MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 213

Episode Date: August 29, 2014

Featuring Sara McMann, our year-end awards for 2013, and all your questions answered on this special Fan Appreciation episode of The MMA Hour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, December 30th, 2013. Our final episode of 2013, our 49th episode in 52 weeks, which is a record in our four-year history. And typically, we do not do a show around this time of the year. Typically, I'm off, we're off, whatever the case may be. But we do have a show just two days before the new year. and I thought it would be fun to finally let our hair down, to finally relax and look back at the year that was in mixed martial arts, to look back at what I believe is the greatest year in MMA history.

So I wanted to do this show a little differently, and my original plan was to not have any guests. I was going to make it a guest-free show, fan appreciation show, just hear from you guys, and New York Rick and I would give out our 2013 awards for the year that was, of course, in mixed martial arts, but then I just couldn't help myself. By the end, I was starting to reach out to people here and there.

Couldn't help myself. We do have one guest, just one guest on today's show, which is somewhat of a record in itself. But we want to hear from you. So hit us up using the hashtag, the MMA hour. Use the website to leave questions and comments. A lot of you have done that already. And we want to take your phone calls.

We don't do this often on the show. We want to hear from you. Hit us up 888-4-18-4074 to let you know how things will go after our first interview. of the day and our only interview of the day, then we will run down our awards. Actually, before the awards, we're going to take some calls about UFC 168, of course, which happened this past weekend. I'll get to that in a second. Take some calls, run down our 20 awards for 2013, and then questions for the rest of the day. Website, phone, Twitter, all that stuff. It's going to be fun. I don't know how long we're going to go, but I can't wait to find out. Of course,

we reach you, we come to you in a bit of a somber mood after what happened Saturday night in Las Vegas with Anderson Silva, breaking his leg in the most gruesome fashion possible. Have a slight update on him. I'll get to that afterwards. And, of course, we want to talk about Chris Wyman, Ronda Rousey, and so many other things that happened Saturday night in Las Vegas. And then everything that happened this past year in the world of mixed martial arts. But first, let us go to the phone lines.

Oh, and by the way, I'm being joined, of course, in the back by New York, Rick, Alfred, and the bearded Buscoe Brendan. How about that? Really excited about today's show. This is going to be a fun one. First, let's go to the phone lines and welcome in our first. And like I said, our only guest of the day. She on Saturday night was announced as the next opponent for Ronda Rousey.

She'll be meeting Ronda Rousey at UFC 170 on February 22nd, like eight weeks from now in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center over there. She is, of course, Sarah McMan. Sarah, how are you? I'm doing good. I'm doing great. I'm not sure what's a bigger honor for you, being our only guest on today's show or getting the title fight. What do you say? It's a tie.

Yes, that's what I thought. So this is quite the big piece of news, and there are a lot of ways we can start here. I'm just wondering off the top, when did you find out that you were going to be fighting for the belt on February 22nd? I'm not sure exactly which day. There was a little bit ago,

and they asked me to stay quiet because, you know, obviously I would be fighting whoever was the winner, you know, and they prefer to announce it, I was okay with that. I kind of like to be private anyway, so it worked out. So they told you if Misha wins, you'll fight her. If Rhonda wins, you'll fight her.

And either way, if all goes well in the fight, no injuries or anything, it would happen on February 22nd? Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was told. Were you pulling for one winner over the other? No. I don't really know either of them like that well. Like, I've been around Misha and she's been cool to me,

and I've never had any experience around Rhonda, so I can't really say positive or negative. So I just wanted whoever was the better competitor, but I know my management obviously wanted Ronda to win because it's the, you know, it's the better sell. Right. So they thought it would be a bigger fight. No, no disrespect to Nisha, you know, but, you know, Rhonda's felt quite, you know, I don't know, like a following and stuff like that, you know, two Olympians. So it felt better. Yes, you want a silver medal in wrestling. She wanted a bronze medal in judo.

And this is happening around the same time as the Winter Olympics. So it all ties in very nicely. But I'm wondering, were you surprised that you were getting the title shot after one UFC victory? Because I've talked to your manager, Monty Cox, in the past, and he had a plan. He wanted two or three fights, build you up, get people to know about you. This is not according to his plan. So were you surprised? Yeah, actually, I kind of was.

I truly don't know how it worked. Like, I never knew when I was going to get the shot. I just tried to be patient and keep getting better every day, you know. So when it did come along, I was the best possible, you know, fighter that I could be. So I didn't, it definitely was surprising. But I wanted it for quite a while. And it was, you know, to be the world champion was my original goal. I started.

So it's not, you know, I've. It was a welcome prize. You're fairly new to the world of mixed martial arts. Just 7 and 0, but of course, you know, you have a long history in athletics and your Olympic history and whatnot. Do you feel ready? Do you think that this is coming at the right time as far as your MMA career is concerned? Actually, my significant other and I both felt were like this just couldn't have come at a better time. Like, it feels very right to us.

So that's what makes us, I think, very excited about it, because it could come off of, like, some kind of controversy or, you know, like, different fights can have a different feel to them, you know, like you go in with more of a negative perception or different things like that, and this one just feels like the perfect timing. Are you surprised that Ronda's coming back so quickly? No, because I don't know the judo schedule as well as, you know, but wrestling, we competed about once in a month, you know, maybe even less than that.

So since she's competed, you know, her whole life, I'm sure that she didn't always have three months in between the trains, you know. So I don't think that it's that quick to turn around. But you're not getting punched in the face in wrestling and in judo. That's true, but I don't think that she got punched quite as much in that fight. I'm wondering, though, you were, of course, supposed to fight in August and you pulled out of the fight against Sarah McCaffman, due to what was described as personal reasons. Are you able to elaborate as to what those reasons were? I'm able to, but I prefer not to.

Okay. Is everything okay now? Yes, things are a lot better. So you're going into this fight with a clear mind and no, for lack of a better word, issues to deal with their distractions outside of the cage? Yeah, actually better than a clear line. It's not only not negative, it's very positive.

Oh, really? Yes. You can't tell us what it is then. That sounds like a good story. I'm sorry. You know, I've had so much of my life put out in the media that I just don't want any more of it. I like my privacy. I know that can't sound strange considering that I'm fighting in a T.O.C. title fight

and that, but I've never been someone who is seeking the fame or anything like that. I do like things to be personal. So I know that the fan. but really enjoy me and really support me, so I understand that. Are you worried then, you know, because there's going to be a lot of promotion, countdown shows, all that stuff.

Are you worried that these things will come out? No, I'm not worried. It's not something that, like, oh, man, I really need to hide this. It's just something that I'd rather keep for myself. Like, if that makes sense. No, it does make sense. And we respect that very much, It's good to see that and hear that you are going into the fight in a good place.

What do you think of Ronda's performance? First time she's ever gone into the third round. A lot of people were obviously picking her to win, but there were some moments there. What do you think? What do you think of her performance on Saturday? I hope you saw it, right? Yeah, I definitely thought. Well, I've thought that both girls fought very well.

I mean, like they've seen like they were very prepared for each other and, you know, like the different things that were going to happen. And I think that, you know, like Rhonda having the strong. her background in her throat, but, you know, really, even if I had gone to a decision, I think that she was, won the decision, you know, off of the takedown and control alone. I don't think that there was, like, a clear standout on the striking aspect of it, but in the grappling, like, she did very well controlling him. A few times in the fight, of course, Misha shot for a takedown, and she was reversed, and

Rhonda pulled off some amazing judo throws. did that kind of put off a light bulb in your mind saying that, okay, obviously we know your wrestling is your strength and you want to take the fight to the mat, but there's a certain way to try to take this person down. Oh, absolutely. And truthfully, we've had a lot of girls who grew up doing wrestling and judo, so there's like a lot of girls who've had that crossover, and they bring that to the wrestling aspect. And I think that that's the closest you can see as far as, like,

how wrestling and judo will, you know, mix them apply. So before this fight, you know, I already knew that that happens. I've seen lots of good wrestlers get launched by judo people shooting a double leg. So that was something that, I mean, I've done that for a long time. So do you think that was a mistake? Was that a mistake on Misha's part? I mean, she doesn't have the resume that you have in wrestling, but she obviously is a wrestler.

I guess her background is in wrestling, a high school. wrestling and whatnot. Do you think she made a mistake in the fight? I don't think that it was really a mistake. I just think that unless you've really gone with someone in judo and you felt their hip, you don't realize that some of the things that you do is actually voting yourself onto their hips, which makes the growth even better. You know, so I mean, like, I don't think that she did anything wrong in her double leg. It's just that Oh, did we lose you, Sarah? Sarah McMahon, going once?

Going twice. Let's call her back. Is she still there? Anyone? Okay. We're going to call right back. Sarah McMahon, of course, joining us, talking about her upcoming fight at UFC 170. Is she there?

No? UFC 170 against Ronda Rousey. Ronda Rousey returning after a very quiet second half of the year as far as action is, concerned. She did film The Ultimate Fighter. She did, of course. Oh, Sarah, you there? Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm driving through Kentucky Mountains on my way home for my visiting family in Iowa. Oh, no problem. Good to have you back, and we definitely appreciate you joining us. Where do you think Rhonda is most uncomfortable? Where do you want to put her in the fight? I'm not sure if she looked like she was pretty comfortable on her feet.

there's not, in my mind, there's not one specific area that I want to win. And, you know, like, I think it's going to make a huge difference. I need to win in every area to be the champion. You know, like, it's not something that, if it goes to a decision, it's very hard to be the champion. So you have to definitely dominate in every area. That's how I feel. But was there a certain aspect, you know, she hadn't fought in almost 10 months, was there an aspect of her game on Saturday that you were saying,

okay, this is something I need to exploit when I fight her? Yeah, but I probably won't tell you since that would be the same as mowing for coaches saying, hey, want to work on this before the fight. I definitely saw things that I can take advantage of, and I'll work on that and, you know, bring that to the fight in February. For a very long time, people have said that you could be the one to really give her her most, her toughest fight, biggest problems because of obviously your wrestling background. Why is that the case? Because, yes, of course, your wrestling background is very impressive.

But one might also say that, you know, someone who's a great BJJ practitioner would be her toughest test because they would know how to defend the arm bar perfectly. Why is a wrestler the best kryptonite for Ronda Rousey and her arm bar? Oh, can you hear me? Yeah, I can't hear you. Okay. I think for that question, and DJJ, while they still start on their feet, and they do incorporate some takedowns, traditionally they start on the ground. So I think that Rhonda then is in a position that if she's the one enforcing the takedown,

she gets to choose a better position. You know, so it doesn't matter how good you are at BJJ. Some positions are extremely dominant, like side control and now, I'm taking someone back. So when you control the takedown, you can control a lot more putting yourself in those very dominant positions. So that's why I don't think as the BJJ girls would be, you know, they would have to be a BJJ girl that is very birthed to take down to growth. Okay. But I think that that's one of the things like, Being a freestyle wrestler, you know, like for, I think, I've been 14 years, you know, throws would score five points in.

And now they will change the rules. If you have five points throw, that ends the period, you know, like you would automatically win that period. So, grows are very encouraged in freestyle wrestling, so all of us had to be able to defend them. Will you train with any judo cuts for this fight? Um, yeah, I have some friends that, uh, have done wrestling and judo, which is, which I think is even better because, uh, not all of judo applies, considering how much is, you know, like, relies on the grip on the key. So, yeah, I mean, you have to. Also, what's interesting is you've had some extra time to prepare for her, because you've known about this for almost a month or so, right? Yeah, I've known about it for a little while. So have you started training already for the fight?

Ariel, I've been training for this fight for a lot longer just a month. I'm the kind of person that believes if you want to win a world championship, like I wanted to win in wrestling, you don't start when you make the world team. You start the day after the world championship previously. We start looking at who are your people that you need to prepare for, and you start building that muscle memory. So it's been a long time. That's the only way that you're ready.

You can't get a call and just prepare for somebody very high level on just two months of training. I don't recommend it. Very good point. I think that applies to everyone's life, not even if you're a fighter, just in life in general. And now, the evolution of Ronda Rousey this year has been very interesting. On, you know, at UFC 157, she was this baby face, if you will. Everyone loved her when she beat Liz Karmusian in the build-up to that fight. And then slowly but surely on the ultimate fighter and whatnot, people were starting to turn against her.

And then on Saturday, lots of booze. She refuses to shake Misha's hand, more booze. What do you think of her demeanor in the way she's acting these days? Well, I think her demeanor of not shaking her hand is pretty consistent with, you know, from what I hear that she fell on the show. And I don't know, like maybe, maybe for show, maybe that's who she actually is. I mean, that's really like, you know, that's stuff for her to really really. deal with and

you know she said that she doesn't care if she could do it so you know she's making a lot of money she cares about popularity contest as much does that make you think wow more people are going to cheer for me just because they don't like her come February 22nd hello yes can you hear me

I'm sorry what did you say I said does that make you think wow more people are going to cheer for me just because they don't like her come February 22nd I definitely did that impression but that actually doesn't matter because I'm the one that has to be in there and I'm the one that have to win it. So, like, I don't, I'm not affected by booze or cheers either. It's just you've been doing sports too long to let anything outside of, you know, from... Sarah, did the mountain strike? Yeah, you did. Yeah. You said you've been doing sports for too long.

Oh, to let anything outside of the cage or on the wrestling mat affect anything that you're doing inside of it. And this was the first time, like I said, that she went into the third round. Did you see anything changing her? Did you think that she was getting tired? Of course, she won the fight. But did you see any holes open up because the fight went longer? Hello?

Yes. I'm sorry. I really, I mean, I did see that she got tired, but, you know, I think that Misha got a little bit more tired, and that ultimately cost Misha the fight. Yeah, and she tapped rather quickly, right? I mean, everybody's going to get tired. She tapped rather quickly there in the third. I think her arm's fully extended.

She had it across her hip. You know, I don't think that she, I don't know if she was able to sit up with, like, where Rhonda had on her body. She got her head through, which is smart, but, you know, I think that she didn't want to go through the same thing that she went through previously. And I don't, you know, I don't blame her for that at all because, you know, I don't want to go through the same thing that she went through previously. The goal is not to, you know, be a little tough girl once you get in the arm bar. The goal is to not get arm barred, you know, and that's the same for every fight. It's not like, it's great to have a good chin. That's nice, but it's a whole lot better if you just don't get hit.

Will you spend a little more time practicing defending the arm bar? I've been doing that for a long time, like I said. But, you know, I also have been, I dedicate times toward, you know, other submissions that, you know, that need attention, too. So I know that I've been fighting other people before this and they have different attacks. So, I mean, you can't only practice for one person, but definitely one person gets priority, which is the one that, you know, has the stronger threat. Final thing. And this touches on something we talked about earlier.

also I've been getting questions about this. You're not very active on social media. You're not very outspoken. People like that about you. But are you prepared for the next month and a half, all the attention you're going to receive? Because Rhonda Rousey right now, let's be honest, she might be the most famous UFC fighter out there

with George St. Pierre and Anderson Silva, of course, on the shelf. Are you prepared for all the attention and all the media you're going to have to do? And then, of course, if you win, it will be on a whole other level. But are you prepared for the buildup for this fight? Well, the way I see the media is that, you know, some of it is a choice, you know, and not all of it is man's story. And, I mean, even if something came up that was, you know, something with my family or whatever, I've been for. So I look at my priority is the fighter that I need to be. And the media is a part of it, but, you know, like I do dictate how much of a part of it it is.

And I am, I'm not about, so again, and, you know, I've just being myself. So I'll be prepared for it, and then I'll have to say no to some things that I need to say no to. Well, I'm happy you didn't say no to us. It was great having you on the show, and congratulations on getting the fight. You just got me a little more excited for it. This is a great story, obviously, and it's happening rather soon. So that is another plus to the battle as well. Best of luck to you in training leading up to February.

22nd, and of course, good luck in the fight against Ronda Rousey. Hi, thank you. All right, there she is. Sarah McMahon, the former Olympian silver medalist in freestyle wrestling, and of course she's going up against a bronze medalist in Ronda Rousey. That is pretty interesting, right? I believe, I've been asking around, I'm not a thousand percent sure. I believe I'm 90, what do be, 99% sure that this is the first time of two Olympic

medalists are going up against each other for a UFC title. She of course won that silver medal at the 2004 Athens Games. And then you have former Olympian Daniel Cormier now fighting in the co-mate event. And let me tell you, Daniel Cormier was a happy man when he found out that his fight was being moved from a five-round main event to a three-round co-mate event, not because he didn't think he was going to make the weight or anything like that, but it's just a lot easier. You're making your 205 debut. You don't have to go five rounds now.

You can just go 15 max. He was happy when he found out. I actually told them about this when they were on the set over there for the Fox Sports 1 Post Fight Show alongside John Anick and Chelle Sondon showed him on my phone after Dana White said it at the Post Fight press conference. And then they gave out these posters, which was somewhat like the Super Bowl T-shirts that they give out. they had these posters with Ronda and Sarah. This was a nice poster.

I complained about the posters a couple weeks ago. This is a nice change. They were becoming too much like each other. They were all the same. It was the same concept for 165, 166, 167, and then 168. 169 is different. This one's different. But on that poster, they had Habib Nurmaeghamedov versus Gilbert Melendez,

and that fight is not done. and Dana White said that yesterday, so that one kind of slipped through the cracks. And I would like to know what they would have done with those posters had Misha Tate won. Did they have a separate stack? I don't know. Would they have gone to a trilogy fight right away? I don't know. Interesting.

So there you have it. Sarah McMahon, she is fighting for the belt. 2004 silver medalist versus 2008. Bronze medalists. That's pretty cool. Right around the Winter Olympics. those events aren't in the Winter Olympics, but it's all the same. It's the Olympics. All right. So now, time to have some fun. Got that out of the way. Let's take some phone calls,

and then we're going to get to our awards. Let's go first to Alex in Reedley, California. Alex. Hi, here you. Hi. Hi. I had a, I just want to say, long-time listener, first-time caller. Oh, wow. I love when people say that. What's on your mind? But I want to ask them, how impressed were you with Ronda Ralph's performance? Because for me, I was so impressed. I seen a fight a couple times already. Yeah.

And the first time I thought, first time I thought she was like, hey, was hitting him with some good shots and she won the stand-up. The second time I saw it, I actually thought Ronda won the stand-up. And I was so impressed that I thought that she's my fight earlier. Oh, wow. Definitely a candidate. I mean, she had that big break, but then the year is up, and she's now won twice, and she wins at the end of the year. And, of course, she had a very big impact on the sport. I was impressed. I think you could make a case for the second round being a 10-8. I was impressed with the fact that she went to the third round and didn't really lose a step. I was obviously impressed with her throws. And then, of course, that she was, yes, can you hear me? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then, of course, that she was able to. Okay. And then, of course, that she was able to get the arm bar in the third round. So I was very impressed. I was also impressed with her demeanor. I don't mind that stuff. I don't mind the no shaking of the hands. I don't mind playing up to the crowd, the booze and all that stuff. So, yeah, she's, I mean, I just said it to Sarah McMahon. I do believe that she might be the biggest star in the UFC right now. With no Anderson, with no GSP. I'm not sure if anyone elicits the same kind of response, good or bad from the crowd. Don't be fooled. by the booze. The booze aren't a bad thing. The booze means people want to see her get her ass kicked.

And there's some who are cheering for her. But from her walkout to her actual fighting, to her post-fight stuff, she is a star and people are into her. And I think if she's able to do it, it's a smart move to bring her back because, as we'll get into later, 2014, there are a lot of questions about injuries and people not being available. And the fact that they could bring her back rather quickly is a very good thing for the UFC. Thank you for the call, my friend. All right. Thank you for having me. I think. I'm I just want to say thanks for your journalism. You're great.

You're the best in the business. I appreciate it very much. Thank you very much, Alex. Let us go to Brad in Myrtle Beach online, too. Brad, are you there? I am here, Ariel. How are you doing? I'm doing all right.

Awesome. Hey, is it okay if I just knock on one of your colleagues for a minute? I know he didn't cover MMA, but he does cover boxing, a guy named Dan Raphael. Are you familiar with him? Yeah, but he's not my colleague. I mean, I guess he's my colleague in the world of journalism, but yeah, go ahead.

Do whatever you want. Yeah, well, here's the deal. You know, the other night, of course, he was tweeting about using the hashtag not boxing. He was watching the fights, of course, 168. And, you know, he had a lot to say about Rhonda not shaking Mitch's hand. I know you guys have been covering that. But one of the things it was kind of disturbing is that he was kind of making it out like, you know, this is not how we do things in our sport.

And, you know, I go back, yeah, it's crazy. Boxing is one of the worst, most corrupt sports there is. And I think about, you know, the guy, even going back to the guy that killed Max Kellerman's brother, you know, that Colcock the guy in the ring was so much worse than even what Paul Daly did with Josh Koshchek. I mean, it was, it's ridiculous. But anyway, back even when Anderson got knocked out by Wyman back in June,

It was unreal because he was going off on how Anderson got what he deserved and showboating and all the stuff. And he actually got in a little Twitter war with me. I was kind of impressed because I just remarked back, you know, Muhammad Ali was one of the, if you want to call it, best or worse, what he did. And he went out definitely on his shield, you know, with Larry Holmes, the same age, 38 years old. And I just can't understand what Dan's problem is. He just seems to have any excuse in the world that he can bash the sport. He's going to do it. And I just wanted to give your take on it.

What's his deal? Here's the thing. And I was actually just thinking about this because there's a guy who writes for Time magazine who wrote some kind of article about this is an example of how brutal MMA is. And then there was Tim Brando, who I guess is CBS, I think he's a radio show host, who was ripping on MMA saying that this is why I will never cover MMA. Here's my response to all these people. I don't care.

I don't care that you don't like MMA. I don't care what you think of MMA. Just because you work for ESPN, just because you work for CBS, just because you work for time, doesn't mean I should give two craps about what you think about my sport. Just because you are the mainstream media, I don't understand why MMA fans and MMA journalists in particular gets so mad about what other people say about our sport.

