

a bad spot. But regardless, I think that the fights are a direct product of training, and I really believe that coming out of the tough house, that was my issue. I think that we fought with a sense of urgency, considering everyone was a lot larger than we were. And when I got out of the house, I felt all the advantages that I gave up physically, reach and size and all of this stuff, I gained back at lightweight. So I felt like there wasn't as much urgency.

I felt like I can play my game and I can try to pick guys apart and, you know, take my time. I felt like I wasn't as in danger as I was at Walterway. And I just think that that mentality and that type of training ended up, you know, giving these lackluster fights that ended up happening. So really, this is more about me, you know, fixing my problems, not really worrying about jury or who's next or who's after that. So does that mean you're going back up to 170? No, no, I'm not going to go back up to 170.

I just feel that the approach that I took to my training at lightweight wasn't the right approach. If you think about it, you watch my fight with Fletcher or with jury. You know, I was never really in any sort of danger at any time. I think I might have got hit once in both of those fights. So, you know, I don't think that I'm fighting guys who are better than me. I don't think that Miles is better than me. I don't think Fletcher was better than me. I think I'm a better athlete than the both of them and a better fighter as well.

I just think I took the wrong approach. Nobody is saying, oh, look at Mike, he can't cut it in the UFC. He got beat. He got beat up both of his fights. It's no, it's why didn't Mike perform? Why didn't Mike finish this guy? These are the questions that are being asked. Regardless of Miles' 12-0 record or whatever, or Fletcher's record or him making it to the tough finale,

everyone's wondering why I didn't finish these guys, because everyone knows my capability. And I'm coming on record. That's why I came on here to tell everyone that it's my training. I've been taking a different approach to training, and it has not worked out for me. and me and my coaches have had meetings and we've decided that we're going to revamp everything. So what do you mean by that? What are you going to change

and what do you think you were doing wrong going into these fights? I think I took more of a calm approach to the fights. Like I said, there was no sense of urgency to finish this guy and get rid of him right away because we felt that we had a reach advantage, a size advantage, and technical advantage. So we were saying, you know,

we don't have to rush things. We don't have to go out there and take risks. We can just, you know, pick our guys apart and stuff. But I don't think that that really meshed well with my style of fighting. If you watch, you know, in the last 12 months, you know, I've put on a pair of UFC gloves seven times at welterweight and lightweight. And I don't think you've ever really seen anybody move forward on me and try to put anything on me, you know?

No one's ever tried to scrap with me or beat me up. You watch all seven of those fights, regardless of the weight. Everyone always backs up when they fight me. So I think that I should have taken advantage of that coming down to lightweight. I should have imposed myself a little more. Instead, I try to play, you know, not necessarily safe, but I just tried to play the game a little more. And, you know, sometimes, let's be honest, sometimes the TriStar team receives criticism for this. Sometimes people say that they, you know, it's a jab fest.

The guys played safe. You know, George St. Pierre, as you know, has received a ton of criticism. Guys like Miguel Torres, Kenny Floren, they've all received criticism when working with TriStar. Is this a TriStar problem, in your opinion? Well, I really can't speak on any. else or their style or what's really going on. I think it was a team effort. You know, we all work together, so it's not one guy who's going to come out and say,

let's fight this way, let's fight that way. I think it's a joint effort, and we do take a technical approach, and, you know, we have a system. So regardless of where it stems from or what the issue is, I'm really focused on myself. And I did fight that way, and that's not the way I like to fight. I mean, everyone saw me on tough, everyone's seeing, you know, the way I fight. I come to fight. I have fun fighting like that.

Regardless of weight, of welterweight or lightweight, I like to move forward. I like to fight. I'm not scared of anybody. I'm not intimidated by anybody. So really, that's what I'm here to do, you know, is go back to the gym and work on the things that I need to work on as a fighter to improve. You know, I'm here to become a world champion. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to say I'm here to have a few fights in the UFC and then chill out.

and retire. I'm here for a title, here for a belt. So the only way to do that is to figure out what works for me in my system. So this isn't really about getting back into the UFC. I mean, I'm sure you're going to ask me that question if I want to get back in there. Sure. Yeah, this isn't really about that, you know.

I'm not worried. The UFC is not going anywhere, in my opinion. I think that that organization is going to be around for a long time. So this is my opportunity to fix my problems. And would I have liked to fix them and put on these, performances for the UFC, of course. But that's not the case. So I'm going to go out and take as many fights as I would like to take,

two, three, four, you know, whatever it takes for me to figure out my system. But I do know that every fight that happens from here on in until I get back to the UFC is going to be a finish. I'm going to go on record and say it. I said it before the ultimate fighter. It's just that nobody wanted to listen to me because I wasn't willing anybody. Right. I said it before the ultimate fighter.

I said, I'm going to beat everybody. Nobody's going to beat me in this house. and I'm going to say it again regardless of how many fights it takes me to get back in I'm going to beat everyone and I'm going to finish everybody as well why did the release from the UFC bring this Mike Ritchie back why didn't you say

all right Colton Smith fight didn't go my way I'm going to finish everyone here on now why are you saying this now and not a year ago I think that first off the Colton Smith fight not too many people know that I didn't really train for that fight

I tore my LCL and I had two weeks of preparation and and I really went into that fight unprepared and against a larger opponent and once that fight was over we went back to lightweight and I think that that was the issue of why we didn't change anything we went back to lightweight and we were like well all the things that happened at welterweight are over with now we're in a lower weight division guys are smaller they're you know what I mean and and they don't hit as hard and whatnot so now we get to chill and we get to figure out what we want to do and I took the wrong approach And, you know, I can't really say that the UFC and making more money and starting to live a better lifestyle made me less hungry.

I don't think that that's the case at all. I just think it was poor management, you know, with training and mentality, in my opinion. And, you know, you case, you say all that, those are things you can't really, you know, touch. You can't say, oh, you know, my kicks were off, my jab was off, my foot movement, my head movement. These are bigger things than that. how do you actually change them? The next time you prepare for a fight, how do you actually change them at that mentality?

Well, here's the thing. I don't think that it was a mental issue. I didn't show up into the cage, and, you know, I'm scared, I'm nervous. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to be here. The fight is too much for me to handle the crowd. That was never the issue.

You know, what happens in the cage is a direct product of training. People need to understand that. If you're going to do jumping jacks for two months, don't expect to do a backflip when you get into the cage. You're going to do a jumping jack. Right? So if I'm throwing a jab, my whole training camp, and a low kick, that's what's going to come out.

And I think that the way I prepared was like that. It was very, you know, a counter style, defensive style. Let's shut this down. Let's shut that down. And that's what happened. I shut down Fletcher. He didn't do anything. I shut down jury.

He didn't do anything. It just became a stalemate. You know, like I said, no one came in there and put it on me for three rounds. So really what it comes down to is the physical aspect. I think that I need to get back to the things that made me successful. You're a young guy. We've seen what you can do in the cage on the ultimate fighter. Do you think it was the right move to cut you by the UFC?

I have no hard feelings against the UFC. We got off on a good note, you know, and I think that... Sorry. I would have liked, obviously, for them to not have cut me. I would have liked them to pull me aside and say, look, what's the issue? And then I tell them the issue. And sorry about that. It's a chamber.

Chamber, you've got to get some camera time? What's going on here? Geez, crashing your interview? Just nonchalantly. Like, we're not going to see this massive guy walking through. Unbelievable this guy. Oh, geez. Sorry about that.

Yeah, I would have liked the UFC to have pulled me aside and said, you know, Ritchie, we're not really too happy about what's going on. Can you change this? or is this problem permanent and, you know, giving me a chance. But, I mean, Joe Silva has tough decisions to make. And you know what I agree with this decision? I understand. And, you know, I might not have got what I wanted out of the jury fight, you know. But I think that, you know, sometimes you don't get what you want,

but you get what you need, you know. And I think that this is what I needed. It's not what I wanted, but it's what I needed. You know, I must admit, when I found out that you were released from the UFC, it did cross my mind. I wonder if he's going to fight. Because, you know, when you were on, again, you know, you were on the show going into the finale, and you talked about not liking the show, and that time away that you had after your fight in Belator and all that.

And I was wondering, you know, maybe he'll just say enough is enough with this sport. That's not crossing your mind at all. No, not at all. Especially after being in there with guys, you know, at the level that, you know, that these guys are at. I fought on tough. I realized I have what it takes, you know, to put anybody away. regardless of their size. And then I went down to Lightwood

and I had these big fights in front of the big crowds and guys, in my opinion, who were really good. I had Fletcher who had like nine finishes on his record and then you had jury who had 11 finishes. And to be honest with you, I've been in the ring with guys who are better than me. And I don't, I know disrespect to jury or to Fletcher, but those two guys in my opinion are not better than me.

Like I said, the issue still remains. It's why didn't Mike perform? Not why did Mike get beat up. So this is for me just, time to fix myself and improve. I don't, I'm not going to quit, not at all. I actually look forward to fighting frequently, you know, two, three times in the next six months.

I look forward to improving and then coming back, you know. When I'm ready to come back, it'll be for good, and all my problems will be fixed, and I'll have my system. I think that that's my biggest problem. Everybody has a system. You watch training camps and Georgia's training camp, guys that I've been around, you know, like Kenny Flore and all these guys, and it's consistent.

They always work on the same thing, and they're focusing on what they have to do, and they have a system, and they're improving. I was always that guy that was bouncing around and different trainers every training camp and not knowing what I wanted to do, and that was my biggest issue. So once I fix that, I really don't see myself having a problem in the lightweight division at all. So have any promotions contacted you or your management, Lexwick Mann, any of those guys, about what's next? Any fights on the horizon?

Yeah, I've gotten offers pretty much to fight every month from December all the way until March. So, I mean, as long as I stay healthy, I'm looking to fight quite frequently once a month or once every two months. So I might balance around from promotion to promotion, considering which fight is appealing to me, opponent-wise, financially, all that stuff. So I'll let my management handle it, and then... go from there. And so do you think it will be somewhat of a, for lack of a better word, a shock? Like, you know, you go from sold out crowds in Montreal and, you know, a big crowd in Toronto, and then now you're on the local scene like, well, you feel like it'll be a blow to the ego having to do that, or do you relish kind of having to work your way up? I think that that it's going to be fun

regardless. The fights to me are just a bonus, you know? I think that, like I said, this really is just about me fixing my issues in the gym and my training. So that's all I'm focusing on. When it's fight time, I cut my weight, I make weight, I fight, and then I go back to the gym and I continue to fix my problems. So for me, I look at the fights like a bonus. You know, it's kind of like when I was on tough. I was fighting very frequently.

I was just training and improving, and then when it came to fight day, I fought. So that's how the approach I'm going to take it. It doesn't matter the cage. It doesn't matter what kind of gloves we have on. It doesn't matter who's in the crowd, if it's televised, if it's not televised. I really don't care, but I do know one thing that I learned from the ultimate fighters is that when you get into fights and you put people away,

you start to move forward in this sport very quickly. This is a performance-based sport. I can go 20-0, Ariel, in the next year. It doesn't matter. If they're all decisions, it doesn't make a difference. So like I said, the next three or four opponents that I fight are all going to get put away. Nobody is going to last 15 minutes.

In the next six months, seven months of my fight career, anybody that steps in front of me is getting put away. That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself. I don't feel pressure at all. I mean, I possess the skill to do so. Like I said, I've laced up UFC gloves seven times in the last year, and I've either put the guys away or were extremely close to doing it, minus my lightweight fights.

So I know I've possessed those skills. Really, it's up to me to sharpen them and to make sure that when it comes to fight night I execute. That's all it really comes down to is execution, you know. You mentioned December, it sounds like December or so, could be your next fight. Any talk of opponent? They've been throwing a few guys, you know, around, and then I can't really speak on it, but, I mean, I'm sure it'll, it'll be out there, it'll be on Twitter and on, on the internet and all of that stuff, that's social media. Give us a hand. Give us a hand. I do love it. Give you a hand? Yeah, what you got? I heard one name.

One name that came up and it's, you know, there's a pioneer in this sport, a guy who's won titles in multiple divisions and his son potentially might be fighting with me. His son? That's one name that I heard. Oh. Does it rhyme with Brian Valour? Brian Valour. Possibly, yeah. So I heard his name.

Oh, I like that. I like that fight. I heard Ryan Couture's name, and I don't really object to any fight with anyone. If he wants to fight, then sure enough, we'll fight. I think that's a great fight that the fans would want to see. Oh, yeah. Yeah, if Ryan's down, then I'm down, you know, we can mix it up. And we'll see.

We'll take it from there, you know. And the next time I'm on your show, definitely we'll be talking about how I'm back in the UFC. all these lovely finishes that I got. All right, I will hold you to that. We're going to save this clip about all your finishes and then we're going to play it for you when you make your return to the UFC. How about that?

Perfect. Like I said, I predicted it before I went on tough and the only thing is that Ariel wouldn't have me on the show to you before I cut on top. That's not true. You weren't even on Twitter back then, so I had no way to communicate with you.

Of course, I could have went through Jonathan Chamber who probably would have crashed that interview as well, but now there's a lot more juicy stuff to talk about. So I'm happy to hear and see that you're in good spirits. I like this this thing that you're putting on the record. All the finishes will be watching. We'll be monitoring it. We'll save this clip and then we'll play for you and you return. Good luck, my man. And we'll talk to you very soon. All right. Take care, man. There he is. Mike Ritchie is stopping by. And we wish him the best of luck as he works his way back to the UFC. Says right now doesn't even care about UFC. No UFC

just needs to get back to that. that guy who was finishing fights on the ultimate fighter. Like I said, got the knockout of the season award for that season of the Ultimate Fighter, season 16, and we didn't see that from him as he was trying to make a name for himself in the UFC, had the lost to Colin Smith, beat Fletcher, and then just lost to Miles Derry. But all of those fights decisions and not the fights that we were seeing out of him on the ultimate fighter. So I look forward to seeing what he can do outside the UFC. And that fight against Ryan Gattour, I mean, that's a fight that could have happened.

in the UFC. That's a fight that makes a lot of sense where they're at right now in their career. So any promotion that makes that happen, I like that fight. I think that fight makes a lot of sense. In a minute, we are going to be joined by Etzen Barbosa.

Very interesting. Edson Barbosa is fighting Danny Castillo at UFC on Fox No. 9. They had the press conference for the main card in Sacramento last week. And that is a great card. And the undercard is great.

Edson's fighting on it. They announced last week, or actually last night, Pat Healy versus Jamie Varner. It's a tremendous card, one of the best cards of the year. Looking forward to it very much, the UFC returning to Sacramento. Let us go to the Skype machine once again. And there he is.

Edson Barbosa. Edson, how are you? Very good. How are you, man? I'm doing great. You know, I was watching an interview that we did together around a year ago, and you couldn't speak English at all.

Now your English is great. where did you learn to speak English like this? Man, I'm a little shy, but my wife helped me a lot. I'm a little lazy for learning, but I try, I try. Well, you're doing great, and I also found out your wife is your PR agent. She's the one that contacted me. That's unbelievable. Yes, man.

She's work a lot, help me a lot. That's my big partner. Your wife, is that your wife right there? No, that's not your wife. That's your dog. Right? Yeah, my dog is crazy. Your wife used to actually be an MMA journalist, right?

Yes, exactly. It's a journalist in Brazil. She's worked for the biggest magazine in Brazil, tatami. She's working in, it's helpful, some magazines, you know. She's very good. How did you meet her? Long time ago, man, nine years ago. She's trained very time.

I started training Muay Thai in my gym. She's trained. I look at her a couple times, you know, just nine years. Wow. And so it wasn't like an interview that she was doing with you. You were just in the gym training together. Yes, yes. She's love, man.

She's very good, very good Muay Thai. Really? Yeah, she's very good. But she's asking me sometimes for fighting. You say, no, just me, not you. Has she ever considered doing MMA? No, no MMA, just Muitai. Because she's don't like a Jiu-Jitsu, you know.

She's not like the round game. She's like just Panshi, Panshi in his face, you know. Now that, you know, we all know that you started in Mouitai and transitioned over to MMA, which do you prefer more? Like if there was a UFC of Mouitai where you can make a lot of money and, you know, fame, popular, all that stuff, would you prefer, do you? doing Muay Thai over MMA or do you like MMA now more than Maitai? Yeah, that's a hard question, you know.

I start training Muitai at 8 years old. I trained Maitai my whole life, you know. But now it's a MMA, you know, that's a new love for me. I start training MAA four years, you know. It's very, very new for me. But I love both, man. I love both. but Muay Thai, I think, in my blood, you know.

I think, I don't know, but I love both. Who got you into it at eight years old? My daddy, my daddy, because I'm young, I'm very active young, you know, I never stop. My daddy say, man, you need work something, you know, some soccer, some sport. Thank God my daddy put me in Muay Thai. Thank God I'm here today When he did that I mean

Now speaking to him maybe After the fact when you became older Did he know that you might become a fighter And is he okay with that Like he's the one that got you into it But now you're getting you know Punch in the face for a living Is he okay with that?

Yes Yes Because I think I mean I don't have a lot of options You know in Brazil And I think my first professional fight I'm six years

16 years old. The guys paid me for this, you know? But my daddy said, man, dad's you want? I said, yes, for sure. You say, keep going, man. He don't worry. He loved, man.

My dad loved watching my fights. Give me the big sport. But my mom hate it. Never watch. Never. Never. Never. So how does she find?

Would she just ask your dad what happened and that's it? Yes, that's it. Just ask. she said, oh, Junior Edson's okay. She said, yeah, everything's fine. She's fine. But never, never watch one fight. Will she eat one?

Go ahead. My first Muay Thai fight, I'm eight years old. She don't watch. Even when you were eight years old, really? Yeah, it's eight years old and just gloves. No shoe pads, no head gear, just gloves. And was she mad at your dad for getting you into this if she's so against it? In the beginning.

