MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 265

Episode Date: January 21, 2015

Featuring Fabricio Werdum, Kimbo Slice, T.J. Dillashaw, Paige VanZant, Scott Coker, Joseph Duffy, and Peter Carroll. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Halwani here on a special Tuesday edition of the show. We were off yesterday, celebrating, commemorating the life of the great Dr. Martin Luther King. It's a very important holiday for Will, a member of our team. He refuses to work on that date, so we decided to do the show on Tuesday this week. Of course, I was also traveling back from Boston. I was there for UFC Fight Night 59. Connor McGregor defeating Dennis Siever.

In fact, I had one hour of sleep on Sunday evening. It was more like Monday morning. Got back to my room around 3 o'clock, left for the airport at 4.45. It was pretty brutal. In fact, I also decided because I was so sleep deprived that I was going to have a... a cronut for the first time, a croissant donut. I never eat donuts, but I thought I would live it up a little bit. It was not bad. It was all right.

Still feeling a little sleep deprived today, but very excited to do this show. Connor McGregor defeated Dennis Siever on Sunday night. What a scene it was. Packed house, TD Garden in Boston, and at the same time, the Patriots were annihilating the Colts, but you wouldn't have known it. still packed house from the get-go, and all indications, at least right now, seem to be that the ratings were fantastic. They could, in fact, break the UFC on Fox Sports 1 record,

which was set on the network's first night way back when August of 2013, Chil Sanan and Shogunhuah, remember that, August 17, 2013. That was also in Boston, so Boston seems to be good for the UFC on Fox Sports 1. but Connem McGregor now getting that title shot. And how about that scene afterwards? We are going to see the clip of Conner McGregor darting out of the cage confronting Jose Aldo, was Jose just smiling at him, looking down on him, this joker of sorts. We are going to see that until the UFC is no more.

That clip will be a part of this sport until the end of time. An amazing moment in Boston, and I can't wait for the next three, four, five months until that fight actually happens. It's going to be a lot of fun. A lot of fun to break down. Everything McGregor-Aldo-related will be doing that on this show and talking about a whole lot more. Of course, tomorrow I'm going to Sweden. Stockholm, first time. UFC on Fox 14, Alexander Gustafsson versus Rumble Johnson, I'm told.

As of right now, approximately 25,000 tickets sold, which already makes it the second biggest event in UFC history. also makes it the biggest event in European UFC history. So it's a very big deal. It's at the Teletu Arena in Stockholm. And the main card going to take place at around 2 a.m. local time, wrapping up at around 4. Post-fight show will be done by 5. Pretty crazy stuff.

I'm looking forward to it. So what are we talking about on today's show? We got a lot to talk about. At around 325, we are going to go. and answer your questions and comments. So hit us up. As always, the MMA hour or leave a question or comment on our comments section below.

And we've got a lot. I mean, it's not just Aldo Mania. Or excuse me, McGregor Mania, I should say. There's a lot to discuss. A lot has happened in the last week. Remember last week we had Hendricks and Matt Brown on the show back to back, and then we come to find out 24 hours later

that they'll be fighting each other at UFC 185. Hendricks not getting the title shot. So so much to discuss, and we'll get to all that later on in the show. 305, we're going inside the vault. This is a fun one, a really fun one to look back at. It's from almost seven years ago, and it's also very timely as we get ready for the UFC's return to Sweden. At 245, we are going to talk to Bellator President Scott Coker. Of course, it was announced on Friday, first reported by Combat Press.com, that they had signed,

Bellator, of course, that they had signed Kimbo Slice. Kimbo Slice back debuting later this year. How about that? Kimbo Slice coming back to Spike TV, where he was such a big hit on the Ultimate Fighter season 10. So we'll talk to Scott about that and a whole lot more. 225, we're going to talk to the UFC interim heavyweight champion for Bricio Verdum. What's going on with his fight against Kane Velazquez? When are we going to see that?

We'll take place in Mexico, all that good stuff, and a whole lot more. 205, we will talk to UFC. strawweight sensation, Paige Van Zent, taking the MMA world by storm mainstream world, as well as she was here in the New York area late last week promoting her fight against Felice Harry. And by the way, where did you hear about that one first? Remember, my friends, there are no coincidences on the MMA are, right? Remember when Felice was on the show, Serendipity? That was my guess.

You knew better, I would hope. They're fighting UFC on Fox 15, April the 18th in Newark, New Jersey. We're going to talk to Joseph Duffy, the last man to defeat Connor McGregor, way back when. Connor had a good response when I asked him about that at the post-fight press conference. He has signed with the UFC. He'll be making his debut, UFC 185 against Wagner Hoshaw. We'll talk to him about that 145. 125.

We're going to talk to T.J. Dillishaw first reported on UFC tonight last week that he will be fighting Hennon Burrow. I'm calling it Dillishaw Barow 2.5. They're supposed to fight again at 17. didn't happen. Now they're fighting in Montreal of all places. UFC 186, April 25th. Can't wait to go back home. It's been a long time. We'll talk to TJ about that. But first, let's go to the Skype Machine and welcome in. One of the very best journalists coming out of England. Man, I had the pleasure of hanging out with briefly over in Boston this past weekend. He is back in his home country of Ireland. His name is Peter Carroll. He writes for outlets like severe mMA.com, which I am a huge fan of. Also, White Land and the Irish mirror. Is that correct? Did I get all of them? That's correct, but I'm not coming out of England, Ariel. I'm from Ireland. Did I say England? You did. You did. I'm not going to like you.

I'm sorry. I was thinking of Joe Duffy, who is Irish, but living in England now, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. Well, look at you. Coming on the show first time and already correcting me. The chutzpah, the chutzpah you got. I appreciate the time very much. It was great to see you in Ireland. in Ireland, in Boston, rough start. Were you in Boston the first time Connor fought in August of 2013? No, I wasn't there. Graham and Andrew from, Andrew McGahn from Siberia, I went over that time, I didn't get to go.

I was over for his debut. I was over for Davey in Stockholm, but I wasn't actually in Boston the first time. So what's it like for a young Irish reporter to be in Boston, see all the flags, see the reception, hear the chance, see a guy that you've been watching for so many years on the local scene, selling out a huge arena like the TD Garden. Is it surreal for you as well? Because you've been along this journey as well.

Yeah, it's absolutely crazy. You know, it was really kind of hit home. I went to see the Boston Celtics, as I was telling you, I was going to go on a Friday. And we're in the TD Garden on the way up. You could hear it there's only one. Conrad McGrathlether. TD Garden for Boston Celtics, you know what I mean? Thank you, Chicago Bulls.

I couldn't believe it. you know. It was only a small there was about 20 people but still, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It had a big elevation around the whole city

and it's an amazing city though. I really preferred it to the Las Vegas experience with a party fight. Like, it was really cool. So when was the first time that you heard

of Connor McGregor saw him fight? What's your first memory of the guy? Oh, yeah, actually I first saw him like in 2010 Caged, so I think Patti Hillen

was headlined in the card in the little GAA hall. And my brother was training in an SPG and I saw this guy ball guy. He had all like designer clothes on G-star

jeezed. And he was wearing a little kind of farmer's cap. And he was raw and he was the loudest person in the room. I said, but who's that? Cohn Mcgregor. You know, he's like, oh, that guy, like, you know, that guy seems intense, you know? And then he... I think he fought Duffy then later on, but I didn't go.

He was in cork. I didn't have a car. I had no way to go down. And I heard he'd lost the fight. And then I saw him against Mike Wood was the first time I saw him. 16 seconds. He put Michael Wood away, and that was incredible. I knew straight away, like, this guy is something special. He's just an energy about him. He still has it, you know? It's an intense aura around Connor Gregor when you're around. So you say that you knew after that fight that he was going to be something special,

but did you think it would be this kind of special, like that he would be, you know, breaking records in the UFC? Like, I could see coming a lot forward down the line as well. Like, at the time we go like Owen Roddy in the country, who are really at the top, and he was the top fairweight in the country at the time. You know what I mean? So it was kind of hard to see anyone in there before our own at that stage.

But, you know, Connor was just so devastating every time he saw him, you know, he was, his left hand was just so dangerous. And I mean, that's what makes a kind of incredible seeing him this weekend when you see such a dynamic striking game. Like, you know, and really we only saw him

kicking for the first time two years ago when he fought Bushing her. And now he's outstriking a black belt in Taekwondo in King. kicking, you know, basically his whole offense there was kicking, mixing up with some straight shots. Unbelievable. I saw on your Twitter.

It's Twitter.com slash peatcy Carroll. By the way, why do they call you Petey? Is that like a thing that they do in Ireland? I don't, like, there's not many of them. I know not going down with it. But that's what everyone calls me since I'm like a kid. Like, I don't know. It sounds very Irish.

I like it. It's kind of like Patsy or something. Yeah, a lot of people take my name as Patsy. It's not, though. There's a very famous pizzeria here in New York called Patsies. But anyway, you mentioned that that was his most impressive performance, at least in your opinion. Why do you think that was the win over Dennis Siever? It was just so dominant.

He was gliding across the octagon that night. He didn't look in trouble for one second. He looked so calm as we kind of had a bit of a round table ourselves there in the airport. Just among Chris Fields was there, Tommy Martin, another SBG guy. John Redmond's another professional fighter from Team Rino in Ireland and Andrew McGahn who were all sitting down and it was like an Arctum Loboff was there and we were talking about

you know he looked so calm as if it was an early aspiring session you know he was picking these shots and the mix of shots he was strong like jumping switch knees you know this is insane jumping switch knees wheel kicks and back kicks front leg side kicks upper cuts lunging uppercuts

overhand, you know, it was, it's really, really a dynamic performance. And it just, it shows it the obsession that we all know that he has with the sport. It's pretty, it's pretty special to see it out there when it comes together. He said that he was going to win in two minutes. His coach, John Kavanaugh said around 60 seconds, are people disappointed? Like, are there people who maybe don't watch this all that often and say to you, well, he didn't do it in two minutes? I mean, the guy's not that good.

It took him a round and a half. Obviously, we know that it's very impressive to do that to Dennis Siever, but when you hear from casual fans, is he almost setting himself up for failure when he comes out with these outlandish predictions? No. Uh-oh. Ptzee dim, there is.

There you are. There you are. We missed your first, the first part of your answer there. Looks like our Skype is crapping out. Or maybe it's the Skype in Ireland. Oh, there he is. Okay.

Are you going to hear it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If it freezes up again, we'll reconnect. Okay. No, I think people noticed the dominance of that there. Like, you know, everybody kind of realized that Dennis Severe had a very hard time. You know, I think the right was all on the wall at the end of the first round. At the end, like, the force, you know, really, he wasn't out of control for that whole fight.

He looks spectacular, you know. I think it was a lot more dominant than even the Parier display, even though Parier was put away earlier. I think seven or a half minutes it was against Seber was far more dominant. It was funny hearing him talk before the fight about, kind of being disappointed in the Brandao and Porre fights because he wanted to get comfortable in there show off. And you almost got the feeling towards the end of the first round that he could maybe finish Siva earlier, but he wanted to be a little more comfortable and let the fight extend a little longer. Then afterwards, of course, amazing moment, like I said at the top,

I think it will be replayed forever and ever as far as the UFC is concerned. You can see the moment that he notices Jose Aldo in the front row. He darts out of the cage, confronts him, he's yelling at him, and Jose is playing it off perfectly, in my opinion, smiling at him, laughing at him, while Conner's family and friends are all around, what did you make of that moment? Did you love it as much as I did?

Oh, it was brilliant. That was a McGregor moment, wasn't it? You know, it was like, welcome to my world. This is going to be your world until we fight, Aldo. That's what I think it was funny. He was just laughing back, you know? He doesn't seem worried at all. You know, Aldo doesn't.

But, yeah, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I can't wait for the build up to this for you. Imagine that Conner's been this court so far, whatever happened. A belt at stake, you only imagine it would get fairly elevated levels of McGregor now in the next few months. You call it a McGregor moment, but in my opinion, it was just as much of a Aldo moment as well because of the way he dealt with the whole weekend, really.

I mean, he dealt with that like a true champion, all class, never brought himself down to his level, treated him like the Joker that he thinks he is. It was as special for his reaction as it was, in my opinion, what Connor did. Do you agree? Oh, absolutely. I saw a picture. I'm not too sure who took it, but a fantastic image of the big smile on Aldo's face and the intensity on Conner's down, you know, melt wide open. And yeah, absolutely.

And to be honest, that's the first time I've been around Jose Alito this weekend. And he's another guy who has a very individual energy to him when you're kind of around him, doesn't he? He's kind of got that stoic kind of grandiose. I don't know what it is. You know, you know you're in the presence of a champion when you're around Jose Aldo, I suppose. Absolutely. He does have that oar, and he's really grown into it. Are people in Ireland disappointed?

It appears as though the fight isn't going to happen, Croke Park, Ireland, wherever it may be, but it's not happening there. It looks like it's going to Vegas. Did you guys think it was going to happen? Or in the back of your mind, did you know this was just a pipe dream? Well, it seemed absolutely ridiculous at the start. It can't happen. Then Gary Cook at that interview in the Sunday World saying, you know, they're actively pursuing it. That blew all the doors open.

Everything I thought, I just chewed away, oh, we're going to, it's going to be a crowback. Because, like, you know, it's ridiculous for a guy like me, who's used to seeing these guys fighting GAA halls, little smaller GAALs or community halls, to think of it, a 90,000 see our venue, you know? You're nearly willing it to happen, but obviously, like, everything that was standing in the way, you know, they couldn't do anything about it.

But now, Sean Sheehan, Severemai.com, he's after putting out a, he retweeted an article from Hogan stand, which is GAA's kind of a fan site. And they're saying that they hope that Conner's forced total defense will be in Brokback. I don't know. So it's a foregone conclusion that he's beating Aldo, right? Yeah, exactly. This is what they say is right away.

But, like, you know, this is people finding their footing with this sport. You know, GGA would have, they have no idea really what was going on with MMA. But you can be rest assured that they want to get that big event in their venue, you know? How big of a deal is Connor now? Some people tell me most famous person in Ireland. some say the most famous athlete. In your opinion, how popular is he right now? Well, like, the thing about Connor is he has a cultural resonance

that we haven't seen with an athlete before. You know, there's guys, you walk through Dublin now. You'll see guys with the beards, the three-piece suits going to work. You know what I mean? It's insane. Like, it's crazy, you know? And he's just, everything he says is a quote. People react to him.

