MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 257

Episode Date: November 24, 2014

Featuring Russell Peters in studio, Tyron Woodley, Matt Wiman, Ben Rothwell, Will Brooks, and Garry Cook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani. Inside our New York City studio. Beautiful New York. I just got back from Montreal. I was there for a wedding. It is freezing there. I love Montreal.

Remember last time I was there I was saying that I was considering moving back. Still love it. It still feels like home. but it is so much colder than New York. And that is amazing, queen, because they're not really that far from each other. It was good to be home, good to be back. Another busy weekend in mixed martial arts. Another busy weekend in the world of combat sports from Meta Morris to the UFC,

a great UFC show that delivered. Mani Pachial, always something to talk about in the world of combat sports, and that's why we love it so much. We talk MMA in particular on this show, and we have a lot to discuss, as always. I'm really excited about this show. I'm super excited. I can tell everyone's got a pep in their step because we got a big show.

A fun show for everyone. Can't wait to get into it. All right, who's joining us on this particular episode? 245, my friends. I'm really excited about this in studio. In studio, we are going to be joined by one of the biggest, most popular comedians in the entire world.

This man, according to Forbes, last year was the third highest-paid comedian in the world. Russell Peters. From Toronto. From Brampton, Ontario. Canadian. Canada's own.

Joining us in studio, a lot of people may not know this, but he is a huge UFC fan, a former amateur boxer, loves combat sports, hilarious guy. Interesting about this guy, he's on a tour right now. It's called Almost Famous, the almost famous tour.

Third High is paid, incredibly popular, sold out the Air Canada Center in Toronto five times. the O2 Arena in London, five times, sold out the Barclays Center, been to MSG, going to MSG on December 11th, yet a lot of people don't know who he is. Never been on Letterman, never been on Stern, but in around an hour and 45 minutes, he's going to be on the MMA hour, my friends, and that is bigger than all of them. Can't wait for that. Russell Peters joining us in studio at 245.

225. We're going to talk to Gary Cook, who is the new UFC chief global officer. What does that mean? We'll find out at 225. 205, we're going to talk to Ben Rothwell. Of course, in September, he defeated Alster Overeem. Looking forward to his next fight back. He is climbing the heavyweight rankings. Big Ben joins us at 205.

145. We're going to be joined by Will Brooks, who, of course, is the new Belator lightweight champion, the official Belator lightweight champion. He was the interim champion. They kind of took that away from him. But then he beat Michael Chandler last weekend, and I'm looking forward to talking to him and discuss where he goes from here.

At 125, we're going to be joined by Tyron Woodley. A lot going on in his life. Of course, last week it was announced that he'll be facing Kelvin Gaslam at UFC 183, January 31st. It is the co-main event of the Anderson Silva Nick Diaz card. And there's so much going on for Tyron outside of the cage. Looking forward to having him back on. I know that's a personal favorite as far as interviews go for Mr. New York, Rick. And as always, after the interviews, we're going to be taking your question.

Questions and comments. Hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. Leave a question or comment in the comment section below. Yes, I know that Sting made his debut in WW. And no, we're not going to talk about it because we don't really care. Come on. Did you see his hair? It was thinning. It's like 15 years too late. And we're also going to go inside the vault. Somewhat related to Sting, by the way, this year's, this week's Inside the Vault. So looking forward to that. That'll be at around 3.45, 4 o'clock. But first, Let us go to our first guest of the day. He joins us via the phone on Saturday night in Austin, Texas. A lot of big performances, of course, Frankie Edgar, pulling off the latest win in UFC history, just seconds remaining in the fifth round. He submits Cub Swanson via neck crank. A huge result for Frankie Edgar,

a very important result in the 145-pound division. I am sure we'll talk about that later in the show. There were a lot of great performances in Austin, and, in my opinion, one of the biggest ones and one of the best stories coming out of that show was the return of Matt Wyman, who hasn't fought in almost two years. He defeated Isaac Valley Flag via Decision 8,

very impressive performance. And I'm so happy that he's finally joining us on the MA hour again because I've been almost begging him to come on the show for what feels like months, maybe even years now. And now we go to our first guest of the day. His name is Matt Wyman,

and he joins us via the phone. Matt, are you there? Hey, Arrow. Yes, I am. Thank you. Wow. I'm excited, too. I think I just had to start talking, and then I'm actually excited now to be on. Great.

Well, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it, and congratulations on the win. A lot to discuss with you, but you haven't been in action. Like I said, it's almost two years. January will be two years. What did it feel like? Early on, when you were in the cage, you were fighting, forget about the actual result, but just how did you feel in the early portion of the fight after such a long layoff?

Um, man, up into, like, maybe like an hour before the fight, I, maybe it's the most nervous I've ever been. Um, and, you know, you're, you got that, uh, fast heart rate, even when you're just sitting still. And, um, yeah, I mean, I think maybe more time off, the, the more nervous you get. But, um, yeah, it's just like, nothing to do, but sit there and have your heart rate die and think about, you know, how it's going to go down, but you, you never know how it's going to go down. So you try to play it out in your head and you can't play it out in your head because you don't know how it's going to go, you know. So, yeah, it was really, really hard.

I just knew I had to just get to the fight. And as soon as we touch each other, the nerves go away. But I actually kind of started mellowing out an hour before the fight because, you know, I don't know, somehow I was just able to get in the zone and put my ear plugs in. And, you know, hit myself in the face a little bit and stretched out and got ready. and some things never change still know a sponsor banner still no sponsors on your shorts

were you tempted at all I know the last time you were on the show almost two years ago you talked about this nothing nothing came as far as sponsors are concerned you prefer to go solo I think if there was like a good opportunity

I'm not opposed to it for sure but the opportunities that are at hand are pretty I might have been able to make like $1500 bucks if I hustled a bit you know maybe a couple grand if I hustled a bit And I thought, you know, I'm so worth it. The, the, I compare it to this, it's going to be a kind of a crude analogy.

But like I heard, because I was never, you know, like a pothead or anything like that, but I heard that the worst part about taking drugs was dealing with drug dealers. And I think that the worst part about sponsors is dealing with the people that are around them. Sleepy, like want to be managers, you know, and people that represent this. or try to have a connection there, and it's pretty obnoxious. So I kind of like to just try to ignore that part because it just seems more trouble than it's worse. And I couldn't help but notice, but you know, you're known for having your wife in your corner. I don't believe she was there, right?

She was not. I wish she was. She had bigger fish to fry. She is responsible for someone. So she was thank care of business. and trying to watch. And she says that she gets more nervous, not being there. You know, she says if she can, you know, look and touch someone, you know, she didn't not nervous for her. How did you feel not having her there?

You know, I would have preferred it, but let me get in the zone. I guess I probably would have gotten the same zone, but, I mean, it was kind of nice having two to my guys there and just getting in the zone. I think she would have probably had the same effect on me, too. But everything couldn't have worked out better. I thought it was just like a really good warm-up, really good brawl with Isaac. And, you know, I was actually really happy.

And, you know, forgive me for prying, but when you say take care of someone, do you mean a child of yours? Possibly. I don't know. Oh. Are you a father now? I don't know. I don't know. maybe. Wow.

You're very secretive. You're very private, right? You don't like talking about this stuff. Yes. Well, I don't know. Yeah. I just don't, you know, I don't want to hindsight anything that I say I do or don't do. I don't know.

Okay. Will she return to your corner or is that, that's it? Now it's a new chapter in your life. Sure. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Hmm.

Interesting. As you said, bigger fish to fry. Not at all. Not at all. And, yeah, she, I even said, hey, you sure you don't really take a business trip, go out to Austin, beat this guy up and come back and go alone. She said, you can't make me stay. So she came along.

She's enjoying Austin with us, and she was just taking care of some business. Okay, fair enough. Looking back, I know it's less than two days later, but, you know, a long layoff, there's cage rust involved. Were you happy with your performance? You know, I was. I didn't feel that rusty, to be honestly. I don't know. I don't know what it was.

I think maybe the nervousness of it all was the hardest part. Getting through the nerves of it actually happening, you know, anticipating something every night for four months. You know, I knew about the fight probably four months in advance. and then, you know, it's a daunting thing, you know, because, like, I go in there expecting, like, not expecting at all. I go in there prepared for whatever, you know, like, you know,

like you might have to, like, try to fight your arm being broken or try to fight somebody, you know, like knocking you unconscious, you know, trying to knock you unconscious, you know, trying to steal your will. So it's a hard thing to get up for, you know, I don't feel like it's, you know, like a sport like everybody else kind of feels like, you know, like you're just getting ready for game day, you know. I'm thinking like, I got to get prepared to go like past my limit of my, like, my actual will, you know, and, and, you know, just in case that might happen, get prepared for that.

And it's a hard thing. Maybe I'm over, over analyzing it and maybe building it up bigger than it is. But, yeah, it always feels like a fight to me. It doesn't feel like I'm going to compete necessarily. You know, as you know very well, and I've said this on the show, I've wanted to talk to you for quite some time because I found that your hiatus from MMA to be very interesting because the last time we saw you, of course, you suffered that loss to T.J. Grant in Chicago. And I saw you did, in fact, do some interviews leading up to the fight.

No hard feelings. You're here now. No, and I wanted to hit you up because I told you that if I was to do interviews with anybody I wanted to do it with you, but I thought they were going to let me go interview list up into the point. I had this fun little envision that the first interview I was going to do in two years' time was going to be my interview after the victory. But, you know, I signed a contract saying that I'll do PR if they make me. So they made me a couple days advance. I didn't know if I had enough time.

They just said, hey, show up tomorrow at this time for an interview. And I said, do I have to do it? And I said, yes. No hard feelings. I totally understand you've got to promote the fight. But, you know, in reading those interviews and reading what you had to say, I just wanted a little more. And I wanted to know, why did you, why did you leave?

Why did you take this break? And did you think you may never come back? You know, I didn't, well, if I've been speaking more honestly lately. Yes, I love it. After several of my fights, I've said, I don't think I'm ever doing that again. because, you know, it takes a lot out of you, and it's just, you know, sometimes just crazier than, then you feel like you can, your little heart can handle sometimes, you know. And then, uh, and then hindsight, you're like, oh, that was actually, that was a pretty crazy

experience. Maybe I'll do that again, you know. But, you know, after several of my fights, I said, man, I don't know if I'm ever going to do that again. It's not healthy. It's not, it's not, it's not like sustainable. It's like crazy. Madness.

But, um, so after that fight, I think it was, um, I just, I've been swimming up hill too long. or swimming against the stream too long and walking uphill maybe is a good example I know everybody deals with injury in the sport but I think I had just ignored my body for too long and just pushed through injuries so I said to myself

you know I'm going to fix up my body a bit and then see what happens you know but then the more time went by the more like two you know like um it's silly you have always I talked to Brian Stan he said he had the same um questions. These little things that pop up in your head, do you have it anymore? You know,

you always have to like prove yourself to yourself. You have to like constantly like reinvent yourself and make sure you still have it. Make sure you're still working as hard, still is capable, blah, blah, blah. And not only that, it's actually get better and in advance, you know. And so it's a hard thing. And I was like, you know, I don't know. I kind of left that door open and eventually started getting healthier and started, you know, getting kind of itchy. And I got to do something. I got to make money and I got to do something. And I was like, you know what? I have a career if I wanted to actually like my career. So why wouldn't I do that? And so there I was finding myself training for another fight. And now two days afterwards,

glad I did it. So you feel good about your career. You want to keep going? I think so Yeah It sucks when you You know like There's been nice This is what's humbling It's like I think I'm big and tough

And then like there's been nights I can't sleep just because Like my toe is So painful I can't sleep You know something from like a broken toe You know And that's annoying It's like

Your quality of life is just Obnoxious And then that wasn't the injury that I Needed surgery on But that was the one that kind of humbled me like, you can't sleep because your toe hurts, really? Like, you're going to get up tomorrow's bar, you know? Something silly like that.

Did you ever consider, did you get to the point where you were considering doing something else? Like, what could you do if you weren't a fighter? That's a good question. I've asked myself the same thing, you know. You know, I think when you, I don't really want it, like, when you pursue something, I really feel like putting a safety net underneath you because you've seen that movie with Batman. man. Sure.

He makes that jump when he doesn't have that safety net. And so I don't really like looking at things with a second option. You know, you don't go to school for the education. If you're an athlete, if you're an athlete, if my opinion, you go there to pursue your career as an athlete. And I don't know what I would do. So that's a tough question. It's kind of a stressful question.

But I hope it would be something that I, love and that it doesn't seem like work because I don't feel like I go to work when I train. I feel like, you know, it's good that it produces money and I'm glad that I'm financially like productive. But, you know, like the age old's saying, if you do what you like, you're not working. Sure. And you can work harder at it because you give it your heart and soul and if it's work, it's just not going to be sustainable.

But going through this, did you start thinking, okay, I need to, prepare myself for life after fighting, as you know, this isn't going to last forever. So did it give you that eye-opening experience where you're like, okay, I got to start doing something now, so I'm ready for that day? I don't know. Because everybody's careers, I think,

are going to be different. Who's to say, or how much you have left? I read an interview, I'm not in a very negative person, but I thought this was a ridiculous statement that a

read an article about myself and said that Matt Wyman may not break into the top 10 in his career but he's been like they're competing with the best, blah, blah, blah. I was like, hey, you know, that sounded obnoxious because I actually think I have

read an article. It says that I broke into the top 10 and then they just say what I can and can't do with my career, you know, so I don't know. It seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong, that you kind of, you struggle a little bit about this sport. I read a quote from you in an ESPN article, and you were saying, you know, like, you see these middle-aged men in suits talking about this, and I'm sure you're referring to the Fox people and all that. And that just seems weird to you to have people in suits talking about a cage fight.

Yeah, I think it's actually just honest. Yeah, I love it. I think it's negative. I think it's not negative at all. there's a part that I don't like people putting their opinion in especially strongly opinion I mean like why would you even put your opinion

I would say you know opinions are pretty pretty obnoxious and pretty silly especially a bold thing to say like we might not be that in the top ten I mean that just sounds like a very

ignorant thing to say and silly some people are paid to give their opinion, but I get what you're trying to say. I mean, do you, does a body... Yeah. But especially somebody that doesn't understand. Like, and you probably might actually, because you, I think you are very detailed, aware of details and actually learn and desire to understand these things.

But do you think most people understand what I was doing? hitting the switch, taking the back, Isaac, I mean, will they understand that dynamic, or they just kind of think, like, oh, we just kind of fell into that position? I know they don't necessarily think. They literally don't know, so it's kind of just, just see it happen.

You know what I'm saying? So, like, for him to understand how good of a fighter I am, he would have to understand fighting. Sure. So if it's an ex-fighter, then are you okay with it? You're just maybe not a fan of it? Possibly, but, I mean, a high-level fighter

could possibly give his opinion, but again, I guess it would only matter to himself, in my opinion. You'd give the crap about other people's opinion, really. And most people willing to give their opinion, shouldn't be. If I ask you your opinion, if your opinion, maybe that's important.

You know, when you were on the ground with Isaac at the very end of the fight, the seconds remaining, it seems like you guys were going back and forth, and even as the fight ended, you were going back and forth. What was that all about? What did you say to each other? Yeah, I'm glad you asked because I was actually kind of in hindsight embarrassed to that. I thought that I acted up professionally, and I felt like I hold myself to a standard of like,

you don't respond to evil with evil. I thought Isaac was running his mouth away, and then it kind of irritated me, and, you know, I'm not even the guy that cares about respect. You know, he can respect me or not respect me. It doesn't change the fight, so I don't know why I got kind of wrapped up in that. But it was actually an honest mistake. He said he wasn't talking to crap. He was just saying like, let's make a great fight and let's get after it or something like that. It wasn't even that bad. If you look away, it looks like he was running his mouth pretty bad. I didn't actually hear him. I just saw him bounce in my face and talking. So I just assumed that he was being nasty in front of the cameras. And, you know, kind of took a little sleep from me that night.

and they're irritated me a little bit, you know, and it shouldn't have, but, you know, we don't like a guy that does kind of make it a little bit more personal. Not that it's not already personal, you know, he's going to try to elbow my face. That's personal, but, so afterwards I said something along the lines of, I just won, how does that make you feel? And I like his response, he said, I want to keep going. And so I was like, you're a pretty tough guy, and I'll keep doing that. You know, like, we'll just keep going.

But, yeah, he was not, you know, a guy to be defeated by any means, and he's not going to have a guy, you know, sitting there telling him he's beaten. But in my opinion, he was just because we couldn't keep going. I saw a picture afterwards. It seemed like you guys are cool now. You were in the back. Oh, yeah. And what's really nice about Isaac is he gave a crap about clearing the air.

Okay. Most people would be like, oh, Wyman's a jerk running his mouth like that, but who cares, you know? But he actually wanted to explain himself, which men don't like to explain themselves. And I thought that was a showtos, a tonic character. He was like, hey, look, Matt. And he was even bold enough to say that he was a fan of mine. And I don't think that that's weird because I'm a fan of his. I like this fighting style.

And I like a way of fight. And I'm not afraid to admit it, but for him to come up to me and say, hey, Matt, I'm a fan of ears. I want to clear the air. I wasn't talking crap away, and I was just amped up. And so I understand that you're mad, but I just want to let you know that, you know, like I didn't mean any disrespect by it. And so then I had to, I didn't actually want to hear that because I felt like a horse's.

But because we're on air, sorry. No, no, too. And so then I was like, well, crap. Now I just made it fool myself for nothing. And I shouldn't even if that's, because even if he was being rude, I shouldn't have been rude back. So that being said, we actually, like, hugged for a minute to the point where he said, you know, we'll stop hugging me.

And we made up, you know, and he's a cool guy. I'm glad that we actually got that opinion because I thought he'd just putting on a show in front of cameras like some guys do and do that trashy running their mouth. Well, I'm happy to hear that because I do agree both of you, too, the really good guys. in the sports. So that's good to hear after the fact. Yeah, he was a really cool guy in person. What was up with the, you know, I liked your attire very much,

post-fied press conference and all that, the suspenders, the shirt, the glasses. What was that all about? Yeah, I don't know. I dress like that sometimes, you know, in my personal life, you know, but so I thought, you know, maybe I'd

bring a little taste of Portland to Austin, which they already have. Yeah, and I normally just wear, you know, like the workout attire, but I figured I might try a little bit and, you know, try to look cute, you know. Oh, yeah, you look great. So that's not something that you brought out just to impress people. You wear that stuff on a daily basis. No, yeah, and, you know, I was actually kind of just pointing myself that I shaped my mustache.

Oh, you had a mustache too. I had a mustache. Wow. Yeah, just for fun. You know, like, yeah, like, styles for fun, you know, not take too seriously and just try it for now and then, but not in an, you know, obsessively vain way. But, yeah, mustache is a fun, and I shave mine

because I lose my personality. I think I lose my personality when fight time comes because you take it so seriously, you know, it's like, I don't want to joke around. I don't want to, you know, like, it would be, you know, trendy or fix my hair or something like that. You know, you just like, I want to go to fight. Right.

You know, people ask me, all the time and it's part of your appeal, but I feel like I have to check in on this. Still Twitterless. Twitterless. So if you had a presence, we would have known about the mustache and other things like that, perhaps. Yeah, but I mean, like, I'm having a hard time not feeling pretty obnoxious talking about myself for this long, just because, honestly, like, I don't want to make the impression I think the world evolves around me.

So that being said, you know, a lot of guys need that. I think that up-and-coming fighters need to get their name out there. And I think established fighters like myself don't need it as much. Maybe for some sponsors or something like that. But I just didn't feel like it was that necessary because how many fights, I mean, how many people watched our fight on Saturday? that to me was the publicity I needed. I didn't need much more publicity.

So that and it's a lot of work. That and I don't necessarily want to be in touch with anybody or care to read about if I post something, I'd probably want to know what people thought about it, you know? Sure. And I do like people, but also I like people on a personal level. And I like people in it, like, face to face. I don't like people on the Internet.

I don't like people in a distant manner. And I don't like him in a group, like, if you categorize people, you know, like, because most of the people in the crowd, you know, and most of the people, you know, just like out there is just going to be very distant and selfish. and, you know, like, if you were to say your opinion in front of the fighter's family about that fighter, it might be different than you're just talking about a public figure fighter, you know, out loud, not thinking, hey, look, he's a person, he's a fighter, and, you know, I need to have that, like, respect instead of just looking at him as a public figure. Well, you know, I don't blame you, and the first time he told me about this two years ago,

I was like, wow, this is unbelievable. two years later, I think I agree with you a lot more than I don't about your stance on all this. So I actually give you a lot of credit for taking that stance and sticking to it. Before I let you go, go ahead. I do like the concept. Sorry, to interrupt you. I do like the concept of talking to the public about important things. I do like that.

So I think that can be done maybe like we are doing in an interview and stuff like that. because, and also I don't know how I feel about promoting things outside fighting in a fighting atmosphere. Like, there's things that I want to talk about publicly that don't pertain to fighting, and I feel like it would be kind of lying to trick people to come to my website about fighting and then tell them, hey, this is what I think about factory farming. This is what I think about this. and then all of a sudden that they're like, well, I just kind of want to know about fighting because that's what interests me. I don't really want to hear your political and religious beliefs.

Well, you'll be surprised about that, but, you know, everyone has their own stance, and I think you're doing just fine without all of it, so don't feel like I'm pressuring you into getting into any of that social media stuff. But before I let you go, and I feel like I could talk to you for hours. It's great to have you on the show finally. And I would because I really appreciate your mind. Thank you. now that you're back, you're on the winning track. Do you want to get back in there rather quickly and just throwing it out there?

You don't strike me as the kind of person who would do this, but do you have an idea and opinion as to who you like to fight next? Man, you know, it does kind of get your motor running a little bit. I didn't sleep two nights ago. So, you know, last night was I got a few hours. It gets your adrenaline going. Yeah, I don't definitely, I don't, I'd have to look if I was to look for another opponent, but I don't discount me fighting again. Okay, that's good.

Yeah, and I feel good. My foot's a little swollen is all from him rudely checking all of my kicks and rudely elbowing me when I tried to kick him in the face. What a guy. He elbowed my chin and foot. instead of letting me connect with it. So rude. So rude that Isaac Valley flag. I got to say it's one of the great stories in MMA right now,

seeing you come back. You're one of the great parts of the sport, and you're a fascinating guy, and I'm really happy that you're back, and you picked up a win, so congratulations on that, and hopefully you don't leave us for another two years because it's fun having you around Matt. Thank you so much for the time. Congratulations.

Enjoy the win. Say hello to your wife and family, and we'll talk to you very soon. Thank you so much for having me, Ariel, and yeah, all your kind words are very appreciated. All right, there he is. Matt Wyman joins us. Like I said, one of the great characters in our sport and great to have him back in the UFC.

Okay, now let's go to the Skype Machine. Our next guest is standing by. Oh, he's not standing by anymore. I was just giving a message here. Oh, okay. His Skype went out. Well, as I mentioned at the top of the show, UFC 183, great card, Anderson Silva, Nick Diaz,

January 31st, Las Vegas, Nevada. And last week it was announced that Tyrone Woodley would be facing Kelvin Gasselm. And if you recall, on Monday, we were talking about it. It was actually, I do believe the newest member of the MMA Fighting.com team, Mark Romondi, on our post show at UFC 180 in Mexico, who first pointed out that this would make a lot of sense, this matchup at 170 pounds, Tyron Woodley versus Kelvin Gasselm. And then just days later, because, you know, the UFC loves the copy.

be our ideas. Just days later, they put together this fight, which I think is a great fight. It makes a lot of sense. And it's going to be very interesting to see if Gasland can continue his hot streak, undefeated, coming off that great win over Jake Ellenberger just less than two weeks ago in Mexico. And Taron Woodley got back on track late in the summer defeating Dung Young Kim in Macau. He had that fight in Vancouver against Roy McDonald, of course, didn't go his way, but he rebounded. did wonderfully and was able to finish Dungan Kim rather quickly, and now he's back in the mix at 170 pounds as well. So that is the co-main event, and now he joins us via the magic Skype. There he is. Tyrone Woodley himself. Tyrone, how are you? I'm doing good. How are you doing,

brother? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. Before we get to the fight stuff, you know, you've obviously gone out there and done some media about this, but I have to ask you, You are from Ferguson. I'm assuming you are in Ferguson right now, Ferguson, Missouri, right? Yeah, I'm from Ferguson. I live in St. Louis right now. Okay. You know, there's been a lot of crazy stuff going on in the area.

You know, they've been postponing and postponement. Yeah. What they're going to say about the grand jury and whether they're going to indict this young man or not. I think many know what the outcome is going to be, and I think they're just trying to do damage control before. So unfortunately, I think when you do things that way, you wait it out, you make it take longer than what it should. People's reactions are going to be crazy. And, you know, I'm just kind of mentally trying to get prepared.

You know, it affects me in lots of different ways because I'm from an area. You know, I lived a street connecting to the one where the riots happened at. Wow. So it's like my hometown, so it's really, really unfortunate. Of course, we're talking about the killing of the young man, Michael Brown, over the summer. and everything. I mean, it was surreal, and I'm sure even more so for you to see this small town of Missouri, you know, being covered all over the world. The world was watching Ferguson for a long time and after your fight, and even a bit before your fight against Danyan Kim,

you were talking about it and trying to be one of the role models to speak up and try and do whatever you can to help out the situation, but does it feel like, like, you know, this, ticking time bomb that is about, like, are you, are you fearing the worst? Do you suspect that something bad might happen if the, if the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, doesn't go the way the people wanted to go. Yeah, you know, I think people are going to riot again. I think it's going to be worse than the first time. I think we can potentially see probably the worst ride of, you know,

in the United States of America, the history of the U.S. So for me, it's just, you know, making sure my family safe, making sure that we're, you know, basically just tucked in the pocket and not really, you know, out shopping and out doing stuff because, you know, at the end of the day, everything for me is mostly about family. So when something comes that close to home, I got to protect my family and make sure that we are okay. You know, just this weekend alone, 10 people were killed in St. Louis this weekend, two people in Ferguson.

Wow. I went to, you know, grab some food from close to where the original rise. So I went there the day before, and I was just talking about, you know, it's a boxer, Devin Alexander, he's a, you know, he was a world champion at one point. He was a pretty tough boxer. He's fighting Ameri Khan coming up. And him and his coach, I believe they opened up something called Knock. called Bar and Grill.

Their grand opening, someone got shot and killed there because they didn't like the fact that the bouncer didn't let them in the club because they were acting up. So the mindset of some of the citizens and some of the people in the environment, they need to have a different mindset. I don't know that you can change a grown man's mindset. So that's why I plant my season, you know, in the schools, the elementary, middle school, high school, because I think this generation that we're in right now is just completely been failed.

know, these 18 to 27-year-olds have been failed by society, failed by social media, failed by, you know, parents. And I think that it's almost a lost cause. And I'm just trying to, you know, help the generation after that. And hopefully, you know, we see a tie change. Have you thought about leaving? Leaving, like, relocating. Yeah, different states.

You know, I thought about it a little bit. I thought about, you know, I've been getting a lot of activity in the entertainment world as far as movies and films and stuff working. acting. So I thought about relocating in California, potentially. And it's also a place where I train quite often. Sure. But I just don't want to uproot my family. You know, they're comfortable here. I got three kids, three boys. I got a daughter on the way. So I just don't know that Los Angeles is a great family place for somebody that's just moving in. So we just moved to a different house. We just moved to a different location. So I don't want to uproot so quickly. But we might

take a little quick vacation if we need to. Yeah. I, you know, I, I, I, I, I send my best out to everyone there. It's a, it's a very unfortunate situation. Hopefully, you know, it doesn't boil over and, you know, end up being worse, as you mentioned, as, as this past summer. So it's a busy time for you, as you mentioned, expecting a fourth child. Congratulations to both you and your wife and your family for then. You just got your next fight. Your next date, it's January 31st. It's you versus Kelvin Gasselm. He's coming off a big win over Jake Ellenberger. He's undefeated. What do you think of this matchup, A, and B, you impressed with the guy? Actually, I'm impressed with the guy.

You know, I watched him. I watched him, he fought on the same car as I did against Rick Story. And I just been kind of watching him come through the ranks. He was one of the few guys in the last, I mean, tough shows have been around, what, 20, the 22 episodes, 20 seasons, yeah, yeah. 22 seasons, sorry. Yeah. You know, he had some stiff competition. I think Gerar Hall was no slouch.