Who cares? Who cares if these people don't like it? I don't care. I don't have the time to worry about trying to get everyone to like this sport. I don't care. I don't care if you never watch a sport. I don't care if you ever cover the sport. I don't care if you say anything negative about the sport. Don't watch it. I don't care. And I'm not Dana White saying don't watch it. You know, like when he says it to fans, if you don't like a fight. I don't care about you giving me your two cents about a sport you know nothing about. If you're going to take the time to actually figure out what this sport is about and what these, men and women go through, then maybe I'll care. I probably won't care, but maybe then I'll care. But you got a guy like Mike Freeman, who I believe now works for Bleacher Report, and he wrote a very negative MMA article. I didn't care at the time, but I'll tell you what I do care about. He then started training with the AMA Fight Club guys. Now he's into the sport. Do I really care what he says about M.A. now? No. But there's a guy who actually went out and educated himself. There's a guy who wrote something negative about the sport, received some backlash, and went

out and educated himself and now actually is a practitioner in martial arts. Cudos. I tip my cap to you. The rest of you, I don't care. I don't care about you, Dan Raphael, about your thoughts. I don't care about time guy. I don't care of any of these people. I really don't. I don't care about what you think. Now, I think Dan is a great boxing writer. I read his stuff. I follow him on Twitter. But I just don't care. Why do you care? Why does it bother you? Who cares? Enjoy the sport. Enjoy the people who cover the sport and leave those people alone. Why do we need to gain? why do we have to get their approval? Why do we need to gain their acceptance?

Why? It's so insecure. Well, here's the thing, like many of us out there, and I'm not sure what your background is before covering MMA, but many of us were boxing fans. I love boxing. I've loved boxing ever since I was a kid in the 80s following Mike Tyson and even some of the guys before then, even though Tyson was the guy that really turned me on to it.

And so you followed these guys for a long time, And many of us have made the transition to MMA because we love combat sports. We're not just one-dimensional and what we appreciate. And so when we continue to follow the guys that we've looked to for years that cover these sports, when they begin to bash MMA and they begin to talk about things that, like you said, they really don't have a clue on, I'm just trying to figure out if they're threatened by the sportive MMA, what is the deal? why isn't it something that we can't appreciate the fact if it's two different sports?

It's hard to say where exactly their feelings are coming from. But I'll tell you this. I mean, all of them are fans of some kind of brutal. I mean, Dan Rayfield, I mean, he covers boxing. Tim Brando covers football. I mean, do you see the injuries that happen in football? Not just the long-term injuries. We're not talking about the brain injuries.

We don't think about the concussions and all that stuff. stuff, the injuries that happen in games, from paralysis to all kinds of limbs being broken, I'm not sitting here and telling you that MMA is a safe sport because it obviously isn't. And we're only going to truly find out how dangerous the sport is in 20 or so years. Now with so many events going on, high-level events, and there are injuries, and the UFC likes to pride itself on the fact that there have never been a long-term serious injury sustained. Now, you could say what happened to Anderson Silva was a very serious injury. Who knows what the long-term effects will be.

who knows if you'll ever fight again. But my point at the end of the day is, why should you care what everyone thinks about this sport? Just care about the people you care about. Now, go to Dan for your boxing information, go to other people for other information. But there are people who cover this sport, like professionals, who take the time to understand the sport,

who do their research, who talk to people in the sport, who are in the know that you should care about. But these Johnny Come Latelys who show up, and you get this at like, you know, you get this at these UFC events when there's a big event. You get all these Johnny Come Lately's media people who start asking these questions, who start referring to Dana White as a commissioner.

He's not a commissioner. He is an owner. You know, all these things that they get wrong, they don't understand the sport, they're Johnny Come Lately's. They'll be gone next month. They won't talk about UFC on Fox 10. They certainly won't talk about UFC 169 and we won't have to deal with them. But every year, I remember when I work for Fan House, Kevin Blackstone, who I respect very much,

did this whole article about Gina, Carrano, cyborg and how women's fighting was BS. Didn't care then. Don't care now. I don't. Leave me alone. And that's why I don't understand why other journalists get so fired up about this. Why are you so insecure about your place

in the journalism world? Who cares what these other people say, I can't say it enough. Who cares? Why give them the attention? This guy in Australia who was ripping on the Mark Hunt fight and the UFC can't get to him fast enough. They can't go after guy fast enough and try to get him on board.

Why? Who cares? Who cares what these people say? They don't get the sport. They never will. They're looking for attention. Yeah. Well, I appreciate, and, you know, there's something about the injuries. Think about all these college athletes. They don't even have contracts that are going to guarantee them any money or anything. These are people that do what they do for our entertainment and put their life on the line. You know, it's, there's a lot more, there's a lot more risk scout there. I do understand what Dana is talking about, but at the same time,

it's just amazing to see just getting back on the subject of the insecurities of those people that are covering it. Thank you. I just wanted to get your take on it because it's a great question. A lot of these guys on Twitter, and I've liked Dan Raphael for a long time. Listen, I followed Larry Merchant, Jim

Lampley, all those guys forever, and many of them don't understand the sport. I'm going to chalk it up as ignorant. That's the only thing I can do. All right, thanks, buddy. I appreciate the call. Thank you, Ariel. Thanks again for all what you do, okay? Thank you. I appreciate it. So here we are. It is 48 hours removed from UFC 168.

By now you know what happened to Anderson Silva. You know that he had surgery an hour after. You know, last night I said that he was expected to be released from the hospital, go to a hotel in Las Vegas, and should be back home in Los Angeles in one to two days. I actually spoke to Ed Sores, who's, of course, longtime manager. And I asked him to come on the show because I wanted to hopefully provide an update for all of you. He respectfully declined, and I certainly understand why, but he did tell me that Anderson is doing fine, and he also told me that he appreciated all the good sentiments that

came his way and the good wishes that came his way over the last 24 to 36 hours, and he told me that he hasn't left his side since the surgery. He's been with him. He was with him when I was texting with him, and they hope that he will be able to go home in a day or so. So he seems to be in good spirits, obviously in a ton of pain, underwent that surgery, and actually the doctor who performed the surgery on Anderson Silva. His name is, I believe, Stephen Sanders. Let me just get this here. Yeah, Stephen Sanders. He's actually going to be taking part in a conference call today at 3 p.m. Pacific time, so 6 p.m. Eastern time to explain what exactly happened in the surgery, hopefully a timetable of his recovering and whatnot. Of course, I've asked a lot of people,

people, when will he decide if he'll fight again? When will you know if this will affect his not only fighting career, but just his life in general? I mean, it's very early. People have come back from this, but at his age, who knows? Who knows if you'll ever fight again? And to me, the thing that I keep thinking about is that this story is really all about Anderson Silva and his injury. And it's unfortunate to a degree that, you know, Chris is not getting the respect that he

deserves. I mean, he did dominate that first round. It wasn't a 10-8, but he did drop him. Anderson got some shots off his back, but that was clearly a round for Chris Wyman. And if you look at the second round, Anderson didn't get any leg kicks in in the first round. The second round, Chris checked three of them. And credit to Joe Rogan, before the fight started, he talked about John Danher, who was not in Chris's corner. Matt Serra replaced him, but he said that the first thing John Danher told him when he went into the cage, after UFC 162, after the big knockout was, I didn't like all those light kicks.

And Joe said this right before the fight started. So you knew that Chris, while he didn't talk about this much in the buildup to the fight, you knew that he was going to, it was a nice little thing to think about as the fight was about to start. And he checked them perfectly. And of course, something very tragic happened. This was not a fluke. We shouldn't take anything away from Chris.

He, in my opinion, is the undisputed, the rightful champion in the middleweight division. But I do think, other than a loss, this was the worst thing to happen to Chris, because people are still not giving him his credit. The first time, he got lucky. Anderson was clowning around. The second time, he got lucky. It was a fluke.

Anderson got injured. He's still not getting the credit he deserves. Perhaps a win over Vitor Belford, in an impressive fashion, will change that. But other than a loss, this was the worst possible way for him to lose, unfortunately. And given Anderson's history and given his resume, given everything he's done in the sport, the story isn't about Chris Wyden. The story is about what happened to Anderson Silva and if he's okay. And I will tell you this, I've been backstage for many events now, and I've had the pleasure of seeing the sights and sounds and experiencing it.

I will never forget the sound that I heard coming out of Anderson Silva as he was leaving the arena, going into the ambulance on a stretcher. It sounded like he was being stabbed, repeatedly. It was a it was a yell, it was a shriek that I've never heard backstage ever, nothing even close to it. It felt like it was coming out of a horror film. It felt like someone was stabbing him, and he was in an amazing amount of pain, and it was actually, it was, it was numbing, it was disturbing to listen to. It really was, and it was Anderson Silva, of all people, this guy who for so long was Superman. man. He was the guy who hardly ever got hit, let alone something like that happening to him. I remember saying to myself between the first and second round, his aura of invincibility was,

was, in my opinion, gone. After another take down, getting dropped again, why I'm winning that round? In my opinion, his aura of invincibility was gone. And then for that to happen, it just was on a whole other level. I will never forget how I felt and just hearing that yell for as long as I live. And I don't want that to be the last thing I hear out of Anderson. So, of course, it won't be. But I don't want that to be the last memory of him in fighting. It might be. And I'm not trying to say I want him to come back because really at this point.

If I were his team, I would probably suggest not coming back just because of his age. Everything is accomplished. What's the point? You're not going to get a third title shot, although it would probably be very successful and popular. What are you going to do? Climb your way back up? You're going to fight the rich Franklin's in the world? What are you going to do?

Another fight like that, like a legends kind of fight. it doesn't really make sense. And he's done so much, yes, there's a lot of money on the table, but I'm sure he can make a lot of money doing other things, sponsorships, seminars, things like that. There's no point putting your body through that. Very unfortunate, and I wish him the best. He is a great guy and a great ambassador to support,

and you just don't want to see anyone get injured like that. It gruesome injury. If you haven't seen it, don't even bother, in my opinion. It was horrible to watch, and then hearing him afterwards was, was even worse. So with that said, let us go. Let us welcome in Mr. New York, Rick. Is he there?

Is he there? I'm here. There he is, but I hear myself. Got to get the speakers turned now. Okay, well, Buzzkill doing his first show in months, maybe even a year. So he's a little rusty. Welcome back from Japan.

Thank you. How was it? Fantastic. Highlights, low lights? Highlights were glory, first of all. Which felt like it happened like nine years ago at this point. Yeah, I mean, it's the holidays. People are still getting back into the groove.

But experiencing a live combat sports event in Japan was incredible. I bet. And I just love the city. The fans were so educated and respectful. They were. They were into it? Not like those New York fans. Those New York fans didn't know what the hell they were watching.

Yeah, no, it wasn't the same kind of atmosphere. It was quiet until something happened and they knew they had to react and reacted in the proper way. It was something that I recommend somebody experience at least once in their life. And just go to Japan. It was an awesome time. Great food, great people. at an awesome time. By the way, I am all in right now.

I am very much into this. And I'm not just saying it because they've sponsored the show and whatnot. I thought it was a great card. Bazooka Joe, Canada Zone. Unfortunately, he faltered. My boy, Raymond Daniels, it was fun while it lasted, but I could see not even being the kickboxing expert that I am or pretend to be now.

I could see there were a lot of flaws in his game. But Bazooka Joe was great. the other action was great Rico is a star the guy looks like a stud in and out of the ring and the production is great I love the graphics

and everything they do I would like a little more post-fight interviews although I'm noticing the UFC not doing that as much I don't know what's going on but anyway very impressive that a tape delay show

a show that was what like 12, 13 hours delayed when it aired on Spike did its best rating of the three events on Spike this did its best so that clearly says that something is going on here and people are paying attention?

Well, I was telling you all along, if you see it once, you're hooked. We're not going to lose those viewers. If Glory keeps putting on these cards and these shows, those viewers will come back every time. And I think, you know, that's starting to be realized. These cards deliver, the fighters deliver every time. The fight between Holskine and Valtolini was one of the best combat sports

fights of the year, let alone, you know, one of the best fights of the night. It was an incredible showing of determination and will between two guys who clearly wanted that win. How was the food? Fantastic. Amazing, right? Even the airport sushi was better than all the sushi I've had here. It's great.

The people are so nice. I remember one time I was trying to find somewhere to go on the subway. This guy who worked at a body shop was the only employee left the shop to go show to go in. Like, he actually left. It was unattended. They're very nice over there. Very respectful. Could not have better things to say about Japan.

I often travel places and say, I can't see myself living here, but Japan was one of the places that I definitely could see myself living. I'm very excited about today's show. I don't mean to cut you off. Did you have anything else to say? No.

Let's jump into it. I'm excited about our awards. We're giving out 20 awards. Before we get into it quickly, it will come up, obviously, in the questions and throughout the awards. Any quick thoughts you were watching on television about what happened to Anderson Silva? Very, very sad thing to see.

But like I said, Chris Wyman, fair and squarely, in my opinion, retained the title. I don't know what to say. My reaction was dead silence. I was, you know, talking to some people at the time and I just stopped talking. I don't know what to say. It was just the most shocking way that could have ended. It was billed as an unpredictable fight. that would have a conclusion, unlike the first one, because there was some murkiness,

because Anderson Silva had goofed off, and we got no conclusion, and I don't know what to say. All right. Let's go to the awards, because now we're getting all depressing on everyone and depressing myself. So here's the deal. We're going to go through our awards. We might take a break in the middle or so to take some questions, but what I think makes most sense, get through the awards, and then we'll answer everything from the people. I like it. So I'm going to start with the fighter of the year. My fighter of the year is, and this to me was a no-brainer. In my opinion, you defeat who many claim to be the greatest of all time twice in a span of six months.

There's no question that you deserve to be the fighter of the year. So in my opinion, fighter of the year is Chris Wyatman. He knocked out Anderson Silva at UFC 162. He defeated him via TKO due to injury at UFC 168. This is a guy who this time last year wasn't even in the title picture. Let's be honest, there were some guys ahead of him. They all lost. Gets the title fight wins, retains.

Fighter of the year. Chris Wydeman, no doubt about it. Now, you know I've been predicting Wyden's ascension for a while now. I was the one beating that drum initially, but I can't pick him for Fighter of the Year. My fighter of the year is Vitor Belfort. Why? And just... One three times.

The three guys he fought are top top. 10 fighters and he knocked them out in the most impressive possible way. He just completely obliterated the opponents that that he had this year. And there was nothing questionable about his wins in terms of what he produced in the cage. You set yourself up for one right there. Nothing questionable about his wins. You know there's a black cloud. In terms of what he produced in the... No, but that's the sport. And I agree. It's not, you shouldn't. You shouldn't take, if you truly believe... You can't factor that in. I agree 1,000 percent. But just when you said questionable, it kind of, you know, it kind of...

For what he produces in the cage. You think... Regardless of what you make... Okay, he won three times, but you think beating Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping, Dan Henderson is more impressive than beating Anderson Silva twice. The way he did it, 100%. Look at the way Chris Wyden did it. It's not even a debate in my mind.

It's not even a debate? Chris Wybin beat Anderson's ever twice. Chris Wibon never lost in the UFC. 16 wins. Yeah, Vitor Belfort put the nail in the coffin on each of those three dudes. What? Luke Rockhold's done? No, no, no, no, no.

He definitively ended those fights. Now, it would be disingenuous to say, you know, Weidman didn't finish Anderson Silva definitively. He knocked him out, and that was an incredible win, and, you know, one of the stories of 2013. but the fact that Anderson Silva was goofing off in a way that, I mean, he reached new levels. He was clowning to a degree that he might as well have had a red nose on.

Yeah, but he got knocked out. And he's done that before. He's done that to many other people and they didn't knock him out. Right after the fight, I said the same thing. That's how Anderson Silva wins. His clowning is part of his strategy and it doesn't take anything away from Chris Weidman's win because he was clowning. But it does put question to whether if Anderson Silva wasn't doing that, and it looked like in the second fight he had his hands up the whole time.

Hands up and it was a sight to see, but he lost the first round decisively and was losing the second round. The same thing happened in the jail fight. Anderson Silva will lose that first round and it won't make a difference. Guy, he needs rounds. He needs time to feel people out to get their timing down, to get his timing down. and then that's when the takedown stopped. Chris Widman stopped going for takedowns in the first fight in that second round because Anderson Silva had started to thwart them

and he had his hands in the perfect position to start doing what he does best. Then he started doing the dancing and the fake getting knocked out. Now that, you know, that was something that we hadn't seen before was the, you know, the feigning being knocked out and just completely disrespecting Chris Widman's hands. So I think that the, I needed to see the second fight play out, and I just didn't. If Chris Wydenman went in and beat Anderson Silva in any way other than what happened, he would have been my fighter of the year.

All right. Well, we can disagree about this all day. We got other words to get to. Other people, okay, I pick Wyman, you pick Bellford. Others that deserve recognition, in my opinion, Demetrius Johnson, went three and O this past year, defended his title three times, which is something no other UFC champion did this year. Of course, I do believe Vitoriott.

Belford deserves credit. I don't think he is the fighter of the year. GSP, in my opinion, also deserves credit defeating Nick Diaz, defeating, quote-unquote, Johnny Hendricks's end of the day he did defeat him. And I do agree that Ronda Rousey deserves some credit as well for partially what she did in the cage, but outside of the cage as well. Did you mention Faber? Faber is another one. I don't know. I was in. Faber, 100%. Yeah. Faber. Yeah, yeah. Fabor 100. Definitely a good one. One 4 and 0,000. I just think that when you defeat Anderson So that you knock them down. You knock them down in the second fight.

You deserve it. Anyway, let's move along. And by the way, please do let us know. We're going to read yours later on if you have left them in the website comments. So do not fret. Fight of the year, in my opinion, there was no bigger fight. There was no more fun fight to watch. There was no more intriguing fight than John Jones versus Alexander Gustafson, UFC 165,

because in my opinion, it had several. things that make the fight of the year. A, it was so unpredictable. You know, going into that fight, no one was giving Alexander Gustafsson a chance. And I remember the Thursday before the fight at the Media Day, he told me, I'm going to win this fight. And that was the first time I was like, wow, this guy actually believes that he's going to win this fight. And he goes in there, first round, takes him down. You know what happens by now. Somewhat controversial, but I do believe John Jones fair and squarely won that fight. But it was just so unpredictable. First time we had really seeing John in some vulnerable spots. Gustafson was fighting out of his mind.

The fourth round comeback by John Jones, the shots that Gustafson took in the fifth round, after the fact Jones being taken out on a stretcher, Gustafson just walking around backstage with his Swedish scarf on and soaking it in, obviously emotional, but happy about the fact that he did get the takedown saying that in the post-fight interview. It was just such a great story. And in my opinion, what capped at all was that Instagram post by Alexander Guston, with both of them at the hospital together. In a nutshell, in a nutshell, it just explained to me and reassured why I love this sport so much. You can go through that. You can do that for 25 minutes, and then you can embrace at the hospital and talk about it. And who knows, we might get to see it again

in 2014. But in my opinion, that is the fight of the year. This one's going to be quick because I agree 100%. Thank God, Jesus. I mean, I don't think there's any other choice. There were more fun fights maybe. That one was fun regardless. But just the stakes, what both those guys did, there's almost no question that it was Jones versus Gustafson. And I agree 100%.

And you encapsulated it very nicely. I'm actually tweeting out our picks here just because... Yeah, I followed suit. I saw yours and... Yeah, why not? because I think if people aren't watching the show or whatnot, so UFC 165, there we go. So it was in September of this past year,

Jones v. Gustafson in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I just remember watching that and saying to myself, like, I can blink. I'm just so afraid to look away from the TV right now because it was just so dramatic, the way it was unfolding, starting with that first round and what Gustafsson did, man. And now, look at it.

John. John's coming back in April or so. He needs to take some time off. And I do believe John did not take him 100% seriously going into that fight. And Gustafsson surprised a lot of people with what he did on his feet. And of course, on the ground, I would love to see that rematch. So there's our fight of the year. Others to consider. Of course,

there was Eddie Alvarez versus Michael Chandler. That was a great rematch in Bellator. There was Mark Hunt versus Bigfoot Silva, which is somewhat tarnished because of the testosterone and positive of testing all that, but let's just take the fight for what it is. It was a great fight. I did enjoy Rondorowski versus Misha Tate. I know some thought it was a little too one-sided,

but I did enjoy the second one. Brian Stan versus Vandale Silva, of course, Gilbert Melendez versus Diego Sanchez. Johnny Hendricks versus GSP had the same elements that Gustafin and Jones did. They went toe to toe. You couldn't look away. There was some unpredictability involved. It was great. I mentioned this on the show a couple weeks back, Michelle Watterson versus Jessica Penae and Invicta. And then one more that I think deserves a lot of credit that has flown under the radar. Dennis Bermudez versus Matt Grice over at UFC 157. Watch that third round again.

It was fantastic. Yeah, that was one of my favorites for sure. Okay, let's move along to round of the year as we talk about a great third round. This was a tough one for me because there were a lot of fun ones. But I'm going with round three, Gilbert Melendez versus Diego Sanchez, UFC 166. And by the way, New York Rick and I did not discuss these beforehand. So if we have some of the same picks, we do apologize. Well, maybe not.

Maybe that means we're on the same page, and we don't have to argue. But round three, Gilbert versus Diego in Houston, UFC 166, because of the fact that Gilbert was dominating the first two rounds so much, and it was a fun fight, but he was clearly dominating them. The third round, with him getting dropped, and you're starting to think that if this fight was a five-round fight, Diego might actually win this fight, as he is known to do come on in the later rounds. That was just great drama.

The fans were into it. And I do believe that this is kind of what hurts it in the fight of the year discussion. It was a one side of fight. In my opinion, it was clearly two rounds to one. But that third round by itself was just fantastic stuff, and that, in my opinion, is the round of the year. Before I give mine, do you think that Tate Zingano is in a similar realm as the Diego Sanchez, Gilbert Melendez, in a sense that?

I'd even put that in my honorable mentions. But that is a good one. Definitely a good one. That's in my honorable mentions. Mine is Travis Brown, Alistair, Overeem, round one. Oh, that is a great round. Because of the comeback, right? I thought, I mean, everybody thought he was done.

Everybody thought he was done. And the fact that he was able to just stand up calmly, it was almost, it was almost like shockingly calm the way he was able to stay in the fight and come back to land a front kick. It does not get better than that. Wait, is that your pick? That's my pick.

Oh, wow. That's my pick. Brown-Overeem, round one. I love it. Travis Brown, man. What a year. What a year? It should have mentioned him in the fighter of the year discussion.

Had a great year. You're right. You should have. You know, I actually just rewatch that first round because I was interviewed for the countdown to UFC 169 show. And wow, it is unbelievable. If you watch that first round and then you watch Barnett Mier, Yamasaki was the referee for the Overeign fight. And if he was refereeing that Barnett-Mere fight,

he probably would have let the fight go on, given the way he was reffing the fight. And I'm no big YamaSaki fan, I'll be honest. But he gave Overeem, or excuse me, he gave Travis Brown a lot of chances to recover. And he said that he was talking to him, and that's all well and good. But he was dropped twice from those big knees.