It doesn't matter if they like them or if he doesn't like him. He does want some to watch. It doesn't matter, you know. And once he gets their eyes, then he sees it, then he can showcase what he's really about, which is the fight, you know. And he's, you know, he really is.

He's huge. There's no two ways about it, you know. It might seem crazy to you, the idea of a 90,000 seat in Ireland, but, you know, there's no doubt in my mind that they could. They could sell that out if he was to headline it, you know? And I don't know how they'll make it happen in the future.

I really don't. With the curfew that's in place, you know, I think Bruce Springsteen got a big fine for playing a gig once, you know, past his half-eleven threshold. But, you know, I think you could certainly settle out if it came to beat. But, I mean, of course, he has to stay on beat. He has to keep this thing about him here. And, you know, that then comes in the arguments about UFC.

Have they been patting him, blah, blah, blah, on the way to the title? Well, you know, I think that argument is no more now that he's fighting Jose. If he beats Jose, there's nowhere to run or hide anymore. You have to book him against the, Mendezes and the Edgars and all those guys. Can you explain this curfew to me? What is the story behind this?

Why is there a curfew? The curfew is the residence. You see, it's in there from Condra and there's lots of houses around the venue, Crow Park. A lot of them, like city or townhouses. Okay. And basically, there's a residence association there.

And the residents association, they've kind of been back and forth with Crow Park over a long time. And you can only host a small amount of, say, non-sparting events a year. Okay. In Crow Park Facility concerts and they have to finish by a certain time as not disrupt the residents.

So it's and you see there's a sporting event, say like the championship GA and stuff, that would be played every year and Saturday and Sunday in September and so August, September. But that can't affect it. It doesn't last that long, you know what I mean? It'd be over at like 6 o'clock in the evening, so it doesn't matter. So now with UFC coming over, they're going to want to put it on later. so we'll cater for the North American audience. Sure.

So, I mean, that's completely. That's a loan to through it straight away, really. Is Connor big enough to change this law, or no one's big enough? I suppose we're going to see, you know. I don't know. You know, the GA, you know, they looked on money too, you know. So we're going to have to see what happens. And what's the GAA?

What does that stand for? Get athletic association. So it's like horrible football and stuff, you know? Gotcha. So they, yeah. yet. Do you think part of his appeal is that, you know, let's be honest, you know, Irish fans, kids growing up, it's not often that someone breaks through and becomes, you know, a worldwide star.

I mean, you have your stars, you have your local stars, if you want to call it. People like Robbie Keene. I know who these people are. But it's very rare as far as North American sports are concerned. You know, you don't have anyone in the NFL or the NBA, a major league baseball. you have someone now coming to North America and representing you guys on the biggest stage possible. Is that why? Like, he gives everyone hope when very few have been able to do that, you know, transfer from

Europe and Ireland in particular and come here to North America. Is that why people love him so much as opposed to just, you know, his skill and what he says, it's more about what he represents? Yeah, I said this for a long time, you know, when Connor came, like, you know, his debut in Stockholm. You know, there's a kind of our age group, like the generation that maybe went to college and came out. We had nothing, you know, when we came out, there was a big recession on the country. And, you know, we were like, Connor, we're all in the dole and stuff. And I think a big part of what Connor is for Ireland is he is the guy that's fought true and made his own,

you know, made his own living out of something he had passion for. He never gave up on himself. And he sat in that four-step post-foyed press conference and he said it, you know, I'm going to have to ring the doll, which is like a social welfare and tell them that I got a job. You know, that is literally how he was living at that time. You know, and even, I went over to cover that fight, I had no more. And that was it, you know what I mean? And a lot of people were in that same, but a lot of people went over to see him as friends as well, you know, and that's what he, that's what he is.

Like, you know, he's very inflammatory as well. Like, you know, he either love what he says, he hate it, you know, and that helps as well. that helps as far as it just constantly creates the conversation. The conversation is always going. Where do you like and where you hate him? You're talking about him, you know? Not a pot to piss in, right? That's it.

None of it was not a pot to piss. That's right. What do you think? Honestly, I'm putting you on the spot. Can he beat Jose Aldo in your opinion? Yeah. I think he's a good. Brilliant match up from.

Why? Especially just the striking game. Like, you know, when you look at, obviously, see when Chad Mendes is for you and Alow, the whole thing of Chad's probably his stroke and is because his wrestling is so good, he has that freedom, you know? But you can't say that

who do you get in to replicate Conan McGregor when you're trying from? Who's going to be able to do that? Look at the way he was navigating Siever around the ring during the. He was putting them where he wanted to put him, and then he was hitting him. You know, it was I don't think Alos ever fought someone like that.

Now, when saying that, you know, Conner's never fought someone like Alu either. was one the greatest ever. One of the greatest ever. It's a crack and fight and a lot of people will talk about the leg kicks.

You know, Siever had a bit of success with leg kicks. I think Parier did as well and Aldo's obviously the best in the world at leg kicks. So I mean,

it's just such an intriguing matchup, but I mean, how could you completely rule Conner McGregor out of this one? You couldn't. There's no way.

I've always thought because of his stroke and because of the angles that he puts on his punches and stuff that you just don't usually see from that amateur boxing background here. I think, yeah, I think it's a brilliant matchup,

and I think, yeah, he has a chance to win, definitely. By the way, are you drinking Guinness right now? No, sorry, he's just the water. Oh, okay. I was like, man, that would be awesome if our Irish guest is actually drinking Guinness in the middle of this interview. Before we go, we're running out of time, and again, putting you on the spot,

I don't want you to be banished from your country, but Carl Pendred, did he deserve to win that fight? As I said to you on the day, I watched it against and they came on. But when I was in the arena, I had a 29-28 going either way. I thought it all came down to the second round. The tour round was so uneventful. Carl got the takedown. And I thought, right, that's secured that round.

First round, obviously Spencer rocked him with the big right hand and sent him down. But like, then you have the second round, right? So if you've given the first round to Spencer because he looked the most likely to finish. Yeah. In the second round, Carl looks the most likely to finish because at the end, he has a double. submission on me. What Patty Hulins told me is called the James Bond is his leg, says, he demonstrated it to me as well and showed me how it work would you believe

after the book. Wow. Yeah, and then he had a Camara on as well. So, you know what I mean? That was the closest part of it. Like, he didn't get wobbled in the second round the way he did in the forest. There was obviously a huge disparity in the striking sections. But I can see an argument there for both.

A lot of people were getting onto me and saying it was a robbery. I didn't think it was a robbery. I honestly did, but I didn't think it was 2027 and an holly. I think that was, I think that was the big thing that, you know, the people are getting upset about. And, you know, I don't think it was a robbery, though. I don't think it was a robbery, though. I don't think it was a robbery. And then the fun continues for you guys this weekend. Two more Irishmen fighting.

You've got Neil Siri competing against Chris Beale. And then I know a lot of you are very excited about this. Paul Redman making his UFC debut on very short notice against Miroside Becht. I mean, do you think that Redmond, I've heard from a lot of people, the weight cut is going to be a very big deal for him. Do you think that he can pull this off? Yeah, the weight cut, like, you know, obviously we broke that news on Severeamay.com, and, you know, Paul was very honestly said, you know, this has come, you know, he has two weeks, so there was quite a significant amount of weight. And that is going to be the big challenge for him. You know, he's a brilliant, like, he's a very exciting for it.

He really is, you know. he leaves everything open like so you want to in the scramble he's one of the best of seen one of the best of seen in the scramble and obviously I've only seen Mirzad's first fight in the UFC but that was somewhere where he could be exploited but he looks like

an incredibly strong fighter as well you know he's a win our Chaz Kelly Chaz Kelly's a brilliant fighter so I'm certainly looking forward to that one and be great to see Paul in there you know he's going to give us so many interesting points and the toehold have you have you seen his toe holds I have yeah you know it's funny when I was in Dublin for the first time in

July. So many people came up to me and said, Paul is the next guy. Paul's the guy we're most excited about. He's the guy who's on the cusp of reaching the UFC. I wish it wasn't under these circumstances, though, because it seems like, you know, he's going to have to bat a lot to get to the fight, but hopefully he'll be close to 100% in the fight. Yeah, well, all these team roano guys, you know, like, Siri as well, they just love for it. They absolutely love. And, you know, I can't wait for any other series for you as well. Chris Bale. I think this could be a brilliant one for him to showcase just how good them hands are. You know, obviously we've seen. against picket,

Pickett, went for the tight down on Neil, and then Harris, Harris was beating from Bell to Bell really there in Dublin, so Beal's a power puncher,

you know what I mean? And they're flying knee knockouts, you know, he's, and he kind of has that story where he only uses wrestling to kind of keep the feet on the,

keep the fight standing. So I think that's going to be a brilliant fight. I'm just upset that it's so far down the cart. Yeah. Which is like, it's opening the whole thing.

And I think Neil, Neil deserves a few more eyes on him, you know, he's so exciting, you know? Look at you Irishman getting greedy. Take what you can get. Two years ago, you couldn't get one of your guys on a car. Now you're getting greedy about the placement.

You're doing a fantastic job. Keep it up. Both you and the rest of the team over there at Severe MMA. The Irish have been growing and evolving and really taking the MMA world by storm, but the Irish journalist as well. I really mean that you guys are doing a lot of great work. So keep it up. Great to see you this weekend.

And we'll see you very soon. Thanks a lot for coming on the show. Thank you very much. All right, there he is. Peter Carroll, Pizzi, joining us from. Ireland to talk about Connor McGregor and of course all the Irishmen of course as I said

Calp Hendred won a controversial one I had a 2928 for Mr. Sean Spencer and now he is campaigning for an immediate rematch in Dallas that would be UFC 185 who knows if you'll get it but Patty Houlehan had a nice showing

and I appreciate everyone sending over their nice comments about our little spot of tea video. We went to the Boston Tea Party ships a museum Friday morning, and they couldn't have been nicer. Wow, did they roll out the red carpet for us? And you really haven't met a person in your life who is more passionate about tea than this man. The guy can tell you anything about tea. It's amazing. He brought 80 bags of tea with him to Boston from Ireland, and he arrived on Sunday. By Thursday, he had run out of all his tea. 80 bags. Now, he admitted that he gave some out here and there, but 80 bags of tea. done, what, five days later? His friends, who came later on in the week, brought him a nice refill,

but Patty Houlehan had a nice performance, almost got the rear naked choke, credit to his opponent, Chain Howell, for fighting that off, and then eventually won via decision. I know he was a little disappointed about that, but it was a pretty dominant performance. So they go 3-0, despite the controversy,

and now they've got another two on Saturday night in Sweden. All right, let's move along now. As I said late last week, it was confirmed by the UFC that UFC 186 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada will be headline by Hennem Barow versus T.J. Dillishaw number two. I'm calling it 2.5, like I said, because they were supposed to fight in August. So I wanted to have the champion on to discuss this matchup. April the 25th, there he is.

T.J. Dillishaw himself. T.J., how are you? I'm doing good, man. Thanks for having me on again. It is a pleasure, as always. So you're coming to my hometown. Montreal, have you ever been there before? I have. I fought I see tomorrow. Of course. That's right. When you were, it is a great city and I'm an idiot for not remembering that.

You're headlining though, a Californian and a Brazilian headlining in Canada. Did you have any reservations? Were you surprised when you got the news the fight was taking place in Canada, northeast French Canada of all places? I wasn't surprised. I mean, Canada is a huge surprise. quarter of MMA. Every time I've gone up there, I've gotten great respect by them. And they just, they soak up in M.A. They love it up there. I don't know if it's because of hockey and all the fighting up there. And they're just a huge fan. I get in Canada.

Are you still there? Okay, there you are. It was freezing on us a little bit. What was your reaction? You know, it was such a weird thing because after your fight and even after Brow's fight, we thought it was, I mean, most of us thought right then and there was going to be Dominic Cruz next for you, after his performance at UFC 178. Devastating news he pulls out. And then moments later, Sunsau says that he's injured as well. So now we're back to Brow. What was your reaction when you had to come to terms

that it wasn't going to be Cruz? It wasn't going to be the rematch against Sunsale. It was going to be Barow again so soon. You know, I was super disappointed that Cruz was hurt. That's the fight I wanted. I feel like that's the fight the fans wanted. When I first got in this sport, he was the champion WC. So, you know, that was who I was looking forward to fighting.

Unfortunately, he is hurt. And I feel bad for him, you know, that's unfortunate. Not only for not getting the fight, but the fact that he's injured to get out for another year. As Sinsal, too, it's just kind of a crazy day. As soon as Cruz decided he was hurt, so did Sincal. So it was just really, really crazy to me, you know. And then I just knew that Browby Next Alliance, so I wasn't surprised by that matchup at all. Did you find out, like, the rest of us just via, you know, social media or, you know, the MMA news sites?

or did you get a heads up beforehand? I kind of had a heads up. You know, nothing was official, but I had a heads up that was probably what was going to happen. And then I found out it was official after it was on social media. And did you feel like they were going to go in a totally different direction? I mean, I've heard some rumors here and there about other matchups discussed, or did you feel after you were informed that both crews and a sense how were out,

that Barrow had to be the guy? Essentially, were you holding out hope that they'd go in a different direction because you've been linked to him for so long? Yeah, no. I mean, I feel like that's still a very marketable fight in the fact that how great of a champion he was, how great of a fighter he was the last decade, and that, you know, I feel like that that's still a big fight

that everyone wants to see. It didn't get to happen in Sacramento, so maybe there's even more build-up now. It does suck that my last three training camps have been training for him, and Borough, and getting ready for the same guy, but it's also a blessing as well. Well, you know, I don't have to think into too much of what my next opponent's going to do. I know what Brow is going to do, and I've already been training for the guy for a really long time,

so I just get to continue where I left off. And I get to come out and surprise him as well, show them things that I've added to my game. And that, you know, I'm going to – I plan on finishing him a whole lot faster. I did the first time I'm going to make a statement this fight and get this guy behind me and put him on the back burner. You know, I'm tired of hearing this guy's name. And, you know, I feel that I'm just – I'm just this kryptonite, and I'm going to demolish him this fight.

do you feel like he has done enough to deserve another crack at you? You know, he misses weight, pulls out the day of the wayans, and then he comes back against Mitch Gagnon. That wasn't one of his best performances. So do you feel like he's done enough to get this shot again? As the great GSP would say, I was not impressed with this performance. But, no, he didn't look good against Gagnon. Him missing weight was completely unprofessional.

