MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 251

Episode Date: October 14, 2014

Featuring Holly Holm, Rick Story, Martin Kampmann, Joe Warren, Piotr Hallmann, and the Anderson Silva press conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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On this Monday... How about that? On this Tuesday, October 14th, 2014... Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani. It is not Monday. That is an old habit. It is Tuesday.

I was not here yesterday. In fact, I was flying home from the motherland, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I was there for a wedding on Sunday night, so it couldn't make it back in time. But, of course, we're not going to miss it. a show. We're not going to skip out on a week. We don't do that sort of thing. So here we are on a Tuesday. It feels like a Monday, though. And we've got a great show lined up for all of you. I'll tell you right off the top, in just a matter of moments, Anderson Silva is going to be doing a press conference in Brazil. And it's nothing huge. There won't be any breaking news, at least that I know of.

From when I understand, he's still fighting Nick Diaz, January 31st, etc. They're just doing a press conference in Brazil because it's a Tuesday. And they want to counter-program the MMA hour. Well, guess what? You can't beat us. We're just going to join you. So whenever that starts, Mr. New York Rick is going to let me know. The returning New York Rick, the tan New York Rick. He's going to let me know.

We're going to have a live look-in. We're going to watch it together. A little, it'll be like a mystery science theater. We're going to watch it, comment on it. Watch it for around 10 to 15 minutes. And then we'll get to our first real guest of the day. But it just felt weird to have a guest on it. same time as an Anderson Silver press conference. This doesn't happen often. He's done some

interviews here and there in Brazil, but these kinds of things don't happen. Often his first official press conference in front of the media in Brazil after, of course, his last fight, breaking his leg against Chris Wybin, all that stuff. In fact, my good friends over at MMEA history today tell me that it was eight years ago today that he won the middleweight title for the first time against Rich Franklin. How about that? It all comes together. Eight years ago today, Anderson Silva defeated Rich Franklin. But that's not all on this show. What else is going on?

Well, as always, at around 325, we'll take your questions and comments. It's been eight days since we last spoke. So hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour or leave a question or comment in the comment section below. New York, Rick, is back fielding your question, so I won't have to read them and answer them at the same time. Almost lost my voice doing that last week. Piotra Hallman is going to join us at 2.45 last week on the show.

In the middle of the show, it was announced that the Polish fighter had tested positive for a steroid after his fight against Glycine Tebowl last month in Brazil. He has a different take on the situation. He's going to join us at 245 from Poland. 225, we're going to be joined by Holly Holm. It was announced late last week that at UFC 181, she's going to face Raquel Pennington, December 6th. Now, on UFC tonight, I reported just around, I think around two weeks ago. I reported that it came down to Melena, Dutieva, and Pennington.

For a while, it seemed like Dutieva was the frontrunner. But I also mentioned Pennington. It ended up being Penitent. We'll find out why and how she's preparing for her UFC debut. Highly anticipated UFC debut. A Holly Home highly anticipated UFC debut. At 205, Martin Katman will join us. Of course, a coach now at Team Alpha Male.

Is he officially retired? Is he done as a fighter? We're going to find out. At 145, we're going to be joined by Rick's story. Of course, it was around nine or so days ago that he defeated Gunner Nelson in Sweden. Big win for the horror story. It feels like to me that he finally put that Charlie Brennaman lost to bed. Of course, he was supposed to main event that show against Nate Marquart.

Remember in Pittsburgh? When was that? 2011, 2010? And of course, you know, Nate Marquart pulled out. Brennman comes in, it gets bumped to a co-mate event, he loses the fight, totally derails all his momentum. It feels like the win over Gunner Nelson finally put that all to bed. And now we come to find out that he fought that fight for the most part with a fractured ankle. Pretty amazing stuff. Rick's story is here to stay. At 125, speaking of here to stay, it wasn't all that long ago that

I feel like people were saying Joe Warren should retire, that he was done, getting mauled by Pat Curn. it. Well, he has since dropped down to 135 and he is the new unified Bellator Bantamway champion. He won the belt on Friday defeating Eduardo Dantes a fun fight. A little controversial fifth round, illegal strike to the head. I thought a point should have been taken away. We'll ask him about that and a whole lot more. Is he happy with the new Belator and all that good stuff? And by the way, I forgot to mention that at around 305, we're going to go inside the vault. This is a fun one. I stumbled upon this one. Usually I'm looking for a specific interview, but I stumbled upon this one last week when looking for the King Mo interview. You know, last week I was talking about how the King Mo interview was

one of my favorite post-fight interviews. This one is up there as well because in just around three plus years, the interview subject has dramatically changed. You'll see what I mean. Looks different, sounds different, acts different. That's not all that long ago. And I'm not talking about myself, of course, who does look a little bit different, I will admit. But you'll be surprised. It's pretty shocking stuff when you watch how this guy acted three years ago as opposed to today. That's all I'll tell you about it. That's coming up at around 325.

The Anderson Silver Press Conference, of course, is en-retail, as they say in Montreal. You know, I got to say I was in Montreal, as I said, and, you know, the homeland is really looking good. these days. Other than the weather, although I believe today, it will be a record-breaking day as far as much our weather is concerned, the hottest day for October 14th. But I do long for the Great White North. Are my days numbered in New York? We'll find out. Stay tuned. More at 11. But it is great to go home once in a while, and it is a great life over there. I'm not going to lie. I'm not trying to turn my back on America. I'm very proud to be a holder of an American green card. Not quite a citizen just yet, but I just had to get that off my chest.

I think about it. I'm not going to lie. I do think about it. What's going on with this press conference? Ten minutes late? I guess that's on time for Brazil. Right? Before we get into the press conference,

I see a bunch of chairs. It's a riveting stuff. There's a lot of chairs there. I mean, who else is joining this guy? I see people walking up on the stage. Oh, there's Anderson right now. So I'll tell you what I wanted to say. Maybe in the middle of the press conference,

going to be watching the press conference with you guys. So here's Anderson wearing a lovely white shirt. No Nike swoosh. Hibster glasses. Who are all these people on the stage? Oh, I see his trainer. All right. Well, should we go to it? What do you say? Okay. We're making sure the audio is good, but Anderson is on the stage right now listening in. Seems very happy, very fit. There it is. That's Grace Turino. I like this informal look that they have here with the egg white chairs. My guess is it won't be all that riveting. That's why we're only going to listen to it for a few minutes. Good afternoon. Oh, here we go. I like to thank everyone for coming out. This is a very special moment. Too loud, too loud, too loud.

In reality, we organize this press conference with three objectives. The first one is to mark historically the return of Anderson Silva, the biggest idol in MMA in the world. a great warrior Anderson Silva and national hero Anderson today your return for us is the biggest important thing for us it's important to register that for him to come back to the sport

is something for all of us second come to every one of you in reality we had a lot of interview requests We would never be able to get to everyone. Yes, I asked them to be on the show. And this was a creative way that we used to get to everyone.

Very creative. I've never actually seen this done before. Ask your questions. Today is your day. We're all here available to answer all of your questions. Fantastic. And don't make fun of my voice, please. You guys bully me a lot.

Wow. And it's also very important that this press conference is shown throughout the world. is shown throughout the world. And most importantly, right here on the MMA hour. If you make questions, this is a big deal for us to be simulcast on the M&A hour. Everyone understands this whole process that he went through. For all the fans and for all the journalists around the world.

And third, to leave Anderson focus in his training in his camp. Leave him alone is what they're trying to tell you. Stop asking for interviews. Tomorrow, he will stop doing an interview. request, he'll be focused training so that he can go and face Nick Diaz on January 31st at UFC 183 in Las Vegas. That's three and a half months from now, no interviews. So please ask all your questions that you would like to.

Okay, but what about the Americans? I would like to present here, my left here, Dr. Marcio Tanori. Oh, yes, from CAB MMA. The doctor for the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission, to my right next to Anderson Silva is Rogerio Comoyes. He's a trainer. He's Anderson's strength and conditioning coach, and also to many other athletes. And also to my left is Master Luis Doria, who works with Anderson Silva's hands. And to our right,

is Ricardo Delhiva, trainer of Jiu-Jitsu. So we're here with we're here with a team to be able to answer all of your questions. The method that we're used today is we're going to answer three questions of the crowd

and also two questions from the fans who are online asking questions. That's cool. Through our backup table, digital table or a UFC.S. I will now pass the word on to Anderson, who would like to welcome everyone. Thank you. First of all, I want to thank everyone for coming.

And I want to say that I'm a little bit nervous. I know that you guys are going to make fun of my voice and my legs, but that's okay. I'm all fine, but it's a joke. I like to think Master de la Hiva, who's here in my new phase, he's here with me. He's helping me with my jiu-jitsu. I like to think my mentor, Rogero Kamois, my doctor and personal friend, Marcianourouye, and my professor, Louise Doria, who has been following me since I started my road in the UFC, together with Adelson, the whole team in Salvador at champions, who trains everyone at Team Noguerra.

That's it. Thank you, everyone, for coming out. That's it, let's go to the questions. Yes, people. Let's go to the first question. Good afternoon. Question for Anderson. Anderson, I think the most important is to know.

How is your trust in kicking? What are the doctors saying? Talk a little bit about your training. You're coming back training now. Are you confident kicking with your leg and do you think on fight night you'll be kicking 100%? The training sessions have been very good. I'm being able to execute all my movements that I used to do. Right after I got injured and I started to start,

because I didn't have a lot of strength. But now I'm recovering, I'm doing a work specific. And I'm working with specific work to recuperate my strength on my leg. And every day that goes by, I'm going back to my origins and being able to kick without any fear. And I believe that I'm finite, I will be 100%. Anderson? How was each step of the recuperation process? And did at any moment, did you think, of letting it.

I can go of him and not coming back to the octagon. What's your name? Isabel. Isabel? It was very tough moments. It's nice that he asked for a name. I play around because I have to play around. Hafinha's here and he likes to play around a lot with this kind of stuff.

He likes to make fun, so I'm playing around a lot with this thing, but it's something I like to remember too much. I went through the worst months of my life. months in my life. It was a lot of pain. In the moment when I broke my leg, when I when I realized when my leg was broken, I thought my career was over.

So, a million things went through my mind. You know, you might think that depression is not something serious, but I was depressed, I was very upset, and if I didn't have the people that I had by my side, Maybe I wouldn't come back. I had total support from Dana and Lorenzo. They came to my house. They visited me. They stayed with me for a few days.

My professor was here, Minotaro, Dr. Marsa Tanuri, they're all there helping me. And I think that's what maybe have the strength to come back. Another question. Good afternoon, Anderson. My name is James. My question is, my question is, if you're in your day-a-day,

in preparation, since it happened last year, with all your preparation and until next year, do you still think of what happened a lot? Or do you completely focus and you wish to forget what happened? In another way, do you think of it as overcoming, You'd rather forget everything it was in the past, it was something that was bad, and you'd rather look forward to...

Or do you think about it and use that as strength to overcome things? I, like, in the beginning it was a drama for me. But not anymore. I think it happens? It's like a regular job. And you could have a day at your job and your day couldn't be good. And in my last two fights, that's what happened. And also a little bit of mental tired.

I'm with my trainers, my team has not changed, we have only brought in some people with more experience to help that I can overcome everything that happened. So it's been great. I think that I'm coming back in a new phase in my life, it's something that went through, It was good as an experience, but I don't think it's going to be any hinder on me. Everyone, let's now go to two questions from the fans.

Anderson, first of all, congratulations. Eight years ago, you were winning the UFC belt on October 14th. And a question from Eric Carlos from Facebook, he's asking this time that you've been away from the octagon, what was the moment that most marked you? the most difficult, but something that you're going to take on for your life. I need to go back. The moment that most marked me,

when I arrived in my house, it was the day I arrived at home. I couldn't fly, I couldn't be on the airplane because of the pressure on my leg. And when I got off the bus, that the UFC made available for me to go back home, when I got off the bus, my kids were there and little Juan was there and little Juan was there and the first thing he said is daddy everything is good we love you

but that was the most marking moment I didn't expect I never imagined that I would arrive at home with my leg broken and see all my family there in that situation and Mara Rosa asked me the Twitter when your career is an actor, do you rather acting movie series or do you rather acting movies So Poppers, she said she also enjoys your commercials with Budweiser, is there any news with that? So my career is an actor. These days, I ended up saying something that people interpreted it wrong.

So I'm working on that a lot. It's something that I've always wanted to do since I was a kid. I always thought I was Spider-Man. I really had problems. I thought I was Spider-Man. I'm imitating people. I've been in trouble for imitating Rogeraumais in the gym. And my next one is going to be Master de la Riva.

Well, I've got a scovada of his, it's all right. So he already schooled me today, so it's all good. And this thing about being an actor, it's something that's always been with me. I like this a lot. And I'm going for that. I'm studying, I'm going after it. There's a few movies. that I'm already in production in Los Angeles.

So I'm having an opportunity, and I want to do this as well as I have done in the fight, and as good as I would do it in the fight. And now back to the crowd, please. Three questions. My question is for Camoins in Delahivo. Anderson has already said how important his team is in this process of returning. So I'd like to know from you, How is his return?

How are you preparing him? Is there any point that he's weary in kicking? I want to know from you. Is he weary? How is it going? Well, to start out, I want to tell Anderson that he could start as a comedian. Because the saying that I schooled him, he's playing around.

It was a great surprise when I started these trainings. I graduated Minotoro, his black belt. So I came in a gun's blazing. The first triangle that he got on me with his leg that was operated, he had no problem with that. So I think he's already overcome that. I think the training from now on is to go more and more intense. It's been eight years that I've been working with Anderson.

So there's a great relationship. Very transparent. And the lastro, that was created in this training. And I think it was a start that was brought up in this training. So there's no difficulty on my side. There's in this return of Anderson. His mind is very well. He's very motivated.

Very motivated. And this motivation makes our training He makes it evolve every day. In each training, he's better. His leg is responding very well. So in reality, our focus is to arrive in this specific portion of the training together with all the trainers. Create a strategy for the fight and not lose the confidence.

It's going to be a great success. His return, I think I expect a lot, and the whole world is expecting a lot. is expecting a lot. And certainly we will get to our goal, which is to come back 100%. Anderson, it's an honor to see this whole team together and you're returning. For all the Brazilians, everyone's very happy, you're an idol. If anyone understands fighting, they know you're a living legend in M.A. I know that you're probably crazy to get back in training.

I want to know about your leg. Is it a more dangerous weapon with all the nails in it? And is Nick Dia is going to be the one that's going to pay for it? The leg is great. I don't think it's... Even Dr. Tanurie says that he can't I can kick, it's no problem. This leg is not going to break anymore.

So I play around with everyone. When in doubt, I'll kick from the hip up. that way I don't have any problems. But I don't think I'll have any advantage. I'm going to have to keep training like I've always done. Focated. And with left pressure now. I don't have all the pressure of being eight or seven years,

winning. I just have to keep doing that. I felt pressure. So I believe the fight with Nick Diaz is a good Nick Diaz is a great fight. Especially because he's going to be in the same condition as I am. He's been for some time without fighting. And I hope to do a good fight with him.

All right, that's it for the press conference for now. If you want to continue to watch it live, you can do so over at m.mapfiting.com. We're going to move along with the show. Great stuff there from Anderson, by the way. The two things that really stood out for me, just how humble he is. I mean, he seems to be really happy,

He seems to be in a great place. He seems to be very content and relaxed. A little bit different than the Anderson we've seen in the past, especially with the media. I mean, he's always comfortable or at least more comfortable with the Brazilian media. But he seemed to be in a really good place there. So that is great to see. The fight is three and a half months away.

So, you know, we'll see how he looks and feels and acts in the days leading up to it. Also, those Brazilian press conferences just look so much cooler than the American ones, right? The lighting and the backdrop, they're all sitting there. I think they did a great job there. So that's Anderson Silva. It's January 31st, 2015, October 14th, 2006, UFC 64 is when he defeated Rich Franklin in just two minutes and 59 seconds. Here we are eight years later to the day.

He's talking about his comeback after. Remember we were on this show right after we thought he was done. But it's going to be great to see him back. And that's the perfect fight for both guys. It's great stuff from Anderson there. I'm happy that we actually listened to that. because it was a lot more insightful than the English conference call he had a few weeks ago where he seems less comfortable in expressing himself.

We'll move along for now, and as I mentioned at the top of the show, a big weekend for Joe Warren. You talk about a guy who, you know, some may have counted out. There were a lot who counted him out after his loss to Pat Kern, but he has come roaring back and he is now the unified Bellator Bantamway champion. He joins us right now on the phone. Joe, how are you? I'm good. How are you doing?

I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us and congratulations. Did you feel that, Joe? Did you feel that a lot of people after the current fight were counting you out, we're calling for your retirement saying that maybe it's time for you to hang it up? Did you feel that and did that fuel you on this comeback as a bantam weight here? Yeah, you know, the 145 when I had that featherweight belt,

it was kind of the only weight I could fight at when I came out of dream. You know, abandon weight still was in the WEC, and it really wasn't embellatory yet, and the money was at 45. So I fought there. I never really thought staying there, but I kept winning. So the pot, you know, just a bigger man, you know, it's just taller, 25 pounds bigger.

So after that fight, my wife told me it was time to fight back at my weight again or stop fighting. So it wasn't really the retirement thing that I don't really listen to a lot of the what's going on out there, but it was more just being smart, You know, it's just being who's a competitive weight. You know, I'm competitive at 135. 145, those weights just started dragging on me a little bit. Did you ever consider retirement after that loss?

No, that was my second year fighting, you know, ever. You know, so this is my fifth year, and I believe that I'm a mixed martial artist. Now then, I was just a wrestler. Had no idea how to strike or work on the ground at all. So it's hard for me to call for retirement when technically I wasn't even to the level of where I felt comfortable. You know, retirements, after you lose the gifts, you know, and things are not working anymore. You know, retirement's not when you're still competing and winning. You know, you're one of the great talkers in our sport.

You're very confident, brash. You can talk with the best of them, but I saw when you won the belt on Friday, you were very emotional. There were tears in your eyes. and it's not something we often see from you. Why were you so emotional? Well, you know, it's a goal setting. You know, it's something I've done since I was a kid. You know, they taught me at a goal set when I was young,

and I was somebody that's a goal achiever that's able to set those long-term goals and achieve them as a person that changes who you are. So I have to put my whole life into the sport and the, you know, the goal trying to get to that. It takes a lot out of me and my family. So for me, to set another long-term goal that's really big like that world championship and achieve it, it's satisfying. So you just saw a lot of prior motion come out. It was nice to finally have another belt on my waist and finally to have this guy that was running, get a chance to beat him. So it was nice.

It was almost like I had to prove myself again in Bellatorre, you know, with the new front office. So it kind of just cemented that, you know, I've been doing everything it takes for Bellator since it started and I did it again for them. What's your take on the new front office? Because as you may know, it created some buzz when you tweeted that you seemed to not be all that happy on Fight Week. Just a couple days ago, you were saying how you weren't feeling the love. Where did that come from? Yeah, you know, it's different than what it used to be. You know, I mean, they delegate authority, and I don't always get to have the conversations with, you know, Scott or the people that I assume I should have.

You know, I had a really good relationship with Born and Tim, so anytime you have a regime change that happens, they have a lot on their plate. And I just didn't seem like I was getting a lot of return calls, and, you know, I was fighting for little things that I haven't done in a long time, you know. And I was cutting weight, I'll be honest with you. I'm in the airport, cut in wait. Probably shouldn't have a phone in my hand. You know, so it was a little bit of motion for me more than anything else. You know, Bellator's never done anything wrong to me. They've always had my back.

They always give me those little opportunities that other fighters don't get color-comitating and the television stuff and was spiked. So nothing happened. It was just me, a little bit of attitude. I took it down as soon as I relaxed on the plane. But there was no real problem. It was just kind of me vending. So once you were there, Fight Week,

you've gone that first fight under the new regime under your belt. Of course, it went perfectly for you. You won the belt, but just interacting with them, what do you like better? Do you like the new regime or the old regime? Well, I'm just, I'm pretty excited of what's happening right now, like the future with Bellator. You know, every year it gets bigger.