Yes, she don't like, but right now it's conform, you know? Well, so, like, let's say, like, the Terry Edom fight. Like, she knows after the fact that it's a great knockout, you won, no problems. Will she watch that after the fact or not even? No. Wow. She's not like never, because I think she thinks, Jun's knocked the guy out, but I think she think the guy knocked me out, too, you know?

She don't understand very well. You had very humble beginnings growing up, right? Is it true that when you were born, you first slept in a shoebox? Is that true? Exactly. Man, my mom's very, very problem. In the pregnant, I'm, can I see? I was born like six, seven months, you know?

Okay. Yeah, it's a lot of problems, but thank God I'm here today. Was there a chance that you wouldn't survive because you were so premature? Yes. The doctor said for my daddy, say, man, your boy is going to die for sure. Really? That is crazy. Yes.

That's crazy, man. Why did they say that you were going to die? Because you were so premature? Yes. and I'm very, very small. I think this small. Wow. I don't have picture I'm young because I'm very small.

I think I stay in the hospital for three or four months. Really? Yes. And did you have, like, how long did it take for you to, you know, kind of become a normal baby? Like, you know, obviously you're premature, so you were in the hospital for a long time. But did you suffer from anything as a young kid because you, you know, you came out so early? Yeah, I think it's in the hospital for a couple months, you know, three or four months. I think three or four or five months, I'm normal.

No normal, but very small, but better, baby, you know. So that's why your mother loves you so much. She has such a connection. She doesn't want anyone to touch you. I think so. You know, I mentioned the Terry Adam fight. That was like your big highlight in the UFC, one of the greatest kicks of all time. How many times have you seen it?

Man, sure, I don't want many, many times, you know, because my focus every time in my next fight, you know. The kick is very nice. I love everybody like, but my focus every time in my next fight, you know. So your fight is done. The kick's done. Everything is done, you know. Now my focus every time in my next opponent, my fight. next fight. So your next fight is against Danny Castillo. It's going to be, you know, on his

home turf in Sacramento. He's a wrestler, tough wrestler. Do you like this matchup? I love, man. I love, I think that's perfect fight. Perfect time. And I'm ready for this. Why is it perfect? Because, man, thank God I'm 100%. I'm a hundred, I'm healthy, no injury. Danny Casillas. You said, there's a tough guy. It's good wrestling. I think, yeah, it's good fight for proof for everybody. My ground game. My, prove my wrestling game, you know.

And I think he's fighting in hometown. That's very good. Man, I love to fight everybody. Boo! I love his, no, that makes me excited, you know? I love everything's perfect. Do you think it's a certainty that he's going to try to take you down? and wrestling you and hold you down

because your striking is so good? Man, that's a MMA fight, you know? Never know. I'm ready for, you know, he's trying to take me down. I'm ready for this. Or, I don't know, maybe surprise everybody taking him down, you know? It's MMA fight. I'm ready for, you know, for Jiu-Jits. I'm ready for wrestling, I'm ready for strike,

I'm ready for everything. How comfortable do you feel now on the ground at this point in your career. Man, I'm very comfortable. It's a hard for said, you know. Everybody asks me about my ground game. The guys take me down in my next fight, you guys are going to see my ground game.

Very comfortable, man. And who are you training with now? I'm here in New Jersey, training with Ricardo Omeida, Hansel Grace, Cachorham. This guy helped me a lot, man. He's very good coach. He has very experienced in the kids.

Cajian, you know, in MMA. But man, I'm very happy here. So you like it better than Brazil? Brazil is a very beautiful place. New Jersey, not known very much for its beauty. Different, you know. I'm very happy here in New Jersey, you know. But the problem is the weather here, man. I don't like. It's too cold. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you fare in the winter? How do you like the winter? Man, the winter for me, it's so hard, man. Everything's hard. Everything's hard. hard, you know, for weak cups, hard, for training hard. Yeah.

But thank God I'm fighting in December. December not too bad. I hope it finished the fight. I go to Florida for a couple days, you know? So you mentioned you always look ahead, but I want to ask you about your only loss. That was to Jamie Varner. You know, what was the biggest thing that you learned from that loss? Because it was a very big shock for everyone.

No one expected it to happen. When you think about it, when you look back on the fight, What do you think? What's the big lesson you learned? Man, I'm learning a lot, bro, because everybody every time said, you lose you, you know, you step back in your career. For this fight, I lose, I give two step in, you know? Because I won my couple of fights and all 10 wins. For me, everything is good, you know.

My train is good, my train in Spartan is good, everything is perfect. But I lose the fight, I watch you say, man, that's not good, dude. That's not. I need change something. I need change. I need change because I need more trained partners. I need learn every day. I need, you know.

And thank God, man. I think the time's all right for my lose, for Warner. And it's changed my life, though. Now I'm sure. I'm better fight, much better. fighter, much better man. I stepped in, you know. I learned every day here.

That's a different. What did you change? Change everything. Everything. Wow. Yeah, I, before I live in Florida, now I live more here in Jersey. I train with Ricardo Omeida.

I train with Frank Ettinga, Mark, and he, Hansel Gracie, They're turning elite wrestling, you know. I change everything. Change my whole camp. I change my team. Now I represent Ricardo Omeda. I change everything.

And do you remember that feeling? And is that a feeling that you think about, you know, since then you're two and O that you don't want to feel that feeling again? Like, do you use that as motivation, as a drive for you as you prepare for your next fight? For sure, man. For sure. Now, because that's a little different because now I know, man, I would. work very well. I work perfect, you know. I watched a couple of fighters ago. I don't work like

that right now, you know. And I try every day better, you know, Rahir. I learn every day. I think that's more important. I need my body, my man, they need to learn every day in Jitsu, in boxing, in wrestling. Raheahee in New Jersey, I learn every day, man. That's very important. for me. I had heard that they were talking about some big fights for, you know, maybe Josh Thompson before he was supposed to fight Pettis. I heard Habilov's name come up. How serious

were these talks and were you disappointed that you didn't get maybe a bigger name than Danny Castillo next? Man, Dancastiro is a big name, man. Okay. I think. But, man, I think I'm very excited for fire. Don't worry about my opponent, you know.

I talk to my man and say, man, please, I need to fight. It doesn't matter. My opponent, I need to fight because thank God I'm 100% no Rangers. I'm 100% healthy. I need to fight more soon as possible. Daniel Castillo is a good fight. I think it's a good match, you know? I know it's a point because he is good.

We had Anthony Pettis, the lightweight champion on the show last week, and he was saying, man, you know, right now it doesn't feel like there are a lot of big contenders at 155. There's Josh Thompson who's fighting, you know, maybe T.J. Grant, but there's not a lot of people. I think a fight at some point between you and Anthony, based on what you can do on the feet, would be spectacular. How far away do you think you are from maybe being in the title talk? Man, I'm feeling serious. I'm not far away, man, because, man, right now I looked at the video. I don't look many guys like a very close win very good close the title you know what I mean

but I think I'm close man I don't know why but I feel something I feel man I'm feeling I'm very close for the title shot I don't know why but I feel so what like two wins three wins what are you thinking I don't know man maybe two wins three win three wins I don't know man but I'm feeling I'm close, man. Every time I step in. You like the idea of that fight, you versus Pettus? Do you agree that it would be an amazing fight? Of course, man. Of course. That's, I think it's good fight. It's good for every... If guys like good strikes and all, that's a good, man.

But I say, my focus in my next fight in Castillo, but me and Petit's a good fight for sure. Edson, it was great having you on the show. Thank you so much for stopping by. your lovely wife for setting it up. I think I heard her in the background, but you didn't need her. You did a great job with the English. Yeah, she's helped me a lot, but I try. I'm really trying, but sorry my English, but I try, especially for talk to my fans. Thank you guys.

Thank you for all support. And the next time, my English is much better, for sure. It keeps improving. I'll say to you, Obrigo. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys. We'll see you in December in Sacramento. Yes, thank you.

There he is. Etzen Barbosa, one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC today. I am sure you have seen his unbelievable, one of the greatest knockouts in UFC history when he knocked out Terry Edom at UFC 142, and the man since that lost to Jamie Varner has won his last two in a row via very impressive fashion. Of course, remember Hafello Levera, UFC 162, those light kicks,

reminiscent of his first UFC win against Mike Lullo, at UFC 123, just chopping down that tree with unbelievable kicks to the leg. And Hafele-Ole-L-Livera, we have some great pictures from Esther, our photographer. Hafele-Ole-Liver just could not stand anymore. He was game, wanted to continue, but you can see that he had nothing in him anymore. And just one of the great, as he mentioned, Muay Thai specialists in the UFC, and now 2 in O and fighting Danny Castillo at UFC on Fox Night, a fantastic card. Fantastic card. That is a great card. That's not even on the main card. A very tough test for him,

wrestler versus striker. And, you know, we know what Castillo does and how gritty and tough he is coming out of that team alpha male camp. And I think if he can get by Castillo, then he will, I think we should start talking about him fighting, you know, a top eight guy, a top nine guy. Barbosa versus Pettis. Now that Pettis is the champion, Barbosa versus Pettis would just be a fantastic. fight in my opinion. Not quite there yet. It still has to work his way back up from the Varner loss, which was last July,

not this past July, the one before in 2012, but I think he's pretty close. I'm just looking at what the other ones. Obviously, we know about Pettus Thompson, Faber, McDonnell, Condit Brown, Mendez Lentz, Jorgensen McCall at 125,

Lozon Danzik, Castillo Barbosa, Gaslam versus McGee, John Maraga returns against Uiyonama, Able Chuhio against Roger Bowling, that rematch, grade one, Cody McKenzie Samstow. That is an amazing card, December 14th, at the Sleep Train Arena, formerly known as the Arco Arena, and again, I'm going with the Arco in Sacramento.

Looking forward to that. All right, let's move along. Like I said, UFC returns this Wednesday in Brazil, main event, Jake Shields, Damien Maya, and interesting guests coming up next. He is the president of Paradigm Sports Management, which I was saying to people recently, in my opinion, just blowing up as far as management is concerned in MMA and just really gathering an impressive roster of clients,

some very big names in the world of mixed martial arts, obviously Michael Bisping, Matt Matrione, Jake Shields, Connor, an impressive client roster, and the man behind it all is our next guest. He is Adi Atar, and he joins us from Brazil right now. There he is. Adi, how are you? Hey, I'm doing well, Ariel.

How are you? Thanks for having me on. It is a pleasure. Where are you right now? Actually, the Wi-Fi at our hotel went down, so I kind of walked down the street to a little mall and found an internet cafe. So I'm sitting here wearing some headphones looking like you. I was initially planning to do the interview from my room. Well, you know what? That is why you are a crafty smart manager. You think on your feet and you find a internet cafe.

Are you in Sao Paulo right now? Yeah, it's actually Alphaville, Baruari, which is outside of Sao Paulo. It's about 30 miles, I believe, from Sao Paulo Airport. So it took about an hour with all the traffic, Monday morning traffic, you know. Oh, gosh. I just got in this morning, actually. Well, we appreciate you stopping by, looking forward to this. Obviously, as I mentioned, Jake Shields, one of your clients, he's fighting in the main event.

For a manager, especially over there in Brazil, what are your duties? We're two days away from the fight. What are you doing there when you're? your fighter is about the fighting the main van. What is, what is expected of you? Well, there's several different things. First and foremost, you know, obviously getting in here, checking in, meeting with the client, making sure everything's okay, bringing all his gear, you know, everything that he fights in from his walkout t-shirt, his hat, his shorts, his banner. Then, you I've obviously some logistical things. Today was an open workout. So, you know, everybody was over there,

and there's just a lot of press that has to be done. And then, you know, a couple meetings in between with whether it be UFC officials, media, sponsors, or, you know, industry heads, if you will. So you're constantly just kind of moving and shaking, and then you have some other things the day before way ends to handle, then the day of way is to handle, then come fight night. It's about, you know, going out there and supporting your guys and hoping they come out victorious and at the very least come out, injury-free. Mention the sponsors. It's become a hot topic in the world of mixed martial arts.

Cole Miller saying that, you know, can hardly make any money as opposed to what he was making a few years back. From your perspective, with the names that you have, some very big names in our sport, you know, what's the market right now? Is it true that, you know, sponsors just aren't paying what they were a couple of years ago? Well, I think you've got to look at it in two ways. You obviously have the endemic market, which is, you know, the MMA brands, if you will, that are constant players are constantly activating on fighters on each card throughout the

entire year. And then you have brands that are now starting to dip their toe into the sport because they realize the level of exposure that the sport can bring. So, you know, I think all around, you see it's flat for the most part, but you are starting to see more and more new brands enter the space to test it out just because, you know, one, live sporting events are the most attractive for any advertiser and two, from an MMA standpoint, you know, there's more to do with an athlete because his uniform, you become part of his uniform, whereas in the traditional sports, you can't necessarily be on a football player's jersey or helmet, if you will. So, you know, all in all, I think, you know, the market looks to be growing. The market looks

healthy. You know, people, it's instant gratification, right? Everybody wants an immediate spike in growth, but I think any good growth comes constant and slow. So one of those things I see that this sport, it's not going anywhere. And so when we look at it, you know, from a long-term perspective, I see it very healthy and a huge upside. Is this one of those things where you have to start getting creative, like the, you know, the old dogs that were maybe there a few years ago, for whatever reason, might not be as eager to pay? So now you have to start thinking about, you know, the growth of the sport, people who might be interested in it but aren't yet a part of the sport. Do you have to really start to be a little more creative than you were a couple years ago? I think you always have

to be creative. I think innovation is key, but at the same time, it's, you know, creating a strategy whereby you're approaching not only the endemic market and the normal players, but then trying to go after those new players as well. So I don't think you could give one up while going after the other. It really needs to be, you need to work your tail off. and get after it and make sure that it's a efficient strategy. Someone like Jake Shields for this fight, Fox Sports One main card, sponsor-wise. How much is he making? Obviously, I can't disclose that with you from a legal standpoint just because I have a fiduciary obligation to my client.

But he could share that with you. Okay. He's free to do that. But put it this way, for this fight, it's a little down just because the Wednesday card, and particularly with the endemic market, you know, the first Wednesday. Wednesday card from a, you know, viewership standpoint wasn't as high as a Saturday card. So because of that, because it's still new, I think people are still testing the market. And so he did well. I mean, from a sponsorship standpoint, he's definitely making, you know,

a made-event-esque range. And we usually give it a range depending on what medium the fights broadcast on, whether it's pay-per-view, whether it's Fox, whether it's Fox Sports One, you know, and whether it's even, you know, Manchester will be on Fox Sports 2. which is a new thing to test out as well, because that's something that the UFC hasn't done. They went from FX to fuel and fuel to now Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. So we're kind of going to uncharted waters, and some of it is trying to lay a foundation and a baseline valuation,

no matter how the car does. So you could build upon that if it grows, and you see a strong turnout in fans tuning in. You mentioned football. In a previous life, football player. My Al Bundy life. Exactly.

By the way, did you play football with Ben folks? I did play football with Ben folks. Wow. Ben was my high school teammate. His nickname, and I've said this on Twitter, and just jokingly, but his nickname was Crazy Legs, Folks. Whoa. What does that mean?

What did that come from? He just running all the way his feet. He just had like a fast turnover with running, and said he just called him crazy legs. I don't know how it came about, to be honest to you. We know we were in high school, but Ben was a hell of a little player. He was an aggressive outside line. Stop. Okay. Now you're actually lying.

I'm telling you. I'm telling you, man. I'm telling you. Ben would come up and hit you, man. He'd come up to hit you. And Ben was training jiu-titsu back then where nobody really knew about it. You know what I mean? At least in America, I should say. Right. Right.

It wasn't as popular from a mainstream sports standpoint. But, yeah, Ben was into the UFC. And, yeah. So he's a good. good person and he's a great writer now. I'm really, really proud of him and to the man that he's become. So was he the one that got you into MMA way back then? No, you know, I mean, I think just because growing up in Southern California, it's also part of our culture from, you know, our generation, right, from a sporting culture. I think, you know, friends watching it. Then we had, I had friends

competing in it. You know, then when I was, you know, playing college ball, you know, I had some of the guys in the UFC and we were buddies and ran in the same circles. So it kind of grew on me like that. And then, you know, obviously I started my career as an agent on the NFL side of things. And then once I started my own firm back in 2009, it initially started out as just football, but we quickly got into other sports. And I just saw MMA as as not only something that I was, you know, interested in from a fan perspective, but from a business standpoint, just something that has huge upside in the long term. And I'm very interested by that, because, you know, because, you know, most of the guys that you see these days in MMA,

they just kind of stick to MMA. We're starting to slowly see some other guys come from other sports. But back in 2009, that wasn't really the case. How did you view MMA at that point? And particularly the way MMA fighters were being managed coming from the NFL. Did you think to yourself, like, wow, you know, these guys are missing out on this and that. They're not being managed properly. They're not being taken care of.

Like, what was your view on it that made you want to actually get into it? the way I look at life, the way I approach life, I don't ever try to be, you know, negative or critical on someone else is doing. I look at an opportunity. I look at something where I see, hey, it's not a saturated market, and I'm confident in what I could do. So I looked at it as an opportunity where I could come in and succeed at a high level, knowing what I could do and the processes that we've been able to build. And I know that, you know, earlier, you know, you mentioned that I'm the man behind this. but I truly really have a great team behind me. You know, I always say I draft well because it's important to pick a good team

that subscribes to the same thought process, same practices, and, you know, the same goals, and you cohesively move forward together. And so, yeah, that's how I looked at it. I wasn't necessarily critical on, you know, other managers in the market. I just knew what I could do, and I'm just a confident person. How close were you to making the NFL? Do you have any kind of shot? You know what?