I think he's too big for the weight class in general. but I do give him the title shot because of the fact what he's done in the past we were supposed to fight anyways so we might as well just make it happen and he's the guy that I'd rather just finish like I said if I'm gonna beat him

I might as well beat him now and get him out of the way especially when he doesn't look very good yeah do you feel like he is doing himself a disservice by fighting at 135 like he could be a lot better these days if he wasn't cutting so much weight yeah I think he's too slow for the weight class you know I'm going to prove that again

he's you feel like a step behind I feel like Gagnon could have won the fight if he wouldn't have gassed himself out. Gagnon looked faster than him. And I feel like it's just going to take a toll on him for how much weight he's cutting. And then, you know, how long is camps going to have to be for cutting weight. And, you know, for me, I don't have to start cut weight until a week out. You know, I don't have to start watching my weight seriously until I get to Montreal. Other than that, it's just maintaining and eating the right ways.

Like, how much do you weigh right now? I'm a little bigger. I probably weigh 155. at the most. But this isn't normal for you? This is a little bigger than usual? I guess a little bit. I've been in between 55 and 160.

I was doing nothing with strength conditioning the last couple months when I was out with my elbow surgery. So I put on a little more size, which that was the plan. I've been trying to put on a couple pounds of muscles so that I could, you know, just kind of, I think, feel a little bit bigger for the weight class. You know, I'm fast for the weight class and I've got all the technique, I believe. I feel like the one thing I could have added on the offseason was putting on some size and strength. and I did so with my strength conditioning coach. Can you explain exactly what happened with the elbow?

And is it true that it was all because of what happened in the Joe Soto fight? That's where you injured it. No, it's been bothering me my last three fights with getting ready from the fight. It's not only just from the fights from the camp and just take an impact on my elbow from blocking kicks and using it on the pads. And I've just had a bad versus sack on my left elbow for a while. after my fights, it gets pretty swollen. It gets filled up with fluid.

But after the Joe Soto fight, it did get its biggest. It got really big on my elbow from elbowing him and some ground and pound. And after the fight, I got a drain just like I did after every other fight, but it kept coming back. It was more irritated than normal. And so I had to get a drain four different times, and it just wouldn't stay away. So I had to get my burst of sack removed from my elbow. Wow. And how is it now?

Yeah. It's 100%. I mean, it was a pretty minor surgery. The scar is pretty gnarly, but, you know, I was only out for, like, five weeks of, like, full goes for the most part. So it wasn't nothing too bad. It was just kind of, you know, making sure I don't come back too early and hurt it again. Can we see the scar? Yeah, I don't know.

It's probably like a good four-inch scar over across my lap. Oh, wow. You know, I didn't really, yeah, open me all the way up to get this burst of sack out. I thought it was going to be a little bit of an easy surgery. I'd be able to go back to hanging out the next day. but I was hurting afterwards for a good week. Now, as you know, the sexy fight for people like myself was you versus Faber,

especially after a cruise and a Sunsau announced their injuries, we were all thinking, whoa, this is an actual possibility. Be honest with me, did they ever approach you or your team, your manager, anyone about doing this fight? No? Oh, sorry, you were breaking up. You probably asked me if they approached me about fighting your eye. I was never approached by it.

You know, I knew that it was an idea and it was being talked about, not only by the media and Lorenzo and the matchmakers. I was told that they called Jariah asking him if he would, you know, take the fight. And, you know, it's just something that we're not really wanting to do right now. I don't feel like it's a situation where we have to do it. You know, I don't, I feel like I do have fights that I can't fight. I do have this since I was. I do have brow to rematch, you know.

I'm hoping Cruz gets healthy. You know, someone I don't want to have to fight my mentor. You know, your eye is the one that got me into sport. He's the one that talked me into fighting instead of going to grad school. So it would be a real tough thing for me to have to do to kick his ass. And that is the case, right? From what I hear, he even said, I think, on this show, that, you know, you hang with him, if not get the best of him when you guys trained.

So you do think you would kick his ass if you did fight, right? Well, you just got to believe in yourself. Sure, sure, sure. Even if I'm not going to say it, I'm still, I mean, even if I was getting my butt kicked in practice, I would still say that. That's just the mental athlete that I am and that I'm always going to believe in myself. Are you still snapping on people in practice?

Are you still getting all crazy? Or have you calmed down since becoming champion? You know, I've done a good job since Duane's been with me to control my aggression. You know, I still have times where, you know, I get a little frustrated that I'm not performing the way I want to sometimes in practice. And, you know, I let everyone kind of know it.

But I've done a good job of controlling that aggression and putting it in the right ways and just getting better at, control in every situation because I don't want that to ever happen to me in the octagon and to lose control and to be flustered. So, you know, it's actually a good thing that happens to me in practice so I can learn to deal with it. Is it weird that they asked him if he'd fight you, but they didn't ask you? Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I don't know. I guess they wanted to see his reactions first.

I couldn't tell you why they asked him first, but I thought it was a little weird that I didn't get a phone call as well. And if you would have been called, you would have said the same thing as him, I would imagine, correct? Yeah, I mean, we're on the same page. That's just a tough one, man. And if they're going to approach us with that, I feel like it's a tough situation to be in and that, I don't know. I don't know. We're going to have to see how it goes, you know, see how your eye keeps performing and who he keeps knocking off and we'll get there when we need to.

You know, for now my mind's on finishing brow and getting him behind me. you know, I'm actually pretty pumped to prove that I'm just that much better than the guy. You know, watching him his last fight, I just, you know, I'm just, I got so much for him that I haven't shown him already. Final thing on the favorite thing, have you guys ever sat down privately and just hashed us out to get on the same page so that when people like myself bother you about it, you're, you're kind of sending out the same message. If the UFC calls one as opposed to the other, you're saying the same thing,

have you ever had a private, you know, man-to-man conversation about this whole scenario? Oh, absolutely. me and your eye are really good friends. You're not just business partners in the gym, but friends as, you know, talking with any other friends on the street. You know, we talk about situations that we're going to be involved in. He actually told me when I first got in this sport that, you know, this could be a possibility.

He knew he saw my talents and that this could be a possibility that they'd want us to fight. And, you know, so we've been talking about it for a long time. When you found out about the Reebok deal as champion, but you just, you know, you became champion recently, does that give you extra motive? obviously you want to keep the belt for a million years, I know, but it's a totally different ball game now. I mean, champion makes more than the number one contender. Number one contender makes more than the sixth rank guy. Does that come into your mind yet, or are you still waiting to find

out more details about it like some others have told us? I still need to find out more details, but for me, I'm excited about it. You know, I plan on staying where I'm at for a long time, and it's nice to get paid the way you're fighting, you know, to get paid the way you're ranked and paid the way you're performing, not just based on your podcast. popularity and how much crap you can talk and, you know, how popular you are in social media. You're actually going to get paid for your performances and for holding under the belt and for being good at a sport. And so it gives me more incentive to want to hold on to it. I mean, obviously, if there wasn't enough already, but it just adds to it.

In January, we gave, actually, no, it was late December, we gave out our awards on this show. And I will be honest with you, it came down to you and Robbie Lawler. If Robbie Lawler would have lost at UFC 181, you were my fighter of the year. You were my upset of the year and all that stuff. Everyone knows that was a no contest. In fact, our guy in the back New York, Rick, gave you the fight of the year as well. But did I make a mistake by giving it to Lawler? Am I an idiot? I believe so, man. Yeah. Oh, well, it's tough, though, man. I'm a huge Lawler fan. He's done great with his career as well, you know, especially for what he's gone through and now all of a sudden being on top. So it is a great accomplishment for him, but for me, it took me one try.

You know, it took me one try to get that bell. I didn't have to lose and come back. And I feel like with my performances, I had two fifth round knockouts in the year. You know, I fell into my own. And, you know, I'm pushing for myself to be a fighter of the year. I feel I deserve it for the gains I've made and the step in competition I've done. And, you know, I mean, it is tough, though. It is a tough decision to go over Luller as well. So, I mean, I'm a big fan of the guy, like I said.

You make a very strong case. A couple of things, and then we'll let you go. You mentioned Bang Ludwig. What's the situation there? Because I saw some pictures. You were in Colorado with him training with some of the, other alpha male guys. Will he still be a part of your camp leading up to this one?

How much time are you going to spend in Colorado as opposed to Sacramento? Will he be in Sacramento? What's the dynamic there now? As of now, I'm going to continue to go out to Colorado here and there, just to continue to get better with some technique and to get back working with Dwayne until I get into my fight camp. I figure I won't start training super hard and anywhere from 10 to eight weeks out. And, you know, I have a plan on going back out there early February to get

another weekend at training with him. But when I'm in training camp, me and Dwayne are going to figure something out to where he's going to come out every week for my training. At least be out in Sacramento for four days out of the week. Okay. So he will be in your corner as well, right? Oh, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I'm assuming that's for the foreseeable future. Yeah, I mean, I don't plan on changing anything if it's not broken. You know, I mean, Duane's by far the best coach in the world in my mind. And even just going out to his gym and working with him for the week that I was last week. It's just kind of, you forget how good he is and how crazy is about it and just OCD about being the best in the world. And him being that way pushes me

to be even more just obsessive about my training. So Duane will be with me until I'm done fighting. And I believe this is the first time we have you on our show since you won the belt at 173. I could be wrong, but I'm just wondering, even if that's not the case, what's the biggest difference between this T. J. Dillishon, the one from Memorial Day weekend. Has anything changed in your life? I mean, being champion now, is there something that comes to mind? Wow, the belt brought this change. The belt just brought more attention.

I'm doing the exact same things I was doing before I got it, training the same ways, acting the same way. The only thing is different is just the attention I get now by fans and by the media. I've got a lot more obligations to make appearances and interviews and sign an autograph. So it's nice to see all the hard work finally pay off. Do you like it? Do you like all that extra stuff? Yeah, I like it. I don't mind it.

You know, I mean, the reason why we get paid is because of our fans, so I feel the need to give back to them as well. So I don't mind it at all. Last thing, it's a way class above, but it's very much in the news. Your good friend fought Aldo recently. How do you think Connor McGregor does against Aldo? What's your prediction there? I'm curious as champion. What do you think?

This would be probably the first time I'm rooting for Jose Aldo. You don't like Connor? I thought that I um he's a great fighter he's he's confident in the cage he's you know really really good it's just uh the antics to me i just i can't get it you know i'm just too professional for the way he acts you know i know it brings attention to the sport i know it builds up fights and it's uh it's just too w-wee for me man it's just too fake you know when he jumps the jumps the octagon and tries to get in all those face but grabs someone to hold him back at the same time it's just it's so fake man you think i'll do

finishes him? For me, I'm just going to be the real as I possibly can be. Do you think who finishes who? Do you think Aldo finishes him? I hope so, but I don't know, man. McGregor's stand-up and his movement is really, it's good, man. His confidence, and it's going to be a tough fight for Aldo,

but I'm rooting for Aldo. All right. TJ, good luck in the fight, good luck in training camp, looking forward to it very much. Dillashaw Barrow 2.5. Are you okay with me calling it 2.5? Absolutely, man. I mean, we should have been too and it's his fault that didn't make because i actually like the 2.5 it's good it gives me credit for taking a whole other fight camp now and i'm going to make him pay for it and uh i can't wait to show

everyone you know he talked a little bit crap after his fight so uh i'm going to give him an ass whoop it man i'm going to bring it to him it's going to be a lot faster for finished than the first time you know i'm not going to wait till the fifth round and put him away and uh i'm going to bring it to him looking forward to it and i'm sure the fans in my hometown of montreal will receive you very well best of luck we'll talk to you before that, I'm sure of it, and always appreciate you giving us a few minutes of your time here on the show. No problem. Thank you. All right, there he is. The UFC Bantamweight Champion, T.J. Dillishaw, stopping by April the 25th, Bell Center, Montreal, UFC 186, other fights that have been

made official for that card. Of course, Rory McDonald versus Hector Lombard, which is a very interesting fight at 170 pounds. Dana White telling me last week that it's pretty much going to come down to the winner of that fight or the winner of the Matt Brown Johnny Hendricks fight to determine who will be the number one contender. It's very much up in the air, which I'm sure Roy McDonald is thrilled about. But it's, you know, when you strip away all that stuff, I mean, it's a very interesting fight at 170. A fascinating fight for both men, and I'm looking forward to it. Also, Rampage Jackson versus Fabio Maldonado has been announced for that card. And Michael Bisping versus C.B. Dalloway, going off top of my head here.

Valerie Littourneau versus Jessica Rikosi, both dropping down to 115 pounds. So coming together nicely. I think there was another one that was announced recently. We could talk about that later. But that is April 25th in Montreal, the UFC back in Montreal, since that Diaz-GSP card that Mr. Dillishaw was on way back when. Nowhere near the main event back then, but the times they have changed. All right. Let us move along now.

We've been talking about Connor, all show long. We've been talking about them for quite some time. And I brought this up in the Post-Fight press conference. In fact, it was the very last question asked on Sunday night. Recently, the UFC announced that they had signed a man by the name of Joseph Duffy. November of 2010, Cage Warriors 39, Joseph Duffy defeated Connor McGregor in just 38 seconds. Armed Triangle Choke, you can see it on YouTube, thousands of views, and Every time someone talks about Joseph Duffy, they mention that he is the last man to defeat

Connor McGregor. Yesterday was announced, UFC 186, excuse me, 185, he will make his Octagon debut against Wagner, Hosha, in Dallas, Texas, March 14, so we wanted to have Joseph on the show to talk about coming to the UFC, Connor McGregor, all that good stuff and more. He joins us right now via the phone. He is in London, England. Joseph, are you there? I'm here.

Great to have you on the show. By the way, you're nicknamed Irish Joe Duffy, but you're in England. What's up with that? Why? Yeah, I was born in Ireland, Ariel, and when I was a youngster, we moved over the Wales. And I think it was about three years ago now. I moved up to London and I've been here ever since. And it was announced recently, in addition to your debut in the UFC coming up in essentially less than two months

time that you're going to be training at TriStar Gym in Montreal. Is that accurate? Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I'm making the move over now on the 7th February. So most of my cams is going to take place over there in

TriStar. Now, will this be your first time training with the team in Montreal? Yeah, yeah. It's the first time away for for any of my camps, really. So it'll be a great experience. And why did you decide to make the move?