Every year there's something different. So I'm real excited about this, the Bellator that's there right now. You know, I was excited to be part of the, you know, the regime that brought it to where it is now. And then I'm still with it, and I'm still their champ. And I'm going to be the champ coming into this new year when it's their baby, the first year with the new Bellator staff. So I'm excited. You know, every year it gets bigger. Every year, spike in VICOMs throw more money at it and makes it a little more exciting.

So I like being a part of that, you know, and I get to be, you know, the top stage are in the big. seats when it starts all over again this year. So I'm pretty excited to see. So I'm happy with what's happening right now with Beltor. You are a product of the tournament, though, and those are going away. Are you disappointed about that? Well, you know, the tournament's rough on a fighter. And I'm not the youngest fighter out there.

I'm old as hell. So for me, it's better for me, personally, because the name I have and who I am, I can fight bigger fights all the time if I want. instead of having to wait for someone to win a tournament, or if something happens bad, you have to fight three fights in three months again, and that's tougher on the older fighter. So I think, you know, they're trying to put more, you know, bodies in the seats and, you know, grow the organizational a bit,

and I think that's what Scott does really well with organizations. And I think all of us should be excited about the future next year and see any time MMA gets to step up another step. It should be exciting for all of us. So you finally got your hands on Eduardo Dantes. You've been chasing him for a while. You defeated him. But, you know, there was some controversy.

In the fifth round, you landed what appeared to be an illegal strike. And Joe, excuse me, John McCarthy gave you a warning, but he did not take a point away. Had he taken a point away, it could have dramatically changed the outcome of the fight. What's your take on the strike? Have you watched it since then? You know, if you can be as honest as possible, do you think a point should have been taken away? Yeah, you know, I did watch the fight last night. I was in a really strange position where both I had double, you know, chicken wings on them,

and I was on my head with both of our feet were up in the cage. So it was really strange. I was trying to push off the cage and kind of come back into an offensive position, and I kicked them right in the face. And it wasn't – I didn't do it on purpose. I don't think I could do it again. if I even tried in that situation. I mean, it was so clean, too.

I watched it last night. I couldn't even believe it. Yeah, it was shocking. I actually happened so fast. I wasn't even sure what really happened, you know. And I think that's the kind of the reason we have to have those high-level officials out there. People that's been in the game for so long, like Big John, that understood that that was bad, but it wasn't intentional.

And we were fighting as hard as we can to continue to be, you know, offensive. both of us. We're both trying to finish. And, um, you know, I think, um, I don't even know what happened if they took the point personally, but I think that I think he made the right choice. And I think both of us were fighting hard. Um, yeah, I think the camera angles were good. Yeah. They showed that he was bleeding before the, the actual kick. So it wasn't, um, nothing happened from that, the, the kick, but it was, it was a, um, pretty clean shot that I didn't expect who was going to land. I was going to push off the cage and come back up on top, and

man, it landed. So it wasn't something I intentionally meant to do. What did you say to John? It looked like you were briefly talking to him, but I couldn't quite make it out while watching it. What were you saying to him when you were kind of pleading your case? I told him, pushing off the cage.

Okay. And he, and I said, I was pushing off the cage. I'm sorry if something landed. Okay. And he, you know, he's he holds a really strong control in that case compared to a lot of officials. I mean, you can tell he is holding that fight, controlling it, you know. Especially with two fighters, like us, that really, you know, wanted to beat each other's ass,

and it was for something important, you know. He was doing such a good job of pushing my hands in between, you know, trying to straighten my arm, so he could go for triangles and arm bars. And I was fighting so hard back up that, you know, we were having problems with his shorts. We weren't grabbing each other's gloves or just hand-fighting so hard. understand that it was those situations he understood that he was able to understand that it wasn't always you know maybe a few a lot of guys grabbed to the cage on me they don't mean to i i finish real well on on double legs and it does uh so that happens a lot i don't think that was as intentional as he was trying to grab it i think it was also reaction you know i didn't feel a lot of

illegal things like if you're fighting a guy that's trying to be mean i didn't feel that I felt like a very competitive fight. So you said you just watched the fight again, or at least for the first time, what did you think of your performance? I mean, obviously you want, so at the end of the day, it was a good night for you, but were you happy with what you did out there?

Yeah, you know, I'm not happy. You know, I mean, I think I'm a way better fighter than that. It's just, it's really hard to, you know, you've got to win a fight also against a great opponent. You know, a lot of the game plan and things get thrown out, the window when you're in those hard fights. But, you know, technically I think I'm a lot more solid than I showed. I believe that my everything, you know, it showed that I'm getting better, but, you know, at the high-level competitions like that, you never, some things you can't land. You know, I got dazed

a little bit in the fight. He's a great striker. I was able to refocus and, and continue to keep pressure on him. I knew that if I kept pressure on this athlete, that there's not a lot of, there's not many people in the world that can stop the pressure I give. It was very slippery out there, you know, like, crazy slippery. Like, I was slipping while I was warming up out there waiting for him to get in a cage. So I just didn't want to make, I thought outside a lot for Bellator, you know, Yuma, Arizona, Louisville, you know, Pitbull, Marcos Gerville. I slipped a few times, pulling him off cages. So I tried to control him and make him fight out of situations.

He was a great fighter, man. There's how much I can say. You know, I was hoping I would have that finish and the first I was trying to go for it. But he came hard. His conditioning was really well. And, you know, that's what I think he can probably bet from a guy 10 years younger than you.

You know, Belator is using a new mat these days, which I think is a great improvement over the old one, at least aesthetically. Is that why it was slippery, or is that an issue with all the Belter? I'm not 100% sure. It's real cold in the venue. You know what I mean? and I'm not, it was, the mat wasn't slippery, the actual surface, it was the, the logos on it.

Okay. Wow. Is that something you're going to tell him about? So, I mean, I just, that was something that I noticed, I noticed that, you know, in a few fights before that, that that was a problem. So I was controlling more against the cage instead of trying to pull him off it, you know. He's a lot taller than I expected also. You know, like, he's a lot longer into your guy than. in what I thought.

He did a really good job wrestling, and the last two Brazilians I thought have been extremely tough fighters, man. Do you think they're going to do an immediate rematch now that the tournaments are no more? There was some bad blood there. He was the champion. Do you get that sense from them?

No, I didn't. I think probably he's going to have to run through the guys waiting in line right now. I mean, there's that Raphael Silva that they were supposed to fight also, and he pulled out of that fight. remember? And then I fought him instead. And so I think there's some other fights that he's going to have to have before me. I don't know. It doesn't bother me. You know, if I beat you once, it'll be easier the second time. What do you think they'll do with you next? I don't know if you saw, but Pitbull says he wants to fight you again. He says he wants another fight to, you know, a super fight, if you will. What do you make of that?

Yeah, I mean, that's way out of my weight class, you know. I don't know. I mean, I'm open to any fight like that. I fight for money, so if it wants to be a big money fight, I will fight rampage. But it's not going to be, it's not going to be what I want to fight. Yeah, you know, Pitbull, he was a great opponent. You know, I fought him on my deathbed, you know, and still it was able to beat him. He's a whole different fighter than he was then also.

So I bought a lot of guys at their primes, you know, undefeated or the best they've ever been. And once I beat them, I believe they got to be better fighters. Georgia Carhontian, I think Pitbull, I think Kern when we fought he got better. I think so I think those fighters also got better. And there's just a little bit of annoyance. There's a one guy that, like I beat them, and I'm still there. They want to fight me. So it's really up to the organization.

I'll do whatever it takes, you know. It doesn't really bother me. So, yeah, you never know. Maybe Pipball, maybe. Who was that? I think I'll stay at 35. I'm happy at the time. But you said you beat Pit Bull on your deathbed.

What do you mean by that? Well, I was real sick. I weighed in and ate some pork chops like that night and got real bad food poisoning. I was like, I didn't sleep at all. I was sick for like 14 straight hours, both ends. You know, I was an hour before the fight, you know, I was completely passed out. And I got an IV.

It woke me up a little bit, and I was able to fight that fight. But, you know, I didn't, I was in real bad shape. Wow. I mean, it is going in. So you're saying if you fight him again, even though he's gone better, it wouldn't be as close as it was the last time? You never know I mean it's really tough things

Maybe at 140 they can do it right What'd you say Maybe they could do it at 140 So it's fair to both of you Yeah you know I don't know if he can make that person Yeah that's true He's a big boy

You know personally Yeah I just At that point I wasn't the fighter I am now He's not the fighter he was now then He was a good fighter then also But you know I think these last two guys I fought Or as tough as anybody I fought

You know I think I've fought I've fought a lot of great opponents, and it's really, you know, the matchups. You know, I've just been a bad matchup for those hardcore strikers. You know, we often like to compare the champions. I did it recently on this show, the Bellator and UFC champions. Now that you're the champion at 135, how do you think you match up against T.J. Dillishaw? If the world's collided and they did these super fights, you confident you're better than him? Well, you know what I have to say.

I'm like an honorary alpha male guy. I'm up there all the time. Yeah. I mean, I've been training with TJ since the first day he got into Sacramento. So, yeah, I mean, I love that TJ has that belt. It's awesome. We're both wrestlers. His striking is great, but it always comes down to the baddest man on a planet. If it comes down to a wrestling match, you know, who wins that match. So, you know, we never get that opportunity. That's why I get the opportunity to go and train at all the UFC gyms, because I'm the Belator guy.

You know, they're never fighting me. So I can go train at Urias and at Greggs and all the other gyms, and that's, like, great for me. But, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'd like to get those fights. You know, that'd be fun for the fans to see those fights. But that'll probably never happen, but that would be a good fight, though, me and TJ.

How many fights left do you have on that deal? I think there are two more fights. Is there a champion? clause, though, as long as you're the champion, you're sticking around? No, that's the thing. I had real bad management and things for the last few years, and now I'm with Dave Martin. He's settled it out with Coker, and they got it down to like three fights, 12 months, or 18 months and three fights. So it's great. They redid my contract. They've been taking care of me,

and, yeah, so you never know. You know what I mean? I have an idea of maybe winning the Olympics, too, so. you're still thinking about that. I don't know why, man. It's just in that. It was my birthday yesterday. Happy birthday. And my, thanks.

And, you know, that was just in my mind again. You know, my wife thinks it's stupid that if I can do it, I shouldn't. So I don't know. The worlds are in Las Vegas next year, this year from now, right now. And it'd be pretty sweet to win the world championships in Las Vegas. When do you have to decide? Well, it's something that's deciding right. now. I mean, I'll still keep

fighting, but when I tried to do it last time, Pat Kern knocked me out seven days before the trial, so I lost into trials, but I probably shouldn't have been wrestling in the first place. But I didn't think at this age, I'd be talking about this again, but

you know, I'm faster, stronger, and lighter and older, and, you know, those are things that make wrestlers better. Wow, so, so do you think, right now you're leaning you leaning towards it? Kind of a little bit Yeah, if I can get the support that I need

Yeah To be able to do the fighting and And wrestling You know, I'd still continue to fight That's what I do know You know, the wrestling would be You know, just for fun You know

But, you know, I think spikes on board with me And, you know Maybe see some television out of it It may be fun, you know So I'm open-minded I need another goal to sit in front of me I'm sitting here with too many belts

and I'm thinking, I'm thinking maybe go get another wrestling one. Always keeping us on our toes, Joe Warren is. Well, happy birthday to the 38-year-old Joe Warren. That's going to be interesting. Good luck if you do decide to achieve that goal. And congratulations on the win, a great fight, a really entertaining fight on Friday. Always great to have you on the show. Enjoy the win, and we'll talk to you soon.

Thank you for having me, guys. I really appreciate being on. All right, there he is. Joe Warren, the new UFC Bantamway champion. that's crazy. I mean, I don't know. I don't follow that stuff as much as other people in MMA and, of course, outside of MMA, but 38 years old, active fighter, champion. I mean, I wonder if Belator would be okay with that because you probably have to take some time off, especially as champion, that might be tough, but that is interesting stuff. He said it on this show. Maybe, I mean, back in the AOL era, I feel like it was, or maybe not. Maybe it was in the other studio, but that would be interesting. He's got a year, I guess, to figure it out. All right, let's move along. As I mentioned, uh, was around, what when was it, 10 days ago in Sweden. It felt like it was going to be the Gunner Nelson coronation. It didn't turn out that way.

It was a fantastic performance, a fantastic win by Rick Story, really reasserting himself as a player at 170 pounds. And afterwards, the win was even more impressive when we find out that he was fighting the majority of the fight with a fractured ankle. We're going to talk to him about that and a whole lot more right now. He joins us via the magic. of Skype. There he is, Rick's story with a fantastic Skype connection. We appreciate the time very

much. Rick, how are you? I'm great. Thanks. All right. First things first. How is the ankle? It's getting better every day. Right after surgery, it sucked, but the pain went away pretty quick. I mean, it's still a little painful, but I think it'll be good to go in the time that the doctor told me. Which is what? He said about six weeks, but I have a follow-up appointment next Monday and I'll get the exact number from him. At what point did you realize your ankle was messed up in the fight? Was it only afterwards or in the middle of the fight? It was in the middle of the fight for sure. I know it was closer to the beginning because I quit throwing my left leg kick because it was hurting. It was

hard to step on and put pressure. So I watched the fight through and it could have even happened right at the last second of the first round when I kicked his, when I kicked Gunner's arms or his elbows. So I'm not really sure. I just saw myself walking off and it looked like I was limping a little bit after that kick. So I think maybe that could be a minute. It's unbelievable to me. I mean, I sympathize with you. I'm no fighter.

I'm no great athlete, but I have broken my ankle before. And it's the worst pain in the world. Looking back, are you shocked that you were able to do it? did with that kind of injury, especially since you suffered it early in the fight? Not with the amount of adrenaline that you have going. Adrenaline is pretty amazing. There's times where it was three days after the fight, I start to feel pain in certain spots. So, I mean, having the broken ankle or the fractured tibia or whatever, it was noticeable.

And usually if you notice something in a fight, you know something's wrong. And is it in a cast right now? No. What's it now? It went in and took the bone fragment out, so I have a boot that I have to walk around in. Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun. You know, the mood there and the scene there, of course, I wasn't there, but just leading up to the fight, it did feel like this was Gunner Nelson's opportunity to really become a star.

You know, a week prior, Connor McGregor, his teammate fought, SBG, his team doing so well. They're in Sweden, which is as close as you can get to Iceland, his home country. And it felt like, all right, let's pick a guy who's tough, who has a name, who has a solid resume, and, you know, he'll be able to do his thing. Was that the sense that you got, especially with all the European media there, not a lot of American media? Did you feel like you were being kind of set up to propel this guy into a star? Yeah, that's definitely how it felt. and, you know, it was always like back in a compliment saying that I'm tough coming from, like, reporters and saying, sorry.

No problem. He wants his airtime, or she wants her airtime as well. Saying that I'm a tough opponent, but what really makes me think that I can win or whatever. And it came from most of the reporters over there. and I just was thinking that it was going to be the hardest fight of Gunner's life the whole time. And I don't know. I've had tough fights and I've been to underdog before. So it wasn't anything unexpected.

You know, even afterwards, people were saying, well, this is an indication that he should move down to 155. I mean, giving you a lot of credit, but just that talk, do you feel like you're not getting all the credit that you deserve for beating this guy, giving him his first loss? And then again, not really just for the fact that you know everyone hypes fighters up and everyone gets a lot of hype

and then all of a sudden they don't want to consider themselves wrong or to give somebody like the credit they deserve so then they just say well he should go down to 55 now and it's just not really taking the blame for like really accepting the fact that they were really like wanting him to win and not admitting it. You've been in the cage with him now. What do you think?

Is he too small for 170? He actually looked a little taller than you, a little bigger than you, but no one says that about you, so what do you think about him? No, I mean, in the clinch, he was very strong. He took me down. He took me down a couple times.

Granted, I didn't go for any take downs on him. But he felt like he held his own very well, especially in, I don't want to wrestle with him, but he was an easy. to move around on the feet and the clinch. So I think you could hang in the 170 division just as well as 155. I mentioned at the top of the show

that this felt like you can finally put the Charlie Brennaman disaster, if you will, to bed. You know, this is your first main event since then, a real big opportunity from the UFC, and that really was a disaster for you. You were supposed to main event against Ney Marquard, of course, 24 hours before the fight, he has to pull out, he's taken off the card.

Brennman comes in, and you are riding great momentum, I mean, you were so close to getting a title shot then. And it's been a bit of a rocky road since then. But now, without win, main event, beating a great prospect. It feels like we don't need to talk about that anymore. Do you feel the same? Yeah, you know, I wanted to quit talking about it as soon as it happened.

Sure. I mean, it happened, and it was definitely a rocky road in my career. I definitely shouldn't have taken the fight after three weeks of beating Alves. But, you know, I did what I did. and can't take it back, but I feel like I'm in a good place now, and everything's looking good for my future. Did you regret taking the fight against Brennamen? Did you sulk and did you dwell on this loss for a long time?

Yeah. Every time I go in training, I would try to push myself harder just for the fact that I lost. But I learned a lot from it that the psychological aspect had a had a, had a lot to do with fighting and going in with a clear mind you know is where you want to be and i definitely wasn't in that state then did the fight remain with you for your next few fights or did you officially get over it once you file like can we not use that as an excuse uh i don't think that's really something that you ever really get over sure it is something that's always in the back your mind, but, you know, you can't dwell in the past. And I've kind of let it go,

but then again, it's a lesson learned. And I'm not going to let that affect my future. So, I mean, I still remember it. I remember it. But I can put it past me. And just as long as I keep winning, you know, it'll, it'll solidify that I am in a better place. You know, back then, of course, part of the lab, which is based in Arizona. I think the world of the head coach over there, John Crouch, a lot of great fighters come from there, most notably, Benson Henderson, the former WEC and UFC Lightway Champion. What's the difference now? Because it really seems like you've put it all together since joining those guys. You know, they just let me have the freedom of going in and doing what I think works. And obviously they show me a technique.

and whatnot, but they even say it themselves that I come there as a really good fighter, and they just kind of tweaking little things here and there to help my game. And for the most part, they just, sorry, my phone's ringing. For the most part, they just let me go out there and do what I can do. and they give an environment where I don't have any pressure and it's fun again. It feels like you bounced around a little bit over the last few years. How did you settle on them and what's the difference between that place and some of the other? You've been at some great gyms.

What's the difference? Why does it work so well there? Well, I didn't know going in two fights ago what it would be like when I ended up going down there. I actually wrestled in the same district in high school as Ben. and we also our colleges actually wrestle each other as well so we knew each other from wrestling from high school and in college and when he was just about to fight for the wc title we talked to each other in Texas and i got his phone number and it was always an option or always in my mind to go down there and train with them and check it out but when i decided to leave my last camp i gave him a call

find out if I could go down there and he welcomed me. So I went down there and started training and it was a good fit for the first camp and then I had a short turnaround into this last camp for a gunner. I'm not counting out the options of checking out other places. I'm not going to call the lab like home for sure just because I want to give myself an option to check other places out. What are you thinking about? Any place in particular or places? Nothing specific. I mean, nothing really seriously rings a bell right now. I need to do some research or just some traveling and training just to go find out what I feel fits best for me. I'm a bit surprised to hear you say that because it feels like the perfect fit. It feels like you've

looked tremendous since teaming up with them. So why even consider that? at this point? Well, I mean, there might be like better benefits for me as far as being able to go out to the beach if I want to. Okay. Or, you know, just like weather. Or just being comfortable outside of training. Everything's not all about fighting. I'd rather be comfortable like 100% around rather than just in the training room. So what you're saying is you're not a big fan of Arizona. I'm not saying that. I'm not a big fan of the heat. I went there in the hottest part of the year. Right. But at the same time, I mean, even in the Northwest, in the winter you can dress up to go outside. When it's 115 degrees outside, you don't want to go outside, period.