I was more of an undrafted free agent-type prospect. Unfortunately, I pulled my hamstring on my pro day. I could have pursued my career up in Canada up in your neck of the words, but, you know, decided to take a job. I took a job with a sports agency right out of college, and I just haven't looked back. Now, I can't lie to you, but my competitive juices once in a while, I kicked myself in the butt because you see a guy here and there,

you know, you play it again or whatnot. And, you know, as a competitor, you say, shoot, I should be doing that. But the end of the day, no regrets. You know, have started a great career, went back and got two graduate degrees, and, you know, now I have a great family. So the fact that I get to wake up and do this every day,

I pinch myself sometimes because I'm very fortunate. I don't take it for granted. What position did you play in college? I played safety and linebacker. Wow. So strong safety and then a weak side linebacker. When you were in college, I'm sure you were thinking, okay, you know, maybe try to get into the NFL.

Was this something in the, the back of your mind to be an agent? Were you thinking about this? Was this a possibility for you? It's funny. One of my current colleagues who works with me, he was also a teammate of mine, and we were the same recruiting class out of high school. And we had the number one recruiting class at UCLA. And I was credited. I shouldn't have been because it was really a team effort, but I was credited and that, you know, wrote a bunch of articles, LA Times or whatnot, that I was the key to that recruiting class because I essentially recruited everybody to come over. Wow. So, so at that time, people were always telling me, you're going to be an agent, you're going to be an agent. And it started

getting in the back of your mind. And I really believe, you know, it's, success is bred by not only proximity, proximity, but by the people you keep and the things that you hear. And so at the end of the day, when you hear something, you hear something, you hear something so many times, you start to believe it. And so, and if you believe it, then I think you'll go after. And if you work for it, then it could come true. So that's kind of how it all went down. I always wanted to play ball more than anything, as any athlete wants to just do.

They want to compete in the sport that they're progressing in through the channels from when they were a kid up to the professional or collegiate ranks. But at the end of the day, once I decided to embark on this journey, I went in wholeheartedly and I wasn't going to take no for an answer and no matter what adversity I was going to face, I knew I was going to overcome it and be successful. But I know that we're on our way.

We're doing great things, but we have a long way to go, and I'm just really excited about the future. That's a perfect segue for what was going to be my next question because I wanted to know, like, you know, I was saying this to someone literally maybe like six months ago, maybe five months ago, saying, wow, paradigm has really, in a short amount of time, gathered an impressive group of fighters from Bisping, like I said, Shields, Mitreone.

You got Connor McGregor, who I would imagine all the agents wanted to snatch him up. He was so popular. He is so popular. He's so charismatic. How did you do this? In a short amount of time, how did you get those guys to believe and trust in you? Well, it's funny. You know, people always see someone that succeeds, not only myself, but I mean, anybody.

And they say, well, overnight success. Well, there's a lot of hours, a lot of nights, a lot of hard work that, that, that went into it prior to getting to this point. And it was really just a matter of us working hard, doing what we say, saying what we do, following through. I mean, we're not perfect. We still make mistakes. And I think there's a level of trust and respect from all of our clients where they see that we really have their best interests our heart and we're going to work as hard as they do. I mean, that's the bottom line. So I think that at the end of the day, you know, an agent and a manager, I mean, which are interchangeable words really depending on the industry that you're in.

is not only someone that, you know, negotiates contracts, public relations marketing, but someone that really adds not only substantive value to their athletic career, but helps them grow as men and women, right? Because this ends at one point for everybody, you know. I always talk, I laugh about my Al Bundy days, but that ended, you know, and I had to move on to the next phase of my life. So, you know, that's one of the things I feel that we've done a good job on, you know, and I credit my team for doing a great job.

And it's really an honor to work with these guys. I like what I do. I consider these guys my friends. I do because I care about each and every one of them, you know, and their well-being, and I'm just sincere about what I do. What's the story behind the Conne McGregor photo that got on TMZ? I know you were with him that night with Willie Roof

because there were pictures of you guys together. I don't know if you were with him after the fact, but it seemed like he had quite the wild night with the NFL Hall of Famer. I was getting emails all over the place. and giving me a heads up on that. Yeah, he had a good time. Look, you know, Conner's away from home. He's been away from home since, you know,

before the Boston card, he had to go to Canada, then Vegas just to do some visa stuff because of the Boston bombings, and then went back home for maybe like a week or two, and then came back for the fight, and he's been here ever since. He hasn't been back home. He was getting a little cabin fever, you know,

not feeling too well. So we all went out to dinner as a team, and, you know, Willie's, as a former client, I was fortunate enough to, I worked for the agency that represented him throughout his entire career. And so, you know, we went out to dinner and then, you know, they had a good time. He's a 25-year-old, you know, young man. I think that obviously by him feeling so confident to tweet it, there's no harm, no foul. But at the end of the day, as a manager, I can assure you, I have my words with him.

And he's a grown man, you know, I think at the end of the, he'll learn from certain days. certain actions and move on. So right now, how much of your time is devoted to MMA? Because I see you all over the place. There's a lot of traveling involved. And then you look at your website, you still have baseball players, football players. You still rep Russell Martin, right? Who's in the midst of a great playoff run right now.

Yeah. Yeah, well, fortunate enough, I have a great partner who our managing director of baseball is Matt Collarine, who runs all baseball. So I'm more just a fan on that. And him and I obviously have executive meetings on the direction of the company and things of that nature. But he runs the baseball division. And Russell's doing great. I mean, I think he's up for MVP right now.

Just what a great story for the pirates and what they're doing right now. And then football, it is busy for us right now. You know, we kind of scaled back from football a little bit last year just because MMA was picking up so quickly. and we had just gotten into the space a couple of years ago. So I had to really increase capacity. So we brought on some more people full time. And we're really up to speed. And we're recruiting pretty heavily this year.

So we'll see how this shakes up for this upcoming draft. We're excited about it. We're excited about the prospects, talking some great young men, great football players. But I am busy. I mean, I'm going, I just was on the road for football. I get back on Thursday. And then I'm on the road to Houston. Then I'm back.

then I'm in Dublin for one night, then Manchester, that I'm back, then I'm in Virginia, then I'm in Colorado. So these next couple months are definitely a lot of travel for me, but again, I wouldn't change it for the world. And it don't matter where I'm at, we're a global world now. I work nonstop. I could be in Brazil, in China, and Manchester, and I'm still working just as far as I would be in Irvine.

Yeah, you're doing this interview from an internet cafe in Brazil. Your website is ParadigmSM.com, and you could see all your clients on the website. I want to ask you about three fighters, and then we'll let you go in a second here. What is the latest on Matt Mitreone? Will he get another shot in the UFC? I believe so. I don't believe, you never know. I can't tell you for sure, for sure, but I do believe he's going to get another shot. I mean, he's coming off one loss, not two losses. I know he had the suspension, but you still have that win, obviously. prior to the Brendan Schaubb fight.

But, yeah, he's excited. He's ready to go. I'll tell you what, you know, he, hats off to Brendan. He won that fight, fair and square. You know, Matt, Matt still sick to his stomach today. I mean, he's ready to get back in there and redeem himself. And, you know, he feels that, you know, he really let a lot of people down. But, you know, I always told him, you didn't let nobody down.

You do this for you and your family. Don't worry about what anybody else thinks, you know. But that's how a lot of these guys are, which is testament to you. their character because they care about everybody that puts the time to work with them, which is, I think, amazing. Michael Bissing, there were some reports late last week that he had to have emergency surgery. You told me, I tweeted it, that that is not the case, but he did have to go to the hospital. What's the latest on Michael and how he's feeling?

Good spirits spoke to him right before I took off. I mean, he's one of those guys that's just determined to, you know, beat this, get back, and get back into the octagon, hopefully in six months. was feeling a little pain, you know, you know, he just, one of those things where detached retina is no joke. I mean, the sad thing about it is, is that everybody, you know, there's some mean

people on Twitter, I'll tell you that much. You know, talking about how he deserves this for the Alan Belcher and poke, but, I mean, he was poked earlier in the fight. Alan poked him earlier in the fight, you know? I mean, and it happens in this sport. Unfortunately, my other client, just Skagular, just beat Magumi with an eye poke.

You know, and it's just one of those unfortunate things with the gloves being the way they are, and it just happens, you know, and I don't think any fighter maliciously tries to do that. I wholeheartedly believe that, and not this level, you know. Yeah. But he'll be back.

I mean, he feels good. I think this is good for him. He just needs to slow down. And, you know, for him, he's a doer. He has to realize that, you know, even a light run, he can't do anything right now for a couple months. And once, you know, I think three months comes around, they'll give him the green light to kind of get going.

And hopefully by then he's all good to go. And then you mentioned Jessica. I wanted to ask you about her because she's no longer in Belator considered one of the best fighters in the world, but doesn't fight in that 135-pound division that the UFC has. So how can she make a living now in MMA? Where's she going to fight? Well, we're in talks with a couple of promotions. I mean, obviously you see Invicta's done a great job for women's MMA,

and they're definitely someone we've been in discussions with. I think they've done a phenomenal job with that promotion. And, you know, I think she was definitely going to land. He's the number one ranked 115 in the world. She's very marketable. She speaks Spanish. She speaks Portuguese. She's an activist for the gay and lesbian community.

And I think that she's just a good person. So I'm pretty confident she's going to land somewhere. Hopefully we'll have an announcement soon. Really enjoyed this, Adi. Thank you so much for stopping by, especially coming off the plane and the internet issues over there. I wish you guys the best of luck on Wednesday with Jake. Best of luck with all your clients. And again, thanks a lot.

I really thought this was great and enjoyed talking to you and getting a different perspective on the sport. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you having me out. I'm a big fan of the show. Keep doing a great job, and I'll be tuning in. Thank you so much, Adi. Good luck to you guys on Wednesday. Thank you.

Cheers. There he is. Adi Atar of Paradigm Sports Management stopping by, like I said, developing, putting together one of the best client rosters in the game today. I mentioned that they have guys like Connor McGregor, Matt Mat Matreone, Michael Bisping, some of the other names that they have, So Apolli Lay, Surreal Diabate,

Hafeel Davis, Christian Impoo of Bellator fame, Lorenz Larkin, Tyson Jeffreys, Court McGee, Jake Shields, as I said, Ben Saunders, Steve Carl, fighting for the World Series of Fighting, Walterweight belt, the first one on October 26th. Chris Lytle on the website.

I don't know if there's a lot to do with him these days. Retired. T.J. Walberger, Bristol Murundi, Ross Pearson, Roger Bowling, Ramsey Nijam, Tony Ferguson, Dave Jansen, Darren Elkins, John Albert, Jessica Aguilar. It's impressive.

They're doing good work. Likeable guy. very open with his thoughts. If you want to tweet him something, check him out on Twitter.com. I feel like there's someone who is putting a knife in the left side of my body here. Like every time I speak or breathe,

it's very painful right here. Not so much like the hard part, but I think Will back there may have spiked my salad. Or maybe it's just my bad posture. I tell you who has great posture. our next guest. And this is very interesting because on October 26,

Mark Munoz will be fighting Liuramachita, and in their corners will be arguably the two most famous brothers in the world of Jiu-Jitsu, maybe even the world of mixed martial arts. Favorites of ours,

they are Henner and Heron, Gracey. Look at that. Wearing the ghee. They never leave home without it. How are you guys? He's a comedian and a reporter and a journalist.

This is amazing. What's up, man? Well, it's great to have you guys. And by the way, Hannah, Hereon, where were you when your brother was viciously attacking me? Trying to submit me with Darth'soke. I never tapped. But I thought maybe you'd have my back.

I think you were around. You weren't in Toronto? Where were you, my friend? If I was there, I would have helped you for sure because you can tell that I had no problem going against him. Oh. But I was actually recovering from my tongue. tons being removed. So I was at home.

Oh, wow. How are you feeling? Feeling better now, but I could not believe the pain I went through. The tonsils is no joke. Really? Was that just something that came up or was it something with your training? How did this happen? No, my tonsils and my deviated septum were affecting my breathing when I was sleeping. So they had to clear my tons to help me breathe better. And which is a problem because now my endurance went from like, you know, 70% to like now I'm 100% all free airflow in and out. so I'm unstoppable now. Oh, wow. He was unstoppable before this surgery.

Now it's ridiculous, though. It should have been illegal to remove my tonsils. Unbelievable. Does this make you... Okay, so let's set the scene here. October 26th in Manchester, Mark Munoz is fighting Leota Machita. It was supposed to be Mark Munoz versus Michael Bisping.

Bisping withdrew because of an eye injury. Now, you guys are... We see you from time to time, cornering fighters, like I said, we saw Hennar Gracie in Toronto, cornering Brendan Chob, he got the big Darce Choke, and this was no problem for you.

But once Leo Machita replaced Michael Bisping, this became a family affair. You guys are going to be cornering against each other. When did you... It was really crazy how it came about because before you guys were training together. It was a Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, the four of us were training with other friends of ours also. The four, myself with Chita, Mark, and some other guys, we had a great training session. And Thursday, evening. Wow. I'm driving to the airport and I get a call that's like, listen, from

Machita. It's like, listen, they want me to fight Mark Munoz. And he said, I would rather not fight him now. But I don't mind fighting him one day. It's part of the game. We're in the same weight class. But it doesn't make sense to fight right now, but I don't know what we can do about this. And next thing you know, it's announced and now they're fighting. So how do you feel about this, Henner? Yeah, I mean, this is, when we, when we found out that Liotto was dropping to 185 to fight Tim Kennedy. As soon as he said that, as soon as he told me he was going to drop to 185, I said, okay, that should be much better for him

because he's a very light, a really light, light heavyweight. And I knew he could make the drop. But the first thought that came into mind was, man, I hope he never has to fight Mark. I hope it's like a situation where, you know, they do their thing, and for whatever reason, their careers don't necessarily cross paths. And, you know, life goes on. And I know they could fight, but I just hope that's the fight that never happens.

at middleweight, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, basically, it's the exact opposite of what I hope for is the first fight. It would have them so abruptly for both of them, and it was announced, like, almost without notice. And these guys, there was no way to go back. They have to do it. It's the main event for the card in Manchester, and Dana would have it no other way. So just go ahead. I was going to say that this whole thing of them having to do it, it sounds almost like they have to, they're being forced.

But the reality is there's only one belt. And a lot of times fighters will say that they won't fight certain people because they're friends. But that's, I don't really think that's a good thing. I think that no matter what, I say, listen, I don't really want to fight you, but it has to be done. Let's do it. It's the business that we're in. So I like that both of them are down to do it. And, of course, they are.

And the fact that we are just shows that we are also agreed that there is one belt, there's one championship and one champion, and we like that. Well, initially, initially, you know, naturally when someone like Greg Jackson, for example, has two people fighting against one another, at least from what I remember, he doesn't go to the fighters, I don't coach either one of the fighters. But in this situation,

because there's two of us, and we both coach and work with both of the fighters, we thought, man, and initially we thought about not going. Yeah, initially we thought about not going. He don't was ahead of him. We should just probably leave him, let them do their thing. And then, you know, both Leoto and Mark requested

and, you know, preferred that we go. Yeah, they'd rather be, you know, there with us versus without us. Yeah. And that's the vibe. And I talked to Mark the other night. We had a great celebration for my grandfather. We're celebrating 100 years of Andy Gracie.

And both Mark and Liotto both came to this celebration two nights ago that he don't organize in Los Angeles. Beautiful celebration. Ellenberger was there. Shab was there. All the guys. Who was one more? Ellenberger, Shaw. Those are the four.

We train me. Those are the main four. There were five there, though. Javier? No, there was another. Ryan. Who's the guy? Now he's going to feel horrible that you forgot about him.

I just want to be respect. We had an amazing celebration. And over there I told Mark, I said, bro, just to be very clear, like, I'm not coaching I'm not coaching against Mark Munoz in this fight. I'm coaching for Lioto. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. And that's the kind of the vibe because we've been training with Mark and I've been training

with Mark as well as we, as Hedon for, you know, three, four years now. So it's amazing. And we're there more for support these guys as individuals than to try to beat the person on the other side, even though that's the game they play. So for the record, Henner, on my right, is going to be. be in Liero's corner. Hiron, on my left, is going to be in Mark Munoz's corner. Now,

how do things proceed from here? Are you guys just making a pact? We're not going to talk about it because, like you said, you've trained all together. So are you just going to not talk about this until it's all over? What do you think, Hennar? I already told Hennar that Mark is going to just bring one Superman punch.

Yeah, no, no. That's it. Let's be very clear, there's no there's no behind-the-scenes promises. This is, this is, this is, This is real deal brotherly rivalry right now. This is a very real situation. We need to go in this situation. And, you know, I've been a little brother getting beat up my whole life,

you know what I'm saying, by Hidon, and it's been suffering. You know, it's been easy. You know, people talk about Gracie legacy. You get automatic, you know, your Gracie family. You get fame. You get prestige. You get respect. No, you get beat up if you're Hidon's little brother.

It's painful. And you do your best to recover from this trauma. But this point of my life, to have the situation here where finally we can go in there and without having to fight him myself, I can still kind of challenge his situation. It's kind of like playing chess or playing a video game. And then Leoto and Mark are both the pieces of the chess board. And I'm going to trust me.

I'm going all in. I know he knows movements. I know his strengths. I know his one weakness. And guess what I'm teaching Leoto? Boom. 100%. Because I know he's teaching Mark his goodness.

So I already know where the loophole is, my friend. Let's not get it twisted. All your... Basically, you better just keep Leoto off the ground. That's all I have to say to you. Because if it goes to the ground, we already know Mark smashes people on the ground. So if Liotto runs around standing up for a while, then there might be a chance. So at the end of the day, to get it very clear, this is not a joke.

This is very serious. And I'm going in for the W straight up. You know what I'm saying? It's a very serious thing that we joke about. Yeah. Can't take life too seriously. But this is, no, there's no pact. There's no secret.