I think if you're going to be the best, you know, you need to be training with top-level athletes day and day out. And, you know, I think Montreal is somewhere. I think I'll fit in quite nicely. So, you know, I'm really, really excited about getting over and I'm getting started. You're 12 and 1 as a pro-MMA fighter, I believe 7 and no, correct, as a pro boxer, right?

That's true, yeah. So why switch things up, though? I mean, things have been going pretty well. Are you conceding the fact that it's a whole new ball game? You think that, you know, you need to change things. I mean, typically when guys make it to this point after having such a nice run, they may feel like, all right, I'm going to stick with what got me here. you're doing something very drastic. You're going to an entire new country, new team, all that stuff.

Why do that now? Well, I switch back to pro from pro boxing, let me see in April this year. So, you know, I've just started to get in the groove of things, really. But mainly, mainly I just want to be training with elite athletes. You know, that's already fighting in the UFC. and who's been there and done that, then, you know, I think it'll just bring me to a whole new level. Okay, so let's talk about all the stuff surrounding you, Connemn-Megger.

Everyone says, including myself, that's the way I phrased the question in the Post-Fypeer Press Conference, you're the last man. It's always all the articles. Last man to defeat Connemer Greger signs with UFC. Last man to defeat Conn-Magreger returns to M.A., fights in cage warriors. Do you have a problem with that?

You have a problem with that being your unofficial nickname? Obviously, it's not ideal. That's not how I would like to be known. You know, I'm excited to get started in the UFC and obviously pave my own way and fingers crossed. You know, I can put in good performances and people remember me from my future performances rather than, you know, the past ones.

I guess it's better than, you know, last man to lose to Connor McGregor or the guy who once lost to Connor McGregor. It's a feather in your cap, whether you like it or not, right? Yeah, yeah, without a doubt. Obviously, you know, every fight we take, you know, we're looking to win. And, you know, it just, it goes to prove the level that Connors gone to win, when, you know,

people make such a big deal about it, really. So, you know, it's a credit to, you know, to how well he's doing. When you watch him fight, when you see him succeed in the Octagon, does a part of you get a little happy every time he wins so dominantly because you continue to be the last man because it's part of who you are in your history. I mean, the better he looks,

the better you look as well, right? So are you rooting for him to go this far and win the belt and all that stuff? I wouldn't say for that reason. Yeah, obviously I'm rooting from, I think I think he can see it with all the Irish fighters. They all

seem to be, you know, sticking quite tied and supporting each other. And, you know, I think what better than to see an Irish world champion. You know, I think that's, it's great for the sport in Ireland and it's great for our country. And I think, you know, later on down the line, I think it'll bring through all the youngsters and fingers crossed, you know, we'll have a bright future in the sport. Did you have any idea he would turn out to be this good? when I fought him, you know, I knew he was good straight away.

I can't say I knew that he would get to this level and blow up so quick. And, you know, obviously, you know, to the point where he brings UFC to Ireland pretty much single-handedly. So, you know, I wouldn't say I've seen that he would be this big. But, you know, I knew after fighting him, they had the potential to go far. and I know that when you guys were gearing up for the fight, Wayans and all that, he was brash, he was trying to get on your skin, he's essentially maybe magnified a little bit, he's essentially the same guy.

Would you agree with that? Yeah, yeah. I would say he had that self-belief in him from day one, and, you know, he's obviously a showman. And I think, you know, I think that stayed with him, you know, throughout his career. I asked him, like I said, about you at the Post-Fyre Press conference. I want to play you the clip and have you respond to his answer, okay?

No problem. All right. Here is Connor McGregor talking on Sunday evening about the UFC signing our guest at this time, Joseph Duffy. It's certainly not the same guy that fought him many, many years ago. We fought in a different era. But again, are we talking paper-view numbers? Are we talking a fight that could say? Let's say Jose Pussies out and doesn't show up in Vegas.

Let's bring in the last man to be Connor McGregor. I mean, that sells as well. To be honest, I signed Joseph, yeah? I actually looked and thought, you know what? If someone pulls out, Joseph can slot in. But Joseph is a good guy. We fought many years ago. It was a different era.

But if that fight presents itself, you best believe I want that fight. So is that accurate, Joseph? Did Connor McGregor get you signed by the UFC? Not as far as I know. I was contacted by Joe Silver before my last fight on Cage Warriors and Graham Boyle from Intensity Fighter Management. He dealt with the whole thing. and obviously between him and Joe, they knocked up a deal.

So between 2011 and 2014, you took a break from MMA, as I mentioned, 7 and No is a pro boxer. Story well documented. You were told by one of your trainers that, given your hand speed, you can have a great career as a boxer, and it started off pretty well. When you say that you went 7 and 0, obviously it was successful. Why did you decide then to go back to MMA? I would say it was a mixture of things at the time I was struggling most 5'I, you know,

I was pretty much boxing one-handed. I was heart in my hands quite regular. And even in the training, I was really struggling. I spent a lot of time on the sidelines where I couldn't hit pads or sparr or nothing. So that was frustrating. And on top of that, obviously, seeing how well the Irish fighters were doing in MMA.

I think my eyes started to switch over and started to have them in doubts whether I made the right decision. So I think probably a mixture of both helped in the decision to make the switch back to MMA. So do you think that if there was no Connor McGregor, if these guys weren't doing as well, the Dublin show wasn't the hit that it was,

that you might still be boxing? Possibly. Possibly. I dared it to be honest because I never loved boxing the same way I loved MMA.

I just, I never found that I was as comfortable in it and I don't think you know, it would have been something I would have pursued anyway. I think down the line I would have got a little bit fed up.

So I think my heart was always in MMA and I think That was the main thing that drew me back to it. The general consensus seems to be that boxers make more money than MMA fighters. Was that the case with you as well? No, not at all. To start off, basically, I was, you know, to get my purse,

I would have to sell a certain amount of tickets. So, you know, I really was starting from scratch and building my way up. I think if you sign with the big promoters, maybe the deal, are different and everything, but where I was at, it was just, you know, it was just at the start-out level, really. Were people looking down on you, like, oh, you're the MMA fighter trying to hang with us, boxers? Did you feel like you really had to earn any kind of respect that you received? I think maybe in the first couple of fights, they were looking at me as an MMA fighter. But to be honest, everyone in the boxing circles were, you know, I think they were quite glad to have a fighter come.

over from from MMA rather than you know boxers switching switching to MMA I think it was almost like you know a one up on on the MMA kind of thing but you know

quite quickly that you know people accepted me and I suppose that's that kind of what made me stand out from the crowd is a part of you kicking yourself like do you feel like if you wanted to have made

that switch you'd be a lot more popular in the UFC you have a few fights under your belt, you could have fought on that Dublin card, who knows where you'll be? Like, do you feel like you wasted some time in your career, prime years of your life doing this boxing thing, which, you know, got you on this winning streak? But at the end of the day, you didn't obviously fulfill any dreams that you had because you went back to MMA. So do you feel like you wasted time doing that?

No, you know, not particularly. I've always had the attitude that I'd rather give something a goal, you know, and see it through and see see how it goes than, you know, not to try and always have them,

them doubts. And on top of that, you know, I learned a lot in the boxing and I find the transfers over to MMA quite well. So,

so I definitely, I don't regret it. You know, I would have liked to be able to keep my jiu jih Tzu and wrestling going at the same time, but, you know,

I think, I think it was a real positive. You made your MMA debut in 2008. Is a part of you a little shock to see all these Irishmen doing so well and taking the UFC by storm and they're talking stadiums and all that stuff?

Is it crazy for you to hear all of this? You know, it's unbelievable. A lot of the fighters, you know, who's doing well now, I've fought alongside on Cage Warriors. And, you know, they're all hard-working guys. And it's great. to see them, you know, reaping the rewards.

Never did, I think it would blow up to, you know, to a point where, you know, the UFC are considering, you know, fights in Crow Park. So, you know, I think it's, I think it's unbelievable achievement for all the fighters. You tried out for the ultimate fighter season 12, correct? That's right, yeah. Yeah, it didn't go your way. Obviously, you did not get into the house. How demoralizing was that for you to make the trip over, try out for the show?

It didn't go your way, as I said. Everything turned out well right now, but do you remember the feelings that, you know, were going through your body when you failed to make it on the house? How demoralizing was that? Yeah, you know, that was, I would say, one of the hardest times in my career, but I remember, well, I remember losing the fight and then flying back home the next day game. And then, you know, as soon as I got back, I got straight back in the gym and I was discussing all while my coach at the time. And, you know, thanks to him and the rest of the team,

they all picked me back up. And I think it was, it was probably what, you know, made me in the end. After the loss, it gave me that, just that feeling that I'd rather, I'd rather go out on my shield than, um, than to hold back. And, and that's how I felt when I was in the out my fight, I felt like my frame of mind wasn't right, and I held myself back. So, you know, I just kind of made a promise to myself that every time

I fight from now on that, I'll go in and leave it all in the cage. Was it maybe because you were, you were, you know, you were maybe nervous, or you just wanted to be in the UFC so badly that you fought tentatively? I think there was a few things. I think at the time, I didn't

trust my stand-up like I should have. I was training in a small gym where I was the only pro fighter there was no other pro fighters so I think it was a mixture of all that but like I said I'm glad things worked out the way they did because

now I'm in the UFC now I feel like it's the right time for me yeah and it's almost like in a sense that gave you a little bit of a taste of the UFC so perhaps those octagon jitters that we hear of, and I know it's not the same thing that was essentially in an empty gym and no bright lights and ounces and all that stuff, but you did get a bit of a taste, you could get all that out of your system. Do you feel the same way?

Yeah, definitely. I learned a lot from it. I know as soon as I go back, I was thinking about the things that, you know, probably you know, give me them nerves and made me think, you know, you know,

what was making me second guess myself. And, you know, I wasn't fighting on no big shows at the time. I never stepped foot in, you know, an octagoner massage and silly stuff like that that, you know, was, was at my comfort zone, I suppose. And, you know, as soon as I got back,

I thought, you know, these are the things that need iron out straight away. And that's how I got involved with Cage Warriors. Okay, so as I said, it's UFC 185, March 14th, Dallas, Texas, you versus Wagner, Hoshah. What do you know about Hosha? I know he's a high-level, high-level Jujitu guy. You know, he fought a lot of the top guys.

He's fought a lot of the top guys. He's fought Soroni, gone the distance with Soroni. So, you know, it's an exciting prospect for me. You know, I can't wait to get in and show everyone in the UFC what I can do. And then, of course, to go back to Connor as we wrap things up, is that a fight that you're interested in again? You beat him and rather convincingly, but would you be open? and I know you fight in a different way class, you're 155 now. Would you be open to fighting him again?

Yeah, of course. You know, we're both in the fight business, and that's our job. You know, our jobs to fight, you know, not to ask too many questions. So, you know, if that fight, you know, came up down the line, then, yeah, definitely. You know, who doesn't want to be fighting one of the top guys in the world? All right. For now, though, it's Wagner-Hosha. Joseph, congratulations on signing with the UFC.

Enjoy Montreal. You know, I'm from Montreal. I talk about that all the time on this show, but I love bringing it up again. The viewers get very annoyed of it. But it's a great place. Great gym. You chose, of course, some of the very best in the history of the sport have trained in that gym. So best of luck at TriStar and best of luck on the 14th of March as you make your UFC debut.

Thanks a millionaire. Thanks for having me on the show. All right, there he is. Irish Joe Duffy making his UFC debut, UFC 185, that card shaping up to be a very fun one, of course. headline by Anthony Pettis versus Hafeld Dosangos for the UFC lightweight title. Also on that card, Carlos Sparza defending her strawweight title for the first time against Yowna Yao Jacek. That is the co-mate event.

So two titles on the line in the Big D, American Airlines Center or Arena? I believe that one's the arena in Miami's the center. American Airlines blank. March 14th coming up. U.S. was there just last March. now here they are again around the same time frame. So I talk about the strawweight division. A lot of buzz about the straw weights.

Of course, they were featured on the Ultimate Fighter season 20. They had the finale in December. Carlos Sparza, first ever champion. And she will be co-headlining UFC 185, but they will have a massive stage to compete on and to showcase their stuff on April 18th. Just across the bridge here, Newark, New Jersey, the Prudential Center. I'm told on the main card, Felice Herrick is going to be fighting our guests at this time, Paige Van Zent.

How about that? A huge platform to showcase their skills and the entire division. We're joined by Paige right now. Paige, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm great. Thank you so much for coming back on the show.

You've been told that as well, right? Main card on Fox? Yes, that is what I've heard so far. What was your reaction to that? This doesn't happen often as far as the women in the UFC are concerned, especially the strong. draw weights to get a main card slot. What was your reaction when you got that news? You know, I was just excited. Even if I was on the prelims, I would have been equally as excited. This is going to be a really good fight, and I think me and her have fight-of-the-night potential.

So you made your debut in November a great performance, and your popularity has gone to a whole new level. What have the last two or so months been like for you? they've been exciting over the last two months i actually moved back to Sacramento so i'm back in Sacramento training full time um it's been a lot of super exciting things happening i got to go to new york for the first time which was really fun and do a little media um tour so that was great everything is just really exciting and i'm excited to get back in my fight camp are you surprised by any of this i saw some numbers about your uh the times that the amount of times that you were googled searched on yahoo all

that stuff. I mean, it seems like obviously the UFC has taken notice they put you on the main card, but the public has as well. People are very interested in you, especially after that went over Kern. Is that surprised you? A little bit, I mean, it's not something that I ever thought would happen. So I guess it is a little surprising, but I'm just honored to be a part of the UFC and be fighting for them. So all the other things that come with that are just little bonuses, I guess. Are the people, the strange, oh, look at that. Is that a puppy in back of you? Yeah, that's my puppy.

That's awesome. Nice cameo. I like how it just sort of gradually showed his or her face. Is it a boy or girl? It's a little boy. A little boy. What's his name? Dennis.

Dennis. That's an interesting. It's a very unique. I'm always interested why people, you know, when people give their pets just, you know, a regular person's name, Dennis. Why Dennis? Well, when I got him from the pound, his name was Fennis. And I didn't really like Fennis, so I just went with something that was really close.