You know, a big thing for me on this show and the other shows I do and just talking about the post-fight interview and the art of calling someone out. and, you know, giving the UFC, you know, the blueprint as to what you want to do with your career. So you were coming off the biggest or maybe most high-profile win of your career. And we're not trying to discredit some of those other big ones because they were very big at the time. But it may have end and all that stuff against the great prospect. And, you know, you said the classic, you know, I'll fight whoever they want. And you didn't go the route of saying you want this guy next in order to move up the rankings. Do you regret that?

Do you feel like that was an opportunity loss? not really i mean that's not really my personality i think i made it pretty clear that i want somebody in the top ten yeah and when i said anybody i meant anybody in the top ten and what about now have you zeroed in on someone not not really i i mean the wealthy division in the top ten still got some fights to pan out sure and uh i think i would have a little bit more clear idea after a couple weeks goes by. And chances are, you're probably out?

Is it safe to say you're probably out for the rest of the year? Because of the ankle? Yeah. Or the tibia? I would say so. Ideally, when do you want to return? I mean, I haven't really thought about it.

Not, like, seriously. Right. Just for the fact that, you know, I want to find out, like, how long it's exactly going to be from my ankle. but, you know, as soon as my ankle's healed, then I can start training again. You know, I have a good camp under my belt before I fight.

So two months. Probably like five months. And, of course, the great thing is the great feather that you have in your cap is that you have a win over Johnny Hendricks. You gave Johnny Hendricks his first professional loss. When you watch him now doing what he's doing, and I know he's been out for a little bit, but almost beating GSP.

A lot of people thought he won that fight, defeating Robbie Loller in a great fight. Is he a different fighter? Is he a different guy than you fought a few years ago? He's just a little bit more aggressive. He's more confident with his punches, and that's something that you've got to be aware of, and it's definitely dangerous,

especially getting hit by him. But, you know, I said once, I was the only fighter to keep Johnny backing up. And I really think that's the way to beat him. That's the key pressuring him? I think so. I mean, I see other fighters and they don't really pressure him too much. They respect his power.

Do you feel like because you have a win over him, even though he wasn't the champion, that will help you kind of get, if you just win a couple more in a row, like most guys need to win a heck of a lot to get a title shot. But because you have a win over him, and that's an easy. fight to sell, maybe two, three against, you know, top 10 and then top five you can get right in there? Do you feel that way? I think so. As things have gone in the past, you know, how they want to hide fights and get things going, I think I have a good opportunity under my belt to be able to put on some good performances and get some good wins and then really campaigned for a title shot just for that. And will you do that though? Because you say you're not that kind of guy. well when it comes to the title yeah you know i might need to step outside the box a little

and really work for a title shot you know uh go for the gold you know it is unfortunate because like in the NBA you don't have to campaign to get a shot at the title but our sport is a little different that that is a part of it these days the UFC i mean look at some of the guys in the past who have gone title shots the UFC listens to that especially if you get the people behind you so um for whatever it's worth and you don't need my two cents I think that's a good approach. Yeah, I think it is too. And I just got to let the win speak for themselves.

And then once I get the ball rolling for me, you know, I might try to push it over the top. Well, you're off to a great start. Congratulations on the win once again. Enjoy it and, of course, get well soon. And looking forward to your next step, it's going to be an interesting right now because I feel like a lot more people are noticing,

including ourselves. I mean, look at the media, they perhaps haven't given you your due, but I think now with the win, as far as the UFC rankings are concerned, you're 12, and certainly a top 10 fight would make a whole lot of sense, and if you win that one, then we're really in an interesting spot. So best of luck to you. Thank you again for the time and get well soon. All right, thanks a lot.

There he is. Rick, the horror stories stopping by. Great win for him over Gunner Nelson over in Sweden just 10 days ago. Right now, as I mentioned, UFC rankings have him at number 12. And, you know, regardless of what we may think of those rankings, which isn't a whole lot just based off some of the decisions and the decision makers, which is media, but a lot of media that I've never heard of, and I question how much they actually follow the sport.

Those are the ones that we're going off of. Those are the ones that are being advertised. Kelvin Gaslam is number 11. He's fighting next month in Mexico against Jake Ellenberger, who's number eight. Dungian Kim, Tarek Safedin, they're tied for nine or ten, depending on how you look at it. Maya is out for quite some time with that arm injury. Maybe it's one of those guys. Maybe even though they're coming off losses, it's one of those guys. Because then you get into the Lombard Brown. I mean, Brown is out there. It might be a while. But those ones could be interesting or, you know, it would be a fun one. Jordan Mien, who's right below Rick Story. That might not make him too happy because he's 13. But Jordanian versus Rick Story would make a whole lot of sense if you ask me. We'll see. For now, let's move along. We're talking about the welterweight division. Guy has been a part of the UFC Welterweight division for quite some time, a mainstay for many years.

It's our next guest. Martin, the hitman, Catman, joins us right now via the phone. Martin, how are you? I'm all right. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. So I say you've been a mainstay in the welterweight division for quite some time. Are you still a part of the UFC's Welterweight division? Yeah, I'm still signed with UFC, but I'm still signed with UFC, but I, I don't have a, I'm on a indefinite creative.

I'm taking a, I'm semi-retired, as you might say. Semi, are we leaning towards fully retirement, or have the wins kind of? No, I mean, I'm taking a break and I'm focused on different, you know, I'm focusing on coaching and stuff like that. And, you know, I'm still signed the UFC, I have a contract with UFC, but I'm just not, I just don't have any fights lined up, and I don't plan on having any fights time up in the future.

I'm focusing on coaching right now and, you know, I still love fighting, so never say never, but I can't see myself fighting anytime in the future right now, but, you know, never say never. Of course, we'll get to the coaching in a second, but just curious, why don't you just fully retire?

Is there a reason why you're leaving the door a little bit open? I mean, I love fighting, you know? That's what I love to do, but unfortunately, I don't have to have my share of injuries and uh you know it's kind of put things in perspective that i can't be fighting forever and i got to watch my watch my health as well you know i got i got kids and uh and you know i want to i want to be healthy for my kids too when and why did you come to this realization this this conclusion that this was the best move for you i just bugging with too many uh injuries i've had

i've had my uh my share of concussions and and it's not you know it's not always uh fun so uh i I had some fights where I took some fights where I shouldn't have taken them, but I pushed through it, and that was a mistake in retrospect. But, you know, I can't change that now. But now I'm trying to watch out for my health better than I've done in the past. You miss it? You miss being under the lights in the cage fighting. I mean, the last time you fought was just over a year ago against Carlos Condit.

So it hasn't been all that long. Guys have been out. I mean, Anderson Silva talking right now. He's been out for around the same amount of time. so it's not uncommon, but you say that you're semi-retired now. Do you ever get that itch? Or have you not, you know, have you not been away for that long? All the time.

All the time. All the time. All the time. I get the itch, of course. Yeah, I like fighting. But like I said, I got a, my health must come first and foremost, you know. What do you do to deal with the itch? I get a little bit of training in here and there, do a little bit of grappling. And I know, like I said, I'm coaching now.

So coaching other people, you know, that I'm still staying in the game that way, you know. So I'm still staying in the game, coaching other people and helping them. And I'm getting a little bit of grappling in here and there too. So at what point did you start thinking about being a coach? Is this something that you've always wanted to do? Did it come later on in your career? When did it cross your mind? That's always something that I've enjoyed coaching guys.

that are talented and hungry and, you know, want to be the best that can be. You know, I never have fun coaching guys that, you know, come in once a week just to get a sweat on. You know, I like coaching guys that want to do something, you know, that those are the guys on Jerry coach, and we have a lot of those guys here at Team Alpha male. And, you know, when I started training back in the day, at first we didn't really have any coaches so much, so we were kind of taking turns to just run in practice in Denmark a lot of the time. So I was actually a coach when I started my career. We were kind of taking turns to the guys.

And I've also been helping, you know, a lot of the guys in Vegas, a lot of the up-and-coming guys at Coutaurs will tell you that. You know, I've tried to help them. And, you know, I've always had the feeling when I have training partners, you know, if I help them get better, they're going to, you know, if they become better, they're going to give me a better look as well, you know. So they're going to help me get better. better. So I've always helped guys that I've been trained with, and I enjoy coaching.

You were part of that kind of glory period for Extreme Couture when Extreme Couture was really hot. Did you assume the role as a fighter coach? Did you do that as well while you were there in Vegas? No, I was mainly a fighter. I was a fighter. And my first one, Couture opened up. Me, Gray, Tyson, Pile J, Iran, you know, a lot of the guys were also. coaching classes. Then later on, I just started doing, we're only focused on fighting. But I'd still, you know,

a lot of the helping coming guys that was training with us, you know, I'd be helping them out and, you know, making sure they were improving and not making the same mistakes over and over again. And that's, you know, guys that are hungry to come in and get better. And, you know, when guys keep coming in, you know, if they keep getting beat up, you know, that's, that's a, that's, uh, that's, uh, That's a, you know, that takes a certain kind of guy.

So I enjoy teaching guys that are hungry to come back in there. You mentioned Team Alpha Mail. We know you're a coach there now. Are you the head coach? Is that official? You're the head coach of Team Alpha male? Yeah, I'm the, I'm an M.A coach out here. I try to focus on all aspects of the M.A game,

and I've been running the pro-training for their M.A practices. So do you live in Sacramento now? Yeah, I just moved out here. I moved out here. I've been hauling all my stuff out from Vegas and moved to Sacramento now. Staying here full time. And so how does it work?

Because we know, of course, well-documented, Bang Ludwig was the coach and still somewhat affiliated with the team. T.J. is still with him and Chad as well. I believe he'll be cornering Chad. So how does that dynamic work with him not there, but still affiliated with the team and you coming in? Yeah, I mean,

Yeah, Bang's done a great job, obviously, with the striking and helping guys, you know, improve on their striking game. And, you know, I came in right here in the middle of chats, training camp. So, you know, I don't think that's a good time to change anything up. And I think, you know, he's had great success thing. And I'm just, I've been coming in and running the pro practice, and I'm still getting acquainted to a lot of the guys since I just moved out here. I've been, of course, given my take on what I think they can improve on and what I think they should do for their fights.

And, you know, I kind of focus more on Hermes as a whole and not just the striking. So that's where I feel my student takes. Obviously, I have a pretty solid background in striking as well. I feel like to help a lot there as well. but I feel I'm very well-rounded and can contribute to the whole part of the game. So to be clear, you won't be in Chad's corner in a couple weeks in Brazil, right? No, he's already, I just came out here and he already had everything set up, so I won't be going out there.

But? I got a, I got to defend a poker title in Reno. Oh, okay, we'll get to that in a second, but what happens? I mean, TJ, will you be the guy in his corner? or will you be with Bang? How's that going to work out? Because it seems like they're very close now. I have no idea.

I have no idea what the plan is there. But right now I've been running practices out here and helping the guys the best that I can. And I'll be cornering your eye for his next fight. And whatever. I don't, TJ right now is not even training. He's injured. Sure.

So, you know, I haven't had any work with him at all whatsoever. or so. We'll see. I don't know. Right now, I'm just, I'm focused on coaching the guys here, and I've been out, obviously, I've cornered the drive first last fight, and I've been cornering some of the up-and-coming guys, we just had some three guys fight this weekend, and we had two wins, one split decision loss, but it was kind of BS. The guy got bit in the year a couple of times, and the referee didn't say anything about it, so that's what it is. You know, I've been focused on running the pro practice out here and getting everybody better and helping the guys as much as I can.

You mentioned TJ's injured. What's wrong with him? I think you should probably ask him about it. Okay, fair enough. It's different being in someone's corner as opposed to fighting, which do you prefer? Maybe perhaps there are more nerves when you can't get in there and do it yourself. You're more emotionally invested in these guys. What's it like being in the corner as opposed to inside the cage? Yeah, I mean, it's good and bad.

I like being in the cage, too, but when you're in the corner, sometimes, like you said, it can be frustrating because, you know, you can only do so much, you know. I mean, the guy that's doing all the work is the guy in the cage, you know. You can only make a little contribution. Most of the competition goes beforehand in preparation for the fight, you know. When it's in the fight, you know, you can hope they listen, but they don't always. You know, people don't always listen. There's a lot of other factors that can affect, you know, like fatigue and stuff like that, then people don't have to.

But it's so it can be frustrating being in the corner of when people are doing what they're been working hard to do. But I like both, it's different, you know, but definitely, like you said, I can get nervous to be in the corner of somebody as well, especially with somebody I know well. Right. How did it come about this opportunity? Did you reach out to them or did they reach out to you? I saw they were looking for a coach I reached out to them to Uriah

and I've been out here coaching him for his last fight camp and you know all the guys really enjoyed having me here and I've had a lot of positive feedback on the stuff that I've been showing and on the practice I've been running so you know then we decided and obviously it was also you know tri-up period for me

because I got to see how I like Sacramento and how My family likes Sacramento because it's got to work. But, you know, so far I really enjoy it out here, and then they've been enjoying it at me out here. So now we make the move, and I'm here full time now. And it seemed like for a while, like they were looking around and there was a trap here for you within the gym. What was that like where you kind of had to sell yourself

and go through this interview process, so to speak, when you don't have the job 100%, and you have to go in there and mesh with the team, when you almost like win them over. What was that experience like? I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't really see it so much that way. You know, I feel, I feel I was here and I'm just focused on doing what I, why I feel I do well and I think I'm not trying to win anybody over.

I'm not trying to boo anybody. I'm trying to do the best than I can do. And I think that speaks for itself. Did you, go ahead, sorry. You know, I also I was also down in Arizona and talk with the guys down there because they were also interested

in having to come out and start coaching. But, you know, I think I have a great, great master in Team Alpha male. I have a ton of good guys. And the guys down in Phoenix are also great. But it's so damn hot there, you know?

I used to live in Vegas. It's a desert, you know? I don't know about moving from one desert to another desert. You know, out here we got a lot more trees and the, And that's nice. Which team is that in Phoenix that you're talking about?

That was the power of me. Oh, okay. With the Bader and CB and those guys. And did you go there for a little bit? Yeah, I was down there a little bit. And, you know, they have a great group guys. They have a ton of, they have a ton of studs coming up too that, you know, you haven't heard about yet, but it's going to do well in the future.

And what was it like coming in and now assuming the role as head MMA coach when there was such, you know, positive press and good vibes with the whole Bang Ludwig? Did you feel like there was there was a transitional period? Did it take some time? Did you get the sense that it took some time for guys to warm up to you? How did you feel about it? I mean, some guys obviously, you know, you have to, I think I just go in there and coach. I try not to focus too much on the, on, I've been going in there and coaching, and I think what I do speaks for itself, and I've had very positive feedback from all the guys.

And, you know, they really enjoyed the practices and the stuff that I've been doing them. And, you know, I take that as a compliment. And that's the reason why I'm still here, you know. And of course, we know about Benavides. and Mendes and Faber and all those guys. Is there one guy who we may not know of who's not in the UFC that really has you excited as a coach that you think can be

the next one? They produce great talent there. It's really a spectacular team. Have you pinpointed one or two names that you really think can be the next superstar coming out of that, Jim yet? They have a lot of tough guys up-and-coming guys here and like you said, they've really produced a lot of great talent. I think one guy that's really, really good

that's not with UFC, is Lance Palmer, you know, he's got a, he's very good as he, as it is right now, but he's also got a ton of potential. What about this poker title that you mentioned? What do you mean you have to defend it? What is that? I want a poker tournament back in Reno this spring and was fortunate enough to win 50 grand. Wow. So they're having the same event here in a couple weeks, and of course I've got to come out. try to defend my title. We'll see, hopefully,

hopefully get a good streak of luck like last time and get another win. That would be awesome, right? When you say here, do you mean Vegas or Sacramento? The event is in Reno. The event is in Reno. Okay. Is it a one-day thing or one-night thing

or multiple days? They have multiple days, multiple days. There's a lot of, like, smaller tournaments leading up, and then there's the main event, which is going to be spread out over a weekend. and I know I might come out there for a couple of smaller events, but obviously I'll probably be busy coaching here at the gym,

so maybe not so much, but I'll definitely come out for the main event and play that weekend. Is it like the World Cup where if you won, you know, the year before, you automatically have entry into the main event? Not really. No. If you want to have entry, you just got to pay up. That's pretty much for this.

What's the fee? The buy-in. I think it's $1,100. Okay. And do you have sponsors? Sometimes I have. Sometimes I have to play myself. And were you always a great poker player, or was it because of your time in Vegas?

I've always enjoyed playing poker, but I never really had the balls to play more expensive tournaments. Then, you know, I had the opportunity to play this event. I had a friend that, you know, and also stake me for some of the money. and I played the event and I won the whole thing. So that was obviously a great experience. That kind of, you know, got me some bigger balls to play some of the more expensive tournaments. And this summer I had to, you know, I had to pleasure playing the World Series of poker, which always, you know, been a dream to play that.

You know, it's the biggest poker event, you know, it's a $10,000 buy-in and first-drive's like $10 million. Unfortunately, I didn't have been cash in that one, but, you know, it was still a great experience to play. And, you know, I had some sponsors. in that one, I sold some of my my winnings, too, you know, but I still had, like, more than 50% in my, myself, so for pretty much no money.

So that was pretty awesome. But, of course, it would have been a lot more fun if I want with death and money. So you're going to continue doing this, even though you're a coach, you still plan on progressing as a poker player. I enjoy playing poker on a hobby. You know, that's a side thing. You know, it's a hobby of mine.

And, you know what? I mean, if I start throwing too much money away, then I'm sure it's not a hobby that I'll continue. But I might have to scale it down a little bit. But yeah, first and foremost, I'm coaching right here, and over is a hobby. All right. Well, best of luck with the coaching, Martin. It's great to have you on the show. And I'm really curious to see, you know, how things go with you in Alpha Mail.

Your eyes speaks the world of you. So I think that's obviously a great start getting his blessing. and let's see where things go from here. So good luck over there. Good luck with the poker as well, and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you very much for the time. For sure. Thanks for having me.

All right, there he is. Martin Katman, transitioning now to head coach over at Team Alpha Male, one of the great fighters, strikers, to come out of Europe, and certainly was a mainstay in the UFC's welterweight division made his UFC debut back in November of 2006, defeated Talas Laitis.

He won three in a row, lost to Nate Marquart. And that was when he was fighting at 185. Good choice to move down to 170, if you recall, won a split decision over Carlos Condit. And what was Carlos Condit's UFC debut. And one of the things about Martin Kampman that was interesting about his career, a very underrated takedown defense. Remember when he fought Jake Shields at UFC 121, a lot of people thought he won that fight. Would have been a huge fight for him.

You know, he was really streaking when he fought Paul Daly on short notice, lost to Paul Daly at UFC 103 via TKO, rebounded with big wins over Vokman and Paul Tiago, and got the Shields fight, which was somewhat controversial, no doubt about it, and then fought Diego Sanchez, and that was super controversial. If you remember that, that was in Kentucky. It was always the victim of those close fights. But put things together, defeating Rick Story,

defeating Tiago Alves, and then defeating Jake Ellenberg. derailing him for a little bit. And then after the Johnny Hendricks loss, that was the real tough one. 46 second lost in Montreal at UFC 154, came back, fought Condit again, and that was his last fight, at least for now.

And it sounds like for the foreseeable future in the UFC. Best of luck to him as a head coach. All right, let's move along. As I mentioned at the top of the show, last week it was finally announced, Holly Holm is going to make her long-awated UFC day debut at UFC 181, December 6, Las Vegas, Nevada. It's going to be against Raquel Pennington.

So we wanted to have her on the show to talk about that and a whole lot more. We have Holly Home on the show right now. Holly, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing great. Wow, you sound so happy right now. Why is that?

Maybe because training's done for the morning. I'm on the way to go eat lunch. Oh, I thought you were just going to say because it's been a while since you've been on the show and you were excited to do the interview. Oh, that too. All right. Well, I'll take that. I'll believe that. So you got the fight.

A few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago, like two or so. I reported that it was down to Melania, Dutieva, and Rakel Pennington, but at the time, it seemed like Melena was the frontrunner. Do you have any idea how they settled on Rekal Pennington for your UFC debut? I understand that I think they said Dutava is getting married. Oh. And they were actually waiting for it to see if she would take this fight. And then, you know, depending on what she said is when they went to Raquel.