They're going to go in there. And, you know, it's like Venus and Serena. You know, they ought to play against each other, but at the end of the day, these guys have to punch each other in the face. So it's going to be a little different, but it's still the game they play. This morning, last Saturday night, Mark said, you know, can we train on Monday morning? And yesterday at the beach, Hennar and I said, yeah, you know, tomorrow morning I'm going to train with Mark. And he said, what time?

Or something like that, and I said, 7.30 in the morning. It was 7 a.m. He said, well, I'll be there with Leotto at 7.30. And I'm like, dude. So he kind of bullied me out of the mat space today. They took it today. Well, here's why. it this afternoon or tomorrow.

If it was just me and Leoto here, there might be a chance that Hiron would be able to, and mark together, like two against two, they might be able to occupy the mat and bully us out of it and take a dominant situation the way Hedon did my whole life me growing up. However, it was me, it was me, Glover, and me, Glover, Leoto, and Glover Teichetto,

who were here this morning. And as a result, we had extra backup, we were safe, and we knew the spot was secure. And those other guys, too. See, I give Mark Munoz privates. Right. So that's a good sign for me. That's true.

You put Leoto in semi-private group classes. Yeah, Leona does group classes here at the academy on time and times. There's no doubt. This is true. Which is not as much quality. This is true. So both guys are coming into the same gym to train for each other? Yes.

At different times. We schedule it good. You give them different times. So what happens like if Mark's in? Does that mean that you have to leave? Does that mean that you can't be around, right? That's not fair. Fortunately, we...

No, no. Oh, is Henner better not walk in the room if Mark is in the room. Yeah, no, I know better than that, for sure. Would you stop everything? Yeah, yeah, I have to respect that when they're using the Big Matt, I go in the private room, or I go over here in the offices, or we go in the parking lot and do a little street self-defense on the parking lot, whatever it's possible. Now, he's joking.

They should... Go to even get the same building. I would expect nothing less. Now, Henner, you did say that you know Heron's big weakness. What is it? Oh, no, no, no, no. This can't be talked about, bro. You can't be disclosing strategy.

You know what question is not to ask you. You're professional. He knows a few of small weaknesses, but there is no big weakness. That's true. There's no big weakness, but there's like two things you can do against Hedon that work 10% of the time. Correct. But you need at least 5% each. You need at least 10 years training to make those things work.

Or you need to work with the person who has that training. And get the direct infusion download of knowledge and go straight to the core of the problem. But Hiron, you know, Machita gets criticized sometimes for not engaging, being a very, you know, defensive fighter, counterstriker. Are you worried that this might not be a very exciting fight? It is true that if he runs around in circles, it makes it tough for something to happen. And I believe Mark does go forward a little more than he does. Yeah. But Machita is also, he's not number one.

What's the right? Number one in the world? He's two number one or two. He's not where he is for no reason. So there's something to say about this whole, you know, not attacking strategy and almost waiting, countering, and then striking. But it is true that, you know, those guys that are the smartest, like someone like GSP, who's the champ, is also pretty boring sometimes. So I hope that Machita does not play too much of that game and just goes after it and finishes the fight. And he does what Hennar would do, right?

Hennar goes to the kill. So make sure you let him know about that. No, no, no. Tell him to go forward. He'll be playful. Macheva's learning how to keep it playful, bro. Got it. What did your father have to say about this?

When I asked him, he actually said at first he paused, and he's like, well, you could tell it. The same way we kind of had a... Yeah, there's a moment. There's a moment of, ah. And he said, man, well, I wouldn't like you guys to go against each other. You wouldn't fight each other. And it makes sense. We wouldn't fight each other, especially in a fight, fight.

But maybe in a jitutu match, it wouldn't be as bad. You know, it would be more competition. Yeah. But at the end of the day, we just, we also know that our input is going to be, most likely on the ground. Yeah. You know, if Mark gets some crazy right-hand punch and knocks them out or a little kicks them in the face,

that's not really our area of expertise. Well, so much. Yeah, I mean, the, although we can give them a little bit of input there on distance management and the jiu-jitsu approach of standing game, they know what they're going to do. So when it falls to the ground, if anything, I'm going to help the Odo get choked out. That's it.

Yeah. But, you know, to answer your question about our dad, Ariel, what happened is, and what happens is our dad and our, Generation 2 has a different philosophy about fighting than these current MMA athletes. You understand? Their philosophy is killer be killed. My dad still thinks that, you know what I'm saying? The fights are fought with no gloves and no time limits.

Like, he's still in that era. And that's what he treats the fight. He still treats the fight like we're fighting to the death. And there's only one winner. And you know what I'm saying? Like he really has that belief. And that's what he grew up his whole life with fights having such a charge to them. You understand?

They're so, they're so meaningful. and they're so, not even about the money, it's just about the honor and the fight. So he couldn't possibly see us fighting on that level against one another. Now, I think that the difference that he doesn't realize is this is not an uncommon thing, where guys who have crossed paths before,

you know, just like Brennan Schaub and Matt Mitreone, now theirs was a little bit more sour, the engagement, but they were buddies in the house, and now they have to fight. He doesn't really realize the degree to which MMA has become a sport. It is a game that includes punching in the face, but it is a technical game, and it includes martial arts, but these guys don't have to be emotional,

they don't have to be angry, they don't even have to want to hurt, to any great extent with any kind of emotional, hurt in the sense of actually, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, who said it recently? I think Mark, or someone did interviews. Oh, Brennan Schaub said it. He's like, yeah, bro, he said it very clearly.

I go in there, I'm happy. I like what I do. I enjoy playing the game, but I don't want to cause any permanent damage to my opponent. There's no desire to actually injure them, besides win the game. I want to win the fight. That includes punching the face.

That includes a submission, but I don't want to kill the guy. I don't want to hurt him. So Shob said that, which makes sense. He's a very nice guy. And I know some fighters fight differently, but for our father, he doesn't realize that it's not a killer-be-killed situation these days. I don't know if Mark can punch Liotto in the face without trying to break his face. I don't know if Liotto can snap toe kick Mark in the chin without knocking him out.

Correct. So they're okay to really, really hurt each other. They will, and they're down for it. And they know that the odd, no one ever dies in the UFC. So no matter what, they heal. They're all young guys. Yeah. Now, real quick, are Brendan and Matt friends again?

Are they back to cool, like, buddies? They were cool after. They spoke behind the scenes behind after. And it was all, you know how it is after the fight, right? It's still not the best, though. Bro, yeah, Anderson and Chale, you know what I'm saying? Having barbecues after the fight, being invited for barbecues. Everything's cool after, guys.

Well, that actually brings up a very good point because you say you all trained together. Of course, you're on different sides now, but do you think it will all be okay afterwards? Oh, yeah. It'll all okay before. It'll be okay before. okay two nights ago at the party. The only part that's not okay is when the cage shuts and these guys have to punch her in their face, then they got to put the broness aside and they have to deliver the goods. Otherwise, you know, they don't get the fight of the night bonus. They don't get the,

they want the fight of the night bonus. These guys want to go crazy with each other. And whoever is not okay after the fight will be the one that's not going to be included in any kind of group training or private training that we have. If they have a problem, it's like, okay, have a good day. Go deal with your problem on your own. And when you realize that it's just a game, then come back and talk to us and we'll keep training. Here's what they, here's what they, here's what they posted, I don't know if you saw the post on Instagram or Twitter from, I think Munoz, Mark Munoz, posted it. He posted a picture of them too with us.

They both did it. Yeah, they both posted it. And it said, winner buys dinner. You know what I'm saying? Like that's the vibe right now. Guys, you know this era because you talk to all the guys and you interview everyone and you're connected with all the guys and girls, but they're probably on the list of guys who are really nice, who are really, like, loving guys and very respectful and

very disciplined in the human beings. Mark is for sure the nice. Mark is number one. And Leotto's like number 11. Leoto's like number one and a half or two. He's right there with him. If Eleodos spoke better English, you'd be more connected with him. But he's like Blue Belt, two stripes in English.

We're working on his third stripe right now. And he's making mad progress, too. He says, Henry, don't speak to me in Portuguese. Only speak to me Jiu-Jitsu in English. I want to learn Jiu-Jitsu English from you. I want to learn how to speak Jiu-Jitsu. So he's very determined to learn English. By the way, I couldn't agree more.

They really are, too, the nicest guys. If not the nicest guys, and that says a lot in our sport. Now, you mentioned something about, competing against each other. And I kind of joked with you, Henner in Toronto, about wanting to see you doing an MMA fight. But I think a brother versus brother, jit-sue match on any kind of level, any kind of promotion, I don't care where it would be huge because you guys are so famous and well-known, well-liked in your sport and our sport. Has anyone ever approached you?

We beat you to it. We beat you to it. What's happening? This match has already happened. It happens every day here at the Gracie Academy when we train together. It's freaking like two grizzly bears trying to kill each other. and it happened, and we never really filmed it and put it out, but we did decide that there's a master cycle. Our Gracie University.com curriculum is divided in different segments, and in the master cycle, which is the beyond Blue Belt, Blue Belt Strike One course, we call it,

there is a test at the end, and the test includes various things, including sparring. So we said, okay, just so you guys can see what a serious sparring session looks like between two black belts, we included a bonus called Brotherly Battle on this day, DVD, Master Psycho, Blue Belt Strike 1, available at Gracie Academy.com, 20 minutes. And we went. It was like 20, 25 minutes. It has the whole match, no cuts, but instant slow motion replay for the moments of pinnacle interest. And here's the best part.

We narrate the match after the fact. Wow. So you get the psychological, what I'm thinking precisely when he does this movement and moment, what I'm thinking, and you can choose which brother's narration you want to hear. So if you want to hear the aggressive, big brother, bully, smash on Hennar, narration. Young brother, bro. You're the younger brother. I reverse, though.

Choose heat on the narration. And then you can choose Henner narrating the same sparring match from both angles. So, my friend, not only do we have the match available, but it's yours for only 1995 at great-racie academy.com, check it out. And then people want to know what happened at the end of the match. People want to know what happened at the end of 25 minutes sparring. Like you said, too. Like you said, go check it out.

Gracie academy.com. When did this happen? This was about a couple years ago? You're in a half a year. Yeah, a year and a half ago. And it's what happened once twice a month. And it always changes. Yeah.

But, yeah, is there a winner? Is there a winner of that match? Oh, there's a winner. Very definitive winner. And trust me, you want to watch it. And there were several close calls. But the thing is this, like, you don't just said, you know, you know, talking me wrong.

Like, I have my days, you know what I'm saying? But the night of this actual session, let me just say this. I didn't have my energy sandwich for breakfast. Oh, excuses. This changes all the time. Like, for example, I had a daughter five months ago, which you know. Yes. And those five months, my training went down the drain.

I couldn't even do eight push-ups, like last week. So if we would have met on one of those days, it was a different story. So it always changes, you know, who's taught more that day and so on. It depends on how we're feeling. Yes, sir. That's how we know who's going to win or lose. But the answer is the joke, Matt, it's very fun to watch, bro. It's crazy.

It's very informative. There's. And the narration was so critical, and people have told me this. They're like, Henner, there's so much that. It's the same as Gracie breakdowns, right? You watch a UFC match. and you think you know what's going on and then you watch the Gracie breakdown

and you realize you have no clue what was happening during the paddice arm bar over Benson Henderson like people watched that and they saw the breakdown I did with Leoto and they were like,

Henner, oh my God, that was so major the details and you know I forget, you know, I forget that Jiu Shih T is a language and it's almost like the world is learning this language by watching TV.

You know, you watch TV in another language you kind of understand a little bit but they don't understand the Jiu Chih T language unless they're in immersing themselves in the language. You know what I'm saying? And to learn a language, what's the best way to learn any language?

Find a girlfriend who speaks the language. Yes. To speak this is its language. Your girlfriend is gracie university.com. Brilliant. You know, we're talking about the, you're so good at this, Henry. You're just amazing. You know, we're talking about the jujitsu aspect of mixed martial arts and hoists.

Man, you know very well, told our website, MMAFighting.com recently that, quote, the new guys from the Gracie family want to complement their game, like if Jiu-Jitsu was incomplete. I guess they forgot a little bit about history. Now, we had Haja Gracie reply to this and other people as well. What do you guys make of this? That the Gracies aren't doing well in mixed martial arts because they forgot about their history. They're moving away from what got them there. Hoist is right and hoist is wrong.

He's mixing two messages here. And the problem, as you know very well in your profession, when things are you right, get quoted out of context, or when someone says something but doesn't actually complete their thought, then it's inferred and it's interpreted a certain way. What Hoyst meant to say, I shouldn't say that. What I think, what I interpret Hoyst's message should be is people forget that Jiu-Jitsu as an art is a complete martial art. A lot of people say, well, Jitsu is good for the chokes.

No, J-Sutu teaches the standing approach to a fight, the clinching aspect, the takedown aspect, and the ground-fighting aspect. You know, it includes everything, as Hoyce demonstrated so well in the early UFCs. Now, what he said regarding the fact that today people's cross-training is leading to their demise, I don't necessarily agree with that. I think that the reason they're cross-training isn't because jujitsu is not a complete martial art. Jiu-Jitsu, if you get in a street fight aerial, we had our first lesson, right, the other day, UFC 165 in Toronto. If you get in a street fight outside over there against the guy who outweighs you by 50 pounds,

you don't need Muay Thai. You need Jujitsu, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, pure, 36 techniques, learn those, master those, Spend six months to a year refining those techniques for yourself, and you have a self-defense chance against a giant because we cover standing, take down ground submission, the whole aspect. Now, if you're going to fight an MMA against someone who is a collegiate or an All-American wrestler, and their only goal is not to go to the ground, and they're going to stand there with you, you have to punch that person in the face repeatedly to get the judges to side with you.

Do you understand? So the only reason to cross-train is because you're playing to entertain and to, I guess earn the opinions of judges not to survive in a worst case scenario against a larger opponent when there's no time limit, no judges, no weight class, no referee. For that situation, all you need is jiu-sitsu and you need it very well. Not that you can't learn other arts, but jiu-suitzsche is complete for this situation. And victory in jiu-jitsu is survival. It is just defending yourself. Right. Our grandfather always say, if you do not lose, you can only win. So for him, for example, if he fought in the UFC, he would go out there

and not get beat up by whoever his weight class was, GSP, just not lose. He'd walk away and say, great, I did great. That guy right there did not hurt me, my arm, my limbs are good, my face is good, let's go home. But he would lose the judge's decision. Correct, which meant nothing to him. Yes. And also the idea of striking to get the judge's, you know, points, but also the striking might help that wrestler get a little aggravated and come forward

and attack. And then that wrestler now attacking brings them forward, making the takenown easier for the Jitsu expert. Big time. So these are all things. So cross training helps, you know, make the fight happen a little more because we've seen some guys that are professionals

and not going to the ground. Yeah. No matter what. So the answer is, we believe. Have these comments created a rift in the family? Not so much a rip. I think there's been a lot. Trust me, this family is pretty resilient to these craziness.

There's so much drama. And there's so much family freaking craziness already, bro, that this causes nothing. Hoyt says something. And, you know, the younger generation, it's like there were things that my dad and my grandfather say as they get older, that you think, okay, I know why they're saying this. And it comes from an emotional place of the journey that they've been through. So rather than judging them for what I think

they should say, I try to accept and understand where they're coming from because everyone looks at the same thing from a different perspective. And if you don't understand that, you're going to have conflict in every relationship, not jih Tzu, not Gersi family, but life in general. And whether or not, how you can look at what they said depends on your own state. Yeah. So we're in a position right now when Hoy says that, we're like, oh, okay, we understand him. But some other Gracy's for sure might be in a position where him saying that right there was like a huge disrespect, and that might cause tension, but we're not sure who is like that right now and who's not. Do you feel like we're approaching the 20th anniversary of the UFC, which your father had such a big part in launching.

Horacee, of course, you know, I believe off top of my head, Gracie hasn't won in the UFC since 1995. Hollis Gracie, Hajar Gracie, Hansa Gracie, all, you know, came on the losing end of their fights. So do you feel like there's pressure on the family now as we approach this milestone to get someone in there who can actually win fights in the UFC? No. There's no pressure, bro.

Here's the deal. The Gracie family wins. Every single UFC that airs. Every family wins. The Gracie family wins. Very well said. Every single UFC fighter in the cage. Every one, every single fight.

Some might not say it, All of them love the Gracie family and are extremely grateful for Jiu-Jitsu that it was brought by the Gracie family. As long as, here's the deal, Ariel, as long as someone is getting choked or getting out of a choke, Jiu-Jitsu wins. And if Jiu-Jitsu wins, the Gracie family has done its purpose, has served its purpose. Now, for these athletes who are now looking to challenge themselves because everyone chooses their journey, and there's these third and fourth generation Gracie's now who put themselves in that position. of I got to go represent my family and my thing.

I think, yes, they're representing the family, no doubt. And whenever Gracie wins, in any organization, it's a great thing. But more than anything, these guys are putting themselves through the grinder on a way that is very respectable, very admirable to challenge themselves in that way. And they feel that very much, as much as for the family, they want the personal fulfillment of pursuing that personal quest of putting yourself in the fire and making it happen and putting yourself through the grind like that, which is very admirable.

And that's a fight that they choose. But if they win or lose, doesn't mean jujuice has won or lost. Jitsu already won. That's why the UFC is still existing today. That's why it was created. And like we said, every fighter being a purple, a brown or a black belt in the UFC means that they've all accepted what our grandfather came here or came to this earth to do, you know, 19, 13, exactly 100 years ago, October 1st. And will your father be at the 20th anniversary show? Where is it?

It's in Las Vegas, November 16th. I would imagine that it's not a 20th anniversary show without your father. Yeah, that's a very reasonable request. That's not too far away. It's not too far away. If he's contacted, it's reasonable. Yeah, talk to Dana, and I think that's cool. We should set that up.