So Dennis was the pick. Why Fennis? Do you have any idea why? I have no idea. I know he was at the pound for a while, so. Is it weird, though, for the dog to now adapt to a new name? Like, if you're called Page your whole life and then someone calls you Slade, I mean, you're not going to answer to that.

So was that strained at first? I mean, at first, it took him a while to get used to it. But he got used to it, and now he answers to him. Dennis, so it's cute. So are people coming out of the woodwork now? Are you noticing people trying to leach on to you and, you know, attach themselves to you now that you're getting all this fame in the UFC? You know, a little bit.

I mean, obviously you have the friends from the past that are coming forth and saying hi that they miss me and stuff like that. But I don't notice too much of it. I'm not, I don't go on social media a lot. So I don't notice a lot of the fans and a lot of the people that are trying to associate with me. I pretty much just train as hard as they can, and I do have a lot of really good fans, which is great because that helps me keep going, and that helps a lot, like, going up into a fight to have fans supporting you as well. Oh, yeah. You have a very passionate fan base. Even when we said

that you were going to be on the show, I had multiple people tell me on Twitter, can you tell Paige I'm single? Can you give her my phone number? How many weird requests messages do you get like that a day? Oh, I do get quite a few of those. I'm actually. my manager said they get a lot of them. I bet. So that's new. That's a little different. Yeah, I'm sure that will be continuing for quite some time.

So let's go back to Austin. You were very emotional after the win. A great performance. That was your UFC debut, of course. You weren't on the Ultimate Fighter because of your age. We spoke about that the first time you were on the show. Take us back to that moment and the emotions that you were experiencing. Why were you feeling the way you felt?

Big win, but you were clearly moved by the whole thing. Yeah, I've made a lot of sacrifices to make this a career, and it was just a really rough road leading up to that fight. I had a lot of changes. It was an entirely new fight camp for me. So just to have the win and get the victory after such a stressful fight camp and after making so many sacrifices, it really felt like everything paid off. Can you clear the air about the whole fight camp stuff?

You know, Yeraya was on our show talking about that you weren't, there and that may have raised some eyebrows and you were back home in Nevada. Now you say you're back in Sacramento. So what exactly is going on here? I'm not good at communicating. Okay. So what had happened was I hurt my back pretty significantly in training. Actually, while I was visiting Reno. So I heard my back really bad and I didn't want to go to your eye and say I'm hurt and then have it just be like a pulled muscle or something insignificant that I would be right back in the gym. So I got an MRI, I got an X-ray, and it just took a long time for that process to get going.

And during that time, I didn't really tell them what I was doing or where I was. So, but then it turns out I did have a very significant back injury that I had to stay in Reno for and I only have Nevada in state insurance. So I had to stay in Reno to get my back better and I had to continue, continue. a physical therapy for my entire fight camp. So that's the only reason that I had to stay in Reno. It was back injury. But finally, I'm better after that fight camp. I did a lot of physical therapy and I have a lot of strength training. So I'm back in Sacramento. And what exactly happened to your back? It was just, I had a spine injury. Oh my gosh. That's insane. Yeah.

And it wasn't. And it wasn't serious? I mean, spine injury. It's a pretty big deal, I think. Yeah, well, I thought it wasn't, it was, because I've hurt my back multiple times, so I thought it maybe was just a pulled muscle or something like that, but ended up being a spine injury, so I had to stay in Reno and do a lot of physical therapy. Do you know exactly what happened to the spine? Yeah, I had one pre-herniated disc and two bulging discs. And now, you know, scale of 1 to 10, how's the back? Much better.

Much better. I'm doing a lot. Yeah, I started incorporating. a strength training into my everyday training routine. So I get to, they helped me strengthen those muscles, so I won't, won't injure that again, hopefully. How hurt were you going into the fight? How much was it bothering you, the debut in November? I tried not to think about it. Again, I had a lot of physical therapy, so it was better. It was a lot better. But of course, I had those, in the back of my mind, I worried about what would happen if I got into a situation.

where like certain situations are harder to get out of because of the injury but it's it's better now have they told you that this is something that will be an issue for you your entire career or can it be rectified 100% um it well they wanted to do um like a minor surgery but i i'm not going to do anything like that until i'm done with my fighting career um it's something i'm just going to have to deal with and i i can work through it it's safe for you to fight you to fight. It is. Yes. Save me to fight. Do you regret at some point, I mean, you hear spine surgery like, or injury like I did. Everyone knows how serious that is. You regret not calling your eye and just saying, look, this is the deal. I'm sure he would not have been all that upset. Oh, no, and I know.

I should have communicated with him, like the reason I was gone and all of that. But I was just in such like panic mode, I guess you would say, because I knew I had a fight coming up and I was seriously injured and that's why I ended up having to push my fight from the Canada card having to push it back to the Austin one. So I took a little bit extra time to get better. And what was it like when you did reach out to him for the first time to try to get back into the team? What was that conversation like? Oh no, he was just excited for me to get back. He was really excited. He was the one who like set me up with all the coaches to get one-on-one training. He helped me get my an apartment. So he was all for me coming back. He doesn't seem like much of a grudge holder. That's, he's, he doesn't seem like much of a

grudge holder that you're eye of favor? No, he's not. He's a funny guy. And, okay, so now you're back and you're fighting Felice Herrick. As I said, what do you make of Felice? Somewhat of a polarizing figure in MMA. A lot of people like her. A lot of people don't like her. She's controversial, especially on the show, those who've been following her career. What's your take on Felice? You know, she's been around for a long time. I would say she's somewhat of a veteran in the sport. She's been around for a while. And just, just, to be fighting her and to be on the level to be given the opportunity to fight her as an honor. I looked up to her when I first started the sport.

She was someone who I wanted to follow in her footsteps and now to be on the same playing field and the same level as her is just, it's exciting. I'm really excited for this fight. What's up with Dennis falling asleep in our interview? That's a little rude, right? It was that boring? Oh, there he is. Gosh, Dennis.

Tough crowd over there. I just saw him gradually go to sleep in the middle of this interview. So boring. Yeah. So you have no issues with her, how she represents the sport, some of the antics, social media. You have no issues, right? No, no, and I don't know her on a personal level. I got to kind of meet her once when I was fighting for Invicta.

I just got to say hi. But other than that, I really don't know her on a personal level. And I don't think I can have any judgment on her until I do know her. weigh-in sometimes her stare-downs are very popular because they get intense up in her opponent's face do you think that she will try to get under your skin and you know what kind of a person are you will you respond positively or negatively to that i don't know yet i mean i haven't had any opponents i mean really get in my face i guess um along those lines uh it's not something that gets in my head though honestly for me during weigh-ins the only thing i have on my mind is food

So no matter what the opponent does, I just know that after I weigh in, I get to go eat. Is 115 tough for you to make? It's not. I mean, obviously weight cuts are always terrible and hard, but it's not a struggle. Were you surprised by the matchup? Did you think that that was the fight? You went from Kern, who I think was 3 and 0 at the time, something like that, to a veteran, as you said. Did you think you would make that kind of jump?

I thought so. Just with my performance that I put on, I got a TKO victory, which was huge. huge and it was a really big win for me. And of course, I always kind of had on the back of my mind that me and Felice would fight because we're the hot girls in the sport. So I kind of got myself ready for that. Do you have any problem with that? No, no, I don't. I mean, it doesn't, it's always something, I was born this way, I guess. I don't know. Yes. And so as you said, you're, you were in New York. You were right here, you know, where we are in the heart of it all, just last week, doing a ton of media. And I saw some of these clips. You were with TMZ.

you were with, I think, a good day in New York. I mean, you were all over the place with major outlets. Who else were you with teen people, right? And were you with Vogue as well? Yeah, I got to go to Teen Vogue. That was really fun. Got to go on the World Trade Center. That was cool.

Wow, and what was that like? I mean, it's very hard for MMA fighters, as you know, to get that kind of treatment from mainstream outlets. What was that like for you? It was just exciting. I mean, I like to take every day. Everything with the UFC is new to me. So whether it's something really small or something really big, like Teen Vogue, it's all a new experience.

I am very young in this sport. I'm new to everything. So every opportunity I've been given is a blessing, and it's all been really fun. Are you comfortable with being pushed this much? I mean, this is Ronda Rousey-like stuff, these outlets that are talking to you with just one fight under your belt. Are you the kind of person that feels you want to do more before you put yourself out there to these kinds of outlets? No, I'm loving all of it. I'm very thankful that the UFC has been pushing me so much and they've been backing me, they've been helping me get a lot of media attention and I'm very thankful for that. And I have a lot of fun with it. It's nice because I train every single day and I'm always in doing manly things, I guess. It's nice to actually get to dress up and go on interviews and be a girl for once. Ironically, though, in some of these interviews, you were wearing workout clothes.

They had you demonstrating things. Was any of that a little cringe-worthy? I saw one in particular where the guy was making jokes and being kind of silly for you. Like, what are you thinking when the hosts are doing this and clearly know nothing about the sport that you're a part of? It was just new. A lot of it was early. I didn't really know what I was doing, so it was shocking, but it was fun. I mean, all of it was still very fun.

What did you think of New York? First time you're from a small town. What was it like being here with the bright lights? Actually, New York is a lot, not smaller than I thought it would be, but everything's much more compact. Yes, that is a big problem here. And my favorite TV show is friends, so it was kind of nice to see the area. Wow. Is there a central perk?

Didn't they make one here, or somewhere they made a central perk? Do you know about that? I don't know. You know what Central Perk is, right? Oh, yeah, well, the coffee shop. Yeah, yeah. I thought they made one. Maybe I'm wrong.

So, okay, so are you comfortable with being, because they're pushing, you know, I'm sure at some point you're a role model now, especially if you're in these magazines for teenagers and all this stuff. Are you comfortable with that? I am. I'm very comfortable with that. A lot of people say that I'm very young for all of this to be happening, but I've kind of always been ahead of my age. I went to college when I was 16. So I've always been a little one, a little, like a step ahead of everyone my own age. So this is everything I thought I knew I would be doing eventually in my life.

And I'm happy that it's happening now. How'd you pull that off, college at 16? Academic scholarship. Wow. I just tested it. What school? Just a community college in Nevada. Did you finish it?

Well, I went there. You had to do dual credit. So I was doing high school and college at the same time. Oh, gosh. Yeah, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I kept switching majors. But I think I'm almost done with my some degree. You don't even know. No.

Are you planning on going back or at this point no need? Eventually, yeah. Eventually I would love to go back and get a degree in business. I'm very passionate about business and learning the relationship side of things. So eventually I'll go back right now. I do have a lot on my plate. Absolutely. And I know that you were somewhat bummed initially for, you know, that you weren't on the

ultimate fighter, although I kind of feel like it was maybe a blessing now that you weren't a part of the show. But what did you think? Did you watch it? And did you feel like they represented the straw whites well on the show? Again, it is a reality TV show. So they had to have a lot of the drama on it. They had to have a lot of that to keep the fans interested.

And I know that's what they want for a reality TV show. I watched it. I watched all of it. But I really tried to pay attention. just to the fighting. They're all my potential opponents. And obviously I am fighting someone that did come out of the ultimate fighter. So I paid attention to how they conducted themselves.

I paid a lot of attention of how they fought and their fight camp and things like that. So I kind of got to get an inside look on all of my potential opponents. This might sound like a crazy question to a youngster like yourself, but how far away do you think you are from that title? Hopefully close. You feel like you're close. You're ready. Yeah, I would love to fight for the title whenever the UFC gives me the opportunity.

So you're not one who thinks three, four fights, you're ready to go. If the next fight was a title shot, you think you're ready? Oh, I definitely do. And obviously, I know I have a lot to work on, and there's a lot of gaps in my fighting right now. But I go into every fight knowing I'm going to win the fight. So I'll be ready to fight for the title whenever the UFC gives me the opportunity. What's the biggest gap in your opinion? A little of everything.

You don't want to share it with the world. I can understand that. Final thing, just yesterday, speaking of Yariah, what a mention this guy is. He sent me a Team Alpha Mail calendar, and he personalized it. In fact, he also sent one to my mom, who's his biggest fan in the world in Canada. It was very nice of him to do. I haven't looked through the whole thing, but I'm pretty sure you're not in it, right? No, not in it.

Are you pissed off about this? Are you disappointed? Do you feel like they made a mistake by leaving you out? Oh, no, well, I wasn't at that. I wasn't in Sacramento when they did it. Otherwise, you're I said I would have been in it, but no, it's a cool calendar. It is really cool. You like it? Yeah, I do. There's a lot of good pictures in there. What's your favorite month? Oh, gosh. I don't know, actually. They're all pretty good.

Okay, all right. Putting you on the spot. Appreciate it very much, Paige. Great stuff last week, doing all that media representing the sport and yourself so well and classy. And good luck. April 18th in Newark, very excited about this. A huge opportunity for you and Felice, a huge opportunity for women's MMA. This doesn't happen often. Main Card on Fox, Big Arena, Prudential Center. That's a huge deal. I wish you the best of luck and appreciate you giving us some of your time today.

Thank you. All right, there she is. Paige Van Zant and her dog, Dennis, who is half asleep on the couch, but we appreciate him stopping by as well. Make no mistake about it. That is a massive deal right there. I mean, Paige Van Zand, one and O in the UFC, Phelise Herrick, one and O in the UFC. see officially getting an opportunity as straw weights. And I think about it as far as the the bantam weight division. Of course, the straw weights are so new to the game,

bantam weights, so Jessica and Drudge versus Liz Karmouche, Juan Fox, Misha Tate. Was Misha Tate? Who's that? Oh, Misha Tate and Liz Karmouche, right? That was in Orlando. were there other ones? Let me know. No more than three or four in the history of the UFC on Fox. And what are we at? 14 coming up this weekend.

So that is a big deal. And obviously the first time for the straw weights, a fairly new division. Her debut was on Fight Pass, that Austin show, late November. And now here she is fighting Main Cart on Fox in Newark. The big card headlined by Liotr Machita versus Luke Rockhold, that was announced recently.

So that's a very big deal. Had her out here in New York doing all kinds of media. So great stuff for Paige Van Zant and another big-time prospect coming out of that team, Alpha Male. They are producing quite a roster of prospects. Of course, they've got guys like Mendez and Faber and Benavides and the champion, T.J. Dillshaw, Danny Castillo as well. But then you have the younger guys like Tachie Feeley. Cody Garbrandt recently made his UFC debut, so I will clear that up in a second. So anyhow, great stuff from Page and great stuff with Team Alpha Mail.