So sometimes you watch the show us more about reality, less about the talent. I think he had to crush through some tough guys. win it and ever since then he's been fighting guys like rich story like jay kellenberger i think he's tough i think he's dangerous i think that youth and hunger i remember that so well when i was 10 and o and i was hungry and i was you know spunky and want to knock off the top dude i could never get that fight so when when when he steps in front of me i'll i'll be the one to give him the advice on how to rebuild after you lose your first fight and how to go from this point on and how to you know he's 20 what 24 years old yeah so he got a long time

time in the sport. He's pretty tough. He's pretty big, you know, and I think his durability is probably the thing that most guys have to look out for it and also his youth and hunger. Man, you know, I would imagine a lot of fighters wanted to be on that card. That's Anderson Silva versus Nick Diaz

and not just on that card. You're the co-main event. That must have been said. That's huge. I guess I'm off-paper-view punishment. Did you feel that way? Not really. You know, I'm a person that I ask for certain things, and You know, I want to prove myself.

You know me, man, I've been in a lot of good fights. Most people that I fought, you know, sometimes it takes a while for people to realize how good it was. Like, when I beat Terek, I didn't get the, you know, I didn't get the love for that. When I beat Jordan Mee and if I beat Paul Daley, I beat all those guys before I even got to the UFC. So now that those guys are doing well and flourishing in their careers, now it makes a little bit more sense on how that was a significant win for me. So for me, being back on pay-per-view, being in a co-main event, a big car like this, a lot of eyeballs. You know, that's when I do the best, you know, and I'm on a big show, and I get a lot of, you know, a lot of buzz. I usually get the party started for the main event, and I plan on doing it again.

And as I mentioned, while we were trying to connect with you, you're coming off a great win, 61 seconds over Dung Young Kim and Macau. And, you know, we were just talking to Matt Wyman about this. Matt Wyman coming off a win this past weekend, doesn't do social media, doesn't do any of that. And he was giving us, you know, some insight as to why. And I just wanted to know, you know, because I try to keep my finger on the pulse of all this stuff, all that stuff, especially at UFC 177 and a little afterwards

with Dana White and Hector Lombard. I mean, how much crap did you take from people? Because I could see some of the responses. I didn't check in on it as much as probably you, but I'm sure people questioning you saying, why don't you take this fight, are you scared? How much crap did you take and did it ever reach a point where you just couldn't take it anymore

where you just wanted to get off of it and put that stuff away, the social media stuff? You know, I was wondering who that was you talked to earlier. And Matt Weiman is hilarious. I'm surprised that he don't really get on to social media. I met him at Fight for the Troops in Fort Hood, and he's actually got a ton of personality. It's a gift and a curse.

I've had people on social media say, Tyrone, you're the greatest, you're the next world champion. Oh, I love the way you wanted to fight Hector Lombard. Oh, you had a great performance. And I look at the same handle. You're a P-U-S-S-Y. You're scared of Hector. You're ducking, you're picking fights.

Look at my resume. Look who I fought. I haven't fought any scrubs. I haven't fought. I've had a big break. I fought four times in a year. I fought November, fought March,

fall June, fought August, and I was supposed to turn right back around and fight November just because somebody wants to fight me. You know, the reasons why I didn't fight, I said true to those things.

And me and somebody in the American top team, whether this person is my best friend or whether this person's a complete idiot, I'm not going to fight that person unless it's for a world title because we can fight somebody else in the division.

The division is stacked. You know, I don't think that freaking Kelvin Gassum is anything less dangerous than Hector Lombard. I don't think Carlos Kahnett was anything less than Dangerous than Hector Lombard. And I don't think Rory McDonnell is any less skilled than Hector Lombard. So for someone to say that, I'm scared. I've never done to fight. I've accepted fights within 10 minutes. Hey, Tyron, we want you to take Hector Lombard's fight, Mr. Injured, and then all of a sudden he'll.

We want you to take his fight. and I said, let me go train. I'm in Singapore on vacation. I go train for one hour. I get back on the phone, and I miraculously saved a car. People don't remember that. They got a very short-term memory. They're very conditional.

So you're right. At a certain point, I was about to just pop off because I was getting pissed off because people, you know, like, if you know where I'm from and if you know where I've been through my life, you know, I'm not, I haven't always been the person down I am right now. So me being scared of somebody is not very likely. So when people say those things, you want to kind of get back at them. You want to kind of go back and forth. But you've got to realize those people are viewing, they're spectating,

they're standing behind a computer or des. And they really probably wouldn't say that to your face, number one. Two, they don't know all the facts and details that are involved. Three, it's not really their business. So I just tried to say focus. And I was hoping that when I got a new opponent and when he got a new opponent, maybe people start focusing on their opponent. But obviously, I'm on someone's mind quite often.

My name stays in the same sentence. Are you interested at all in having a face-to-face, a Ted of Ted to clear the air so that there's no more back and forth between you two? I mean, he's the one doing a lot of the talking. He seems to have this issue, but would you like to try to clear the air with him privately so that this can end? I propose that. I proposed that. Me and Dan Lamber talked about that, and I even talked to him and messaged you with him. I think he enjoys the B.

If you got to realize that if you see the lens that I'm coming from, Tyrone Woodley, you know, people are speaking of me as a role model. People are speaking for me as somebody that's helping out the guys from American Top Team. You know, up until recently, nobody's been really talking about Hector that much. So he's enjoying this buzz. He's enjoying, for once, everybody's not talking about me, or everybody's not talking about Robbie, or everybody's not talking about Tiago. He's the freaking American Top Team guy that's beating some guys who I've lost to,

which he's probably salty and bitter about, that I rank tired than him, that I'm endorsed more handsomely than him, and that more people want to work with me because it's how you treat people. You have to live up to how you treat people. If you treat people a certain way, then people treat you a certain way. If you treat people poorly,

then you're going to be looked at as, you know, that guy that's treating people like crap. So I just think that I don't try to, you know, form people's opinion of me. I don't go out on social media to say, hey, I want you to think of me as a neck champion. I want you to think of me as a stud. I want you to think of me as a role model to your kids.

I just do what I do. I let my action speak for themselves, and people can think whatever to think. Some people think I'm hyped up. Some people think, you know, I'm not going to be the campus. Some people think I'm going to get whooped this next fight. But no mind or no thought process is going to stop what's going to happen in my fight. It's going to stop my career.

It's going to stop my success. So I had to really take a deep breath. I had to take a break from social media because I was doing it. I mean, I do a great job at social media. I'm on there. I'm pumping out stuff about what I'm doing. I'm using human. I'm using inspiration.

I'm motivating. I'm doing stuff for my endorses and sponsors. So I'm very active socially. So it took a while for me to take a step back. But if Hector wanted to sit down, he wanted to talk, I mean, I'm all good with that. But, you know, I know the truth. You know the truth. And we'll squash it at some point.

As I mentioned, you're very busy. The family stuff, the fight coming up, community stuff as well in Missouri. And you're also in a movie coming out next year about NWA. This is very exciting. Is your work done with the movie? Yeah, yeah. What was the experience like? Because some of the big timers were in that, right?

You got to meet them and hang with them. Yeah, you know, it was kind of crazy. You know, I'm sitting on set. And Ice Cube's coming up and talking to me and asked me, hey, man, you guys start shooting you, let me know, da, da, da, da. And there was a couple of scenes where it was just me and the two lead actors. So it was like really like a super intimate set. So to see Ice Cube walk on set and whisper into his son's ear.

and I kind of get them into character, say, hey, at this point, I was going through this, and I was feeling like this, shoot your line, take a beat. You know, you were kind of emotional, and it's like crazy. Like, I can only dream to be in my son's corner and say, hey, man, take a deep breath. You lost that first round, brother. We got to pick up the horse. We got to get it rolling in the second round. It was just a surreal moment.

Also meeting Dr. Dre, you know, it's funny because I was reading over a contract with a different headphone company, and I was like, this is terrible. How can they expect me to even think about signing this? And as I'm reading this and looking at it and discuss, Dr. Dre walks on set. Wow. I had no clue he was coming. He walks on set. And I'm like, maybe this is a guy trying to tell me not to sign this contract.

So we had this rap party. It was at Dr. Dre's house. And I say, you know, it's funny because I was looking at a contract from a different company. And it was terrible. And you walked on set. He said, yeah, might not have been a good day. I did a sign it. So we just started rapping and talking,

and it comes to find out that so many of these guys love MMA. So many of these guys watch him and made. They supported him, exhibit, ice cube. Even though the director, the director came up to me and said, hey, you're fighting UFC? Because I've seen some pictures and stuff. They say you were in this movie. You know, I need to come to one of the fights.

I said, well, cool, man. Why don't you advertise on a canvas of one of these fights? And let me hook it up for you. So I'm always networking. and always, you know, looking for other stuff. So you're going to be, this is something you want to do. It wasn't just like a one-shot thing. You want to actually try and be an actor, perhaps when your career is done full-time, fighting career, I mean.

Yeah, for sure, you know, I've seen it growing, I've seen it going the wrong way for athletes that try to think full-time fighting, full-time acting. They don't go together that well. So what I do is I kind of try to project, you know, like I wasn't expecting to fight in August. So right after Ray McDougnell fight, I had two or three movies in line. up and I had to forfeit those movies because I had the fight coming up. So I had to take fighting over the movie. But now, you know, I've had an opportunity to do that show. I had an opportunity to work on Sons of Anarchy.

And, you know, I got three more films that I'm going to be working on. One film I'm actually doing during the camp. So I got, you know, two days on that show. So I'll make those my rest days. So I work hard up until that point. I'll fly out. I do my two days of shooting because it's such a great opportunity. I can't miss it.

But directly after this fight, already got three movies lined up. Wow. I'm going to fill in the empty space with stuff in the entertainment world, and I already have those seats planning, so when I retire and I'm done fighting, you know, I can already have like 25, 30 projects underneath my belt, and I can just move forward into doing more like The Rock

and be like an action actor. By the way, is Hollywood responsible for the lack of beard? What happened to the big beard? Yes. Man. This is the comeback. This is the comeback? My beard was so crazy long.

And then for the NWA movies straight out of Compton, they wanted me to completely clean shade. Oh, wow. And, you know, I'm trying to make a fuss because, you know, I'm just honored and blessed to be on the show. But I'm sitting there like, I'm shaking. I'm like, so you want it all off? Like, yeah, we want you clean shade.

And I sat there and I didn't want to argue. But I was like, okay, well, if we're doing this fight scene, we was doing this fight scene or whatever. And this dude had to put a beard on. So they had actually put glue on his face and make him a beard. know. And then they wanted me to shave my beard off. I'm like, well, if we're doing kind of similar stuff

and he has to put on a beard and I have to shave my beard, then why don't we just switch rolls? And he was like, no, you can't switch rolls. He got picked off of his read, his different characters. So I said, okay, I sat in a chair. Me and a barber started shooting a breeze, right?

Yeah. He got the clippers on about to get rid of my beard. And then he said, somebody bust in the door. I was like, hold on, wait, wait, wait. they said they're going to switch characters. So they switched us, thank God, because I got double amount of work. I got a lot of camera time. It's a completely different road than what I went for.

And then I got to keep just a little bit of the beer. So it was like the little chin strap. Okay. So after the movie finally ended, I had to let the top part grow. Then I had to cut the bottom part to make it even. And now we got a nice little frame for a beard. Wow. What a turn of events.

You almost... I know, man. It was almost a disaster. you dodged that bullet. Well, very happy for you, Tyrant Man. A class act, you handled everything that went on, all that drama that I know everyone loves when there's a fight and someone's being called out. I thought you handled it perfectly as classy as can be. And again, I wish the best to you and your family, not just, of course, with the little girl on the way, but with everything that's about to transpire in Ferguson, hopefully it's not bad at all. And I know you're doing great

work over there. So congratulations and a job well done on that. Thanks, as always, for on the show and we'll talk to you soon. All right, I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, there he is. Tyrone Woodley stopping by from Missouri, and he has been doing a lot of great community work over there and doing interviews and trying to shed some light on that situation. I know we don't talk about politics a lot on this show,

but it is a very tense time over there in Ferguson, Missouri, after what happened over the summer, and they're expecting a verdict any second now, and as Tyrant said, a lot of people expecting, or at least bracing for some potentially bad reactions to the verdict. Hopefully not. Hopefully that's not the case, but we'll see what happens. They have some great role models like Tyrone Woodley over there,

trying to help as much as possible. Tyrone Woodley versus Kelvin Gaslam coming up on January 31st. All right, in a minute, we're going to be joined by the new Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks defeated Michael Chandler on not this past Saturday, the previous Saturday. That was November 15th. A great fight. A very fun and interesting and somewhat bizarre finish. But there's no denying the fact that this man deserved to win that belt.

And he is the undisputed now, Belator Lightweight Champion. And it's a very interesting turn of events for this man. He joins us right now via the magic of Skype. There he is right there. Great Skype connection and all. Will Brooks joins us. Will, how are you? I'm good, man. How are you?

You know, I saw on Twitter, you're headed to Chicago today for some Thanksgiving family time? Yeah, man. I'm going home to see my family, man. It's been about a year since I've seen everyone, and it's about time. I need a break, and I need to see my family. Well, I appreciate you stopping by because you're probably hectic, you know, packing, getting ready. So it means a lot to us. Thank you very much. You know, that's interesting because I remember seeing you in January at the Media Day. You know, you were kind of the odd man out at this, you know, this, this, this, this. this whole lightweight picture with Chandler and Alvarez, and you know, you were a tournament winner, but it's funny you say you haven't seen your family in a year. What a difference a year makes.

Now you're the undisputed champion. It seems like you're getting a lot more respect. Have you had a chance to reflect? The next time you see your family, you're a different person than the one who saw them a year ago, right? Yeah, man, it's crazy. I didn't really think of it like that, but yeah, it's true, man.

It's just, it's been a huge change of events for me in this past year, and I think I have to credit that to just be, being patient, being willing to sacrifice that time with being with my family back in Illinois and, you know, making a decision to move out here in Florida and train at American Times team. You know, I've made a lot of sacrifices this past year, a year and a half, so it's just, it's worth it.

It really brought me to where I am today, so, you know, I'm happy I made the decisions I made, you know? Is that the real deal belt right there over your shoulder? Is that the real thing? Yeah, that's the new one. And that's the real one, yeah. that must be awesome to look at. You're the champion.

You earn that. You're the guide. You feel like you're getting that respect now. Because I know, we talk about this a lot, but it felt, to me, at least, like, it was kind of bothering you. Like, you didn't feel like people were recognizing what you had done in your resume. Do you feel like you're getting that now? Yeah, I think so, man.

I think once we were actually out there for the event and the week leading up to it, all the media stuff and everything like that, I just felt a little bit more. appreciated. You know, I felt a little bit more love while I was out there, and the fans have shown me a little bit more love, especially after the fight, but before the fight, they were showing me a little bit more love. And, you know, I think it's just one of those things you work so hard in a gym, you put the time in, you sacrifice, and you kind of sometimes want to be rewarded sometimes, you know, so I think it was one of those type of those where I was just, I was just, like, frustrated and tired from training and working so hard, I'm like, when is this

ever going to pay off? So I think it was just one of those. one of those type of deals. And finally, I feel like I'm exactly where I need to be. Now that you have a fight under your belt and it's the new era and all that, how do you feel about the new regime? I'm excited about it, man. I'm really impressed by the work that they put in, the way that they were so passionate with this previous show, everything all the way down to the details, just small things. They were making sure all the fighters were comfortable. If we needed anything during the week, all we had this. the dude was reach out and let somebody know and, you know, they got it solved for us.

And it just seemed a lot more, a lot more focused on the fighters more than just the show, you know. And I think that really showed the night of the fights, you know, the production was cool, the walkouts were cool. I think the walkouts were similar to the pride days and the strike force days and things like that. So it was a huge change. It's really cool to be a part of it. I know you suffered a dislocated rib early. in the fight, which makes the result all that more impressive after the fact.

How is the rib now? How are you feeling? I feel good. It's still a little tender. I think I'm having a little bit of cartilage damage. But other than that, I had a small hairline fracture, which I'm sure is not fully healed yet, but that's going to take some time. And overall, I feel good.

I had some range of motion back. After the fight and during the fight, I was having a lot of shifting on my rib and things like that. it seems like it's a little bit more stable now and I'm just trying to kind of taking my time relaxing and I definitely need this time off so I feel good. How much pain were you in in the fight?

I know it was interesting because they replayed the show on Friday and a lot of you guys were tweeting, live tweeting while the fights were going on. You were talking about how your coach was kind of rubbing it in between rounds. How much did that hurt as you were actually trying to fight and beat this guy? Yeah, no man.

it was actually, it hurt a lot, you know, just because we did. We ended up in a lot of positions where, you know, my back was to the cage and I was holding a lot of his weight, you know, and he's putting his shoulder, he's putting his head right on that, right on that rib. And it was, it was painful, but at the same time, I was able to block it out just because I knew how hard I worked during a training camp, how much I put my body through. And I just couldn't allow that to be the reason why, you know, I didn't walk out of there with the belt. It was definitely painful, but when you have something that you're really focused on, that pain, you could put that to the side for a short period of time, and that's what I tried to do.

So the ending, as I mentioned, one of the more bizarre ones in recent memory, it kind of reminded me a bit of the Floyd Mayweather, Victor Ortiz fight to a degree, where you're not quite sure what happens, and the action kind of stops for a second, and then, as you should, one of the fighters capitalizes and finishes the fight. now that you've been able to watch it and digest it, what's your take on what happened there in the fourth round? Man, I don't know. I'm still not clear on what happened.

All I know is when we got up from the ground, I just threw the right hand. I was just throwing it just to be active, you know, because I felt like he was going to rush me, and I just let the right hand rip, and I saw him back up, and I saw him waving his hands, and I'm thinking, man,

what's going on? I thought I fouled him. I thought I poked him in the eye or something. I thought I did something, you know. And once I started, I saw him look off into the crowd. I was like, wait a minute. I think he's just out on his feet. And I just jumped on him.

You know, I didn't want to give him a chance to recover or maybe give him a chance to reach out and grab me or anything. So I just kind of, I was like, you know what? I'm confused right now, but I'm just going to jump on it. And I'll let the ref figure it out after it. So that's what I did. So you think he was out. I mean, it's clear to me it was from the punch, the right hand, as you mentioned.

Have you ever seen anything like that before? I mean, in any training session sparring where a guy reacts to a punch like that, where he, you know, I mean, it looked like he was kind of trying to call time out or something. I mean, he was out of it. And you capitalized, you did what you had to do. Have you ever been in a situation like that before? No, not in the gym, but I've seen fights where guys have been knocked out on their feet, but you've never seen a guy wave his hands, you know?

Sure. But I think we've all seen guys, again, like get knocked out on her feet, but it's been one of those things where they were looking to clinch or grab, and I don't think anybody's ever seen a guy get knocked out on his feet and automatically start waving a fight off or something like that. It looked, when I watched it the second time, well, when I watched it, I saw him waving his hands, and I was just like, man, I didn't realize he was waving his hands. I just saw that he was out on his feet and he was looking out into the crowd,

knew he was hurt. But when I watched it again, I saw him waving his hands. I was like, that's weird. I think that made it weird for everyone, seeing the hands being waved. And I think that's what made it weird for people. But I don't know, man. I don't know. What did you say to him after the fight? Right before the interview with Jimmy Smith, it looked like you said something to him. What you say to him? Oh, you know what? I'll be, I just, I apologize to him, you know? I think there is a lot of words exchanged between both of us. We were saying some things and doing some things outside of our character. And, you know, I just apologize to him because it's not in my character to be one of those

guys that go out and badmouth the guy and drag it out like that. But I did. I allowed my emotions and my personal things going on with Bellator and the promotion of that fighting, the promotion of me. I allowed that to spill over into the competition aspect. and I just, you know, I just apologize to him for some of the things that I have said. And, you know, it was just one of those things that I just, you know, I just felt like I needed to do that. You know, I saw a video that you did before the fight, and we talked about it a bit on this show.

I think you were going to the gym and you were recording yourself and you were saying, you know, this is the last time I'm going to talk about any of this and do a lot of media. And you were just talking about how you weren't feeling the love. You know the video I'm talking about where you, I think you shot it on your phone, right? Yes, yeah, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, yeah. And I commented on this show. I was like, you know, Will seems like a great guy and you're a likable guy and you're a great fighter. And I was saying, like, I wish you would kind of get over all of that because sometimes when people don't go into your mind, they don't know what you're feeling.

And it only comes across one way. And that's not usually a good way. Have you recognized now that, you know, maybe you should not be so hard on yourself and put out stuff like that? Because fans, I feel like don't take to that very well. It doesn't put you in the best light. You know what I mean? Yeah, definitely, and I definitely understand what you're saying. And again, I've said it before.

I'm still getting used to a lot of this, you know. When I got into this sport, I expected to do well, but I didn't realize what all came with doing well, you know, all the media attention, how you have to watch certain things that you say where, you know, I have to be understanding. I am a very emotional guy. I express my opinions and I put them out there and I don't edit myself. And I started realizing that this is something that I have to work on.

Being that I'm in a position that I'm in now, I can't allow myself to be so emotional. You know, I have to maybe censor it or slow it down a little bit, rethink things. But, yeah, I think during the process, and that's part of the reason why I had apologized to Chandler is just because, you know, it wasn't anything he was doing. And it was more me allowing everything else to take an effect on me and put myself out there. And I just, I'm starting to learn that more and more here. And I think it comes along with the process, not just getting better as a fighter, but getting better as a person. And I think I'm doing a better job with that, and I'm recognizing it a little bit better. Yeah, I like this Will Brooks way more.

You were so angry. You were so upset at everyone. You were upset at the world. And I know you have to kind of psych yourself up, but this is a much more likable Will Brooks. for whatever it's worth. Yeah, no, man, I mean, this is who I am, like my everyday life. This is who I am. I'm typically a pretty chill, a humble guy.

I like to just be in a peaceful place, you know. But at the same time, I come from a family where we can be very calm and collected and patient. And then if you're being disrespectful towards us, if we don't feel like, you know, if we're showing you respect and we're not getting that in return, then it's one of those things where Washington, I give you respect when you're not giving it to me. So then I get a little fired up and get a little aggressive. But that's just who I've always been, you know.

And again, it's something I've got to work on. But I'm not going to say it's going to change and, like, change 100. But it'll get better over time, you know. But it's still part of me is my aggression level. And it's me getting fired up, you know. Speaking of which is Will Brooks, a top 10 fighter now? I think so. I think I still got some work to do.

You know, I still got to prove myself. I still got to continue to build on what I've done right now. But if I had to step back and be a fan, I say, yeah, man, I think I can genuinely deep down to my bones. I believe I could beat anybody in the lightweight division, Bellator, UFC, or World Series of fighting anywhere, anybody. I can beat them. I just genuinely believe that all the way down to my core. And, you know, I just have to keep working and get better. And I think people are seeing that.

People are saying that I'm getting better every single fight and not just as a fighter again, as a person. I think I'm putting it on display that I'm not just top 10 a fighter. I'm top 10 a person, you know, so I'm doing the best I can. Have they told you what's next yet? No, not yet just because, you know, I've got the injury or whatnot. I need some time off. So I talked to my manager and just told them to, like, let's just put things on ice right now. shut it down a little bit just because I was dinged up going into that fight.

I had actually tore my hamstring a few weeks before that fight. Now I was supposed to pull out of the fight, but I had that going on. I had a handful of small injuries on top of that, so I need some time off, you know. So we're just going to hang back for a little bit. Why didn't you pull out? Just who I am, man. I just believe my will is stronger than anything else, you know. I just, I decided on what I wanted, and I didn't want to postpone it,

and I just believed in my heart that I can make it into that fight. And I did all the proper things. I wanted to found a great sports medicine doctor, a great chiropractor, started doing my physical therapy and everything like that. And there was a time where we were thinking that maybe we'd pull out, but we were just kind of coasting, seeing how I felt day by day, week by week, and then the week of the fight, actually two weeks before the fight,

I started feeling better and better. I was able to cut angles and do different things that I would need to do during that fight. So we just decided to go through with it. And again, it was just, I was just, it was just my soul was on fire. I've said it before, I think he's one of the greatest weapons,

you know, is a guy that is, or a human being that is just so fired up, so dedicated to something, is one of the most scary. things we can ever face and that's how I felt during that training camp so nothing was going to keep me from this fight or postpone that fight you know how many fights left on your belt ordeal uh I know I'm not sure I'm not sure to be honest man I think I'm not really sure I think I got like four or five maybe I'm not 100% sure um again I let my

manager take care of that um all I can do is get ready for the fights but uh I think my managers uh got all that under control but you're content you're not planning on going anywhere right right now? No, man, I'm true, man. I think the direction that the organization has gone in has opened up a door for me to step in and do my thing, you know, to be a big part of that, and

I'm looking to do that, you know? I mean, one thing that I think people lose track of is we're with Bellatory right now, it's a new organization. If you really look at the core of it, it's really some of the moves that they've made on the inside part of, as far

as the team goes and everything else, It's kind of like a brand new organization, so this is the best time to get in on a ground floor of something that's going to grow, is going to bring in more fans, is going to bring in more attention, and especially being where I'm at in my career, I think that's just going to be good for me to be a guy that's right there in the middle of it, you know, and do my part to build something rather than go be a part of something that's already set up, you know. I just think it works out better for me right now. By the way, what happened to your bears? Oh, man.

Just to put a damper on things, right? I'm sorry. We've got like a love-hate relationship right now. We're not saying eye-to-eye. I'm losing my mind, man. Jay Culler is just, I don't think he's a guy for us, man. It's a disaster. Trassman is not, I don't know if he's got that.

I don't think he's a head coach. I don't know if he's a head coach caliber. guy. I'm just not sure, man. But the combination of those two guys is just... Wow. It's not working out, man. Tresman's my guy from Montreal. You're saying go back to the Canadian League? Is that what you're

saying? No, I maybe go to like an assistant coach position. Maybe step down and let somebody else step up. But I just don't know if he's made that transition yet. He's done well. He looks good once in a while as a coach. But then other times it's just like, man, what's going on here?

Well, as a Bill's fan, I feel your pain, my friend. So we're in this misery together. Congratulations on the win. Feel better as far as the rib is concerned. And safe travels home. Enjoy your time with your family. Like I said, what a difference a year makes. You certainly deserve the time off.

So happy Thanksgiving. And again, congrats on the big win on November 15th. And thank you, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. All right, there he is. Ill Will Brooks, the new Belator lightweight champion. Great stuff from him.

Great fight. If you haven't seen it, I do suggest checking it out. the finish is pretty fun stuff. Congrats to him. All right, let's move along. In September, in the UFC heavyweight division, they had a show, it was in Foxwoods in Connecticut, and it was a big one for the heavyweight division

because there were two very important fights on the card in a small cage, by the way, and we saw some pretty big finishes. Matt Matrione defeated Derek Lewis, and then the bigger one was Ben Rothwell defeating Alistair Overeem, a huge win for Ben Rothwell and wanted to have him on the show.

A couple months later to talk about it and see what's next for him. So joining us right now is Big Ben himself. Ben, how are you? I'm good. Thanks a lot. Thanks for joining us. So what are we, two and a half months removed from that fight? How's life after beating Alistair Overeign? I don't know.

I know we're four minutes late. You told me 105. It's 109. And I had to sit here and listen to you talk about football. This is on the May hour. You're right, you're right, I'm sorry. I apologize for my tardiness. I'm going to bust you around.

I was talking about football, junior, crazy shoes. What, what, you're not a football fan, I presume? Oh, I don't care. I mean, it's hard for me to watch much of anything. But, honestly, I don't really watch much football. And in Wisconsin here, they're big Packer, Packer fans. And I live right on the border of, yeah, Wisconsin-Ireland-O-A-Light, so there's a huge rivalry with the bears and the

Packers always. Sure. It gets ridiculous how people act and, you know, it's entertaining. Well, you know what? I stay out of it. We're on the same page. A lot of people don't know this. I haven't watched a single second of live NFL action this year.

I'm boycotting the NFL, so I just want to let you know that we actually are on the same page. You're Blake, but why? You have a reason. I'm just, I don't have a reason. You've got a reason. We're still on the same page. What about when you go around town?

Do people dance? Do people copy that dance? Because that to me is one of the highlights of 2014, as far as the UFC is concerned. Your post-fight dance, I could watch that all day. It was unbelievable. Do you get that a lot from people? It was a... Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on, you know, like a few weeks after the fight. People were posting videos and stuff like that.

If I'm ever at an event or something, people will be like to dance, the dance, the last word. It's funny. You know, I'm glad people had a good time with it. It's hard for me to take much credit because it's just I'm somebody else in the cage and I literally didn't even really realize what I did until after and they're showing me, you know, like I'm in the back room, they're showing me video and stuff

and I'm laughing. I'm like, what did I do? I was like, what was that? It was funny. It was good. I'm glad that more people took it in a positive note. I mean, it was just having a good time. That's pure joy. That's what pure joy looks like. Pure joy, yeah. Have you ever done that before, or was that spur of the moment?