But they haven't contacted him yet, from what you know. I don't know. My dad's pretty elusive, man. This guy's moving around, always engaging in a new business. And, man, he's just having kids, you know what I'm saying? He's just doing having a happy life. So you guys in Manchester, how will you interact? Will you not talk to each other on fight with?

How are you going to keep this separate? Opposite, bro. No, of course. There's no problem. The only thing I'm not going to tell him is how Mark didn't have knock him out. Yes, bro. We're going to be so friendly, bro. We can have the way-ins.

We can have dinner after the way-ins and be totally cool. No problem. And you know what? Just don't ask me strategy. And I feel like this kind of respect and ability to be around each other the week of the fight is less stressful for the fighter. Because a lot of times, you know, there's that tension between fighters, avoiding the same elevator or different buses, different vans to be transported.

And that, you know, or that look from the other camp, and these are things that, for all we know, can be putting stress on the fighter who's fighting in one or two days. But if it's like, hey, how are you good to see you? The whole time, you know, mutual respect, it will almost make the time fly by faster and hopefully make the event even that much more exciting because they're not stressed out.

They're going to do what they're best, what they're doing what they do best. If people aren't engaged to watch this fight, for the simple fact that it's Leotomachita versus Mark Munoz, two amazing fighters at what they do and the styles of their fighting, if they're not engaged for that, they should be engaged and curious to see

how two guys literally can go from training one day to fighting the next day or to being told that they're going to fight each other a month later, train for it, smiling the whole time, training hard, get in there and have to punch them their face. It's pretty much, it's as close to brothers fighting in the UFC as you're going to get, as I've ever seen.

I haven't seen two closer guys and two guys more connected, at least Through the academy, they're very connected. This is the first time brothers are coaching against each other, so it's very close to home, my friend. And people should watch because of curiosity to see, wow, can you go from brothers coaching each other to tell the other guy to punch the other brother? Mark's my brother.

And Leotos, he's his brother. So I'm coaching my brother to punch my brother in the face or to catch him in arm lock, you know? So this is very interesting. This is crazy, Roe. I mean, it's crazy. And how this all pans out, I believe, will have a good influence. and impact on the future. Because we don't want MMA today,

it can very easily go in the direction of being a little bit negative and a little bit violent. Yeah. It needs to be a little more professional and a little bit more positive and respectful. Not that it's not already in so many ways, but hopefully with this, when someone sees this,

they can now look at their future opponent. You know, this 21-year-old kid, who we don't know who he is, who might fight one day. He can now look at his opponent and say, wow, you know, look at Mark and Machita fought, and they did their thing, 100% somebody lost, somebody won, but look at now they're working together

and their friends, and there's already proof of this. Fighters have fought together and then trained together. Vanda Les Silva and Sakuraba have trained together. Right. And Sakuraba got... It's murdered. Aux and they trained together after, and that's people need to see that.

And the before, too. Training after is not that uncommon. The before, the fact that they can be training up to a month before the fight, and there'd be no animosity, there's no emotion here. It's very technical, I think it really highlights the fact the humanness and the respect that can come in this new

era of MMA. 20 years later, it's a point where it's not about, you know, you know, jiu-jitsu fighting karate, you know what I'm saying? Even though, you know, these guys are going and they're representing their respective arts and Leoto has that strong karate background and Mark has the wrestling background. Still, it's such a respectful game right now that I think

is, there's a lesson here for sure. I have never seen this type of fight happen. I can't wait to see it. And then I can't wait to see the right before the fight and then the right after, you know? It's strictly business. They need to have you guys, you know how they have like Rogan and Dana at the cage, you know, selling the fight. They need to have you guys do that for this because you're making me want to watch the fight in five minutes here. You're doing a great job of pumping it up.

Let's end on this guys, okay? Hereon, tell me why Machita is going to win on October 26 and then Hennar, tell me why Mark Munoz is going to win. Did you, was that a misprint or did you actually mean to ask you on how Mliotto's going to win? Because he's coaching Mark. Yes. Yes. I messed that up. Totally.

You caught me. See, even, even, even the great ones mess up sometimes. Okay, so do you actually, does he want you to actually coach you already said? You messed up. I messed up. I messed up. But that would be interesting as well. How Marks can win.

That would be, that's an interesting thing. You almost saved me there. But let's go with your own guys. Let's go with your own guys. He wants to know how Mark is going to. Oh, I tried to say, give you some respect for the deep riddle. Got it. The first thing we know is we need to just know that for sure Mark is not going to lose.

by any kind of jujitsu type technique. That's the first understanding he must have, right? He's not going to get tapped out. You can't. Damia can't tap Mark Munoz. Machita better not even think about it, number one. Yeah. And now how he's going to win...

I did show him that one show. It doesn't matter. Okay. So Damien Maia could not tap Mark Munoz. Now, and how Mark is going to win, he's going to have to hurt Machita. And, you know, it's unfortunate that he's going to be so injured after the fight, but that's pretty much how Mark wins. He hurts people.

I can tell you. Hennar? Like snap toe kick to the face. Jiu-jitsu not even needed. Well, no. You see? I didn't say when this is going to happen. This is going to happen after he neutralized the ground and pound,

after he escaped the Darst choke, after he escaped from the bottom of the half guard back to his feet, and then when Mark's getting a little bit over-anxious on the taketown, Mielo's going to put both hands up. See, now he's joke. Bro, you think I can't get full strategy, but I can tell you this. Leoto's going to be Leoto

with a little bit of energy sprinkled on top. Everything is possible, my friend? And by the way, is this your first time in Leoto's corner for a fight? Because I've seen Heerone with Mark in his corner,

but I don't know if I've ever seen you in his corner. What did that tell you? I don't know. Here's the deal. Leoto's corner is not restricted to the octagon. Let me just say that. Oh, so you both won't physically be out there?

I want to see you both out there. I'm at Leodos's house teaching him the secrets to the Gracie vegetable juice recipe. I'm showing him the... I'm not just showing him the fighting techniques, but it goes way beyond the fight with Hennar Gracie. Oh, wow.

I was supposed to go to Brazil when he fought... Hennar cooks for you. He's in a corner. I was supposed to go to Brazil when he fought Phil Davis, but I had a scheduled conflict with seminars that were scheduled months prior before he even knew the time of the day of the fight. So luckily we were able to work it out.

Will you be in his corner, though, on October 26th? Hennar won't, no. I'll be in Mark. I'm going to leave that old game. Of course, maybe it's corner, row. Are you serious? This is the whole part? I'm going to be there 100% Venom, all Venom geared out. Leoto's sponsorship. Now, Ariel, here's the deal. Yeah. Was that Darst choke that I put you in in our previous interview? Was that your first Jiu-Jitsu lesson officially? No, what do you think I am? You think I'm some kind of, you know, ignorant, you know, reporter here? I train. Of course I train. I just don't I just don't feel like I have to publicize it to the world. Where do you roll? Bro, I was just, I was just playing possum. The best answer would have been grace to university.com.

What state do you train in? What state? I live in New York State. Guy, you trained in New York. Got it. Great. Okay, the reason I was asking is because if that was your first one, we were going to set up and schedule your second official one.

And we already, this is how serious we are. We even brought you your geek. We even brought you your geek. We even brought you your geek. We even brought you the official L-U-100. Wow. The fish new N.100 ghee 100 ghee right here. Look at this.

That's amazing. I am honored. I will wear that with pride. I even have a black belt right here from Meta Morris. It says my name on it. See it? You can wear the black belt as long as you don't go to any schools. And we'll even send you the ghee, bro.

We'll get your second class going. But here's the deal. I just feel that as a true ambassador for MMA and a true representative for this sport, it's so critical that you understand the intricacies beyond the suit and tie. and into the ghee and then into the cage eventually. Event, you want me to fight. Let's get ready, bro. Lesson number two, when you get out here,

and also to the jujitsu lesson, we're going to also have what, the Asaii, Hennard, Asai Super Bowl. This is what I wanted to, and I don't care about the fighting stuff. I just want to know what's in the Super Bowl. Late last week, Hennard texted me a picture. Everyone knows how obsessed I am with Asaii,

texting me this amazing bowl that he calls the Super Bowl. It seemed like there was some coconut on top, but I couldn't really make what was going on in there. And no joke, I've been thinking about it ever since. I've gone back to that text just to look at it, to try to savor it. What exactly is in the Super Bowl? Bro, whenever you need motivation for any major progress in your life, just look at that picture. Now, the problem is to just raise another issue right now because he don't's laughing right now

because his bowl, he's very emotional about his bowl being the best bowl and my bowl being not so good. So you already created another rivalry right now at the end of the interview. We're supposed to be going to class right now, and you just part to a whole new situation. I'm going to let him go first. And then I'm going to tell you the ingredients for the Super Bowl. Super Bowl. No, I don't even have one bowl.

I have so many bowls. I can have a little bowl bar where I just, you can have 20 options of what you want in your bowl. Basically, assayi having any heels. Now, mine always changes. I'm like jujitsu. I change. I'm fluid.

I flow. This guy only has one bowl. That's true. It's true. Just one choke. And just so you know, I had to tell Henner for one year. I was doing an assay bowl for a whole year. And I'm like, bro, get a blender.

Get the assay. He makes this, this, this, this. And he didn't want to do it. He's like, no, no, I already, this is what I have my juice right here. Finally, a whole year later, like maybe I had like 70, I'll say he bowls. More. Then he went and invented one bowl, and all of a sudden thought he had the best bowl in the world. Yes, I must confess.

It's an illness. This is true. This is true. It's not the best. Everything good. There is no best bowl. Listen, everything good that I have in my life, I owe to this guy. That is the truth.

My fiance, Eve Marie Torres, my fiance, Eve Marie Torres, came through introduction from Hidon and his wife, Victoria. She's going to have my children one day. We're going to have little baby Gracey's running around. Everything's going to be great. And it's going to be because he brought this whole situation to my life. So I got to acknowledge. Now, the Hennargy Sandwich is a world famous sandwich, and I've got to make the record straight right here.

The Hennargy sandwich, he don't introduce me to the Hennarge sandwich concept. Like six years ago when we were living together. He was like, Hennar, try this almond butter, avocado, a little bit of kale, blend it in right here, make it happen, make it. And I was like, this is so good. And then months passed, and I had some modifications, but the core comes from the same source. And then I'm thinking, man, this is so good, I got to share it with the world.

So when I made the YouTube video, I had to give it a name. Correct. And if I have to give it a name, there was two options. The Hidongi and the Hennar G. The Hennarj just had a different ring to it. So I put my name on it, and now we go teach seminars together, and people come out to me like, Hennar, oh, people say to you, right? What do they say?

He said, Hito, do you have your own sandwich? No, they say, yeah. Can you invent a sandwich? And I'm like, oh, my God. He invented the Hennery, but I made names on it, bro. It's crazy. So back to the Asai Super Bowl. Get your notepad and get your pencil, my friends.

Everyone was watching, get ready. Asai Super Bowl. In the blend, this is called the blend. You have room temperature watermelon as your base liquid. Room temperature watermelon and room temperature papaya. Those are your base liquids. Only 25% of the content of the blender can be non-frozen. If you want to have the proper sorbet mixage.

Second aspect. Frozen canloat slices. frozen grapes and frozen assayi bricks. Okay? That's going to be 75% of your content ratio has to be frozen product to retain the sorbet texture and the touch of the tongue to the mixage. And it has to be 75%. You're going to blend it with the Vitamix.

You get the stick, you push, blend, blend, blend. You let it run. And you let it blend until the Vitamix is about to break. And it makes a beautiful sorbet blend, very cloudy, very fluffy, very amazing. You take that, you put it. I put cream cheese in my... mine and cheese. I'm sorry, not cream cheese. I put cottage cheese. The protein in cottage cheese and chia seeds mixed into his operation. What's crazy is that in two more weeks, those will be

in my blend and I'll name it and I'll put it out to the world and it'll be famous. So then on top, that's the sorbay blend. You put the blend in the bowl, you get it out. Inside, that's just a base layer. Now we have the toppings. On the toppings we have, number one is the homemade granola. That the recipe, guess where it came from? Homemade granola recipe. Homemade Victoria. Wow. Gronola, amazing granola. The second recipe is going to be raisins,

washed, hand-washed raisins. The third recipe is going to be diced, dried, calmerin figs. Diced, chopped up, dry, calmerin figs. Not fresh, the dried figs. You've got to cut off the stem, because if you leave the stem in when you do the whole choppage, when you bite it, you're going to bite down and you're going to blame me. But it's not my liability, my friend. And then the other topping on top of that goes a little sprinkle of what you saw,

the snow, my friend. the coconut flakes, the coconut drizzle. This is dried coconut. They sell any whole foods. You sprinkle it on top, you make it happen. Shout out to Asai Roots. Asai Roots.com, our official sponsor. But my friends, the bowl, the Super Bowl.

If you do this, this is my promise. Who's hooked on this? Brendan Shab, hooked. Tom Bahali, hooked. Machita. Machita, hooked. Came over for the Asaibu, bowl, never left. Ronda Rousey has had the bowl.

Rhonda, hooked, loved it. And these people are experienced assayi consumers, my friend. Here's what I say. You don't come to the Hennar Gracia compound for the first bowl. You try the bowls all over the world. And once you think you know assayi, you come to my house. And then you have the energy. Infusion changes your life for you.

They like your bowl because it's free and you make it for them. That's true. Free Asaii at Hennar's house. When I was in Brazil for UFC 163, I had seven bowls of assay in a span of 72 hours. So I'd like to think even though I can't really get the authentic stuff here. And I don't really know. I tried to make it on my own. It didn't really work out.

I'd like to think that I've reached status where right now I'm sweating, listening to you break down this bowl because I want it so badly. It will change your life, my friend. Don't let me say it again, but just trust me, I know you come to L.A. from time to time. If not, if you have a layover in L.A. on your way to Singapore, Hawaii, Japan, China. Hannah will bring you a bull. You're a gate. This costs extra, my friend.

This costs extra. But the point is anything you do to experience this bowl is worth it. Wow. All right. That's it. That's all. I can't say anything else after that. That's a deal right there. You have a deal, my friend. Guys, this is why I always put Henner and Huron on last. Anytime they're on my show. Because he doesn't want to be included in the one who talks too much. No, I don't tie. I say just enough. You do. You do. But it's a nice package deal. And that's why we're so interested in this fight in October 26. Best of luck to you guys. You want to say something else, Hannah, I see. The only place to get more of the package deal is where Gracie University.com. Respect. And also I was going to tell you that same weekend of the fight the next day, we're going to do a seminar.

In Manchester. In Manchester, myself, Jake Ellenberger and Mark. And hopefully Hanra will be in the area. Yes. And if Leotto wins, I'm going to show up and show the strategy and just show this precise technique. Why not Leoto and Mark together? We could. Depends on his flight.

Yes. What his situation is. Leo's a busy business, man. Brother guy travels a lot. That's true. A lot of urine to drink as well. Separation. I didn't teach him that.

No, he replaced urine with vegetable juice. He's on the vegetable hype right now, bro. This guy's going to a different level, I'm telling you. The heat on vegetable juice. Again, all comes from heat on. Ariel. Much respect, bro. Sorry for it takes so much time.

No, a pleasure as always. Yes, we'll see you at the next fight, bro. And I hope next time that we do the demo, the backstage interview, if there's a choke unconsciousness and we do the situation, do you give me permission to hold on until you go to sleep for pure research reasons so you know what guys like Matt Mittreone are feeling once they pass out. Do I have permission to keep hold the whole time? Let me think about it.

Dang. I have, the rest of the night, it felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head, my nose was going to explode. I have to think about, you know, the rest of the night. If it's the main event, then I don't have to work afterwards, then, yeah. We've both been choked out at least five, ten times each. So it's just out of respect for these fighters that you respect so much. We suggest that you experience this one day.

But you should not do it. Every time you get choked out, your neck gets weaker. It's not good to get choked out. So, see, Heron's looking out for my best interest. Henner's just trying to get some YouTube. hits. Don't do it, bro. That's when you know it's time to end the interview, bro. Tap early. Thanks so much, guys. A pleasure, as always, and good luck to you on October 26. Love having you on. Thank you so much. There they are. Hennar, here on Gracie, the best bros. Look at them. So happy. On the same page.

What do you say after an interview like that? We went 45 minutes with them. I could have gone an hour in 45 minutes. It would be fun to see them compete in a in a jiu jihitsu match, a live jih Tijuana match because who knows if they actually edit those matches, but they said there is one. If you make it, I think, what do you say, to the masterclass, blue belts, graceuniversity.com. One time we actually gave away a prize to a listener. I believe it was our friend James in California, the whole box set. But let me tell you, he sent me this picture of the Asseye Super Bowl, and it was, I almost, I had to sit down.

I've been staring at that thing. And I am, you know, the, the ghee and training, all that stuff is all well and good. But the bowl, the bowl, my friends, is making me think about just flying to L.A., take an early flight, come back. I could be home by night and try this thing. It just, it looks amazing. But there you have it. There's a story. Hennar, let me get, I keep messing this up.

Hiron will be in Mark Munoz's corner. Hennar and Leodomachita's corner, UFC on Fox Sports 2 on October 26, which is a lot of turning out to be a very good day of MMA action that will be in the afternoon and then at night. World Series of Fighting has a pretty solid card with Josh Berkman against Steve Carl on the main event for the vacant WSOF welterweight title. Okay, let's move along. We have a caller, and then we're going to go to your questions. We also have talked about our picks for Wednesday night in Brazil. First, let us go to Jeremy in Memphis. Jeremy, are you there? How are you doing?