And it looked like at one point he was, you know, turtling up that he was out of it. he was able to come back from that. And then when he repeatedly was trying to split the uprights, and he saw that opening and then connected, that was great. That was a great comeback. I do agree.

Yeah, that's my pick. And it's hard to disagree or make an argument against Diego and Gilbert round three. That was also one of the best. Others to consider Dennis Bermudas versus Mack Rice, round three at UFC 157. really like round three, four, five of Hunt Silva. Four was maybe a little more one side. I mean, I put down here round five,

because that was the one where I was just like on my feet saying, holy crap, I can't believe this is actually happening and going five rounds. So I said that. And then round one of Brian Stan versus Van der Lees Silva, I thought was a very fun fight in Japan. And that round in itself, back and forth. There was a point in that fight in that round where Brian Stan was like, you know what, screw this.

going to go and fight fire with fire and he was a lot of fun to watch. So those are other great rounds to consider from this past year. And there were a lot of them. That was a really hard one in my opinion to pick. Okay. Knockout of the year. Well, this one was actually one of the easiest ones for me to pick. There were a lot of them and I have a lot of honorable mentions. But again, you knock out Anderson Silva, the greatest of all time. And I want to talk also about if right now Anderson Silva will be considered the greatest of all time. time. But that's a discussion for later. You knock out Anderson Silva, the greatest of all time.

You do it in the fashion that he did it. Chris Weidman, knocking on Anderson Silva, UFC 162 in July of this past year. No brainer. If you say otherwise, I'm going to walk over there and slap you in the face. No brainer, Chris Weidman. knocking on Anderson Silva is the knockout of the year. Not my pick. Are you crazy? What's wrong with you? I thought you were a New Yorker.

In terms of significance, absolutely. knocking out Anderson Silva, the degree of difficulty, just being able to do it and claim the middleweight championship. It's hard for me to put forth these other ones that I'm going to do, but what I'm going to say to defend my position is some of these I've picked for style, style points. The significance is important, but just based purely on the aesthetics of the knockout and, enjoying a great knockout, these are some of my choices. And this was, you said this was your easiest, this was my hardest, because I kind of didn't want to go Wyden over Silva just based purely on significance. Wow.

So. I feel like you have to give, you have to give back your, your New York, is there like a New York residency card or something? No. My driver's license, I'll hand it in. Yeah, hand it in. Um, so the one I picked above all others is Thompson's, uh, TKO, the head kick followed up by punches on Nate Diaz. Um, fun one, April of this past year.

Totally unexpected. And knocking out Diaz for the first time is a feather in the cap. Now I'll say, Wyatman knocked out Anderson Sovo. Yeah, that was pretty, that was a pretty big feather, right? But, I mean, to that point, the Diaz brothers looked almost invincible in terms of taking shots on the chin. But, I mean, Nate, you know, in his recent fights, just loves to eat those punches. And the Thompson head kick leading to the eventual knockout was incredible. So that was one of my favorites.

Then there were some other ones that just honorable mentions based on style. As I said, I picked them just for the aesthetic purposes. Dodson's one punch on Darrow Montague was incredible. Was an incredible punch. Same with Woodley on Costcheck, where they just loaded up and falcon punched. That was a great one.

Stun gun on Eric Silva, losing the fight and then landing that one punch knockout, Sova, you know, accordion. Another great comeback. And Jeremy Stevens on Honie Jason. Yeah. Where he got him and then got him down and landed that one,

that, that, the one that Dan Henderson made famous where he flew in and landed one clean punch. The one that Stevens landed on Honie Jason was, was bananas. And that was, that was one of my favorites. I really like when they did the super slow mochaum cam for the Fox show.

Phantom cam. Yeah, the, the, uh, the Thompson knockout on that is, crazy to watch because his face feels like it's peeling back or something. It's, it's very jarring to watch. But those are all great. Others that I put down here for honorable mention. Bigfoot

knocking out, Overeem was, was pretty vicious and especially what he was doing afterwards, pointing at him and standing over Overeign back in February. Belfort knocking out Luke Rockhold with the spinning back kick, Mark Hunt is, I believe you mentioned Mark Hunt, right? No. Oh, you didn't. Mark Hunt in Japan against Stefan Struve. That was crazy. with the broken jaw. That was very impressive. Emmanuel Newton with the spinning back fist against Muhammad Llewal. That was shocking and a very impressive knockout. Anthony Pettis, it wasn't knockout per se,

but what he did to Saroni's body back in January was impressive. Tyron Woodley versus Jay Haran, that was impressive back in February. There's a lot of them here. Van der LeSilver v. Brian Stan, Dos Santos versus Hunt. Shogun versus Tahuna. Remember that? Demetrius Benavides.

Uriah Hall versus Adam Celia, Travis Brown versus Overeem as we talked about. Brown versus Barnett was somewhat impressive. And then Belford versus Hendo. A lot of great knockouts this year. Yeah, Belford versus Hendo. That's another good one. Come on.

They talk about doing things for the first time, right? Yep. It's not Adam Celia. It's Adam Sella, right? Sella, yeah. Sella, yeah. Yeah, Sella. All right, there are knockouts of the year.

Okay, submission. of the year. This one was easy for me. It was easy to a degree, but there were some, there were some tough ones. Good competition. End of the day, I went with Josh Berkman, submitting John Fitch the way he did it with the guillotine, putting him out cold. It was somewhat shocking to see because of Fitch and who he is and how good he is, obviously, at defending submissions. Berkman, we weren't quite sure how good he was in his comeback. World Series of Fighting back in June. It overshadowed the UFC event, if you recall, that weekend.

It was UFC 161 in Winnipeg. I just think what he did to John Fitch, maybe in hindsight now, it doesn't feel as great. But in that moment, that weekend, that was a huge deal. Josh Berkman over John Fitch, submission of the year. We will agree again. Really? Nice. Berkman Fitch, that show, I mean, I put a lot of value on guys doing things that have not been done before and you know choking out john fitch is a real impressive feat and you know

berkman being the guy that you know was kind of considered a cast off and then fitch coming over he's this guy who has a shiny luster straight from the ufc choking him out that's easily that was one of the easier ones for me to choose berkman fitch i had some other ones but just honorable mentions Pettus Henderson, obviously And this one's a little biased Jaceray over Camozy That was a great submission

Just because he locked on an arm triangle And Camusie went to sleep in about two seconds So that one's one of my style points Choices Other ones to remember Barow over McDonald Rousey versus Karmouche Rousey versus Tate just this past weekend

Faber against Menjavar when he had him in the body triangle and he was celebrating over his back. You remember that? I think he did the guns out. That was a lot of fun. Robertson versus Jardine. That was a great one.

Verdume versus Bignog, Shogun versus Sunnan, of course, Sunning got the submission there. And our old friend Thug Rose with that flying arm bar. That was very impressive. Invicta. Other ones.

So that is submission of the year. We agree on that one. Event of the year. you know, I didn't want to go with UFC 166. I really felt like that one was just oversold. But then when I looked at the other events, there was none better. If you really look at the entire card, the finishes, the great moments from Jessica I defeating Sarah Kaufman, even though it was somewhat controversial, the Hector Lombard win,

the Dodson win, as you mentioned earlier. Cormier versus Nelson was in the most flashy fight, but it was still somewhat of a fun fight. of course the main event, Kane Velasquez, defending against Junio-Dos Santos. It was a great crowd. It was a great event. And it was one of those events that perhaps on paper in this stretch with the UFC 167 coming up and 168 and the ones before it,

maybe it was flying a bit under the radar. But it really was the best event of the year, in my opinion. UFC 166, October, Houston, Texas, it stands as the best of the year. When you look back at all the events from World Series of Fighting, Beltor and UFC, of course, and other promotions that I did really try to look at. It really was the best.

We agree again. All right. It's hard to argue with that one on paper. So many fun fights and a lot of fights that meant something. I mean, it had Gil and Diego round three. Cormier, you know, it wasn't the best performance, but it was a one-sided controlling domination. And, you know, we wanted to see if Cormier could do that.

that to a guy who most considered, you know, was really hot at this point in Roy Nelson. Kane winning, Kane defending the belt. Lombards knockout on Nate Markhart. The Kaufman and I fight. Almost everything they mentioned. And even the Facebook prelims with like Andre Touchy Feeley and his win. I mean, it was great. The whole card was great.

Amagov. Tons of finishes too. Tony Ferguson coming back, getting a nice submission. It was a great. card. Hard to argue. I mean, some other ones in the running, I guess. 168 was pretty good. But 166.

For me, it was an easy choice. From top to bottom, fantastic card. The lone dull fight on that card, in my opinion, was KJ. Nunes versus George Sateropoulos. I agree. But others that we didn't mention who won on that card, Kioji Horaguchi and

the Tim Boch win was somewhat controversial. But let's not forget about Gabriel Gonzaga. And I don't know if you mentioned this, but Gilbert Melendez. I mean, I just talked about it for a round of the year, fight a year. That was also on the damn card. So the other ones that, oops, the other ones that I think are worth mentioning, I really liked UFC on Fox 7 in April.

You talked about the Josh Thompson win against Nate Diaz. That was a great card. I remember all those alpha male guys were doing so well. So in my opinion, UFC on Fox 7 in April was actually the one that I was I was going back and forth, Romero with the big flying knee. That was a great card in San Jose. UFC 158 in Montreal,

partially because of the buildup was so great. And Nick Diaz and the press conference and the conference call, that just felt the fight in itself wasn't the best fight of all time, the main event, but it felt like a big event. It was a big deal, in my opinion. And there were some nice wins on the card as well. UFC 162 and 168 for the big Wideman Silva fights,

and the undercards were great as well. Those are other. events that I thought were worth remembering. Now, walk out of the year, that is an interesting one because there are a lot of great ones, there are a lot of fun ones, and we saw some this past weekend. And, you know, I really think that Wyman coming out to Tom Petty, that song, fits very well as Challenger. It doesn't fit as well as champion, but it still fits, but I don't want to keep,

I do think this is the year of Wyman. You unseat the greatest of all time, you become champion, you defend the title, this is a year. I don't want to give it to him every time. So I'm not. I'm going to give it to Rhonda Rousey. Her coming out to bad reputation, it fits her so perfectly and it fit her even better this time around. Great song, classic song. And I love now that fighters are starting to stick to the same song every time.

I hope she sticks with that one for the rest of her career. So I'm going to give it to Rhonda. There were a lot of fun ones. I love Cain's walkout, especially in Houston. That one comes to mind. but end of the day I'm going Rhonda Rousey, UFC 168 walkout, bad reputation. Now you talked about, you know, keeping the same song.

Considering that BJ Penn did not fight this year, the answer is Vanderlea Silva's walkout for this year. Really? You know, I never really loved it. Never really loved it. It's the one. It doesn't get me pumped up. Does it get you pumped up? It does because I know when that Sandstorm hits

that Vanderley Silva is coming out to deliver some violence. What about when Brando does it? No, doesn't have the same. No. Doesn't have the same panache. Yeah. But BJ Penn has the best walkout in MMA. He didn't come out this year.

Vanderley Silva, second best. And that's how it's going to be. If Vanderlersov walks out next year. Even if someone comes out, really? If BJ Penn walks out next year, which we assume he will, it's BJ Penn. If Vanderlay walks out next year, that's second, always, forever and ever. All right. So there you have it.

And he will walk out, hopefully, against Frankie Edgar, at least once. Which, if that fight is, by the time it happens, it's going to be like 10 years from now, but probably in July. Story of the year, so originally, like up until yesterday, my story of the year was Chris Wyman knocking out Anderson's still. It has to be. It has to be. But I've changed it. I actually just changed it right now, right in front of all of you. I've changed my story of the year.

My story of the year is that heading into 2014, the UFC is looking at a year and is looking at a future without George St. Pierre and Anderson Silva and they are looking at this in the span of two weeks. This happened in the span of two weeks. Losing George St. Pierre and potentially losing Anderson Silva in the span of two weeks is the story of the year.

Two legends who this time last year were being talked about fighting each other in a super fight to the biggest draws in the sports history. Massive draws in North America, massive draws in Brazil, massive, massive champions who had not lost, in so many years, that, in my opinion, coupled together is the story of the year. Now, we did not rehearse these.

What I have written on my notes is the loss of the greatest of all time. We've lost GSP and as far as we know, we've lost Anderson Silva. So I agree with you 100%. That's the story of this year and what to watch out for next year. is and on the table I've strategically placed the figures of George Sankier and Anderson Silva.

Can we see that? If we lose the lower third for a second, there they are. Sands title. It is a crazy thing because remember this time last year we were talking about, remember in November

when GSP defeated Carlos Condit, and Justin Silva was there. Remember they showed him on the little screen there? while watching, he was watching the fight. In the middle of the fight, they were actually showing him in the picture and picture. He did a press conference before the fight

talking about this potential super fight. He didn't get the super fight. GSP went with Nick Diaz. And then Wydenman came along. And now they're gone. Now we don't know for sure. We don't want to say that for sure Anderson Silva has gone. But at least for 2014 he's going to be gone.

I mean, that I can go out on the limb and say for 2014, Anderson Silva is going to be gone. I feel comfortable doing that. but wow GSP and Anderson Silva potentially gone in the span of two weeks who would have thought that others to consider

of course I think the Wyman Kio in itself deserves a mention I loved like I said I loved the buildup to UFC 158 I love Nick Diaz what he did and the the pampering conference call

and the soccer mom and Lodi it was just great stuff this one has kind of been forgotten but let's not forget while it was happening, there was no bigger story in mixed martial arts that transcended the sport. Fallon Fox. And remember, we were in the middle of it a little bit with Matt Matrione. But the Falun Fox story was a very big story this year.

So that deserves to mention. TRT, which will definitely be talked about a lot heading into that Wydenman-Belford fight, still a big deal. And, of course, it reared its ugly head when Bigfoot Silver got popped. So TRT is still very much a big story, unfortunately. and the Belator pay-per-view. The Belator pay-per-view that never was with Tito Ortiz and Rampage

and how much we talked about that. That definitely, in my opinion, is one of the stories of the year. Anything to add? No? No. Let's move along. Women's MMA fighter of the year,

in my opinion, there can only be one. It's Ronda Rousey. She defeated Liz Karmouche. She defeated Misha Tate. She did what she did on the Ultimate Fighter. She shot two movies. She, in my opinion, is arguably the biggest star in the UFC now.

She's arguably the face of the UFC, opens up a lot of doors for the UFC. Whether she is a healer or a baby face, it is Ronda Rousey. She is, once again, the women's MMA fighter of the year, my opinion. Completely agree. Nothing else to say. I wrote Ronda Rousey, who else could it be? Yeah, and, you know, if she would have lost, I would have probably given the nod to, you know, Tate would have been one in one, but a win over Ronda Rousey would have been a big deal.

But others who deserve a mention, Alexis Davis, who has started off. quite well in her UFC run, defeating Liz Karmouche recently and first, Rosie Sexton. Joanne Calderwood, obviously, deserves some love. In Invicta, Tisha Torres, deserves some love. Lauren Murphy deserves love. And Holly Holm, while she hasn't defeated the kind of fighters that, you know, these women have, and Rhonda has, of course, she's generated a lot of interest and she, you know, she's undefeated. And I believe off top of my head, she's 4-0 this year. So Holly Holie Hohm is not fighting the level of competition that these women are, but she deserves a mention, in my opinion.

So that is our women's MMA fighter of the year. And congratulations, Sarandarousi. She receives a big check for 10 cents in the mail for that. Now, Coach of the Year is a tough one. Coach of the Year is a very tough one. And a lot of people are going to get mad to me for this one. Uh-oh. Yep.

A lot of people are going to get mad to me for this one. Don't do it. Yep. my coach of the year is Long Island's own Ray Longo. Ray Longo, three and one in title fights, two and oh this year, obviously, three and one all time. Doesn't get enough credit. He made the adjustments for the second fight. You knock off Anderson Silva, you can't, I can't say that enough.

It feels like we take this for granted. We forget how good he was. Ray Longo, coach of the year. And of course, it was a tough one because of Bang Ludwig, they didn't get the championship and I think that hurt them. I picked Bang Ludwig.

Okay. I think that that was the choice leading in and then it kind of lost some momentum at the end based on the Fox card. But, I mean, the year that Team Alpha Mail put together was incredible and at the helm, Dwayne Bang Ludwig.

I recommend there was a post on Cage Potato from Reid Kuhn, Fightnomics. Yeah, he's going to be on the show next week. I recommend, he put out a post right before the Fox card. I recommend checking that out. Just statistically breaking down how great Dwayne Ludwig has been for Team Alpha Mail. And now, you know, you see that and that's enough. But when you see it broken down statistically, it really hits home.

And it's hard to pick against Dwayne in that case. Now, your point about, you know, beating Anderson Silva-12, winning a title is very valid. And I have no qualm with Mr. Longo getting that title. And he doesn't just coach Chris Wyman ally. Quinta had a great year. They're developing a lot of great guys. I just think you beat Anderson to have.

You make the adjustments for the second fight. You deserve that credit. Now, bang, in my opinion, up until like two weeks ago was the coach of the year. And as you mentioned, what he did with those guys, Nothing short, remarkable. And let's not forget, Chris Holdsworth is another team alpha-mail guy, and he got the ultimate fighter contract. So he won that show.

So he deserves a ton of credit. It was very tough. It was so tough. But I got to pick one. I'm going to go with Ray Longo. And also one that I want to mention Mike Wickeljohn. I don't think he gets enough credit. But look at what Travis Brown did on his feet.

Look what guys like Adelaan Amagov has done. Look at what John Jones has done. Holly Home. You know, a lot of these fighters coming out of Jackson's, We always say Jackson's, right? We always say that. But is team Jackson Winklejohn? And he does not get enough credit.

Mike Winklejohn deserves some love. So he is in my discussion for Coach of the Year as well. That's a good point. I mean, his fighter has always given a ton of credit. So it's about time we started doing the same. You're right about that. So I'm going to make up for my Coach of the Year selection in case I pissed anyone off with Jim of the Year. Jim of the Year, in my opinion, is Team Alpha Male.

as a team as a team they had a tremendous year and not only that they raised the bar for themselves they were they were doing very well before bang came along they were doing very well

but they were knocking guys out they were finishing guys they were more impressive than they were the year before and as a team they kept raising the bar for themselves they kept doing better it seemed like everyone was trying to do you know everything you can do I can do better

Faber Castillo Dillisha Holdsworth Mendez Benavito I might be, Philly. I mean, they had a tremendous year. Team Alpha male at Sacramento is my gym of the year. My gym of the year is the Black Zillions Camp.

Hmm. I like that one a lot. Everybody buried them last year. They were a joke. They were, you know, they were the punchline of every, you know, this team can't win joke. And all of a sudden, you know, Rashad's looking like the Rashad that we remember. Vitor, my fighter of the year pick. is looking like an absolute stud.

Michael Johnson just had an impressive run on Saturday. He had a great win. Tyrone Spong, cross-sport star. Black Zillions are riding high right now, and that's a far cry from where they were last year

when everybody was making jokes about them. And I think that that transformation gives them the gym of the year award. Yeah, you know, I was mentioning this on the post-fight show, the resurrection of the Black Silling team has been nothing short of remarkable because everyone was dancing on their graves, right? Everyone was so happy to see them falter. But the two things that they did, actually they did three big things.

And it all starts at the top. You need leadership in this sport. Look what Bang did for Alpha Male. You need leadership in this sport. And they did not have leadership. They had different guys coming in. It just didn't work. First off, they hired Kenny Monday.

Huge. He has made a big difference. everyone respects him greatly. I see Chale Sunday next to Kenny Monday. He's like a kid. He melts in his hand. Then Henry Hooft took a larger role as a team coach, head coach. He's done tremendous.

And you can see the guys really respect him. And then the other one that's very underrated that hasn't gone a lot of press, George Santiago retired and has become a co-head coach with Hooft. And you saw him with Michael Johnson. In the corner, if you listen to that corner, the advice that they gave Michael Johnson and how he was listening to them. In between the first and second round on Saturday night, remarkable. They have really put it all together, and they have leadership now.

They have good coaches around them. Everyone's listening. Everyone respects them. And they deserve a lot of credit. Absolutely. Another one that I want to... I just forgot to mention Eddie Alvarez. Of course.

Another black zillion. I mean, they had a great year. Another one that I think deserves mentioning is Novo Niao. They do have two UFC champions, Hennon Barow, interim champion, Josealdo, of course, Featherweight champion. and they continue to produce a lot of great fighters. So Novo Niao deserves some love and AKA. I think they are still very much a force,

obviously with Kane Velasquez as heavyweight champion. And Daniel Kormier now going now at 205. Rockhold had a tough run against Vitor Belfort, but Josh Thompson, look at him, talk about a resurrection of sorts. So they have a lot of great fighters over at A.K. And in San Jose, they are still one of the best, in my opinion. Prospect of the year, this was a tough one.

Do you agree this was a tough one? No, that was rather easy. Well, I got to go with the notorious one, Connor McGregor. Not only did he win twice in the UFC, he took the UFC by storm. No one, as far as a non-champion is concerned, was able to generate the kind of buzz and the kind of attention that he generated for himself. Connor McGregor, defeating Marcus Brimidge,

defeating Max Holloway, of course. He was slowed down by the knee injury. But that is a prospect. That is a guy that you could say he might be UFC champion. So that, in my opinion, is a prospect. a tough one. I'll give you my honorable mentions a little later on, but Connor McGregor is my pick. Some of my guys are probably your honorable mention. So my pick was John Leniker with an asterisk. He didn't make weight all the time. He didn't make

weight. So why are you giving it to him? I said with an asterisk. But why even give it out? Because he, when he gets in the cage, he was the most impressive prospect of the year. just completely starching guys. And if he can make weight, I think he's a viable, a much more viable contender in his weight class for a title than Connor is in his. And my next guy,

if we're, you know, erasing that due to the asterisk, which I would understand, I mean, you have to make weight. You're not fighting in a different weight class. And I think, you know, if he gets with Mike Dolce, he'll be able to make that weight. Kabib Narhama got made of. Yeah. No, no, no.