That was 100% spur of the moment. And it felt like, at least to me, it felt like, you know, what you said afterwards in the cage and all that, I mean, did you go into that fight with a bit of a chip on your shoulder? You were talking about some of the media and not picking you and all that. It felt like a lot of this was bottled up inside of you. For sure. I always said it, and it's kind of interesting how,

that Oberine handled it because I know if he's looked into me in the past I always say, hey, you know, it's probably best to be quiet when you're fighting me

because the second you start going to the media and you start trying to do, you know, if you're going to try to McGregor, me, so to speak, it's better for me because I make it personal

and when I make it personal, I fight my best. And he didn't, he was respectful to me at the event and every time we met in person and even after the fight, he was like completely

not the way you read about him you know he was cool but then he doesn't realize that two months before the fight happened he was just you know the headline Wolverine says he's knocking out Rothwell that was it

you know I just went in my training camp with the chip on my shoulder like really like really dude like that's what I was thinking in my head like you know I knew what I was going to do and I just got building up watching the media hang all over him keep me out of it and that was good

it was great for me because I didn't have to deal with it. He was in Boston, doing his whole media, you know, trip and everything else like that. And just kind of like, I kind of even looked on the dinner at that much, but it was popping up.

Like, it was definitely out there, and he was doing a lot of it. And then right up to the week of the fight, it was just more stuff was getting hit all over the media with talking him up and how he was going to fight. He was already calling out other guys and stuff like that. And I'm just like, really,

he got me in front of you, and you're going to call out other people. Like, all right, well, we're going to tell this is going to work out for you. And then it went all stemmed up to, like, literally the seconds before I went out to the fight, watching the anchors on the Fox Sports talk about it, and everybody voted for him. And that was the last thing I seemed before I went out to the fight. So I was just, like, completely amped up. Like, I was like, all right, I'm going to show the world what I can do.

And even afterwards, I've seen some interviews. He says, you know, he thinks that nine times out of ten, he beats you and all that stuff. Have you read that? Yeah, I read that. And, you know, I think there's two things. There's a couple things. He was cool to me in person, and I would tell him, I even told, I sent him to the Twitter saying,

hey, I didn't get to see after a flight, they took me to the hospital because we didn't know what was going off my arm. And he was being cool to me, and it's like shook my hand after the fight. Like, he took upon himself to come to me and shake my hand. Like, that means a lot to me. That's a word martial artist.

Like, we should respect each other, regardless of all the media crap, and anything all people act, like, at least there was that respect. I can't help with that media takes, you know, I do a 30-minute interview, and they pull one sentence out and make it a headline about how I didn't like his push kicks or something, and then they kind of, like, added some extra words into it, and he probably read that and didn't like it. You know, he's like, what the hell? I can't help that.

He should know it. That's garbage, and if he got offended by it, you know, he could have called me up, and we could have talked about it in person because it didn't mean any real disrespect. I was trying to say, hey, you actually acted a lot cooler to me than I think a lot of people have seen him act in the past. And I think he was maybe upset from a lot of different things. And then he posed that, and I didn't have to say a word because it seemed like all the forms and media took care of it for me. It was basically the general fences was that this guy had brain damage. You know, I think he, I mean, he's getting hit the head too many times to make that comment that he made.

and it was even what I was going to tell him I was just coach or about this teammate I'd be like dude shut up like stay out of me you're going into a fight

that you cannot lose against the guy that could beat you and you're talking trash about a guy that just beat you like this makes no sense like him him talking trash on me right now while he's going into a fight against stuff

and he's only going to hurt him you know and I don't know what he's trying to do because every time he talks all this trash against Hunt Bigfoot or it wasn't how I meant Travis Brown and Bigfoot Silver

and it's not turned out well for him and he's doing it again and like he's literally going into this next fight like he can't lose this fight like you know and I'm sure Stefan True feels the same way and he's probably trained really hard for the fight and I'm hey I wish both guys the best

they're both to me at least they've always been very respectful to me and I wish him the best and the better man's gonna win that night but I certainly vowed over and wouldn't be saying the media shit that he's insane. Yeah, and of course that fight is taking place December 13th on Fox. So he has his next fight after the loss. How come you're not booked yet?

I've just literally been in some rehab. I think Andre Olasky and I are kind of a situation. Like, we're just taking care of ourselves. I haven't really got any training in this last couple months. So I'm kind of like getting back into the same things this week, as a matter of fact. And basically, I want to be ready at New Year. basically beginning of 2015, I could accept the fight and then get ready for it. I would like to fight by March or April sometime in there.

And if that matches me of Landryoroski, cool. If that matches me up with the winner or loser of Junior DeSantos's fight, then cool. I know you would mention that fight's coming up. And I think all three of those, any one of those fights excites me. It's definitely one of the fights that I would like to get. and all three guys are ranked above me, so it makes sense to me.

So it's kind of what I'm looking at, if all those guys are fighting in the middle of December, they probably won't be ready for another fight and probably March or April either. So it all kind of lines up, and I hope that's all the way things go. You know, I'm wondering, you talked about the way people were discussing this fight

leading up to the fight. You know, you had such a long layoff prior to the fight, and I didn't do any interviews with you, and I didn't see a lot of interviews with you. Are you able to clear the air on what happened after UFC 164, where it was deemed you had elevated levels of testosterone. What exactly happened there from your perspective?

Well, I'm going to brought that up. I didn't want to talk about it. And just one thing I want to touch on, not trying to make them feel bad, but I think a lot of people expected, you know, taking, coming off, everybody knew I had to come off to TRT. Once you go on and come off of it, it's very, very hard to overcome the effects of, like,

being on it, not being on it, and not to recover from that. and I think a lot of people just counted me out. Like, like, unfortunately, Bigfoot didn't obviously take the same steps I took to recover from it because he was almost in the same situation I was in. And you watch how I fight,

and it's like, I was the best I've ever been. And that was a year off, you know, coming off to Tier T, everything else, I figured a lot out about myself. Bigfoot, on the other hand, looked the exact opposite. He looks like a guy that came off of it and was fighting the same. and he was flat-footed, and he looked like a punching bag. And I think that's what people expected for me. That's why I was a five-to-one underdog.

I mean, they were just putting facts down on paper saying, hey, Ben did do this. He can't do it anymore. You know, it doesn't have a lot going for him. And a week later, we watched Bigfoot fight, and yeah, he looked the exact opposite from what I looked like. And for me, it was like that easily could have been me, too. Standing out there, flat-footed, no business being in there.

I really, really took it serious. The whole tier key thing happened. I think the difference for me is I hadn't been on it that long. It was like, didn't know what I was doing. I felt like I needed it. I mean, I was getting endocrinologist and doctors were like, you know, if you can do this, then you should. You know, this is about your health.

You know, this isn't about fighting, but it's going to help you, things in that nature. So I was like angry because you can't point a finger on anybody, but it's obvious that this stuff is. It's been running rampant in our sport, you know, in a sense. A lot of guys do it. And I always felt like, you know, like, man, I'm at a disadvantage. I know these other guys are doing it.

And I just, who knows what's going on? You know, your hormones are my stuff. You start thinking crazy, and I started thinking, like, I needed to do this. And then I was doing every, I had eight weeks. I had more testing done than pretty much all the other guys at the time were doing it. I had a week, every week I was showing that my levels were I was doing the right thing. doing anything I was supposed to do in a week of the fight

I'm not sure what happened but it was taking too close to the fight and that was it and it wasn't like I was 18 to 1 over or something it was like just over the limit like literally two to 1 like you hear these numbers get somewhere around 16 to 1 and stuff like that

my own was like 2 to 1 and it was like just over the line but it doesn't matter because for me it was it needed to happen you know it's really sucked and I was in a really low point my career when that came out even coming off the win because I felt tarnished and everybody turns on you and they're a call your cheater and you're this and that the best thing I could

have possibly happened to me or I beat this I come back and I have the biggest win of my career I cashed my bonus check and I proved everybody that I really did at BTRT and I proved to myself I didn't need it and I made a mistake doing it but I've learned more about myself going through all of that than I ever could have. And I wouldn't tell anyone to ever do it and to go through what I went through, but I did and I am far stronger I've ever been because of it. Yeah, it's interesting. So it really took a really bad situation in my life and made it something positive.

And well done on that, because a lot of the guys who were on it and then had to go off it haven't fared very well. You talked about, you know, when the news came out after the fight in August of 2013, UFC 164, you say, you know, it wasn't really, it wasn't like it was just a bit above the the limit, but, you know, an infraction is an infraction. How did you, how was it to be mentioned as a, you know, a cheater, a drug user? How did you, like, how did you deal with that? How did you, and not be able to, or not at least feel up for telling your side of the story like you just did right now?

I mean, everything that kind of happened, once it happened, once it, you know, once I got told, like two days later after the fight, like, hey, this is, this is wrong. I pretty much knew right down in there, everything was going to happen after, and there was no fixing it, because, they shouldn't have did it. I mean, really, that's it. Like, you're going to get what you're going to get. And I mean, I told myself a long time ago years ago that I wasn't ever going to cross that line. And I did. And even though it was only testosterone, it wasn't like these, like, a lot of people throw it around with testosterone,

taking extra testosterone, synthetic testosterone, the same as taking straight up steroids. Things that you can't even pronounce is not the same as just testosterone. at least your body produces testosterone. It's not quite as extreme as some of the other stuff that's out there. But it's all synthetic. And you're taking a needle and you're putting something in your body. You're crossing the line. And I crossed that line.

I told myself I was never going to do it and I did it. And everything, you know, life had to kick me the nuts and say, no, this wasn't what you're supposed to do. But it happened. And, I mean, literally the best scenario that could have happened in my life is everything. that I accomplished after. You know, I proved so much to myself that I didn't need it, and I proved, you know, if there's anything that I should look up at somebody, it's Vitor Belfour, should look up to me

and be like, well, he did it, I can beat this, I can do it. Now, if he can, I don't know. And the guy's been doing it a lot longer than me, and the longer you do that stuff, the more dependent you become upon it. So it doesn't know, but he still, he just is all about how much you believe in yourself and believe that you can overcome this stuff. I would think that a lot of it is mental. I think a lot of guys resort to this stuff because of poor training.

They're getting trained in the wrong ways. You hear about more injuries are becoming rampant. Of course, it's becoming rampant because the testing's gotten better. So, guys are knowing like, oh, I can't take EPO anymore and have unlimited cardio and, like, I'm going to have come up to stuff. Yeah, and all of a sudden there are a lot of injuries. Like, yeah, no kidding. You're going to be this stuff.

And, you know, and guys not sleeping good because they're worried about getting tested. I know all about this stuff, and I know what they're going through, and I tell you what, to be where I'm at right now, and they're sitting where I'm sitting, like, yeah, I'm very thankful because I know what those guys are going through. And in the long run, it's not going to help anybody win fights. This has only become a hindrance on these guys, and, you know, you're going to see it.

And a big day for me was the advanced drug testing. That was when I became okay with everything. That's when I knew I could win a title. I know I could beat anybody because these guys are going to get tested for EPO and the growth hormone and things that were really, really hard to detect before are now getting tested before. That scared to shit out a lot of people. I can assure you that. You were in the news last week because of this drama with Rufus Sport.

I wanted to ask you, and also it came out, Eric Schaefer said that he was, that they were saying that they were instructed. to get Matt Mitrione to haze you while you were a member of the team. Is that in fact true? And did you have a negative experience like Pat Barry and Rose Namu, Unis, and others are saying about their time at Rufus Sport? You know, I don't people love to hear, you know, stuff. Anything to deal with, like, trauma and whatnot.

I really, really have worked to stay out of this stuff because I did have a pass there. But I'll clear up one thing in the full situation. I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to. I don't want to get into, you know, the video and all this stuff that's going on in Wisconsin. There's a lot of bad stuff that happened. But I'll clear up one thing that had my name got mentioned. I called Red Schaefer and I said, you know, why are you saying my name? He's like, well, you know, I was just saying what happened.

Like, this is what they told. I was listening to him. This is what they said. And I go, well, what you didn't say is, you could have said that's what said, but you made it out like I got beaten from the gym. I go, you know how that looks like that, it got me upset right now. I go, what really happened? He's like, well, you got in there and he held your own. I'm like, yeah, did I have any clue what they were trying to do?

He's like, no. I'm like, yeah, that just shows what I'm about. Like, I didn't even know, and I beat them off. And Matrione said, told me that he's like, yeah, that happened. And I had no problem with Matrione, and I had no clue that that was even happening. He said that they did. I just came up there to help him get ready for, Kimball Slice fight.

It came up there to be a good teammate, and apparently, you know, cowards that they are had problems and didn't know how to deal with them like a man and they were trying to do some sneaky shit. And it backfired because months down the road, him and, you know, him and his coach had their own differences and go their own way. I ended up leaving after, you know, so apparently the stuff happened. I didn't even know about it. Okay.

But other one, that's all I really got to them. fair enough um so you're expecting to be back around march april or so right i hope so yeah yeah and is anything that you're battling right now is it serious or just kind of nix and knicks it's more nix and max and uh you know i i i didn't i heard andre actually went in for surgery on our shoulder so i actually was able to bypass surgery on a lot of rehab i was afraid of what i needed but um i managed to get through at all, just a lot of rehab, just not in the position

that I don't want to, like, hurt anything, so I don't want to get into a, you know, fight, a real fight training just yet. So, man, to take some time off. But like I said, I hope at the beginning of the year, I could enter a fight camp for sure. And, of course, long-time fans of M.M.A. will recall that you fought Andrei Arlowski

in Affliction back in 2008. Do you want to fight him? Are you interested in him because of that fight? What happened? You lost that fight? Or is it just because he's doing well? You're doing well. The fight makes sense. In other words, was this a fight that you've wanted to avenge a loss that you've wanted to avenge since that loss? Honestly, I haven't had, I haven't got a single chance at a payback fight, you know, revenge fight, yet on my, all my losses, I haven't been able to redeem any of them. So that popped up.

Yeah, that is, there is a history that. I am kind of, like, it is kind of disappointing, that was a disappointing time in my life, because I didn't play very good, and I was just really young. just mentally, like, how I went into that fight. And I definitely would like to fight him again if that comes up. There's a combination of things that he's doing well. And there's no little bit of a super cool guy, honestly. He's kind of guy that if we could, I'd want to be friends with him because he is cool because he's a really good competitor,

and he's doing really well. I think it would be a great fight. But if I could hold out, and if I only was allowed to get, one rematch, it last became. That's ultimately the guy that's got to be beat. And, you know, I just need to take the proper stuff to get to that. I've earned that, you know, you've got to earn the right fight the camp. So I just have to take the right fights and win the right fights the way I've been doing it

and earn that. Well, Ben, congratulations on your success as of late. Heal up soon. It was a great win. One of the highlights of the year. And I'm not just talking about the dance. the actual fight result was very entertaining and the finish was great as well. Thanks for the time.

Great catching up with you and we'll talk to you soon. Appreciate it. Thank you for everything and thanks all the fans for tuning in and back to you guys. All right, there he is. Big Ben Rothwell. All of a sudden, once again, a top contender and this time in the UFC looking forward to his next fight and seeing where he goes from here. All right, let's move along.

Very excited to welcome in our next guest. Been wanting to have him on the show for quite some time. It was announced in August that Gary Cook, who's spent around two years with the UFC now, has been promoted or was promoted to the UFC's chief global officer. Sounds like a very important title, and now we see him at a lot of events. I wanted to have him on the show to talk about that and a whole lot more. Gary, how are you? I'm very well, Ariel. How about you?

I'm great. Thank you very much for joining us, and congratulations on the new role. This is a role that we haven't heard of from the UFC before. for what exactly is a chief global officer? Good question. I get that asked a lot. It's actually chief global brand officer, but for all intents and purposes,

let's talk a little bit about some of the dynamics of our business. Obviously, we've continued to grow around the world. We're more than just a promoter of events now. I think you know that, as well as anybody. we have over 340 people working in our organization. And as we continue to grow, we have to make sure that we are planning our business, aligning our business with all that we want to get after. And we make sure that, you know, people know that we're in the television business.

We're in the event management business. We've got strategic partners in the commercial space. And there's a lot going on here. It's not just about matchmaking two fighters in the octagon. So you have left Europe. You now live in Las Vegas, correct? That is correct. Settling in and getting stuck in.

So you're at the HQ, the ZUFA HQ. What's the transition like? I know it's fairly new now, but to go from Europe, you know, beautiful London to Las Vegas, what's that been like for you? Well, you know, it's great because I think this is what I would call the epicenter of our business. Sure. And this is where a lot of the energy is. And I think when you're out in the markets, Ariel, you know, the demands are very different.

You're identifying relatively new sport in a sports landscape that, you know, you're confronted with soccer is the majority sport, a major sport. And you've got different dynamics. People haven't heard of it. It's awareness levels that are very low. And you're trying to build a business that's going to be sustainable for the future. and I think historically everybody wanted to see the championship fights, the big fights, but there's actually a development process for our fighters through their status of trying to become a legend that you have to work through. So in the region, it's just a very different application.

And I think if you look at Gustafson and you look at McGregor, they are byproducts, if you like, of having a very clear plan, having a very clear understanding of what the responsibility is in the region, and that is develop local fighters to, meet the needs of local fans and local television networks. If you come to the UFC here in Las Vegas, it's much more complex because this is a sport that has not only continued to grow. It's a mature fan base. The fans that listen to your show are, they are knowledgeable, they understand the sport. We've got to understand how they want to consume it, what they want to see, what they need, and that's our job. You know, at the end of the day, we're asking people to be part of this all the time. to make sure that we're serving their needs.

So when you were hired initially in September of 2012, when they announced your involvement with the sport and with the organization, your role was executive vice president and managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa. Of course, now you've moved on as we just talked about. So who replaced you in that role? Well, we're still working through that. You know, we built a management team there.

We went from sort of three or four people operating in our London office. We built that out. We've now got 18 people working in that. office. So there'll be a leader. We'll announce that within the short time frame. But I think it's always important that we as a company, you know, building a world-class organization, we're always looking to build, you know, the bench for people to step into the role. This is a business and a sport, as you know better than anybody. You have to have a basic understanding of it. You have to have a passion for it. You have to be knowledgeable about what we're trying to achieve. And sometimes

bringing people from the outside doesn't always necessarily work, but we'll be announcing somebody within the next 30 days. Was this a goal of yours? I mean, when you came into the UFC, that was a great role, and you did a lot of great work. I mean, Dana White always takes advantage of an opportunity to praise you and the work that you've done over the last couple of years. But ultimately, did you want to get to Vegas? Did you want to have a bigger say in the matters and now you're there?

Was that always part of the mission for you? Well, I think that, you know, there's two things. is, you know, personal goals are not always the same goals as the corporation. You know, I always said to Lorenzo and today, you know, I'll do whatever you want. Give me a shirt and I'll go do whatever you need me to do. I love this business. I love the people that are in this business. I love the change that we're creating around the sports landscape, around the world. And I'm excited to be part of a young, energetic organization that has a load, a load of run, way in front of it. And so I, wherever, wherever they put me, whatever they asked me to do,

I'm all in. Are you surprised how much you love this business? Because, you know, well documented when you came in, you weren't an MMA guy. You came from the sports world, very much established, but MMA wasn't a part of your resume. It wasn't a part of your background. Did you expect to love it this much? Well, I think being an MMA guy is all relative. I would say that the people who listen to your show are, you know, they're passionate about the sport and they, they're knowledgeable about the sport. I've still got some learning to do, and I don't hide that, nor should I. But what I'm intrigued by is the way that it captures the hearts and imaginations

of the fans. But I'm even more interested and more, I find greater insight coming from the athletes. The athletes are truly a step above everybody else, I believe, in the athletic world. I think the mental scope and the mental discipline and strength that's required to be a great MMA fighter, particularly in the UFC at the highest level, is above and beyond anything that you could ever see. And I think if you were to look at UFC and use a word that you would describe an athlete, they are absolute. They are so committed. Their fitness levels are above everybody else. And I saw a lot of soccer players, a lot of football players, a lot of basketball players, they revere the athleticism of an MMA fighter. For me, that's an insight we haven't seen in

sport for the last 30 years. That's what I fell in love with. And now I can look at the sport through a lens of an athlete, and I can see the capabilities, the technical skills that are required to outwit your opponent. I mean, you only have to look at the fight on Saturday night to watch that. And you can see, and you can appreciate and understand it. And my job, I believe, is to help convert not only those that are already knowledgeable and passionate, but to bring a new audience to the sport. And I think that that's what we endeavor to do as we look forward to the next 15, 20 years. We want to be one of the major sports in the sports landscape around the world. So having an understanding of it and having a deep passionate knowledge, they might be slightly

different, but they all play their part. How much resistance do you get from the mainstream today as opposed to two years ago? Sponsors, corporate America, media. Do you sense that times have changed in the last two years for you? Oh, absolutely. And that's a great question because, you know, I've been in meetings where, you know, I've been told that the sport is tearing the fabric of our society. And I think that those are, those only make you rise to the challenge like any great athlete in the octagon. As soon as you tell him, he's going to get beaten, he rises to the challenge, right? So we continually go through that and we've still got some issues, as you know, in certain markets. But I think that the change that happens is when people become educated and aware of what the sport represents and what the UFC represents.

And I think what you're going to see as we continue our leadership position is we continue to not only change the landscape of sport, but we set the benchmark for MMA around the world. And I really believe that there's a lot more to come on that. Will we change everybody's perception? I don't necessarily think that's the goal. I think to try and please everybody all of the time can often be a recipe for failure. And I think that we've got to make sure that people know who we are, what we do, and know about our business, and know that we are a serious player in the sports landscape. But it is getting easier, but it's not easy.

You know, I recall when you came in, you were saying we need to cater to the local markets. We need to have, you know, Ultimate Fighter and these local markets, et cetera. I feel like you are responsible in many ways for what's happening with Fight Pass for, you know, these events taking place locally in prime time as opposed to just catering to the United States. Was that all you? Were you the one that pushed for all this as far as doing more of these events and not so much caring about, you know, the viewer back home here in North America, but catering to, you know, the viewer in England and whatnot, all the, you know, Ireland doing it in prime time there. Was that all you? Well, that's very kind of you to sort of put me on the spot there. wish to be the guy that says, you know, this is because of me. We have a 340 plus people who work

on all of these ideas and businesses. But I think where I'd like to take the commentary is I'd like to say that we are truly a global brand. We are not an American brand trying to take our product around the world. That's very different, which means then that you have to have local events in local markets, with local fighters being the focus, and actually helping the U.S. audience then become fans of some of what's going on around the world. You know, we've seen the massive and the explosion of Brazil. We just did an event in Mexico. We can see that coming on.

We're just about to announce a television, you know, deal in Russia. 55 million households. He's never done an event in Russia. So the growth is all about, you know, a global business is how do you make sure that you create relevant content to the U.S., relevant content for all of the other markets, and if these markets can exchange thinking ideas and the events themselves, then that's all the better. It's all about creating more content. It's all about creating local heroes, national fame, and it just adds spice to the story.

The story, Ariel, as you well know, is two people in combat. There's going to be a winner. There's going to be a loser. There's no more drama than that. And that sells wherever you are in the world. That being said, though, in the last month or so, there's been something interesting that's happened. You know, UFC 179 in Brazil, Aldo Mendez. That, you know, that main event happened very late, early morning because it was a pay-per-view event. Then you had the OSP showgun fight.

That happened at around 3.45 a.m. in Brazil. We saw, you know, an early morning show Saturday morning in Australia, and it just, it was just announced that the Gustafson Rumble fight is going to be taking place in Stockholm, but it will be catering to the Fox audience. So it will be around 3 a.m. Sweden time when the fight actually happens. Are things changing as far as, you know, that directive is concerned? No, no, no. I think what we tend to do, and we should always do this, is we, we, that, that would have, that

Gustafs fight would have been an easy fight to put in the United States. But I think if you can kill two birds of one stone, which is you put it on prime time television in the United States, where we know there's a big audience for that, and we also are able to bring a live audience into Stockholm. Not only we're looking to, as we go on sale for tickets on Thursday, we'll be looking for 30,000 plus attendees in the stadium there. And people's cultures are different. They don't mind, they don't mind going to an event at 11 o'clock and watching an event on television at 2 o'clock in the morning. It's a different culture.

And so we feel that what we try to do, rather than pick one off against the other, we just try and meet everybody's needs. As you'll see with our Australia shows, sometimes they're early morning. They're okay with that. They like that. They don't mind going to an event that early in the morning. So it's about making it fit for everybody. That doesn't mean that we won't have a show in Poland.

We won't have a show, you know, in other – in Abu Dhabi or whatever it might. be in Europe, whereby they'll be broadcast for the local market. So I got to ask you this before I let you go, and a lot of people asking me about this on social media and whatnot. Last week, they announced a schedule, but a lot of the actual locations weren't announced. That's fine. We expected that. Since you're here, what about some of these places? You mentioned Russia. You mentioned Poland. A lot of fans in Scotland wanting events. What can you tell us about 2015 and some of the international markets at the U.S. will be attending? Well, we've had a very clear plan and point of view on how do we become

relevant in these markets. If you try and get everywhere, it sometimes dilutes what you try and do. So, you know, as we've always said, we want to get on to the television network, we want to create some awareness, and then measure the demand for the product. So we're going to be on television in Russia. Eventually there'll be a show in Russia, but we don't know whether that will be next year. We've got Poland. We've got some plans there. They've been calling for us to have an event in Poland. There's a big, big fan base in Poland, so we look like we're going to be there. Scotland, you know, you can't help but think about Jojo Calderwood, who's becoming a starlet there.

We'd like to think about doing something in Glasgow, and we've got some plans. But then, lo and behold, all good plans, life might get in the way, as you well know, and you get a guy called Conor McGregor comes along, and you get a guy called Alexander Gustafson comes along, who needs to come back from an injury, and all of a sudden your schedule has to be readjusted because you've got lots of demand for these live events. That's the good news, but it's also the challenge,

because you'd like to be doing a lot more. I know, having worked in the markets, I know this in Brazil, I know this in Asia, there's call for another 20, 30 events. Wow. If you had the capability, that's what people are asking for. That's what people want.

That's what people want to see in the local markets. But we're trying to manage our business sensibly and in a measured way. And so you can never be too aggressive, but believe me, there's a lot more to come yet. Will there really be a stadium show in Ireland next year? Well, if you listen to Connemagrager, we've all, we've always, We're virtually, it's next week. Yes. But, you know, Dana and Joe and Sean, they're the guys that look after that part of the business.

I like to think that once Dana and those guys have created the product, then we've got every opportunity to go out and make it a commercial success. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with a fighter having ambition. Sure. I think we also have to be respectful of the competitors in the weight division and make sure that we don't get ahead of ourselves. but I'd like to think that I've always said it. I'd like to see somebody from one of these countries,

particularly in Europe, wave their national flag, and fly that flag as a world champion, and who knows. Final thing, I remember last year, it wasn't last year, it was in March, but when you last visited London, you announced on the spot that the return would be February 28th, but there's a pay-per-view scheduled for that day. Can you clear that up? because a lot of people have asked me since,

is that event not happening anymore, will be a two-show event? Are you able to shed any light on that? Yeah, that's a good question. You know, what happened there is we went ahead with some plans in London. It's very important for us. And as I've just said to you,

you know, Alexander Gustafson, you know, wanted to, we wanted to place that one into that market. And we also had the L.A. show with Ronda on that card and also with Belford and Weidman on that card. And so we've had to make some adjustments. We're going to take ourselves out of that London date, and we're going to move ourselves into another London date further down through the year. So we have had to make some changes,

and those are, as we've always said with our business, it is subject to change. And that's just making sure that the fans are taken care of. We're not trying to overdo it, and we want to make sure that we get focused on that L.A. event in UFC 184. for in Los Angeles. All right, fair enough. Gary, can't thank you enough. Really appreciate the time. I know how busy you are, so this means a lot to us.

Congrats on the new job, or the new role, I should say, and the move over to Las Vegas, doing big things over there at the HQ, as we like to call them, and appreciate the time, and best of luck with everything. If you ever need anything from us, you ever want to shoot the breeze or, you know, take the temperature of the sport, you know where to find us. Thank you very much, and I just want to say, you know, your show is important. you're an important character in this sport and in this business, and without people like you, it wouldn't exist.