Hey, bud. How's it going? I'm all right I'm kind of nervous You know This is a huge genre for me But That was kind of my question My first question

About how are you so calm Who you're doing these interviews I mean Seems me that you never tripped I mean you kind of did earlier on the show But you know What you feel was kind of Kind of defines you in my opinion

You said the great ones messed up sometimes I was just kidding when I said that. But, you know, and I appreciate that very much. How, I mean, you know, honestly, I don't try to think of it as an interview. I don't prepare anything. I mean, you look at my screen right now. It's, it's just my Gmail account so that, you know, I can get Gmail chats from New York Rick or anyone else. But that's pretty much it. I'm not, I don't look at anything. I don't really consider an interview. I don't really research for any of the interviews. I think about who, you know,

I want to have on the show, who's interesting, and I just know what I want to talk about because I live and breathe, MMA, you know, 28 hours a day. If there were 28 hours in a day, I think about this so much. So I just, it's just like me having a conversation talking. There's so much I want to ask, my friends, I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Home Alone, but in the first one, there's the little kid, you know, when they're kind of all going nuts, and there's a, there's the van packing everything up, and there's a little kid a neighbor who is asking all these questions.

He's asking like, does this fan have four-wheel drives? Does he have automatic brakes? All that stuff. And then they end up counting him. Has Kevin McAllister. And of course, he's not there. He's sleeping. That's a whole other story for a different day.

The point being, my friends always used to call me that kid, you know, the four-wheel drive kid, because I used to ask so many questions. So it just kind of comes off top of my head, and I don't really try to make it out to be a show or an interview. I'm just having a conversation. Right. So that was the same way in the beginning of the beginning.

Well, you know, at the very beginning, like when I was in college and I had my own radio show, I used to write the questions down. And then I realized very early on that if you write the questions down, you are sticking to a script and you're not listening to what they're saying. You're not anticipating follow-ups. You're not really paying attention to your subject. So I stopped doing that. And I found that I enjoyed the interviews much more because I really had to listen to everything and let the conversation flow. course, like when I have, you know, here on and Henner on, I know what I want to talk about, but I have to listen to what they're saying to ask follow-up questions and things like that.

So I just really enjoy asking people questions and having conversations. The interesting thing is that I don't really enjoy it so much on a personal level. On a personal level, I kind of try to shy away from that stuff, but when I guess the lights are on, I enjoy having a conversation for people, if that makes any sense. Makes total sense. And I also want to throw out there that if you didn't want to train another, the graces and, you know, fight for them and have them corner you. I know I would, you know. So if they're doing it out there, I love to jump on that. I know, I know what they'll say to you.

Gracie University.com, you can actually train under them from home. How about that? Yeah. Well, you know, I have my own school. Oh, yeah? I don't take one of school. Yeah. In Memphis? You know, I'm a 30-degree black girl. Well, about 40 miles outside of Memphis. Okay, cool. And Oceola. All right. Oceola. Yeah, I follow you on Twitter, Oceola Martial Arts.

Okay. Write to me on Twitter and then I'll check you out. Okay, that word. But I forget my other question. Had another question for you. John McCarthy. I wanted to appreciate you having him on your show on your 200 episodes. Two weeks later, I had a seminar to be a,

MMA judge a referee. Oh, really? You know, under help. And how to go? It was very informative. You know,

I came in thinking there I said I knew everything about the sport. You know, you know, when you think you learn, when you think you know

anything, then you need to really leave it a lot because your head is not any, you know, but I thought I had a very astute knowledge

of the sport. And even with bit, he, you know, he broke things down, and I have studying opinions of one night, and the way he broke things down. I really understood what he was saying, and it just made me to appreciate the sport than much more, you know. Well, that's great, man. I'm happy that happen. I appreciate it very much.

I was in Memphis for UFC 107. I thought it was a great city. I know you're a little bit outside of it, but I hope the UFC comes back. Great people there. Great history. I enjoyed it very much. I appreciate the call, my man. All right, man.

You take it easy. All right. Thank you so much. And very kind words. It means a lot to us and love having people call in and asking about the interviews and things like that. I love talking about that stuff. We had last week a question about it. So thank you very much. Okay. So this Wednesday, it is UFC Fight Night 29. It is in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Jose Correa Arena. And it, as I mentioned, 5 o'clock Eastern Time first fight on Fox Sports 1, but there's a pre-fight show at 4 o'clock p.m. Eastern Time. So the action kicks off early, and then at 10 p.m. when it's all over, it's a new episode of the Ultimate Fighter. Here are Mama Nose's Picks. You ready for it? What's her record, New York, Rick? Of course you don't know. You're going to make it up. 25 and 12, as I've been saying over and over. I honestly don't think she has double-digit losses. I really don't. Well, that's very cute. I'm happy that you respect your mother greatly.

Very cute. Can we just address something right off the bat here? Sure. What the hell are you wearing? What is this shirt that? you're wearing my shirt what is this let's get let's get the full shirt let's get the full body could you get the full body shot because it's particularly short yeah it's a little short um i don't know if there's anywhere i could stand that it would get the whole well just move back a little bit all right let's move back well well will's gonna will's gonna take it off he's gonna take off your shirt well no he's gonna take off the what are you wearing are you wearing what's going on what's going on

over there what do you mean what are you wearing what's wrong with my shirt well are you not going to mention it? What does it say? It says presented by, or protected by, Titan post-battle products. Are you, okay, so let me get this straight. Are you wearing, you know, because this is like the UFC here. This is the UFC of MMA podcast. There's attacks. Are you wearing sponsors? What's going on? Am I wearing sponsors? I don't know about sponsors. Well, what's happening over there? Do you usually wear shirts with soap logos on them? Well, I wear shirts that people give me all the time. Someone gave you a soap shirt. Yeah.

Titan post-battle products. Okay. Now, let's be honest. Okay, we have to come clean about something, right? Sure. We always mention, we always mention, oh, you know, New York Ricks at Glorries, at this and that. Of course, people have to know that you have a day job. You know, this show is only on once a week.

Sure. They would probably guess so you don't really do much else. But, in fact, you do have a day job. What is your day job? I do public relations. You work in public relations. I do. How did that actually all come about?

Well. It's a great story. I had, uh... We've never, we've never shared it with the people. Yeah, you're right. We've shared our story, but not, uh, my other job. So I, my, my employer came in for, uh, for a test show here at the MMA hour. A friend of mine.

A very good friend of Ariels named John. Shout out to John Beer. and I met him. He liked me. I mean, he had no choice but to. And then he asked me to come intern for him. So I did that for a while and now I worked there. So once, you know, well, you know, this whole show we know about, but in a way, I helped you out there as well. You did. Can't deny that. So now you work in public relations and one of your clients is Glory. Sure. And that may be kind of bridged the gap to have them on board here, which we're very excited about. and we love the fact that it's a combat sports company and not, you know, depends or something like that. But so you went to the event a couple weeks ago, you're going to Hoffman Estates, right?

Chicago, yeah, it's going to be amazing. I'm very excited about that one. Now I feel better about it because I feel like the cards are out on the table because for a while I was like, well, should we say, should we pretend like you have two different lines? But no, we shouldn't, right? Well, what's the point? I never tried to hide anything. It's just never brought up. So the company that you work for, Jack Taylor PR. Yep. Their client is glory. Correct. Now, the t-shirt that you're wearing. Correct.

Is whose client? Our client. Oh, so now it's all. So let me get this right. Let me get this right. And my friends. And your friends. I feel, and correct me from wrong, I feel that both you and maybe your employer, who's my friend, thought that maybe you can pull a fast one on me and throw in a sponsor free of charge and just. Put them on the show. Sponsor. I don't know.

It's a plus. I mean, this is, this is, this is major real estate right here. You don't see any other soaps being talked about on this show. Yeah. You don't see other soaps being talked about on this show. It's because it's the best one. Did you guys think you could pull a fast one on me? What is the fast one that's being pulled?

Explain it. You think you could put out a bottle? Where's the bottle? What bottle? You brought a bottle. Don't pretend like you didn't bring one. There's no bottle here. You have a shirt that I know.

I'm not allowed to wear a shirt. It's a little short. It is short. I'll say that. The other shirt that I saw you in was very nice. Roots of Fight. Yeah. Shout out.

Yeah, shout out. So you guys thought you could pull a fast one. There's nothing wrong with it. There's a fast one. There's nothing wrong with it, but let's put the cards out on the table. By the way, we won't even bring up the whole training thing. I'm going to train with the Gracie brothers. I don't know what you're doing.

Are you? Yeah, why not? Bring me along. We'll see. No, I've already. I've already opened enough doors for you. You have, you have, you wouldn't even let me corner, you wouldn't let me hold your, your shoes when you weigh in.

You said you have had to think about it. You know, you have Henzel Gracie coming in there. You have Sapo Natal, main event, or we haven't even talked about this, main eventer of a UFC event coming up next month, tweeting at you, saying that he wants to train you, that he's opening his arms, and what are you doing? You're dilly-dally-dalling with shirts.

Dillie-Di-D-W-W. Where is this conversation going? Sean Sheehan saying on Twitter that we're breaking down the fourth wall. That's exactly what we're doing. Shattering. We're shattering. I just want to know if there are other interests. You know, you work there four days a week.

You work here one day a week. Yep. Are the worlds colliding right now? That's what I'm worried about. I mean, the worlds have always kind of been intertwined in certain ways. For example, one of our clients is glory. Sure. That's just part of my job.

All right. I'm going to keep my eye on you with these. these plugs and these sponsor t-shirts. So you're going to approve my wardrobe from now on? I might have to. I mean, I know you've tried to slide some here and there, but with all due respect, I haven't seen you wear soap t-shirts in the past.

You know, when it's a Ruta Fight shirt, Noma, things like that, we like that kind of thing. Shirts a shirt, bro. Yeah. And by the way, if you're going to hook them up, I mean, at least have the camera and not cut off the logo. It's limitations of this operation back here.

Right. So what's the point? Just to prove that you were wearing it? because you maybe sold them a bill of goods. You got nothing. Are you done? Are you tapping up? Am I done? Are you done? Oh.

Wow. Things got a little testy. Okay, so let's talk about our picks. How about that? Should we move along? Sure. You know, you mentioned, I wonder, as soon you're going to be like those fighters with the casino logo all over your face.

Remember back in the day, golden palace.com? On the back. On the head, all that stuff. Anyway. Right. When I get in the cage eventually, I would hope that I have quite a few people all over. Yes, I can't wait for that day. I'm sure it's going to happen very soon. You have little faith. So here we go. We've got my mom's picks. Where'd they go? I lost them. Oh, here they are.

All right. Here we go. Damien Maya. Let's work from the bottom up. It's more fun that way. I like that. T.J. Dillashaw versus Half Al-Sun-Sun-Sow. Okay, how about this? I want to you to predict who she picked she took dillashaw it's interesting she originally took a sounsela but that she at the end of the the day she chose dillashaw you were right um i like that pick as well you do well i mean if if if you're going to bet against somebody it's not going to be somebody from uh alpha male right now they're just on a roll um dilashaw is an up-and-comer i think that he can make some noise in the division um although a sounsau has looked good lately um i like dillishaw here in terms of betting minus 240 for Dillishaw, a Sunsao plus 200. There might even be some value on a Sunsau here.

But it's probably a no play for me. No play. Yeah. Well, what's the line? Minusuf. Minus'i for Dillishaw plus 200 for a Sunsau. Wow, Dillishaw is the favorite. Decent favorite. Yeah. Wait, you thought a Sunsau would be the favorite? No, but I didn't think you'd be that big of a favorite. Oh, the styles. I mean, you know, Dillishaw is a really good wrestler. Yeah. He's got heavy hands when, you know, when he can't bring it to the ground. I like the pick, but I'm not sure betting-wise I'd go anywhere near it. From a contender standpoint, this might be the most important fight on the card.

Sure. If Dominic Cruz isn't ready to fight, I could see the winner of this fight fighting Brown next. Wow. All right. Hussimar Paul Harris, who's making his 170-pound debut, and actually our boy, Guillermo Cruz, took a picture of him. He wrote an article about him for MMAFighting.com. He took a picture, and you can tell, I mean, this is a little ways.

away, but you can tell that he looks thinner than he did as a middleweight. Anyway, he's making his welterweight debut against Mike Pierce, who has been very vocal going into this fight, taking a page out of the Chale Sondon book, who he knows, of course, out of the northwest of the United States, saying that he thinks that Paul Harris is a cheater and all this other talk. So, what do you think? Paul Harris, Mike Pierce, who did my mom pick? Hmm. I think she went with Pierce. She did. She did? Good. She went with Mike Pierce. He's a favorite, minus 290. Paul Harris is the underdog plus 245.

Wow. That one also somewhat surprising. You would think it might be a little closer, but I think that Paul Harris has shown in these last couple of fights that he just can't go out and dominate the same way he was early in his career. You can't just grab guys, bring him to the ground and submit him in the first round. And especially a guy as tough as Mike Pierce, I think that would be a tall order. for him to just completely dominate Mike Pierce like that. I'm not sure he should be a minus 290 favorite, but I definitely like Pierce in this fight. A lot more than I would say I like Dilloshal over a Sunsau.

I like Pierce a significant amount. I think he may even be able to finish Paul Harris if there's some kind of situation where Paul Harris tries the takedown, misses the attempt, and Pierce might be able to finish from that point from a scramble. I like this fight a lot. I like it because Pierce is getting a shot on the main card. Paul Harris' 170 debut, Pierce is a wrestler, so what is Paul Harris going to do?

I think this is a great fight. I like this fight as well. If Paul Harris, I mean, we've had a few Paul Harris' fights that we've broken down and every time I say the same thing, which is if he can keep his head on straight and do what he does, execute what he has in his toolbox,

he's tough, and he could take anybody out. but it's just you can't count on that. So Pierce is a savvy vet, looking really good on his win streak right now. So Pierce is the pick for me and your mother. I got to say, as far as like a Wednesday card in Brazil on Fox Sports 1, not saying this, you know, I think we keep it real. This is a very interesting one. I like this main card a lot.

There are no kind of unknown Brazilian fighters, all guys that we know about. Excuse me. Maldonado, Fabio Maldonado, versus Joy Beltran next. Beltran coming off that suspension. Last saw him in December. Maldonado, we know him as the Brazilian punching bag. I mean, he takes a lot of shots and keeps on ticking.

What do you think? Who do my mom pick? I think she took Maldonado. Correct? How about that? He is a slight favorite at minus 150. Beltran is plus 130. I see some value on Beltran here.

Just because Maldonado is going to get into a firefight with him. And both of these guys can take a lot of punishment, but I think that Beltran's a little more hungry for a win in the sense that he might use his wrestling. He might try and impose his will other than just getting into a slug fest, which he's kind of been known for in the past. I think he wants to stick around.

So I think he's going to try and change it up a little bit, and I think he might be effective. So I would say that Beltran is a pretty decent underdog in this one. Our friends at Fight Matric, although this is more of our one guy saying, Bookit Maldonado versus Beltran will be the fight of the night. Both have high volume striking, ridiculous chins. I think it's going to be a fun fight. That is going to be like Rockham Sockham, in my opinion.

I think that that's what you expect, but I think Beltran is going to flip the script. Really? That's what I really feel. Everybody, there's been fights like this in the past. An example is escaping me right now where it's like, oh, this is due to be fireworks. And one of the guys just comes in and puts in a work. performance, a little bit of grappling, not too much, you know, just trading bombs and completely shuts down that talk of fireworks.

Yeah, this happens all the time. Matt Brown fought John Howard. They were saying, we're going to meet in the middle of the, the Octon. Right. Anthony Johnson, Dan Hardy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that one. So it happens all the time.

But I don't know. I feel like these guys are a little different. I don't know. I think, here's the thing. Beltran knows that, you know, thin ice came back to the U.S. dropping down to the light heavyweight had a nice win in December but got popped needs to get back in the good graces of the fans ufc i think he's going to come out swinging i i i wouldn't be surprised i wouldn't say i'd be surprised but i don't think that that's the

way it's going to go that's just my opinion um all right let's let's let's let's move along uh this is a very interesting one matt hamill returning and if you missed ufc tonight last week i reported that duff holmes if you know matt hamill you've seen duff homes in his corner his trainer for seven and a half years. Essentially his first and only MMA trainer after the ultimate fighter, Matt Hamill went off and trained with Tito Ortiz for a couple fights, but then came back to Utica, New York, and trained with Duff Holmes. Duff Holmes even worked as his translator, not his translator, as his interpreter, I should say it. He learned how to speak sign language or communicate via sign

language so that he could help Matt with his interviews, but also in the corner, talk to him, And, you know, that, you know, when Matt fights, he can't really say anything to him. Of course, Matt, if you don't know, first and only death fighter in UFC history, can't yell anything out. But when they, you know, got to the corner, he was able to communicate with him. Did all that for Matt, so they were very close. But after his last one, Matt's last one over Roger Halet at UFC 152, Duff said he didn't want him to fight anymore. Accomplished enough, came out of retirement, thought that he should just sail off into the sunset and do his thing.

disagreed, moved to Tampa, and now they're no longer working with each other. In fact, I want to mention because I didn't mention it on the show, actually the guys who are training him now over at No Excuses Fitness and Sports Management, they actually contacted me to, you know, to clear the air and tell me who he's training with now. So it's Master Murad, Bruno Tostas, and Robson Maurer. That's his team now over in Tampa, so I want to give them credit and he told me that the main reason why he's coming back and he's still doing this thing is because he made a promise to his grandfather that he will leave no goal unfinished and the goal that he promised his grandfather was that he'd be a UFC champion he still believes that he could

be a UFC champion so here's Matt Hamel a little over a year after his win over Roger Haled we came out of retirement after his loss to Gus of Sen, a UFC 133 fighting Tiago Silva who had a big win over Fayyahu in June in Brazil who do you think my mom picked Hamel Wrong. Okay, so she went with Silva. Silva's a big favorite. He's minus 360. Hamel is plus 300.