So I believe that's what I heard anyway, that she's getting married in December, and so she wasn't wanting to take a fight at that time. And so that is how they came to Raquel Pennington. So it was just kind of, I think they had asked, you know, kind of Bolivam and, just went from one to the next and kind of just put it on place. And which did you prefer? Which matchup did you like better? I don't ever prefer or pick or anything.

I am, I figure the one day that I say, oh, this is the person that I want to fight is the day that I'll get my butt handed to me. So I just, you know, I just waited to see who it was going to be and went that route. There really wasn't anything I was. really wanting or preferring over the other. You know, I just kind of wanted to... It's nice to just have the opponent name so that I can work on that game plan,

and that's really all that I have looked into it. So have you looked into Raquel yet? I know it's been just a few days, but have you looked into her, and if so, what do you think of her as a fighter? She's coming off a loss to Jessica Andrade. She was on the ultimate fighter, of course. What do you make of her skills?

You know, I think that she's going to be a bit of a threat, in every way. She's going to be tough. I don't really feel like she can be mentally broken. I feel like she's going to go out there and go hard. And I think I just want to work on a good well-rounded game for it. I don't want to get too focused on just one thing, you know. I don't know.

I'm sure that over the next couple weeks, we're going to get more of a real detailed plan, you know. But I think with Jessica, she's got. you know, skills in kind of every bit, it's not like there's one thing, like watch out for this one thing with her. You know,

I think she's kind of more just, she'll be like a little bit of a threat everywhere. And I just want to work on being ready for any situation we get into. So the last time you fought was in April. You broke your arm in that fight. It was announced in July that you finally signed with the UFC.

And it seemed like for a while they were zeroing in on a November debut. This is early December. December, so not that big of a difference, but did the arm heal a little slower than you would have liked? Oh, yeah. I mean, I would have liked it to heal in like a week, you know? Well, yes, of course. Oh, then I thought in, you know, a couple months it was been fine, and it definitely took a long time.

And there was a point where I got really frustrated and I asked the doctor if I was healing slowly. And he said, no, this injury takes a while to heal and you just have to be patient with it. There's not like a real kind of blood flow in that area. It kind of takes a little longer. And he said, it's not like, you know, you have like a little fracture. And then the bone kind of fills in inside the fracture. It was a complete break. And the whole bone had to completely reconstruct together.

And so just the time. And I still have been training a lot in this time, you know, for a while I couldn't spar or anything like that. But I still did a lot of drilling, a lot of conditioning. But I don't feel like I've had. you know, six months off. I was up running, I think, a week after my surgery. So I've been doing a lot of things like that.

And, you know, I had six fights last year, so I guess coming off of such an active schedule, it was kind of a change for me, but maybe it was good for me to kind of focus on some other things and really worry about technique instead of just like one exact, you know, game plan for a fight. So I've kind of tried to get better, get, like, more, you know, tools for my toolbox, I guess, so that I can kind of be a little bit more well-rounded and just have more things that I can turn to instead of just, you know, using the same things I always go to.

So kind of been trying things that are kind of out of my comfort zone, just to get more comfortable with them and hopefully I'll be able to, you know, showcase them in my fight. How close to 100% is the arm now? It's 100%. I just got released from the doctor last week, actually. He said, I'm done. So, I mean, there's... And I've been punching for a couple months.

I started punching white. And about five or six weeks ago, he had told me he's releasing me to the point where, if anything, feels uncomfortable, still don't do it. And everything felt pretty good. You know, there was very few things that kind of felt uncomfortable. And the only things they really kind of limited me on were pull-ups because that still is all my weight kind of pulling on that. And that was the last five weeks. But last week he's like, do whatever you want.

Everything's good and it's healed. He told me they don't even make an appointment to come back. So I feel confident with it. I've been sparring with it. I've been hitting with it. I've been doing a lot of mitt work for already, you know, a month and a half. So I feel like it's getting better and better. Don't get me wrong.

There was like little tender points from like nerve and stuff, but nothing that's like actual injury. You know, so I feel good with it. A lot of people have been asking me if I feel uncomfortable, you know, using it and not having really the full confidence in it yet. And I feel confident in it. I think it was harder for me after I had been knocked out to come back and, you know, those first flying sessions. like taking shots in the head, thinking, am I okay, am I okay? Right. That, to me, was more of a mental, like, stress to get over than,

a bone, I mean, once, you know, it's healed, it's healed. So I feel confident, and I feel fine with it. You know, your story was one of the great talking points for a long time, as far as UFC news is concerned, and it was, you know, one day, it seemed like you were close, and then the deal wasn't good enough, and, you know, we went back and forth, and every time Dana White did an interview, there was an update, How comfortable did you feel with all of that? You were very much in the news for a long time,

and this seemed like something that was somewhat new for you as far as MMA is concerned. Did you read the stuff? Did you listen to it? Were you up to speed? And if so, how comfortable were you with all of it? You know, I've not read everything or heard everything that was written. I didn't want to just sit at home and consume myself with it. It's a lot of, I mean, it's in simple terms, I mean, it's a lot of pressure.

There's a lot of expectation for me to do well with all of this height. And I don't want to definitely do well, but I don't want to sit at home all day stressing about it and wear myself out over it. I just really want to remind myself that for me, I always just want to do the best and be the best. and I have to train for that. And other than that, I don't really want to get too overwhelmed with a lot of the attention around it. I'm very fortunate that it's there and I'm very appreciative of it because a lot of people

want that and, you know, that's there for me, the exposure and all that has been great. So I'm very, you know, fortunate to have that and I do appreciate it. But I definitely don't want it to be something that, you know, gives me so work. up that I don't just train and stay focused, you know, on the actual fight. I don't want to get too sidetracked or distracted by all of it. Are you happy with the deal you got from the UFC? I'm very happy with the deal I got from the UFC, and I'm very excited to be able to be part of the organization and fight for them.

It's, it's, I have to sometimes remind myself, like, wow, we're here already, you know, and let's just go with it. Let's just really do well, and let's really just, you know, let's not take this for granted. And that's, you know, what kind of keeps me driven. You've been doing MMA for essentially three and a half years.

You say already, are you surprised it was this short? I mean, just seven fights, three and a half years. Was that a part of the plan, or did it come sooner than you thought? I guess I never really like put a timeline on it from the beginning and yes you know my MMA debut was three and a half years ago but I didn't do any MMA for a year and a half in that I had two MMA fides and that was in I think it was a June MMA site of 2011 and I didn't have the MMA, the rest of 11, or all of 12, until February of 13. So I, yes, my, you know, my big deal was three and a half years ago, but I had those two

fights, and other than that, I really didn't dive into it until February of last year. So this last year, I feel like, yeah, it's like went on a fast track, you know, because all I did was boxing for a year and a half, which I love, but now I'm just glad to be, you know, just 100% MMA and really focused on it. And you mentioned the pressure as well. I mean, you almost have 40 boxing fights under your belt as opposed to just seven MMA fights, and you were champion, of course, highly decorated as a boxer. Do you feel more pressure as you enter your UFC debut than any of your boxing matches?

Yes. I feel like in boxing. everybody was kind of like the doctor that wanted to like take me out. And so I felt like everybody was like reaching to like be the one that can knock me down. And so I felt like a pressure of that. And after a while in boxing, it's like, man, anybody has like a puncher's chance, you know. But there was kind of this expectation of just me to do well. And which is good kept me, you know, motivated to keep wanting to,

excel and succeed at it. So there's kind of that pressure to not lose on that end of it. This is a different kind of pressure. I feel like there's still this expectation, which I guess, you know, it's just in a different way. It's not because I've been around forever,

but because I feel like even with the amount of media around it, I think a lot of people are like, a lot of the girls are, you know, okay, I want to be the first one to get her. I want to be able to you know, have my legs on her. And so I feel like there was a target on me still, which is good.

I feel like it's, like I said, I just try to use it as motivation and something to keep me driven. And so I can't say that this is, you know, more stressful in any way, but it's just different. And I do feel like I'm kind of starting from, you know, the bottom of this new mountain and I want to climb this new mountain and I want to conquer it. But it's really hard to compare too many things from boxing over to MMA. The mental games and stuff like that are really similar and really same, but it's still different.

There's a lot of different things that go into training for MMA. And, yes, I have a lot of boxing fights, but I've only trained MMA for two years. And I haven't been doing grappling last. whole life. Like a lot of these girls, I haven't been doing wrestling my whole life. So I feel like I am on a fast track, but I prefer it that way. It makes life fun.

Are you officially done with boxing? Yes, I am. Never fight again. Never fight again. Is that because of the UFC deal, or did you decide that before signing with the UFC? I decided that in March of last year. Oh, wow. Okay.

I had my so I had the two fights in 2011 for MMA, and then I had a boxing fight, and I thought, you know, I'm just going to do both. I'll just alternate them. I'll do an MMA. I'll do a boxing, you know. And I got knocked out by Ann Sophie,

and I definitely wanted a rematch with her in boxing. And so I didn't do any MMA training. I just focused on that boxing fight. And I wanted that rematch so bad so that I could avenge my loss. And after I did that, I avenged my loss, and then we had another, you know, boxing fight schedule that year, and then I was supposed to fight with Sicilia Bricus in April of 2013, and that didn't go through, she took a fight with me in St. John, and I was kind of already

training, and so I thought, you know, let's see what else is coming in, and Bellator had come into town, and they were having some fights, and so my promoter had talked to, with them to see if they had, if they, you know, want me to be on their card. And it was for MMA. And it was already January at this point. So I just changed for, you know, like a month or maybe five weeks back in MMA. And I took that fight in February of last year. And I just really, really had this new drive and this new passion for it.

And the night actually of that fight, I was in the locker room and my, My promoter came in, Lenny Frescos, and he said, I know you don't like to think about more than one fight in a time, but I had your next walking fight schedules for you as well. And that was in the locker room after my fight with Belvoir in February. And he said, you know, it's going to be the very beginning of May. And I said, okay. And I left there, and I kind of was, I just wasn't really excited about it.

And I came to the gym, I would be training. And my training was just kind of, I wanted to kickwalk. I wanted to wrestle. I wanted to grapple, and I had a hard time being motivated to want to just boxed. And so about halfway through that training camp, I told my coach, I said, you know, this is it. I told myself that I would only box as long as I'm passionate about it, and I just don't feel it anymore. And so I'm going to listen to that. I'm just going to be done, but I've already taken this fight in May.

And so I'm going to finish it out, and the motivation that I have for this is that I just don't want to end my career on a loss. So that was my motivation for that. And when the fight was over, you know, everybody I think thought I was just kind of hogwash. Are you really done? Are you really done? Yes, I'm really done. And when I actually, I was curious to see how I would feel after the fight. I thought, man, if I lose, I'm not going to end on a loss.

And then I thought, well, if I win, am I going to, like, love that feeling and want to do it again? And I remember when the fight was over, I was in the rain with a win. with a win and I was very excited to be, you know, close it out like that, but I like had no, like, I thought it'd be hard to get out of the ring because I would never get in one again like that. And I, I like couldn't wait to get out. It was just done. And then I thought, well, over time, how will I really feel? And I just, I really don't have any, any, uh, want to do it anymore.

I loved it while I did it. Everybody asked me if I like MMA more. I can't say I like it more, but now I like it now. This is what I want to do now. Obviously, I love boxing. I did it for 12 years professionally. So obviously, my love for boxing was there and it was awesome, but I just, I love for what it did for me. I love things I learned from it, and I always will appreciate it, and it will always have a spot in my heart,

but I just don't have a desire to keep going with boxing. I like the career I had, and I just am very fortunate and very blessed with it, and I just that's as far as it goes. And you're certain that you don't feel this way about combat sports in general, right? Like, it's possible to feel exclusively that way about one form of combat sports and not fighting in general? I think that's maybe why it was easy for me to say goodbye to boxing, because I'm still fighting.

Right. You know, I think that's why a lot of these people that say, oh, I were, Oh, I'm back. Oh, I'm back. Oh, I'm back. Did you miss it? You want that? Well, I still have that. I still have that competition. I still have that fight in front of me. So maybe that's why it's easy for me to be done with boxing because I still am fighting. I haven't given up fighting. And I love the kicks. I love the wrestling. I love the things that I'm learning. And so I have a whole new drive about it.

So it's great. You know, there's a great desire at some point to see you fight, Ron. Ronda Rousey, it's been talked about for a long time. She talks about you a lot. Everyone talks about you and how you would match up with her. What do you think about Rhonda as a striker? Because that's been a big talking point about her these days. She knocked out Alexis Davis in just 16 seconds.

Everyone talks about her improved striking, how much she's, you know, she's improved and how far she's come as a striker we know about her judo. But since that's your expertise, what do you make of her striking? You know, with Alexis Davis, a lot of people were thinking, you know, after she threw her down and hit her on the ground. I mean, she hit her clean with that overhand, and that's what knocked her out. And then she was quick to bring her down and finish her. So I was very impressed with it. You know, she landed a very clean shot.

It wasn't anything lucky or, you know, it wasn't, I thought it was a very good, fair call. I thought it was a very clean shot she hit her with right on the, you know, right on the jaw. It's just, um, and then she also has the knee to the ribs, uh, of McMahon. And so obviously she's really, uh, getting a very well, well-rounded game. And I think that she has cleaned house. She has cleaned house. I mean, anybody to get in there with her just doesn't really give her a hard time. And so she's definitely, she's great, and I think that she is very good, and I admire her for what she's been able to accomplish.

And, you know, hopefully I'll be able to step in the cage with her eventually and have that honor to be able to fight someone who's definitely, you know, she's the best in the world with what she does. and I admire her for it. And I always say if you're in the sport, you have to want to beat the best. And so obviously that is a goal of mine. If not, I shouldn't be doing this with my job. So, yes, I look forward to fighting some of time, and hopefully we can do that, you know. I just want to focus on one side at a time for right now, though.

I don't want to look too far ahead. You know, I have Raquel Pennington in front of me. I do always make sure I watch Rhonda's fight, so don't get me wrong. But a lot of these other girls are still going to be a threat for me, and so I want to make sure not look too far past. Realistically, how far do you think you are away? Because I could just see it happening. I see, you know, let's say you win December 6 and you look great,

and I'm sure you're expecting that. I could just see the questions coming, everyone wanting to put you in that fight. how far away in your mind do you think you are from that opportunity? I don't know. I'm really not fun to talk to you about that, I guess. I never put like a timeline on it. The way I always looked at it is I'm just going to ride the way.

And wherever I'm thrown out, I'm just going to try and make the best of it. And that is really as far as I look at it. You have a different fight after Raquel Pennington. Awesome. And if they throw me in with Ronda, awesome. You'd be okay with that right off the bat? or do you want more time? I feel like I always want more time.

I want more time. Even the leak of a fight with anybody. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm not ready. There's so many things I want to work on. I need to perfect these things. So that's why I'm never the one to make the calls. I just, no matter what, the way I look at it is I always want more time. Because I always want to learn because I know I'm never going to be perfect.

There's always something to perfect. I have been boxing forever. I still feel like my job has so much work. And so I constantly want to keep learning, and I don't feel like I never feel like, yes, I'm ready. However, you give me a fight, I get in it, and I am going to believe in myself. And that is the hardest part.

You've got to get in there and really believe in yourself, because if you don't think you can do it, you're not going to do it. So whoever they give me, I believe that I can beat them. But I always feel like I want more time. And so I feel like if they gave me the fight with Ronda, I'd be like, all right, let's get a game plan, and it's going to work, I'm going to do well. But do I want more time? Yes, because I always want more time. I feel like there's so much to learn all the time.

And obviously, she is very, very seasoned with, you know, her skill. Of course, it looks like Katz and Gano's next for her. Do you think Cat wins? You know, I think it's going to be a good fight. I think Kat is a very, she's been around a long time, she's been under the spotlight and kind of, you know, been under the pressure. I think she knows how to handle it. I think, I think Rhonda is, one thing about Rhonda, she never lets anybody get to her mentally. She gets in there feeling like she's going to control that fight.

And I feel like she's going to impose her will on that. but I feel like Katzen Grona is definitely going to be there trying to answer to that. And she's going to do well, but I don't really like to fit too many predictions on things. I definitely want to see a good fight. I like to see good fight. I like to see what people's qualities are and their strengths are. And who doesn't want to see Rhonda go out there and see what she does, have learned, and what she is doing well, you know,

so you don't really get to steal out of that in a 16-second fight. So I do think that Katzenegana's going to come out and have a show, and I do think that we're going to have a good fight to watch. Well, Holly, I really appreciate the time. Great to talk to you. I wish you all the best in training, and also I want to wish you an early happy birthday.

I believe it's your birthday on October 17th, right? Yeah, just a few days away, three days away, so enjoy that. Don't eat too much cake, as I know. The fight is right. That's my squad right there. I'll eat it. The whole cake, easy.

But I can't wait for it. And by the way, can you confirm this? I heard, and this wasn't from my bosses at Fox Sports 1, but I'm being told that it looks like the fight's going to be on free television, on Fox Sports 1, and not the pay-per-view. Is that accurate? I don't know. I don't believe that you don't know.

I really don't. Okay. I'm so bad about that. They say it's about it. opening to it's December 6 and I go, okay. And I have not asked if it's going to be on free PD. I have not asked that it's going to be on pay for you. I honestly have no idea.

All right, fair enough. But you are no stranger to Fox, right? You used to fight back in the Best Damn days, right? You've been on one of those. I said. I fought twice on Best Damn Fight Night when they had on Thursday night with Best Damn Sports Show. Yeah.

So that would be... And there was one here and one in California. and then I actually did commentating for them once, which was awesome. That was fun. And is it true, by the way, that you've never fought in Las Vegas as far as your pro career is concerned? That's crazy. Wow.

I know. That many fights. So you'll finally get the Sin City experience on December 6th. I know. I'm looking forward to it. And I know you were at the Wayans at UFC 178, so you got a taste of that. I don't know if it'll be that raucous with all the Irish people there, but it should be fun. I loved it.

I thought it was awesome. I had to come home and find out of my friends the night of the fight that's, you know, I'd leave the morning after way in, but I definitely just wanted to go.

I love to be around stuff like that. Who doesn't love energy like that, you know? People are really living life and really living in the moment, and I loved it. I loved the energy. I look forward to your debut,

December 6th, UFC 181. Holly Home versus Raquel Pennington, much-anticipated UFC debut. Thank you for, for the time, Holly, and good luck in not only training, but the fight as well. Thank you so much. All right, there she is. Holly Home, great stuff from her. A lot of people looking forward to that debut. It's been talked about for quite some time. Great that they got the deal done. And she is someone to watch at 135 pounds. A former boxing champion, if you don't know about Holly Home,

she has really established herself as one of the greatest female boxers of all time. And she made the transition over to MMA. And so far, so good. Undefeated. and O, and a lot of people want to see her in there sooner rather than later. It's going to be interesting to see what the UFC does. They're going slow. Remember, Jessica I called her out and some other people wanted to fight her, but they're going slow. Cal Pennington, no slouch, very tough fighter, is coming off a loss, but I think this is the right way to build her up. Don't throw her in their right then and there. But I can guarantee you if she wins and looks good on December 6th, there's going to be a lot of people calling for that Ron to fight, especially since

as we talk about often on the show, timing is everything. Rhonda looks like she wants to fight on January 3rd. Nothing confirmed just yet, but the timing is certainly going to line up. So we'll see what happens there. But interesting times at 135 pounds as far as the women are concerned. All right, let's move along. One more guest to go. And as I mentioned at the top of the show as well, we talked about it on this show last week because it broke during the show that Piotr-Hulman, according to the Athletic Commission in Brazil had failed his post-fight drug test following his loss to glycine T-bow. Since then, Piotr has come out and refuted that piece of news, those results. So we wanted to have him on the show to discuss this and where he goes from here.

We go to the Skype machine. We go to Poland right now and welcome in, Mr. Hallman. Piotr, how are you? Hey, I'm okay. And how are you? Where in Poland are you joining us right now? Yeah, I'm in the north of the Poland in the Gdysk. All right, well, thank you very much for taking the time out.