So thanks very much. That means a lot. Thank you, Gary. Bye-bye now. There he is. Gary Cook, the UFC's chief global brand officer. We appreciate his time very much. If you've ever listened to Dana White,

especially in those scrums over the last couple of years, he has been very complimentary of Gary's work. He has come in and done a lot of great things for the UFC, and you know, you can witness the fact that he is now, he's kind of moved on from that role as far as Europe and Middle East and Africa are concerned and now working on the big picture for the UFC. So interesting to see what he does. He's only been in the job now as far as this role is concerned for the last, well, I don't know, three months or so, at least since it was made official to the public, but very well liked. Everyone has a lot

of positive things to say about him, what he's doing behind the scenes for the UFC. So I think a great asset to the UFC and looking forward to seeing what he does, appreciate his time very, very much, busy guy, so that meant a lot and very kind words as well. All right, we got a big guest coming up, as I said, on the top of the show, in studio. In a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by one of the most famous, successful comedians in the entire world. According to Forbes, the third highest paid comedian in the world, a fellow Canadian, a man who has sold out arenas, not just venues, not just halls or, you know, comedy clubs, actual 20,000 seat arenas across the world. I'm talking about Russell Peters, and he is a big fight fan.

Boxing, MMA, he's got very famous MMA friends. He's attended a bunch of events, and he's kind enough to join us in studio in a matter of moments. So while we reconfigure things here in the studio, I wanted to play a couple of my favorite sets of his, some classic. He's been around for a long time. His story is a great one. We'll get into that. But in case you don't know who Russell Peters is, or if you want to get reacquainted with his work,

I thought it would be fun to look back at some of his great moments on stage. So here's Russell Peters, and then we're actually going to be joined by Russell Peters in studio right here in a matter of moments. So do not go anywhere. M.M.A. Hour will be right back. All right. So this is the, you know, we're getting an idea of the show now. You know what I'm saying?

Let me tell you something. My parents now have been in Canada 41 years. They moved from India to Canada 41 years ago. I don't know how they picked it or whatever, but they were like, Grenierda. And I was like, okay, well, maybe when you get there, you'll be able to say it. So when my dad first moved to Canada, he didn't just want to live here. You know what I mean?

He didn't want to be a guy that just lived in Canada. He wanted to become a Canadian. And he thought that there was things that you could do to become a Canadian. Like you just do a couple of things. and bang overnight you're a Canadian you know what I mean? I used to come up with these schemes when I was a kid. I remember one time when I was a little kid he called me was like son come here.

Here's the thing with Indian parents too. They never just tell you directly to come and do something. It's just not that kind of culture, you know what I mean? Indian parents will not boss you around like that, hey, come here. Because they have salesmen built into them, you know what I mean? No matter what the situations, they feel the need to continue.

convince you to do something, you know what I mean? And sometimes they'll just take one word and make it sound like a question to make you come there. I'd be like, Russell, come. So remember this one night, right? My dad was like, son, tonight we will become Canadians. I said, Dad, I was already born here. I think I got it covered. Okay, but what's your plan?

He goes, son, I have bought a barbecue. I go, what are you going to do? Cook the rest of Canada? and we were the only ones left? No, Canadians like to eat the barbecue. I go, Dad, they don't actually eat the barbecue, but I think I know where you're going with this. What's your plan?

He goes, tonight, we will have a barbecue in the backyard. We will invite all the neighbors. They will come over, eat our food, and think we are a Canadian. I said, Dad, if they eat our food, they're going to know we're not going to. Our food will have flavor. It's funny, sometimes Canadian people, white folks get mad at that joke. Hey, hey, hey.

You don't diss our boiled potatoes. Right, sometimes I put salt in that water. So my dad said, no, no, son, I have bought white food for the barbecue. I go, what the hell is white food? You know, hamburgers, hot dogs. Hamburgers in what? Hot dogs. What?

What the hell's a hot dog? Hot dog, hot dog, you know? Hot dog. Gatum kutas. You know, hot dogs. Well, whatever fancy name you want to give them. You know, my dad had all the neighbors over, and he was standing behind the grill looking so proud,

and I walked back in the back yard, and he goes, huh, son, huh? Do I look Canadian? I go, you look like an Indian guy in Canada. But is everybody having a nice time? Everybody seems to be having a nice time. Then why do you keep on standing at me? Well, the rice keeps falling through the grill.

This is a stupid method for cooking. Show me how to do this. Show? Show. White people please beat your kids. I tell you why else, because when I was growing up, right? I grew up around a lot of black people, which was fine, because the black people never picked on me. White kids?

Not so friendly back there. But every now and then, a white kid would come and hang out with us. And we were like, wow, a white kid! I've heard so much about you. Here's where the problem is. When a white kid would hang out with us, we'd want to be like the white kid. We would want to start to do everything like the white kid. We wanted to copy that white kid so much.

And the problem is, is when we would start taking that white kid's advice on how to deal with our parents. That'll get you friggin' murdered, man. He was looking around this one little white boy, Ryan, when I was 10 years old. I went to his house after school one day, right? His parents never beat him, and they never even yelled at him. He could do anything he wanted, and nothing was going to happen to him. But he was an angry kid.

Who walked to his house after school one day's mom goes, Ryan, go clean your room. Fuck you, bitch! His mom goes, what am I going to do with him? You can't talk to your mom like that? Yes, I can. She's a jackass. Don't say that, man. she'll hit you. No, she won't. She's not allowed to.

Hell are you talking about, man? My parents hit me. Yeah, well next time they try it, you tell them to fuck off. Are you sure? Trust me. It works for me. So I went home for the last time. I walked in the house. My dad goes, Russell, come and do the dishes. Fuck you, dad. Did you say to me? Do I look like somebody gonna get a hurt? That was my dad's threat. before he'd beat me every single time. Hey, Russell.

Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad. He hated that threat. You know why? Because he'd always say somebody. He'd never tell you it was you. Who was you? But he'd give you this hope. Russell?

Somebody going to get a hurt real bad. Somebody. I'm not going to say who. I think you might know him. Very well. I'm in the back praying. I hope it's my brother, man. Please.

I saw that little brat. Ryan at school a few days later. I was like, yo, your little plan almost got me killed. All right, back on the mixed martial arts hour. As I said, before we went to the break, I am so excited about this one. It's not too often that we get very, very famous people to stop by the studio, who also happen to be big MMA fans. And this is a great pleasure for me as a fan of comedy, but more importantly, as a fellow Canadian, we have the one and only Russell Peters in studio. There he is. Right there. If you're clapping, we can't hear you.

That is true. Should I organize my mic? I feel like I'm sitting awkwardly. No, well, you just talk to me. Is that what you wanted to do? Yeah, yeah. Is his mic on, Will? Yeah, I think I hear myself.

You do hear yourself? Let me just adjust me. Okay. There we go. How's that? That's better, right? Well, I barely hear myself, I think. Well, it's not so, do you not want to wear the cans?

I'm not a big can fan. Okay. I'm going to go this way. Well, look at your hair. That's why I got, you know, I got, you have to shave your forehead to get a hair line, first of all. pull as far forward as I can. So when I get the tip going, I can't put headphones on.

It'll flatten my tip. What is that called, by the way? I don't know. I don't know. It's call it hanging on for dear life is what I call it. How long have you been rocking it for a while? A long time, buddy. You know, I'm 44.

I'm trying to just keep what I got. You're never going to go behind. If I lose hair, if I have a receding hairline, it'll just be a normal hairline. Yeah, yeah. Especially with the Widows Peak. Like, it's bad enough there. It's crazy your thing.

And then you grow a beard just to what, to encompass your face further? Because it's so hairy up here. if I didn't have anything here, it would look a little weird. Do you think? That what you think? Yeah. What do you think? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you just got very little skin left on your face. I got the nose. Hey, me too, buddy. We should call this the MMA nose cast. Well, there it is right there. Hawani nose.

Oh, there you go. It's true. I got to say, I am shocked at how easy it was to get you on the show. Well, I, you know, I'm a fan of this show, actually. Don't lie. I am. I am a fan of this show. Really? I watch you on Fight Network in Canada all the time. Thank you. And I'm, you know, so, you know, for me, I'm like, really?

I could be on the show that I watch? Okay, I'm under that. By the way, we haven't been on the Fight Network for like two, three years. You know, well, I watched it when I don't live there anymore. That's true. That's true. So I can't hate on you for that. But it was so easy to get you on.

You remind me of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Because I was trying to book him, you know, not that long ago, and he came in studio. He was sitting right there. I was like, this shouldn't be this difficult. And then I deal with some of these low-level fighters with all due respect. And it's so freaking difficult to get them on. And look at you. And look at you.

Just texting, yeah, I'll stop by the studio. I didn't even know you were in New York. I just wanted you on the phone. I literally got in this morning. Okay. And I was like, can you swear on this? Go ahead, go nuts. Well, I've heard Mayhem swearing this.

Yeah. That's true. Hi, Jay. Got his shirt right there, Lucky Patrick, in honor of that moment. Yeah, no, I woke up today. I fucking got in at like six in the morning. Oh, really? From where?

Shit. From Boston, I drove in. You actually drove? I did five shows this weekend there, and then I drove in after, the last show last night. The Almost Famous Tour. Almost Famous Tour. You drive yourself? Well, it was me and some of my friends. But I like driving, so I drove.

Guy of your stature, no bus? I'm a control freak. I need to drive. You're the actual driver. I drove. Wow. No tour bus, nothing. No. December 11th, you're in New York. Madison Square Garden. Unbelievable. The full garden. The Mecca. Yeah. I'm going to be in Full Guard.

But before you're going to Indianapolis, you have some shows, I think, in Pennsylvania before that. Yeah, I got Philly. I got Philly in Bethlehem this weekend in Pennsylvania, then Indiana. So why are you here? Why are you here? You know, I thought I was going to do press. And then when you came around, I was like, okay, that's press.

I'll do that. There you go. And then I thought I was going to do press, and then it was like, oh, everybody shut down for Thanksgiving. Oh, right. Not much to do. I didn't want to fly back to L.A. Right. And then have to fly out on Thanksgiving.

So I was like, fuck it, I'll just stay here. Well, I'm happy you're here. Me too. A lot of people might not know. You're a huge UFC fan. You're a huge combat sports fan. but I say huge UFC fan. Perhaps that should be you were a huge UFC fan

because I saw an interview that made some headlines recently. You were on a radio show, I believe it was serious. Did it make headlines? Oh, made headlines in our sport, yeah. Oh, wow. You were saying that you kind of predicted, you thought that the UFC would kind of oversaturate itself and you're seeing that right now.

I called that a couple of years ago. Yeah. So you feel that now. It's hard to follow the sport. It really is hard to follow the sport. And I'm a fan, you know what I mean? I think the problem is that UFC made it about, their name as opposed to the fighters.

And, you know, I think that that worked in the beginning, the rebranding, and that really saved and created a genre. But much like Pride, I loved Pride. Pride was my favorite. And then, you know, when UFC starts buying stuff and then getting rid of it, I'm like, well, you know, that's just monopolizing a sport that doesn't need to be monopolized. There's enough for it to go around. You don't need to be the only guy in town.

And then, because what they're doing is. is then they shouldn't have bought pride and strike force and then just eliminated them. They should have kept them. And then instead of USC fight night, they could have had Pride night or, you know, strike forces. And then, you know, it gives you some sort of scope and then puts UFC at a higher level.

You know what I mean? These are our lesser ones. Here's the big one. But if you call everything, UFC, then I'm like, well, somebody was like, did you catch fights last week? And I go, what fucking fights? I didn't even know there was fights. But if you were, let's say you're the owner of the UFC.

Don't you want to be the only man standing? You do want to be the only man standing. If you own them all, does it really matter? Right. You're still the only man standing. So it's for, it's more for people's, you know, it's for perception, really. Perceptions, everything. So you've attended events.

Of course, you have a lot of friends in the sport and all that. You just not watch anymore? No, well, lately because I've been working. Sure, sure. And I'm a boxing fan number one before anything. Above? Yes. Because I boxed amateur for nine years.

Yeah, we'll get into that. So boxing's always number one for me. And even Dana will say boxing's number one for him. Yeah. And, you know, I have nothing personal with, like, those guys are really nice to me, and I really like those guys. I just wish they would, you know, I was such a pride fan. I was so upset when it went away. More so than UFC.

Yeah. It was just, it was a little bit more hardcore as far as I was concerned, you know? Would you actually stay up late to watch it in the middle? Oh, yeah, hell yeah. Favorite pride fight? Oh, they would probably be a crow cop fight, if anything. Yeah. Was he your guy?

He was my guy in pride, Crocop. And then there was that one, I think it was Hal for Henzo. Yeah. who, remember he fought the Japanese guy? Sakaraba? I don't think it wouldn't, no, when he broke the guy's arm. Sakaraba? When he broke Sakarab's arm?

Sakarabu broke his arm. No. There was a fight where Hal Forhenzo broke the guy's arm in the pride fight. I can't remember which fight it was. It was like some sort of really contentious affair. Yes, of course. And I guess he had insulted the Graces. In the fight, one of the Graces got him in an arm bar,

snapped the arm. I'm just going to swell sideways. And then when the ref jumped in, stopped it was either Hal for Henza or one of them, one of the guys whose name starts with R and pronounced with an H, gets up and stomped them in the face. Oh, yes. And then walked away. Yeah, that was Henzzo.

Known for his fiery attitude. I thought of Sakrabba Hensow because they just competed in Mammar. Yes, yeah, on Saturday. This past weekend. Again, I wanted to go to that, but, you know. You like that? I do. I used to watch the Abu Dhabi championships back in the day.

And you've changed Jitsu as well. I did, yeah, with Carlos Newton. and those guys in Canada. But do you feel like, like, Jiu-Jitsu will only reach a certain point as far as... Well, yeah, I mean, well, if you're a Jiu-Jitsu fan, for me to watch Mena Morris is nice.

Right. Because, you know, I'm watching it. I'm like, ooh, yeah, yeah, you know, it doesn't always have to be about striking, you know. So, okay, so I don't know how much you follow these days. Of course, UFC's UFC, but there's an organization called Bellator. I know Belator? They're trying to...

I like Bellator. They're recreating a bit of the pride feel with the ramp and all... They're doing their last show with TOT. They're doing what they are doing. They're taking all the name for. fighters from UFC, the UFC's cutting. And I think that's a mistake that you're cutting these guys. You know what I mean?

What you're doing is enabling Bellator to come up more because these are names people know. If you're not a huge MMA fan, you're not going to know Johnny Hendrix is or Ben Rothwell. You know what I mean, or Anthony Pattis. You're not going to know these names. But you know the Tito Ortiz's. You know the Chuck Liddell's.

You know the Rampage Jackson's. At some point, you have to evolve, though. You have to evolve. But these guys, but that's the thing. This gives them the power to evolve. Right. And then they had the women's championships that Zoyla Frosto won. Yes.

And then they got rid of it. Zola, by the way. You know, a couple people were saying, they've seen you canoodling with her. I do. And Zoyla is a fraternizing. She's a very sexy woman. What happened? Don't look at her when she's in the ring.

You've got to see her outside the ring. Even when I see her in the ring, I'm like, damn, I don't want to have you kicked my ass. So what's the story here? She came to a show of yours a couple weeks ago? She came to a show of mine. Did you know her before? No. Okay.

I didn't know. And then what happened? But I didn't know she was a fighter even when she walked. And I was like, I said to my friend, I was like, who is that? And he was like, good, Soil of Frosto. Never heard of her before? You know, I, no, hadn't. Wow.

You should have just lied right now, by the way. I know, I should have, but I'm not a liar. Yeah. I can't lie. Even when I got here late, he goes, why are you late? To traffic? I go, no, I left. That's fine.

So you meet her? And then what happens? I was quite smitten when I met her. She's very lovely. Are you guys, like, more than friends now? No, I wish we were, but, you know. Where was this show? I always say it's like a 12-round fight, you know.

You got to. You're not going in for the knockout. I'm jabbing my way in. I haven't even thrown the right hand yet. This is the first round. Yeah, that thing's the first or second round. She's a really sweet girl. Where was this?

In the Bay, in the Bay area. Okay. And you're available? I'm very available. She's available as well? As I did, you know, I hope. You didn't even get to that point. I mean, I didn't really want to get all up in her business.

Sure. You know, I don't want to be like, so. Because I know she was married at one time to that I know And I don't think that's existing anymore I don't keep up a lot with this stuff Yeah me neither me neither But if that was the case I'm sure she would have told me

How do you feel about dating? I mean you were a former fighter yourself Dating a fighter though See here's the thing I wouldn't say I'm a former fighter I would just say I'm a guy who trained Amateur fighter Yeah but I look at guys that are fighters

And go oh no that guy's a fighter I trained I was in the gym I was in the gym with fighters Sure But I was not you know I'm not the guy Like, you'll see the fighters of the guys that are going to wake up at five in the morning go run. I was the guy that was like, I'll go and train when I have time. Well, because from one I understand, your coach at the time, and where did you train?

You trained in Brampton? I trained in Brampton, yeah. Trained with Dwight Fraser. I trained with everybody. Troy Ross. He tried to set you up for some amateur fights. You just didn't show up. Yeah, I didn't show up.

Why? Scared? I don't like competition. But how did you get to the point to where this is booked and then you don't show up? Like, you had to get to a certain point mentally to say, all right, I'm going to take this fight. Well, I was 15. You know what I mean? I didn't even know that there was any...

I thought it was just like, Russell, go fight that guy. Yeah. And I didn't know there was like a whole thing behind it, you know? You're a kid. You know nothing about the sport. You just went to train. My friend was a fighter. And he was like...

And I was getting beat up in school for being a small kid with a big mouth. And then I was like... My dad was like, you should go and learn to defend yourself. And my dad... Yeah, my dad boxed in India. Really? Yeah.

Back then, it was compulsory in boarding school that you boxed. Wow. And he was, he would, I'm not making this up, he was the paperweight champion of his, of his boarding school.

I don't, I don't know, I think it was like 100 pounds or something. I was thinking like 50. Yeah, I don't know what it was, but I remember when I, my dad met George Chavallo

when I, my dad was a little drunk. And my dad meets George Chavallel. And my dad meets George Chavallel. Let me shake the big man's hand. I was the paperweight champion of Indian. I'm like, oh my God. And Chival didn't know me at the time.

went, like, he looked at my dad, like, who was this guy? So you actually get in there, and I'm wondering, like, you know, like, if I have to be somewhere and I don't show up, it's a crummy feeling, you know what I mean? I was 15. So you don't even recall. No, because what I did was, I was training every day, and my coach was like, hey, you know what? I like this.

I'm going to get you a fight in two weeks. Really? And then I didn't come back to the gym for three weeks. Okay. So enough time passed. Yeah, so he didn't see me for those two weeks coming up. And then I waited a week after, and then I came back. And he goes, what happened?

I go, ah, and then he did it again, I did it again, and then he got the idea. Did you ever spar? But then he would make me spar with guys as punishment. Against some of the bigger guys, too, right? Yeah, because I was 147 back then. Some of the heavyweights? Yeah, he made me spar with a guy named Larry in my gym one time, who was a heavyweight. And he goes, Russell, Larry's sparring in shop, go.

And I go, are you fucking, I'm 140, maybe 150 at the time. Larry is a heavyweight and he's a big, huge Jamaican guy who had a bad attitude. And I had a big mouth. Did he know this? Oh, he knew that. Larry wanted to get me in the ring. So Larry, I go, I'm not, no, fuck that. And my coach was like, no, he's going to work on defense.

And I go, yeah, you sure? So I get in the ring with him. And I start getting over on him a little bit. I'm like, wow, wow, wow, wow. And then I was like, Larry, you're really slow. And then he just bam, right in my body. And I was, ever been knocked out cold?

Not cold, but I know what queer street feels like. And I don't mean that in the gay way. Right, right, right, right. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I had my legs all jelloy before. So you say nine years. Why'd you stop? Well, I say nine years,

but really it must have been about, it was about three solid years. And then the next six were like less and less and less and less until I didn't go anymore. And then about four years ago, I started training again in L.A. with my, boxing?

Yeah, with boxing again. Because I think after, at 44 now, it's not a good idea to go back to Jiu-Jitsu. Your joints aren't going to, if you stop with Jiu-Suzzi, I don't think it's a good thing to go back to. So as a boxing guy,

how did you get into Jiu-Jitsu? Well, a friend of mine, comedian Ron Jossel, do you know him? Filipino guy, very, very funny guy. Okay. He knew Jiu-Jitsu. He was training with Carlos and Omar and these guys in Canada.

And he was at my house one day and he was like, hey, can you teach me how to punch? And I go, yeah. I go, why? I go, why? He goes, because I need to know how to strike. I don't know how to strike. I do jiu-jitsu.

Let me tell you something about your little jiu-jitsu. I go, you're never going to get past this. And I'm shooting jabs at him. And he slipped it. Oh, there we go. Story of my life. This has never happened to me before, guys. Someone's going to come fix that because I don't know what to do.

I'm just going to hold me to do. You know what to do? Look at you. No. We got a guy here. His specialty is the mic. There you go. Hang on.

You think? That'll work. Your guy's not here. Yeah, there he is. There he is. William. Just to make sure it doesn't happen again. Yeah, so Ron got me in an arm bar within a few seconds.

And I didn't know about tapping. Uh-oh. So he's cranking my arm. And I'm screaming. Like there's tears coming out of my eyes. I'm like, why are you doing this to me? You had never seen anything? Gracie's anything?

No, I had, but I didn't know. I'd been watching you Ultimate Fighting Championships back then. But still, tapping didn't occur to me because I'm like, I'm not in an octagon right now. And so,

you're doing a great job. There's our guy, Will. Oh, wait. But, Will, his thing is working, right? His mic is working, because I don't hear him in my ear. I just hear him through that. But it's working for the people, right?

Are you sure? We're getting a read? Yeah, that's important. Yeah. So then you decide to actually go train. Yeah, then I was like, you must teach me this. Wow.

But it took me about six months for my arm to heal. Wow. What did he do? I heard, it was a, it was a regular arm bar. Wow. Like a ligament strain or something? Yeah, yeah.

It was like, I got here going, oh my gosh. I was like, ugh. Did you ever consider getting into MMA? Did you ever want to fight there? No. No, those are real tough guys.

Were you already established as far as your work? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I already had two specials in Canada. You didn't have to. Yeah, and I'd stopped boxing, I think, already by five years or four years already by then. Were you one of those guys who,

because, you know, a few years ago, it was very in vogue to say UFC is bigger than boxing, MMA is bigger. when people said that because I'm like, no, it's not the case. It's popular right now, but you have to understand

boxing has been around forever. And there's far more money to be made in boxing. And I think UFC, or MMA could have come up if the fighters made more money. But I think everybody's underpaid. In MMA?

Yeah. UFC in particular. I think a lot of guys are underpaid. You know these guys. I do. Some of them personally. They've told you this? No, I mean, they're pretty happy

with what they're making, they don't know really any better. Sure. And when you look at like a, you know, like how is Floyd Mayweather, I mean, not how, but Floyd Mayweather's making over $100 million a year. If he fights twice, yeah, yeah. If he fights twice, I mean, that's crazy. Right.

But he's a very rare case. Absolutely. But, again, I mean, there's lesser fighters making still $50 million. I mean, it was crazy when Lennox Lewis had he massed $100 million over his career. And, you know, if Lennox was around now, he'd be making. making shit loads of money. I mean, Lennox is around, but he's not going to fight again. He's a good friend of mine.

You know him personally. Very well. Lennox, to me, is one of the best combat sportsmen, if you want to call him that, of the last 50 years, because he went out on top. He did. And he's been lured to come back, said no. Yeah, he's got three kids now.

He's good. You know what I mean? He has no desire to fight. But it would be fun to see him fight, but it would have been great, but I know him very well. He's like, I don't need that. Yeah.

Well, I think his last fight was against Vitaly. It was against Vitaly. And he saw... He saw... Yeah, you saw... If Vidali didn't get that cut, it could have ended badly for Len. Yeah.

Okay, so back to the boxing, because it's interesting that we have you here now, Mani Pachia fought on Saturday. Which I missed? You missed that. Why? Look at you. Because I was doing two shows.

I had two shows. It's a bit of a cop-out. I mean, you call yourself a fan. I know, I call yourself a fan, but if you think work is more important. You didn't miss much, though. No, I... You know, I was pleasantly surprised by Manny.

Why? I, for some reason... You thought of Jerry was. going to win. I, you know, I just had that weird thing in my head where I was like, I think Algeri might surprise him. Because, you know, I was given his height and this being a natural weight for him, but then apparently it wasn't a natural weight for him because he couldn't even make weight. Sure. Yeah. So you still follow everything. That's interesting to me. More boxing, though. I mean, like, if I tell you who's fighting in two weeks in the UFC,

you won't even know. Tell me who. I'm asking you, do you know? On December 6th? Yeah. Oh, that's a good card, isn't it? Yeah. Isn't D.C. fighting on that card? No, that's January 3rd. Oh, he's fighting, wait, did you say D.C.? Daniel Cormier. Yeah, yeah. He's fighting John Jones.

Yeah. Oh, Johnny. I was thinking Johnny Hendricks. Johnny Hendricks fighting Robbie Lawler. That I know. That I know. Yes, and Gil's a good friend of mine. You know him, yes.

Yeah, I was talking to Gil last week, and I was like, come on, come to my show. I can't, man. I'm in training. I was like, well, he's focused, buddy. I'm sorry, buddy. I think you're in trouble. Really? I'm getting trouble that night because Gil's...

I think Gilbert got ripped off when he fought Benson the first time. I was so mad at that decision because it was... You know, that was clearly... Sure. There wasn't like, you know, well, it could... No, that was clearly Gilbert's fight. Very controversial. Yes.

He's getting another crack. You seem to be buddies with the Bay Area guys. Jake Shields, Gilbert, Kungley, of course. Why those guys? Yeah, why is that? You're not a Bay Area guy. I'm not a Bay Area guy. It's funny, and I don't know how this is.

Jake and I became friends in... Vegas. We just partied together one night. Randomely? Yeah, we just ended up hanging out at XS. I don't know how we got introduced. And we've been friends ever since. He did Meta Morris on Saturday. Did you know that? The secret match.

He told me he was doing it. Oh. But I forgot that he told me. He was like, hey, are you going to be in L.A. on November, whatever the date was? And I go, nah, shit, I'm in Boston. Oh, man, I'm fighting on the Mettamorris undercard. I go, what? It was secret. Yeah. And you didn't spill the beans.

I didn't spill the beans. You're a good friend. You know, I think the first time I ever spoke to you was, obviously, on Twitter, although you claimed that we've met in person. It was very brief. I saw you, and I was like, hey. I big time you. You did, he did big time.

In L.A.? No, it might have been Vegas. Okay. Well, I apologize. I understood. It wasn't like, you know, you son to me. Right. It was just a shitload of people coming at you at one time.

And you get a lot of the, hey, yeah, hey, yeah, yeah. I'm very popular backstage. Yeah, you are. The kids like you. Yeah. But I recall talking to you about the Kung Lee-rich Franklin fight on Twitter. Yes. That was a big fight for him. You're a good friend of Kung. Kung is one of my best friends, actually. Best friends, really? Not just best friend in combat sports, just best friend period.

One of my best friends, yeah, one of my closest friends. I've been trying to get him on this show for quite some time because he's had some... On a call? Oh, no, he's in Hong Kong right now. I've been speaking to his manager a bit. Gary? Gary, yes. Gary Barra. Great guy. He's had some stuff happened recently. Controversy. Yes, he has. What was your take on all of that?

I was really, I know him very well, and I know his training habits. And when they pulled all that shit, I was like, this is, like, that was the first time I actually became a little disillusioned with that. Okay. Because, you know, when you're on the outside and you don't know what's happening, like, this guy, can you believe him? Right. But then having known him and know how, I knew how hard he was training for that fight. And he was, you know, he's at my house at training sometimes. and I was like, man, he's, he's like,

I really thought Kung was going to beat the shit out of Bisping in that fight. And his physique looked phenomenal. He was in great shape. He went on this crazy diet and, you know, and people were like, oh, he's on, whatever, he's on HGH and he's on HIV, whatever the hell they'd given him. But it was just like, no, he's not. I saw how hard he was training for this fight.

So what was he, you know, what was he saying? What was he thinking when this was happening? Because for a time, he was Cung Lee, the drug user, right? Since then he's been exonerated. He's still hurt from it. He's pissed off, and I don't blame him. Because this is something he really wanted to be in and be a part of, and then when they let him in, they shit on him, kind of, what I mean?

And he's like, what the fuck? I didn't do this. Do you think he ever fights again? I feel like this could be it for him. I want to talk out of pocket. Sure. I don't want him to fight again. Why?