Wow. I think that line's a little off just because you don't really know what to expect with Hamel, which would obviously lower his line, which makes sense in this scenario. But I don't think Tiago Silva is worthy of minus 360 because Hamill has the ability, in my opinion, to probably wear Silva down, assuming that he comes in as the same. Matt Hamill we'd seen before. Even the one toward the tail end of his career up until this point, I think, is decent enough to drag Silva to the ground.

But due to that long layoff and Silva seeming slightly revitalized in his last win, I would stay away from this, but I would say it's a coin flip. I wouldn't be so sold on Silva right now. Such a big line? I would take a flyer on Hamel. Yeah, betting-wise, it would probably be worth it to take something out on Hamel. But that long layoff is obviously a big deterrent. New team as well.

Yeah. So so far she's chalk. All chalk? Yep. I know who you're picking in the next fight. You know who I'm picking? Yeah. You're probably right.

Dunga Kim, you love Dung Kim. I love Stung Gun. But the last time I picked against Eric Silva, it was a bad night for me. What was that? That was Jason High. Oh, yes, of course. Of course. I picked Jason High against Eric.

Now, Kim has the tools to execute exactly what I thought Jason High could try to execute, which is a grinding performance a la John Fitch against Eric Sova. But Stungun has an ability to just stick to guys. You can't get him off. You're back. If he gets it, you can't escape him once he's on top of you. whereas Fitch has a tendency to kind of get a little loose

and guys can reverse positions I don't see that being a problem for stun gun and I think that he's going to control this fight and he's actually the underdog at plus 220 with Silva being the favorite at minus 260 Hmm Who do you think my mom picked? I think she picked Silva

Correct Which is... She went back and forth on that one And I think that's a a very tough one to pay. It's a tough fight. And with those odds, I think you have to play stun gun there. He should, I don't think he should, in my opinion, I don't think he should be a two-to-one dog. Although Eric Silva has obviously shown that he's a very talented fighter. I think that a game plan like Fitch's can be replicated by a guy like Stung Gun, who I think

is even better in terms of controlling. Although Fitch has become known for that, I think that stun gun is a little more athletic and is able to execute that similar game plan. And on his feet, he's no slouch either. I think his striking is a little better than Fitch's. And I keep comparing that fight just because I see that as a possible path to victory against Silva. Because you don't want to stand with Silva.

Speaking of Fitch, Damia has become somewhat of a forgotten man at 170. Last time we saw him was at UFC 156 against Fitch in Las Vegas. That was in February. It was an amazing fight. Dana White said he outfitched Fitch. And of course, since then, Fitch no longer in the UFC, he's fought. Maya hasn't fought. He was supposed to fight in the summertime,

but his opponent, Josh Kosteck, had to pull out. That was at UFC 163, so they saved him. And they're having a main event this show against Jake Shields. Obviously, both very well known for their jiu-jitsu. Who do you think she picked? I think she picked Maya. Who's the favorite? Maya.

She picked Maya. Maya, so that's a chalk. I like how you say that kind of passive-aggressively. What are you trying to say? What are you trying to say? She picks only favorites? That's a fact. What are you trying to say?

Favorites? Yeah, she picked the favorites. All right. Damiena. You say it with a tone, though. A certain tone. It's not going to work, Ariel. I have.

I figured it out, by the way. I don't know if I should say it now, but I figured out how this whole thing is going to. Well, let me know when you figure it out. No, no, I have figured it out. Okay. It's going to be great. So Damia Maya is the favorite. at minus 275. Shields is at plus

235. I really like Maya in this matchup. I don't think that there's anything that Jake does that Maya doesn't do better. It's really as simple as that. Maya is, although neither is going to light the world on fire with their striking, Maya is a

better striker, and Maya is a better grappler overall. His takedowns are not textbook, but neither are Shields. Shields likes to just drag guys to the round and he's been very effective at it, but I don't see anywhere that he has an advantage over Maya.

So I'm big on Maya here, big on Maya in general. I'm big on Maya. I'd like to see if he wins this fight in impressive fashion, I want to see him get one more fight and then fight for the title. Who knows? It always happens this way in our sport. He wins this fight and everyone will be all excited about him. And they'll be talking about him fighting for the beltneck because there isn't a clear-cut guy

at 170 unless I'm forgetting someone. Oh, Rory. Well, yeah, but, you know, I feel like they're kind of in the same position right now. You know, like a win over, what's more impressive? A win over Shields at 170 or a win over Lawler at 170? I know Lawler is, you know, hot right now, but given their resumes. Too shy. Remember who beat Robbie Lawler way back when?

Jake Shields, in a matter of seconds. So, you know, Maya's undefeated at 170. I think you'd be a good fight for GSP. Let's see what happens. Or Rory, if they win, Rory versus Maya, that would make a lot of sense as well. That's a great fight. That was the fight I think a lot of people were thinking about after it was

Winover Fitch. So we'll see it goes down this Wednesday in Brazil. Maya versus Shields, like I said, 4 o'clock. Pre-fight show 5 o'clock, prelims, main card, 7 o'clock, tough, 10 o'clock. By the way, how are you liking the Ultimate Fighter? I'm loving it. We actually have a question about that, so save it. All right, let's go to the questions.

We'll go to the website first and then Twitter, and then we'll give away these cards and go to sleep. Oh, let me talk about the cards, actually. before we do that. Is there a tornado outside? I heard there's going to be a tornado today. What? That's what I heard.

I hope not. Will? Can you get on that? Where's that camp? I think we're good. Yeah, we used to have that outdoor camera. That was in the old studio, though. Remember that?

That was great. Yeah, well, we don't have those kind of windows out to the street. Okay. Like last time. So up for grabs today. We've been doing these the last few weeks. 2013 U.S. Finest from Tops, our friends at Tops.

Thank you very much for sending these. Each box contains one autograph card, one jumble relic card, and four, I'm sorry, one autographed jumbo relic card. I always messed that up. And then four jumble relic cards. So there's quite a bit of memorabilia in there. There's mouthpieces, pieces of the map, pieces of the fighter's gear, all kinds of things that you would want to collect, fight-worn stuff or fight-used stuff. So for more information on that or any of Tops cards, you can visit them all. on Facebook at facebook.com slash tops or follow them on Twitter at tops cards.

By the way, a lot of you are telling me that the Munoz Machita fight is on FS1. It is not. It's on FS2. Dana White misspoke when he said that. So it's Fox Sports 2, not Fox Sports 1, main card. Here we go. All right, let's do it. First question from the website.

Where do you see Maya and Shields win or lose? If Jake wins, it would have to be impressive to talk about him as a contender again. But if Maya, but Maya has looked great at 170. If he win, I would like to see him fight Condit Brown winner. Thoughts. Yeah, I mean, like I said, if Maya wins and... I feel like this, oh, there it goes. My mic fell down.

Look at that. How about that? We're sending in the reinforcement. If... I felt like that was happening. It was about to happen. If Maya wins, I want to see him fight the winner of Roy versus Robbie. I think that would make a lot of sense.

If Jake wins, Jake's in this weird spot because he keeps going up and down, you know, 185, 170 plus his last fight wasn't the most exciting fight. Thanks, Will. His last fight wasn't the most exciting fight, so I don't think a lot of people were, you know, clamoring to see him fight again. But a win over Maya would be huge, especially if he does it in impressive fashion.

So for Shields, there are options out there. I'm wondering who would make... I mean, even. And thank you very much, well, again. I'm wondering, you know, I guess if he wins too, then the winner of Robbie versus Rory. I don't know if, you know, the UFC likes to pretend or not pretend, but they like to kind of build rematches,

even if they didn't happen. If they didn't happen in the UFC, they like this is kind of the first one. Like Ronda versus Misha 2 is really Ronda 1. Ronda versus Misha 1. So they'll do the Robbie fight again if they have to. So I kind of view it really as a mini tournament. Now, there's Matt Brown in all of this, who's fighting Carlos Condit.

That's the X factor. And I think he can, you know, if he wins, obviously he can be interjected in all of this. So those three fights, I think, the winners in some way will fight each other. And the losers as well. Our next question, question for Ariel and Rick. Do you see Sergio Pettis achieving championship success like his brother? Will the UFC push him quickly or ease him in, in your opinion? I don't think we're going to push him quickly. I mean, they gave Von Lee first. So that tells me that they're pushing him rather slowly. But remember, in those lighter weight classes, there's a quicker path to the title than, you know, the heavier ones. I'm surprised it's going to be at 135. I thought, you know, he was going to be at 125. But I guess as he grows, he's getting bigger. There's going to be, you know, a lot of buzz and a lot of attention on him, especially if he wins, people are going to want to push him. But I could see, you know, if he has to be, you know, if he

has three or four impressive fights. I could see him being in that title picture. 135 needs some new blood and he's certainly new blood. He's very exciting and he has that famous last name. But so far, Fonlea tells me they're pushing him slowly. Our next question, if Dillishaw wins his next fight, where do you put him in the division and who will be a good matchup for him? Brad Pickett to me seems like a great challenge for him. Well, like I said, if Dominic Cruz is not ready, I'd like to see Dillishaw fight Hennon Barrow for the belt. And no intern belt. I mean, at that point, you have to do it.

And you know what? I'm really happy that Dillishaw is getting to fight on the main card because it feels like he's kind of been the forgotten guy at Team Alpha Male. I mean, he's doing so well. And it seemed like he really had to pay his dues coming off that loss on the ultimate fighter finale. So that to me would make all the sense in the world. And I'm happy he's getting the attention.

I think he's looked fantastic as of late. And I think that's going to be a really great fight. If Dominic Cruz isn't ready, then that's a bigger question. I mean, Brad Pickett's coming off a loss. So I don't really think that's correct, right? Brad Pickett is coming off a loss. Let me just triple check that. Wasn't it Weinland, his last fight?

Or am I wrong? No, Brad Pickett fought, he fought in Boston. And he fought, who do you fight? Come on. I usually know this stuff. Oh, yeah, Michael McDonald. Oh, yeah. So he found a Boston coming off a loss.

So I don't know if they matched them up. The timing may work where if McDonald beats Faber, then maybe they do McDonald, Dillishaw. I don't think Dillishaw is going to fight Faber. There's also Eddie Weiland who's coming off a title fight. So it's viewed a little differently. But, you know, I think Dominic Cruz is the big X factor that you have to wait and see for.

our next question tough 18 winner and runner up one year plus or minus one year before they end up getting pink slipped well I think the women

is a different question than the men you know thus far I don't think you know I don't think this is like tough 16 I don't think tough 16 was a good year from a coach standpoint from a fighter standpoint

I mean look who's still left in the UFC there's only one fighter left right well there's cold Smith, actually I think there's a couple of fighters. I think is Neil Magni still in the UFC? You get the point. But the fact that you don't know this kind of

says it all. He's coming off a loss to Surge-R-Mor-Ise. Anyway, point being I feel like he's going to fall again. The women, I think all the women are going to get a shot in the UFC. I think all the women are going to get a shot in the UFC. That's my guess. There's only eight of them and I think they're very popular

and they've all had great fights and they need women in the UFC. The men, it's the bantamweight division, so it's a little different. And honestly, why such a negative question, wise toad? Why not a more positive spin? Will any of them fight for the title? Women could be, maybe. And that would make it interesting because they were coached by Misha and Ronda.

But I could see, I'm going to guess, all eight women get into the UFC, win or lose, unless there's a really bad loss in the finale. The ball fight on the finale. And I'll say three or four men get into the UFC. point then it's a lot of ifs. I think to answer the question more directly about one year or an extended length of time, I think that for the females it's going to be a lot less difficult because just like in the initial seasons of tough for the men, these fighters were probably good enough to be in the UFC or right on the cusp. And now they're getting.

getting their shot, even though they had to go through tough. Like the guys from Tough One, and it progressively got less and less staying power. So for the women, I think that the chances are very high that a few of them stay around for quite some time. The men less so, but I mean, you can't predict something like that until we see. There's so many hypotheticals involved. But even look at the report from Dave Meltzer last week on the site. The shows that feature a women's fight are doing better than the men. The women are just a breath of fresh air, just the way they conduct themselves, the kind of, you know, the different personalities that they bring to the table.

They're just so interesting, and it's just so different. And it's exciting to watch. It's interesting to watch. So I don't think the men necessarily haven't held their own. You know, I kind of know everyone now. You know, I'm making it a point to sit there and watch before I would let them all kind of pile up on DVR and then just watch a few here and there. And this year, I'm interested in it for whatever reason. Next question.

This is a lengthy one. Yeah. Why wouldn't the UFC hire Jim Ross? As a fan of professional wrestling, he assigned some of the biggest names in the sports entertainment industry, not based on looks, but also based on personality and charisma. He uses Brock Lesnar as an example. The UFC is great with keeping stars, but it seems that it's hard making them with how fighters have felt. With how fighters have that, I'll fight whoever the UFC wants me to mentality. Do you think JR could repackage some of the some people and really get the.

memo across that it's important to market yourself and upcoming fights. Some of the biggest names today are the ones that are primarily outspoken, Sonin, Jones, Connor, Rhonda, Diaz brothers, etc. I agree with everything that you've just said, but, you know, Dana White says all the time, we're not in the talking business. And he, you know, and I believe him when he says this, he really believes that at the end of the day, people are paying to watch fights. Now, deep down inside, of course, he may not admit it, but yes, you know, people who sell fights, it's no doubt that you have that it factor. He gets it and he understands that people are more interested than other fighters.

And other fighters like Yushanokami are, you know, released from the UFC after some time. But I don't think they're going to hire someone to just package fighters and teach them how to cut promos. It has to be real. It has to be authentic. It has to be organic, whatever word you want to use. I think Jim Ross can help recruit talent, sign talent. he can help in talent relations. He can help on the TV side of things.

I mean, he is a broadcaster after all. That's his bread and butter. So he can help in a lot of areas. But again, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't hire him because he is so closely tied to WWE, they get a little nervous about that. They don't want to be pro wrestling. They certainly have taken aspects of it.

They've taken guys from pro wrestling like Brock Lesnar, but they've never done it from a broadcast. standpoint. And I don't think he's replacing Mike Goldberg. I don't think he's replacing John Anick. So it's going to be tough. Maybe a studio show, something like that. That could happen. But I don't think they're going to have someone in there coaching the fighters on what to say or trying to package them. They do that with PR and getting them out there and putting up videos in subtle ways. And they have the fighter summit. But I don't know if they'll hire a specific guy from pro wrestling of all places to do that. I just don't see it happening.

Our last question from the website. If Chal Sondin wins against Rashad Evans, do you think he'll fight Vanderlea Silva? It seems like the next logical fight, but I think that is a step down in competition. What are your thoughts? How about this? If he wins or loses against Rashad Evans, I think they will try to make that fight. That fight has become such a big deal, such a hot topic, a fight that so many people just want to see. It's a grudge match.

Chale's not going to fight John Jones next. He's not going to fight for the middleweight belt next. crazy things have happened, of course, but I just don't see it happening. He wants that fight. He keeps talking about that fight. He continues to be asked about that fight. I think the question is, does Vanderle want the fight? You know, this fight has been on the table for a long time. It's been on the table ever since Van der Leyen, you know, fought Chris Lieben at UFC 132, and even before that, they've been going back and forth. So it's been on the table a long time. Does Vandrelea won the fight? Will he be healthy enough to take the fight? All those things. But even if he

loses, you say that he's a step down, well, then it's fine. And if he wins, I still think enough people are going to be into that fight that fight can main event the show. I don't know if about pay-per-view, but it can main event, any free show, obviously, it could be a co-main event, a very strong co-made event for a pay-per-view as well. So does that diminish the fight that is upcoming a little bit? Against Rashad Evans? Yeah. I don't think so because if win or lose, he's going to taking away some of the attention from that fight. But to me, Rashad Evans versus Chale, I've come to terms of the fact that we're not going to see the Chil Sutton

who hates his opponent and all that, which I enjoy. To me, this is just a very interesting fight. It's almost in a way, and I don't want to use this word loosely, but it's somewhat of a dream fight in the sense that you never really thought these guys were going to fight each other. They have such similar styles, but they've evolved to a degree. I just think it's a fun fight. It's like two toys that you put in.

I wonder what would happen if Rashad fought Chale. Not much is at stake. I mean, for Rashad, he needs to move on. And, you know, he didn't have a great exciting fight against Dan Henderson, looking to get back in the mix. Chale, you have to win fights. You always want that W on your record. But it's not like, oh, this guy's going to fight for the title next if he does this.

It's just a fun fight, two guys that have been around for a while who work together. I think that's the appeal. You want to know, you know, honestly, that's an impossible fight. That's a very hard fight to predict. Like, off top of your head, are you, 100% certain that you know who's going to win that fight? I'm not 100% sure, certain. But I have a strong lean toward Rashad Evans.

I think it's going to be fun. Oh, I think it's great. I'm a big fan of Chale. I think that he gets a bad rap. Just losing to Anderson Silva and John Jones is, you know, understandable. Right. Downright reasonable. and beating everybody else is impressive.

So I would never count Cheal out of a fight, but I think that Rashad right now would have the tools to beat him. Our next questions are from Twitter, eligible for the Tops cards. Our first question is from Jessica Jung. Was it promotional malpractice to give Glover the title shot over Alexander Gustafson? First off, great use of the promotional malpractice shirt. and if Luke doesn't come out with that t-shirt, then, as I mentioned to him on Twitter,

it would be promotional malpractice, not to come out with the promotional malpractice t-shirt because it's a fascinating and an amazing line, and it just gets people excited. Anyway, I'm going to guess that Jessica Jung did not, in fact, whoever Jessica Jung is. I mean, did she really follow the other, who knows, maybe? I might be insulting another one of our people.