For now, let us move along. This is very exciting. New York, Rick, and I were talking about this before the show. I believe our show was what? Five plus years old. I believe this is our next guest's first ever appearance on the MMA hour. I'm talking about the UFC interim heavyweight. champion, Fabricio Vaikavalo Verdum, who joins us right now in his car. How about that? I love it.

Yes, I'm here. How are you? Fabricio, how are you? I mean, good. I mean, just in 50 minutes, I mean, started to rain again. Okay. Well, I appreciate you taking some time and joining us. So what's life like as interim champion? Has, has things changed for you since you won the belt in November? Yes, a lot of things change. I mean, very happy, for sure. I got the belt. It's like an amazing fight. I'm very happy for the strategy. Everything's good.

I have a lot of travels. I go to Brazil, Mexico, a lot of different countries. Now I'm starting again the training for June. As I think so, I fight June again. Yeah, so let's talk about that because it was reported last week that your fight against Kane will take place, I believe, June 13th in Mexico. Is that accurate? Is that official?

Yes, no official 100%, but I think so is I wanted that. I want the fight again versus King Velaski in Mexico City because I'm staying there like about two months before my fight and then I don't want to call me about the injury. But I'm waiting for the fight for sure. And I want to because the Latin American guy, the fans, won the fight again.

He versus King Velasquez. The guys won this fight. And I won the fight again in Mexico. It's very good there, man. It's like an amazing event. The last one, 24,000 people inside the arena. Yeah.

Yeah, it was a huge deal. I was there blown away by the reception. Are you disappointed that it's in five months? It's a long time. By the time you actually fight, if it happens in June, that will be eight months. since your last fight, that's a long time to wait.

Do you wish it was happening sooner? Yes, for sure. I want to fight. Maybe it's good like three fights a year. This is amazing. Three fights a year is a good time. But I'm waiting for sure because I know it's like I want the last 100% for a fight with me. Yes, it's very important.

He covered the knee, he covered everything. He won 100%. And yes, it's like a long time. But I'm starting training again. I'm just stopping like one month. I have a lot of things. But I'm starting again. I'm just keeping going step by step.

For sure, I mean, in June, I'm waiting for this fight. So Kane hasn't fought for a year and a half. Do you consider yourself the official UFC heavyweight champion? Do you feel like the heavyweight champion? Or will you only feel that way if you beat him? No, yes, for sure. I want to fight versus him, but for sure I'm feeling that. I'm feeling the champion because I'm there.

I'm there for this fight. I'm training just for King Velasquez. I just have a good camp. I'm staying like, it's very hard. You stay different countries, two months there, high altitude. It's hard training. I train for him. But it's normally heavy.

Everybody have injuries. Yes, it's normally. because I'm doing hard, he's really hard, everybody's really hard for the... the... go inside the octagon. But I'm feeling there. I mean, feeling the champion, for sure. Hey.

Hey, there they are, those guns. Watch my face in the champion face. I love that face. Where did that face come from, by the way? I don't know. I was very young. I did all the time. I watched the movie, Batman movie.

You know Batman? Yeah. Yeah, we watch all the time. You know? the guy, the other guy is a Joker. Yeah, yeah, the Joker. Yes, I try the same, I don't know, I just try the mouse. I can't.

Yeah, all the time. Not you're not sure there like a happy. You're always so happy. Nothing ever bothers you. What pisses you off? What bothers Fabrice You've Redume the most? Say again, please. You're always so happy.

You always have such a big smile on your face. I'm wondering, what bothers you? I don't know, man. I'm happy. I mean, I'm a happy guy. I mean, I have a good family. I'm fighting the best event in the world. I have a good job now.

I mean, you know, I'm a commentary in UFC Network about the Spanish. Yep. I have everything now, man. I'm very happy for sure. Every time I like, I fight. It's like amazing. I love my job. But what bothers you?

Is there something that really annoys you? Anoisse you so much that gets you upset? What upset? What, say, second? Is there anything out there that actually, gets under your skin that that that when you see this thing happen when you hear about this you get upset is there anything that bothers you in life? Ah man, I don't understand your question. Say again, please. Okay, I'll try one more time.

As I said, you're such a happy guy, right? You're you're very happy, always smiling. Do you ever get mad about anything? Yes, no, yes, for sure. I have a lot of things. I mean, sometimes I'm sad, sometimes I'm happy, but normally I'm very happy for sure because I have everything now I got it the belt I'm waiting this moment for the long time I have it I have the best thing in the world I'm living here in USA I'm very happy like I'm moving now I'm just by the house in Redondo Beach and the good the life is good yes congratulations big house new big house yes nice house man it's very nice house that's great my my wife is very happy my daughter I have two daughters, you know that.

And it's a nice house, man. It's like a good house. When you fought Mark Hunt, correct me if I'm wrong. Was your wife something with one of your kids? Was your wife pregnant or was it a birthday of one of your kids? What were you missing out on? You got a message. No, yes, I missed a little bit because, yes, I told you.

I stayed like two months in Mexico City. My daughter, Joanna, the little one, she walked. Yes, yes. She started walking the same day. Two hours before the fight, she started to walk. My wife sent me the video. I mean, very emotional, but it's very good motivation for the fight. Yeah, it made you, it uplifted you. You got very excited, right? Yes, for sure. I'm excited. I'm like, I mean, I'm just started, I'm in the role for the goal, the arena. My wife sent me the video.

Wow. And I'm very emotional for sure. Imagine your daughter started. start the walk the same day you fight. Yes, I'm very happy for sure. Joanna has just today, she has 11 months now. Wow. Congratulations. That's a beautiful thing. I have an 11 month as well, and I know how amazing it can be.

So congratulations on that. Have you watched the fight more than 10 times, the fight against Mark Hunt? First. How many times have you watched it? A lot, man. Maybe, I don't know, one. A lot of times, man. A lot of times.

I watch all the time because it's good. You watch again, again. You learn all the things because I have a lot of mistakes. I have a lot of good things. I watch. I love the lot to my fight again. It's good. All the time I watch and I learn a lot.

What do you think when you... Sometimes I look, I just look me, sometimes I look hand. Sometimes I look defense, the reaction defense. Yeah. Sometimes I look Fertita. You know, the first round was very interesting because he did a lot better than most expected. What do you think went wrong there? Why were you having trouble with him in the first round?

Yes, everyone knows Mark Hunt is an amazing fighter. He is very dangerous. He's having hard punch. But I'm worried for the moment. But I think that I mean, when he started a fight, It's very just sometimes it's very hard for me like a like a warm-up, you know? And this fight, I'm starting a warm-up when it started the main event. The main event started like the card.

I mean, just started the warm-up. But this moment, all the fights finish the fourth round. Yes. You remember that? Yes, yes. All the fights are like a very quick. And the guys come in my role and say, hey, we're doing it's your turn. I said, what?

I'm just warm up now. And, but, I mean, I saw, I saw when I fight versus Mark Hunt, he's a, he's a, have a good experience, man. He's an amazing fighter. He's, he's good, man. I saw in the ice, he tried knock down me all the time. How did you feel in the, in the altitude? You know, that was talked about as, as a big factor going into the fight.

Did it bother you in the first round? Yeah, man, it's very hard. I'm just, this is why I'm to stay there like about two months. Yeah. I'm waiting for maybe six, seven rounds. I don't have a problem. I have good energy. And I saw, I know Mark Hunt

just three weeks before. I know it's very hard for him. He tried the knock down in the first round. After then, I'm just, keep going because I know he he, he know, he know, he, he know, have like a good condition for this moment because, you know that.

But, man, it's very hard. You breathe there, man. When you sleep, you don't breathe because it's so hard. Yeah. I'm staying, my home is there. I'm staying in New Mexico City, but it's very high. You're like a 12,000. Wow.

And I'm sure that. Yeah. You know, your celebration after you beat Fedor Emilienenko legendary. How did you celebrate this win? Yes, I think the same thing. Yes. I guess maybe five, six tequila. I'm very happy for sure.

After then, I go to sleep because I want to see my family after then. You remember that. You dare want to beat further. And I drink a lot. But I never drink. I don't like the drink. But like a just celebration is good, man. Just like in four and four years or in two years is okay.

And, you know, I must correct you, one of the biggest regrets of my career is not being there when you beat Fador. I had a wedding that I had to go to. So I wasn't in San Jose, but I've heard about your celebrations. I was there when you beat Mark Hunt, but not Fader. Yes, I know that. You follow me a long time, man. I know you I just say for you, congratulations, because I remember you when you start everything, your career. I'm very happy for you, man, because you all the time you follow me and you see everything. I think you're amazing, you make an amazing job now, man. You're very famous now.

Maybe you're more famous, Mike. No, no, no. Thank you. That means a lot coming from you. I'll let you go in just a second, but I want to know I saw a video of you going back to Brazil and the people in the airport were going nuts. Outside they were going nuts.

What was that like? How crazy was that? Now, this is like crazy, and I love that. Because imagine after you got the belt, you come back your hometown. You come back in our city and all the guys are a lot of guys waiting you on your airport. It's like a crazy I don't know how many guys have a 300 or 400 guys the airport stopped A lot of guys watch that and they have a truck the fire

truck waiting me there as I mean I love that man I'm very happy for that. Yes now I have him I have a February, February 22. I have an event there. I have a big foot versus Frankie Mir there in my city. Oh, wow. Porto Alegre, you know that, yes. I'm ambassador. I'm ambassador.

I'm ambassador. Wow. Yes, I'm ambassador. That's amazing. Were you expecting that kind of reaction, that reception from the people? Did you think that was going to happen? Yes, I know that, but not like the big ones. I think maybe the guys go there, but no a lot of guys go there.

I'm surprised when I see a big guy, a lot of guys there, I mean, a big surprise for me. I mean, I'm very emotional for that. I'm very happy. And you know, your turnaround in MMA, one of the best stories in recent history, because you were cut from the UFC, UFC 90, you go to strike force, You beat Fador, you come back to UFC, now you're champion. What is the reason for this? How are you able to become the fighter that you have become?

Because you have improved so much over such a short amount of time. You're not just a jiu-jitsu guy. You're an amazing striker as well. What's the reason for this amazing improvement? It's very important. You have a good thing because just by self is very hard, man. Just by self is very hard to go like in the top. And, you know, I have my team,

that's an amazing team, Rafael Cordero, Cobrin, the Jiu-Jitsu, Babaloo, everybody helped him a lot. The guys, this is very important. I mean, you have good things, good energy, and you believe that. It's very important. You believe your dream.

I all the time I believe in my dream, man. When I fight in Strike Force, I want to come back again in UFC. You remember, I did campaign. in Twitter, Facebook. I talk with you, Dan White, Jamie and I want to come back again. He gave me the chance.

I just show. I just show. I mean, I saw my one I mean, much better now in my stand-up. But yes, because I'm a jiu-sitsu guy before. But now my feeling is I'm a completer guy. Complete a fighter.

Rafael dosangos told me that you came to the gym with the belt. You surprised everyone before his fight against Nate Diaz. What was it like for you to come back and how did they receive you? Yes, the guys, for sure, I just say thank you for my team, for the guys helping a lot, all the guys there. Now I have, you know, Dos Angeles, no, Rafael Dos Angeles, fight for the title shot too. It's just show and just the reflex for the training. You just train, man, just believe yourself, just train a lot.

This is like a for help for sure. Okay, final question. Let's assume you fight Kane Velasquez in June. By the way, one more. Are they going to announce this soon? When do you hear that they're going to make it official, you versus Kane? I think it's not 100% official, but I think so. June 13, I fight for Kane Velazquez is my dream for sure. I don't know, say English. When I have two belts, you just have unification.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, unification. Yes, unification of the belt is my next dream. I got it. When I save my mind, I say, I want the World Championship, Jujit World Championship. I got it three times. I want a ADCC championship. I got it two times. I want to fight for Kenya last now.

For sure I got it. In 2004-15 is my year again. Monterey or Mexico City? Mexico City. Mexico City is good because the fans wanted that. Yeah. He responds to one of this fight. And now my real final question is, how do you expect to beat him? Where do you think that you're better than Kane?

How do you see it unfolding? I think he kind of like the same game. He has a nice game. He has like boxing very hard. He has good take downs. But I think he's coming the same thing. I think it's maybe in the ground. I saw the fight

the same thing the feather fight maybe tranglo, submission hand or sweep hand or the big surprise and maybe I knocked down here because nobody nobody

nobody believe when I knocked down Mark Hunt the guy said before the fight before the fight the guy said ah Verdu maybe submission hand or Mark Hunt knocked down hand but nobody

expect that like I'm knocked down Mark Hunt, nobody. But the same thing is the fight. The guy said, Verdun, please, no, no fight if Ken Velaski won in Saddam, boxing, and Waite. I believe myself, man. I mean, I just show a lot of times

versus Traveinsbrow. No guy said, Verdon, please, not go in the ground with your hand. I just say, I kill the Travis Brow himself. Yep, that is true. Yes, I punched him, I broke the hip, it, knows everything. Yes. This is very important. The Stravarez Brown, I break his mind.

Yes. This is very important. How do you, how did you do that? Because you were, you were doing things. You were jumping up and down. You were looking other places. How did you do that? Yeah, the best part for me, when I go, when I stand up with the ground, I've not put my hands. This is my, the best thing for me. Unbelievable. Have you ever done that before? Yes. Yes. Yeah, because I have a good shape this time. And I have like, I'm training with Cobbrien. I ask for you guys, I'm training like an eight to two o'clock.

the guys now, it's not true, it's not true. I say, yes, I train you with Cobbriya, the 8 to 2 o'clock. Tuesday, Thursday, with Cobrina, jujitsu, conditional training, private class, and with Rafael Cordero,

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, like everything, sparring, Muay, Jiu-Zitsu, everything. I mean, I'm very happy for everything in my life now, man. Who taught you that move where you look away and then you punch someone?

You know, you're doing the travis. This is, I don't know, this is like a good fix. Yeah, I like it. This is, this is a help me a lot versus Roy Nelson. I did a lot. He said like, I helped me. And the last time versus Mark Hunt, same thing.

I just look in the ground. He believed him to go take it down, but I just, boom, the fly knee. Amazing. Yes. What a story. Fabricio, thank you so much. I know you're going to go to training. I really appreciate your time.