They're over. over Connor McGregor, in my opinion. Fair enough, fair enough. But, you know, sometimes I like to take into account what they generate. Sure. And maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I shouldn't. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. Maybe I shouldn't. You're right. Habib, fantastic year, and he's very close to fighting for a belt, especially if he can get by Gilbert, if that fight ever materializes. 100%.

Yeah, those are my two. I also had honorable mention. So officially, though, who is your pick? Linnaker with an asterisk. What? That's weak. Linneker with an aster. He was to Habib. I just feel like Lindeker was more impressive,

but you got to tip the scales in the right direction. I can give it to Habib, but that would be disingenuous. As soon as I heard this, I thought John Lineker. All right. He's on my honorable mentions. Honorable mention Nick Newell. Yeah. We've got to raise the level of competition,

but definitely, I mean, it doesn't get more impressive than Newell has been against the guys he's facing. I agree. I agree with all those. Other ones to consider Ali Bagahoutinov. He's fighting Linear next, so we'll see who prevails.

Brandon Thatch, very impressive. Really like what he's done as of late. Slow down due to surgery recently, but I'm really high on him. Holly Holm. I think obviously she is a prospect, despite her age, new to MMA, so she deserves some love. And then two World Series of Fighting Guys,

Justin Gachie, fighting for their lightweight weight belt. Marlon Morais. Marlon Morais, this time last year, had just fought once in World Series of Fighting, didn't talk a lot about him. He deserves some love. Marlon Marais is going to be a future champion. Whether it's in World Series Fighting or another organization,

I like him a lot. Both of those World Series of Fighting guys, outside of Newell that you mentioned, are studs. Yeah, that's right. With Newell, you got three. World Series Fighting has done a good job of getting some of the younger guys and building talent. Okay, surprise of the year. Now, surprise could be, You know, you can really go with this in many different directions.

The direction I went with was who kind of came out of nowhere, who surprised us as far as what they did in the cage, the story itself. But you can really, like I said, you can take this whichever way you want. My opinion, the surprise of the year is Robbie Lawler. This time last year, we did not think Robbie Lawler was going to be, one win away from being UFC champion. Now, of course, George St. Pierre helped him out, but winning three times in the UFC, at 170, dropping down,

I thought the cost check fight was a horrible fight for him. Knocked him out, knocked out Volker, and then, of course, defeated Roy McDonald-via decision. Robbie Lawler, who was just kind of a player in StrikeFor as not really a contender anymore, surprise of the year. I had... What's all the commotion back there? Are people getting excited about our awards?

Yeah, I think they're outraged at my lack of love for Chris Wydenman. Yeah, that's true. No, but here's my surprise of the year is Chris Widman knocking out Anderson Silva. So you see, you could go with a moment or you could go with a story. Yeah, I took it as a moment. And I also thought of, you know, the resurgence of Matt Brown and of Robbie Lawler. But nothing was more, oh, my God, what just happened than when Chris Wyman knocked out Anderson Silva. And then that's my pick.

You could say that about the leg break too. Yeah, but I don't want to even talk about that. I know, I know, I know, I know. But you know what? Didn't we think that Wyman was going to win? Didn't we pick Wyden? No, I didn't pick Wyden. And I wouldn't have given Wyden...

You picked Anderson in that fight? I picked Anderson, yeah. And I wouldn't have said, you know, Wyden's chances were slim or anything like that. But just knocking him out, being the guy to stand with Weidman. I mean, during that fight, Joe Rogan in his commentary is saying how big a mistake it is for Chris Wyatman to still be standing with Anderson Silva and not be taking him down.

And about 30 seconds a minute later, Anderson Silva is looking up at the lights unconscious. So that's 100% the shocker, the surprise, whatever you want to call it of the year for me. But Robbie Lawler fighting for a title is not only fantastic for the sport because he's a guy who's been around forever. We all love him. but completely shocking coming out of nowhere to just defeat Rory McDonald's who's one of the guys that last year we would have said, you know, is going to have a huge year and Robbie Lawler is the one who comes up and takes that from him.

Others? Matt Brown? I mean, who would have thought that Matt Brown would be doing what he's doing now? And of course he was slowed down by the injury prior to the Carlos Condit fight, but Matt Brown deserves some love. Kelvin Gasolum, last pick, winning the ultimate fighter defeating Yeraiah Hall, Kelvin Gasselm, and who has looked and good in the rest of his UFC career thus far.

Tarek Safferdeen, let's not forget, defeating Nate Marquard was a huge surprise. That feels like it was eight years ago, but that was in January of last year. So that's a moment right there. Tarc Safferine defeating Nate Marquard, and of course now he will finally make his UFC debut this weekend in Singapore.

And Michael Johnson, the turnaround that he's had over the last couple of fights, defeating Joe Lozahn, and then his last fight, somewhat of a surprise, not at the same level as the other guys, but wanted to give Michael Johnson some love. So feel-good story of the year was a very tough one. You mentioned Nick Newell, he deserves love, because just watching him every time I feel just good about myself and the human race. But I'm going to combine two, but I'll give it, I'll give it, I'll give the nod to one at the end of day,

but I combine them two because they were presented to us on the same platform. My feel-good story of the year is how I felt when I looked at the Instagram post from Anthony Pettis, when he went to put the belt next to his father's grave, after winning in Milwaukee, defeating Benson Henderson, it was just, it got me very emotional. Just that picture. I don't know if you recall the picture,

but it was, it was just, it gave me chills, gave me goosebumps. So that was my feel-good moment or story of the year. Anthony Pettis putting the belt next to his father's grave site. also linked to that a month later. At that point, I was like, what's up with Instagram after fights? The John Jones, Alexander Gustafsson picked.

I love that. That's just something that made me feel good about being involved in this sport. So Pettus at the end of the day is my pick. I was really leaning hard toward that. You remember that? Oh, yeah. 100%. I love that story.

Pettus's story is one of the best in our sport. But yeah, no, I definitely remember that. And I was leaning toward that until I just, I really thought about the fact that women were not fighting in the UFC, you know, not that long ago. And now Ronda Rousey is headlining paper views. So just the ascension of women's MMA and, you know, Invicta continuing to put on great cards. Some of my favorite cards is my feel-good story. Just because, and it's not meant to say like, you know, oh, you know, it's not a thing of giving pity. It's a thing of, I'm so happy that women are given this platform now and are continuing to deliver the high-quality fights that we knew they could when they were being barred from doing so before.

And the UFC is adding the strawweight division, which I'm super excited about. And I think they'll eventually add more divisions next year. So my thing is the ascension of women in the UFC, not in the MMA, but specifically in the UFC. I'll go even deeper into that. Katzegano walking out crying prior to UFC debut against Misha Tate was an awesome moment. First mother to fight inside the octagon. I agree 100%. And, you know, when I was on UFC tonight, I actually have the clip, but I don't think we could play it.

When I was on UFC tonight, this time last year, I said the story of 2013 would be the women. And, you know, I don't want to. I can't sit here and toot my own horn. So I'm not going to pick them for that because it would just seem, you know, it would seem a little too much. But they definitely, every time they fight, it feels like it's an event. It feels like I'm a little more interested. And of course, the fights don't always deliver. I don't think we should always say that, oh, every time they fight, it's the fight of the night.

But they've definitely brought, I agree 100%. they have brought a breath of fresh air to the events, to the coverage, to the sport. They're always so excited to be there. They're wide-eyed before the fights. And I'm really looking forward to the 115-pounders. So I agree 100%. I mean, my thing goes even down to like a more base level than that. It's just they weren't allowed to do it.

And now they are. It would be like, you know, not having a, you know, a lightweight division in the UFC anymore. That would have been my choice when the lightweight division was implemented. Now we have fly weights, bantam weights. I love people who deserve it being able to showcase their talent. And that's my feel good story. Nick Newell, obviously, that's another great choice. But yeah, that's my selection for this year.

All right. Let us move along to disappointment of the year. I didn't want to go too heavy on the negativity stuff. You know what I mean? But I think we have to mention it. Um, my disappointment of the year was Alastrowring going O and two. And, you know, he, he lost two fights that he was winning. He lost two fights that he was winning. He had obviously high hopes from going into the UFC. Hasn't put it together yet. Has a big fight against Frank Mears.

But that in my opinion was my disappointment of 2013, Alastro Overeem's year. Now, I didn't, once again, I didn't take this as a person. I took this as, um, a story, a situation, a moment. Um, my disappointment was, as a New Yorker still, there's no MMA in New York. And that really bothers me. And I think it bothers a lot of people. And I think that that's something, you know, that needs to be corrected immediately. So that's mine.

Some others that I had were... That's a really good one. That's actually... That's a really good one. Anderson Silva's departure, just his final fight, or what we assume is his final fight. I don't want to make any, you know, I don't want to make any statements that turn out to be untrue. Anderson Silva very well may come back. But if that's the final image we have of Anderson-Silva,

you know, that really, that almost like hurts my heart as an MMA fan. Yeah. I don't want that to be my final image of him. And the last one, this one's a little more specific. It was the cancellation of Condit versus Brown. Really? That fight, oh, yeah. Man, I don't think I'm alone in thinking that that fight was about to be something special.

I thought that fight was going to be incredible. Now, the year before, we had all these cancellations of these incredible fights, and we were so disappointed. This year, that was really the only one that stuck in my craw that I was like, oh, I can't believe we didn't get that one. So, yeah, that was the more specific thing, but no MMA in New York, come on, guys. This has to be corrected. Mark Hunt, Bigfoot Silva, marred by the positive test. That was a bummer. I put down Eric Silva here just because I had higher hopes for him going into this year.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, he was one of our prospects for 2013, for sure. And the lost stun gun kind of hurt him. You know, GSP leaving was somewhat of a disappointment just because he's leaving, but I give him actually a lot of props. I think it's a moment that should be celebrated. The fact that he won, though, the bad judging at UFC 167 was a disappointment. I don't think it was a robbery, but I think it was clear that Johnny Hendricks won.

Somebody in our comment section had mentioned that Feel Good Story of the Year was GSP retiring because he seems so happy and I kind of agree with that He's not going out As a broken man

He's going out on top And he seems to be very happy With his decision to do so So I kind of agree with that As a feel good story No, I agree I agree I just meant leaving on those

After it was somewhat unsettled You know what I mean again Absolutely to see it again under different terms. Yep. But. No, absolutely. That just came to mind.

I definitely agree with that. Okay. Guest of the year. Guest of the year. Now, you know, I don't want to, I really do love everyone that comes on the show. I mean, even if you're, you know, an ass. If you make the time to come on the show,

then I have dealt most respect and I really appreciate it. But I'm going to go deeper than just guests. I'm going to say moment. MMA hour moment of the year is more apropos, even though he probably is the guest of the year as well, we'll play the clip for you. Do we have the clip? We do have the clip.

This, in my opinion, back in February, was the MMA hour moment slash guest of the year. Now, you're not getting a big head on us now that you're getting all this attention, right? You're going to stay grounded. I'm not just me. You know what I'm thinking? The way I am, I'm not going to be the...

I'm always going to be the same, you know what I mean? It's just the way I am. When you walk around in Dublin, do you get a lot of love? a lot of people coming up to you, getting a lot of attention from the common folk. Yeah, well, not really, to be honest. I don't really go anywhere, I don't go anywhere. I wake up, I go to gym, I go get some food, I go back to gym,

I go back, I go get some field, and then I go to bed. You know what I mean? Sometimes I don't have any of the tour session. I mean, that's what I do. I don't really go anywhere to be seeing people around, you know what I mean? But the man from MTV following me around. I'm not really used to any of that. And then there's another, there's a TV station called TV tree there where they'll it's like an Irish thing

you know what I mean they were the news people and they were out doing a little thing on me and this is the kind of thing you have to get used to you know it's a pain it's a pain in the ass

you know what I mean having to do all this stuff while they're training as well but I'm definitely I'm definitely up for doing it if it's going to get me out there and it's going to get Irish MMA out there

and it's eventually going to lead to these guys coming back and having a show here you know once a year or whatever you know what I mean and getting my teammates on I mean we're struggling we're broke as a motherfuckers over here

yeah all those guys never hit 24-7 haven't got a pot to piss in in. So I want to bring shows over for all these guys so we can all get fucking paid. Are you married? No, I have a girlfriend. I just shoot me now.

Oh, okay. I was going to ask what the love life was like, because you seem like a very, you seem like a good catch. What? You seem like a good catch? I seem like a good catch. What the fuck? Yeah, I am a good catch, yeah.

No, my girlfriend, I'm with my girlfriend day a few years. Man, she keep me keep me head straight, you know what I mean? You need a good woman in your life. Have you got a woman yourself, or is this, or is MMA your woman?

I've got a wife and a son, my friend. Nice, nice, nice. Is she good looking? She's very good looking. I appreciate you asking. Look at your face, I don't know. Oh, look at this guy. So there you have it.

That was Connor back in February prior to his UFC debut. I mean, I remember conducting that interview, and a lot of people were hounding me to get Connor on the show. This is before his UFC debut. And I was like, all right, you know, we have a lot of Irish fans, a lot of European fans. Let's make them happy and get him on. I did not expect it to go that way.

I did not expect him to be that charismatic. And you see he's the same kind of guy now, but he's a little more subdued back then, talking about not having a pot to piss in, talking about not having any money, just eating the blueberries with his girlfriend right next to him. It's a little more toned down. But still there. You see it there. You see the beard, the hair, it's all there.

Just a little different from the guy that we had on the show a few weeks back. It was unexpected. It was unpredictable. It was a ton of fun. And again, I don't want to, I hate to single out someone because I really do enjoy all the guests and love doing the show. But if I had to pick one, that was my moment. As a single moment, I agreed with that one. It's Connor, his first appearance.

That was an all-timer. And might not only be the best. best of this year might be the best ever. He really brought it. And there's nothing else to say. We just showed it. It's fantastic. Now, some other ones that I really like this year were, uh, um, Roddy, Roddy Piper. Oh yeah. Roddy, Rottie Piper. That was a, that was a good one. A great one. Um, so genuine. Yeah. That, that interview really, uh, touched something in me. Um, this guy snickering over here. Um, word choice, word choice. Um, anytime we have have Matt Serra on. Oh yeah.

That show after the Wyman K.O., right, with him and Longo, back to back. And what else did I have done here? Rashad Evans in Studio. That was a good one. The entire episode 200 was obviously very memorable with all those guests. 200 was great. Who else that we have in studio? We had Nick Newell in studio. Yep.

Weidman was in studio before the fight. There was a lot. I feel weird kind of tooting our own horn here, but this was definitely the best year in MMA our history. I believe we did a show 49 of 52 weeks, which is a record for us. We only missed three weeks. How about that? Got to aim for 52 next year. I don't know about that. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be here right now. Okay, that was our guest to the year. Now, who's a guest you want to hear from in 2014? Really, we've had almost everyone. But there's one guy that comes to mind. I tried to get him for the 200th episode, did not work. It's one guy that comes to mind that I think would be cool to have on the show.

Lorenzo Fertita. I think it would be very interesting to have him on the show for an extended interview. Lorenzo Furtita is my pick. And my honorable mention is Miracle Krocop.

Just because I've never been able to interview him ever. I've been to his UFC fights. Haven't been able to track him down. So I might even go with Mirko over, Lorenzo. What do you think? I like that.

Miracle Kroko. That's my pick. That's a great pick. This one was one of the tougher ones for me just because we hear from everybody. I mean, you do a great job of getting, you know, the guys everybody wants to hear from. So it's, it's hard for me to like snipe some guys that that we haven't. But I'd say GSP is one that I really want to hear from in 2014 specifically just because I want to see where he's at. I kind of want to see, you know, what's going on in his life. Because I can't imagine GSP doing anything other than training and fighting in the octagon. So I kind of want to see where his life's at sometime next year. obviously there's guys like Dana White

Lorenzo Fertita Joe Silva, those guys I had Fador, a check-in with Fador would be nice Chuck Liddell Brock Lesner Justin Porreier

That's one We didn't hear from him in 2013 so maybe in 2014 Joseo Aldo and last on my list was Sheldon Silver I want to hear from him Yeah, I would love to hear from him too

I want to hear from that guy I would love to hear from him Yeah, those are all great ones I was looking at people who You know Hadn't been on the show in the past Ever yeah So that's why I went with Lorenzo and Mirro

But all those were I mean GSP I would you know I would climb out of bed at four in the morning to do a special show. So, and by the way, I want to mention Brian Stan with his, the special retirement show. Oh, man. That was, uh, that was one that, you know, and also the, when we did those poses, you remember, that was fun. That was an, that was an episode, you know, that wasn't like one specific interview, but that was fun. But yeah, all those are great. And GSP, for sure is, is a great one. So I'm looking forward to it. Mirko, Lorenzo, GSP, give me a call.

Story to Watch in 2014. What's the story to watch in 2014? What's the story? to watch in 2014. In my opinion, it's the UFC's increased schedule. It starts this weekend with Fight Pass and that platform showing the Singapore show exclusively. I think that that is definitely, I mean, they're raising the bar here. They're going to almost 50 shows. How are these shows going to be received? These 14 or so shows on Fight Pass, not on Fox here in the United States. So any kind of Fox channel, you know, more fighters. more events, fighters that we may not know about. You look at this card in Singapore.

We don't know who a lot of these guys are. What is this going to do for the UFC? Will it really get them to the next level internationally? Who knows? I mean, the jury is still out. Remains to be seen. It starts this weekend right away so we can get a good sense of it. My story to watch in 2014 is the UFC's expanded schedule.

Let me see exactly how I phrased it, but I put 40-plus UFC events. What happens to the quality and do fans? care. So I agree with you. It's the expanded schedule and, you know, how they're able to integrate that, the response from the fans, all the things that people have been asking as soon as that expanded schedule was released. So I agree with that. Have you had a chance to play around with the fight pass? No. You know, I played around with it last night. It's still, it's a little hard to navigate right now. You know, I was trying to find old Strike Force events and a Affliction is actually pretty easy, but Elitexian, things like that.

It's a little hard. It's a little tough. It's cool when you find what you're looking for, but it's a little hard right now. I'm curious to see how it looks when there's an actual live event. I think it's a great idea as far as having this kind of network and, you know, evolving with the times. WW is doing it as well. But I'm curious to see how many people are actually going to buy it. It's free until March 1st. It's only available right now in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, hopefully the rest of the world sooner rather than later. And then you have situations where you have guys like Alexander Gustafsson who are going to be fighting on this.

This is a guy who's coming off the fight of the year, in my opinion. This is a guy who is one win away from fighting for the belt, and he's fighting on this digital network, not on TV. That's very interesting, in my opinion. Other ones to consider all the injured stars. You look at what the UFC is battling, going into 2014. Okay.

Kane Velasquez, he is out for at least three or so quarters of the year after the shoulder surgery. John Jones is only fighting again in April, right? So that's heavyweight, that's light heavyweight. Middleweight, Chris Wydenman might need some kind of knee scope or even surgery. That's middleweight. 170, there's no GSP. Oh, and also there's no Anderson Silva.

He's injured. He's out for a while. 155. Anthony Pettis. Knee surgery. Out for at least half of the year. Joseoaldo has been banged up over the past couple of years. Injury prone. Cruz hopefully comes back healthy. And of course, his brow is interim champion.

Demetrius has been the one constant. And Ronda's getting right back in there. To me, a lot of these guys are on the shelf. You know, these stars are going away. They're injured. How's the UFC going to respond? especially with all these events. Other ones, the women, will they continue to evolve?

The Ultimate Fighter, how will it be viewed? There's the Edgar Penn season. And then there's Tough 20. How is the ultimate fighter on Fox Sports one going to be viewed? And is it still a viable platform for the UFC? So those are other stories to watch in 2014. Anything else you want to say about stories? I mean, you touched on it,

but just the fact that GSP and Silva are gone. As far as we know, again, no 100% certainty on Anderson-Slova, but the UFC after the two, what I consider, and a lot of people consider the two greatest of all time after they're gone. What does the UFC look like?

Who is your fighter of the year in 2014 going to be this one? I had a really tough time. Easy. You had an easy? What is it? It's so easy. Go ahead. Daniel Carmier. Really? He's going to be the champion. He's going to be the champ. I'll talk about that a little bit later.

Okay. My Fighter of the Year, Daniel Cormier. Now, we have a clip here. Oh, go ahead. We have a clip here from, we did a similar thing when somebody asked us a question on Twitter last year, who we thought would have a big year in 2013. So let's play that clip. Dear Ariel Halwani and New York, Rick, what UFC Fighter will have the biggest year in 2013?

Off the top of my head, I could think of a few. I think Roy is going to have a huge year. You've got to think of the guys who are going to fight early and then be very active. I think Rory comes to mind. Depending on when he comes back, I think Wyden can have a big year. This is a big year for Bisping.

I think he will get his title shot. Under the radar, a lot of guys. Gunner Nelson comes to mind. I'm really high on him. He's fighting in February. Maybe Michael May Day McDonald's, who's also fighting on that card. Those are a few guys that come to mind.

How about you? Daniel Cormier. Ah, that is a good one. That is a very good one. Yeah. Yeah. Just saying. Yeah.

Daniel Cormier, that is a good one. History repeats itself. 2014. But let's just say he wasn't the fighter of the year this year. Fair. Fair point. Right. So it's not really.

He had a great year in 2013. It would be hard to argue that a guy who came over from Strike Force and, you know, defeated, put himself in line for a title shot. If he was, if he wasn't in camp with Kane Velazquez, I think he would have gotten a title shot. If Junior was still the champ, I think he would have been fighting for the title. I think they would have fast-tracked them a little bit, and he would have been fighting Junior for the title. But in 2014, he will be fighting for a title at light heavyweight. Daniel Carmier is my pick.

Now obviously. Yeah, go ahead. I was just going to mention some other guys. Yep. Jokoree, Susa. He's on mine. And I think Rory McDonald. Now, you picked him in your 23.

Now, you had Rory. Yeah. You had Chris Wydenman. I did. I had the only champion. Props for that. Yeah. You had Chris Wydenman.

I had Gunner Nelson. And according to you, he had the best year. So, I mean, props? 100%. You nailed that one. But I'm just going to say Daniel Cormier. That's it. Now, obviously, I love Jacaray, Susa.

I think he's going to, I also think he's going to do some big things this year. And Rory McDonald, as I was just saying, I think is going to have a huge year this year. Now that he doesn't have to worry about the questions about is GSP, are you going to fight GSP? You know, what are you going to do at 170? Who's going out of the division? Is GSP going to retire? And then that's when you, now that those questions are all done, he's going to get focused and he is going to be a force at 170.