I didn't like what happened to him in his last fight. You know, when you're friends with the guy, and you see someone, when your friends get beat up like that, I don't want that to happen to you again. But, I mean, I won't say he's not going to fight again or he will fight again, but anything's possible. What about what happened afterwards? Like, did that turn you off to the point where you're like, you know what, man, you're a movie star? You don't need this stuff.

Well, that's exactly. I called him and I are supposed to do a movie together. I go, can we just focus on the movie now? Enough with this. Just stay in shape and we'll do the movies. And what do you say? He said, yeah, brother. But then, you know, you hear the talks through the grapevine.

sitting around him, I'm like, what are you doing, man? Don't do this. And to lose the Bisping of all people, right? All the smacking. Well, you know, I think Bispeng plays that up, obviously, for the camera. Yeah. Which, you know, we need a villain. And, but, I mean, he fought a good fight.

What are you going to do? What's this movie you're talking about with him? It's a buddy, buddy cup. Really? Yeah. You and him? Yeah. I know you said you've wanted to be in rush hour, right?

That's like kind of a thing that you wanted. I've always wanted to be in Rush Hour. Is this your version of Rush Hour? Yeah, basically, right. I told Chris Tucker, he's a friend of mine. I was like, Chris, let me be in the next one. Would you please? Just give me a fucking roll.

Is there a next one? I think there might be a four. What's up with Chris Tucker, by the way? Does he only do Rush Hour movies? Right. No, he was in that Silver Linings playbook. Oh, he was. And he's been in some other movies since.

I feel like he could have had a bigger career. He had a great career. Remember that movie with Charlie Sheen? Yeah, Money Talks. Money Talks was great. And then he just did Rush Hour and then waited six years next Rush Hour. Yeah, but he got $25 million a picture. Yeah.

You know what I mean? What are you going to rush into? Are you guys cops in this movie? I think something like that. You don't want to talk about it. No, no, I'm just, I'm not sure because the script keeps changing. Okay. I'm not sure if we're cops or if we're on private duty or if he's looking after me or

you know what I mean? Is this your first big movie? No, I've done some films before. I wouldn't say it's a big movie, but it's going to be a, I think it's going to be fun. Definitely is going to be fun. Is it like a big Hollywood blockbuster, big studio all that? I don't think we're going to get studios behind us. What is going on here with this?

I mean, I find your story to be so fast. I'm almost famous. Yes. Hence the name of the tour. Almost famous, buddy. It's fascinating to me. It's, like I said, Forbes' third highest paid comedian last year. By the way, the year's coming up, where are you on that list?

Did you go up? I'll still be on the list. I think I might be a little lower because I had some time off. Okay. Does that piss you off? No, no, no. I was writing an act and, you know, that's the way it goes. Sure.

So it's funny because people were looking like, oh, you didn't make the money again. I go, no, you have to work, you have to stop. Sure. Right. And then get back up. Like training for a fight. You go away for a little bit, and then you get the payday. But all that being said, tremendous year last year.

You sold out all these arenas. And yet, you know, never been on Letterman. Never been on Letterman. Never been on Stern. Never been on Stern. Never been on the M.A.R. though. That's the most important one, really. This is a big deal.

That's true. But do you feel like there's a reason for this? You know, here's what I think the reason is. In this industry, I don't like crying racism ever. And I'm not going to say it's racism so much as it is. oneism. They only let one at a time. And it's the same thing that black people

had to go through before. There was one black actor. You were allowed to have one. They're allowed to have one black actress. You're allowed to have one black comedian. That's it. One, that's it. We don't care if there's others.

We're just going to focus on one, guys. All right? And even though I'm the first one. I've been doing this 25 years. Yes. I'm the first. Who's the other? There's others.

But, you know. That's as successful as you? I don't know what they define success. They're more famous, maybe, but I don't know. And they're successful. It's not like they're not successful. But I'll get told stuff. Like, just recently, this is kind of a funny story.

It was my publicist called The New York Times because I'm playing the Madison Square Garden again. Sold out? It will be. I hope so. I hope so. Yeah. Please come.

Help me sell this bitch out. But my publicist calls, New York Times and he's like, hey, Russell Peters is playing Madison Square Garden again. He sold out the Barclay Center. He was the third artist in there, the first comedian. He sold out Radio City Music Hall twice. He sold out the Beacon Theater twice. He's played the Apollo.

He's done all these things in the city. I think it would be great if you guys do a piece on it. And he sells out the whole world and he's in your city. And they said, sorry, we just did an article on Aziz in October. I'm like, what does that have to do with me? Yeah. So, because you wrote about one brown guy? I mean, so you're not going to write about Spielberg and...

Ron Howard? No, no, Ron Howard's not a Jew. Oh, okay, that's what you said. You can't write about Spielberg or the Weinstein's in the same week because that doesn't make any sense. You can't just make it about one person. Yeah. Do you know Azizanzari?

Yeah. I was guessing that's who you were referring to when you said the one. You've been around a lot longer than him. Yeah, but, I mean, it's like high school, you know? If you're not the popular kid, you're not the popular kid. I mean, that's the thing. People like, Almost Famous, what are you talking about? You're on the Forbes.

I never said it's called Almost Successful. It's called Almost Famous. That's true. And I've noticed, I know you've talked about this before with a lot of big outlets. It feels to me like it bothers you. It does bother me to a certain degree because, I mean, you know, Aziz is great at what he does and he does. But what we do doesn't overlap each other. It's not.

All they got focused on was he's brown. you're brown, that's enough. Our acts are nothing alike each other. He's got his own different crowd than mine. It's not like he's stealing from my people, and I'm stealing from his people. It's just, you know, it's like, you know, saying, oh, we can't write about Vanderlai Silva

because he just wrote about Nogera. You know what I mean? What does that have to do? They're both Brazilian. It's amazing. It's that kind of mentality that irritates me. What do you think of his act? Are you fan of his?

I mean, it's not, I don't think it's for me. It's for a younger audience, and I'm an older guy. He's a younger guy. Is there anyone, as far as your act is concerned, that you feel like is, you know, on your level, or do you feel like you're number one? No, I think if you start feeling like you're number one, you should probably quit. Really? Yeah, you never, ever feel like you're better than anybody in the same. But your confidence must be...

My confidence is very high. Right. But... Look at you in 2004, you know, those clips and whatnot. I mean, you seem like a different guy on stage. Oh, yeah. I mean, you got to figure that was 10 years ago. Yeah, it's amazing.

And I was, you know, in my early 30s. You know what I mean? I'm now, I'm divorced. I'm a father. I've lived life. It's incredible. I've made money. Things are considerably better and different.

What I love about your story, though, it's, and I know a lot of it happened before the YouTube and, you know, everyone, everyone has talked about this, how the clips were were uploaded and all that, and then you really made it. I kind of feel like a lot of us who have been watching for a while kind of watched you grow up in front of our eyes. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you, you're kind of like the people's comedians.

in this sense. That's exactly how I feel. I feel like Larry Holmes. Interesting. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like Larry Holmes was a champ for seven years. He was 49 and O. And he never got an endorsement deal. Amazing. And he never got, you know, people don't really know who he is. Well, if you're not a fight fan, really. And it's one of those situations where it's like, well, what did he have to do? But he was following Muhammad Ali. Right. And he was the prelude to Mike Tyson. So, you know, somehow he became the interim guy.

So is that what you're striving for now? To not be Larry Holmes? No, well, that acceptance because you've done everything else. No, I mean, here's the thing. Yeah, it'll bother me, but what am I going to do? Complain about it? I mean, I still... No one wants to hear that, right?

Yeah, I don't want to hear about it. Sure. If I watched an interview of me complaining about, oh, you know, I'd be like, shut the fuck up. But it's fascinating. For me, it's like a Rubik's Cube. Sure. You're like, what do I got to do to...

Can I just peel these stickers off and put them on the right side? You know what I mean? It's one of those situations where it's like, a puzzle to me. And it's not like I don't feel like it's going to happen. It's just a question of when it happens. I want to be able to look at all those outlets and go, go fuck yourself. Right.

Do you remember that time? I do. You know. So, but like after you sell out MSG and Barclay Center and O2 Arena and Air Canada Center, what's the, what's the end goal? The end goal is to, you know, gain that acceptance, right? Well, no, for me, it was always been, I wanted to do movies and TV and stuff. Like I said, your own sitcom?

I don't know if I want to do my own sitcom anymore. You did at one point. I did. I had a few deals and some really good ideas, and then they just never came to fruition. But now you look at TV, and TV kind of sucks. You know what I mean? We live in a world where one-hit wonders are king

and reality people are famous for nothing. So we live in a world where people are famous for no talent, and the talented people are not famous enough. So what kind of TV show? I don't know. I think I'd rather do films, in all fairness. Oh, you're done with TV now. For the most part, I think it doesn't really excite me.

Unless you went to do a straight Netflix thing or something. Sure. Or HBO or Showtime, where they really let you speak, like how people speak, because they've got all these standards and practices, and you can't say this and we can't say that. And I'm like, ugh, I don't want to. It's so much for all your freedom of speech. Right, yeah.

When you have people go into these meetings with the big studios, what kind of feedback do they get? Like the numbers speak for themselves. Yeah, that's the part that puzzles me. I'm like, I don't know. what more I have to show you guys. Yeah. I mean, do you want, like,

I think the problem is in America, they can't think outside of America. And that's one of the big problems in America is that America doesn't think about the rest of the world because they feel like they don't have to. That was true before, but now the whole world has changed. With the internet,

people are looking for things. People need that change. And the rest of the world has always been focused on America, and the rest of the world pretty much emulates whatever America does. but now they're getting into their own thing and America is like oh well and I'm like

well you could sell this to Asia they don't have the money I'm like they have the money you're just assuming they don't have the money they may not have the same money that America has for sure but it's a sale is a sale right would you rather they just bootlegged it for free or you made 10 bucks off it make the 10 bucks

how popular are you in India India yeah very popular you are but you got to figure there's 1.3 billion people there so so even if you know. But are there a lot of, you know, Indian comics as... There are now. There are now. Yeah. Because of you. I wouldn't say because of me, but maybe I... That are just there. Like, they're local, so... Yeah, they just started, you know. It's all very new to them. Right. I may have been the guy that made them go. This is something we, it's possible for us to do now.

So, you've been there, right? You've been there. Going back there in February. How many people you expect to have in the show in February? I think we do about 18,000 a night or something. It's crazy. It's crazy. And then I go to Singapore, 18,000. And... So what about just... Hong Kong, 18,000. That are available there, movies there. Because they're really bad movies. They are?

Can't you do your own spin on them? Can you revolutionize it? I'm trying to, but I... It's one of those things where I wouldn't mind going there after I've done something here. Gotcha. But I don't want to go there and then come back and it just feels... It feels backwards to me. Bollywood?

Hell, no, never, never. Never. Have you been approached? I've been asked a couple of times and I was like, eh, I'm good. Why never? I don't like them. Why? That doesn't appeal to me.

I don't like the singing and dancing. That would be amazing. The bright colors and all. The colors are nice, but it's a little too corny for me. Right. And the problem is I keep it real. Sure. And it's not real enough for me.

When you were growing up, you talk about your father a lot. Was he into that stuff? Oh, God, no. That wasn't even allowed in our house. Really? Yeah, my mom would put on, like, the Indian channel sometimes in the morning. They'd have, like, the Indian songs playing in the background. My dad would come in the room and shut the TV off.

So she was into it. She was trying to. And my dad would shut the TV off. And she goes, what are you doing? I'm watching that. He goes, it sounds like cats crying. And I'm like, yeah, go for it, daddy. I know your father passed away several years ago.

Is your mother still alive? Yep. She's in Canada still. How does she feel about your success? She's very happy. She gets to go to the casino whenever she wants. Does she watch everything? Like, my mom is watching right now.

She will watch all four hours of this show. Let me just apologize to your mom for her swearing. It was, you know, it was. it was your son he told me his name is Ariel Cuskesh, Halwani. I don't know what that means, but he said that means something nice. It's okay. She doesn't know what that means.

She doesn't speak Far, aren't you Persian? No, I'm actually Lebanese. Are you Lebanese? Lebanese and Egyptian. And a Jew? And a Jew? How about that?

How did that even? I always thought you were Persian. No. Oh. Mom from Beirut, dad from Alexandria, born in Montreal. So your dad built the pyramids. He did.

And your mom... That's right, yes. Your mom bombed her own city. That's nice. I love how you make this sort of concoction in your mind. But you'd have a field day with this mix, right? Yeah, that's a lot of hummus for one house. I pretty much bathed in hummus as a kid growing up.

But I love when I tell people, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jew, by the way, because it always blows their mind. Yeah, that's the part that gets me. You know, I figured if one was, but not... How did they even find each other? It's amazing. Arabjurs.com. I wonder if that's around. They can actually make a business off that.

They met in Montreal. But the question I wanted to ask you was, is it, you know, you seemed very close with your father, accurate? Yep, yep, yeah. Is it hard to go through all this without him being able to enjoy it? No, because I'm a spiritual person. Okay.

I don't, yeah, I kind of feel like it physically is not there, but for some reason I feel like he's there, you know? You don't feel like he's missing out? No, I feel like he's sitting there with me, watching the whole thing. would he say about you? Every time, no matter what I do, I'm like, huh? I still kind of look over my shoulder and go, how about that, dad? Crazy, right? Yeah. Did he envision this for you? Like, did he say, go out and be a comedian? No, he wanted me to just, he didn't want me to get my feelings hurt,

because he had his feelings hurt when he moved to Canada. How so? He was, he was, very articulate. Okay. Very, very, very articulate. He was an English major, so, you know, the jokes I've made about him are very inaccurate. He didn't, he didn't speak like that. Really? And he spoke very well, and his English was very proper. Well, now you're blowing my world. I'm not blowing anything on you, Ariel. You just broke down the fourth wall. I have this picture of your father speaking that way.

I know. The hot dogs? It didn't happen? No, he did say hot dogs, but making fun of somebody, he said it. Did you hear that swine? He said, hot dogs. And then I would just say it around the house. That's amazing.

I would just basically take the stories of, like, you know, from Indian people that we knew and my friend's father and stuff, and I'm like, oh, this is great. And I was like, well, it's not funny if I say my friend or this or that. I was like I'm making my dad. Right. My dad would always tell me, I don't sound like that. Why do you make me sound like such an idiot?

I'm not an imbecile. And I'm like, all right. So did it bother him being the butt of the joke? No, he dug it. You know what I mean? He liked it. He became famous as a result. Yeah, he did.

And my mom likes it now because I make fun of her on stage. Because there's new stuff happening. Yeah. Is this stuff really happening, though? With my mom, yes. It is. Yes. With mom, it definitely happens.

Mom's a different animal than dad. Why so? You know, my dad was like the intellect and the really intelligent guy, the reader, the news watcher, the thinker, the thinker, you know. And my mom's more like, she's more like me, more like, oh, well, see what happens. Did you think about that? I didn't think about anything. I've always wanted to ask you this. Who uploaded those clips?

The clips that made you famous. I really have no clue. You still, after all these years, no one's taking ownership. To this day, I don't know. I feel like you owe that guy at least, like. McDonald's. Something. If I, you know, but now it's one of those things where, how do you prove that this guy did it?

Isn't there the account? I don't know. Did the account get taken down? Sure. There's been other accounts uploaded since. It's hard to say. But for someone to go, I almost feel like, I believe in this stuff. I'm spiritual myself.

I almost feel like there's an angel out there. This guy went out there and put your work. Well, this is what I say is that. Or a girl. I always say it was my dad because my dad passed away and then this happened. Wow. He passed away March 15th. 2004, and all this started changing around, like, June, April, May, around there.

And I was like, that's really too close. That gives me goosebumps. Yeah, it's pretty trippy. Wow. That's why I always feel like he's there with me and all these things. You know, and I think if it wasn't the case, you know, I would have had one arena run maybe. Right. You know, and, you know, I'm on my fourth arena run.

So, you know, the Air Canada Center six times and the O2 arena, I'll be playing it for the fifth time. Wow. You know what I mean? These are all very weird stats for me to even say. Even I'm like, it doesn't make any sense. Yeah, or like Barclay Center, it was Jay-Z, Barbara Streisand, and you. Yeah.

Yeah. Ridiculous. That's not a bad company to follow. I was under the impression that your dad saw a little bit of this. He actually saw none of it. Wow. Yeah, like the new nation in Canada, none of it. That's right.

Speaking of Canada, we were just talking about this earlier. I just came back from Canada. I was there over the weekend for a wedding. For a hummus fest. Yes. There was. I'm surprised you're not a homosexual. That's a good one. No, guys, nothing?

Well, it's a very quiet audience. I kick him in his chickpeas right now, but no, nothing, all right. I long for the day when I can go back there where I can have the same kind of living, do maybe this show there. Can't you? Didn't you used to? It's not the same. No. Name one successful broadcaster in America who's living in Canada, Montreal of all places, French-speaking Quebec. It's almost impossible. You picked that part of Canada, first of all.

Toronto, maybe I have a shot. Yeah, I mean, Strombo. Although, I'm the biggest Strombo fan. I am as well. Love him. You've been on the show. I just love, I love interviewers. He's great at it. And you're actually not bad at it yourself.

Not bad? No, you're very good at it. Well, you know, the thing is, is that I'm trying to, you know. If you were shit at it, I wouldn't have been here. I appreciate that. And we're not doing the basic. So, okay, thank you. and what do you think about

okay and I fucking hate that well yeah I don't write you look at the right here you see yeah there's nothing I don't write a single thing yeah he's looking at porn

yeah it's so weird it's great though it's very entertaining he came over to the States it didn't really work out for him I think they didn't really give him a fair shake they put him on like Sunday night

yeah he should have taken Pierce Bros knows the name Morgan Morgan Morgan yes Pierce Morgan yes

see first of all Pierce Morgan's not fun to look at he's not he sounds snide and smug when he's talking. I'm not a fan. It's British. That's the other problem. Yeah. And Americans, you don't need that. At least if you're going to have a Canadian, we can teach them to not say Oot and House.

But you never long for going back to Canada. The simple life, the clean life, nice people. You don't miss Canada at all. I do. I do miss Canada. It's my home. I was born and raised there. And when I go back, I have a great time. But, you know, I like, I'm, I kind of like being everywhere. Right. I'm a kind of an, I feel like a world resident. How many homes do you have? Three. Where is home? Vegas is home. Really, I thought it was, weren't you living in Malibu? Yeah, I have a house there too. But the main home is Vegas. Yeah. That's interesting. Why? Henderson. Henderson, Nevada. Yeah. Why'd you pick there? Not for taxes, that's for sure. You like living there? I don't mind it. Really? I'm never there. I'm always on the road, so.

So how many days are you in? You know, I have all these houses, but I'm never in any of them for more, for an extended period of time. How many days are you in that home a year? In Nevada? Yeah. Not that many. Like over 50? Less than 50?

I would hope over 50. I don't know. But, you know, my daughter's in L.A. too. Right. So I try to, you know, I try to spread that out. And when I get some downtime, I try to go see my kid. It's one of those. It's a tough juggle.

You know, it's funny because you were kind of this guy. Are you comfortable in this chair, by the way? No, it's very uncomfortable. It's horrible. It is. It is a work on it. you got the good show. I'm looking at you enviously. I'm sorry. You got wheels. I got...

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Really, can you not spring for another chair, Ariel? Trust me. I've been complaining about this for a while. I'm pointing at the man. You got to buy your own chair. I should just do it, right? What is that? Fucking 70 bucks? Yeah. I'm going to buy you a chair today. I'll show you what the third guy on the Forbes list will do for a chair.

I appreciate that. And then every fighter that sits in this chair, I want you telling me, you know, Russell Peters bought that chair. You know, I'm trying to be like, you know, I want to be the next Jimmy Fallon, and they keep giving me a crappy chair. no one's going to want to come on the show once the word gets out. Like, you're not going to want to come back here if you know this chair. Yeah, I know. I mean, this is like a stool sample because this chair is shit.

I'm sorry. The crew back there has to sit on this chair for four hours. Poor guys. Not envious guys, not envious. So your career, you know, you were this guy, you were just trying to make it, you're opening. Now you become this big star. And then things happen along the way, like, you know, you say you were married at one time. It lasted a solid 14 months.

That's it. Yeah. Wow. That's all it took. You dated some famous people, right? along the way. Who? Who?

Tell me who? Adult film stars, right? You can say names. I'm not sure, but he knows. So it was there ever a point where you're like, man, this wasn't the path that I envisioned. Oh, dude, all the time. All the time whenever, like, it's not like this, people like, this must get old to you. Like when people stop me, oh, can I take a picture?

I'm like, yeah, of course. And they're like, this must get really annoying. I'm like, no. It does not get annoying. I'll tell you why I will take a picture with every single last person that. asked for a picture and I will sign anything you want me to sign, except for that Comedy Now DVD. Why is that?

Because I didn't have anything to do with it. Okay. But people like, well, this must get annoying. You must not like, here's how I balance it in my head. You know what's worse than people wanting to take your picture? Nobody wanted to take your picture. Sure. That sucks more.

There's got to be a point where you're like, yeah, enough. It's 4 a year and the airport. You just do it. Yeah. I've met celebrities that I admired. I wanted to take a picture and they said no and immediately you root against them. You're like, fuck that guy.

What's the biggest disappointment that you've experienced over the last 10 years since this all happened? Was it the marriage? I mean, I'm disillusioned with marriage. It's not like, you know, that my marriage was that bad that it was like, ah, I just, I'm not cut out for that world. Really, at the end of the day,

that's not the world I should be in. I shouldn't be in such a structured situation. So why did you do it? Did you think? I knocked up my, girlfriend at the time and I thought I'd be a gentleman and marry her. I was 39. I was about to become 40. I was like, you know what? This seems like the adult thing to do. Right. Never do what you think the adult thing to do is do what you feel like you should do. So if Zoila's at home envisioning a day of being the Mrs. Russell Peters? Well, Zoyla, I'm sure we can give this a shot. Oh wow. Look at that. Look at you turning around. I was going to say,

I'm not turning around just for the record. Okay. You're not kidding. You're not getting me in. It's one, well, you mean taking your back, yes. Well, I was just going to say, it's one thing to be, you know, the nice pretty woman sitting in the front of watching the fighter. That's what we're used to seeing. Yeah. But what about Russell Peters going to Zoyla's fight and being sort of the... I will be the supportive.

The trophy boyfriend, so to speak. Are you comfortable with that? I'm not opposed to it, buddy. Really? Yeah, I'm very comfortable with myself. You know what I mean? And I see people write shit on the internet. What does you know about?

I'm like, well, I know a little bit more than you think I know. Sure. And if I do get in trouble, it's because I'm... I get in trouble because I know these things. And people are like, why do you need security? Go, I don't need security from you. I need security from me. Because I'm the guy that might fucking

hit you or put you in a wrist lock because you say some dumb shit. You know what I mean? So you're okay being in the front row, clapping, cheering. Yeah, I'll be yelling out. I'll be yelling out. Like, you know. I always think I give great corner advice.

Yeah. I do, like, I can always watch, I'm watching a fight in. And I'll call it and then I'll hear the commentators say, and then look at my friends and go, Who said it first? Who said it first? Kevin James is cornered mayhem.

Has he? He lost the fight. It was against Bispang. Would you want to do it? Like, if Kong asked you, would you do it? Yeah, if, yeah. Yeah. Depends on who he's finding.

I would do it more so with boxing. Okay. Because that's a sport I know inside and out. If you could pick one boxer to corner, who would it be? Well, Amir Khan's a friend of mine. That's your guy, yeah. Look at your name dropping all over the place. No, but he was at my show last weekend.

I saw a picture of you guys. And I was just telling him, like, you know, stuff that he needs to look out for. And he was like, you should be in my corner. Yeah. I know. But these are, I'm just telling. And I tell him as a friend and as a fan, I'm like, dude, don't engage with these guys. And when you're fighting in.

And I go with such basic things. And a lot of fighters just forget when they're fighting a Southpaw. Keep your foot on the outside. You can walk them right into a right hand and they eat left hooks all day. You know. Yeah. Yeah, but I could walk into... You don't have to walk into their left.

You lead them. Don't let them lead you. What about MMA boxers? As a boxing purist, it must drive you nuts, right? They don't use their jab. They don't move their head. No, but I understand why that is.

It's a bit of a different, yes. I understand. Like, I used to get really frustrated I don't want to watch guys try and, you know, box in the octagon. And I'm like, oh, the feet's wrong, the position's wrong, the punches aren't. He's not stepping into the punches.

The Superman punches. The one thing that still irritates the shit out of it. Why? Because it doesn't work. GSP nails them from time to time Yeah, but it doesn't fucking do it. There's no power behind it. It's just like...

You look like E Honda in a street fighter. It annoys me to no end, and I love George, but George stopped on that fucking punch. It annoys me. I heard you say you don't want him to come back. George? Yeah. Yeah.

He's he fighting Nate? Who's fighting? Oh, no, fucking... You mean Nick? Why am I swearing so much? That's fine. Nick Diaz. Nick is...

Nis Silva. Yes. Someone interviewed you, I think it was on the fight network. They interviewed you right after the Widebin Civil Fight, and you kind of said you thought he was done. He'll never come back. Well, I said he shouldn't come back. Right.

I said he's... Look at him a year later, he's back. But I said it's going to be at least a year and a bit before he comes back. That's a lot of time off. And, you know, above and beyond letting your leg heal, you still have to train. Right. So I don't like this for him.

You don't like this? And how many fights did he sign for a 15? Yeah, but I mean, what does that really mean? I know, but still, it's just ridiculous. Come on, Anderson. Do you think he wins that fight? I mean, Nick's got a bad attitude. Sure, but what does that mean?

Nick's got a bad attitude, and he's not a bitch. He's a tough guy. Bigger weight class for him, though. For Nick, yeah. 185, he's going up, he's usually a 170-pounder. Yeah, but, I mean, you probably walks around on 185. Sure, yeah, but Anderson might be 205 come fight night. Yeah, Nick may be two as well.

That's true, but I just the size advantage might be something. George said recently that it's a big mistake for Nick to take this fight at 195. Really? Yeah. Why don't you want to see George fight again? Doesn't have to? Well, A, he doesn't have to. B, he hasn't shown, like, that spark anymore.

Yeah. Perhaps the time off, did it? Yeah, I think he enjoyed his time off. And if you enjoy your time off, take the time off, enjoy it. Don't do something you don't want to do, especially fighting. I mean, there's young kids out there. These guys are killers, man. And I think the further we get into the MMA,

world, the longer it's going on, the better the fighters are getting. Sure. The more complete they're becoming. Like a Roy McDonald. Yeah. Comes in really as an MMA fighter. He could be Canada's next great champion. He's fighting the winner of Hendricks-Law.

Are you a fan? I am. I'm a big fan. Who's your favorite guy to watch right now? I like Daniel, Cormier. Yeah. Have you met him? No, but Cain always makes fun of me because when I first met Cain, he had this

black guy with him. And Kang told me that Kane's bringing Cormier with him. And I, and I don't know why I just assumed Cormier. First of all, I assumed he was Canadian because of the French last name. Louisiana, yeah. And then two, I thought, my Ben Haitian. Okay. And then I didn't know what to picture. So when I saw Cain, there was a black guy with him. And I go, oh, that must be Cormier. I kept calling the guy Daniel. Oh, wow. And he didn't correct you. No. And then. And Kane's laughing at me the whole time. And now I text Kane like a couple weeks ago. And I go, hey, I'm in the Bay Area.

Do you want to come to the fight? He goes, I'm going to be in Mexico. I said, oh, shit. I go, why don't you tell D.C. to come? He goes, which, which D.C.? Do you want the one that you met or do you want the real one? He always gets me with it, too. Did he go? Did the real one go?

No, neither one of them came. Oh, that's too bad. A lot of people are down on Kane these days. Injured all the time. You know, that's part of the game. Yeah. But are you afraid that his body's breaking down? down.

Like he reaches... I think his body's breaking down. He's too young. How old is Kane? I think he's probably in his early 30s. Yeah, he's fine. His body's not breaking down. Just, you know, it's a blood sport.

You're going to get injured. Bad string of luck. That's it. This way it goes. I mean, look at who else had that? GSP had that. I mean, it happens. Injuries have actually been a huge problem for the UFC.

They've had one of their worst years ever. Absolutely. That's another thing that, you know, it's hard to follow the sport because, like, oh, that big fight? Oh, no, it's not. Oh, it's somebody else. Ah, never mind. Right.

And I've also heard you say that the shelf life, I mean, guys can have a career like a Mani or a Floyd or AmeriCon. It's like two, three years and you're done. That's how you feel. Well, the turnaround time is really quick. Let's be honest. I mean, I remember some of the guys, you know, when you watch them on Ultimate Fighter. Sure. And then in my head, that's like watching American Idol or something.