What a pleasure to have you on the show. congratulations on the belt and good luck against Kane Velasquez. Amen, thank you for you and say congratulations. Oh, sorry. Congratulations again, because you're an amazing job, man. You're very nice, very nice guy. I just show what I'm here. Watch.

I'm here now. I just show you. Watch what I'm here. Oh, UFC Gym. Yes, it's very like three minutes of my home. And what are you doing there? What are you doing there? I'm just now running.

and I lift to wait a little bit. Oh, by yourself, not with the team. No, no, I have the guy waiting there. Okay, okay. Well, that's great. You go to the UFC gym. I'm sure they like that very much. Thank you very much.

Have a great workout, and we'll talk to you very soon. Really a pleasure. Oh, thank you. The last one, last one. Yeah. I love it. One and only. Thank you.

There he is. The UFC interim heavyweight champion for Reseo Verdeum. Great stuff from him. Always a pleasure having. some time with him and great to have him on the show for the very first time. All right, let's move along. This man's name came up in the interview, or at least his former company did. He is, of course, now the president of Belator MMA.

He is the one and only Scott Coker, and he joins us right now via the phone. Scott, how are you? Great. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for joining us. By the way, you know, you see a guy like Verdume, and you're the one that gave him second life. You take satisfaction.

I know it's not your company and all, but I, know deep down you're a great guy. You take satisfaction from stories like that were guys that you were able to help get back on their feet and now look how good they're doing. If it wasn't for you back in the day, Strike Force, who knows where Verdume would be? Yeah, I'll tell you, one of the

managing moments, I think, in our company's history at that time was his fight with Fedor. Yeah. And, you know, there's so many great memories of that fight and the hype and the build-up. And really, I don't even know if Fabio thought he could be Fador at that time. and, you know, we just had all these back and forth with, you know, the M1 camp, and when, you know, the fight happened and the upset, you know, became reality,

I mean, just the look on everybody's face in that arena, it was something I'll never forget. All right, let's talk about you now. Belator, a great show on a Friday evening. You guys continue to roll along, but there's some breaking news, and I want to see if you can confirm it. apparently Douglas Lima and Paul Daly going to social media, but we want to hear it from the horse's mouth right here. Is it, in fact, true that that fight is off?

Yes, that fight is off. Lima got injured, so he's off the fight. We're probably six or eight hours away from announcing Paul's the opponent, but we don't announce it later today once you get everything back. But we also had another injury in Bobby Lashley. So Bobby Lashley's injured his hand, so he will be off the card. But we're going to replace that fight completely, actually, the one with Johnson versus Lashley.

And we're going to put on a big super fight. And it's something that this person has been asking me for a long time to move up and wait and try out the headweight division. So I said, okay, this might be a great time, and let's get it on. And King Mo is going to step up to heavyweight, and he's going to fight Czech Congo in a super fight on the 27th. as a willing to son.

Wow. Well, that's interesting for a few reasons. That's a British invasion card. That's the theme. Congo, I know he trains with Wolfslair, but he is not from England. So are you, were you hesitant to do that to not, you know, change the theme of the card? No, you know what? I'd say we have four fights, and that's what we normally have in an event.

And so we have four fights that are still a British invasion, and now we just added a big super fight on top of it that I think the fans will really appreciate. So King Moe going up to heavyweight to fight Czech Congo Why move him up to heavyway? I mean he's doing so well He's he's back on track now When guys move up and add on some muscle some weight Sometimes things go awry Why are you in favor of this move?

You know this is under that he's been asking me for Really? Probably last five months Yeah he said hey I want to go to headway I want to fight there and he said eventually he wants a duck 185 He wants to fight and I'll be there He goes, I can beat anybody in the Heavit division. I can beat anybody in the 185 probably class.

So he feels that he could be the complete fighter at 205 heavyweight and 185. But I said, look, you know what? You're really going to want to cut down to 185? And he said, no, I want to cut out. I'd rather go up. So he said, you know, if the opportunity ever came up, he'd left to fight Chicago. And I said, well, here we go.

Let's get it on. So is this a pit stop for him, or is he now going to make a run at the heavyweight belt? You know what? Let's just wait to see what happens in the fight. I mean, you know, this is something that Czech hunger was with the cutoff guard, too. He kept asking us, are you sure this is a headweight division site? I mean, you know, he didn't believe that Moe wanted to come up. And, you know, I said, no, he wants to get it on.

So, you know, I want to take a look at the fight and see how it goes, you know, for King Moe. And if he performs, well, we'll give him some more heavyweight fights if he wants them. Did you offer this fight to Thompson first? I heard that was the direction you were going, and if so, why is it not King Moe Thompson? Yeah, we actually offered the fight to Thompson first, and, you know, he really has his eyes and heart set on Lashley. So, you know, we're going to let Bobby Hill and then we'll probably put that fight back together at some point, but he's okay to wait, and he actually wants to wait, so that's a fight that we can have done the line, but, you know, it was offered, but, you know, he didn't want to fight more.

He said I've been training for Lashley. I've been, you know, working on his style. And, you know, I think he's a little familiarity with him, you know, because he fought before. So I think that he wants to just wait and, you know, fight Lashley in the next three or four months. I know you said you're six or eight hours away from announcing the Paul Daly fight, but why do something then when you could do it right here and now, right? Well, you know what? I would love to do it.

It should stop waiting for the contract to get back. Oh. I want to make sure that we have all in touch in order here. and then we can announce it. But we'll send to you first, Sarah. Well, that's very nice. Can I ask you this? Will Paul remain in the main event?

You know what? I think the main event now is going to be the fight between Amanda Newton and Liam McGarry. Okay. I would feel that if I deserve to be the main event. It's our title fight. So we'll probably go with that as a main event. But I feel that I think Paul should be a semi-main event, and then we'll go for there. And is it a series?

injury that Douglas sustained? Will he be out for a long time? You know what? My understanding is that he'll be out for about two or three months. Okay. And then he'll be back. So hopefully by summertime, we'll have him in a big fight with the winner of the daily fight. Okay. And do we know the daily opponent? I mean, is it a big name? Is it a medium-sized name? Can you tell us anything about that? You know what? I'd rather just hold off, but, you know, I mean, we're going to put fights that are going to be exciting, that are going to be competitive, and, you know,

fight the fighters that have, you know, a good record to fight Paul. We're not going to put, you know, Paul in there with just anybody because, you know, he's a world-class competitor at the highest level. Probably the best striker in the M.A. Or at least one of them, arguably one of the best strikers in M.A. Sure. And, you know, so we're going to put him in a tough opponent, test them out, and then, and then the winner can fight Lima when we're ready.

This is kind of fun. your lightweight champion, Will Brooks. I'm sure you know him. He had a great win over Michael Chandler. He is listening to our interview right now and just tweeted me. And he said, Ask Scott Coker if I can fight Shinya Yoki.

What do you make of that? You know what? I tell you, if that's something Will really wants, I mean, you know, we can start working towards that. I just didn't know if that was really important. You know, we have a good relationship with WNIA

and I know that Shinya's been fighting for IGF as well. So, you know, I can make a couple calls and a few we can put together. You were just in Japan. What was that trip like? Did you get any business done? You know, I'll tell you, it was nice to go back. And, you know, when I was working for K-1, you know, I spent about 10 years there. And seeing some of the most amazing fights, I mean, to see the K-1 in its hey-day,

to see pride in its hey-day, I mean, I think that the fans, that are the new fans, fans today are really missing out because it was something special, something spectacular, and they just had that wow factor. And, you know, I went to a couple of flights. I went to three, actually a three different event in five days, went to some, you know, some of the local guys in the gym and see, you know, what the talent level is there and see when the resurgence going to start happening. Met with some of the key players in that industry.

And, you know, I mean, you and I, we talked about Jackie Ybar already in his his mounting comeback. I know that you have people met with you know sat down with Fador

with a lot of different fighters and it was it was just a great time and I'm glad I did it because you know as as you know as dominant

as Japan was in the past I think that you know there's a place for them in the world of mixed martial

to make a resurgence and I think that uh uh... what what you are working on over there is very special and i think that he's going to come out with a big bang before the end of the year so you believe that they can get back on their feed you are you are hopeful that

japan will i don't know if they can return to their glory days i don't want to put you on the spot like that but you think that things are looking up in japan i could say that anybody throws a fight on new year's eve and you know can sell tickets and actually have people show up and then throw a fight the night before and and then a boxing match the night before, and then a creepboxed by a new show called Blade, a night before that, I mean, you know, here's a country that really is just, you know, the word I was told was they're just sleeping. They're waiting for the next research of a Japanese of a May promotion.

Because even though, you know, let's say, for instance, the U.S. is there, you know, once a year. It looks like they were there once a year. it's not really a Japanese-owned May for Japan type show. And, you know, they're going to want their own, and they're going to want to have it look and feel what they're used to seeing. And, you know, I think that that's what they're waiting for. So, you know, as successful as the U.S.C. has been there, it's, you know, the sustainable business model of a Japanese promotion like K-1,

like Pride, who did, you know, 8, 10, 12, 15 events a year in, in the country of Japan, that's, you know, that's a much different business model. So I think that that's what you will see with a new, you know, with a new ownership group and a new entity that's moving forward with their project. And you tweeted a picture of both you and Fyodor Al-Manyenko on New Year's Eve. Did you try to entice him to come fight for you? See, I have a conversation, and, you know, he made a very clear look. Right now, I'm not interested in fighting.

and I work for the ministry of sport. I think he's very happy doing that, and I think he's definitely, you know, want to stay involved, and he's involved with M.MA growing in Russia, and that's a primary goal right now. And whether he changes his mind or not later, Ariel, it's really that's going to be up to him.

But it doesn't have to ask. Yeah, of course. I give you respect for doing it and making the trip. Perhaps a role like Hoist Gracie in Belator? Was that discussed? Well, you know what? We talked about a lot of different things, and, you know, we talked about the temperature,

maybe even bringing Belator to Russia. Okay. And working with him, and, you know, he's very politically connected there, and I think he works, you know, for Vladimir Putin, running the Russian M.M.A. program for the country, mostly as an amateur ambassador.

So we talk about a lot of different things, but I look forward to seeing him soon, and I'll see you to post it. You know, obviously, big news story over the last month was Rampage signing with UFC. The UFC has recently announced his return fight, April 25th of Montreal against Fabio Maldonado, and it doesn't seem like right now there's a roadblocking. I want you to correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, is this going to the courts? Will you try to stop this from happening?

What's the status? You know, Errol, I wish I could comment, but I just can't comment. on something that's already been turned over to the, you know, the attorneys. And, you know, I just can't comment on it. I've been told to just stand down, and I don't have to stand down on comment. Okay. Can I just ask you, are you surprised they announce his next fight while this is all up in the air? You know what?

I'll say, honestly, in this sport, nothing surprises me anymore. Fair enough. That's a good way to put it. What's its status with Miracle Krocop? You spoke about him on Friday evening, and a lot of people wondering if he will sign with Belator. Is that something that is close to being done? You know what? I talked to my guys today, and I'm not sure if we're going to get there.

And, you know, there was a – I feel that there's a certain amount that, you know, a fighter, even as great as Merco was in a past, that it's the value is worth a certain point. And I think that, you know, they're probably not playing elsewhere, and we wish him luck. He, I don't know if you know this, but on his Facebook page,

he posted a picture of the UFC logo. Do you know if he is talking to them, if he then took that offer? I mean, do you have any idea why he would do that? I don't know, but, you know, I'm sure he's talking to everybody. I'm sure he was talking to everybody. while we were talking.

So, you know, when you're a free agent like that, I think you're going to be reaching out to all the leagues that might be interested. So this past Friday, as I mentioned, you had your show. Paticio Pitbull looked great. A really fun fight. He finishes Daniel Strauss, also Georgia Carcanian finishing Bubba Jenkins very early. I think that was somewhat of a surprise to some. This feels like your real debut with Belletor.

I mean, I know you had the back end of last season, but now it's, you know, it's your shot. You and Rich Chow, I mean, your fingerprints are all over this stuff. How did you feel about the first show? I thought it was a great show. I think that, you know, the talent, that Federal Weight Division in Beltar is as good as any league out there. These guys are world-class fighters to fight anybody.

And, you know, that fight had a lot of adversity for pit bull, went back and forth, and, you know, there were some, you know, penalties along the way. But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, I think you saw some world class fighting at the highest level. And I'm proud of those guys. And with Georgia Kay against, you know, Bala, you know, I really know what to expect. I've never really seen George H.C. fight before. And he took to me that he is a stud, man, and this guy is going to do a lot of great things. And I'm looking forward to the fight with him in the football in the summer.

Which division do you like the best right now? Which one are you most excited about? You know, I'm really excited. There's two divisions that really, you know, I mean, I like watching, like, fights. Like, if you could, you know, put men off with shilling, that's what an amazing fight at 185. And then, you know, like Paul Galey and Lima, you know, that's going to be another amazing fight when that happens. So I like fights, but I tell you, if you look at overall in the weight classes, I really love the feather weights that we have, And I also love the 205-pound class that we have in White Heavyweight.

And if you look at, you know, McGarry and Litton Vassel and Emmanuel Newton and just those, and in King Moe, even in that weight class as he goes back and forth, I mean, there's some tremendous talent in the 205-pound way class and the Federal Weight Division. But in saying that, I really like, you know, there are certain fights that I like. And I think that we have fighters in all-way classes that can put on great things. fights and we'll have a great match up for them. How bullish are you on the free agent market these days? I mean, you signed Kimbo, the Mirko thing came out.

Are you actively seeking, you know, big names? Do you feel like you have a nice enough roster right now? How would you describe your aggressiveness these days on the free agent scene? Well, you know, there's going to be free agents that come from time to time. It's going to be our job to build these fighters from the ground up that we have. have and keep building them and keep building them and what a great platform we have with Spike TV to keep building these new stars. And it kind of reminds me of strike force, really, is that, you know, we bought a few free agents, which, if not just us going after them, believe me, they're calling us. This is not something that the one-way street where we're just going after fighters.

And you know what? We're going to win some and we're going to lose some. And that's just how the nature of this beast is going to be. but, you know, if you're a free agent out there or you're going to become a free agent, you're going to want to talk to everybody, and you're going to want to use your leverage to get the best deal you can. And, you know, we're in a position now

with the background ownership group that there's not going to be any fighter that, you know, out of the price range. So if we feel that deals right, the fighter's right, we're going to do it. Were you interested in CM Punk? You know, we had talked about it, honestly, but we had never, we had never reached out to him or never, you know, made that call. And we were not in dialogue with him by any means. And it was just like, well, what do you know, how do you think he would do?