I'm very curious to see how he rebounds. Very curious. Other ones, Habib Nirmagamadev, Eddie Alvarez, Korme is on my list. Thatch was on my list, but then he had the surgery, so I don't know if he'll be active enough. End of the day, I'm going with Johnny Hendricks. He'll be fighting for the belt in March. Maybe he fights three times this year. I could see him remaining champion.

You know, honestly, people will hate me for this, but I do feel like Wyman could be fighter of the year next year. I do feel like he could beat those guys. And he'll have to go through a murder as real. You'll have to go through Belfort. He'll have to go through maybe Jacare, maybe Lioramachita, maybe Gary Musessi. I mean, that 185 pound division,

especially at the top, is very tough. But I don't want to do that because that would be too easy. But I just want to mention it. I just want to mention it. I don't think anybody who hate you for that. If, you know, if Chris, John Jones, as soon as he won the title, he started fighting the best of the best,

guys that we considered, you know, all timers. And he started taking them out. If Chris Wyman can do the same thing, not only would I not be shocked, but, you know, I don't think a lot of people would be shocked. I think that people are very high on Chris Weidman, and rightfully so. He's got a skill set that is tough to match up with. Okay, final one as far as awards, and then we're getting to all your questions. It's our top five bold predictions. So this kind of falls in line with

that. Do you have five bold predictions to make for 2014? I don't know how bold they are, but I have some predictions. Okay. Starting with Daniel Cornier will be the the light heavyweight champ. He will defeat. If John Jones is still the champion, that's who he's going to beat. If John Jones is not the champion, whoever it is, that's who he's going to beat. Daniel Cormier will be the light heavyweight champion in 2014. That's pretty damn bold. I don't say it's bold. Okay. And I think John Jones is, you know, one of the best of all time. So that says what I really feel about Daniel Cormier. Similarly, same vein, Jokuree will be the middleweight champion, no matter who's holding it, whether it's

Vitor Belfort, whether it's Chris Wyden, whether somebody else sneaks in there in between then. At some point in 2014, Jokkeray will win the middleweight belt. Also, this one's a little less bold. Nirmaga Madov will fight for the title in 2014.

I mean, if he beats Gilbert, he's kind of almost there already to fight for the title, but I think he will fight for the title in 2014. Dominic Cruz, he's going to come back and he's going to look as good as he did when he left. Oh, I like that. Now, I'm not saying in the first fight back, he will look as good as he did before he left,

but by the end of 2014, he will be back in form and Dominicruz will continue to dominate in the octagon. How many was that? Five? Four? I think it was, I don't know. One, two, three. That's four. MMA, unfortunately, MMA will not be legalized in New York in 2014. I would love to be wrong. Hopefully that's the one I'm wrong about and hopefully I'm right about the rest, but I don't see it happening.

I've really kind of gotten downtrodden about that. And yeah, those are my five predictions. I don't know how bold that last one is. That's not very bold. You know. You got any? I got some. Yes, I do have five.

Showtime will not air any MMA in 2014. Talking about the premium cable network. Belator will abandon its tournaments. Now, they might have them here or there, but they will not stick to them like they do now. Invicta will get a TV deal. Who will it be with? I'm not quite sure, but Invicta will get a TV deal.

GSP will not fight in 2014. He will not return. And this time next year, Jose Aldo will not be the featherweight champion. Oh. Those are my top five bull predictions for 2014. Do we know who will be the featherweight champion? You know what?

you're just going to have to watch. You're just going to have to watch. All right, so there we have it. Those are our awards. Thank you so much for listening to them. And now we turn the tables towards you. And we take some questions. Do we have questions?

Yeah, let's start with the website as per usual. What a year it has been, by the way? I mean, this really has been the best year in a history. Would you agree with that? Unquestionably. I love all the people getting all mad at me for my picks. I've been tweeting on my picks. You do realize there are a lot of honorable mentions involved.

I saw some people tweeting my picks out to someone else, like who I didn't pick like Bang Ludwig. Relax people. All right. Just one man's opinion. And there were plenty of honorable mentions. Everyone gets to love. We have to make picks.

Just a fun little thing. Don't take it so personal. You know, don't get your panties all up in a bunch. Me not picking Wydman didn't go over too well with the people. Really? Because I got a lot of crap. I got a lot of crap for Wyden. Really?

Yeah. People were. I mean, I love Chris Widman, so that's all I'll say about that. All right, here's our first question. Is it disrespectful to Misha Tate? Dana had a poster of Rousey versus McMahon at the post-fight press conference. Rousey also discussed that she and Deda spoke about the Sarah fight before Misha versus Ronda 2. Isn't that disrespectful to Misha?

Misha fought her harder and keeps women's MMA growing. Does she not deserve a little respect? Maybe announce the fight a week after. What are your thoughts, Ariel? And by the way, before we get into this, I just want to remind me, we will take some phone calls, us to call 1-88-4-1-8-4-18-48-4074. 1-88-4-1-48-4074. We'll try to juggle everything here. So back to Misha Tate. Was it disrespectful? I mean, who knows? Maybe they had the same posters for Misha. Now, Sarah told us that she had known about this for quite some time. So clearly they were banking

on one of the fighters not getting hurt, but who knows? Let's give them the benefit of the doubt let's let's see if they had, or let's pretend or let's assume that they had those posters with Misha Tate's face on it. Now, I don't know if they did because, of course, if Misha would have won, would have made a lot of sense to maybe go for the trilogy right away, but I just think it's crazy, not crazy, I just think it's impressive that they had the poster made up already. How often does that happen? And Gilbert and Maga Madov was on it, and that's not happening yet. That's not officially. yet. So that to me is like, wow, they were really planning in advance here. And the UFC always says

that they don't do that. Remember? The UFC always says that, well, we don't plan in advance. We don't talk about this and that. A little different than your question, but it's just, it proves that they do plan in advance. And they should, to a degree, plan in advance. But I'm not going to chalk this one up to being, you know, disrespectful towards Misha. Maybe they had posters for her as well. Our next question regarding the Hall of Fame. Do you think the UFC Hall of Fame should be voted on like other halls? And do you think it should include pride fighters like Fador? It may

say UFC, but UFC has embraced pride since the purchase. And then four people, will they get in? Sakaraba, Basruten, John McCarthy, and Jeff Blatnik. I definitely think that there should be a Hall of Fame for mixed martial arts. I've always said that the UFC Hall of Fame is no different than, you know, a sports

team having a wall of fame. You know, that's who the UFC wants to honor. It's no different than, you know, a team retiring one jersey and not the other. You know what I mean? But there should be an independent mixed martial arts hall of fame. I think the sport has reached that point 100%.

And yes, to answer your question, all those guys would be in there, 100%. John McCarthy, Basruden, Kazushi Sakarabha, Jeff Blatnik, those are no-brainers. The first, the most interesting thing about an MMA Hall of Fame would be how many guys would get in right off the bat, because it's taken so long for it to happen. That would be interesting. But yes, I am 100% in favor of an MMA Hall of Fame. And I'm also annoyed or I get tired of listening to people complaining about the UFC Hall of Fame.

It's no different. It's their little, it doesn't even, it's like a wall at the tough gym. Stop getting so worked up about it. You can honor anyone that you want if you own the organization. That's your prerogative. But if there was an independent. MMA Hall of Fame, then these guys would get honored, even if they had issues with the UFC other organizations, things like that.

Let's jump to a caller. Okay, let's go to the phone lines, and welcome in Ben. Where's Ben from? Hi, I'm calling from London. London. Cheers, mate. Yes, indeed. How are you?

I'm very good, but I think there's a little bit of a delay on our line. I was constantly speaking over, Rick, at the time. Okay, well, here we go, no delay here. Okay, so I have a couple of quick questions for you then. Okay. The first is, I don't know if you've ever seen an article, which was about a study conducted on Taekwondo, and what they had done is they'd reversed,

they digitally reversed the colours of the two fighters, and they had lots of different ref score the same fight, and when they actually reversed the colours, it changed who won the fight by, I think it was a, the person wearing red had 13% more scores, more points given to them, when they're digitally changed it to be red.

I've got, I've explained that badly, but I hope you understand. Yeah, I do understand. That's interesting. It's something that I think is interesting for MMA, but I know it's only to do with, they have the red gloves, and then they wear the red shorts. Right.

So do you think that has anything to do with it? Because psychologically, they've done the test, and it shows that the colors, does that do actually affect? But do the gloves, I mean, the gloves, it's just tape. You know what I mean? It's not the actual gloves. Yeah. So I don't know if that would play the same kind of impact on the mine.

Well, I actually went through the last, I think I did like 13 or 14 controversial decisions where you have these lists put on MMA sites. And most of them were red gloves. I was surprised to see. I think it was something like 9 out of 10. Really? It was very high. I mean, it might just be because the red gloves are generally champions and things like this.

Yep. but yeah there was a different advantage to the people do they have any idea why why they're drawn to this it's something to do with like evolutionary psychology and things like this it was I haven't read the whole paper

but there's a there's a scientific study done on it I found it quite interesting but I tried to tweet it to you ages ago but I didn't get a response I'm sorry I'd call in I'm sorry oh well and if someone wants to read popular nowadays. If someone wants to read about this, what, like, what should we Google?

If you type in, when the referee sees read, is the one I found earlier when doing a bit of research. This is above my pay grade. That will link you to the study. You know, this is above my pay grade. You know, I wouldn't know if that's true. It's certainly very interesting, and I will check it out. I appreciate it. Yeah, I thought you might be interested because I saw it and thought no one in the MMA world has ever

mentioned this, but the controversial decisions. are often on the side of the people wearing red or wearing the red gloves. Wow. Fascinating. That is fascinating. Anyhow, I don't think blood has the same effect, which did occur to me, but I wouldn't have thought so. Yeah. I wonder if that really is, in fact, I mean, obviously there's data to back it up,

but if it's just a coincidence or not, who knows? That's very interesting. I'd like to talk to someone to know if whether or not red, for whatever reason, leads one to favor the other. It shows that they're aggressive, it said, on the article, that the people see red as being more aggressive than blue. That's why in combat sports like Taekwondo, that's what they favour, really. That's interesting.

But there you go. Yes, I'm sorry, that was just one of the things I wanted to ask. The other's a little bit more complicated. I work in an industry where I kind of design and performance manage people for a living and I deal with scoring systems and things like this. And I'm a huge MMA fan and I was thinking, I'm sure I can sit down and put together a professional document that lays out an alternative judging system.

Yes. I have the time and resources to do it. How would you think someone, if they thought that they had, this is a great scoring system, go about actually trying that and actually bringing it to the mainstream knowledge and eventually getting it. Well, you should do with this, like not just have the system, but then actually use the system,

to judge fights and see if the correct person is winning based on your system, and then use that data to show people and then have people judge the fights using your system. You know, you can't just lay out the system and hope for the best. You have to actually apply it, and then, you know, sit down with the important people and show them that, look, if you do the same, this works, and the correct winner comes out of the fight. That's the best way. And, of course, you know, you have to get in front of the right people, and there's a lot that needs to happen. I mean, it's so bureaucratic.

There's so many different steps that you need to take for this thing to actually happen. But that's what I would do. A lot of people just come up and say, here's my system. Well, no, then actually use your system to judge fights and show me why the right winner is winning. You know what I mean? Yes, of course. I've tried to find other alternative systems, because I know on your show and every other MRA show, everyone's shouting for change.

But I couldn't find any other legitimate... systems that read like a real system that would work. And I thought there'd be some few about the people would say, well, we've got this idea, we've got this idea. But other than the half-point system, which I don't like. Right. I don't like that either. I haven't really seen any others.

Yeah, I don't like that either. I mean, it works for Machida Rampage. Yeah. Well, I don't think the half-point system is the answer. I think it'll make things too confusing. And it's just, it's not a big enough change. You know, we've talked about this ad nauseum on the show, but the, the, the, the, the, the, The current system, the 10 point must system doesn't work.

Half point system is not a big enough change. I do think that you need something that attributes points to certain moves of action and defense as well. And if you don't want to change it, then the unified rules of MMA in the description needs to be a lot more specific. It's too vague now. It's too subjective. That's the problem, my opinion. But I do appreciate the call, my friend, and thank you so much for the support. Well, you're more than welcome. I really appreciate the time you've given me and you do an excellent job, so keep up the good work.

And if you do come up with that system, tweet it to me and I promise I'll check it out. That's much appreciated. It'll probably be a couple of months. Okay, there we go. That is Ben in London. Appreciate the call. Let's go to Bobby in Texas on line number two. Bobby, are you there? I'm here. What's going on, Ariel? Hey, bud. Hey, just wanted to ask you if you thought Anderson Silva was going to retire before the fight even started. I mean, the walkout, the whole glare at the crowd, the whole acciamalike interest when he's bowing down, kind of saving the last time, you know, it kind of seemed like he was saving the moment there.

What were your thoughts on that? Well, you know, a lot of people were getting mad at me for continuing to bring this up, but I did believe I tweeted it. I felt like I was watching or about to watch the final Anderson Silva fight in the UFC. And he told me before the fight on Thursday, there's a great chance this could be the end. And then everyone was like, no, he meant to finish the fight. We weren't talking about the fight. We weren't talking about the fight.

We were talking about his career. And yes, he plays with the media and whatnot. But I just felt like if he would have lost that fight or even if he would have won afterwards, GSP did, that there was a chance this could be it. Now, never in a million years did I ever expect the injury to happen. But at his age, if he would have lost, 0 and 2 against the champ, I really did. believe that this could have been it for him. And I think that if he would want, maybe not wanting to fight Vitor Belfort, give him another chance. So many different factors involved, but I just had this feeling that this could have been it. I didn't know why specifically I just had this

feeling. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, who knows, hopefully he just gets better and he decides when he's healthy, whether or not to continue fighting and the injury doesn't impact his decision, but I still have that feeling right now, if you're wondering. Yeah. Got a couple more short ones, if that's okay. What about New York, Rick? Is he ever going to fight? Oh, that's a great question.

Why doesn't he answer that question? That was put on delay a little bit, put on hold a little bit, but I still do plan to do it, yes. I have not been dissuaded from it. And now I feel like things are getting a little sorted in my personal life. By the way, New York, Rick, why were you so emotional this morning at like 6, 8? You're talking about being emotional. Can you tell us or is it personal? I can.

It's a little personal, but I'd love to share it. I'm very proud of my girlfriend. Oh. Did this just hit you today? No, well, on Friday, she graduated from the police academy and now she's a New York City cop. Wow. And I'm really, really proud of her. So if I get a ticket or something, I come to her and she waived it.

That's not happening, bro. Okay. All right. But yeah, I was, you know, laying in bed this morning and I woke up right next to her and I just thought of that and I was, I got emotional. I thought you were emotional like going to do the show, final show of the year, you know, things like that, but definitely acceptable as well. When, when during that emotional period, I thought about how lucky, you know, we are to be sharing this experience with all the fans every week. And, and that's why I tweeted what I tweeted that, you know, it's a great day to do it because I'm in, I'm in the right mindset for this. and I'm very appreciative and thankful of everything that, you know, the fans have given us this year,

and we've been able to give to the fans. But, yeah, that's why I was emotional this morning. All right. Does that mean now that you got your emotions out of your system, will you start training? Or will you actually go through with this fight? That wasn't what was stopping me. It was just, you know, an issue of managing my time. But I think, you know, I've kind of got a better handle on how I can fit it in and it's going to happen.

Well, let's see. Now it's on the record. Let's see if he actually does it. I appreciate the call, my friend, Bobby. Hey, no problem. Thanks. Are you going to be in Dallas? Oh, yeah.

March 15th, I'll be there. Awesome. Hope to see you again. Okay. I got to watch my fighter of the year compete, you know? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Thanks for the call. Thanks, Ariel.

Appreciate it, I'm a big fan. Okay, thank you very much. More questions or phone calls? Let's do some questions and then jump back to the phones after that. All right. So let me start with... Let's do a Twitter. We jump from the website.

Let's go to Twitter now. This question, I think that the ending of Silva-Widman 2 was the most disappointing ending to a fight in the history of MMA. Do you agree? No. I mean, it was upsetting to watch, but, you know, in my opinion, Wyden had dominated the first round

and, you know, I picked him to win, and I would have loved to have seen the fight go on. So, and that's it. I mean, it's up there. I don't want, you know, I think this year in MMA we've done the most ever too often. And it does show that it's been a great year. But the most disappointing ever, I guess, now that I think about it a little bit, it's certainly up there because it was one of the most anticipated fights.

And it ended at such, yeah, I get, maybe it is. It's unquestionable. It is unquestionable. This is the answer. And I think that the person who would agree with you the most is Chris Widman. that's not how he would have wanted to win. He would have wanted to win in a much more emphatic and definitive fashion. And he knows and feels that he can.

So I think that nobody would agree with this more than Chris Widman, honestly. Yeah, I guess you're right. He even felt like his reaction was, at first, obviously, it was jubilation, but you can tell afterwards he felt a little weird about it. Well, by the way, the people who are criticizing him for reacting. So crazy. Give me a break. Please.

I mean, he didn't know the extent of the injury. he saw that the fight was waved off, he reacted, and then minutes, if not seconds later, you saw him right next to Anderson. Obviously, he couldn't do anything. But he was clearly, if you know anything about Chris Weidman, you know, anything about the guy that he is, the guy's dad's in his corner for a title fight. I mean, this is a family man, this is a religious man, this is a guy who's very humble and has been through a lot. He was not, he was not, you know, celebrating the fact that Anderson had suffered this devastating injury. He was celebrating the fact that he won the fight. The fight. The fight. fight is over. I mean, think about the emotions and everything that goes into a fight like that, that magnitude. The fight was over. He celebrated and then he quickly calmed down. Well said. It's nonsense. He was he was celebrating remaining the middleweight champion and it's obvious to see that he was not celebrating Anderson Silva's injury. But I think that this question, it's on the nose. There was nothing more disappointing than that. If that's the last we see of Silva and if that's the way, you know, Chris Weidman wasn't able to prove his dominance. Like, I'm sure he,

knows he can, then, you know, it's got to be the most disappointing for everybody involved. You're 100% right. Now that I think about it, that's a great call by Luke over there. Other ones that people are tweeting me, Couture Belfort, the eyelid cut, Wintello Arlofsky was obviously a very short and anticlimactic fight. So yeah, but I mean, given the stakes, given who's involved, given what could happen as a result of what happened, yeah, I think that's a good call. Our next question. Does Sarah McMahon pose the biggest threat to Rondorow? why are there no other 135 women's fights announced for 2014?

Well, that's a very interesting question. And, you know, you think about it, there are a few events. I mean, there isn't a, there isn't a fight in a women's division fight on every card. It is a little interesting, and I meant to ask about. Someone also told me that the next light heavyweight fight booked is Cormier versus Evans. Is that possible? I mean, there are a lot of fights between now and then. But I do believe that McMahon, and we've said this on this show,

has the style to give Ronda the most fits. I do question, though, whether or not it's coming a little too early. Last time she fought was in April, and she is relatively new. Her manager told me, Monty Cox, he told me that he wanted two or three fights in the UFC before she got to Ronda. No one expected her to get this soon. I thought maybe they'd go with Alexis Davis, and that's an interesting fight given her her jiu-jitsu background.

But, hey, she sold me today. She said that, you know, it comes at the perfect time and all that stuff, and she's ready. And she definitely has that mindset. I mean, this is a pro athlete. This is an Olympic athlete. This is someone who's won in the Olympics. I mean, she has a silver medal in the Olympic Games. This is someone who is not sitting on her couch when she's not fighting.

And she didn't have an injury. That's not why she pulled out of the cop and fight. She pulled out due to personal reasons. So, and I know for a fact, it wasn't an injury. So while I do think it was somewhat, has come somewhat early in her, career, hey, if she feels like she's ready, then more power to her. But as far as the options out there in the 135-pound division, she, in my opinion, definitely poses the biggest threat to Rondarazzi. Now, it's interesting when I talk about all the injuries and all the questions

going into 2014, when you think about it, the UFC could use some big names, they could use some big fights. And I wonder if they knock on that Nick Diaz door. one more time. I also wonder if they revisit Chris Cyborg, because Chris Cyborg versus Ronda Rousey would be a huge fight, especially given where Ronda Rousey is right now in her career. You know, if they could come to terms with Chris Cyborg at 135 to fight Ronda Rousey, that would be a massive deal in my opinion. Let's go back to the phone lines now and say hello to Brian in Ohio. Brian, are you there? How's it going?

Hey, bud. I'm there. What's up? What's up? Nothing, huge fan Thank you I appreciate it My question is What do you think is going to happen

With the scrap pack in 2014 Well I mean I guess they're kind of an unofficial team So we're looking at Gilbert Jake Nick and Nate Is that who we're calling the scrap pack? Yeah Okay

Because Gil has his own You know team as well Which is kind of under that name But okay so Gilbert I think Gilbert's going to fight for the UFC belt again in 2014. Do you agree? Yeah. Is that what you said? Okay.

The Nick Diaz one is a tough one. It really is. I think we see him fight again. Who, what, where, you know, maybe it's against Roy Jones. He told me after the fight on Saturday that he wants to box him. I don't think that's going to happen, to be honest. But I think Nick Diaz comes back in 2014. Jake Shields is a very interesting one. If I'm Jake Shields, I'm pretty pissed right now, by the way.

I beat Tyrone Woodley, and I'm not in that big fight against Carlos Condit. Tyrone Woodley lost to Jake Shields in June, and he's fighting Carlos Condit. Shields is fighting Hector Lombard. If I'm Jake Shields, I'm a little annoyed. I even saw an interview with George St. Pierre on that day when he walked away. He said that his prediction for UFC Walterway champion in the future, the guy who's going to kind of dominate his champion now that he's gone, was Jake Shields.

Wow. Yeah, he actually singled out Jake Shields, which I thought was very interesting. He said Jake gave him his biggest and toughest fight. He's fighting Hector Lombard. Do I think he'll be that guy? No, I don't think he'll be that guy. I don't think he's going to be the champion

who's going to reign now that GSP is out. And then Nate, Nate's a very interesting one. You know, the funny thing is that Anthony Pettis wants to fight Nate Diaz next. Do they give him the shot? I don't know, but I think if Nate Diaz win, I'll tell you this. I predict Nate Diaz will get another crack at the title only because people are going to want to see that fight.