I know it's a little later in the evening over there. It has been eight days since this news came out, and we'll get to your side of things. But no one wants to, especially if you believe that you are innocent, no one wants to be associated with this kind of thing. What's it been like for you the last eight days? How has life been since this news came out? I'm in front of all.

Yeah, I am injured. I have my jaw broken, so it could be. I will not speak clearly. I want to apologize for that, but yeah, I am resting in my home because of the injury. So, yeah, it was not pleasant days, you know, of course. But I can handle it, yeah. Can you eat anything with the broken jaw? Yeah, I just drink.

Wow. It's wired right now? No, I have just screw. Yeah, I have a good. gum. I have gum on, yeah, so I have to keep my mouth shut. How much does it hurt right now? Yeah, it's not hurt. Just a problem with eating. Okay, so it's not a nuisance for you to do this interview.

Yeah, it's not a problem at all. And what's the timetable for recovery? I think three weeks more. Okay, and then you'll be able to eat and you'll be fine. Yeah, yeah, it will be all fine. At what point in the fight did this happen? I think at the beginning of the first run I think it was just

it was not the hard punch I think I would because I have my at the time I have my my mouth open so yeah it was weak spot and yeah the physics work against me so yeah did you know right away that it was broken

I feel like just like my teeth go up I feel yeah but but I did I didn't know it was painful, but I didn't know it was broken. Okay, so let's talk about the drug test result. The CABMMA, which is the Athletic Commission in Brazil, they claimed that you failed for Drostanlon, which is a steroid.

You say this is not true. You have never taken this, correct? Yeah, this I can say for sure. I never take this. I even don't know what kind of drug is it. So, and it's even hard to find out what kind of drug is, is it? But, yeah, I can take, this I can say for sure I didn't take this. So why do you think this came up?

Why do you think that you failed for this? Or at least why are they saying that you failed this? Yeah, of course, yeah, well, when you, the things like this came out and you are surprised with this, of course you have many theory, but the most, A simple choice, judges, they make mistakes because, yeah, it is tough to give somebody like to take something like this and don't know about this, so I think, yeah, that there is no other option that I take this and don't know about this. If I will take this, I will know about this, so I think they made mistake.

I hope they make this. Right. And it's not intentional that somebody, you know, set me for this. I think they made mistake. Obviously, that's a big mistake to make. And they claim that, you know, they've gone to a WADA accredited lab, World Anti-Doping Agency Lab. And that's obviously typically very reliable.

So I have to ask, I mean, if you think that you did not take this, were you on anything else that could have led to this? I mean, were you taking any other kind of drug that you believe might have led to this positive result? No. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. It had to be injection. I didn't take any injection. Yeah, especially in this period of time. Like any vitamin, nothing. So there is no possibility for me to take the data that, well, I try to find out. So there is no possibility for me that I take this. I take this. So I read the statement that you put out to the media about what transpired that night.

that missed it. Can you tell us exactly what happened? Because you believe that based on what happened after your fight, something screwy might have happened, correct? Yeah, of course, I was fighting in Europe, and I was also going through the examination in the US, and it's look much different that the things happen in the Brazil, you know, and I'm not detective, and I just get the message that I am positive and yeah of course I am not detective is hard to say in you know what what point they made mistake because and I think they wouldn't not like to to do to say that they make mistake even if they will so yeah but if I go to the hospital and they say that everything with me is okay and then I get first x-ray in

Poland and I see that I am not doctor but I see that my job is broken and the one of the representatives from the commission came to me and say that he do the mistake with the label but he will take care about this so I think it's not professional I don't know in which in which point they make mistake is it because of this or something different because I am not detective and I have not know inside in all the papers and all the and to be honest I even don't have knowledge to know know all the procedure and find the find the mistake but it is easy to believe that they can make mistake especially if I believe that if I know that I didn't take this so they they could

make mistake but I don't know in what point you know In your statement, you talked about the commotion afterwards and the drug, the blood test that they made you take that you think led to this positive result. But Cristiano Sanpiao, who is the CEO of the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission, told a reporter from my site, Guillermo Cruz, for MMAFighting.com, that you failed the pre-fight urine test, that it wasn't the drug test that was administered after the fact, the blood test that led to this positive result. Do you confirm that you took a urine test before the fight as well? Yeah, yeah, of course. But, you know, as I said, I don't have insight in all documents, and I don't know the procedure, and it's tough to defend. Because I don't know if what point they make a mistake,

but if the things like with the broken jaw or with the label that I know that they made wrong. So I can believe, and it's simple to believe that they made mistake in other point, you know, with the urinal. Because, yeah, it is easy to believe if you see something like this. And it was surprised for me what happened. So why do you think no one else on the card failed to test? I don't know. I even was, I don't want to have any theory.

I just know that I didn't take this. And I don't want to have any speculation, you know. I just saw how they handle the test itself and how they care in the hospital. So I always like to fight in Brazil and I always was happy to visit this country when I stay longer last time. But I can believe that things are working different in that country. And of course I also, I not read much about. about this matter, you know, I try to keep away from this, but I read the article you told me, and yeah, I think the Sanpio,

yeah, he feels the matter very personal. Of course, what is about it, that he will try to not admit that they are guilty at any point. So I think he feels this personal, and, yeah, I feel just accused. Have you talked to anyone from the commission about this? No, I just go in the contact with my lawyer. He told me it will be tough to defend. First of all, I ask them to send me what kind of drug is Drosten alone.

They send me the least. And also I will need to have insight in all the documents, all the papers. work, it will be tough because I am in Poland, the commission in the Brazil. And I don't know, I would try to have insight in all the procedure, everything, but it could be in other words to fight them because it's always too hard to fight with the system, you know. Especially if I read what Samkhya, he takes this very personal, personal and I cannot be. believe even if they knew that they make mistake, they will admit this. I think it will be like this. So, yeah, yeah, it's also tough, tough for a few, you are spectator.

Of course, but if, well, if, when I know that I am not guilty, it have another dimension for me. So what are you going to do? Are you even going to appeal at this point? Yeah, first of all, I have to ask. give the authorization to the lawyer, I have to ask them to, to, I have to have insight in all procedure and see if it is worth of the, the, the fight is worth, you know, if you have any chance to, to win, because it's not only about, are you feel guilty or not, because it is also about the, it is difficult matter, even if you are not guilty, it is difficult to, to defend

yourself. Why do you believe that? Well, I believe it's difficult. Yeah. If you're not guilty, this is your name being tainted. If you feel like you didn't do it, why not fight it? Yeah, I will fight, of course. I will see how legal option I have. And, yeah, but to be honest, I don't believe in justice in some countries.

and yeah and also if the people treat this personally and I see that they would not like to admit even if they knew

they would not so it will be tough and also I am in Poland the commission is in Brazil I am my employees in the US so it will be tough

for me to yeah of course I do everything and even I go to contact with lawyer I give authorization but he will tell me if they have any chance to prove my name, it's not like, I let it go. Have you thought about maybe asking them to test your B sample? They tested your urine sample, the A sample twice, maybe to try to do it, you know, do it with the B sample somewhere else.

I mean, are you able to ask that kind of thing? Do you have any idea? Yeah, I will ask for sure, man. Yeah, you will. Yeah, I will. but I don't know if they have be simple with their urine because they write in the article

that I filed this one so I don't know why didn't they check blood I don't know how the procedure I usually was not in the you know into this theme because I was not care about this because I didn't take

anything like this so I don't know all the procedure so I need somebody to help me with this and to fight for my rights, and it won't be easy. This is what the official said. He said he has the right to appeal. If he wants to appeal the result, I will send him the request to the UCLA Olympic Lab, and they will test the second urine sample.

If he's talking about our collecting procedures, I'll ask ABCD to send him a report of the whole procedure. But if he's questioning our integrity and responsibility as a regulation body, in Brazil, we will have a response for him. I hope that's not the case. Is that what you're doing? Are you questioning their integrity? The integrity?

Yeah, the integrity of the way they collect samples and do their drug testing over there. Yeah, of course. I have something against if the man after the show came to me and said that he made mistake, but it's okay. I can say it's not right. And I don't know. Is it because of that? They make mistake.

I don't know because of what they make mistake, but for sure, for me, they for sure make mistake because I am not guilty and, yeah, and I can say this. Which mistake are you talking about? When the guy came to you at the hospital? In the hospital, yeah. What's the story there? Yeah, I was there waiting for the examination

and one of the commissioners. was earlier when they take the blood from me came and say that they do something wrong with the one of the tube with the label. He was there with my coach and I say right now I am doing the examination

they are about to give me painkillers so later we can do it examination then he came and then he said it's all alright he will take handle this and he didn't show up again

So if things like this can happen, I can believe they can. It is Brazil. I have nothing. I don't want to accuse anybody specific, you know, but I know that mistake was made. And I don't know right now, it is even not possible to say when they make mistake. You know, I will need to have insight in all documents and everything. I will try to fight this and I will do my best to fight this.

Are you concerned that you will lose your job with the UFC because of this? Yeah, I am concerned. I am concerned about this, but what can I do, you know? Yeah, first of all I am concerned about all situations, not about the money, about losing job like most. I am upset about being accused, being guilty, you know, being not guilty and being accused, you know. So, yeah, this is my most concern. I even don't care what people say and everything,

but just, yeah, I am just upset with what happened, you know. And at least right now, you've been suspended for nine months, so what are you going to do? How are you going to earn a living? What are you going to do with your time? Yeah, I'm going to keep training. You know, what can I do? I don't know for sure.

I'm going to stay in shape. yeah and yeah well what can I do right are you still you're still going to train with the lab right in Arizona I don't know first I have to heal my job and then I will see because yeah not working and living in US for six months for half a year I don't know if I can afford this okay well I wish you the best of luck so right now just to recap you're going to talk to your lawyer and you're going to decide what you're going to do you don't know exactly exactly he will write me tomorrow yeah he will write tomorrow to the to the commission you know and i hope that there is possibility that the the matter will take in the switzerland it is complicated it's not so easy that people

see you are not guilty and and you have your right it's not so easy you know because i i hope it will that all things will take place in switzerland but because the main headquarter commission of the Olympic is in the Switzerland, Olympic anti-doping test. But it will be difficult. You know, it's not that easy. It is really, really complicated. Right. Yeah.

It can go in a lot of way, you know. It's certainly going to be tough because, as you know, many people deny, but it's very rare for them to come out and say this was a mistake because, you know, It's your reputation on the line. So it might be a tough road ahead. And also I look at this in the more pragmatic thing. I was fighting a couple more time for me personally. I see this way that it was not not any surprise for me being testing,

especially urine tests. You don't have to be, you know, smart to see that the things like this have consequence. So, yeah, I always avoid this. I avoid drugs. I avoid these things that have problem in the job like the UFC, also in the Army. And yeah, I am just smart enough to get away of the problem like this. And even it was not enough in this case.

You mentioned the Army. Are you still part of the Polish Navy? Do you still have? Yeah, I am. Does this affect your job there in any way? I don't think that not going through the Brazilian test makes me. Yeah, of course they, of course there is not good, you know, but I feel like most people believe me, you know.

I don't want to say that anything I like Brazil, I like spend my time, but I think some things can work different in that country. and yeah, I am, yeah. And I think people also believe in this. Will you be working there during your time off? Will you be going back to the Navy? Yeah, I will. Okay.

You're still doing that now. You didn't take an extended period of time off as you entered the UFC. Yeah, I still work. I still work in the Army. What exactly do you do? Yeah, I am doing the restructurization, so my duties will change.

I have people that I work with. I am in the logistics, you know. Okay, so you're... It's not complicated. You're more like working in the office as opposed to in the field? Yeah. No, no. I work with the pluton of people, you know.

Okay, wow. Well, I wish you the best of luck, as I said, as far as your health is concerned, of course, and we're dealing with this matter. And do keep us posted on how everything goes. As I said, it's tough at times to battle these. things because often, you know, people will will proclaim their innocence and, you know, it's comes out afterwards that they weren't telling us the truth and whatnot, not saying that it's the case here, but, you know, it's a tough road ahead. So I wish you the best of luck. Thank you for

coming on the show and keep us posted on how everything goes. Thank you. All right. There he is. Piotr Hauman coming on the show talking to us from Poland about his failed drug test. It's a tough one because, you know, again, not saying that's the case here. We're not privy to that kind of of information, but how many times have you seen people proclaim their innocence, and then it comes out later that, for whatever reason, they weren't telling us the truth. So due to those reasons and those experiences and that history, it's going to be a tough road ahead. And especially because the UFC works with that commission, I mean, it's going to be hard, I think, because A, no one else failed on that card. It was the pre-fight urine test. There is that second sample that,

the official from CABMMA mentioned to Glamer Cruz. So we'll see what he does. Doesn't seem like the game plan has been set 100% for Peotura just yet. Best of luck to him. Okay, let us move along. Let's go inside the vault. I said at the top of the show, this was an interview that I remember fondly

as far as post-fight interviews are concerned because these don't happen anymore. It doesn't go down like this. We're going to go back to February 5th, 2011. It's UFC 126. We're at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. And much like the King Mo interview last week, it was different because in that interview,

I got to go into the locker room. I got to talk to King Moe is a much different setting than the interviews that we do now. And that was the case with this particular interview. UFC 126 was a very big event for the UFC. It was headlined by Anderson Silva versus Vitor Belfort. Co-main event was Forrest Griffin versus Rich Franklin. And of course, it was that traditional Super Bowl weekend card for the UFC.

But one of the, maybe the second most interesting fight on the card behind Anderson versus Vitor was light heavyweight bout between John Jones versus Ryan Bader. And at the time, it was all about John Jones. I mean, he was rising through the ranks. He was beating everyone. and obviously we still consider the Matt Hamill fight a win, even though it's officially considered a loss. He was going to win that fight. And after that point, you know, he came back with a vengeance because he defeated Brandon Vera and Vladimir Matt Yushanko on versus. They did a great job of showcasing him on free television and he just annihilated both of them.

Defeated Brandon Vera in just three minutes and 19 seconds, defeated Vladimir Matt Yushenko in just a minute and 52 seconds. those elbows, that ground and pound. It was very impressive. And at that point, people were saying, this guy is the future. This guy is one to watch. And we all talked about the John Jones hype train. It was reminiscent to a degree of Conor

because everyone was talking about him and wondering how fast they should push him, how they should showcase him, et cetera, et cetera. As we entered UFC 126, Ryan Bader was also a very big prospect in the UFC. This is a guy who, won the ultimate fighter. He was undefeated. He was 12 and no. He was coming off a unanimous decision win over Antonio Hosgerio Nogara in September of the previous year. And everyone thought,

all right, the winner of this fight is the next big thing at 100, excuse me, 205 pounds. So it was perfect timing to match them up together. And of course, the following month would feature a light heavyweight title fight between Shogun Huah and John Jones's teammate, Rashad. Evans. Now, if you recall, it only came out after the fact, but the night before UFC 126, Rashad Evans had to pull out. It was made public and certainly was discussed within the team. And the potential opportunity for John Jones was also discussed. If he won that fight, he would get to step in for his teammate, a guy who took him under his wing, a guy who he respected very much. And they had this discussion at the dinner. It's been talked about,

before and it appeared as though Rashad Evans gave him his blessing, gave John Jones his blessing. So John Jones goes out there. He wins in impressive fashion. He wins via a second round guillotine choke. And then right after the win in the cage, one of the great moments in UFC history, Joe Rogan essentially asks John Jones if he wants to turn around and fight Shogun Hua just several weeks later for the UFC light heavyweight champion. Does he want the opportunity to be the youngest champion in UFC history? What was it? Six weeks? February 5th to March 19th. That's when the Shogun Huah fight happened. And John Jones, very emotional, you know, taken aback, even though he had some kind of idea, it all happening right there in the cage. That moment was one of the great moments, as I mentioned,

in UFC history. He, of course, accepts. He was not injured, and he goes on to fight Shogun Huah. Before he did that, though, we caught up with him in the sort of hallway leading to the locker room, the bowels of the Mandalay Bay Event Center. And as I mentioned at the top, if you listen to the interview, if you watch the interview, it's a very different John Jones. It's amazing to see three and a half years later just how young he was, how different he sounded. And, you know, to a degree a little, you know, how humble he was. He was. He was just, is very emotional about the whole situation. He was taken aback by it all. It's a lot of fun to watch three and a half years later. So here's my interview with John Jones following his win at UFC

126 over Ryan Bader as, you know, were just moments removed from the moment where he found out that he was going to fill in for his mentor, Rashad Evans, against Shogun Hu, and fight for the belt at UFC 128. Here's the interview. Ariel Hawani post-fight at UFC 126 alongside John Jones. And John, there are a lot of moments in UFC history that we'll always remember. Ariel Hawani post-fighted at UFC 126 alongside John Jones and John, there are a lot of moments in

UFC history that will always remember. I think that was one of them right there when you were offered a title shot. Did you even know that that was at stake? You know, I knew a shot had gotten hurt, but I didn't see that coming. You know, it was awesome. And yeah, God is really good. And this is going to happen on March 19th, right? Yeah, I got six weeks, so I have an after

party tonight, but I definitely won't be drinking. It's right back to the drumboard. and I'm just so excited. I'm so grateful for this situation. And I think everything happens for a reason and I'm not afraid of this moment. I feel as it's my moment. I know it's not ideal,

but do you think six weeks is enough time to prepare for Shogun? Yeah, I think six weeks will be great. I didn't get hurt at all. Actually, my big toe, I might have stubbed it on the way out, but I feel great. I'm already in shape, so right now it can only bring out an even tougher, more vicious, more fit, John Jones.

And let's just talk about the fight quickly. I mean, you submitted him in the second round. What were you actually going for? Were you going for the guillotine right there? Yeah, you know, it was crazy because George St. Pierre came down in our training camp, and I was just watching how much of a professional George is. And George was working that choke from the front headlock position. I was just watching it do it over and over again.

And, you know, Greg didn't want me to do any working out at all because I was like I was just getting ready to fly to Vegas. But it was just a blessing in disguise. I got to watch George practice that move, and then I did it in the fight today without even ever training it. So it was just a major blessing. How would you grade your performance? I can't wait to go home and watch it

But you know I'm like my biggest critic I'm sure I'll find some things that I wasn't happy with But but I'm happy I'm definitely very happy Final question at your age At your stage in the game right now Did you ever think you'd be on the cusp of being the UFC light heavyweight champion? You know what? I thought you know I thought you know

I thought the Shogun was cool when I was younger because he was a 23 year old pride champ And I love Jose Alito because he's a 23 year old UFC champion So I'm definitely not afraid of it I know it's very possible Right now I just need to keep the people close to me that's always been there, and I realize that there's going to be a lot more distractions coming my way, but I'm prepared for it mentally, and I promise myself that I won't allow myself to fall by the wayside. I'm way too close to my dreams to slow down or start doing anything dumb, and I won't

do anything dumb. I'm going to win this fight. Are you emotional right now? My heart is racing, but it's just, it's God, man. God is just so good. I'm emotional, but it's just excitement and just me being so grateful and realizing the power that God has. When he wants to do something great for you. He will. Well, congrats, another fine performance, and good luck. Six weeks away. We look forward to March 19th. Thanks, Ariel. How about that? That is just great stuff. It's so much fun to watch that stuff.