Why are you so skeptical of everybody? I just, come on, let's be honest. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think Alex was getting me all fired up for the rematch, saying little things. I mean, obviously his English isn't perfect,

but he's just saying little things that I think, for me, you know, I'm a sucker for all this stuff, but it was really getting me excited about him someday fighting for the belt again. But let that, and of course, any time any promoter rolls the dice, it never works out, and something happens like, you know,

Crow Cop getting his head kicked off. But roll the dice, let it simmer, let them fight around the same time, build it up. It was worth the risk, in my opinion. Especially having Alex fight in Sweden, which I doubt John would have agreed to. So you have Alex fight in Sweden next. Really build that star. And then if he wins, fights for the belt. Our next question from Sean Ross Sapp.

Could Gustafson split from Phil Davis's camp mean a possible rematch for the two? know he said that it's not really the case, but... Yeah. I mean, let's take him... You know, let's take his word for it, and it sounds like he's going to spend a lot of time there, but they're friends. He doesn't want to fight him, so that's that.

Stop being such an instigator, Sean. Our next question, what are your thoughts on the ultimate fighter now that we are five episodes in? What's this picture that he... It looks like... Yeah. And that fight is... Yeah, that fight is supposed to be incredible, bloody fight.

I'm looking forward to that. fight very much. I'm really enjoying it. And maybe, look, I'll be honest, maybe deep down inside, it's on Fox Sports One, I work for Fox Sports One, maybe deep down I'm trying to support it. But I'll be honest with you, if I wasn't watching it, if I wasn't into it, I wouldn't really be talking about it. I think you can tell that I'm genuinely interested in it. It feels like a fresh show. I think they picked, you know, great characters. The coaches are fascinating. I think they're both doing a great job. I like the friction there. Regardless of who's coming off better or worse, it's interesting.

It's compelling. I'm enjoying it greatly. I'll be covering the tough finale, and I'm looking forward to it. I think it's been a great series so far. What do you say? What episode are we at? Five or something? I think he said five, yeah.

Yeah. So usually by this point, I said five or six. Let's see how I feel. By this point, I'm kind of checking out, and I'm looking forward to this fight. And I think it's great having, you know, 7 to 10, you're going to have the live fights, and then you get one more fight, and it's a fight that they, This fight might be the most anticipated fight of all the fights happening on Wednesday, right? Is that crazy?

I didn't even think of that. You're right? No, I don't know. Well, it's definitely up there, yeah. People are interested in it, right? Yeah, I didn't even think of it that way. Our next question from Guillermo del Smito. Oh, yeah.

What's the latest news on Ben Ascran? Yeah. Who would you see as a first UFC opponent and where does he rank at Walterweight? Is he in the top 10? Well, Anthony Pettus said in Sacramento last week at the press conference, by the way, it was a very entertaining press conference. And Nick Lentz, who isn't known as the most entertaining interview, came off very well and had some good one-liners about his fight against Chad Mendez. What's the news? There is no news.

He hasn't signed with Belltor, hasn't signed with the UFC. Anthony Pettus said he was considering retirement, but then Ascreen went on Twitter. Whoops. Askin went on Twitter and said that he is not going to retire and want to fight GSP. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't even know if the UFC genuinely is interested in Ben Ascran. I think Bellator would want to keep him around. He's their champion. You know, it's tough. He keeps beating everyone up. But, you know, you have a guy who many people consider top 10. I mean, there's some value to that. You don't want to see your champion go away. But right now, there is no news on him. He hasn't signed with anyone.

Who would I want to see him fight in the UFC first? I don't, by the way, I don't have my top 10. I think part of your ranking has to do with the fact, has to do with who you have fought. And he just hasn't fought anyone close to the top 10 as of late. So it's hard to really predict where he'd be in there. So you have to give the nod to guys who are fighting top 10 guys. But, you know, anyone, anyone from Akonda to a Rory to Amaya,

you know, look, he is so outspoken. He is so brash, so confident. him in there. Don't build him up. He thinks he could take down GSP. Well, I don't know about giving him GSP off the bat because you want to build him up. It would be promotional malpractice to just put him in a title fight right away. I don't think enough people know who he is. But you put him in a fight that is one, maybe two wins away, you know, setting him up for that title shot. That's what he wants. And that's what I think are the people who know him won at this point because he's been talking so much. And, you know, people think that I have my, you know,

differences with Ben Ascran. You know, I like that he talks so much. That's great. I love guys who are confident who, you know, talk smack, all that stuff. So I want to see him in there. I have no interest anymore seeing him in Belter just because it doesn't seem like there are any real challenges for him in Beltoor. If there were, great.

That's why I didn't, you know, that's why I wasn't, you know, all upset or anything. I wasn't pushing. I wanted to see the Michael Chandler, Eddie Alvers, rematch. I felt like that was a fight that needed to happen before Eddie moved on. That's a fight that would be talked about. It's great that we're going to get to see that on November 2nd. And there's no one for Ben and Belator, so that's why I think it'd be good for him to move on. And I would put him against the top guy right away.

But I don't think he's top 10 right now. With Rodrigo Dam out of Ultimate Fight Night 29 due to kidney issues caused by his weight cut, should the UFC monitor this process to avoid fatalities? Well, you know, I saw his manager, Alex Davis, telling MMA junkie today that it wasn't due to the weight cut. But he might consider moving up. Look, we've been talking about it, and I think we're going to be talking about it for a long time. Talked about it on the beat, talked about it with Mike Dolce. These are grown men.

These are supposed professional athletes. The UFC could only monitor so much. They have Bert Watson there from Monday of a fight week, if it's a Saturday fight, checking everyone's weight, making sure. I mean, that guy, that guy doesn't sit and even watch the fights. I mean, there's a main event going on. John Jones, Alexander Gustafson. He's doing all kinds of stuff.

He's getting everyone ready. he's just coordinating and all week long. He's kind of the, you know, him and his team unsung heroes of what goes on on Fight Week. And they're largely concerned with, you know, getting guys ready so that there are no mishaps on weigh-in day. So there's only so much they can do. I think it's up to the fighter to manage his weight properly, get the right people around

him, not take fights on crazy short notice, don't lie about your weight, all that stuff. There's only so much that the UFC or any promotion could do. And that's why I think it's. on the fighters for surrounding themselves, you know, with the right people as opposed to the UFC coming knocking at your door and saying, hey, how much do you weigh? It is alarming, though. Also on the same topic. Yeah. This person is using the proposed way-in rules saying, should the UFC use these rules for Wayans to ensure a safe weight cut? Well, again, this is from inside MMA about New Jersey saying that they, you know, they're going to check in with guys.

although I saw Nick Lembo, I think it was an article on MMA mania.com saying that this is not exactly true. Anyway, let's just take it for what it is, that it says here, if you're listening to the audio, that New Jersey is proposing this way-in rule where 30 days before fight, you must be 30 pounds. Well, no, that's just that example. So you have to be within 10%. 10%. Okay, yeah, my bad. 10% within 5%, 7 days before the fight, and then a day before the fight, you have a pound allowance.

So I think this obviously is, yeah, sure, that would be great. And I talked about the day of the fight. Here's the thing. Your question is, should the UFC use these rules? The UFC can't use these rules because they have to go based on the state commission. So if they're in New Jersey, they would go by it. If they're in North Carolina, if they're in California, Nevada, it's all different. Now, if they're in England where they are the regulatory body, then they could use it.

But in the United States, North America, they have to go by the provincial or state commission. That's the rule. You know, that's what they go by now. So I like it. It will, you know, cost money to monitor this. And, you know, I also want them to monitor drug testing and all that other stuff. So it sounds good, but I would be surprised if all the commissions would use this. And remember, there are a lot of short notice fights.

How does that come into play with all the injuries? It's very complex. Our next question. What's next for Junior Dos Santos if he loses to Kane again? Can't see him getting another title shot for a while. Yeah, I don't think he'd get a title shot after that. I mean, there's still some interesting fights out there for him. You know, who knows what he...

Look, if Junior Dos Santos loses an over... Overim wins, I would still love to see that fight. There's some bad blood between them. I think that's a fight that a lot of people would like to see. I don't think people would want to see the mirror rematch, but win or lose, I still would want to see that fight next if he loses. You know, who knows what happens with Brown and Barnett. That would be interesting. Bigfoot Silva out there. That would be interesting. So there are some options. I don't think he's going to be short on options. but yeah, I don't think he's going to get a title shot as long as Kane is champion.

It would be tough to sell it. Unless it's an amazing fight, and then they go the Marquez-Packiao way and they fight 36 times. Could happen, but right now I think the UFC's going to want to move on because like Kane fights the same guys all the time. Next question. Should the UFC renegotiate contracts with gatekeeper, quote-unquote,

fighters rather than cutting them after a loss? You know, it's an interesting idea, But the reason why they're cutting these guys isn't financial. It's because they need to clear up space. They're signing a lot of guys. They're going all over the world, signing a local guy, doing the ultimate fighter. They're young guys coming up. They didn't cut Yushin Okami because they can't afford him.

They cut them because they feel like part of the evolution of the company, you have to bring in new blood, new contenders, new prospects, and he's had his time. The UFC can afford every fighter on their roster. They're never going to lose a fighter because they can't afford them. at this point. It's just part of sports. Guys get cut. You're a Red Sox fan, obviously. Guys get cut who have been there a while and they have to go elsewhere. It's not popular, but it happens. Jerry Jones does it all the time. Mark Cuban does it all the time. Every owner does it. And the UFC, remember, it feels like they are the sport, but they're just, they're a company.

And they have owners. And they have to do what's best for them. And right now, given how successful they are, these decisions aren't financial ones. It's all about just creating space. So I don't really think that renegotiation is the answer. MMA, UKS. Are you a fan of the one-night tournament format like the one glory is putting on this Saturday? For mixed martial arts, I think a promotion can create some space for themselves, some attention for themselves, by doing it.

this, I don't know if it's safe. I think that you're obviously playing with fire if a guy gets injured, but I've heard of some promotions thinking about it. Look, end of the day, it's not safe. One night four-man tournament, you can get lucky, and it will definitely get you some attention. I think the last time a company did it where it got attention in mixed martial arts was Shine, who had a lightweight tournament a couple of years ago. Drew Fickett was in it and some other notable names. I believe Dennis Bermudas was also in it. So it will get you attention, but it's hard to to have, you know, your whole promotion based on that, you know. If Congo, if Czech Congo and Vinicius Caros fought later on that night, it wouldn't be too much of a problem, I would think,

although Congo looked a little tired after his fight against God beer on Friday. But it would get more attention than if it was just, oh, these guys are going to fight later on. So yeah, as a fan, as a guy sitting on my couch, yeah, it's awesome. It reminds me of the old UFC's, it's great. But if I were putting on a promotion, I don't know if I would do it. Maybe once or twice to get attention, but you can't keep doing it. Not safe, not healthy. And again, the winner might not be able to advance if it's an amazing fight.

So it's kind of like you're not really rooting for an amazing fight because you want them to advance, but you should be rooting for it. Weird thing. Our last question. This person enjoyed Chuck Mindenhall's look back at Elite XC five years ago. and the talk of it on the MMA beat, what's your craziest MMA moment? Well, first off, I completely agree. I love that piece.

I've actually read it twice, and he just did a great job painting that picture. And if you haven't read it, I highly suggest you go to MMAfighting.com and read Minal's piece and all his great work that he's put on the site. The site's really rolling right now. I'm really happy to be a part of it. Craziest MMA moment. I mean, I was there, as he mentioned in the piece. I broke the story. I'll never forget it. It was one of the crazier moments of my career just being there that weekend and finding out and just the whole drama and how it unfolded and then Petrazzellie

winning. That was just, that was surreal. I hate to say that, but I mean, what beats that? With the Kimbo train, and I remember back then, I was working for MMArated.com. I couldn't cover UFC events. So Elitexie, strike force, affliction. I, I, remember. I. I felt those were my big shows. I wasn't credentialed. I wasn't, I just, they didn't want to credential me. I wasn't well known enough. I wasn't working for a big enough website.

So those were my big shows. And those were the ones I really look forward to because I got to cover him. And I got to cover a few Kimbo fights. And it was just, the whole weekend was just surreal. Because it was bizarre enough as it is that Kimbo was going to fight Ken Shamrock. And the wayans, they got into a little bit of a melee. I remember the whole Gina Carano way-in thing where they made a strip down in front of everyone,

which was bizarre. And then you find out that, I remember finding out that morning from some people who worked at EA Sports and they're like, oh, did you hear Kimbo's out? Ken Shamrock's out. And I was, what? No, you must be mistaken.

And I just chalked it up to people who don't know anything about MMA, hearing some rumor, twisting it. Then I get to the arena and I find out from talking to some people. And I remember EliteXC had the media set up. It was actually in back of some of the fans and fighters, but we were kind of just a line,

I think it was just one or two rows. At a UFC event now, you may see three or four. And so that was October of 2008, and I started with MMA rated in April of 2008. So, you know, I was around for six months or so. And I went back to my seat and all the veterans were there. You know, big names were there. It was a big deal of Kimbo Slice.

I went back to my seat and I just wrote this little story. Kimbo Slice Ken Chamrock, the fight is off, Ken cut himself. And this was before Twitter. So you couldn't really just like put something out there, tweet it. And the world would then, you know, jump all over it. So I sent out an email to all. the different websites and said, breaking news, and I'm sitting next to them. And I remember looking around, they're kind of like looking like, what? What's going on here? Is this true? And then,

you know, the confirmations started to trickle in and whatnot. And it was, it was surreal. And at that point right away, we didn't know if he would fight. And then we were hearing rumors about Frank Shamrock. And then Petrazzelli steps in. And then the fight actually happens. And he knocks him out in 14 seconds. And it's just complete pandemonium. were in Florida. Kimbo's in Florida. And then I remember post-fight was very much like Anderson Wydenman. It felt like Kimbo had the weight of the world lifted off his shoulders. Like he was almost happy he lost. No more pressure. He was so relieved, it felt like. It was a very strange thing. And then talking to Petrazzelli had my infamous post-fight interview with Jared Shaw. I wish all

those interviews were still around. They took down the damn MMA-rated YouTube page. What a bummer that is. and Jared was kind of trying to put a scholar, I should say, a happy face, even though you could tell he was a little bit bummed out. That was surreal, and I can't really think of a crazier moment. I mean, Wyman beating Anderson was crazy, but nothing had that kind of wackiness. You know what? I was, okay, it's not even close, but I would just say UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, Anderson going nuts, the Post-Fi Press conference, me and Kevin Ayoli and I being the only North

American journalists there, tweeting the blow-by-blow of the press conference because there was no press conference stream, getting a crazy amount of new followers on Twitter when I had like 4,000 or so and doing a post-fight interview with Dana, who was gracious and kind enough to give me that interview when he was not in the mood. That getting over a million views in the span of like two days. That's a moment I'll never forget as well. There are many, but those come to mind. That was it for the Twitter question today. All right. You want to cycle through them real quick? Sure. There's that one about the craziest MMA moment.

There's this one about one-night tournaments. This one about gatekeepers. I'm renegotiating. Yeah. Junior Dos Santos, what's next? If he loses. Weight cutting. Weight cutting.

Ben Ascran. Tough. What do you think of it still? Gustafson Davis. And Gustafson. Let's go with the... gatekeeper question. Stephen McDonough.

And let's go with the... Two? Yeah. Why not? And let's go with the craziest moment. I like that one. That's a pretty damn long answer. Congrats to them. They win the Tops

2013. Hopefully they'll actually get it. UFC Finus from Tops. much to them. 2013 trading cards, six autographs or relic cards in every master box. So there you have it. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in questions using the Twitter hashtag, the MMA hour. Thank you very much to everyone who put questions up on the website. Appreciate it. And also want to remind you that Wednesday, there is UFC on Fox Sports 1. Friday, there is Belator 103. It's a pretty busy weekend.

There's Legacy on Friday as well. Holly Holie Holm is fighting over there. They always put on some nice cards. So there's Legacy. There's also CFA this weekend, next weekend, 1FC. So it's a busy time. And don't get all depressed. I said it's the Sunday of the year.

This just means that we're getting all revved and ready to go, as Dana White once said, for the end of the 2000. MMA calendar because it is going to be great, my friends. It is going to be great. All right. I'm good. You can hit my music. And of course, don't forget, our good friends over at Glory, who brought you this lovely

MMA hour, they make their Spike TV debut on Saturday night at 9 p.m. In Hoffman, Estates, Illinois, the Searsen Arena, Tyrone Spong against Nathan Corbett, a one night. You talked about heavyweight tournaments. we got one on Saturday night, not just heavyweight tournaments, but there is a heavyweight tournament on Saturday night. So it is a busy week coming up in the world of combat sports. And the MMA beat is back as well for another episode.

And then next weekend, UFC 166 JDS Kane number three. But once again, thank you very much to Glory for their support. We wish them the best of luck on Saturday. 9 p.m. Eastern, check it out live. Our good friend, More Ranallo, will have the call. man calls boxing, kickboxing, MMA, high level, who does that? He's unbelievable.

I want to thank Frank Meir for stopping by. Always appreciate talking to him. Good luck in his now extended training camp against Alistair Overeem. Great having Alexander Gustafson. Alster Gustafson. Great having Alexander Gustafson on the show.

And really looking forward to seeing who they match him up against next coming off the John Jones fight. Got me really excited for it. Really said some interesting things. Mike Ritchie, good luck to him in his post-UFC career. We are holding you to that promise that you made us. Edson Barbosa, good luck in training for Danny Castillo, December 14th, UFC on Fox 9. Adi Atar, best of luck to him and the team, Jake Shields and all your clients.

And Heron and Henner Gracie, great stuff out of them. Good luck as they corner against each other on October 26. If you missed anything, sit your iTunes, we'll see it. Same time, same place next week, page. Support for this show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough. why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu.

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