They'll generate enough interest that they'll want to see that fight. He'll win in between now and Pettus's return. He might not get Pettus upon his return, but this time next year he'll get a fight against Pettus. I think Nate Diaz and Gilbert Melendez are the only two lightweight that can beat Anthony Pettus. Hmm. Yeah, I could see that.

I think whoever fights them first will win. Really? I think Pettus remains champion. I mean like whoever fights them first out of Diaz and Melendez. But you think both of them will be Pettus? Yeah, I think both. I think they're the only lightweight that can beat them. No, but I'm saying I think Pettus is the best lightweight.

I think he beats those guys. That's what I'm saying. I think it's very interesting. Yeah, it is. What do you think if Nick Diaz returns the 185? I don't love it. I think he'll be too small, given this, you know... Really?

Given the guys at 85 right now, I mean, back in the day would have been different. I think he'd be too small. And let's not forget, Gilbert has a very tough fight if it happens against Ramagamadov, but I see his experience in him being able to figure him out. That is a very interesting fight, but I see him being able... I think Naramatov will suffer, you know, he'll get that big fight, he'll take a little step back, but then he'll take many steps forward. That's true.

All right, thank you for the call. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, there is Brian in Ohio. Let's go to one more phone call, then back to the questions. This is fun, right? Are you guys enjoying this? Hope so. Anyway, Cody in North Carolina.

Are you there, Cody? Hey, what's up, man? How are you? What's up? What's up? I'm doing good. How are you? I'm doing great. And by the way, I know people are trying to call.

We only have so many phone lines, so keep calling if you want to get in, but I think the phone lines are packed right now. but we appreciate the call. What's up, my man? How much, man? Just an amateur fighter, you know, fighting down to North Carolina, three and one.

Oh, we're going to go pro. Nice. Give you guys a call. Oh, I appreciate it. Yeah. So amateur, your four and one, you said? Three and one. I'm still pretty young for the sport,

but at the same time, you know, Sergio Pettis just got in the UFC at 20, so I need to step up my game and, you know, go pro and go from there. Now, I usually don't ask the, I usually don't ask the callers, you know, who their, uh, what their last name is, but since you're a fighter, we need to look out for you. What's your last name?

Cody Turbit. Cody, is spelled for me. Terpet. Who are, B-I-T-T-T. Okay. We'll look out for you. And what, what, what weight class?

135. Right now I'm looking to drop 125 though for my pro debut. Okay. And describe your fighting style for us in a couple words. I'm exciting, man.

I just want to go out there and put on a good fight and just, you know, make it exciting for anyone that's watching. Man, you just sounded like someone when you said that. When you said put on a good fight,

you sounded like another... I feel like you're someone else pretending to be... Who did you just... you just sound like, wow. I watch a lot of UFC, so, I mean, you know, I watch all the interviews with you and all the fighters, so, you know. All right.

Well, best of luck to you, my man. We'll look out for you. Thank you. Okay. There he is. Cody, North Carolina, coming to an MMA cage near you. Okay, back to the questions we go. Website questions now.

If you could make any two fighters fight in a pride-style fight that never fought in pride before, who would you pick? Well, you've, I feel like you had a little more time to think about this. Does anyone come to mind? Jose Aldo. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to see that unbridled violence.

Against, too. That was tougher. Just, I mean. Well, you just got one guy? It's going to fight himself? Yeah, well, I got so enamored with the thought of Joseoardo. Being able to use those kicks, being able to use stumps and soccer kicks. Former soccer player.

Yeah, I think, I mean, I feel like there's a lot of guys. I got it. I got it. Aldo versus Pettis. Pride style. That's great. Pettis would be fantastic in pride. I mean, I feel like there's a lot of guys whose games are more stylized for that.

A lot of the guys who we've had some issues where, you know, they throw a knee when somebody's doing the three-point stance, those type of guys when, you know, when they adapt for a pride-style fight probably would translate well and, you know, do even better. But yeah, Aldo versus Pettis, pride rules, that would be fantastic. That would be amazing. At what weight, though? 150. Should we just go with 150? No, make it 155. Really?

Whoa. Yeah. Okay. Next question. The media coverage regarding Anderson Silva. It seems most of the attention from the mainstream media since the main event has been on Silva breaking his leg gruesomely and not on Wyden winning the title. Does this cast a dark shadow on the potential real?

excuse me, on the potential risks of the sport or is any mainstream media coverage good for the UFC? Well, to a degree I touched on this at the top, but it's a bit of a different question. But I do agree. The story was that Anderson suffered this. I mean, people were coming up to me that I didn't even know watched MMA

and were saying, wow, did you see that injury? What happened? All this stuff. So that's the story. That's just the way it is. I don't think it says anything larger about MMA. I don't think it should make us, you know, afraid of covering MMA.

it should, you know, put MMA under a larger microscope or anything like that. It just, that was the injury. That's what happened. And injuries happen in sports. You know, you remember last year, Kevin Ware, right, in college basketball? I mean, that was an indictment on the world of college basketball or basketball in general. Crazy injuries happen in sports all the time. Crazy injuries happen in life all the time.

But I do agree that the story was, hey, Anderson Silva just broke his leg in the most devastating fashion possible. And that's unfortunate for Chris Wyden because the attention is off him and he just defended his title against arguably the greatest of all time. But that's the way it should be. It really is. Now, as far as the people saying that this is bad and the sport is bad and all this, forget that nonsense. That nonsense is silly. But the MMA questions or the MMA media that is covering it and slanting their coverage towards this being the top story,

I have no problem with. Now, I wanted to bring up whether or not Anderson is still the greatest of all time. In your opinion, is he still the greatest of all time? I mean, can we say that? Because if you look at GSP walking away, knowing when to walk away, and you look at who GSP has defeated over the last few years, the level of competition, you could say was tougher than Anderson's, right? You could, but you could also make the case that Anderson beat them much more convincingly,

his opponents. You could say that. And what about John Jones? I mean, is it too early to say that he's the greatest of all time, given who he has defeated? I'm not one of those people who's reluctant. I would say Anderson Silva is...

Anderson Silva. Anderson Silva is still the greatest of all time, but it wouldn't take much more for John Jones to be above him. When it's all said and done with those three, do you expect Anderson to still be the greatest of all time? No, I expect John Jones to be the greatest of all time. Now, that can change with a Daniel Cormier win.

Daniel Cormier could answer our history here. You think Cormier's going to be the champs? Do you think Anderson will be? This doesn't mesh with who you thought was going to be the fighter of the year. Because I leave room for the fact that this may not happen. It's a bold prediction. Is this called sitting on the fence or hedging your bet? No, I'm 100% picking Daniel Cormier to win the light heavyweight title next year.

but John Jones's resume already is almost, you know, is almost there. It would not take much more. If he put together three, four more wins against a guy like Daniel Cormier against Glover, right. He's knocking on the doorstep already. And I think that Silva, I'm sorry, GSP is right under Anderson Silva. But let's just look at the guys he beat, not how he beat. them, just the guys he beat.

Okay. Anderson versus GSP. Who had the tougher competition? I would say GSP. I would agree with that. Easy, right? I would say the fact... Silva style points matter when you're talking about this conversation

on who's the greatest of all time. GSP grinding out these decisions where he played it safe and didn't do much of anything else in terms of finishing guys matters. When you talk about who the greatest fighter, The greatest fighter in MMA is of all time. And Anderson Silva encompassed exactly what we want from our champion, which is not only defending his belt a record number of times, but going out there and finishing fights.

Yeah. Absolutely taking guys out. That's what Anderson Silva did. And I think it's, I think it's very, what's the word? Something with an F. Oh, my God. F? Oh, well, I'll think of it.

But let me ask you this. Jeff Ludwig on Twitter. Yeah. brings up a good point. John Jones, he says, won't fight Daniel Cormier in 2014. Only Glover and Gustafson. Right? Let's say John Jones fights in April, right?

So he'll fight Glover and April. Let's say it all goes well there. Then the next time he's going to fight his win. August, September. Is he going to get three fights in? Now, do you think, Manoa beats Gustafin and Cormier slides in? How is he going to get that fight? Could happen.

I also think that... Are you foreseeing an injury of sorts? No, I also think that his turnaround time is going to be very quick. You do? John Jones, yes. I think he learned his lesson, and he's going to take some time between fights. I think he's gotten a nice long break now, and I think he's going to be ready to go in 2014. I don't see him coming out of the fight with Glover with too many injuries.

I think he'll be good to go quickly after that one. All right. And I think he will get the rematch with Gustafs in, and I think he's going to come out of that one relatively unscated, too. Interesting. So you think he's going to get three fights in between April and December? Three fights in eight months? Yeah. You think, what, that's unreasonable? Yeah. That's as if, imagine he was just taking four fights.

That's around the timings of when you'd have your second fight. Yeah, I guess. With more fights this year, maybe they'll need him more. But anyway, I just wanted to bring that up. Cormier. Okay. Also, no, what I was saying was Anderson Silva is the greatest of all time. and these losses do not change that. No, they don't change what he's done, obviously,

but will he be remembered now, with GSP leaving on top and knowing when to leave? You know, it makes you, like, look what happened to Anderson. Obviously, you could say he was messing around, whatever. He still got knocked out. And then look what happened, you know, in the last fight. GSP, for whatever reason, knew when to leave. And that is very, very interesting and very special,

that you're able to know when to leave. And, of course, GSP was knocked out earlier in his career, but he came back and he's he's he's he's lucky in the sense for for for history to you know like the way we view him it's different because that's not his lasting impression two things uh maybe three two first thing gsp is not leaving because he felt his legacy was complete and the and you know he's decided i'm going to leave on top he's leaving for personal reasons if we assume what he says is true this had nothing to do with um how he was was as a fighter. He's not leaving because he felt there's a chance in my next fight that I will

be defeated. No, I know. But so you have to, that he was losing the fire. That doesn't apply. Okay, okay. So, um, the second thing is, uh, if Anderson Silva retired after right before the, the fight with Wyman, would we be saying, oh, he knew when to get out. He's, he's a god. It, it, we can't judge a guy based on his last fight. We just can't. And, and Anderson Silva's resume to this point is the best of all time. Okay. But GSP, I will say this. GSP is right there.

GSP is right there. And if he, I mean, if he came back, he could pass Anderson. If he came back and just continued to put together the fights that he did, I would be blown away and I would think that there's no question that GSP is the best of all time. But as it stands, it's, it's Silva, then GSP, and then John Jones. All right. What are we doing? More phone calls here?

Yep. Let's go to our buddy Alan in Queens, our good friend, Alan. Alan, are you there? Hey, man, what's going on? It's been a while. Yes, how are you? You said it in such a creepy little way there, like we're dating. I don't know.

I don't know, man. Because I'm not going to bring up the money factor, but... Oh, here we go. It would be allowed. Here we go. Yes, we're sticking into MMA only here. I know, I know Rick warned me. What's the quote?

In terms of, you were there, obviously, I'm sorry. You know, you heard of Ronda Rousey moves and, you know, after I transpired. It kind of reminded me of Brock Lesnar of UFC 100. Do you think there's a comparison between Rhonda and Brock now? Very good question. I don't think she's at the level of Brock Lester. I don't think anyone is at the level of Brock Lester.

It's going to take a very long time to reach. that level, but she has something. People want to either see her win, people want to see her get her ass kicked. And that is a very special thing to have. That's the thing that Floyd Mayweather has. You know, that's the thing that, you know, we talk about, you know, Miami Heat. That's the thing that LeBron James has. A lot of people don't like him. A lot of people love him. So when you have people pulling at you from both directions, that's a huge thing to have in your back pocket. And she plays it up. She's not trying to be, you know, the Goody Two shoes. She's not trying to gain everyone's acceptance. She's being who she is. And maybe she's playing up the heel thing at this point,

but it is working. And you're right. As champion, maybe the last time we heard someone get booed like that for their antics after a fight was maybe UFC 100 with Brock Lester. I mean, I don't recall a champion getting booed that much for post-fight antics like she was on Saturday. She, you know, you look at who the champions are now. And it's Kane, it's John Jones, it's either Hendricks or Loller, it's Pettis, obviously Chris Wybman, I missed him, and then Aldo, Demetrius, Borough, Cruz, I mean, you

could say, I think so, she's more popular than all of those, right? She elicits a bigger response than all those. Maybe Cain, I think, in the line community, he's up there. But Rhonda is certainly up there as well, and that's a very good comparison.

Were you annoyed, though? Like, honestly, like, it feels like after every big, you know, rivalry, there's at least a handshake afterwards. Like, were you, like, in your heart? We're just like, really, you kind of shake her hand? No, you know what? I was annoyed when Sarah and Hughes, you know, embraced after their fight at UFC 98. Yeah, fine, you know, it's not, but, you know, guess what?

Sometimes people don't want to shake each other and they don't like each other. Just because you beat her doesn't mean, and all respect in the world for Misha, she was a class act. She extended the hand 100%. You know, you cannot say enough good things about Misha Tate. But you can't force someone to like the other person. people are human beings. I like seeing people acting real. And, you know, it's nice in hockey when they shake hands

after a grueling playoff series, but, you know, she still harbors bad feelings towards Misha Tate. And I don't think we should force her to just drop that and pretend like, you know, yeah, sportsmanship, shake your hand, fine. I like that realness. I like that she's not faking, and that's what the fight game is all about, in my opinion. That's fair. Yeah, I was on the sense. So I was pretty conflicted.

Another thing is Travis Brown, to me, was a star. Yeah. Of the show, like, to me, just that performance was unbelievable. You know, obviously, you're the main guy in me. Like, have you heard people, like, Constaqqa complain about, you know, the heavyweight division now? There's no up-and-comers. Like, isn't it, like, a big deal that now Travis Brown? He knows 31.

You know, he's coming up now. It's a pretty big deal. This is a very big deal. And I love that fight against Redoom, and people have been slow to give him his props. But, I mean, to do that to Josh Barnett, that's Josh Barnett. that's Josh Barnett in there. To finish him that quickly is nothing short of remarkable. He is a very confident guy.

He's a very skilled fighter. And you're right. I mean, it is a very shallow division, but he is a man to watch. And, you know, the Verdun fight is one that he can win. He can win that fight. And he can be fighting for the title, you know, come September or October, definitely.

You know, I'd love to see how he does against someone like Verdoom, with a ground game like for Doom, but more important, I'd love to you how he does against someone like Kane Velasquez with his ground game.

Has he really been tested like that? I don't think so. So, you know, the moral of the story here is don't stand with Travis Brown and certainly

don't try to push him up against the cage there because those elbows are coming and he told me after the fight they never posted this interview for whatever reason. He's only tried that twice in his life.

The first time he ever tried that was against Gabriel Gonzaga. Never practiced it. Hasn't practiced it since. Second time he tried it against Barnett. I don't know if I believe him.

But if that's true, that's damn impressive. Thank you for... I looked up the stats on. What's that? I just said, I looked up the statute of Barnett. He hasn't been finished since Co-Cup in 2006. He hasn't been knocked out seven years. That's what's just mind-boggling.

Yep. It's really impressive. I'm curious to see what he does against Verdun. Thank you for the call, Alan. I appreciate it very much, buddy. Thanks, man. Let's go to Jose in New Mexico. Jose?

Is it Jose or Jose? Jose? Okay, yeah, I just wanted to know, is it Jose or Jose? Jose. Okay, Jose. Okay, how much is this? Yeah, oh, so,

well good. What's on your mind? What's on your mind? On the note of Ronda Rousey. Yeah. What do you think Holly Holm ranks in female NMA fighters? Like, is she in the top 10?

Can she hold her own against the top 10, I guess you can say? I mean, I think she would be there. She just hasn't fought the competition. The competition she's fought is nowhere near. And I love the fact that you're calling from New Mexico. That's great that New Mexico supports her so much. She hasn't fought anyone near the top 10. That's the problem.

I would love to see the UFC signers. She's fighting for the legacy title on April. So I guess that's happening. Hopefully after that she moves on to the UFC and we could see her fight some of these. these women like, you know, a germane Darren Damme would be a nice test. You know, I'd love to see a fight like that

before she gets in there with the upper echelon fighters. But right now, she's obviously a big prospect. She's obviously someone that you need to watch, but I can't put her in the top ten because she hasn't fought any top ten fighters. True, but she was a pound-for-pound best female boxing fighter.

Sure. So that should be able to put her at the caliber. And she is with Winklejohn, you know what I'm saying. I know. I know all of that. But just because your top 10 pound for pound in boxing doesn't mean your top 10 in MMA. Sure. Do you think any time after this legacy title, she'll make her run at the UFC title?

My guess is after the legacy fight, she goes to the UFC. That's my guess. She has two more fights for legacy. Two more fights for legacy. This would be, you know, one of the two. But she can't get out at any time. Now, I don't think she'll get out before the legacy fight. Crazier things have happened.

but my prediction is after the legacy fight she moves on. That's with no insider information. Obviously, they've talked to each other, but that's what I'm guessing. Awesome. Thanks, man. Thank you for the call. Okay, back to the questions. Yeah, let's do Twitter.

We left off on website, right? Yeah. Are people enjoying this? How's it going so far? I feel like it's going good. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I just keep getting questions about people.

Outrage. I didn't pick Bang Ludwig for Coach of the other. all I see. Okay. Our next question. First off, they like the new site. Oh, thank you. Oh, okay.

Yeah. I don't know if that was particularly for you, but... Second question. What do you think is next for Misha Tate? Hmm. That's a good question. You know, obviously I think she's going to take some time off without a doubt. You know, why not that fight that was supposed to happen in July against Liz Karmouche?

Never materialized. they moved her, right? You know, she was supposed to fight her in July on Fox. They moved her from that fight to go coach the ultimate fighter. She's going to need some time off. Again, I spoke to her after the fight. They didn't post this one either for whatever reason, but that was a tough one to do. She was very emotional, lips quivering. It was a tough one. It was a heartbreaking. It was a bummer. It was a heartbreaking interview to do. So I think she's going to take some time off. But when she does come back, I think the Liz Karmouche fight makes a lot of sense because they both They both lost to Ronda.

They're both coming off losses. It's interesting styles matchup. I would like that fight very much. I agree. I think there's a lot of fights out there now that, you know, the divisions become more established. So I don't think there'll be a problem finding fights for Misha Tate. But I definitely do like the fight.

Oh, her stock and her profile has been raised so much since the ultimate fighter. What she did in the cage, I mean, Ronda not shaking her hand helps her out greatly. You know what I mean? It makes her into a sympathetic figure, a character, all that stuff. She's in a very good place, a much better place than she was in after losing Katzenegano, exponentially better. I agree in terms of her profile, but losing, what is it, three out of her last four or whatever the number is, is not good. That is not good, of course.

And, you know, that doesn't do you any favors. I think, you know, fighting Ronda Rousey twice obviously makes a difference in that. and Katzangano is obviously, you know, right on the cusp of being there to challenge Ronda Rousey. So it's not that she's been facing, you know, people who are, who are, people who shouldn't be beating her or aren't as good. But that said, you know, that the record needs to improve. And I think that, you know, she'll get her next fight and she'll get back on the winning track. I agree. Let's see.

Next question. I would like to see Junior Dos Santos versus Travis Brown. Could we have that matchup, please? I mean, right now. Can you make it happen? Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah, sure.

Well, if I was in charge, I would not do that matchup right now because Travis Brown deserves to fight for Bruce Reefer-Rood-Mat. At some point it might happen, but he's in a much different place now. Now, Dos Santos is close to the top without a doubt, but right now that fight would not make any sense. Especially because Dos Santos, like, if he beat Brown, what are they going to give him a fourth fight? against Cane Velasquez, there's no way that's going to happen. So I would think that, you know, maybe, Dos Santos is going to get another fight, I would think, between the time that, you know, Brown-Vurdume fight, and then, of course, the winner of that fight fights, uh, fights Cane Velasquez.

So I don't see them colliding anytime soon, but, you know, the division is very shallow. I'm looking at the top 10 right now, you know, you know, I could see maybe the winner of, well, he already fought Gonzaga. So maybe if like Stipe Miochich wins next month that he would fight Dos Santos. And I know it's a guy coming off a win and then a guy coming off a loss, but it's a bit different, especially in the heavyweight division. I'd like to see Barnett fight Roy Nelson next. I think that would make a lot of sense. You know, Antonio Silva's going to be out. Mark Hunt's going to be out. Corme is no longer. And then over him and Mir. So there's no clear-cut guy. I kind of think that Miyoch, if he wins for

Dos Santos, that would make the most sense next. But as far as your question is concerned, and Brown, Dos Santos, not anytime soon. Sorry. Are you still alive? Sorry. Questions on the phone line. What's up? Oh, no. Are we going to the phones? No, no, I was just answering a call. What's up? What do you mean what's up? I want to know what's next.

Our next question. Yes. Our next question is, what's the next move for Porier? Oh, yes. You're doppelganger. Yes. That's a good question. He wants Cub Swanson. Right? I have a feeling Cub Swanson now with his surgery that he just had is going to try to wait for the winner of Lamas versus Aldo. It works out, right? I don't know if Porreier wants or will get Swanson so soon after losing to him back in February. It's a tough one. You know, it's a really tough one given who's out there. You know, Elkins is fighting Jeremy Stevens next. There's no clear-cut guy. I mean, you look at the top ten rankings. The fight makes sense. And of course, Porriere, um, He didn't have a proper training camp going into that fight.

He took it on short notice. And, you know, no excuses. You take a final short notice. Take a final short notice. How about this one? Chad Mendez. I like that. Chad Mendez.

Chad Mendes, Porier, Swanson, fights the winner of Lamas versus Aldo. There you go. Featherweight division, in a nutshell. Both coming off wins at around the same time. That'd be a good fight. I like that fight. Okay, we're going to go to the fans next on the phone.

Is it Dane in Virginia? Yes. Dane in Virginia. How are you? I'm chilling, man. How are you? Just chilling like a villain with a cold-tooth villain. I know that feeling, man.

Are you part in my millions? No, I didn't know that part. But I wish. How are you? Yeah, man. I know the feeling. I'm hanging out, man. Okay.

Do you have anything you want to share? I was actually curious. Oh, yeah. I was actually curious if a third fight with Air Force. Anderson and Wyman after, obviously, it's not going to be any time 2014. But a third matchup between them, would it be more marketable, or would it just be if Anderson wants to do it? You know, I think any time those guys fight, especially because people don't believe Wyatman deserved to win the first one, they don't believe he deserved to win the second one, honestly. I really do believe that there are a lot of people who just don't view him as champion.