So lucky to have that footage and those memories. A clean-shaven, fresh-face, young, nervous. You can tell, you know, he said he wasn't emotional, but certainly taken aback by the moment. It was, what a time that was for John Jones. And as we mentioned, he eventually became. the youngest champion in UFC history. Of course, that was a crazy day in itself. If you recall, the morning of that fight in Newark, New Jersey, UFC 128, he took down a mugger

with Greg Jackson and his team. I mean, everything was in John Jones's hands. I mean, the world was in his hands. He was on top of the world. Things have changed a little bit for him. He's certainly still the best in the game, where it has now become the best in the game. But it's a different relationship, you know, everything that happened at UFC 1-20s. 51 and he was a relationship with the UFC. He talks about it. He's developed this persona now and

he's a little more of a bad boy, but look at him there. Just the way he was talking, uh, somewhat out of breath. And then of course, everything fell apart with him and Rashad Evans after that fight, after that win against Shogun Huah, Rashad saying he'd never go back to Jackson's clearly hurt by the way things turned turned out. And our interview with John Jones for verses sitting in that cage at Jackson's where he said he would fight Rashad Evans, it came out. And I've told that story before how that interview almost never aired, how they almost cut that part out until the 11th hour, which is pretty crazy. And eventually, John Jones and Rashad Evans ended up fighting at UFC 145. John defeated Rashad Evans. But now they appear to be closer friends. That, you know, the way Rashad talks about

John, it's pretty complimentary. And we've seen them talk to each other at UFC events. So maybe one day they'll meet up again and train again, but I'll always remember that moment. That was the beginning of the ride for John Jones as far as a UFC superstar, and it all started February 5th of 2011. You see what I mean. Those interviews are just a little different. I like that raw feel and the bowels of the arena and the locker room, outside the locker room, the hallways. It's just a whole different vibe. And you can tell that he's so amped up and in the moment, stuff that, you know, for whatever reason you don't get as often these days, but very fun to look back. All right. And by the way, speaking of Rashad Evans, I was supposed to mention this last week on the show, but I will mention it today. You can see right

here I have one of these sugar shirts that the good people over at Jocko hooked this up with. This is cool. You know, Jocko is doing, and they're not paying us to give this shout out, but good people over there, quality of the shirt, designed, feel everything a lot different. They're stepping up their game. I like it very much. It's part of their training camp classic line. And you can check it out on their website, Jocko. They have one for Tarant Spong, Anthony Johnson. There's a few other ones that might be escaping me right now. Training Camp, Classic Line, Jaco, jaco, jacco clothing.com. Yeah, oh yeah, Eddie Alvarez, underground, Underground King.

There's a Black Sillians one. Good stuff. Check them out. Jacko Clothing.com. Underground King one is cool. That's Eddie Alvarez, the green one. You saw I'm wearing it to the cage. Thank you for the shirt.

The shirts, I should say. Jacko Clothing.com. All right. Time to answer some questions. Take your questions and comments. Mr. New York, Rick, are you there? Are you still on a beach somewhere in Hawaii? I'm back.

Welcome back. Thank you. Oh, wow. What happened? Hair's up your hair? Hair's a bit of a mess. Ducktail. What's that? Dovetail?

Ducktail. What's that? Let's have a haircut. Oh. Like from the 90s, really bad. Is that how we should describe this haircut? No, I don't have a duct tail. Just when the hair was flipped up in it.

What's a ducktail? Who has a duct tail that I would know? Is it like those doo-op guys? I remember they used to say that, I think they were saying that about Drew Gooden, Remember when you had that patch on the back of his head? Yeah, it was a lot of, like, people would go from, like, uh, Afro Mohawks to just having, like, a little, like, almost like... A spoiler? Almost like my butt.

Oh, God. Just that? That's a horrible look. The Drew Gooden look was horrible. Oh, yeah, that was bad. I think Ronaldo had one, too. Not Cristiano Ronaldo, the other Ronaldo. You know, the, the Brazil soccer player.

Yep. He had one, right? Or he actually had one in the front. which was a bit weird. By the way, whoops, look at that. This guy always seems to fall

for some reason, the nose. Somebody posted a drinking game. Yes. In the comment section, I don't encourage anybody to check it out because it's a little too early

to be getting sauced up. But that picture falling down was one of the items on the drinking game. Wait, wait, it's in today's comment section? It is. Will we see it?

I did not. It was, it's rather lengthy, but I encourage people to check it out when it's appropriate to enjoy some cocktails. Take one drink if Ariel puts his finger against the side of his nose. Take one drink if Ariel checks his phone

during an interview. Take one drink if Ariel puts the lid of his water bottle on his finger. That's why we're always hammered while we do this show back. We're playing this game. Take three drinks of Manashevitz if Ariel starts talking about being a Jew or Jew in MMA.

Take a drink if Ariel tries to start trouble between two fighters. This is great stuff. Take two drinks if a guest comments on how Ariel texted them repeatedly right before they came on. Yeah, I did that a lot leading up to this show. Take a drink if New York Rick looks like he just crawled out of bed. I think that one's safe. Just one drink? Well, if they did it for every time I appeared, they'd be drunk.

Well, it's a work day. Yeah. Take a drink. Take three drinks. If a fan caller gets on, take two drinks. drinks if there's an update on Ariel's stolen watch. Take two drinks. No update, by the way. Take two drinks if Ariel in New York, Rick, fight over who is going to read off for this week. This is amazing. It's really good. Take a drink if the picture is on the left side of Ariol.

If the picture on the left side of Ariel's desk falls over. By the way, it's, it's, I guess it's my right, you're left. So there you go. Take a drink. Take a drink if Ariel starts moving his mic up and down. I do that a lot. I think everybody's drunk by now. Yes. Take a drink. if Ariel looks away and starts checking his computer while a guest is talking to him on Skype. Now, I really try not to do that. The only reason I do that is just to keep up with the time. So I never look at anything. In fact, there are no questions on my screen ever.

But this is incredible stuff. Take a drink if Ariel makes a pro wrestling analogy when describing an MMA situation. Take a bonus drink if he prefaces said analogy by saying, quote, now I know some of you guys hate when I do this. Oh, my God. take a drink if Ariel starts talking about how great UFC Dublin was when comparing fight cards take three drinks if Ariel tries to throw New York Rick under the bus during a live segment with a guest This is amazing now it should be revealed that will wrote this Is that true? No, it's not

No, I'm just the guinea pig Take a drink if New York Rick starts ad-libbing a fan comment That's gonna happen This is amazing take two drinks if Ariel does piece I'm out of here A different way than normal which is happening from time to time we get a little flustered at the end. And finally, there's a few of them, oh, feel free to make any additions. This is from No Thanks ESPN Facebook, which is a bizarre name in itself.

But a creative soul, and he definitely pays attention to the show. Okay, I got to say, first of all, that's one of the greatest contributions to the show ever, and I'm somewhat shocked that you did not choose it. This is... You can't put that on screen, but you can read it. You're like, I can't fit that on screen and make it legible, but... I hope he's doing well in hospital where he's covered. That is amazing.

His liver. I would like to encourage someone to actually do this one time and see how many drinks. I don't think you start drinking at 1 p.m. in the afternoon. What about our friends? Maybe like the guys in Ireland, you know, Sean Sheehan, maybe he can. Yeah, what about our friends overseas? Well, that's our drinking game is we start drinking right at the start of the show and see if we can finish it. Yeah.

And that's why things. like the Martin Kampman highlights playing in the middle of the John Jones interview, right? Wait, that wasn't part of the actual interview? No one knows who that is. I was like, I don't remember Martin Kampman storming this interview. It would be amazing. If there is a brave soul out there who is watching this and is old enough and it's appropriate, no?

Don't encourage that. Don't encourage it. All right, fine. I'm just curious. Okay, how about this? Can someone tally how many drinks you would have had to take if you fall? if you followed this script. For this show, you mean?

Yeah. Oh, I mean, that would be tough to probably go through, but especially with... Someone's going to watch the show that closely and recognize all these idiosyncrasies, I think they're up for it.

I'd like to see this guy do it. Yeah, I think they're up for it, but like the number of times you touch your nose, that's probably going to be like quite a few drinks. Just not that you, I don't know if that's like a thing

that you do, but if he has noticed this is a thing, it's probably happened more than once. I feel like you usually it starts kind of like on the side of your face. That I've noticed. And then you kind of transition to like maybe this now. Take a drink for whatever that noise was just now.

Oh, this is amazing. Well, it's good to have you back. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. What were we going to say? No, I was going to say it was an incredible comment. When I saw it, I knew I had to reply right away.

Yeah, you didn't include it in this discussion. I just mentioned it. What are you talking about? You did. You actually gave it more attention than the other ones get. Okay, here's the thing. I wanted to mention this. He was joining us at the top of the show, but he left. We had an opportunity to have the great Kyle Hoss in studio.

He just stopped by, gave us some amazing gifts. If you don't know who this man is, he's the man who made this amazing drawing. The Benton Henderson one over there, the previous Josh Barnett, Helwani drawing that was over there for a very long time. He is unbelievably talented. His Twitter handle is at Hollywood Haas, H-A-A-A-S-E. His website is Kyle, K-Y-L-E-H-A-A-A-S-E-D-V-A-A-A-S-E. DeV-I-A-N-T-A-R-T-R-T-R-T-R-C-R-T-R-K-E. He's done work for UF-C-R-R-E-M-A-M-A-M-A, maybe some kind of hard-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-M-A-M-A-M-M-A-M-A-M-M-A, and It was great to have him here and he gave us some stuff. He's done non-MMA stuff as well.

Definitely check him out if you're into it. This is an example of his amazing work. The man is brilliant. So I wanted to give him a shout out. Now, you are back. How was your trip? It was amazing. It was great. Did you miss us? Of course. I mean, it felt a little weird to be away from the studio on Monday. This is the first show I've ever missed. I've never asked to reschedule a show. I've never missed any time. I've never... For the record, if you asked to reschedule a show, we would not listen to. you. I just want to let you know that. Oh, I, I know, but what I'm trying to say is, you know, there are times where you have rescheduled shows. Sure. And I am the host of the show, but yeah, certainly. But, you know, that would mean that we weren't there on a Monday. Yes. Oh, I've been ready

every single Monday. You have. To your credit. To your credit. Uh, it was a little weird. And I was a little nervous at first, not so much because I didn't have faith, but because I'm, I'm not a big fan of change. Yeah. But, uh, I got to say, but I heard Adam did great. Oh, I mean, flying colors. Were you nervous at all that you might lose the job? What was, what's the guy's name Pip? Something. Wally. Wally, Willie. Yes. Wally. Wally Pip. Yes. No, I was not nervous about that.

Well, your key still worked. You were still welcome to the studio. So that is good news. Glad to hear the trip was a pleasurable one. And please do not ever do that again. I don't plan on taking a vacation for the next lifetime. Wow. someone should mark that clip and I will play it the next time you ask for one take a bunch of shots for that one and any sign of BJ Penn

I didn't go hunting for him or any BJ Penn related I didn't really see any MMA for wow for that trip but you claimed that you were going to watch Battlegrounds MMA live yeah no I only watched the WS I mean the two UFC events

right you were back by the time WSOF happened yeah I didn't see WSOF this weekend either you didn't even watch it No. Wait, are you going cold turkey or what? See, that's what happens when it doesn't become appointment viewing. Oh, my God. You get used to this.

Jake Shields, Ryan Ford, that's not appointment viewing. I was in Montreal for a wedding, and I made a point to watch that. That's just the difference. Right there in a nutshell. Yeah, I'm sure. Joe Warren, Eduardo, Dodgers. I was there. It was.

All right, let's go. No, I plan to watch it. Sure. And Battlegrounds, actually. I bet, yeah, I bet you're going to go to that. Well, I heard the commentary was, you know, something to, at least tune in for, so I actually am going to try and watch that. I cannot watch a fight when I know who won.

I don't care. I mean, I have to watch it live. Honestly, nobody was tweeting about the fights. I don't really know what happened. Oh, really? You don't know. I mean, I know who won, and I know, you know, which guys defeated which other guys. But not how.

There was no commentary on the fights. It was all about Chale and JR. Good old JR. All right, first question. You're still hung up on battlegrounds, by the way. I like it. Okay. I want to see it.

First question. Tough 21, Camp versus Camp. There have been rumors that Tough 21 will move away from TV to Fight Pass and will be Camp versus Camp, specifically ATT versus Black Zillions. Any truth to this would certainly mix things up and there's probably some bad blood with both teams being based in Florida. Personally, I still want another comeback season. Also, it's odd that they haven't announced anything yet

usually this time of the year the coaches are announced. Not necessarily. I mean, they've done a bunch in a row. I did reach out to the representatives for both teams. They gave me the old no comment. I like the idea, but I don't know how many times you can do it. Maybe that's okay. Of course, I do agree that comeback season number one,

but they don't seem interested in it for some reason. There is bad blood there, so it would be fresh, it would be different. I do think that it should take place in Florida. It would make no sense to have it in Las Vegas. and I wonder, are there enough fighters? See, here's the big thing. Does it include UFC fighters or non-UFC fighters? I have to think non-UFC fighters,

and are there enough of them out there who are good enough to be in the UFC to be a part of a show like this, same way class, etc. So that's the big question. But if they take it out of Vegas, it has a whole different spin and they have their own coaches and the camps and they get to train

at their respective gyms, it's different. Is it the right kind of different? Is it good enough to really? really kickstart the whole thing? I don't know. But at least if it is true, and if this is coming out there in Greg Savage of Sherdog.com, who obviously has his finger on the pulse, was the one who tweeted this out, it at least tells me that they are thinking outside the box, that they have recognized that this thing needs some kind of overhaul, and they are weighing their options. And that, to me, is the most exciting part of all of this. Well, now, we said that for this season as well.

They're on a bit of a break right now, but are you still tuned into this season? Yeah, I mean, the momentum has been lost, I feel, and it's only been one week, and they're off again this week, as is UFC tonight, by the way, so they're off for the next two weeks. Well, by the time they come back, it will have been two weeks. I'm still into it. I mean, I think what has there been? Four episodes, three episodes? Something like that. I'm still into it. It just feels like it goes a little slow. Like, if you watch a tournament, you don't get one game per week. You know what I mean? Like, if you watch the NCAA tournament, if you watch any kind of tournament, whether it's basketball, wrestling, whatever. It all happens in the span of a few days. And at least it's like

a crap load of matches or games in the span of a few days, then a couple days break. But here, we're getting one per week. So it feels like as far as the tournament is concerned, it's moving at a very slow pace. I mean, I don't see that part of tough ever changing. No. How would that? No, no, no. But I'm just saying at first, you're like, wow, look at the bracket. Look at the matchups. Look at the tournament. And then you're like, all right, we're only four fights in. You know what I mean? So you get a little anxious about it. Has this been the shot in the arm it needed, or is it kind of just tough again? I mean, I think we need to wait until the whole thing happens and the fights actually go down and the champion is crowned. I think it's still a little too soon, but my fear was that after a few

weeks, the novelty will kind of wear off, and it goes back to the same tough rut. I think the ratings have gotten a little bit better with the DVR and all that, but I don't know if it's the revolutionary idea that will kickstart tough, and I don't think it was. supposed to be the revolutionary idea because, as I mentioned, you can't do this for every season. You're not going to crown a champion every season. I think this was just a new thing to do, but I still believe that even if this was the greatest season ever, if this season averaged three million viewers, they would still need to revamp it because next season would have to go to, you know, light heavy weights and middle weights, feather weights and welter weights,

and it would be back to the same old, same old. It didn't really matter. This, in my opinion, was kind of the bookend of 20 seasons. This is the evolution of the sport, but now it's time to really look at how we change this thing, or if we continue doing it here in the United States. I think it has its value overseas, but here the same format doesn't. Our next question.

A featherweight champion in Bellator, Patricio Pitbull, wants to fight Joe Warren next. What do you think of the matchup? Who wins this so-called superfight? I don't really care for it, especially because I like to see champions, as I've said on the show a lot. I like to see champions have long title reigns, and both of them are new champions. Both of them just won their belts.

I don't see the need canceling out a guy. I don't like seeing a champion come off a loss, even though it's a super fight or different weight class. So I don't want to see it happen. I think there are enough fights in the new Bellator for both guys where we don't need to see it happen. And no one's, I mean, this is not a super fight. No one's clamoring. It's a great fight. It's a great fight on paper, but no one's clamoring.

They're not going to make a lot more. money because of this fight. Well, if there was somebody, if one of these guys became a reigning two division champion, I think that would make a lot of noise. I think that would be something that So someone has to, so Warren would have to go up. He says he doesn't want to. Yeah, it would have to be in their division. It would have to be in their division where somebody becomes a reigning multiple division champion. I think that would make it worthwhile from the, from the point that somebody, you know, would be, would have that title that nobody has had in the major organizations. I don't see it happening, though.

You know, I don't see one guy go, I don't see Warren going up. I don't see pit bull going down. So, and also, that means that only one title's on the line. It's very hard to, like, figure out. Especially with, they're trying to make big fights. They're trying to have, you know, big events. It doesn't make sense to hold up one belt. Yeah.

Next question. disputing drug test results, very apropos. It seems that recently any fighter failing a drug test, I mean, looks to put the blame on either the athletic commission or unreliable drug testing methods. Do you believe any of them to actually have valid points? Or do you think they are just trying to create a smokescreen to distract from the fact that they have failed a drug test? What improvements can be made to the system to ensure there is no doubt regarding test results? Well, all drug test results and complaints aren't created equal.

I think you're talking about recently. We have Kungli, we have Pioch, we have Pioch, Hallman. Kung, it appears to me, has a definite case. I mean, seems like there are some holes in what transpired and some of the top, you know, experts in this field are stating the same thing and are saying that we shouldn't even pay attention to these results. We talked about this at length on the M.A. beat last week. Peter Holman, I think, has a softer case and that is the more conventional case. That is the case where a guy fails a test, and often that particular. particular steroid and says something screwing on. I don't feel sitting here objectively that he did

the best job of convincing me that something went to ride, that he is actually going to try to go out there and win this. It seems like he's almost leaning towards just letting it ride out when just a few days ago that didn't appear to be the case. That's my impression of what happened here. But Kung Lee, I mean, he has some legitimate questions and gripes with the way the whole thing went down in China. and I mean, there are things that you know on paper, you know, not wide-accredited, you know, the place that they went for the testing, doesn't have experience, didn't do the right kind of test, and you have these top experts weighing in and saying that this isn't what it appears to be.

He, in my opinion, has a legitimate case, and I'm happy that the UFC has opened the doors to an appeal process. In fact, Luke Thomas on MMAFighting.com, wrote a great story today as to what the process will look like for Cungley. and that's great information. Piotr-Hulman, while CABMMA says that he can appeal, you know, this is kind of a dime a dozen. So look, most guys are going to, for whatever reason, argue,

they're not going to go down without a fight. This is their reputation at stake. But how many guys are successful in doing so? It's very rare. I have a feeling, though, Kung might be the exception to the rule just because of those holes, doesn't mean he was using or not using, but because there are those holes, you've got to be innocent until proven guilty. That's the key here is that it still feels kind of icky.

I think Kung already lost in the court of public opinion. He did, which is not fair. It's not fair, but that's just the way it is. He failed the public eye test, right? He failed that 100%. That picture that everybody was talking about. And no one likes his explanation. It just confirmed everybody's beliefs, you know.

But there are some legitimate holes. Oh, certainly. I mean, I read the, I believe it was Ben Folks. article on MMA Junkie where he was outlining, you know, all the, all the different things that were not properly done. I mean, it's beginning with choosing that lab, which is not properly accredited. And then right down to, you know, the storage of the samples and things like that. Certainly, there's no, there's no argument to be made that this was handled properly in terms of

the collection of the sample and testing the sample and all that. But I don't think it really matters. even if Kung, you know, justifiably fights this and is able to prove that they were incompetent, which I don't think will be a problem for him to prove. I think he already lost in the court of public opinion and it's really not going to matter. He's going to be considered a cheat from here on out. Yeah, and it's unfortunate. Yeah, because, I mean, it's not unfortunate if he's guilty.

But if he is innocent, this is a guy who you may say, oh, look, he's in his 40s. His career is close to being done. Who cares? But this is a guy who has a solid, Hollywood career. I mean, he's a family man. This stuff sticks around. You Google him. It comes right up there. You know, it's one of the first things you see. Has not tested positive before, which is an important thing to note. But yeah, the picture. This one thing could completely flip it, which is unfortunate. The picture, the explanation, all these things are not working in his favor. Yeah,

looked bad. And I do expect him to fight it. And I still think, it's, it's, you know, This is what comes to mind, but please do not think that I am comparing the two stories, but this is what comes to mind. Remember in the OJ Simpson trial, everyone thought that he, everyone believed it. I mean, it seemed like there was a ton of evidence against him, that he was guilty of this crime. But because there's one little hole there, one little thing said by the defense is going to use that to their advantage. And if there's some kind of reasonable doubt, then it's very hard to convict. and that's what I think they're going to do here.