I mean, I watch it the same way. Even though these are trained fighters, these are good fighters. But then you see them on there and you're like, eh, never really going to go. on anything big. And then you see the guys like, shit, who was on that show? That's a big fighter now, Bisping. Tons of guys.

T.J. Dillishaw. Yeah, T.J. Dillishaw, yeah. Yeah. And these are all guys when you saw them when they walked in, you know, and the guy with the skinny kid with the beard. The skinny kid with a beard. He's a great, he always submits people with a,

Oh, Michael Kiesa. Yeah. Oh, Cody McKenzie. Cody McKenzie. Yes, yes. He's no longer in the UFC. Oh, really? Yeah, he's out.

See? Yeah. Good fighter. Yeah. I think he came out. He didn't take himself very soon. I mean, he had some issues, wrong weight class, perhaps. He actually showed up to a fight.

His last fight in the UFC, he was wearing, like, basketball shorts, and the tag was still on them, and they had pockets. And it somehow got through, you know, they're very strict backstage as far as what you can wear. And Herb Dean pulled the tag out right before the fight, in the middle of the fight. You could tell they were just white shorts, almost like tennis shorts, with pockets in them.

That's how he fought, his final UFC fight. Maybe his actual shorts didn't fit that got ripped or something. You don't know the backstory. That's true. I'm not judging. You mentioned that your friends are the Amir Khan. What would you rather see happen? Amir Khan versus Floyd or Manny versus Floyd?

Based on Manny's performance on Saturday. Which I didn't see. But I heard and read because I was an avid fight fan. That's all I do. I'm like, what happened? Who won? What happened? I think it was a better outing for him.

than it was when he fought Well, actually, it was good. He fought Rios really well. I think he dominated Rios. And he seems to have been sharper even on this fight against Algeria. And people asked me after the Timothy Bradley rematch, they said, how do you think of that fight?

And I said, Floyd, I mean, Manny won more convincingly when he lost. It's true. It's true, right? I mean, that wasn't really a loss. Officially it was a loss. Yeah, but it was... It's true.

It's a good point. Yeah. But you didn't really answer the question. So that, based on the way he fought Saturday, it still seems like a decent fight. Decent? Yeah, but I think it was a better fight a few years ago. You still wouldn't want to see it? I want to see it, but I really think it's not going to be as exciting as people think it is.

Really? I think a mere con Floyd may whether it would be a more exciting fight. Well, that's what I'm getting it. That's your boy. And I'm not just saying that because he's my... friend, but styles make fights. I think Amir Broner would be a good fight. Manny Broner would be a good fight.

I just want to see Bruner get the shit beat out of him. It happened once. I know. And I also think Polly Malinaji beats shit out of Bruner, too, and they ripped him off. So Manny versus Floyd, like that doesn't say to you, I need to be there at ringside. That's the biggest fight in my lifetime. You don't get excited about that. No.

Wow. I'd watch it, and I'd like to be there. But I think the luster of that fight's, you know, not as, bright as it once was. Have you met either guy, Manny, Floyd? I've met them both. Good guys? Really nice guys.

Really? I suspect Manny is, but Floyd, he's cool in person? Floyd was very cool when I met him. A couple times I met him. He was very nice. I saw him again recently, but he obviously didn't recognize me, and he was in a bad mood the day I saw him last. Why?

I don't know what had happened, but I'm friends of one of his security guys, and I was like, should I go say hi? Not right now. Best fight you've seen live? Best fight I saw live. I've been to a lot of fights So maybe Lennox Scolato was a great fight I was there

That was a great fight That was before you were Russell Peters Yeah, that's when Len was like, you're coming It's in Atlantic City You were friends with them I've known them since I was 15 Really? Since I started I would see each other at tournaments

Oh wow So you've seen the whole ride for him Yeah absolutely What about him I've been to his houses I know his mom Him not really embracing Canada He always embraced Canada

He did That's the thing that the media Here's what happened. He won the Olympics for Canada, won the gold. Canada just didn't have the money or the infrastructure to make a great heavyweight. We don't have that kind of... We do now. Montreal is...

I would say Quebec is definitely at the forefront of creating Canadian fighters. The rest of Canada, not so much. And sadly, Ontario doesn't do it. Americans now are complete loss. I don't know what we're talking about. No, what are you talking about? Donna Stevenson, people know these guys. Yeah, no, but they're all out of, you know, Quebec.

and Quebec is really, you know, breeding these fighters and treating them the right way and giving them the right kind of money and the city and the provinces behind them. And in Ontario, I don't know if they think they're too cool for school or, you know, it's just, we don't have, there's not enough hunger for some reason. So Lennox, did you know he would be this kind of star? I didn't know he would be this kind of star. He was always a tall, skinny guy back then. It's amazing.

Wow, I didn't know you knew him back then. You ever spar him? No, hell no. But whenever he sees me, he hits me in the face. That's nice. Not hard, but his fist is the size of my head. He's got the biggest mitt you've ever seen. What does he do now?

He lives in Jamaica. I thought he was great on HBO. He was great on. He was very upset when they let him go. They let him go. I thought he actually left. I think they let him go. He was very eloquent.

I think better than Roy Jones. Yeah, but, you know, I think it might have been a financial dispute or what have you. But I never really asked him, but I know it did bug him when that happened. Hey, he was very good. He was a very good competition. He knows boxing a lot. Of course. way better than people think he does.

A fight you wish you were intended for? I wish I was at the Diego Corales Castillo fight. Yeah. That was a great fight. Oh, my God. I watched that fight. Favorite fit of all time?

Is that it? That's one of them. There's the obvious ones. There's that. There's Hearns Hagler. There's Prior Argue. Those are the kinds of fights I really like. You've seen those legendary nights shows on HBO?

Yeah, I love those. It was great, right? Love them. I worked at HBO when they produced that. Really? I was an intern, and then I worked in production back there, so I got to see all those being made. Here's how much of a boxing geek I am. I'm good friends with Lou DeBella.

Oh, wow. Because when I was in the 90s, he put all the great fights together. That's right. And when I met him, I was like, oh, my God, Lou DeBella goes, Russell Peters. And I go, no, you're Lou DeBella. Fuck who I am. You're Lou, you know. And he's a good buddy of mine now, too.

So it's a very weird world we live in. What's the thing that happened to you, and we'll wrap up here in a second? What's the thing that happened to you that you're like, I can't believe? Like, this, to me, is something I never envisioned. You've probably experienced a lot, but is there a moment where you thought, wow. I mean, I can't even believe I reached this top. This, when you're idols, people you've idolized since you were a kid, become your friends.

And not like, you know, a casual acquaintance. Somebody that will text you randomly, hey, what's up, man? Miss you, buddy. You know, these are the kinds of things I never would have envisioned. I had posters of these people on my wall, and now they're sleeping in my house. They're hanging out for a week, and, you know. Who comes to mind like this? Big Daddy Kane.

Wow, that's amazing. I know you're big into DJ and we didn't get into that, but yeah, that's... I love DJing, but I love hip-hop. I grew up with it, and, you know, guys like Melly Mel and Big Daddy Kane and Cool Herk and... Your friends are all these guys. Eric B. Like, all these people. I put posters of them on the wall.

These were people I would just look at and just stare at him. Like, I want to get a fat gold chain, and I want a flat top. And obviously, I couldn't do it. You got your own flat top now. I got this flat tip. Do you remember MCJ and Cool G? Who were they? That was a Canadian group.

I believe they were from. That's why. Oh, wow. No. You weren't a fan of the hip-hop. I think Maestro is the one that changed that for everybody. Myestro Fresh West changed that for us. Let your backbone slide.

Yeah, he made us go, hold on. We're doing something here. And then we had Cardinal official. Cardinal. I've known all those guys for... Rascals. Rascals. I was on the Rascals album.

I didn't know that. They had that album, Global Warning. I did the interludes on that. Really? Yeah. Now, was that the one with Northern Touch? Yeah. Wow.

Northern Touch one of my favorite songs of all time. Shock Claire. This to me as a high schooler growing up in the 90s, that was our anthem. Yeah, I was on that album. Global Warning. Really? I did the interludes on that album. All of them?

Yeah, I played a guy named Gosh, I got to go back and look at that I forgot who I played. I just did these sketches for them. So you weren't Russell Peters? No, I played like a character. Oh, that's amazing. Wow, how about that?

Last thing, what's the, you know, I was just, I just went to Syracuse University. That's my alma mater. And it's a very long story, I won't bore you. It's not about me here, but... It should be a little bit about you. No, no, they wanted me to talk to the students about, you know, just following your dreams

and things like that. And I just love your story, and I feel like I can relate to you a lot because it feels like you're still trying to live the dream. You're still not there. Even though you're there, you're not quite there. And that's why I love the name of your tour. What's the piece of advice for someone who may be struggling,

who doesn't see the light at the end of the tunnel? It doesn't feel like anything's going well for them. Is there something that you can say to them? Well, here's how I've always looked at it, and I still look at it this way. I never got into comedy as an end game. I never was like, I never had delusions of like,

I'm going to be this and I'm going to be that. I really got into it because, A, I loved making people laugh. B, I was, you're paying me to talk. I would have talked for free. I would have walked down the street and talk somebody for free. Why not get paid to talk? It didn't matter how much the money was. It was never about the money.

It was about the love of what I do. And 25 years later, I still love what I do. Like I'm in New York and I'm going to probably get on stage a few times this week just because I love doing that. It has nothing to do with and don't never let your ego dictate what you're doing. Just

if you love what you do, you won't notice that you're broke. And I was broke for so long and it didn't bother me. And people ask me, well, would you give up the money? I go, I would hurt to give up the money now, but I know broke way better than I know rich because I was broke for a lot longer. And I have no regrets,

and I, and I would still be just as happy doing these crummy gigs for 30 people in a bar somewhere. But, you know, thank God those days are behind me. But I remember how happy I was doing them right until this stuff all popped off for me.

And it wasn't like I was getting to that point, it was like, oh, I wish I didn't have to do. I was like, oh, gig, I'm work, I'm good. Amazing. Mazel Tov, as they say. As they do. Well, I don't know, your people say all kinds of things. Well, that's one of the things we say when someone has success.

This was a great honor for me, really. Thanks, Ariel. From one Canadian to another, congrats on all your success. You're kicking ass and screw all those people. You know what, it's better that they don't want to do. You know, I actually agree with you, too. The more they, I say, quote unquote, keep me down, try to keep me down. It doesn't hurt me.

It makes me more determined. It's amazing. It really does. Like, it just, I think they failed to understand. how motivated I can get. It's like a fighter. You know what I mean? Oh, really? You're really putting all your money on that guy? Okay. Okay. You go ahead. We'll see what happens. I'm not letting this go to a decision. Right. Exactly. And then I'll sell out every arena in the Indian.

Yeah, I am not going to allow them to let me go to a decision. I will knock them out. Well done. Thank you very much. Thank you, buddy. All the best. That is Russell Peters, one of the great comics of all time and one of the most successful comics right now. And I know you say a lot of people like to say Indian comic, Canadian comedy. You're just a comic to me. I just go with comic too. Yeah, you're just a comic to me. December 11th, he's at Madison Square Garden, and if you go to Russell peters.com, you can see the list. We've got, you know, people all over the world. Come on. I'm watching. So you can see the tour. When is it in February, right? No. It keeps going.

It's going until November. It's going until 2016. This whole tour? Yeah, it just started in September. Gosh. So, I mean, next year, you know, we finish America, I think, in January. Okay. And then it goes... I was probably just looking at America. South Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe, it's going everywhere. And I didn't know you back in 2004, but you certainly haven't changed as far as I'm concerned. I'm the same douchebag. You text people back. I do.

It's amazing. My chins just hit the mic to see that. Yes, I did. I had to pick up. My nose hits this mic all the time, so don't worry. We're in the same boat. We do this. You know, if you and I were backstroking in the ocean, they'd think two sharks are coming.

We have this segment on the show called Inside the Vault. I play an old clip of ours. Right. This week's one, as we go to a break, is. UFC 116, it's July 3rd of 2010. It's Brock Leicester versus Shane Carwin. You remember that fight? I do, yeah.

Second round submission, Brock Lesnar, after the fight. Another surreal. This is surreal for me. After that fight, surreal moment for me. I got to interview Jim Ross, Goldberg, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Paul Heyman and get their reaction in the arena moments after. That's inside the vault. That's Russell Peters.

In a minute, we'll be back. We'll answer your questions and comments. Thank you so much to Russell. You're watching the MMR. What did you think about what happened just there? by Brock Lesnar defeating Shane Carwin via submission. Well, I tell you, I was worried in the first round, but I know that Brock's got great guts and determination.

He's got a renewed spirit about his life. And we saw that. I don't know if any other heavyweight in MMA that would have endured the first round against a great fighter like Shane Carwin other than Brock Lesnar. So I'm really proud of Brock. And how about everything he had to go through this past year

to see him go out there, so happy and humbled, how does that make you feel? Well, he's a changed man. He's still the baddest SOB as he sat on the planet. He's right about that until somebody changes it, but he's got a different outlook. And it's a healthier outlook for him. And now that everything is on the same page, he's quite the specimen. Can anyone stop him?

No one's unbeatable. And he realizes that. And that's why he'll continue to train. No one is unbeatable, especially in the USC Heavy Light Division. But Brock Lesnar is an animal, and he is a rare breed, I'll tell you. Thank you very much, Chair. We appreciate watching that slobrenocker. We move along here to Mr. Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Your thoughts on what you just witnessed? I really enjoyed the fight. I didn't think Brock wanted to stand up and trade with him, and Shane is very heavy-handed, and I really like to watch Shane fight. But Brock's my guy. He showed so much hard in this fight, making it through that first round, weathering a storm, and then coming back. I knew once he took Shane down, Shane wasn't going to get back up.

And that was the case. I was a little surprised to see the tap out. I didn't think Brock would win like that. But I knew that once Shane got shot on the ground, Brock would not let him up. And I'm very, very proud of Brock. How about that dicey situation in the first round? Did you think the rep made the right call to let the fight continue? Oh, in a fight like, yes, you know, yeah, you let it go.

Brock's a tough guy. You've got to let the Titans go at it. He did. And, you know, Brock weathered the storm. He made it through. He was in trouble. but I agreed with the referee's decision all the way. Final question is Brock Lesnar the best heavyweight in MMA?

Yes, hands down, Brock Lesnar is the best heavyweight in MMA. He's just freaky strong, very fast, very quick. He continues to improve. Every time he steps in the octagon, his future, his present is great right now. His future looks very, very bright. I'm very proud of Brock Lesnar, and he's a great champion, and obviously a very, very big draw here for the UFC. Thank you very much, sir.

the time let's move along here to a very happy Paul Heyman describe for me your emotion sir I need a medic wow I'm blown away I mean I first of all I think Josh Rosenthal deserves all the credit in the world because that was a hell of the judgment call in the first round you could have called it there and Brock was moving and he was defending himself but you know somebody could I mean it was Mazagati the fight would have been stopped you know so I thought Rosendell deserves a lot of credit because it was tremendous officiating. And just, again, Brock, you know, I mean, who's the fucking man, you know?

I mean, he took a beating. Anybody questions his chin anymore can shut the fuck up. Anybody that questions whether he can take a pounding, you know. And Carwin deserves a lot of credit because he took the fight to Brock like nobody ever did. And I was terrified out of my mind. And I'm clutching, hey, you know what, I, you know, we didn't interview on a OL before. and you haven't watched it, you should. Show to everyone what Brock Lesnar means to you, Paul.

That's the picture. That's the picture. That's Brock's daughter Maya and my daughter, Azalea, when they were both nine months old at WrestleMania 2003 and their strollers becoming friends. And that's how our week began. You know, it was his only sentimental, mushy moment of the week. He said, here you go.

And then all week long he's just thought about how blessed he is And what he said was how he feels. You know, he was on his deathbed, and he came back, and he came back with his wife's about to have another baby. And he did this for his family and his friends and his training camp and for himself. And I'm just babbling on because I'm blown away. I mean, I'm just, I'm so happy for him. I can't begin to tell you.

I can see that. Can we bring in Bill Goldberg here for a second? Mr. Goldberg, come on here for just a quick second and stick around, Paul, for just a moment. Bill's Bill is sweating like he was just involved in a three-round war out there What'd you think of what you just saw? Brock Lester submitting Shane Carwin

I haven't been to a UFC fight in a while And I wasn't going to miss This one to chair my boy On for nothing in the world I think he had a good game plan As he said he was going to weather The storm, Shane's never been out of the first round I think you know

Brock is a miracle Walking now You know, the fact that he's even competing again is unbelievable. At this level, it's astonishing. I mean, I think the most thing that I'm proud of of Brock is not that he won tonight. It's how he acted afterwards. Brock Lesnar is a great human being. He's a great family man.

He's a great husband and a great father. But he's very emotional, as people have seen in the past. But if you know the guy deep down inside, he's as good as they come. and what he did in the caves tonight is unreal he's progressed whether it's training with randy or his new boxing coach the guy is making leaps and bounds progress wise and he's only just begun what's this the sixth seventh mma fight the commentator's first one uh it's always emotional when i come here my buddies are fighting but a guy's so close to me is brock i'm just It's awesome. It's just great.

I can see the emotions. We thank you very much for the time. Great to talk to Bill Goldberg. All right, what a scene here at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. We'd like to get final word with Paul Heyman. Paul, when you have a moment, we'll get a final word with Paul Heyman. Final question to you, Paul. Final question to you, Paul. We've just talked to a bunch of old professional wrestling stars,

some of the biggest names in history of this business. What does it mean to this fraternity to have Brock Lester go in there and win like this? I think it means a lot to his friends or the wrestling fraternity. I think they need to get their shit together on their own. If they want to ride Brock Lesnar's coattails, then they need to get their own house in order. Because Brock Lesnar is in order. Very well said. We'll leave it at that.

Brock Lesnarpeats Shane Carwin via second round submission. Guys, let's get started. Attendance, 10,131, 10,1, 131, for a live gate of $670,000. $67022. bonus is $50,000 performance Frankie Edgar performance Alexei Ullinick and welcome to the

UFC Van Santon current 50K only one transport tonight that was Copeland he's already back who's got the first question John Morgan Mike's coming your way start with Frankie please

obviously congratulations on the win some people are saying maybe your best performance ever what do you think the key was tonight was things just clicking for you Was your preparation? What was it? I think it's just the fact that I'm just improving. I'm steady and proven. That's always my goal.

I stay in the gym. I train with great people like Edson and I have set great coaches. And I mean, like I said, there's no ceiling yet. And, you know, I just want to keep improving. That's it, man. I think, you know, I kind of put my mind to try to get this finish. I worked hard to get it. And I was happy I was able to.

In UFC history. So, I mean, obviously you could have just cruised there in the last couple of seconds. Why was this important to you to put it? until the very end and try to get that finish. I mean, that's what we do this for, right? I want to try to put guys away. Put a little stamp on it. I said I need a pretty much dominant win if I want to, you know,

I want to prove everybody that I deserve that title shot. And, you know, I wanted to keep working until that bell slet sounded. You're always a pretty even keel guy, but you know the situation. Coming into this, everybody's saying, is the winner of this fight going to fight for the title or is Cona McGregor going to fight for the title if he wins? What do you think? I mean, did we need to wait until January to see what happens with Cona McGregor? Or do you feel like the type of performance you had tonight should eliminate that discussion?

You should be up for the title shot next. Yeah, it should be me. I think based on my performance, based on what I've done in my career, should be me. That's it. Question for Frankie. Frankie, you worked so hard on your boxing for so many years. But tonight, and we saw it in the BJ fight as well, you showed a lot of your wrestling again. Just what was it with your wrestling that you saw was an opening tonight?

And how dominant did you feel on the ground with Cub? You know, I felt strong. I felt good. I think in my past fights before the last two, I've stood up and boxed a lot. But, you know, I mean, I'm a wrestler. That's where I came from. I'm a black-botton jiu-jitsu under Ricardo Alameda, and I think it showed today. But I think is the fact that my boxing set out my takedowns.

You know, I'm going to make some martial arts. I don't ever want to categorize myself as one discipline. You know, I feel like I could do it all. And, you know, beyond the title shot, when you look at Jose Aldo and, let's say, Connor McGregor, the two guys, hypothetically, that would be in your one, I mean, how much does a performance tonight send a statement to them to, you know, to kind of set the stage for what you're able to do in those kind of matchups? Yeah, I'm here to stay.

I'm coming, you know. I'm not going to be easy fight for anybody. I'll guarantee that. And a question for Paige Van Zant. Paige, incredible performance tonight. Obviously, there's always a lot of nerves in your first UFC fight, but you came right out of the gate very strong. How did you feel?

Did you have any nerves? And how does it feel hearing you get a $50,000 bonus in your first fight? You know, going into it, I didn't feel it through the fight camp. I didn't feel it the way up here. But once I walk out to the cage, all the nerves set in, and I'm used to being under pressure. So luckily, I perform really well under pressure. And, I mean, what a way to kick off my UFC debut with a bonus.

And I'm just completely in awe still. I'm shocked. And one quick one for Joseph. Joseph, you've obviously worked a lot on your striking with bang and the everything you did. But you came out tonight. Maybe I'm wrong. But it seemed like you were just trying to take Dustin's head. clean off his shoulders.

Was there something different in your mindset or something going into that? Because there was a couple times where I thought you were literally just trying to kill the guy. Yeah, I kind of went back to kind of the old beefcake, Joe B, where not really having much patience and just trying to take the guy's head off and kill him, which makes for an exciting fight. And, you know, a guy like Dustin, you know, he just takes shots. But once I started landing him, you know, it was just so fun. It was like a challenge like, oh, I can keep landing.

I'm just going to keep throwing hard shots. You know, I'm glad we got to mix in some wrestling and everything, too. All right, back on the MMA hour, that was a portion of the post-fight press conference on Saturday night in Austin, Texas. Man, Russell Peters, how awesome was he? That was amazing.

He didn't even want to leave. I could tell he didn't want to leave. That's incredible. What a thrill that was for me. You know, I have to tell him something. So before the show, Mr. New York Rick over there, the mooch that he is, tried to get some free tickets.

I said, I'm not asking for free tickets. No way. And then he just offered us tickets. December 11th. Guess what, though? What? Can't go. What?

Going to be in Phoenix. Bummer. You know who will be around? Yeah. I will. You think he stays true to his word? Why wouldn't he? It's sounding louder in there.

Did you guys crank the AC? Mm-mm. Because of those chairs that you're on? No. Well, that was amazing. That was a lot of fun. I know we strayed a little off topic, but whatever. I mean, I'm assuming people who watch or listen to this show have other interests as well.

Well, for a guest who's not predominantly an MMA fighter or anything like that, I feel like we covered a lot of combat sports. We did, but I was just curious. I mean, at the end of the day, I'm just asking questions that I'm curious to know the answers to, and I was just always really curious about that stuff. Like, who uploaded those clips? He doesn't know. The thing about the dad was just mind-blowing to me.

Like when I was trying to find the YouTube clips for this show, I was like, you know, does he have an official page? I was trying to like do it as legit as I could. Right, right, right. And it was tough because so many people have uploaded his material. You mean on YouTube? Yeah, especially from that time as well. Yeah. Well, that was a lot of fun.

I appreciate him stopping by a super busy guy and much like Stone Cold. Couldn't be more down to earth, more humble, just a pleasure. And I could have gone, I could have gone a long time, but I don't want to take. too much of his time. So really appreciate Russell and check out his website, Russell peters.com, for information on his world tour. I thought it was just North America. It's world. So he's, it's a good chance that if you're anywhere in this world, he's coming to you. And he'll sell it out and he'll stick a middle finger up till the haters and the critics and the people who aren't giving him the time of day. That is pretty amazing. All right. Let us go to the questions and

comments now. A busy weekend in the world of combat sports. In particular, the UFC, Frankie Edgar, winning, what do we got? You know what? Now that I just turned on the mic again, it does sound a little enhanced. Yeah. Let's see. Oh, sorry about that. There we go. Okay, let's jump into it. First one, the time is now press conference. What were your overall thoughts? And, you know, this is a little dated because this happened right after our show last week, but people were curious about this. What are your overall thoughts on the Time is Now press conference last week? Is this the kind of thing you would like to see more often, and how much was the event overshadowed by the quote-unquote announcement that never happened?

Well, that pretty much covers it as far as... Well, I mean, he hit the three main topics, and first things first, I thought it was a great moment for the UFC. I thought that this is the perfect way to get the word out about the upcoming schedule. You bring in all these big fighters, these big fights coming up, this makes a lot of sense. This is looking ahead. This is something that I feel like the UFC doesn't do well. especially as of late with all the shows back to back to back.

It's almost every single week. You really only have five, six days to focus on one show and promote it. Well, this time around, much like they did at the end of last year with those big four fights, I think it was, but big four pay-per views. This time, they up the Annie, and they brought out a whole bunch of fights. The biggest name for Anderson, Nick Diaz, Chris Wyman, Vitor Beil Belfour, Ronda Rousey, Connor McGregor. I mean, it was a real who's who, and it was, it was. you know, it was a sight to behold. I mean, to see all these guys and girls and women, men, all that stuff on stage and then the face-offs, it was a great production. It looked great.

John Anick did a great job. So that was, to me, a home run. Unfortunately, they put out this thing about the big announcement. And when you throw out something like that, when you get people excited about something like that, that is going to, okay, you already told us about the other stuff. We know those stuff, but what don't we know? That's what's going to be talked about, speculated on. That's the thing that everyone's going to be, you know, really tuning in for because they know, okay, it's going to be a press conference. Then at the beginning, when they say that there is no announcement that they couldn't get the deal done, then the air is taken out of the room. Then it's a letdown. Then it completely overshadows what was a great moment for the UFC.

You know, big venue, biggest stars there, announcing big fights, disappointing year. Hopefully these fights come to fruition. I mean, it should have been a great moment. It should have been all about those fights. The schedules being. announced and that's it. And if they, even when they announced it, if they didn't know that it was 100% whatever this announcement was, they shouldn't have, they shouldn't have threw it out there. They should have just waited. If they got it done, then say, oh, and by the way, or just surprise people. And I think that if they knew that it wasn't going to be announced, they should have told the media in advance, hey, by the way, that thing, it's not going to be announced. So then the

media could get it out there and then people wouldn't be as upset. But to just kind of say, oh, and by the way, you know, after promising this and probably having some time to get the word out, it's not coming to fruition, it's not going to be announced. That's a big letdown. So what should have been a great moment for the UFC, a great day for the UFC, all positive for the UFC, it was tainted a little bit, unfortunately, and I think that's a lesson learned. Don't tease anything unless it's 100%. Because it feels like a bait and switch, and it shouldn't have been that way. It should have either been a surprise or something that they tell us, you know, a couple of days before, whatever. They didn't do that. And that's why it wasn't as good as it could have been.

This is not so much a question, but I thought this was interesting. This person basically counted the number of questions that each fighter at the press conference received. And in order, Wow, that's funny. From greatest to least, Dana White, 19, Connor McGregor 9, John Jones 8, Rhonda Rousey 8, Nick Diaz 8, Anderson Silva 5, Cormier 3, Chris Wideman 2, Gustafson 2, Zingano 2 Machita 1 Belfort 1 Rumble Johnson 1

Dennisiever 1 Cibed Goussaig Which was a little uncomfortable Right I mean what's the difference between 1 and 0 to be honest 1 is 1 No I mean

Honestly the Dennis Ever question I don't remember it It probably wasn't great It was probably just To not make him feel uncomfortable Yeah Vitor just one surprises me What do you take away from this

Well that's what they're asking us Oh What do I take away from it? That Connor McGregor is clearly somebody, even if it doesn't mean he's the biggest star, it means he's the person that people want to hear from the most. If they generate content around Connor McGregor, even if they don't necessarily put him into higher profile fights,

then it would be successful because people want to hear from Connor and see what he's up to. Dana White 19, that doesn't surprise me because he's at the helm of the press conference and he's kind of somebody who people go to for answers. When the fighters can't answer questions, then Dana White's obviously going to be the one getting the most. John Jones Ronderousy, I think that speaks for itself.

They're big stars right now. Same with Nick Diaz. This order does not surprise me at all. Although the one thing I'd point out that does surprise me is Chris Widman only getting two. I'm not too surprised about that. I'll tell you who I thought was the star of the press conference. Nick Diaz. Nick Diaz was unbelievable.

It's got to be a toss-up. Diaz or Connor McGreg? It was Nick, in my opinion. Because we don't see him in that light very often. We haven't seen him in a while. I think we all kind of miss Nick Diaz. We've seen Connor, you know, in the last few months and all that. Nick was just amazing.