They're not giving him his credit, and that's their right. Right. I think it would sell. I think it would be a massive deal. Now, right now, if you ask me what my two most anticipated fights of 2014 are, I didn't make this as a award or anything like that, but it would be Cruz versus Faber 3 and Wyden & Belford, and that's the one we know we're going to get. Wyman Belfort is going to be bananas. But at some point, at some point I think Anderson versus Wyatman does very well. I just don't see it happening. Yeah, like honestly with Machita fighting Musassi in February, it's going to solidify a contender right there whether or not Vitor in Buf or, excuse me, Vitor in Wyoming, happens in April, May. That will probably solidify the next contender. And you still got Jacqueray too. Oh, yeah, and let's not forget, I mean, Machia's fighting Musassi, he could be a player as well. I think those three guys can be major players.

I think Jacerite beats Carman. So, yeah, I just don't. I don't see it happening, but all I'm saying is if they did do it again, it would be huge. I just don't see it happening. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I read an article actually on MMA media or MMA media, and it was talking about how it would be, how we needed a trilogy with the fight. And I didn't really get the article, so I wanted to, it kind of happened that the MMA hour

was on today, and I was like, let me ask these guys what they think about it. I don't think we need a trilogy. I think a trilogy would do well from a business standpoint, and there have been times where a guy lost twice and then got a third fight. You know, you think of Angelie Silva and Rampage. Ken Shamrock and all that. The same thing. Yep, but.

It will be an odd trilogy for this generation. That would be, I think, the thing that would be most marketable about it would be, you know, the greatest of all time. And then you've got Wyman who, with the division shaping the way it is, if he runs through them and doesn't have a zero in the lost column, that kind of... Sure. that puts him up there to rival in the pound-for-pound margin

as far as the competition being so much tougher in 2014. You're 100% right. And let's not forget where we were, or when we were first introduced to one Chris Weidman on this very show when we had John Volante on, and he was like, Chris Wideman, Weedman, we didn't even know. And then all of a sudden, here he is. King of the World.

Great story. Yeah. Thanks for the call. I believe he's only been. No problem, bro. What do you want to say? Say what you wanted to say? Oh, he hung up. I'm sorry.

Let's go to one more phone call. Sean in Toronto. Sean? What's going on, Ariel? Hey, buddy. I just wanted to talk about the expansion of the USC rankings, moving from top 10 to top 15. I don't like it.

You don't like it? I actually think it's an improvement. Just seeing who's on the verge of being on the top 10, because no one really knows. But yeah, I think they should keep it. I think it is an improvement. You don't like it at all? I don't like it because it means something to be ranked, right?

Like you want to be ranked. You're striving. Top 10. Say, oh, I'm in the top 15. I mean, yeah, there's honorable mentions, and everyone knows who's on the cusp. But the top 10 is what it should always be about. And to me, that's just saying, you know, we're doing this so we can add some numbers to sell more, to say, oh, this is number 12 versus number 13.

Now, these guys are contenders. they're on the cusp, but when you're in the top 10, you're in an exclusive group. You should be considered, you know, the upper echelon. But now you're a ranked fighter. It changes things when you get to the top 15, especially when you're talking about some of the more shallow divisions, right? Flyweight, bantam weight, heavyweight. I think 10 is a perfect number and they shouldn't change it. All right, fair enough.

And you touched on this as well, especially when the UFC went to New York. the positioning of the main event and the co-main event Dominic main eventing over Josie Aldo I just think they should stick to their format of having to heavier title fights being the main event I think Joseoaldo has earned that right to be the main event of USC 169 against Ricardo Lamas and it's such a shame

that Ricardo Lamas is infighting in his hometown a week before that you mentioned that before Isn't that crazy? Yeah it's not And looking at that U.S. on Fox card, no disrespect, Ben Henderson and Josh Thompson, on paper it looks like the worst card.

UFC on Fox card, in my opinion. Yep. I said that. I agree. I think it's lacking. It's a very shallow. It's a very shallow card. I think it's lacking.

And I'm surprised in an arena that big, that that's the card. and I'm surprised, I'm most surprised, that Ricardo Lama's not in the main event. I'd love to figure out why. And, you know, I understand what you're talking about, about Joseo. I actually respected the fact that, you know, they're like, wow, okay, you know, they're going to stick to this. They're going to, even though the unification bout is a very big deal, they're going to

stick to this, and the heavier, the heavier-weight guy is going to be in the main event. I really respected that. But I could also understand, they're both going to be five-round fights. You know, they're both going to get their attention. And Cruz coming back is the bigger story, and it feels like the bigger fight, so I get it. I'm not bothered. I thought it was really cool that they were sticking with their,

you know, their rule that the heavier-weight guy gets to love, but I don't begrudge them for going that way as well. All right. Thanks for taking my call. And it was a pleasure meeting, you know, after the UFC 155 way and after a skit to my Js. Oh. Is this not familiar?

Your face swap? Yeah, that's me. Wow. Face swap. You were all over us in the last couple of days. I'm happy that you... Is it your first time calling in? Yeah, it is actually.

Wow. So you and Skipto... There you go. You and Skip to My J's. You guys are actually friends? Yeah, we went to high school together. Oh, I love it. Well, we need some more face swaps.

Yeah, absolutely. That's pretty much it for me. So I'm a few and your team. I appreciate it, man. Thank you and keep up the great work with the face swaps. There he is. Sean in Toronto, aka at UFC Facewap. Great guy.

Okay, one more phone call. Let's go to Sweden. Johannes in Sweden up next. Johannes, are you there? What's up, Ariel? Hey, buddy. So, calling from Sweden here. Long-time listener, first-time caller.

Okay, cool. What's on your mind? I'm thinking about the UFC Fight Pass. Yes. For her, at the press conference, they were planning on we're going to get starting in March in Europe. Yes. So if they are like a week late, will we miss out on Gustafson in London? I would be very surprised if you won't be able to watch that fight.

I think they're going to try to. I mean, that would be shocking. You know, don't forget, the free pass. is up until March 1st, but they didn't say exactly when they expected to open up in Europe. I would be beyond shocked if this is not available in Europe

come March 8 when he fights. So I wouldn't worry too much about it. Yeah, I was a little worried. No, don't worry about it. Where in Sweden are you calling from? I'm calling from Sunswald. It's in the middle of Sweden. You know, they're going to Sweden later in the year.

Where are they going? I forgot the name. Yeah. I know. With an M. They've been booking all the Swedish fighters on the London card. Yeah. What's the name of the place with the city?

It's with an M, right? Malma. Malma, that's right. Yeah, but, you know, they could be going there in the second half of the year, so all those fighters would be available. You know what I mean? Probably not Gus Euston if he's fighting for the belt, but you never know. Yeah.

Yeah. All right? that's it. Okay, well, thank you for the call. Don't worry. I don't work for Fight Pass. I don't know what exactly their plans are, but I would be beyond shocked

if they don't make the Gustavit's Fight available. Okay, thanks, man. Good luck. Thank you. Bye. All right. That does it for the phone calls for now. Let's go back to the questions.

Okay, this person is attending their first MMA event. Hey, Ari and Rick, keep up the awesome work. U.S.C. 169 will be the first time I attend an MMA event. I was wondering if you guys have any hints or tips I should follow for Fight Week. Also, what was the first MMA event you guys attended and what were your initial reactions?

Well, hints or tips? I mean, I think it's a little early. 169 is that February 1st event. It's going to be a great scene because it's Super Bowl Week. But I think it's, I don't know about anything going on. So I would contact us a little closer to that event. But I think they're going to do cool stuff

because it's obviously the Super Bowl is in New Jersey on that Sunday. And everyone is put like there's hockey games in Yankee Stadium, all kinds of basketball games. So everyone's doing something. And I think the UFC will try to do something as well. As far as the first MMA event that I attended, you know, I'm pretty sure it was the tough three finale. I don't even remember if this is 100% correct. but the Tough 3 finale, I was working for SpikeTV.com through a production company,

and we produced the pre-show, which aired on SpikeTV.com, and it was hosted by Forrest Griffin and Stefan Bonner. And I was the writer. I wrote the show, and this was Tough 3 finale. The main event was Kenny Floring v. Sam Stout. Of course, Bisping won, Kendall Grove won. They fought,

Bisping fought Josh Haynes Grove, fought Ed Herman. And it was at the hard rock. And I got to watch it from the balcony up above, and it was very cool. And I'm pretty sure that was the first. I feel like I'm missing something, but that comes to mind as my first M.A event. It was great, especially to work there and be behind the scenes and all that stuff. It was a big thrill.

The sport has obviously evolved a lot since then, but that was a lot of fun. Yours was UFC 101, right? It was. Yeah. It doesn't get better than that. That was a pretty good one. Fantastic. And a tip, get there early, and watch every prelim fight.

Oh, yeah. You paid money to see this event. Watch all the MMA you can. I always like to get there and watch the entire card. It's a lot of fun. Also, make friends with the people around you. It's a lot more fun when you experience it with people, and you can get yourself excited,

and everybody around you is more excited for the fights. You know what's funny? I've actually never attended a UFC. Oh, wait, I did. UFC 78 validation I believe it was was that UFC 78 maybe anyway um that's the only time I ever attended a UFC as a fan and I was way up in the rafters it was Michael Bisping versus Rashad Evans in Newark um man that's you got to get to one as a fan I would love to yeah I mean I I do work them now but uh sometimes I think wow it would be fun but then other times I'm like

I'm in the back of me and reading the guys this is way cooler yeah Lucky Ariel Homey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's get to our next question. Our next question, any update on Brock Lesnar? Oh, yeah. Is he going to come back? Who would you like to see Brock fight if you were playing Matchmaker?

Brock Leicester's not coming back. I don't know where this rumor came from. I do know. It was this guy Hammers Hamill on the U.G, and he does have apparently a good track record when it comes to this stuff. But I've talked to many people close to Brock. He was not at U.S. UFC 168. This often happens in the buildup to WrestleMania, generating buzz, trying to, you know,

raise his stock in the eyes of the people, maybe trying to get under Vince McMahon's skin. Whatever the case may be, he didn't come back, you know, a year and a half or so ago. He's not coming back now, you know, at his age, he's not going to go through everything that needs to be done to be a top-level UFC fighter. You know, last time we saw him, he was thoroughly dominated by Alistair Overeem, diverticulitis, all that stuff. Brock Lester's not coming back. And he is a very powerful man because he was dominating all the talk, all the headlines, all that stuff. People are very interested in him.

People are clicking on stories about him. But he is not coming back, in my opinion. He has a sweet gig with World Wrestling Entertainment. He fights or competes like, what, four times a year. Doesn't have to do any crazy training or anything like that. He's not coming back. So there's no point of even doing a fantasy matchmaker thing because he's not coming back. Plus, can he beat Cain?

Can he beat DeSantos? Can he beat Travis Brown? I don't think so. And as a result of that, I don't see him coming back. He has too much pride to just return and get beat up. If he did come back, it would be gigantic, but he's not coming back. Let's do another phone call. Oh.

Adam in Chicago. Hey, what's going on? What up, buddy? Yeah, I was wondering what are your predictions for the Chris Wydenman versus Vitor? fight. You know, I got to tell you, I have been on the bandwagon for quite some time, and I'm not going to jump off now. I think it's a fascinating fight, but I think, I think Wyden's wrestling, his youth, you know, by the way, I thought his striking look very much improved in this fight. He seemed a lot more comfortable on his feet, moving his head, his striking, I thought, and he didn't

show off too much of it because the first round primarily was fought on the ground. And, he was fought on the and then the second round obviously ended quickly. But you could tell he felt a lot more comfortable. And he talked about how going into that first fight, he felt a little rusty. He hadn't fought in a year. So I'm going to stick with Chris Wyman. How about you?

Yeah, like this fight, you know, everybody was making shirts. I mean, Silva was taking a series in the first round, but Chris, like, he looked so relaxed and he pretty much, you know, he rocked him really bad. I don't know if a lot of people noticed, but he just went in the fight pretty. Did you see when they showed that replay? play Anderson looked like he was out for a second. And I give Anderson a lot of credit.

When he was on his back, though, he was, you know, once he seemed to have somewhat regained his bearings, he was actually slipping some of those punches. And he was actually connecting on some punches off his back. He busted him up. But he looked like he was out. It looked very close to being finished. Yeah, I honestly was waiting for her being to step in.

I was like, what is, like, it was pretty unexpected. Like, I don't think anybody's no. what really happened. They just thought Silver's lit, but on that replay, he was rocked really bad. Yeah. It was close. So, yeah, to answer your question, I got to stick with Chris for this one. Yeah, me too. Even, I'm a big Vitor fan, but I think Chris is going to

And I cannot. I am so excited for that fight. I cannot wait. That is just There's so many, all the storylines, even even with like Vitor and all the talk about him in TRT and Chris being kind of like the clean cut all-American boy and all that and people still not accepting him as champion and how they feel about Vitori. There are so many emotions involved in that fight. That's going to be a huge deal.

I'm really excited about that one. Yeah, I hope, I mean, people are still doubting Chris, but I think he's finally going to get the respect he deserves it to this one. Yep. And to a degree it helps him because people still don't want to give him his due, but I think they want to see him lose because they think he got lucky twice against someone that they love. But he didn't get that validation that he needed.

You know, he kept saying, I need to beat him again to be validated as champion. and I don't think he got that validation. But I think people are starting to, you know, he might not have the flashiest personality, but he has captured their attention to a degree. It's going to be interesting to see who they now, because Chris got a lot of booze going into that fight against Anderson. There's a very strong Brazilian crowd,

and the Brazilians feel a little weird about Vitor at times. So I'm curious to see who will be the favorite, who will be the hated man, so to speak, in that fight. Thank you for the call, man. All right, man, thank you. All right. Let us go to Stephen in Denham, Denver. Stephen, are you there?

Hey, hey, Ariel. Hey, buddy. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you? Awesome, man. Thank you for taking my call. I'm doing great. Okay, what's on your mind? I love your show. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I love you show. I just wanted to call in and say what's up on this. I think it's really cool you're doing this episode for the listeners.

And I wanted to say that all day, you know, today I've been experiencing the new UFC library. What's the name of it again? Fight Pass. Yeah, the fightbats. I really like it. You like it? I can't wait until they add, like, all the, yeah, I do. You know what I mean?

Dude, if you got nothing to do, you know? Yeah. I mean, I literally watched it for four hours. Wow. Would you watch? I watched, most of the old pride fights I watched. And, like, Dan Severn fights where I watched the entire Vandale v. Sakuraba trilogy. Yep.

then I watched Dan Severin. It was all of UFC four fights and five. But man, it's just fun. But I just want to call in and say, hey, I totally agree with you about Wyden Belford. I think he's a new breed. I love Wydenden. I was so happy to see him win the other night.

I don't think it was a fluke. And just, you know, keep doing your thing, man. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right, Ariel. You have a great day, man. You too. There is our friend Stephen in Denver

with some very nice words. We appreciate it very much. Back to the questions we go. Yes, indeed, to Twitter. Okay. This is an interesting one. Do you think the UFC should find their fighters that go overboard with banter,

i.e., threatening to stab a fighter, referring to Dustin Porrier and Diego Brandau? It didn't happen in public. It didn't happen in an interview. I mean, maybe there's a talk to be had, but this is the fight game. So I don't think so. I don't think it's a big deal.

also think it was awesome that Dustin had like the appropriate response. He got fired up. Yeah. And went out there and did what he does. Yeah. And he beat him up. And I like to, in the post-fight interview, he was like, you know, I don't want to get stabbed in the neck. No one wants to get stabbed in the neck. So yeah, you know, things are said worse than that, I would imagine over the course of, you know, fight week and guys being next to each other. You know, those lines when they're going through onto the stage, you know, they're really close to each other. And I'm sure, you know, remember Anderson was up in, all up in Chris's grill, like his face up against his neck and trying to intimidate him the first time they fought.

So things are said, motions are high. This is the fight game. Okay, our next question. If GSP and Anderson are done fighting, is your Raya Faber the most popular slash marketable fighter, 185 pounds and under? Wow, that is a very good question. You know, can I give props?

to Ronda here, are we talking men only? Because I do think Ronda is more popular now. But if we're talking men only, because think about it, I don't think Wiedman's there. I think you're right about Ronda, that's for sure. Yeah, but if we're talking man only, I don't think Widman's there. I don't think Hendricks is there or Loller.

Pettis? I don't think he's there. Almost. I feel like he's getting, he's getting up there. I don't think he's more than Fabor. I mean, Faber's just been there so long, doing it for so long and he's so well-loved. You know, he's a, he is an active fighter again, so BJ Penn has to be recognized.

Ooh, right? Ooh. Who's more popular, BJ or Yariah? I think Yoriah at this point. Really? BJ's a little bit out of the spotlight and. But he comes back. If he comes back on tough, you know, does some things on that show.

I mean, the last time he coached, it was a fun time. And, I mean, his fight with Frankie Edgar is going to be, you know, going to be one of the most anticipated fights of the year. I think BJ can definitely carry that load. And I didn't even think of that. That was a good poll right there. Yeah. So those two guys. But Rhonda, I mean, would you agree right now,

is Rhonda the most popular or the biggest name, the biggest star in the UFC? Is that true? Well, I think he's on the phone. I think so. I'd say it's down to Rhonda and Kane, as far as active fighters right now, Rhonda and Kane.

Kane has a load following, but Rhonda, man, she's able to pull out those heartstrings. Like after that fight, I was like, wow, I can't believe we actually have to watch. We're actually getting the chance to watch, you know, the way fights are books, cards are books, sometimes you go through this roller coaster of emotions. And then after the Ronda fight, I was spent. And then, of course, what happened in the main event, Chris Wyman and Anderson Silva.

Okay, let's go to, we're going to the phone lines now. Oh, he's talking to someone. I believe he's talking to someone who's coming up in a second. Andrew in Saskatchewan, is that right? Near Creek? We'll give him a second. This is fun. I'm enjoying this.

A lot of you are saying that, two of things I wanted to say, a lot of you are saying that you are trying to call. I know it's, the lines are busy, keep trying. Face Swap said he called 38 times before getting through. So we're doing our best. and a lot of you getting, well, if you're listening to this, I probably don't have to say to you,

I should probably write it on Twitter, but like, what about this guy? What about that guy? What about this girl? What about that? What about that? With the awards, we did have honorable mentions.

So, you know, you have to pick one. Sorry if you didn't like the pick, but we did have honorable mentions. Here's another interesting one from Twitter. Okay. Would the UFC look to chale to replace Dana when he leaves the sport?

He can sell a fight like no other. he knows the fight game and he's eight years younger. Yeah, I mean, he would be good. I think he's best in the TV role right now. But he would, I mean, it would be interesting. Who knows what the circumstances are if Dana leaves? Like, would Lorenzo be that guy? Where they get someone else?

But yeah, as far as a guy who's able to sell fighters and knows what it takes to, you know, hype up a fight, hype up an event, hype himself up all that stuff. Yeah, Chale's that guy. And Chale has that ability. that is very special. People want to hear what he has to say. Regardless if it's about him, other people, whatever.

He's just, you know, the same quality that Dana White has, people are just, people will sit there and watch an hour and 15 minutes scrum with Dana White. Now, they do that because they believe also that what he says is important, and he's a mover and chaker, and he's a guy who actually can influence, you know, he's not a fake president, if you know what I'm saying, a fake promoter. So Chale would have to earn that trust as promoter that people actually believe that he is actually, you know, a guy who has influence over these matters. You know, if he's just a guy being put in there as a figurehead, it's not going to go very far. But if he actually has a say and is actually making these decisions and hiring and firing and making these fights, yes, he has that ability.

But you've seen in other cases, you can't just put someone in there and people will be drawn to him as promoter. It doesn't work. I'm actually going to look at the the website here So many people We've got a caller Okay, before we get to that So many people

Wrote in their picks That I wish I could actually read all of them We've got Alex from Ontario on line one Okay, one second I just want to Okay, I'll get to these At the end, I'll just mention some of them Alex in Ontario, is that where we were going?

Alex, oh wait, I thought we had the Saskatoon guy Is he gone? I guess so. Alex, are you there? Hey, how's it going? Hey, buddy. Hey, just calling, first off, I'm saying a big fan of the show.

Awesome, I would listen to you guys whenever I get a chance. Thank you. Questions I had was with the UFC's relationship with Invicta and they have a, you know, a good relationship they have.

What are the chances you think we see them having Invicta streaming on a UFC fight path in the new year? I don't see that. I don't see that happening. I see, you know, it's a very good call and it's a very good question, but I don't know if that, you know, certainly I think Invicta would get more attention than they are getting now just doing the fights on their own, but I see them trying to get a TV deal, but who knows, who knows what direction. Maybe the UFC will try to sign them to get more people to, you know, I didn't even think of that, but I don't see it happening. I don't see it happening. I wouldn't be surprised, and I don't think it's the worst idea in the world. I'll tell you that much. Very, very good call on your part. The only reason I ask is, you know, the last few Invicta fights we see they've been having issues with their streaming service, whoever they're using.

Yep. And I imagine the USC would put something that's fairly reliable out there for the fans. No, you're 100% right. And like you said, the platform, the fight past platform, even though it's a pay platform, will definitely get more people to watch their events and what they have now. Because remember, Fight Pass is $999 for the month,

and they're charging $14 or so dollars, $19 for an event. I do think that being under the Yuzufa umbrella in that case and getting that kind of push because they would push them more than they are pushing them now would definitely help them. I don't see it happening for whatever reason, but there have been crazier things that happened in the past in MMA. and it wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

It really wouldn't. If the fight pass can turn into an outlet like that as well, then this thing is really something to be reckoned with. So that's a great idea. I'd even think about that, but I will ask about it. Yeah, I was sort of saying. I got one other question quickly if I can. Sure.

What do you think is next for Pat Healy? If you see him, you know, start the year off with a big win over Miller, fails the drug test, loses the money. You know, the next two fights, he struggled. I mean, again, her mama, of, which is a top prospect coming up, but he struggled since that last big outing. Yeah, you're right. I mean, he certainly looked fantastic against Jim Miller. Last two, he has lost. You know, who knows? I mean, does Gray Maynard fight again? I think a fight like that would make

sense if he fights again. I don't know if I want to see him fight again, but a fight like that would make sense. Perhaps the loser of the Soroni fight coming up against Martins. you know, Dosangos is fighting Habilov, perhaps the loser of that fight. I mean, he's certainly a guy that is in the top 15, top 20, but he needs some work to do to get back in the top 10. But someone like that comes to mind. Absolutely.