There are some holes, some issues, reasonable doubt is out there. And I think they're going to try to use that. Let's see how fair everyone is in the process. And if he actually gets an opportunity to prove his innocence, or at least prove that things weren't done correctly, how they go about rectifying that after the fact is a whole other issue. But this is certainly a great learning experience with UFC as they intend to test all the fighters on their roster independently,

and randomly next year. That's going to be very interesting. Do you think there's any way to salvage his reputation? I mean, if it comes out and he's proven, yeah, I think people are pretty, I think people are pretty easy to forget if it's proven. I still think, I mean, who knows? You're never in that. I mean, hopefully we're never in a situation like that where we have to publicly explain

ourselves in that kind of way. But, you know, Andy Pettit. You know, Andy Pettettit came out and said, I messed up. Please forgive me, et cetera. And you look at the way he has been received and the way he's been welcome back in the Yankee family in the MLB world. People don't bring it up as much as they do, you know, the guys who have tried to fight the drug tests. But how many times does it come out where a guy is pop or gets pop, test positive, and then it's like, oh, there was a mistake? It's not often.

How many times do people actually come out and fight it? I mean, Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones. I mean, the most famous cases, they fight, they fight, they fight till they're blue, and then we find out they were lying. Yeah. And that's why, I mean, history just leads us to believe that if you pop, you're guilty. Here, though, there are a couple holes, which I think will allow. I'd say there's more than a, like the description of these people, it seems like they're bumbling, you know, numbsculls.

It seems like they just didn't know what they were doing. It wasn't the right place to go. It was not, you know, properly done. Anyway, moving on to the Korean zombie. He's one of this user's favorite fighters, and he's out for two years, as we just learned. What will be the future of his career? Yeah, so unfortunate. If you missed it yesterday, it came out that he's going to have to serve in the South Korean Army for the next two years.

So essentially his MMA and UFC career has been put on hold. And by the time it's all done, it'll be three or so years, because remember, the last time he fought was August of last year, UFC 163 suffered those injuries. He's been, you know, he's been battling injuries. He was supposed to fight in Sweden against Akira Korsani and the shoulder injury just continued to bother him. And now, you know, he's gone and you see that there was that tweet that he sent to Dana White apologizing to him. I mean, it just kind of breaks your heart that a guy needs to put his career on hold. This is something that we don't often see in sports these days. Very much a part of sports, you know, back in the 40s and 50s, especially here in the United States, but you don't see that these days. So it's, you know, it's a big question. I mean, it appears as though he's going to be able to continue to train, of course, and he's going to be doing more, you know, office work, and he plans on coming back. But, you know, three plus years, that is a long time.

I do expect him to be back. He's a very popular fighter. You know, the reaction to the news was pretty big, and people were very disappointed. It's unfortunate also for both him and the UFC, because the UFC is planning on making their first stop in South Korea next year. and he's a big part of that. I mean, his name is the Korean zombie.

He's arguably the most popular fighter in the UFC out of Korea. I mean, there's Akiyama and there's other people as well, but he's certainly up there. So it's kind of a bummer. His manager told me, his name is Brian Ree, by the way, his manager, effective October 20th, that he is going to be reporting for basic training. And due to his previous injuries,

he'll just basically be doing government office work for the next two years. Can you imagine you walk into the office? and there's Mr. Korean zombie doing clerical work. He will be able to train, but he's not allowed to fight, and it is for the South Korean Army. He's going to just be a private over there, this according to Brian Rhee,

and he actually even gave me a quote, which I might as well read here. By the way, Brian tells me that every able-bodied man is obliged to do their service, so it's his time, his number was called, and the quote that he gave me was, he feels bad for his fans and thankful to the UFC, Dana and the Fratitas for letting him be a professional fighter. He's going to rehab, train, and come back stronger than ever after W&T, after two years, essentially.

So there you have it. Tough. We'll see. Speaking of international flavor, this next question, UFC in Canada, rampant rumors that SportsNet will drop the UFC. Yes. Who could step up? That's it. Okay, sorry.

I was just reading a little more about Korean zombie. here's the thing, in case you don't know. Sportsnet is owned by Rogers. Rogers Media Powerhouse in Canada. It's basically Rogers and Bell. Bell owns TSN. TSN is the Canadian version of ESPN, essentially. And for a while, they were the only game in town. They were very much like ESPN here in the United States. Over the last decade or so, a little more than a decade, in fact, maybe 15 or so years, maybe even 20. Rogers slowly but surely has been competing and doing a very very good job of doing so. In fact, they have the rights to the Blue Jays. Rogers owns the Toronto Blue Jays, the baseball team, and they do a great job with all their coverage, in particular

MMA. They've done a great job, and they were at the forefront of MMA coverage before TSN. I mean, TSN really does not pay a whole lot of attention to MMA, which to me has always been surprising because for the longest time, pro wrestling, in particular, WWF RAW, was a huge part of TSN's programming. When I was growing up, that's how we watched Raw. It was on TSN. We didn't get USA Network on basic cable or whatever. So I'm surprised that they didn't evolve and go over to the UFC, but Rogers was a big part of it.

Well, recently, Rogers scored the NHL deal, and that is gigantic in Canada, of course. Off top my head, I believe it was $5 billion that they paid for the NHL. And this was huge for Canada. I mean, that's American money right there. That's what you see here in the United States. States, it's gigantic for Canada. And they got the rights to all the games. Hockey Night in Canada, which is a huge deal. It's an institution. I mean, that's our Monday night football. It's a weird thing.

CBC, which was the home of Hockey Night Canada forever for like 50, 60 years or something, they'll still be airing the games, but they make no money off of it. No ads, nothing. Rogers makes all that money. So it's very interesting. In any event, of course, we know that UFC, Saturday night, that's a huge night, prelims and the fight nights and all that stuff. So with all the money that they've invested in the NHL and they've hired a whole bunch of people, Don Cherry, all those people, they're all part of it now. It seems as though the UFC's out. There's no, there's no room for the UFC. Now on the flip side, TSN, which as I said, hasn't been all that into the UFC these days, well, they've expanded. There's now, don't quote me, but there's at least five TSNs, TSNs,

TSN one, two, three, four, five, and I'm pretty sure there's six. So they need to, the content, and this is a fairly new thing. They need the content because, A, there's a whole bunch of channels, and B, they just lost the NHL. The NHL was on TSN for many years, and of course, they aired all kinds of games, all the time, 82 games per team. So it seems like

all signs point to TSN being the only real, legitimate home for the UFC now. We don't know what happens. Maybe they don't strike a deal with TSN. Maybe they just go on fight pass. The other wild card in the whole scenario is the fight network. The fight network based in Canada, based in Toronto,

they've had their ups and downs, and it seemed like, you know, when they started, they came out guns blazing, they heard a whole bunch of people, they really came out strong. And then they had to scale back. And it seemed like for a moment that they might not have much of a future. But now slowly, but surely, they've done the right things. They put the right people in charge. And they're progressing at a, you know, a pretty good pace. And they're not trying to run before they walk. They're really doing things the right way, it seems, at least from where I'm sitting, from my vantage point. So maybe they do a deal where the fight network gets X amount of fights and telecasts and TSA gets a few. Who knows? I'm just speculating at this point. But what it does appear to be the case right now is that Sportsnet will not be in the UFC business for next year. It expires in December and Showdown Joe Ferraro, who has been covering UFC and MMA for a very long time, announced last week that his... his show, UFC Central was no more, and we wish him the best.

He's always been very nice and, you know, professional and kind to us. So I wish him the best. And, you know, he was working on that Battlegrounds MMA show that you're probably going to check out tonight. I know you're very excited about that. So he was on that broadcast, did a great job, I thought. So, you know, I'm sure that he'll be doing something, you know, website, whatever, if it's Rogers or maybe the new home of UFC. But it does appear that come December 31st that, you know, it's done for.

the UFC and Sportsnet. What happens? Who knows? Dana White tweeted earlier that he was in Montreal. Maybe he was there for a meeting, although Toronto would be the place to be as far as the meetings are concerned. That's where all the networks call home, but we'll see what happens. It's interesting time. I'm glad that it's getting some attention because it feels like Canadian MMA has been ignored, especially as far as the UFC is concerned. I know they were just in Halifax, but it just feels that way. But look, do not ignore the fact that the UFC announced last week and they went to a Canadian press, the Canadian press, in fact, Neil Davidson, to do so, Roar McDonald's getting a shot in Canada. This to me signals

to the television networks, to the media that we still care about Canada, that you should be in business with us, that Canada's still a big part of our plans. And maybe that was strategic. We'll see what happens. So I don't know anything other than what you've just said. Was it entirely a money thing, it seems like? Because of the resources dedicated to that NHL?

Yeah, well, they paid $5 billion. And if Saturday night is hockey night in Canada, that's the main, that's the crown jewel of this whole thing. I see, I see. where does the UFC fit in? Do you think anything would have changed had George St. Pierre still been an active fighter? That's a great question.

Thank you. Yeah, there's no denying that MMA and Canada has cooled off. That's, you know, I mean, no GSP. They haven't gone there as much, as we mentioned on this show last week that I feel like they haven't done as great of a job as far as developing talent.

The regional scene in Canada isn't as great as it, once was. And a lot of people were mad that I said that, but it just feels like, you know, Tough Nations is helping and there are guys. But, you know, GSP was, I mean, he was a mega, mega star. He was a pay-per-view king for the UFC. He did so great. He's bigger than Wayne Gretzky. Well, yeah. That was, that was a brilliant promotion from Dana, and it was a great talking point, but he is not bigger than Wayne Gretzky in Canada. But I think if he comes back, and all signs point to him coming back, perhaps Dana was meeting with him in Montreal. Actually, one source did tell me that, but I haven't confirmed it.

Let's see what happens. But Faraz said on the show last week, he thinks he's coming back. His former manager says he thinks he's coming back. It seems like everyone, Henzel Gracie was here. He said he thinks he's coming back. You know, Sportsnet does have multiple channels. Right now, the USC airs on SportsNet 360, which used to be the score, which did a good job of covering MMA for a long time.

They used to be home for more now and many others. You know, maybe they figure it out. But I just have a hard time believing that they're going to be. able to pony up the money that the UFC wants after spending $5 billion on the NHL and dedicating that much real estate to the NHL. Let's see what happens. You know, this is not my beat necessarily, the Canadian TV. I mean, I know all about this stuff, but it's like, I'm not banging the, the doors and calling people up, you know, it's just more of a regional thing. But I'm certainly keeping my eye on it. I mean, it's important. And I think they'll figure

it out, but I'm curious to see where they land. Because if they land on TSN, that's fascinating. because TSN has ignored the UFC for a very long time. So if they land there, what kind of resources are they going to put in the UFC? That's going to be interesting. Yeah, and if, you know, GSP comes back and they can announce that, they say, you know, we're getting the UFC and George St. Pierre is coming back. I mean, it's... Yeah, and if you get the UFC deal with a returning GSP all of a sudden,

it looks like, wow, all right, this is hot again. And plus, Roy McDonald, fighting for the belt. I mean, all of a sudden, in one announcement, you've got a steal. You've got a steal. see in Canada looks like a pretty hot commodity. Our next question about regulating the sport abroad. A very international show so far, or at least a question segment.

Should the UFC be rushing into markets with no governing body to the sport? Maybe they should use their resources to promote awareness of creating these regulatory bodies before hosting an event there. Or maybe they should help finance an educated governing body about combat sports and the rules and regulations before entering that market. What are your thoughts? From our friend Shane. You know, I think it's just an important part of,

of the evolution of the UFC. They're doing so well. You know, Dave Meltzer wrote a great story on MMAfighting.com yesterday about this, how, you know, if they didn't have all these great television deals all over the world, their lack of success on pay-per-view because of the injuries and the drug test failures and all that stuff this year would be crippling.

But because of the money they make from the likes of Fox and Globo and Televisa, Globo being in Brazil, Televisa, in Mexico, So it's not as bad as if this was, you know, 2009, 2010. It appears as though, according to Meltzer and other reports, that this might be their lowest pay-per-view year since 2005, which, you know, was when they debuted on national TV or cable TV. So that's a very big deal.

And so part of trying to be as successful as possible and growing this sport as much as possible is going all over the place. And, you know, sometimes they're progressing quicker than, you know, these other markets and you can't wait for Japan or, you know, and also these places, it's just not part of the culture over there. You know, the government is just not going to get involved. This is not what they do. So it's not, it would be silly, I think, for the UFC to not go there just because they don't have a quote unquote, you know, governing body. I think the UFC has the right people in place to run these shows if they need to self-regulate. Mark Ratner is very much

respected and he has a great team behind him. And let's be honest, the UFC is catching people all the time when they're going to these shows. I mean, it's amazing. You know, if we had a streak of 10 events regulated by the UFC and they weren't catching anyone, then we could raise some white flags. But I don't think the Kung Lee issue, which I feel like this is, this is what this man is talking about or woman. I guess Shane is a man. I don't feel like that should deter the UFC from going to these places or should make us not want them to go to these places. So I think they do a pretty good job all things considered. I mean, of course, you'd prefer them not to do this. It'd be better for everyone involved, especially after what happened in Macau with Dana getting rid of the judge. But all things

considered, there aren't a lot of complaints. I feel like we can have. Based on what we know, who knows what really goes on behind the scenes. But based on what we know, they seem sometimes more competent than some of these other commissions that they go to here in the United States. Sure. I don't necessarily think that they're asking only about drug testing. You know, there's judges and referees. Currently, the UFC has to hire them and bring them over rather than having them provided by a regulatory body local to the area. But there's all, I don't know. I mean, there's all kinds of things that go into this. I think it would be too far down the line if they tried, you know, setting up roots in these foreign. lands and then waiting until they were ready to bring in shows. It would just take too long. Yeah, and some of these markets like Sweden and Brazil, they've started their own commissions often with the help of the UFC, but you see there are growing pains in those places in particular. I mean, Sweden, look what happened with Gustafin. Brazil has had their growing pains.

I mean, Piotr-Helman is essentially alluding to that. And, you know, so there's that process. I mean, you want people who don't have the experience, but just because they're, they're, governing bodies to run the show or do you want to do it because you have the experience? It's not perfect. You'd prefer there be an independent body, but, you know, I trust and have a whole lot of respect for people like Mark Ratner and those, I mean, look at what happened with Dana and the judge. Ratner cracked the whip and made sure that'll never happen to Dana, publicly apologize for it. So, of course, like I said, there are issues that one can bring up, but I feel like there are bigger issues in the sport,

and I don't think it should stop them from going international. Our next question, what's your take on Ryan Ford, fighting with a broken forearm? Well, I mean, I give him a lot of credit. If you saw the video, he did this interview explaining and showing that he had a broken forearm right before his fight against Jake Shields, did a good job of keeping it a secret. Kudos to him.

And then they released the interview just hours after the loss. That part kind of bothers me. Like to film it, you know, I guess they would have posted it. It would have made him look like a real boss if he won the fight with the broken form, especially against someone like Jake Shields. It's a win-win. Yeah, it's a win-win, but I don't love it after the fact, especially after the loss. It feels like an excuse.

That's why it's a win-win, though. Why is it a win-win? I had a broken arm, you know. I wasn't going to win that. It doesn't rub you the wrong way. Oh, I mean, you know, he shouldn't have fought with a broken arm. That's just the truth of it. Yeah, he talks about, you know,

no coverage and you know you don't make a lot of money in the sport i get all that and that's why i give him a lot of credit for doing it and in fact he actually stunned jake and it looked relatively good early on but then once it went to the ground you know jake is just so great there but to release it just hours later feels to me like all right you know this is my excuse and you know it's a film in this nice video and everything i don't know it kind of just rub me the wrong way either fight don't say anything let it come out you know maybe after the fact before your next fight whatever or you know, don't do it. I mean, it's a rare guy who would not talk about it.

It felt too premeditated. Yeah, no, I agree, but I couldn't see anybody filming that and then not using it. I mean, you have to. You can wake a week. You know, you could wait, you know. It sucks for Jake Shields. Well, I don't think it does. Well, I don't mean it's going to have any real impact.

Most people were obviously thinking that Jake Shields would win anyway. But it's like, you know, right after my. I just got a win, and now I have to think about the fact that, you know, this guy fought with a broken arm, and people are going to be using that to discredit me in some way. I don't feel like anyone's really getting too hung up on it. It would be something if he actually posted it before the fight. Could you imagine that? And then one.

And then one. I doubt the commission would have been too happy about that. But, man, it takes a lot of hard and all that. I mean, it's very impressive to do. And especially if the date is the right date, I mean, it's impossible to know, right? I mean, he could say it's October, but, you know, who knows. but I do believe he was telling the truth. But how do you feel about it in general?

Like, fighting with a broken arm just is not acceptable, in my opinion. Yeah, it's not smart, but what are you going to do? You're a fighter. I mean, look, I've said it. I think I said it on this show. Maybe it was someone, I mean, you got to question anyone who becomes an MMA fighter. There's not a lot of money to be made. The success rate isn't great.

I mean, how about that? I mean, that's a whole different discussion for a different day. I'm happy they do, and I have so much respect for them, but these are crazy people. Right? It's crazy to be an MMA fighter. It's crazy to be a fighter to get punched in the face. Those people have amazing testicular.

Fortitude. Yeah, but what's the equivalent for a female? Ovarian fortitude? Sure. Brave souls. So, by the way, not the first, not the last. Who knows the injuries that these men and women fight with? Yeah.

That's why I kind of was like, really, maybe let's wait like a week or so. want to mention it beforehand. This is certainly one of the more severe ones. A full broken arm, though. Yeah, but don't use that as an excuse because you took the fight. I agree. I agree with you. This is our last one from the website. If Chad Mendes beats Joseo, all nine titles in the UFC belong to Americans.

What do you think would be the best foreign threat to win a title? I'm sorry, rather, who do you think would be the best foreign threat to win a title? The examples this person gives are, Gustafsson, Borough, Connor McGregor, Rory MacDonald, and Kabib Nurmagamatov. Well, the good news is that look at that list right there. I mean, that's a pretty impressive list. I wouldn't be surprised if all those guys are a champion at some point, right? I mean, it's not like there aren't a lot of contenders out there.

And there was a time where it seemed like there were very few American champions. And now things have changed. I think the more interesting thing is, where have all the Brazilian champions gone? You know, Aldo is the last Brazilian champion left, and Anderson's coming back, Dos Santos is gone, Boral, obviously no longer champion. That, to me, is the more interesting story. I don't know.

Mine is easy. Yeah? Nirmagamatov. I think he's the champion waiting. Interesting, yeah. It's a tough style. It's a tough style. I mean, I think it's going to be tough for Borrell.

I really think he took a lot of damage, and that's why I want him to go away for a little bit and just recharge his batteries, regroup. Oh, yeah, it's tough. Actually, let me change my answer. Connor McGregor. Real? What a 180?

My favorite fighter. Get out of here. Do you think he deserves? See, we always ask this. Deserves doesn't matter. Deserves isn't a real thing in MMA. Cubs Swanson deserves my title shop. Let me ask you this.

Let me ask you this. If you were the UFC, would you book him next? Regardless of what happens, Aldo Mendez, October 25th, if you're in charge, is that the right thing to do? I think they're more enamored with him. You're not answering the question. Yes or no? Well, am I answering it as the UFC or am I answering it as me?

If you're the UFC, if you're the decision maker, if you're the business man. For sure. Give it to them. Why? Because they, as I was saying, is they're more enamored with him. You, you, you. Well, then I'm not giving it to him.

Well, that's my question. If you are the UFC, if you're Dana White, if you are appointed president of the UFC. No, but I wouldn't have, you know. started this hype train in the first place. What? I mean, if I was a smarter promoter, if I was Dana White, then I would have been in Dana White's shoes and I would have done it.

But I think that Cubs Swanson, if I was running an MMA organization, I would have title shots based on who earned it and who is the best fighter. So you don't want to make money. You don't want to make money. Well, that's what I'm saying. You're asking me or the UFC.