And then that whole exchange with his buddy, Dominique Robinson, and in that point where I think it was C.B. Dulloway told him that the question was not for him was for John Jones. I mean, he was just pure entertainment. If you saw Daniel Cormier, who was sitting in front of him, kept looking back and just cracking up, it was pretty entertaining. So I thought Nick was the real highlight. Sure. I think that's a fair point.

Connor, we kind of have seen this recently and see it more often, for sure. Cormier loved him. He was telling me afterwards, you know, riding around with him because there were the two buses, right? There was the red corner, the blue corner, the champions, the contenders, whatever. And Cormier said he just had a blast interacting with him, asking him questions. He's a fascinating guy. He's a very interesting character. And perhaps what's most interesting about him is sometimes he doesn't really understand.

Yeah, he doesn't get, like everyone's laughing around him and it's unintentional comedy, I guess you could say. And he does not crack a smile. He doesn't acknowledge it. He's just being himself. I love it. Yeah, I think that famously happened on the pre-fight conference call where he's like, why are you guys laughing? Is it serious? Something like that.

And in post-fight against George St. Pierre, people were kind of laughing. and even post-fighting against Condit as well. Oh, no, no, against BJ Penn, I remember very famously. Our man Anthony is calling BS, by the way. On what? He is saying that V-Torr, all caps, definitely, was asked more than one question at that press conference. Damn, calling out. Ryan Hobbs, get your numbers up.

Let's see. Our next question. This is about Frankie Eager. Did he do enough to warrant the next title shot, or has this been the perfect scenario for the UFC? Do you think, Frankie, should get the winner, I guess, of, oh, no, get either of these guys, Mendez or Lomas, or wait for his well-earned title shot if McGregor gets Aldo next? I think he did the UFC a favor. Now, after the fight, I tweeted the fights that I kind of envision happening next, not so much the fights that I would do necessarily,

but just the way the UFC does its matchmaking. And, you know, it was very obvious to me when Dana White said on Fox Sports 1 last week, Cubs Swanson is getting a title shot if he wins. He didn't say Frankie Edgar. And Frankie Edgar has had a few title shots. It doesn't mean anything in the present day. But he made a point to say Cubs Swanson. So it's one of those cases where the stipulation was only for one guy.

Cubs loses. Frankie, I don't see him getting that title shot. And I know everyone, you know, the fans love to get behind guys. And I find that interesting because all of a sudden they're like, you know, Team Frankie loud and clear when he was championed and getting those decisions, a lot of people weren't supporting him this. much. And whatever. That's fine. They may have come around. They may think he's more deserving now, whatever. But the thing is, with Cub losing and with him on that winning streak,

I just think the last two weeks have just completely cleared the path for Conne McGregor. And it reminds me a whole lot of when Chris Wyman was out for a bit, and then everyone ahead of him just started losing. And you had all these guys, you had Belcher losing, you had Bissping losing, Rockhold ended up losing. And it was just like, all right, Chris Wyman. He's the guys getting the title shot. Before all those fights, we had to see what was going to happen. And then there he was fighting Anderson Silva. Connor McGregor, I see the same thing happening here.

Bermuda's lost, Cub Swanson lost. The path has been cleared. If he can beat Dennis Siever, I see them giving him the title shot. And it's unfortunate for Frankie. It's a big win, but I still think he needs maybe one or two to get the people behind him and to get people really excited about another crack at the champion, especially if it's Aldo. So that's why I said, I think Mendez,

versus Edgar would be amazing to see. I would do Lentz versus Llamas. Some people were hating on Lentz, but he deserves a big fight in my opinion. And the other one that I wanted to see was Bermudez versus Swanson. And the thing that a lot of these guys, except for Bermudas have in common,

is Lentz. They've lost to Aldo. So they could kind of battle it out and then you'll see who's on top. But that's what I would do. And then if Connor wins, he gets touched off. He loses.

Then maybe Frankie slides in there. I think we need to wait and see what happens on January 18th. Who quote unquote deserves the title shot? Well, it depends on what deserves mean, because as far as business is concerned, Connor McGregor will sell out a stadium. There's no doubt about it. Business is concerned.

As far as the number three guy, beat the number two guy. Does he deserve the title shot? Well, you know how I feel about those rankings, although I will say they're accurate. Here's the thing. If I'm the UFC, or if I'm judging the UFC, I can't blame them for this.

End of the day, the UFC is a business, right? They need to make the most money possible. A Connor McGregor title fight in Brazil or Ireland would be gigantic business. You can't put Frankie Edgar in a title fight. As much as I love and respect the guy, you can't put him at Giant Stadium, MetLife Stadium, and sell that out. Right. I don't even know if you can put him in Prudential Center and sell it out. That's just the fact of the matter.

And beyond that, you can do the Connor McGregor fight now. do it now and then do Edgar at another time cash in now he's incredibly popular it's done that that entire thing is done if McGregor loses to anybody before the title you see the thing about that is MMA fans are very forgiving it's not like boxing you know I think it takes a while to regain your mojo in boxing a loss is a lot more um it's critical it's a lot more critical and damaging to your career than in MMA I mean look at a guy like BJ Penn look at a guy like BJ Penn look at a guy like Randy Couture. These guys have double-digit losses. Well, that's a different scenario, though, because BJ Penn and Randy Couture didn't make their careers with their mouths with the microphone. They made their careers by proving that they were the toughest fighters. Now, Connor McGregor, his career could go a drastically different direction from here until the end of his career, but the reason people love him so much is because he talks shit, backs it up, and hasn't

suffered that defeat yet. All smart trash talkers. We're willing to go along with this until... Sure. Until he suffers that loss. When Chal Sondon lost, it diminished him a little bit in terms of being, the impact behind his trash talk was diminished quite a bit. Sure. But all trash talkers have a good way of reinventing themselves. Absolutely.

And they know how to change the narrative. So will it hurt him? He can't talk his way into a title shot if he loses, though. Yes, but I believe he has the ability to bounce back. We don't have to worry about that right now because he hasn't lost yet. Absolutely. The thing is, if he wins, main event, Boston, you see the way they're promoting him. The promo for that show, an MMA junkie, they timed it and I watched it and they were accurate, has like 1.9 seconds. 30 second promo, 1.9 seconds of Dennis Siever footage. The rest is Connor McGregor. This is the Connor McGregor show. And the most money can be made off of that title fight. So I don't think there's anything wrong with Frankie versus Mendez, two guys who have lost. Aldo. I've always wanted to see Frankie versus a team alpha male guy. The fight we wanted to see was Faber. That's not happening. Mendez, next best thing in my opinion. Why not? And people say to me,

oh, the UFC doesn't book a loser against a winner. Do you not pay attention to the UFC? They always do that now. A. And when it's a loser of a championship fight, it's a lot different. It's not the same rules. So that's the fight to make in my opinion. It's no knock on Frankie. I have so much respect for that guy. I just, one of, no joke, the nicest people that not only have met in M.A. in the world. I mean, the guy is just such a great person, great family man. He deserves everything that's happening to him. A tremendous win, got the finish, did everything right. I just don't think right now is the time. Will it happen two, three fights from now? By the way, Bermuda's losing, all these guys losing. It's great for him. He's just not the guy right now as long as Connor is

undefeated in the UFC. If Connor loses, that all changes. Not to go overboard, but forget Frankie as a person. Frankie is a fighter is one of the best fighters we've ever seen. I'll go on record I didn't say that. Just because this guy is not a 155er. That much is clear. But he fought most of his career at 155. B.J. Penn three times. Two times in a capacity that we were interested in seeing.

And he clearly did not belong in that weight class. Fought Benson Henderson, most people think he won one, if not two of those fights, became the champion, beat Gray Maynard. These guys are huge dudes cutting down. to 155, drops down to 145, pretty much has looked just as good there. He's had one of the best careers in MMA history, and I think that he's criminally underrated when you look at his legacy. Nailed it. I was just going to ask you, great fighter, Hall of Fame, yes, maybe one of the most underrated fighters of all time. Easily. Yeah, it's amazing. He's, he's, John Beer,

shout out to John Beer, has, who has, come on kidding, has said this many times that he's a modern-day Rocky, and I think that's the most apt comparison. And that, that's the most apt comparison. comparison is thrown out a lot, let's be honest, perhaps a little too much. And I love the fact that he doesn't come out to the song. He doesn't run with it. But it's 100% accurate. Just everything about him. He's just very likable. And to me, this signaled the new Frankie Edgar. He could have easily just, you know, sat on Cup for those last 10 seconds. He went for the finish. He went for the submission. He went for the neck crank. That to me, in the final seconds of a five-round fight, what he did throughout the entire fight was beautiful.

but that to me signal that this is a new guy on a mission. This isn't a guy who's just going to be content, getting the decision, getting the win, which he had already in his back pocket long ago. He had it going into the fifth round already. But he wanted to make a statement. I really respect that out of him because it shows that he has listened, he's trying to evolve, and he really wants that title shot.

Great. One more win. I think you're there. Okay, let's talk about Bobby Green with the loss Saturday and talks of retiring earlier in the week. Do you think he's actually done? I don't think he's done. I think he's way too talented at this point. This is a guy who has been through so much in his career, so much in his life.

He finally got to the UFC. He finally made it to the point where he was getting the respect that he deserves as a fighter, and he's in a co-main event of a great card. He's not going to leave now. I just don't buy it. Now, are there things happening outside of the cage that might be affecting his mindset or his decision-making, perhaps, and we can't really speak to that. But as far as the fighter is concerned, I don't think that a loss to Hetz and Barbosa

should make you want to retire. It's nothing to be ashamed of. And you finally got to the point where you are a known commodity in this sport in the top organization. Why leave now? You worked so hard for this. I mean, remember Bobby Green and King of the Cage, even Strike Force, just getting completely overlooked on prelims, non-televised fights. I mean, this is a guy who's been working for a long time to get to this point. And I would just like to see, I want everyone to be themselves, but I would just like to see him cool it on the theatrics.

I love that stuff. and he's talked about it a lot. You know, he's an entertainer and all that. But in the midst of the fight, especially when things aren't going your way, you don't have to do that because more often than not, I've seen enough fights where I feel like

when a guy does the whole like, oh, you didn't hit me, I'm still pretty and all that, he actually did hit you. And I think that people are smartening up to that. I think Bobby does it to a point where it's a tick, not a thing where he's trying to prove anything. Yeah, yeah.

It's the amount of times he shook his head has to be the most on record in any fight. And I'm not talking about getting hit with a punch, I'm talking about just saying, no, a punch didn't hit me. It's obviously something beyond just him trying to show off for the judges. Because when you do it to that point, when you do it that much, it's not proving anything. It's much more something that I don't think is within his control anymore and a habit that he's formed. I think it also turns people off.

Like they want, especially when they think that you may be losing the fight, just go out there, put your hard ad on and try to, you know, turn the tables in your favor. doing that, it comes across as a little bit, you know, too showy. Well, to be fair, I wasn't a fan of Barbosa raising his arms, backing away on his bicycle. That's true. I think that was maybe his response to all that stuff, which I could imagine it gets a little annoying. But look, two wrongs don't make a right.

Thing is for Bobby Green, back to the question, he's very emotional. You saw on this show, right? He got in some hot water, and then he goes on Twitter. I love that about him. He's very emotional. He's perhaps a little sensitive. And some guys, they have no filter. And that's what I love about this sport.

You don't have a PR person right in back of them, almost playing them like a puppet like you see in the NBA and NFL. The promotions, for the most part, let the fighters say whatever they want. And sometimes that gets them in a lot of hot water, but sometimes it often works to their advantage because you get to see their personality, who they are. That's Bobby Green. So I think that he really just wears his emotions on his sleeve.

He tells you what's going through his mind, and sometimes he may go a little too far. I think in the moment he seemed emotional. He seemed very fired up. I think cooler heads will prevail. Maybe the loss will humble him a little bit and make him, you know, come back a little hungrier. But if you're asking me, do I think that was the last of Bobby Green? No.

That's just my guess. Okay, let's talk about the other half of that fight. What's next for Edson Barbosa? Yes. Loser of Pettus Melendez fight. Mosvidal, D.S. Seroni winner. I don't know if I want to see him against Soroni that quickly. Alvarez versus Henderson winner.

Hmm. There's a lot of good fights for him. There are a lot of good fights. I don't think he gets the loser of the title fight. And it's nice, you know, I want to see him go on a bit of a run here because it seems like he gets a couple of these fights. We get super excited about Barbosa, and then he has a really bad loss.

Well, Seroni was the biggest step up by far. And then this was the next, which is quite a big step up as well, and he performed fantastically. He did. You know, I like the Mazvedal idea only because, it feels like Masvedal. He needs a bigger fight. Who does? Mazvedal.

He needs... Bigger than... No, no, no. I think that this fight, he's... He needs a bigger fight than he's been getting lately. Sure. And I think that this would be a good one. He's fighting on the same card as Benson versus Eddie Alvarez.

January 18th, also the Conne McGregor card, against Norman Park. I think that this... If he gets past that, I think that Mazvedal, Barbosa is a great fight. Yeah. Although I don't want to see Barbosa... you know, wait two months to see what happens there. And you know what I mean? But is there somebody freed up that they can throw them in there with anyway?

Right now? Not really. What about the winner of Dosangos and Nate Diaz? Too much? No. That would be, I think you want to be careful with Dosangos because... He's so close? He's so close, yeah.

Yeah. Maybe if Nate wins. That would be fun. That would be fun to see Nate probably not check any leg kicks. There are a lot of great options for him. You know, Benson and Eddie, that's a fight that makes a lot of sense. You know, if Miles Jury wins maybe, but perhaps I think Miles Jury will be a little further along because he's undefeated and a win over Soroni would be big.

But yeah, all those fights are great. He hasn't fought a lot of these guys at the top, which is great. I think there's a lot of big fights for him. They brought him along slowly and he's had, you know, some good runs and then he falters. So now he's, if he can keep this going, he has a lot of fights that he hasn't had a chance to get yet. that would be a lot of fun. People love Barbosi. It's such an exciting style.

I just want to see him put it together. And right now, it appears as though he is. Okay, let's talk about Joseph Benevides. We should the UFC match him up against next. On Saturday night, it was clear that he's still the best in the division outside of Demetrius Johnson. What do you think about these possible fights and do they make sense? Chad Mendes or Frankie Edgar versus Ricardo Lama. Oh, this is a separate thing.

Nothing to do with Benavides. Okay, so let's address the first part. What's next for... Joey B. He's in such a tough spot because he is clearly the number two best flywood in the world. He is so much better than the guys he's fighting until he fights Demetrius. And every time he fights against someone not named Demetrius Johnson and looks as good as he did on Saturday, it makes me just appreciate Demetrius that much more. Demetrius Johnson knocked this guy out in his hometown in the first round.

Dominated him the first time they fought as well. two very convincing dominant wins over Benavides. The knockout to me was one of the cleanest, nicest knockouts, and somewhat shocking as well to see Benavita's fall to that. So it makes me appreciate Demetrius, and then when Benavita's fights, I'm reminded that he is the second best flyweight in the world and is in a very tough spot because he has a loss,

he has two losses to the champion, and it's very tough to get a third. I will say this, those guys are so much fun to watch that I would watch them fight 10 times a night but it's a hard sell when your own two against a champion

it's a hard sell. I think it is. Because they were clean wins. There's no controversy there, right? Fair enough, but there's a few factors at play. That division's relatively shallow. Second is Demetrius is not

a guy who's drawing huge numbers at this point, so it's not like you need to prop him up and continue to bring in new challengers for him. that'll, you know, do gangbusters on pay-per-view or gangbusters on Fox. And also, there's only so long you can keep Joey B from another title shot if he continues to win. So I think, I mean, I would have the same appetite to see a third one, to be honest. Is there somebody at flyweight that you're, let's say, let's say Ian McCall, which would also be a third one, by the way.

Yeah, but the first was a draw. Still a third fight for them. Sure, but not two losses. Lindeker. Dodson. Dodson, which is a rematch as well. One loss. And then after that, what else is there?

There's a drop-off. And any of those, are you dying to see those more than a third fight between Benavides and Demetrius? I also feel like it's not fair to Demetrius. I mean, how many times... Oh, there was another factor that I... I forgot, which is Demetrius' stance of I'll fight anybody. It doesn't really matter. Sure. But you get the impression that he wants to fight some new guys. How many times are you going to have to beat the same guy? And if you lose in the fourth fight, the fifth fight,

then how many chances do you get to get the belt back? You know what I mean? I just feel like it's not fair. I don't like. And here's another thing with going back to Edgar Aldo. I feel like if the champion beats a guy and it's convincing, it has to be a very long time before the challenger gets another crack. The champion beat you. The champion beat you. He shouldn't have to do it again. That was one of Aldo's closer fights. That was. It wasn't as, it wasn't as as, you know, Anderson and

Edgar. But yes, it was one of the closer fights. Okay, but who's been closer against Aldo? Not who's been closer in a Frankie Edgar fight? Because up until that point, every Frankie Edgar fight was close. But who's been closer to Aldo? No, you're right. Mendez? Mendez, but that was after the fact. Yeah, that's about it. That's the list.

Demetri's beating him twice is tough. I still think they're interesting fights, but Right now, I was thinking about this last night. What's wrong with just making money? You know, it sucks. You're not going to be the champion as long as Demetrius. You won't get another crack maybe for the next year or two. Who knows what happens then?

But what's wrong with just racking up wins and racking up paychecks? It's not the worst thing in the world. Digeruai Faber plan. Yeah, it's really not the worst thing in the world. Like sometimes I feel like we get so caught up on the belt. And let's be honest, you get the belt, you probably get a lot more money. But I don't feel like Joseph Benavides, and he doesn't strike me as this type. I mean, he's even friends with Demetris.

So there's no hard feelings there. He's not going to sit. He's not going to pout. Just go in there, fight as often as you can, and make a living for yourself. You know, that's the goal at the end of the day. You want to have a family. You want to be successful. Just go out there and make a living.

So if it means, you know, maybe fighting a Wilson Hayes next, right? Someone who's coming up or anyone in there in the, or a horoguchi. I don't know. Someone coming up, much like Dustin Ortiz. Dustin Ortiz ranked 13. Wilson Hayes is ranked 15. It means a Chico Kamis. Someone like that, it's not the worst thing in the world.

Yeah, it sucks. he won't get a title shot right now. But let's not feel too bad for a guy who's going in there winning almost 90% of the time and just getting paid. How much does it suck for those guys that have to beat, you know, that have to beat Benavides to get to a title shot? It's a tough thing because he's kind of like that gaykeeper, but in the non-traditional sense. And, you know, I feel for him in the sense that he's fighting guys who are way below him

as far as the rankings are concerned and probably talent-wise. But he's in this position where he can't fight a guy who, who's right at the top because if he loses, he can't take his spot in the title fight, and he has to fight these guys who are, you know, trying to climb their way up. So it's almost like a lesson for the younger guys. They get a taste at the big time,

and then they have to work themselves back up. And he gets to go out there and continues to prove that he's number two. It's not the worst thing. Better than being number three or four. All right. Let's quickly talk about Chad Mendes or Frankie Edgar versus Ricardo Lamas. How do you like that? Okay, well, what I would do is,

oh, Chad Mendes or Frankie versus? I don't understand the question. It's very weirdly structured, but I think it's either of those guys versus Ricardo Lama. How do you feel about any of those fights? I think, again, I would do Chad versus Frankie, Ricardo versus Lentz, who's in there, Bermudas versus Swanson. Those are the six guys he's talking about, and that's what I would do. And it's Nick, N-I-K, not C-K. Boom.

Shout out to Chuck Mendenhall. Yes. Question. Draws in M-M-M-A after some close-split decisions this weekend. see more drawn fights announced. Or do you think it's important to award a winner all the time? Would it clog up some divisions? I don't think some fighters press the action or do enough to be considered a winner in some matches.

Does Metamores come up later? Next question. Okay. Let's combine them because I feel like it's the same thing. Metamorous draws. How do you guys feel about the amount of draws happening on these shows? Is there a way to increase the chances of submissions? I feel the only way to do it is financially.

For example, pay each fighter a base of $1,000. Then the winner by sub gets a $9,000 bonus. Jesus Christ. It's the only way I can see fighters aggressively chasing subs. Okay, so here's the thing. I feel like this is a fundamental problem as far as Metamoros is concerned. And you guys know I'm a big fan. I enjoy the product.

I think they do a great job and I love their matchmaking. But, for example, I couldn't watch MetaMorris Live on Saturday. I was at a wedding. But I was following the coverage on an MMA fighting. And I would check in, you know, every hour or so. Draw, draw, draw. I believe there was only one finish, right? There was only one finish.

Draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw. So when you're just looking at the results, I kind of feel like, all right, well, I didn't really miss much. Now, of course, a lot happens, 20-minute match. You go back, you read what happened, all right, now I get a sense for who is dominant, what happened here and there. But on paper, you read all these draws. Well, this was inconclusive. I didn't really miss much. There was no winner. We're pretty much where we were yesterday before this actual event happened. So to me, I think this is a fundamental problem. You need a winner. We have been programmed to have a winner. on the game? Who won the fight? Who won the tennis match? Who won the basketball game? Who on the boxing match? That's the first question you ask if you miss someone. Draw? Well, all right, I guess I didn't miss much. You can't have that linked to your organization. So we've brainstormed about this on this show. I feel like if you can't get, that's fine. You want to do submission only? Great. But I almost feel like if there were points involved, you'd see more aggressive matches because, all right, you need to go out there and maybe you're doing things a little different.

Maybe your game plan is a little different, but at least you're trying to go, there's some end goal in mind. Now, if it's just a mission only and some of these guys are, you know, UFC fighters, I'm not saying this case with Rory because he even said he would have let his arm break, whatever, but maybe these guys are just going out there, you know, it's kind of like a bucklerless thing for them. All right, I'm going to go out there.

You know, we made it to 20 minutes. That's a victory for me. Well, no one wants to see that. So if it goes to 20 minutes, I feel like the best thing is five minute overtime. and then maybe it's points only. So now you're going 25 minutes. You're probably really tired

and you couldn't get the sub. All right, now you've got to change everything and you've got to get the most points or, obviously, submission, within the next five minute overtime. I feel like that's the best way to remedy to this. I'm open to suggestions as well. But going back to the thing before you,

and the other question, I'm okay with draws an MMA because you can win via decision. Now, if it just so happens that the flight wasn't exciting, you didn't do enough, then more power to the judges, call it a draw. No problem.

You know, I don't feel like there always has to be a winner. I don't feel like it always has to be a 10-9. This is typically a question that's calling for more 10-10s. When you talk about draws, that's typically what people are kind of talking about. I'm fine with that because there's more than one way to win. You can win via knockout. You can win via TKO, ref stoppage. You can win via decision.

There's more than one way. If you couldn't get it done with all that, if you didn't do it decisively enough, then it's a draw. too bad for you. But there's only one way to win in Metamoros, and sometimes it feels like they may not be going for that way. Then they're kind of riding it out. Or, you know, styles make fights. It doesn't work out. Whatever the case may be, I want to see a winner. In that world, I want to see a winner. You can't have a card with five, six fights, and only one of them have a finish, a decisive winner. It's just weird to me. What do you think? I spoke to Vinnie Magalesh after the event, and he had a similar thought about the overtime with points.

And I don't know if that's necessarily the answer either. I'm not sure I like that either. I think there has to be a way to determine a winner. With MetaMoros, too, what they did was they had judges of the fight. They judged it similar to pride scoring in the match in its entirety, and they just judged it based on that. Very subjective, though, with no points involved, right? Certainly subjective, and I don't know if that's the answer either.

I don't think there is an answer. I think it's similar to the question about judging an MMA where there isn't an answer. We don't have a better answer at this point, but I don't think that the answer is adding points. I don't like that. And by the way, having judges who are just looking at the end, you know, picking a winner if it goes the distance, is really no different than MMA because there are no points in MMA. No one's saying one point for takedown. Well, it is different because judging on a whole. Okay, yes.

in that sense, but I'm saying take a round, like compare a five-minute round to a 20-minute match. It's the same judging criteria, right? You're supposed to implement certain things. You're supposed to implement aggression, control, you know, jujitsu. Yeah, but wouldn't you apply that if you're judging a submission-only jujitsu match? It's the same thing. Because you're not supposed to get points for certain things right in your mind. You're comparing one MMA round to an entire.

Yes. I see, I see. It's the same thing. Yeah, yeah, it is. There's criteria that you're... So I'm okay with that, too. I just like the idea of the urgency of, okay, we're the promotion. There's going to be no judges involved.

There has to be a winner. We want a submission only in 20 minutes. And maybe you do up the Annie with money. That always seems to work. If not, we're going to five minute overtime. We're now things change and there are points involved. Kind of cool, I think. I don't like points.

But I don't have a better answer, so I can't really answer that for you. Also, I would point out that just seeing the word draw isn't in. indicative of how something happened. Oftentimes in MMA, draws have been some of our more interesting fights. Sure. On Bigfoot comes to mind. Frankie Gray, incredible fight. I don't think that if you're simply looking for results and you don't really care to dig much deeper,

then I guess a draw is going to be off-putting. But for me, if I see a draw, I want to see how that came about. How did we arrive at that point where it was a dead even heat? Now, objectively, all of the matches at Metamoros were not a dead even heat. There were some people who you may have thought had the better performance. For example, J.T. Torres looked better than Rory McDonald did, but they got a draw. And I understand that, you know, that frustrates some people. They want finality. They want closure and they want to know who won.

But I don't necessarily think that looking at a draw and saying, well, now it's meaningless, is accurate either. I don't think that that's a fair assessment of anything. But I understand why people would want to know who won, because everything can't be perfectly even. And that's just the truth. But as far as the competition at MetaMorse, when I thought they were great matches,

even though they did end and draws. And Gary Tonin got the submission, which was incredible. He's a very aggressive, exciting fighter. And I think that maybe that's part of it, is, you know, booking super exciting fighters who are going after it. And, you know, that could be a way to alleviate it in the future. I don't know. I don't know how you correct draws in this circumstance,

but I don't think it's going to points. I don't think that that's the right answer. I hate missing big events. And, you know, it kind of, even though I was at a wedding, it was beautiful. I was like, oh, man, I'm missing Frankie fight. I'm missing Mammar's. And then when I looked at it, I was like, oh, shit, I missed the Frankie finish. You know, that bugged me.

And then I saw all the draws, I was like, oh, okay, I'll, I'll go back, you know, I'll check it out, I'll read about it. But I didn't feel as bad about missing it. Sure. That's fair enough. Okay, let's move on to our next one. Rory McDonald got caught and said he was going to let J.T. Torres break his arm, if necessary. I expect the U.S. to hear in band fighters from competing in Mennemores, agree, or disagree.

I don't know if I'll actually go that far, but I don't think that was a smart thing to say. If A, he wants to ever compete in Mennem Morris again, or B, he cares about any other. other UFC fighter, especially a big name who's about to fight for the belt, compete in Mita Morris. The UFC does want to hear that. I'm actually surprised. The UFC seems to be very lenient when it comes to MetaMorris. They don't, you know, like, you know, they don't want guys going around.

Forget about fighting another promotion, but doing pro wrestling and things like that. Certain cases, it has happened. They seem to be okay with, you know, if a number one contender like Roy McDonald can go out there and do it, then I'm pretty sure everyone could go out there and do it. Now, maybe Ronda Rousey, other people like that, they'll get some resistance, but they seem to be very lenient. However, if there's even an inkling,

if there's even a thought in the back of their mind that the guy is going to break his arm or something like that, I think they're going to say, well, this really doesn't help us out very much, and it's probably more trouble than anything. So, yeah, I don't know if they'll actually go out in band, but if I'm a fighter who is going to compete in Metamores going into it or after the fact,

I'm probably going to stay away from that because if I love doing it, it's not the best thing. The UFC doesn't want to hear that. I was very surprised when he said that. Hey, give him props, being honest, love that. And it seems like he really took it seriously. But if I'm the UFC, I'm like, wait a second, we're pretty much loaning this guy. He's our guy. He's our investment.

He's our number one contender. I don't want to break his arm. What the hell? I think I know how you feel about this. Do you think the UFC rankings are really needed? It seems like they're doing a lot of big mistake correcting, ranking 5. over other fighters who have lost to the fighter recently below them. Our fans really paying attention to the ranking numbers when the name graphic appears on the broadcast.