Well, I just want to say thanks. I love the show. Thank you. You know, keep doing what you guys do. Thank you. I just want to say, you know, I met you at UFC 119. That was the only event I ever made it to. And I got to meet you at the way-ins, and that was awesome.

Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you. I love that event in Indianapolis. It was good. We drove 16 hours to get there, but it was definitely worth it. I appreciate it. Thank you very much, man. Thanks a lot.

Let's go to Evan in New York. Evan, are you there? I'm there. How's it going? Hey, buddy. How's it going? A big time fan, thanks for the fan appreciation day. I have two questions.

Okay. The first is, I never heard anyone talk about this. I don't know why. But do you think that with the UFC gone with Fox that it could by any way hinder the sport from growing? I feel that even though there's been some coverage on ESPN and SportsC and that's where all the sports fans are, that they might, you know, shy away from it because of the relationship with Fox Sports One.

Are you asking if the relationship with Fox is hurting the UFC? Well, obviously I think it helps, but I think overall for the sport to grow, I mean, if, you know, Sports Center, ESPN, that's where all the, you know, the majority of sports fans are. Do you think that at all could hurt it? You know, maybe ESPN would shy away from putting coverage. Well, look what happened this weekend. ESPN was at UFC 168. You know, they had tremendous coverage.

They had a desk there. You know, UFC, excuse me, ESPN kind of comes and goes as far as their interests in the UFC. And this was the first time since the Fox deal that they had on-site coverage like that. I mean, they send people all the time. They've got great writers, all that stuff. stuff, but to have like the desk and their sports center and all that stuff, this was the first time in quite some time. And from what I heard, I didn't get to see a lot of the coverage. I heard the coverage was great. They even took my itsy-bitsy spider idea. And that's, you know, no problem.

I threw that one out there free of charge. So yes, typically ESPN doesn't go all in on a sport, like recently with hockey, MMA comes to mind if they don't have, you know, a financial interest in the sport that, you know, they're not in bed with them, so to speak. They don't have a TV deal. Maybe 168's ratings, interest level. Maybe that will change their mind. I doubt it. I think they'll only show up for the big events.

But I think the UFC is in a good spot with Fox. I mean, again, remember, let's be honest, you're talking to a Fox employee right now, so I'm not going to say really otherwise. I'll be honest with you. But I will say that the UFC, you know, we're getting four events on Fox and being a big part of Fox Sports. when it was a natural progression for them from Spike to go to Fox. Now, I will say this.

You can tell that the UFC gets very excited when ESPN is in the house. You can tell that they'll pretty much, you know, do anything for them as far as getting them the access. And rightfully so, ESPN is ESPN. So I bet that the UFC would love to be in bigger business with them at some point in the future if that opportunity presented itself. But from everything we hear, ESPN and, excuse me, the UFC and. Fox are in a good place and they're happy with each other. So I think Fox and the situation that

they're in now with Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 1, Fox 4th, and launching that, people just need to be, they need to be more patient. They're launching a network. This is a very big thing to do. And you can't compare the ratings to other more established networks. It's just a whole new ballgame. You're a watching network. You're trying to get people to bring this network into their rotation and to start, you know, thinking about it. When they turn on the TV, they didn't think about it wasn't an option six months ago. It's a very tough thing to do. It's a tough thing to conquer as far as getting into people's rotation on the channel clicker.

So I think people need to be a little more patient. Yeah, I agree with a lot of points on that. Just, you know, like that coverage that they had, you know, I'm a humongous fan. Some of my friends aren't. It was a bigger vibe because they were seeing it on SportsCenter and whatnot. And that's what I'm saying. Maybe they would have done it more. and maybe they're shying away from it.

My second question is, no one's talking about, well, they are talking about, but not the much. I mean, I think Landa Rouse is an amazing fighter. I think that she brings a lot to the sport. But, you know, Cyborg, you know, I still consider the champion. Yes, she had the drug test. Yes, she's at 145, but I think she gets to 135. I know she says she doesn't. She can't, but I think she can.

Why isn't anyone talking about this? And why isn't this the huge thing in the year? At least everyone that I know that's a huge fan, They want to see Cyborg West Rousey. I feel that's the champion versus champion. Well, I agree 100%. And like I said,

I think that that's the fight that might have to happen this year because Ronda's only getting bigger and if she beats Sarah McMahon and maybe Katzen Gano, I mean, there's not going to be a lot of options for her left. There's Alexis Davis, of course,

but that's a big fight that would get a lot of people into MMA and into that fight. So I think that with all these people being out, they're going to have to revisit that. And we're crazy to think that they're not already revisiting it.

Of course, they don't want to deal with Tito, and there's other factors involved, weight and all that stuff, but they're in the business of making the biggest fights possible, and that would be a very big fight for one of their biggest stars. So I foresee them really trying to do it in 2014.

I think that she needs to... I think getting Titor as a manager, not that I hate Tito, but I think it was the worst career decision she could make. I think she might already be here. Right now, it's not panning out, but again, she doesn't want to make 135, so it might be a moot point.

I bet you if you give her enough money, she'll make $1.35, no problem. That's true. That's a good point. Thank you. Anyway, thank you very much. If just possible, if I could speak to New York, Rick,

or someone in the back before you cut the line, if possible. A private combo, or do you want to talk to him right now? Yeah, well, yeah, just not on the line, but a private combo, just says something I wanted to ask. All right, you talk to New York, Rick,

and I'm going to read the question that's on the screen right here, okay? All right, fantastic. Thank you again so much. All right. New York, Rick, is that cool with you? Yeah, I'm guessing it is. Here's a question from Mitchie, Michi 4 off the website.

UFC 170, Rousey versus McMahon. Does the UFC giving Ronda such a quick turnaround represent them acknowledging Ronda's imminent retirement slash transition to movie star? And I got kind of cut off, but and an attempt to quickly cash in while possible. Less than two-month turnaround for Ronda shocked me. I think what it acknowledges is they need stars. They need stars who are actually. And as we've said a few times on today's show, a lot of them are injured or inactive right now.

So that event, they might have felt needed a main event. Maybe they didn't want to have Cormie and Evans go five rounds. Whatever the case may be, Ronda said she wanted to be active. Because she only fought twice this year and she had a long layoff in between, she wanted to be active, get a quick fight in, and then take a bit of a break. So this works out for her. And it obviously works out for the UFC. I was surprised, though, they went with McMahon only because,

because I felt like she wanted more time and her team wanted more time. And I thought maybe they'd go with Davis who fought twice in the UFC McMahon. Last time she fought was at UFC 159 back in April. But she says she's ready and I'll believe her. I'm guessing he's still on the phone there. Okay, we're slowly wrapping up here.

We're going to take a few more questions and then say goodbye. Some people, let me read some of these awards here. Fighter of the Year, this is from Di Gesso on the website. Belfort. This guy said, Coach of the Year is Longocero, too.

Camp Jackson's, Keo, Bigfoot, Overheim. Chris 27 says, his fighter is Wideman. Camp is Alpha Male, coach is Bang. This guy is J.B.13. Let's read his bold predictions.

Sunnan wins the middleweight title. Jones moves up to heavyweight. New York legalizes the UFC. Holly Home wins the Bantamweight title. McGregor Beataldo. Those are pretty damn bold. I don't like them. You don't like them?

Jockeray is the middleweight champ. Here's another one from Aaron M.M. Ariel gets his own TV show on FS1. Wyman goes unbeaten. Condit wins the title. Mayhem Miller has a drama-free year, and Rick finally gets on the MMA beat. Oh, I like it.

Wow. Let's read some more of these bold predictions. These are fun. Cruz beats Borough. Condit wins Walterway title, Aldo loses. Brock returns, Bisping fights for title. This is from E. Fockman.

Let's read some more. From Bunker, 707. Ronda will lose. Eddie Alvarez fights in the UFC. I see that one happening. Condit will end the year with the Walter Aid belt. Invicta will get a TV deal. New York Rick will be on the beat.

How about that? The people are speaking. I like this. Here's Wolf tickets with his bold predictions. Well, we can't buy anything he's selling. That's true. That's strange. Ronda Rasel retire

Anderson comes back Brock Lesnar versus Fador happens Dana and Rhonda Oh, this is stupid Dave Meltzer takes over the MAA hour while Halwani is away doing his military time in Israel Wolf tickets

Yeah, of course Now, by the way, someone mentioned this Maybe the Anderson injury means that there will be no Anderson and Chale On the ultimate fighter in Brazil That's kind of a bummer Oh man, I didn't even think of that

Yeah. Sean Bio, he writes, Nick Newell enters the UFC. I don't know. Eddie Alvarez enters the UFC. Anderson returns. Nick Diaz returns. Bellator Folds. I'd say those are some of the boldest ones. They are pretty damn bold. Here's some more.

I'm liking reading these. This is from S. Jensen 522. Belfort will defeat Wyden. Brown will defeat, oh, we'll fight Kane. Brock will fight for the UFC at least once. Connor will lose in 2014 after a step up in competition Jacques-Are gets a middleweight title shot.

I like those. Those are pretty reasonable. Those are actually pretty good. Stick with these as far as the year is concerned and then we'll revisit next year. Here are some more from Shaq MMA. Dominic Cruz will lose to Henne Barrel but then beats him in a rematch later on next year.

Wyman defends his title against Vitor. guess successfully. Uriah will fight for the title. Travis Brown gets a title shot and pushes Kane Velasquez to his limits. And number five is Ariel Hawani versus Rampage Jackson and Invicta. Here's Chad. I feel like a lot of these are in the similar vein, though. People are...

Sure. Yeah, they're... The topics are kind of similar. People know what they want in 2014. Chad Petrie. Hendrix takes the Welterweight Championship. Dana White announces Well, Dana White steps down as UFC president.

Overeign returns to kickboxing, winning a glory tournament. Chil Sunnan and Karen Bryant become play-by-play team for events broadcast on FightPass Network. Mighty Mouse faces John Jones in a weird last-minute catch-weight booking to save a UFC pay-per-view. No, that's not going to happen. Here's more. Anthony Lynch. Rousey will lose her title. Vitor T. K.O.'s Widens. Nick Diaz fights again.

Hendricks K. Lawler and the return of GSP. Two more. This is from TCE 1988. Brock returns. Hunt gets a title shot. Laller upsets Hendricks. Belfort ends Wydenman with a front kick.

GSP officially gets abducted by aliens. This is from KF1 Fizzles, or K-Fizzles, but with a one. Gus beats Jones, Newell signs with UFC, Lesner Diaz. Halwani shaved beard. Mendenhall takes off hat. No.

These last two just will not happen. Let's go for a couple more. These are fun. This is from John Boy. Gustafsson is the light heavyweight champ. Connor gets a title shot. Zengano wins the bantamweight title. Condit welterweight champ.

Chale middleweight title shot. That's the second time I heard that. Here's Sinoja. Sintone. Sin, Sino TNA. Some of these names you just can't actually read. Nelson gets cut. That's Roy.

Hendrix wins the Welterweight title. Successfully defends it at least once and goes into 2015 still champion. Jones gets rocked by Glover but recovers to win and then goes on to dominate Gustavson in the rematch. New York Rick breaks 10,000 followers. What are you at now? Six something. Chale retires and continues as a pundit.

Okay, two more. Gustafin will be light heavyweight champ. Faber will be AlfaMille's first champ. Nick Diaz will return. Ariel, journalist, of the year. Nick will finally be on the M.A. Beat. He earned it.

Does he mean Rick? Or Nick Diaz? I think you might have confused Diaz, but I would like to see Nick Diaz on MBA beat. That's the best idea of the whole day. That's from Hydro C. And then one more... Also, is Ariel Hawani winning Journalist of the Year bold?

I don't know. Oh, come on. Don't be bashful. MMA fans. 78, Halwani gets punched for instigating and changes Nick to Instigator instead of his nickname to Instigator instead of Nose. UFC underperforms expectations due to lack of star power. GSP returns. Jones loses title. Belfort beats Widman successfully defense the title again.

Wow. How about that? Okay. We're wrapping up the questions. Yeah, you want to just let's touch this last one, Uriah Hall. Okay. What are your thoughts on Uriah Hall's performance versus Chris Lieben? You know, I was impressed. I was most fascinated by his post-fight reaction afterwards.

You know, he seemed conflicted. He seemed like he didn't, he wasn't all that happy with it. He's such an interesting guy. He admitted that he's not a fighter. He's a martial artist. Anyway, it's good to see him win. Much props to Levin. That quote, I'm done, man. I think that's going to be, I think that's going to be, you know, one that will remember for. a long time and kudos to him for knowing when to say when. I'm still not sold though on your eye. I mean, given that, if you have that reaction to beating someone, especially your first UFC win, if you're like that after a win, if you are that conflicted, I don't know, I don't know if you just have,

it's going to be interesting to monitor. He is such a fascinating guy. I loved his walkout song. He's obviously very talented. But if you react to a win like that, do you have it in you? Who might have said, but I wasn't convinced after seeing that win. Even though it was a win, I wasn't convinced.

I think this person makes a valid point that Lieben was kind of an opponent that was tailored for Uriah Hall. He's slow, he's plotting. At this point, Uriah Hall can stand there and pick him apart. So I don't think we learned anything new about Uriah Hall. But, I mean, it's always, he's a flashy, talented fighter. but I agree with you. I like his mentality in terms of... It's refreshing.

He knows who he is. He doesn't... But no, it is not conducive to winning in the UFC. Right. Absolutely not. That's a problem. That is a problem. And he needs to change that.

But I feel like he's making the steps to changing that. He's admitted it to himself and admitted that he's admitted that Dana White's comments got to him and he wants to change something about it. But still being true to himself in the sense that, no, I'm not going out there to hurt people. He doesn't have a blood loss. He's a martial artist. but yeah I don't think we learned

much of anything new from Uriah Hall it's good to see him get a win though because people like him I like him I mean he's fascinating to watch he's a great fighter he's so dynamic on his feet

and he's very talented of course but you know I asked him a question I said do you enjoy this he said yes so I don't know if I believe him but that's why I asked the question I've never asked someone do you enjoy this

in a post fight interview he's a different kind of Kind of dude. Yeah. Any other questions? We can hit a few more Twitter. Yeah, let's do three more Twitter. Let's do that.

Okay, this is an interesting one. Which fight do you predict will be the most watched on UFC Fight Pass while it's free? Well, are we saying live fights? Is that what we're talking about? I think he means, no, because it's free up until... Yeah. Well, I mean, live fights, it would have to be Gustafin v. Manua. That's the biggest fight.

Wait, doesn't it miss that one? Am I wrong? Oh, yeah, you're right. It ends right before that, no? That's right. That's right. I've been talking for too long. So it'd have to be like a classic fight. That's kind of tough.

I'm pretty much picking from the history of MMA. Yeah, I mean, essentially this question is, what is the best fight in MMA history? That's true. Because that's the one that people are going to watch. I mean, I think Jones Gustafin is one of the best in UFC history, but I don't know it's too recent. I think people are going to be digging some of the pride fights,

just because it's been a while. you've never been able to access them this easily before. What about the showtime kick? That will be very highly watched. Because that's a moment, you know? Yeah, I don't know. This is tough. I don't really have an answer.

Or like something with Fador, I imagine, though. You think? Yeah. I think people are interested. There's a lot of people who weren't fans back then and want to kind of... Or like Sarah knocking out GSP like moments, you know? Yeah, you're right. I didn't think of that one.

Yeah, or like Anderson kicking Vitor. And I feel like the Sarah GSP one has a significance, like a relevance right now. I don't know. I don't know the answer to this, but there's a lot of great fights on there. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but I'm going to be all over it. I couldn't find like the old Strike Force events. That's what I wanted to see. I wanted to see like old Strike Force elite X.

I couldn't really find it. But in theory and on paper, it's a pretty cool thing. So we have two months to play around with it. Here's a quick hitter. What's more likely to happen in 2014? Aldo versus Pettis or John Jones versus Kane Velazquez? I'm going to go Aldo versus Pettis as far as more likely because Velascus is just going to be out for too long to get in a fight like Jones.

You know, there's going to be the Brown Verdume winner. You know, I could see, I could see, I could see, I could see Velasquez's only fighting once this year. So that's why. And this one's a personal one. What are some of your greatest accomplishment? Excuse me, accomplishments of 2013? and what are your goals for 2014?

Oh, man. So, honestly, I mean, I, he didn't, he didn't, I wonder if he means career-wise. I would just say being a father is my greatest accomplishment. He's a great accomplishment in my life. That is being a father, and, you know, that's the most important thing, and that's the best accomplishment. That's the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

So I will say that for 2013. What are my goals for 2014? I would say being a better father and husband and brother and all that stuff. And I know that sounds boring, but that does mean a lot to me. And as far as career is concerned, you know, I just, I want the, I want the website to do as best as possible. I really think that we have the best team possible. And I really do believe that we have our best team, arguably, in the history of MMA fighting. All the people who work on the site, all the writers, everyone behind the scenes.

And I think the show is in the best place possible. I mean, it's the show from where it was last year in that studio to where it is today and the quality of the show and the guests and everything. I think it has grown exponentially. Also, you know, getting to do more work on Fox and being on the show. desk more. That's an amazing thrill and I love doing that. Just trying to, you know, I think you have to always kind of take a step back and reinvent yourself and evolve. And, you know, I'd like to try to possibly, you know, do more of those walking talks and backstages. And, you know, we get so caught up

in the events all the time and that's the creme de la creme and rightfully so. But it would be nice to evolve and give you more coverage, give you more, give you more video stuff and and all kinds of different coverage from the stuff that we do on the site as far as writing is concerned, from the beat, from the post-fight stuff, from the event coverage, and then just outside of event coverage. So those are my goals. But, you know, when you ask me right off the top, it's just, you know, fatherhood and things like that. That's, uh, that's the best and that's what I continue to try to be better at. It's awesome. It's a good way to wrap it up. All right. Yeah. So I want to thank everyone. I want to thank everyone who wrote on the site. Couldn't get to all of you. But I am going to try to read everything. And I definitely appreciate everyone stopping by on the website or on Twitter writing us and doing so from yesterday. That's pretty awesome. It has been a great year. I appreciate everyone tuning in every week. You know, I got to tell you not to get too emotional on you guys.

right now, but sometimes it's tough. You know, you go on these trips, these events, and you get home in the late afternoon, and you know, you book a show, and you have to put it together, and you have to come back, you're a little jet lag. As I sort of felt this morning with the West Coast time, whatnot, and you come and do a show with no breaks, four hours. I'm not trying to say, what was me or anything, but the feedback and the interest that we receive in the show and the access to the fighters and things like that, it really makes it worth it. Like, I always go through this thing, and I was just a listening to an interview with Peter Berg, who is the director who was on the UFC pay-per-view this past weekend. He was saying that he did a commercial with, he was telling

this to Bill Simmons on his podcast. He did a commercial with Cam Newton and Tom Brady. And Cam Newton asked Tom Brady for one piece of advice. And he said that if you ever lose the butterflies before stepping out on the football field, then just walk, turn around, walk away, and don't play because those butterflies are what push you to be better, what push you to strive, to be the best that you can be, and that really gives you that extra edge over everyone else. And I feel the same about this show. I mean, before every show, I get super nervous and I have to go to the bathroom, and I just like start questioning whether or not I should be doing this show.

All this stuff goes through my mind. At the end of the show, I feel great. Because of all of you, because of everyone who helps make the show better in the back, because of all the fans, because of all the fighters who come on the show and help make our show the best. I believe the best show anywhere. I do believe this is the best MMA show on TV. I believe it's the best MMA show on the web. I believe it's the best. I think we have the best guest, the best fans, and the best platform. It's available to the world. No breaks. Almost four hours weekly. Can't beat that. So I just want to thank everyone for their support. And I want to thank everyone for tuning in

the time and for pushing us to be better and for uh for for for always supporting the show and for always um you know trying to be interactive and and asking questions and things like that just your presence is is a really big deal so alfred you can hit my music oh turn down the music for a second near quick way in i just wanted to echo what ariel said um we couldn't do this without you guys and you you guys make the show what it is and I'm very thankful for where we're at in 2013 and looking forward to where we're going to be in 2014. Thanks to everybody involved, Ario, the whole crew back here,

these guys back here working hard for you. Yes. And as I said, the fans. Yes, Alfred, Buzzkill, Michael before. Will, of course. Will, we're missing Will. Yes, thank you. And MMA fans are a very unique bunch.

They're a very unique bunch. bunch. They're a very passionate bunch. They're, they really love and live and breathe. And I get to meet all of you on the road and you're so nice. And I just can't believe how nice you are. It's just amazing how supportive you are. So that's, it's, you know, you say it all the time. But that's why I wanted to make this a fan appreciation. Just to give the floor to all of you, to give you guys a forum to interact as much as possible. I know we couldn't go four hours just doing that. But I hope you enjoyed it. And don't worry. We'll be back to the interviews next week. Now you can hit the music. I've always prided myself on making this show about the fighters. At the end of the day,

it's about the fighters, in my opinion. And you could turn down the music for just a touch. Just, yeah, it's a little too loud. And I think that this show will never change in that regard. I never wanted this show to be two people sitting in a room talking or anything like that. That's just not how I think an MMA show should be. The fighters are so good. The fighters are so accessible that we need to bring you to them. And I try to get the best of the best every week. So anyway, in case you're worried, we're not going to do this every week, maybe once a year. But next week we'll be back with the regular slate of guests and whatnot. So I want to thank Sarah McMahon for stopping by. Best of luck to her as she gets ready to face

Ronda Rousey at UFC 170 on February 22nd. That's going to be a huge fight. I really appreciate her stopping by. And then I want to thank all of you. I want to thank all of you for all your questions via the website, Twitter. The phone calls were great. There was great hearing from all of you. And we got good phone calls this time because in the past we got some crap phone calls. But now they were good. And it makes you want to take more phone calls in the future. And most importantly, I want to thank all the fighters who are on this show this year. Without them, there would be no show. Without them, there would be no sport. And after you see what happens to Anderson-Silvon Saturday night, really makes you realize what these men and women do for us and how brave they are and how talented

they are. It's really a thing of beauty and it's remarkable. We tip our caps and they are true their icons and what they do is nothing short of amazing. Anderson, hope you get well soon. All the best to you. And a happy new year to everyone out there. Happy safe and healthy new year. We'll see you right here next week on the mayor. Peace, Mario. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more.

DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From Deaf and Power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem.

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