I'm asking you as a businessman. And I have to do exactly what they do, then there's no question. That's what I'm saying. If you're trying to make money, and what do you mean about this hype train? You don't want to sell out stadiums? You don't want a sold-out stadium in Dublin? I want to see who the best fighter in the world is. But what did they do wrong with Connor?

Like, what's this hype train that you speak of? No, they haven't done anything wrong. But if he gets a title shot before Cub Swanson does, then it's wrong. It is wrong. It's not representative. You're saying that you can do it. I'm saying it's not representative of who earned a title shot, who, who, beat the best guys on their way to a title shot.

But you're saying you would do it. If I want to make money, I will put Connor McGregor in there. So it's not necessarily wrong. The point of business is to make money, right? I mean, no one's just doing this, you know, for the love of the game, right? Yeah, certainly. But how much of it is to make money and how much of is it to be a legitimate sport? The NBA could have a clause where the Oklahoma City Thunder get to play for the title if they choose to,

if they want them to. But, you know, combat sports has always been different. It's all about that. I mean, there's never been a set guideline. But you're saying, what would I do? That's not how I would represent combat sports. I think that Cub Swanson has proved himself in the battlegrounds of MMA and deserves the title shot.

Well, he has to fight Frankie Edgar. What if he loses? His resume still up to this point is still the best, unquestionably. I will say that if you look at resume, May, he probably deserves it more than Chad Mendez. Don't disagree with you. I think Cub Swansons should have fought for the title already. And if he beats Frankie Edgar, what more can he do?

Nothing. He can open his mouth, I guess. What's the difference between Chad Mendes and Cubs Swanson? You just nailed it. Chad Mendes, every time he did an interview, I want that title shot. I want that rematch. Well, Cub doesn't do that. There's also the murky kind of fence grab circumstance in the previous fight.

He only waits for us to talk about that. he, in my opinion, has done a great job. I'm talking about Chad, of getting people behind his cause. And Cub doesn't do that. We've talked about it on this show. What makes it more interesting is, here's the other thing. Connor McGregor may very well be better than Cub Swanson and Chad Mendez and Frankie Eager and any of these other contenders.

He'll need a few more fights to show that, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that he is better than these guys. He very well could be, which would make, it's kind of a, I don't know what the right answer is, whether you give title shots out based on popularity, whether you give it out based on resume. I don't know what the right answer is. I'm sure there's a balance of the two that would be perfect, but I don't have that answer. John Jones probably got a title shot before somebody, I don't remember who the contenders were at the time,

but somebody who was in line that probably had a better resume. No, no, it was pretty, I mean, after beating Bader, I mean, you're always going to have the haters out there, but I think everyone agreed. But it was clear that he was at least ready for. for that opportunity. And I think the same thing about Connor McGregor. I think he would not be outclassed in any title shot he got right now versus anybody in the division. But that said, Cub Swanson has a fantastic resume.

And if he beats Frankie Edgar, it's a bulletproof resume. But just to be clear, if you're Dana White, you do Connor McGregor. By all accounts, I don't know. I haven't seen anything about the numbers coming out. by all accounts, that pay-per-view didn't really do great. We knew that, right? Well, do the official numbers haven't come out, right? No, I know, but what's being rumored or reported.

Usually we have something more concrete, and so far we've just had that it didn't do great. Yeah, but I'm not surprised if those rumors are true. So what can we infer from that? That Demetrius Johnson and Chris Carrioso aren't, you know, the top headlines. But is there any indictment on Connor McGregor? there? Not really, because I don't think that he really scratched the surface yet. That's why, in my opinion, you roll the dice one more time, gigantic fight. It doesn't necessarily have to be for a title, but a gigantic fight on a very big stage almost means as much.

And you try to put them on January 3rd or something like that. And you put them right below, you know, Jones and DC. One of those big fights of Anderson, Nick. I mean, I don't know if you want to wait that long. But you try to give him the rub one more time. Maybe it's even Fox, hasn't really panned out where the fox fights equal big pay-per-view numbers. One more time, if you can do it, and then go to the title fight. Now, if you put him in Ireland, he's going to kick ass, he's going to sell out. I have no doubt of that. But one more, I think, really will make a big difference.

What do I know? Maybe you go with it now, you become champion, and then the sky's the limit. You know what I mean? Who knows? But it's a very interesting dilemma. And the one thing he has in his favor is that all the guys above him have already lost to Aldo. some point. If Aldo wins, I think they're going to go that route. Our first question from Twitter,

from our buddy Scott Cohn, who I saw at Comic-Con, by the way, I went to Comic-Con on Saturday. You did? I did. In New York. In New York. The New York Comic-Con, I never hear about that. Is that a big deal? I think it's the second, I mean, I believe this is true. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it's the second biggest one after San Diego. And Scott, I think, told me that it was bigger based on attendance this year than San Diego was or something like that, but it's pretty big. Wait a second. New York Comic-Con. I've never even heard of such a thing. Is it the same one? Is it just like a traveling thing? Well, they have it. There's different ones in different cities. The one that is, you know, the original, I think, is the San Diego one.

Wow. But is it the same company that runs it? I don't know if the organizers are exactly the same, probably. Where was it, Javits? Javits, yeah. God, I hate the Javits. Why? What's wrong with the Javits. Oh, my God. My wife has to do these jewelry shows there, and it's just, it's just, like, brings back such bad memories.

It's just like there's no windows when you get into, like, the convention. I mean, most convention places don't have windows, but it just feels so dark and damp. And I feel like this is an indictment more of convention centers than specifically the jazz. Yeah, but that one I have to go to, one time I had to go there and help her set up her jewelry show, and I was pushing one of those, like, those things that you get in hotels, like the carts. And I feel like I talked about this on the show recently, and my toe hit it and my nail came completely off. my big toe and it was just the worst. I hate the jabbits.

Also, it's like all the way on the west side. I mean, it's kind of a band that needs to get there. I mean, the location's not great. Yeah, it's not great. That's true. I just, uh. Comic-com was fun, though. It was?

Why'd you go? Why not? Just fun. Yeah. You used to buy a ticket? I, I applied for a press credential. Look at you. Look at you.

Did you do any press? I did a little. What'd you do? Tweeting? I may have some notes written down somewhere. Wait, so what outlet did you say you're from? This one. That is highly unethical.

How do you figure? So you contacted the people from Comic-Con. You said, I'm coming to cover your event. There's an application, right? Yes. I filled out the application. Yes. They asked for, you know, what you do, what's your position.

Yes. What's the relevance? blah, blah, blah. Yes. I'd love to read this. So I filled out the application. I said, look, we've got all kinds of toys and comics and arts on the set. Wow.

You gave him a picture? Video. Whoa. Okay. I'd like to check out Comic-Con. Okay. I was approved. I came to Comic-Con.

Okay, so this is your chance to make good on that press pass. give us the report tell us about it um what did you see that was that was relevant to this show since you're there covering i had no idea that we had a reporter at the comican well i mean i i i didn't i didn't i didn't put that ariel hawani was my um editor for that well um so i may be reporting to you know maybe somebody at maybe brian tucker maybe somebody at mhm a fighting um but my report from Comic-Con is that what it was a it was really packed first of all this is great stuff it was uh but it was fun i'd say maybe 80% of people were there were in costumes that maybe that's a high estimate but it was certainly more than one in every two um was in costumes and as i

said i ran into or not ran into i actually sought out uh scott who provided that benson henderson You knew he was going to be there? I assumed he was going to be there. I didn't know. I just DMed him that day. Okay. And he had some cool stuff, including the Benson Henderson. I think the original or a print of it at least was for sale there.

And yeah, I just, you know, experienced the show. There was not a lot of sports crossover, I noticed. But I would recommend doing it once if you're in the area, at least go to it. for sure. But I'm not a connoisseur or I don't have a hobby in the realm of comic books. So what prompted you to reach out? What do you mean? What prompted you to go out there and say that you wanted to cover this if you're not a connoisseur?

Because I thought it would be an interesting experience and at least something to do one time. Do you have pictures or anything? I've got pictures on my phone, yeah. Okay. Well, this seems like a job well done. Thank you. I mean, it's almost like a personal report. Yeah, I'll put the report on your desk.

No, I want you to share it with the world. I'd like to see something written up with pictures. Can we get that? He was dressed as Barnett, so he might not want to show that off. Dressed as who? He said I was dressed as Josh Barnett. Were you? No.

Oh. Oh, that was me. That was, you were there too. Everyone was there. Yeah. Wow. All right. Senior editor, M.M.A.

Will view them? Oh, gosh, this is great stuff. Will was running my camera and my audio. Fantastic. Well, I'm glad that, you know, you're going out there, rogue style. Yeah. What's the question here? It's a great drawing that he has.

The question from Scott is, when we look back in time, what will be more boring? Shields calling out Fitch or the actual fight. Well, I don't think that's very nice. I had no problem with his call. fallout and I have no problem with the fight. Why so down? I think it'll be a great fight to be honest. Well first off, Fitch has to beat Paul Harris and by the way, Shields Paul Harris is a lot of fun too.

Walterweight division definitely the best for WSOF. And Shields versus Fitch, especially if they do that in the Bay Area, would be a lot of fun as well. So I had no problem with what Shield said. Look, he called someone out. Good for him. Now, he didn't call it the champion, but I'll take it these days. saying, any time, any place, anywhere, I think Shields did everything right. Came out there, won, got his first finish in a very long time, mentioned the name, got people talking, kudos. I had no problem with it. And the only thing I have a problem with is your question here, because I think it's a little

too negative. I don't think the fight would be boring also. You think the fight would be boring? I think it would be really good. I think it would be good. A lot of times the grappler versus grappler, turns into a kickboxing match, which could be a little sloppy, but I think these guys are just so high level in that aspect of it

that it would probably not turn into that. And we would at least get some fun scrambles. Yeah. Same as you were saying with Paul Harris and either of these guys as well. What do you think of Mike Goldberg getting pulled off NFL on Fox? Is it the right move? So I saw this news came out. He did a football game on Sunday.

It was the Vikings and Lions. It was for Fox, and he received some criticism. And then I saw some news right before the show started that he will not be doing the next game, which was on his schedule. I think he was only supposed to do two games this season. The other one was Vikings' Bills. That's this weekend. And they pulled them from that.

I did not see the game. I was at a wedding on Sunday and doing, you know, wedding-like stuff. My sister-in-law got married. Thank you very much for the good wishes. So I did not see, but I saw the aftermath and the tweets and all that stuff. And I don't know. I mean, it seemed like people weren't all that impressed.

It seemed like you made some mistakes. Did you watch it? Did anyone watch it back there? I didn't watch it. Any of you guys? They didn't show it in New York. Oh, that's right. Well, if you have DirecTV.

Your sister-in-law's wedding? No, the NFL on Fox telecast starring Mike Goldberg. Now, is this, I haven't seen anything yet, but I don't think this is a reaction. to his performance, I think it's probably a reaction to the tweets and stuff. Yeah, you know, Mike is interesting like that. I mean, I feel like he is, he is somewhat emotional and he's done this before responding to people, but it shows that, you know, what flies in the

MMA bubble may not fly outside of the bubble. And, you know, I think it's a lesson learned. I mean, there's a lot of criticism. We do live in this bubble, but, man, things can be a lot harsher once you're exposed to the the real world, so to speak, the general sports world. Not just the criticism that you receive, but the ramifications as well. People could not wait to tear them apart, though.

I know. It sucks. I mean, that sucks. I'm on record, my two favorite, Mike Goldberg, Joe Rogan. I would rather have nobody else calling a UFC fight. Well, the pool isn't that deep. Well, I mean, there's a lot of people... It's gone deeper. Everybody, you know, Stan is everybody's sweetheart,

who I think is great. Anik, everybody loves, Hardy and Gooden. People have really good reviews for. I think people overall are pretty happy with the direction of USC commentary. But just for me, it's too familiar. I grew up listening to those two. And that's who, if I'm listening to one fight, if I can only watch one more fight or I can only watch one past fight,

it's going to be Goldie and Rogan. I'll say this. I'll say this. It may sound weird, but I hope he was pulled because of his performance and not because of the Twitter stuff because he hate to see it happen this way

where he did it to himself. And Twitter can be such a dangerous thing. This is my ongoing problem with Twitter, the negativity, but it's been great really as of late because I've just been blocking. I actually haven't had to block anyone for a very long time because I feel like I weeded out all the troublemakers.

It's been very enjoyable. So maybe he needs to do that. I haven't really talked to him about his Twitter, his Twitter approach, his etiquette, whatever, and what he stands for and what he will let slide. But I hope it was because of his performance and not because of what he did because you hate to see that happen.

It seemed like some people were quite vocal, as far as media is concerned about his performance. And so if that's the case, if he wasn't ready, well, then, you know, it happens. And he still has a home with the U.S. see, but I hope he didn't do it to himself. Because, you know, you should just ignore that stuff. Really, that's the lesson. You need to ignore that stuff. You need to not go on Twitter, to not look at the mentions, or just block people, and just force yourself not to respond, because nothing good

comes out of responding. These people just want you to respond that way. And, you know, if it's just people giving you constructive criticism, take it. It's not always going to be good. Take it. Take the good and the bad and move on. But you don't need to go back and forth and, you know, profanities, all that stuff. Nothing good is going to come by that. So it sucks. I can't give you a review because I did not see it. And our final question?

Yes. How excited are you for Chale Sondon's podcast? Well, Chale Sondon announced yesterday that he is launching a podcast. It's called You're Welcome. It's going to be on Podcast One. And what's so funny? Can we cut back to that previous angle? Which one?

Me? This one. Got the open shirt. but the chest going. What's up? I mean, it's the three and a half hours. Maybe we could pop one more button open. What's what?

I mean, look, look, if I go like this, it's just a little too tight. My wife tells me that, like, she feels like I'm choking. You like this better? We'll go down to the wife beater. We'll just take the shirt off, pop that off. By the way, it's not a white beater. It's a V-neck. That's what clash of people.

Yeah, it's a V-neck. Don't hate on the wife-beater. I mean, come on. First of all, it's called the wife-beater. Peter. So I have a fundamental problem with that name. I think the real name is like a shirt or something like that. It's something. A shirt.

A shirt. How about an undershirt? No. Now you look ridiculous. Well, now I look hip-shed. You look like you're an alien ant farm. No, no, no. I look like the people in Williamsburg or Bushwick.

You know, my parents come from the Middle East, and up until I was like 12 years old, My dad is big on the undershirt that he doesn't call it a wife beater. He just calls it an undershirt. And you always said if you don't wear one of those, you're going to catch a cold. So I have a vivid memory of up until like 12 or so wearing those shirts. And then at some point it kind of hit me that no one else was wearing these shirts. You know, I was wearing the, as you call it, a wife beater for a very long time as a youngster, not for any fashion purposes or to be cool. And then I just said, you know, I'm not going to wear this anymore.

But still, it's still somewhat chilly outside. And you can't just wear the shirt. So I like to wear, you know, a V-neck. I'm not a big fan of wearing the shirt. shirt and the crew neck so you wear the v neck sometimes you know i'm sitting like this you see it and my wife says that i i buttoned it too high up and it's choking although i don't mind this necessarily i don't know why i went with that but it was a little warmer today so you think this would have been better i think i think it was just an interesting look for you okay in any event

in any of it's podcast yes um so it's called you're welcome it's going to be on podcast one or via podcast one i'll be on iTunes i will tell you this about the podcast we already taped it. It's out on Wednesday. And I would like to reserve the right to comment on the podcast. I had respect for Chale and his show. You don't want to let the cat out of the bag. Let's see what comes out on Wednesday. And then how about this? Next week, actually, I was going to say same time and place, but next week's shows on Monday, back to our usual time and place. Then we will discuss it. But for now, it is coming out tomorrow. And I will say, I will say this. Chelle's a very popular guy Knows a lot of famous people

I am honored that he chose me first I'm honored that I am his first guest and I thought I thought quite frankly it was a joke when he first told me about it Of all the people Chale knows For some reason he picked me No idea

So I'm curious to hear what all of you think about it Now how much did we learn about Ariel Halwani You know what Like I said I'm going to reserve the right All right Unbelievable Well I just feel like I mean look if I did an

interview with someone and it was a taped interview, how would I like it if they came out and started talking about it? Not fair, right? How about a little tease, though? Get the people interested. Something. Uh. You can learn X and maybe it's like a random fact. No. Just watch it. I feel like this is a bigger tease than if I would say anything. Keeping it close to the vest. Yes. I don't know what time he's posting it, but he said on Twitter that October 15th, which is tomorrow, Wednesday, it's going to be coming out. So check it out. And I'm still somewhat shocked that I'm first. I have no idea why I was chosen first. But it was a good conversation. And I will say this. I think he's going to be very successful doing it because as I've talked about on this show before, sometimes pro athletes, they don't get it. They don't get the art of interviewing. And I do think it's an art. Not to make this out to be a bigger thing that it is. I mean, there are a lot more important things that one can do. And this is just all fun in games here. But you have to listen. You have to ask follow questions. You can't. stick to the script. A lot of ex-pro athletes don't do it very well. They don't listen. They cut people off. But I can sense already that show is going to be very good at it. So good luck to him.

All the best. And thanks again. I hope you guys like it. That's it. That's it. So before we go, we remind you that there is no UFC again this weekend. They're back next weekend for UFC 179 in Brazil. We're back next Monday, same time and place. There is some MMA action, as usual, Belatorial. was back on Friday. This is not one of their better cards. Friday's card was good. How about Michael Page? By the way, I know some people are down on Michael Page because he went the distance, but Nishon Burell was definitely the toughest opponent that he's ever faced and the most, you know, the most experienced one. And I thought that you're obviously not going to win them all. Even Anderson Silva mentioned Mr. Michael Page. Well, he was asked about him today at the press conference. So, you know, he went the

distance. I don't think that's a reason to say that he's overrated or anything like that. I think these are things that will happen to the best of fighters, especially as you continue to progress and fight the best. But he did what he had to do to win. I'm curious to see what they do with him next. Clearly, he is a star in the making how far he goes remains to be seen. So like I said, that was a solid card from Bellator. And on a non-UFC weekend, Belator WSF had two very entertaining cards. So no UFC once again. But this weekend, Bellator card, not as interesting, in my opinion. Paul Bradley versus Josh Neer main event. Houston Alexander versus James Thompson was supposed to be on the card, but that is no longer

happening. James Thompson, unfortunately, pulling out of the fight, Virgil Swicker is going to be fighting Houston Alexander. James Terry, Joe Vedipo, familiar names, also fighting on the Bellator card. In addition to that, 1FC is back on Friday. That's early Friday morning, and also Legacy is back on Friday as well. So there's a lot going on on Friday as far as as I'm concerned. And then next weekend the UFC is back for UFC 179 in Rio.

I will be there. We'll talk about that a little more next week on the show. That does it for us. You can hit my music. Yeah. Someone asked me if Chales podcast is video audio. It is audio. At least for now.

Well, how about this? At least my interview was audio. Unless he had a secret camera in my bedroom while we were having the conversation, it's audio. Good luck, took. Well, that was a fun show. Great to be back. Sorry, we weren't here yesterday. I also want to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians out there.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in Canada. Great time. It wasn't really something that we did growing up, but I feel like I have a greater appreciation for Thanksgiving after living in the the States, even though in Canada it's on a Monday in October, I still like the idea of it. So happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. I want to thank Anderson Silva for holding that press conference today and letting us listen to it. I want to thank Joe Warren. Congratulations.

Big win for him. Baddest man on the planet is back. He can now continue to call himself that. Thank you very much to Rick Story and all the best to him as he heals from that broken Tibia. Thank you very much to Martin Katman. All the best to him as he transitions from fighter to coach. Thank you very much to Holly Home. Great stuff

from her. And good luck. UFC 181, December 6th against Raquel Pennington. And best of luck to Piotra Holman as he tries to battle that drug test failure. As I mentioned, back next Monday, 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific. 6 p.m. GMT.

Same time and place. If you missed any day, we'll have the replay up here on on MAfighting.com. Stitcher. iTunes, SoundCloud, all that good stuff. Until there was here, peace. I'm out of here. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports,

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