I think they're 100% needed. I think they're great. I think it's one of the great things that they've introduced since coming together with Fox. We're about to start the fourth year of this relationship, which is mind-blowing to me. And it was more of a Fox idea because the UFC has been opposed to it for a long time for many reasons. Frankie and Cub A fighter back of the day couldn't say Wait a second, I just beat the number two guy And I should be the number two guy or one guy now Or something like that

Managers can't say, wait a second Why is number 15 making more than my guy Who's number 20 or number 5 making more than number 10 All it was was headaches for them And guys, you know, managers and fighters would use The Sherdog rankings or someone else's rankings Well now there are official UFC rankings Now the UFC says much like they do with the commissions

They'll say, whoa, this is the media I don't know if I buy that. Yes, it's the media, but they do have a say in certain things. They take Nate Diaz out, which I don't think was right. They keep Dominic Cruz in there for a very long time when he was inactive. They keep Katzen Gano there for a long time inactive. I mean, they take T.J. Grant out. It doesn't make a lot of sense on that front.

There seems to be an agenda. However, these are very important. I think that there needs to be 10, 15 media members involved, the ones who really cover the sport, if they're interested in doing it, and that's it. You don't have to open it up to 100 people. You don't have to use it as a way

to get people on board with the UFC. It's not fair to the fighters, to the sport, to everyone involved, to get people who don't really follow the sport. It just isn't. If you really are serious about this and you want the best rankings possible, then I think that you should,

A, find the people who truly follow, cover this sport, get them on board, get them to do it, allow them to do it on their own independently. Don't take guys off. if you're having some kind of dispute with them or whatever, let the media decide the rules and you go out and use them. And you know what? I was thinking about this,

it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if you just opened it up to the entire sport. Now, I know on a broadcast, they're not going to say, you know, Will Brooks is number four. But could you imagine for a second if this was open to the entire sport? Let's be honest, 99% of the guys are UFC ranked, right? In the rankings are from the UFC. So wouldn't it to be cool if this was the MMA rankings? and I know I'm probably

very naive here and living in a fantasy world but if this was the MMA rankings and 99% of the guys were from the UFC it would show A, the UFC's dominance and B, I think it would get a lot more respect and you'd be like, wow, these are the top 10 guys or 15 guys in the entire sport

I feel like it would mean a lot more. End of the day, what's the big difference? UFC MAA, it's mostly UFC guys, but if they would just leave it alone and let some sort of media contingency take over, I think they would hold a lot more weight. But if you're asking me if the idea of rankings are important, hugely important for TV and for just selling the sport.

Two versus three, that's all I need to know. Fans are accustomed to hearing that sort of thing in every sport. I think it's very important. Yeah, I have a very similar thought, but I wasn't expecting you to talk about independent rankings. I don't know why I wasn't expecting you. But that's what I was going to say, was these need to be handled by somebody other than the UFC, not because, you know, the UFC has done anything that bad to the rankings. I know there's people who have gripes about everything.

I don't really care that much. I think it's, you know, there have been things that you can question, but nothing that's really altering the sport of MMA. But if they were done independently, then there's almost no gripe you can have. The UFC is not influencing it. And that way the people who are ranked there, and, you know, as you said about removing this fighter or removing that fighter, that will be done based on the rankings. So if they're not worthy of that spot, the people who vote will not put them in that spot.

And then that's how they'll be removed. So I think that moving it independently is a key. But that's not the UFC's choice. Somebody hasn't done that yet. There are not regulated independent rankings that are credible and can be used in lieu of the UFC's rankings at this point. That's another thing that's in the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act that was put in there by the government.

That's not something that MMA has to follow. I think rankings on the surface are kind of silly, especially pound for pound rankings. I mean, what does this mean? Who cares who I think is six versus five versus four? However, I think they are important to our sport for many different reasons. And I feel like if the UFC said to us, we're going to put together 10 to 15 guys, and it's going to be independent and just run with it,

and we're just going to follow your lead, and it's open to the entire sport, I'll tell you what, I would do it. I think it's an important thing, and it kind of bugs me that I have to actually listen to these rankings and follow these rankings and see them on my TV. and it's done by the media, and I can't be a part of it. I want to be a part of it, but I can't be a part of it, you know, with these circumstances involved. Sure.

It's not feasible. However, if they did it the other way, the independent way, and it was open to the entire sport, I think that would be really good for the growth of the sport. Our next question, Luke Rockhold, what do you think of Luke's comments that John Jones couldn't beat Kane, as of today, uninjured, obviously. Who would win and why?

Well, I don't expect him to say anything else. I mean, he is Kane's teammate, so he's going to back his boy. No problem with that. That's the way it should be. If he said, I think Jones wipes the floor with Kane, I think that would be a real new story. That would be eye-opening stuff. Who wins and why? I mean, I don't know.

It's a real tough one. Not for me. Really? Kane Really? Why so easy? First of all, I think Kane You know, every fight Kane fights, he looks incredible. He's never ever looked vulnerable

Other than obviously the one fight that in my opinion he shouldn't have taken And I think we all know the story on him heading into the Junior Dos Santos fight But the pace that he sets as such a big guy and his smothering control I don't think we've seen anything like that before. I think he's a freak of a fighter, and I think I would rank him as the best pound-for-pound fighter if he was consistent enough. If he was fighting enough, I would think he's the best pound-for-pound fighter.

Hmm. I don't doubt that. I mean, this is one of those things like the pound-for-pound rankings debate where no one is right. I mean, there's no right answer. This is what you sit around and talk about with your friends. Right now, though... And if anybody said Jones, I wouldn't argue with them.

I'm not going to say, oh, you're wrong. Gun to my head, I'll lean towards Jones. a little more active these days, a little less injury prone, although he is coming off surgery himself on his knee. I just think that, you know, and of course, you know, he's, he has to pack on a few pounds, but his boxing, his range, his jab, the distance,

it's all very tough, and I tend to always side with that, so I'll go with Jones. Now, there have been some holes in his wrestling as of late, especially by Alexander Gustafin, so, you know, you'd have to imagine that Kane would have an easier time, but the gustason fight to me right now feels more like an anomaly. Like, I want to see them fight again

before I can truly judge what happened in that fight. I mean, he took him down once. Yeah, but early in the fight, was it only once? I think him down once, I think. Really? I feel like it was more. No, I don't think so. Look it up. I think there was a thing where Jones was having trouble getting Gustafson down, but I think

is interesting in itself, but not as... I think Gustafson only took him down once. Really? I could be wrong. People let me know, but I think that's right. But I think that that Gustafson is not a, comparing Gustafson to Kane is like comparing, you know, Randy Cotora to Chuck Lidell. It's not really in the same realm of a fighter. No, my, my reason for bringing that up was because before he had never been taken down.

Sure. Oh, oh, Gustafin got one. Michael Carroll. Yeah, let's not act, you know, John Jones didn't get exposed, quote unquote. Sure. And Gustafsson, you know, a great counter-wrestler and wrestler. After the Phil Davis fight, he really changed his game completely. Michael, who do you pick? Way in.

Okay, let's talk about this. Our statistician, yes. Our statistician, do we have him? Yeah, he's unofficial. Asking this question for three weeks now, what should testing look like for past offenders? How long should a past offender get special attention? Will Vitor continue to be scrutinized after the Widman fight?

Cyborg will probably get treated like Vitor if she ever makes it to the U.S. She tested positive in December 2011. But Dennis Siever tested positive in December 2013, there's no talk of testing him. Where's the consistency and the scrutiny of past offenders? Jeez, Louise, that's a lot. I think the question is Vitor seems to be extra scrutinized, whereas other people do not.

Sure. Vitor had two failures, though. And I think there was kind of a dramatic change in his physique. And the timing of it, TRT went away after that. Yes, and he was fighting overseas. There were a lot of things, some red flags. I have said on this show, I kind of feel like Dennis Siever doesn't deserve that lottery ticket

it because of his previous offense, which wasn't all that long ago. So I've kind of weighed in on that. Let me just run through them. Well, first, I would like to see something like a three strikes in your out. So it's one year, you fail, two years, second time, three years you're done. I feel like that should be it. Kind of like what baseball has these days. And it's not even as damaging because fighters don't compete as much as baseball players.

But look, you can't make a living for a year that sucks, two years that really sucks, and then your band, you're banned. Will Vitor continue to be scrutinized? I think we have to see what happens. I think this will be his first fight in the United States. We'll be since U.S.C. 133 in Philadelphia, off top my head, Akiyama. You know, so it's been a while. It's been a while.

If he goes through all of this, all this testing from Nevada and California and beats Wyman or even doesn't, but still gets through all of it, I think it will die down. I think 100% it will die down. Cyborg getting to the UFC, guess what? If she gets in there, I feel like a lot of the talk will be about her and Rhonda, and Rhonda is very passionate about it. I don't think she'll be as scrutinized as Vitor. I think two is a big deal.

It happened twice. And is there a consistency in the scrutiny? You know, UFC likes to say sometimes like, oh, you guys pick on Vitor. I don't think we pick on Vitor. I think there were a lot of things going against them. Twice, fighting overseas all the time, TRT, the way he would talk about it, the change physique, there was a lot going on. I think a lot of people bring up, you know, the offenders and the failed drug test, but, you know,

if it's once, you know, it's like someone like King Moe, and, you know, it happens once, it hasn't happened again. There was no talk of it beforehand. It's brought up, you know, one or two fights, but then it kind of dies down because how long can you bring it up? The V-Tor narrative was happening for so long because he kept fighting overseas where he wasn't being tested, or at least didn't seem like he was being tested. those results weren't being made public and he was using TRT and you know how we felt about TRT so I think he had a lot going against them to be honest

Michael Carroll says and and to use TRT of all things when you are a you know offender of steroids to me you shouldn't even be allowed to be on TRT you know what I mean? Well now nobody's allowed so.

Well yes but back then that's why it bothered us so much I'm speaking for the media because one of the reasons why you probably have low testosterone is because you use steroids. So I feel like anyone, even then, they could have gotten around the whole TRT thing and said, look, if you've ever failed a steroid test, no TRT for you. And a lot of guys probably wouldn't have done it. So that, to me, was a big red flag.

I have to say, this is a very backwards way of looking at testing. Just because I feel like we're so worried about hurting people's feelings. Vitor is getting tested more than this person, blah, blah, blah. Why isn't everybody getting tested all the time? How about that? Let's stop worrying about... Well, that's happening next year. Well, hopefully.

Random testing. No, they said it. On this show, Mark Ratner. Remember? We'll see. What do you mean? You don't believe Mark? I believe him.

How random is it going to be? Well... Until it's implemented, we're yet to see how random it will be. Yeah, well, next year. I'm holding out hope that they've figured it out and that they're going to work with an independent body. If it's everybody getting tested randomly, perfect. Perfect. I have no complaints.

I think it will. But what I'm saying is everybody who's worried about this guy got tested three times why this guy get only tested one time. How about they all get tested all the time? And we stop worrying about hurting people's feelings. Vitor cheated. It's not about feelings. It's about cost.

It costs a lot of money to do this. That's the problem. That's why people don't, commissions don't random test because it's a lot cheaper to just do it after the fight. They're there. You don't have to fly out, go to some random lab, all this stuff.

They're there. You control it. Random testing is so expensive because you actually have to go out and do the legwork. But why are we so worried about how many times Dennis Siever is being tested and not so worried about how many times...

I don't think it's worried about that. I don't want to say a random fighter because then that would be accusatory. The Massachusetts Commission may not have the money to go to Germany to test them randomly. That's the problem. They don't have big budgets. That's why the UFC needs to get involved and get an independent lab to run this thing,

but unfortunately for them, they have to foot the bill. but Massachusetts has no money. How many big events are happening in Massachusetts? Where they have the money to go to Germany and test this guy three times before the fight. It costs a lot, not just the actual trip, but then the testing as well, especially when it's blood involved. Yeah. So that's the problem. It's financials.

But I'm not arguing for testing Dennisiever more. I'm arguing for testing everybody more. Sure. The people who cheated in the past. Offenders should be tested more, though. Why? What's the difference? The people who haven't been caught have also, are, you know,

know, could be on anything too. But yes, of course, they should be tested. But I have no problem with... Targeting out specific people? No problem. Yeah, I don't either. That's what I'm saying. You made that bad.

Lying it. Yeah. Anyway, I think we're not on the same page here. We are. I think we are. Next thing. Next four paper views. They have five title fights between them.

I don't know if that's confirmed. You can let me know. Do you guys think any belts will change hands? which challenger is most likely to walk away the new champion? Okay, well, we have the lightweight and welterweight title on December 6th. We have the light heavyweight title on January 3rd. We have, and then, did he say five? Yeah, and then we have Rhonda and Weidman on February 28th.

So, do I think any... So we have Rhonda and Wyatman, eh? Is that a little clue into the... Come on. What's wrong with you? Clue into what? into who you favor in those fights? No, no, I'm just saying they're the champions. Okay.

Will the belt change hands? Yeah, I'll say the belt will change hands. Which? Oh, and I have to say which. Gosh darn it. I mean, you know, picking, saying in five title fights, one of them will change hands is not really.

Well, yeah, why not? Going out on a limb. Yeah, it's, what is it, 20%? It's not really how it works. If everything was a coin flip, Sure. I'll go with D.C. My partner at U.S.C. tonight.

How about that? Welcome. Welcome to the club. What about you? I think. It's no secret. Do you say more than one? Do you say more than one?

Run them through. I think, I think Robbie can do it. Hendricks, Robbie. Yeah, they all could do it. Great. I mean, they're all very, but I like about these. In terms of likelihood, I think Robbie could make a pretty good case there. Gilbert, I think, I might pick Gilbert.

I'm picking D.C. Ronda, I think, is safe. And what's the other one? Wydenman, Vitor? Wydenman safe. I think I'm picking Gilbert and I'm picking D.C. And I'm holding a little bit back, but I think Robbie can get it done too. Michael Carroll picks Kane, by the way.

I mean, he's a smart guy, Michael Carroll. All right, let's move on to that. Twitter. How about that, though? I'm picking two underdogs. I'm when UFC titles. Who are they again? DC and Gilbert Melendez. Gilbert's an underdog? Yeah. A big one? Let's look it up. I think odds would be out for that. Gilbert. Not there. Look at that. Is it not there? Oh, wait, go up. Yeah, yeah. It's there. Oh, yeah. Gilbert plus 170. Very close. Is that where he was last time? No. Against Benson, he was like... Bigger.

Higher than that. Yeah. That was the one that really hurt me. And apparently hurt Russell Peters as well. Yes. As soon as he said that, it gave me, you know, flashbacks. Yes, of course. How could we forget?

Okay, Twitter. If Edgar... Hold on. There we go. Lost that bar. If Edgar pulled a King Moe and accused Dana of Dick riding for Connor McGregor, do you think that gets him enough hype for a title shot? First off, going out on a limb,

I don't think that Dick riding is a part of Frankie Edgar's vernacular. That's just the guess. But that's what makes it... That's why I picked this because I was trying to picture Frankie Edgar do this. I think if he did this, he would get a title shot immediately. I don't know about that, to be honest.

I think Dana has his sight set and the organization in general on certain things and they don't really stray too far away when dealing with the pressure. Although, remember, Frankie convinced them to get another crack at Benson when a lot of people weren't clamming for it, right? that second fight of UFC 150 after the loss of UFC 144

was kind of met with a lot of ho-hum. So I think that actually works against him here because they kind of did him the solid and he lost the rematch and now they're like, well, and not slow your roll. You went out there. You remember they tried to convince him to go down to 145 and he's like, no, no, I want that rematch,

the game of the rematch, when most people weren't happy with it, including, I think it was, yeah, Nate Diaz at the time was in the mix, and then they even gave a shot at 145. all that being said, I don't see a lot happening as far as them straying too far away from Connor. In fact, they seem to like to stir the pot with the fans posting pictures, drinking, you know, coconut juice and all that stuff. You're telling me, if Frankie Edgar all of a sudden started a campaign, Dana White calling you out, you're on Connor McGregor's jock, this and that, the same stuff King Moe was saying, that they wouldn't be able to build that and he wouldn't leapfrog him. Especially coming off the wind that he just had, I think that's a no-brainer. I don't see it happening.

Of course you don't see it happening. I don't see it happening in your scenario. Wow. They can sell out a stadium. I think the bad boy Frank Yeager would be... They could sell out a stadium. I don't know. I think that would be enough.

No. They know what's up. And they know that he could sell a stadium. The other guy can't. By the way, guess who just tweeted me? Who? Zola, Frank. Oh, what do we got?

Russell Peters on the M. May hour, nice. Just missed it. When will this be up? Yeah, she can rewind. You can actually watch it right now. Just rewind here. Guess what? We even spoke about you.

Well, that's interesting. All right. Our last question from Twitter with Bellator's research. Just two Twitter questions. Yeah, it was a lot of reports. repetitive questions today. Okay. Speaking of repetitive, Trevor Cameron, our friend here, asked quite a few questions, so I had to use at least one of them. Okay. With Bellator's recent success,

do you think it's possible that Brock Lesnar would sign with them? And now, I heard you talked about this on the MMA beat. I did not see it, but I heard you talked about this. What's up with that? I was traveling, you know, getting ready to do some metamorous and I didn't have a chance. I apologize. I love this question because I was actually thinking this morning that this might be, and we'll talk about this at the end of the year, and our year end show, this might be the story to watch come 2015. There's a lot of stories to watch. Injuries, the drug testing, schedule, all that. But where will Brock Lesnar go might be the story to watch? And the most important story, George Tamperia coming back, still, I think

Brock is the biggest. Talk to me a little bit about it. Tell me the details of the situation. Brock Lesner is a free agent come around WrestleMania time. He's the champion in WWE, and as I'm sure all of you know, and he has a contract that is up around April or so, WrestleMania time, that's when it's up. And there are strong rumblings, and there have been rumblings of this in the past, but there are strong rumblings that he is

interested in giving him a go once again. I've even talked to people related to the story in many different ways in and out who say, yes, there are signs coming out of Brock right now that he is once again interested. Remember even

on this show, Paul Heyman said that he was healthy and all this stuff and kind of bugs him all that. Here's the thing about Brock. If you notice when he was in UFC, they always talked about him going back to WWE. When he's in WWE, they talk about him going back to UFC. Remember he was flirting with the UFC not that long ago? He's a very smart businessman.

Don't be fooled by the hunter stuff and living in seclusion in Saskatchewan. So all this is just creating an immense amount of leverage for him. I mean, look, now you're going to have Beltor. You're going to have the UFC. You get at WWE. Who knows who else? Vying for you.

for his services. His leverage is going to be off the charts, especially in this day and age, with the UFC needing Brockluster. The UFC needs Brockluster way more than Brocklester needs them. He doesn't have to get back in the cage. He has a crap load of money. But the UFC, wow, I mean, that's the one guy that gets ESPN talking about him. That's the one guy that gets mainstream media. The wrestling fans come over. He will get over a million buys, no problem, which is a huge deal today if he came back his first fight and beyond, see what happens in the first fight. So, that to me is the most fascinating story. Does he come back to MMA? And then, who does he go to? Does he go to the UFC? Where obviously the competition is a lot greater. And obviously he could be the champion. He wants to be the best. That's fine. Or does he go to Belator?

Where, you know, the fans there know who he is. There's a history there on Spike TV. And let's be honest, the competition's a lot weaker. Brock Lesser versus Bobby Lashley, you think Bonner-Ortiz did good? That would do way more than two million. Brock Lester versus Kimbo Slice, that would do way more than two million. I have a feeling, and this is just me talking, you know, envisioning no one has actually told me this, Vicon is going to try to break the bank and sign this guy. Now, does Brock actually go there? My feeling is, as much as people say he's money hungry and he's driven by money, I think it's UFC or bus for the guy. I think that he wants to be in the top organization, but that's not going to stop Bellator from trying, and I think that they know that's the one guy. Belator right now is trying to

get ex-UFC fans, old MMA fans. They're trying to get them on board. That's why they want these names. There's no bigger name in that regard that's available than Brock Lester. I think they're going to try to break the bank. But if he comes back, my guess is he wants to be in the UFC. All that to be said, the story, though, is Brock appears to be interested. And does he actually do it?

Does he pull the trigger? Who knows? Is it all part of some sort of, you know, negotiation ploy? We'll find out fairly soon. but there appears to be some interest there and you know the UFC is interested you know Bellator's got to be interested now it's up to what he chooses to do

fascinating story I can't wait to see how it unfolds as you were speaking I thought of something which was when King Moe and Rampage signed I think Tito too wasn't there some kind of TNA like part of that or like media partner so what happens to that as I understand the TNA is done TNA's done

that's a good question like what happens to that deal like now they don't have that same they don't have that same package that they originally had. That's a tremendous question. I just thought of that as you were talking. Because I was thinking, oh, wouldn't TNA and Bellator as a package seem attractive to Brock Lesnar? And then I remembered that there is no TNA. But I'm saying, you're right.

You're saying they're going to throw the bank at them. They can throw the bank at them and say, hey, guess what? You can still wrestle on TV. But I guess not anymore. I always get the impression that Brock doesn't really like wrestling. I mean, he did the real thing as far as amateur wrestling. wrestling, He did the UFC.

He did the UFC. He didn't like it? He did the NFL. I get the impression that he just likes to make the money. And he has an amazing schedule. Like, if I'm Brock, I would much prefer to do wrestling. Yeah, you got to train, you got to stay in shape. You got to work out, you know, the match or whatever. But let's be honest, you fight what?

Or you compete, what, four times a year? How much training do you actually have to do as far as actual wrestling training? Well, they're not weights and things like that. My next question was going to be, I think, in my opinion, I don't know a single damn thing about Brock Lesner. I don't know a single damn thing about his motivation. but if I was in that position, I think my attitude would be,

I'm open to doing any of these things. And I'm not real, like, as you say, he keeps, you know, floating out, I was interested in WWE or I was floated, I was interested in UFC when he was in the other organization to raise the leverage, and that's brilliant. It's a smart strategy. If I was in that situation, I imagine I'd be one of the people who doesn't really know which one I was,

want to do the most. I probably enjoy the wrestling, enjoy the schedule or whatever, and then enjoy competing actual competition in the UFC. I don't think there's necessarily has to be one thing where his heart is set on. Well, who knows? That's speculation. All I know is that he did not go out on top. I mean, he had a great run in college. He had a great run in W.W. UFC started off amazingly. And remember, one fight into his career, that's where he wanted to be. He wanted to be with the best. He could have went elsewhere, but he didn't want to go through the regionals or whatever. He wanted to be in the UFC, and it started off great.

Fortunately, he had some health problems. If he feels like he's healthy now, I feel like he's going to want to avenge those losses over him, and then, you know, who knows if he can get to Kane again if he's still the champion, but still be with the best, be with the WWE of MMA. The question is, you know, does WWE come back and offer him a craplow? Because it's a way easier life. You got to train, you got to do some matches, show up on Raw. You don't actually have to put together a team.

He has no team. His team disbanded. So you've got to put together a team. You've got to train straight for three months, be away from your family, or maybe bring the training to your family like he did. And, you know, when he was in the U.S. I don't think it would be too hard for Brock to put together a team. It's not going to be hard, but it's way more demanding on your body.

And plus, the knock on him has always been he hates to get punched. He reacts poorly when he's punched. Now, has he ever admitted that publicly? No, but you don't have to deal with that as much in WWE. Not saying that it's not, you know, physical and they're going to be bumps and bruises, but it's a totally different mindset. There's a lot more unknown in MMA as far as WD's concern. So to me, like I thought this was the stupidest story.

I was so sick of hearing about this. I thought this was just a way to keep things in the headlines. But now I'm starting to change. I start to feel like there is some legit smoke to this fire. Am I saying he's going to UFC or Bellator or MMA? No, but I don't think it's as stupid of a story or story not worth discussing anymore. I think that there's something there. Is it all negotiation?

We'll find out, but there's definitely something there. I am not interested at all in the story in terms of the drama of it. I don't really care if he's in the UFC or care if he's in WWE. But what interests me the most about it is the psychology and the motivation of Brock Lesnar as a human, as a person, whether he's a wrestler or a UFC fighter. whether the money and the scheduled dates or whatever it may be, whether that is the only attraction to WWE for him, and he would much rather be actually fighting, you know, in terms of being a competitive person,

or whether he actually enjoys, you know, wrestling and doesn't want to be in the UC, that part of it is what's interesting to me. I don't really care one way or the other. Brock Lesnar was not one of the guys who made me go, oh, I love watching Brock Lesnar for. thing. Everyone wanted to watch Brock. I won't miss it. I won't miss it. But he's, as an MMA fan, I know that that was not the hot.

You won't get an argument from me. I'm sure he's the best draw and all that, but he's not one of the guys who I said, I have to sit down and watch Brock Lesnar on Saturday night. I will, but I'd much prefer to see somebody who is a complete package and, you know, yada yada. But I think that the psychology of Brock Lesnar is endlessly interesting. Yeah. I mean, this is a guy who moved to, you know, the woods and Saskatchewan, who I think, you know, has no one around him for miles. He's a very interesting guy. It's going to be a great story to follow. And the good news is, I mean, it's end of November, contracts up in April. I'm sure there'll be some negotiations afterwards, but who knows,

maybe we'll get an answer soon rather than later. Huge coup for Bellator, if they could get him, huge for the UFC, perhaps even bigger for the UFC in the sense that I think they really need Brock back in the mix. Does he do it? We'll find out. But it's no longer a waste of time, in my opinion. It's a story very much worth following. Cool. All right. That does it for us. A great show.

Went a little overtime here, so we hope you appreciate that very much. And I had a blast doing it. Really cool to have Russell Peters on the show and some great interviews. Matt Wyman was really a lot of fun to talk to, and Ben Rothwell, I apologize for a bit of the technical difficulties as far as his phone is concerned, but really interesting stuff from him regarding the TRT and where he goes. goes from here following Alistair Overeign. Wait. Before we go, let me just say, I had the time on my life at Meta Morris.

Oh, yes. Let me just recap quickly. Okay. Actually, I'll just say this. Great. There's no better live event than Meta Morris, whether you know, you like the draws or not. That's a separate conversation altogether. Going there and experiencing it with the drum beats live in person, just the crowd.

It's incredible. I highly recommend it for anybody. And also, I got to interview Sakaraba. Oh, yes. interview Henzo Gracie and interview Rory MacDonald, which was incredible. And you're wearing their shirt. I'm wearing the Sakarabah shirt.

Shout out to Scott Harano. Is he a cool guy? What's he like? Sakaraba? Yeah. He is one of the more interesting dudes I've ever seen in my life. Just a fascinating fellow, right? Like his mannerisms, his demeanor.

He has an aura about him. Much like Henzo Gracie. It's funny. A lot of guys, I feel like they don't have that aura. I feel like I would feel that way about Sakarabha. Oh, yeah. Completely. BJ has that aura, too.

Yeah. I've never, have I met? I went to BJ's book signing. Right after, man, I don't think I've ever told this story, but right after BJ Penn lost to Frankie Eggger the first time. Oh yeah, he was here for a book signing. He went and did a book signing, and I went to the one out in, I believe it was Huntington, Long Island,

and got a book signed by BJ Penn. Did you say anything to him? Did you cry in his shoulder? I didn't cry, but I did say that when you get that rematch, you're going to beat him. And you were wrong. I was completely wrong. Twice.

And look at you now, canoodling with the likes of Sakuraba and Hensel Gracie and Russell Peters. Yeah. You've really done it. I made it. Well done. Hi, Mom. And Dad.

Alex, you can hit my music. So guess what? It's Thanksgiving week here in the United States, and I think it was smart that most promotions are staying away from it. The UFC had a show in Las Vegas last year. Remember the tough finale. That was the Saturday after. I can't believe it's been.

a year since then. Holy moly. That whole interview thing with Misha Tate and Ronda Rousey. Remember that? That was a year ago. Wow. Time is really flying. Anyhow, no real big MMA fights this weekend. None of the major promotions, but they are back next weekend.

Invicta's back. RFA, UFC, and then December, January, super busy for the UFC. So enjoy the time off. No time off for us. There's no MMA beat this week, but the news never stopped, so I'm sure there'll be a lot to discuss. Really fun show. I want to thank everyone who tuned in. I want to thank everyone who joined us as guests. Thank you very much to

Matt Wyman. Congratulations to him on his big win and his return to the UFC Octagon. Thank you very much to Tyron Woodley. Good luck to him and all the residents of Ferguson. And good luck against Kelvin Gasselm as well. Congratulations to Will Brooks on becoming the Beltaur lightweight champion. Thank you very much to Ben Rothwell for stopping by. Good luck to him in his next fight and as he heals up a little bit. Thank you very much to Gary Cook. Congrats on the new gig as well.

And thank you very much to the one and only Russell Peters. Check them out at Russell peters.com. Touring all over the world. Amazing stuff, career highlight for me. Thanks to all of you. Happy Thanksgiving and you for celebrating iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher. All I go to have a day. Support for this show comes from Chase.

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