I mean, he's never had a fight before. You know, do you think he really wants to fight? I just didn't even know if he really, really wanted to fight. So, let's see. You know, let's see how he does in his debut. What about this Alberto del Rio character? Is he going to fight in Bellator? You know what?

But I'm not sure. I'm not, you know, from everything I understand is that, you know, he's still pro wrestling, and he's very busy pro wrestling, and even though he's had some great-in-a-m-fights, I thought some, you know, he fought Merkel before, I thought, I think, a couple of big days. At the end of the day, it's a different, you know, sport completely, and, and, you know, it's all good to somebody punches a kick in the face. Yes. So it's a little different.

And so, you know, to me it's really, you know, I know that they're still in dialogue, but, you know, is he going to become a main fighter that I cannot answer. Do you have a wish list? Like, are there a couple guys at the top of a list or girls, men or women, that you would love to be in business with who are attainable that can be signed? I mean, of course, you know, there are guys like George St. Pierre and John Jones, but they have contracts with the UFC. Are there people out there that you would love to get in Belator who you can go after right now? Yeah, I think that, you know what, that's an internalist that will keep an internal. Okay. And like I said, we're still talking to people.

But as you know, as much as there's, you know, some free agent activity, you know, and then there'll be some more free agents throughout the year. At the end of the day, man, we got to build from the ground up. And that's what I think we were really good at doing in the past. And if you look at the guys that came from, you know, I talked about this before, but I don't want to, you know, bring it up again. again and again, but, you know, we built a good foundation of stars that came from, you know, from within.

And I really think that's important, and we're focusing a lot of energy on that with Elabor. So, you know what? It's the same thing. I've been safe for a long time. We've got to build for the ground up, and then we'll buy it from the top down, and that's going to be our league. And finally, what's the status of the women's division? I mean, you're slowly getting into it, the 145ers.

do you have a plan to introduce a belt do you have a plan to add others what's the status yeah I know that Richard's talking some girls right now and we're going to keep growing the 145 way up on way class and don't be surprised

before we had one more decision so oh what are you thinking of we've been it's top secret well you just you just dropped the hint you just dropped the little hint

I have to go after it you can't just drop that if you're not interested in divulging right well I'm sure you guys can figure it out. I mean, you know, it's, uh, there's, there's, there's a rocket scientist to figure out that, you know, there's a 145, there's the one, you know, you've got the 135 and, and, um, there's a couple of spaces in between there. Ah, yes. Okay. Let's just leave it at that. Okay. Fair enough. Um, but, but, you know, but the

thing, you know, from the very beginning, when we did the first female fight in the history of California, this is something that we were going to get behind. And that commitment level has not, you know, gone away. And we're going to continue signing the best 145 that we can right now. And we're in dialogue with a couple that we should, you know, probably, you know, have some announcements here in the next couple weeks. Do any of them have a name that rhymes with Bina Larano?

None. None. Okay. Yeah, but we start. So that's done. You're not going after that one. anymore. No, I mean,

you know what? I mean, she's the schedule. It's just, you know, she's doing movies with Robert De Niro. Why did she want to get fun to that phase? Well, you know,

you turn back the clock, you bring in Kimbo, that's the next one that comes to mind, to be honest. Well, you know, with Kimbo,

when we talked about Bellatory, we talked about, we're going to do some fun fights. Yeah. And when we thought about doing some fun fights, you know,

we, you know, Spike actually brought us to war. What about Kimbo? And let's face it, as far as ratings deliver, bigger than any, any, anybody else. And whether it was on CBS or whether it was on Spike TV, as far as ratings, I mean, the guy has, you know, been down to deliver superstar ratings. So, you know, we don't have an opponent yet, but believe me, I've had a list of 200 people that have emailed me saying, please, let me fight Kimmel's life. Wow.

Do you have a, do you have a favorite? have one that's on the leaderboard right now? Not really. We just got this signed, and I think that we'll probably start looking at that in the next, you know, 30 days or so. All right. And do you have a debut? Do you have a date? Do you have a month?

We'll probably talk about summertime. Sorry. You cut out there. Did you say summertime? Sorry about that. I think that we're going to, you know, have a dialogue with Kimball. And if he's comfortable, we'll probably have his debut in Bellator. summertime. Heavyweight? Definitely. All right. Well, you've said enough, Scott. I appreciate it very

much. You broke some news. You gave us some hints. It's all very good stuff. One more shot at Paul Daley. What do you got? Well, you know what? I'll tell you. I will text you the name as soon as I if you're about getting back. But that's where we're at right now. But you know, you'll hear from me in a couple hours. All right. Thank you so much, Scott. And of course, I remind everyone that the next Bellator event takes place. It is called Bellator 133. It's taking place February 13th, Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, airing live on Spike TV.

The main event, the very fun one, Alexander Schlamenco versus Melvin Manhoff. Also, Pat Curran, the aforementioned Women's Featherweight Division, also being featured Julia Budd against Tolita Ogera, which is a lot of fun. And then February 27th in Mohegan Sun, or at the Mohegan Sun, we've got that British invasion card. Michael Page, also fighting on that one.

That's a lot of fun. Scott, appreciate the time. as always, and we'll talk to you very soon. Thanks, I appreciate it, buddy. All right, there he is. Scott Coker, the president of Belator MMA stopping by. Great stuff, as always, for him. So you heard it here first. We have a new fight for that British invasion card.

It is King Muhammad the Wall going up to heavyweight to fight Czech Congo. And, you know, being the stickler that I am, I would sometimes say, well, then it's not really a British invasion card anymore. But Czech Congo does have those ties to the Wolfslair team, and they are. are, of course, based in England. So I feel like it works. It's good enough. And that's a lot of fun. King Moe going up against Czech Congo.

Interesting fight. One that takes place in a little over a month's time. And now Scott just said that Emmanuel Newton versus Liam McGeery is the new main event for that card. Also on that card, Sokajoo against Linton Vassel, Michael Page versus

Curtis Milander, and Paul Daly versus TBD. Millender, I believe, is the correct. So in a minute, I am told we are going to be joined by the newest member of the Beltaire MMA team.

I think you may have heard of him. His name is Kimbo Slice, aka Kevin Ferguson, who was announced on Friday officially, but CombatPress.com first broke the news late Thursday night, early Friday morning, so give them the credit, breaking the news that Kimbo has

joined forces with Belator back on the Spike TV scene and I'm being told from Mr. New York Rick himself that he is joining us on the phone right now, which is tremendous stuff. Kimbo, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Hey, what's up, man? Long time, no speak, my friend. How are you?

I'm good, man, I'm good. Well, congratulations on this. Honestly, did you ever think that you'd be back in, you know, big-time MMA? You haven't fought in MMA in almost five years. Did you ever think this was going to happen? You know, yeah, I knew we were going to eventually get back into it, but on the playing field of Bellatoric, you know, that I didn't expect.

You know what I'm saying? So that right there was put a real big smile on my face, you feel me? Yeah, I totally feel you. How long has this been in the works for? How long did you guys work on this? Well, you know, I got to honestly leave that up to Mike and my guy, my manager, Icy and Mike, those guys been in bed for a little bit. No home old, but you know what I mean?

On the business tip. Yes. These guys been in bed for a little bit, you know, trying to make this shit work for me. So you never gave up on your MMA dreams, despite the fact that, you know, you only fought, I mean, it was five years ago. You're getting older. Of course, we all do. You thought that you'd still get another shot in this sport. Well, yeah, you know, and the reason why, you know, because, you know, as the time went on, you know, the shit started sticking to me, you know, like grits.

I mean, I would feel the role. I would feel the sprawls. I would feel the arm bar. I would feel certain things and just moving around. It started coming natural. You know, the ground game became, you know, it became natural, like second nature. You know, well, with the stand-up and just putting it together and doing boxing for extra amount of years for the three, four years doing boxing. I always had that MMAs that's been there, you know, to throw a knee or the kick is doing it in their head.

But I couldn't do it, you know what I'm saying? So why did you stay away for so long? I mean, there are other promotions along the way. Did they ever come to? Did they ever offer you big bucks? I mean, it's amazing to think that your last fight was in the UFC. That feels like decades ago now against Matt Mitrione. Why did you not jump back in there sooner?

It hasn't been that damn long. It feels like a long time ago. I've gotten older. I've got two kids since then. Well, yeah, we all, you know, we all, you know, play some seats in there. I mean, I guess it just took this time, you know what I mean? I couldn't, we didn't want to rush that, and I wasn't, like, reaching out to anybody, you know, I mean, you know, a couple of things did come off the table, you know, but I was like, you know,

you know, we just didn't take no attention because I was into boxing, and I wanted to do one thing at one time. So how did the boxing career go, and are you still interested in being a boxer? Because I know you haven't fought in two years. I actually signed with Gary Shaw, short-time production. Yep. I'm still signed with him. And my record is right. That's currently 7 and 0.

Correct. I mean, it's paying the bills. You know, I like getting in there. I have fun with it. But it's not like MMA, you know? But you haven't competed in boxing in two years' time, so are you still... Yeah, about a year, the 13th, right, right. January made it two years.

Right. Gary Shaw just teamed up, or he was essentially, you know, taken over by a Rock Nation. Is there a chance you'll appear on one of their cards? Right, right, right. We were supposed to do something with those cards. Mm. But a lot of things, you know, came up in a minute. making for us. So what have you

been doing in the last five years? How do you spend your time? Other than the boxing? When time allows it, you know, working, still doing my, you know, personal bodyguard and security with my company, you know, and in the gym as much as much as

I can possibly be without, you know, messing up my timing and everything. But now now I'm with Bellator, you know, this is first nature. This is my first job. This is, you know, every day in the gym. every other day in the gym. You know, it's going over everything technically.

I saw a picture of you recently at the American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida. Will that be your gym? Is that the place that you'll be preparing for this Bellator debut? Yeah, ATT, that's home. You know, that's home base. You know, you got a lot of, I mean, like, the top tier fighters in the world out of there, you know, and I couldn't be at a better place. So Scott Coker was just on our show moments ago, and he told us that,

that 200 people have called him up asking for you, but he doesn't have an opponent just yet. Who do you want to fight in your Beltaire debut? You know, I'm not sure. I don't even know who's there. Right now that's heavy weight. You know, right now, but, you know, shit, anybody's just feeding me. You know, I'm ready to be fed.

You were looking very sveled in these pictures I saw of you. Maybe the beard is a little trimmer. Is there a chance you fight at 205? Oh, man. I don't know. That's a serious weight to cut. I walk around like at 240. to go down 35 pounds.

I'm not sure about that. You know, it all depends, you know. Those numbers are right. It can be done. In the back of your mind, would you like Bellator to sign Petrazzelli so that you can get another crack at him and put that fight to bed?

I'm sure they would. I mean, they should. Yeah. I mean, I would love to. I owe that dude once. Is that something that still eats at you? Said again? Is that something that still eats at you?

Everything that happened October 4th of 2008. I mean, for the nature. you know what I'm saying I get to complain all day long on this and that but you know shit that was it just went down

the way it went down but goddamn I owe him one yes you'd like that yeah anyone else that comes to mind that you'd love to fight I mean shit you know they can put Tito on that car on that play too

oh Tito for sure that would do some pretty big numbers I would imagine I gotta pick with that fella man what's your problem with Tito I mean there ain't a problem with him yet But, you know, from back in the strike, for the days, I was handling a little shit about him, you know, calling me out and talking shit about me. But, yeah, we could definitely put that in the making.

And you have no problem with his wrestling. You feel like you're okay. He got to have a problem with my handgame. Do you feel, have you evolved as a fighter? Do you feel like you're a lot better than when we last saw you compete in M.MA? I know I have. You know, like I said, rolling with these guys and being put in awkward positions over the years. You know, it just took time to just have.

That's what it was. I was just too young. Back then, I was like a bull. I was just headstrong winning in there ready to just poop my horns around. But now, you know what I'm saying? I got a lot more tools to work with. You know what I'm saying? I mean, shit, I would like to be tested on the ground. I would like four more fucking to come in at trying to test me to see if they're going to try to get me out

and they get caught with something. I mean, that's what I would be looking for. You know, a guy to come in and try to take me straight to the ground. Yeah, go for it. And, you know, I haven't spoken to you in so long. I've always wanted to ask you this. Were you surprised you never got another shot in the UFC? At the end of the day, you were one in one.

Were you surprised you weren't given that third crack? Well, you know, I heard the UFC are. They're like a pretty tough organization, you know. I mean, I'm sure I could have gotten another square deal, but for the nature of it, you know, I don't know why they did what they did. But, you know, casting that bad about them, I think. you know, thank God for everything that's happened to me in my career. You know, it just made me more hungrier, you know, to keep on trying to dig for gold.

You're about to turn 41, so happy early birthday. How's the body holding up? Oh, man, I'm feeling great. I'm doing great. I was just telling my wife, you know, I want to put, like, another two kids out here in as well, you know. Two more? Yeah, man, I'm ready to have some more babies. How many do you have now?

I have three boys, three girls right now. Wow. Wasn't one of your boys a football player? Yeah, one of them is a ball player. He actually is in school right now. How's he doing? Pursuing his criminal justice career. Oh, wow.

So no more football. I'm not sure. You know, I leave that up to him, you know. It's his life you've got to live. And any of them express any interest in being a fighter? My oldest, you know, but he's in San Fran working out right now. Training. Every time I talk to him, he has a fight coming up.

Oh. But I can't see that one yet. So you know how that is. You've got to keep training and tell you feel like you're ready. And what's it like for you walking down the street? I mean, you still feel as popular and as beloved. I mean, when you came on the scene, you remember it. It was unbelievable stuff, breaking records on, you know, national TV.

Do people still notice you? You have a very recognizable face and a look. Is it the same? It's funny said that, Ray. You know, we still are communicating with a lot of fans on social media. I still have over 2 million fan-based following. We got something that we're working on. on Skits TV right now that I'll be able to communicate more with my fans.

And yeah, I still get a lot of love out there, you know. Two more things I want to ask you, and then I'll let you go, and I really appreciate the time, Kimbo. It's great to catch up with you. Do you ever look back at that time with Elite XC and say, man, you know, maybe they pushed me a little too much, they put too much on my shoulders, it wasn't right, and now with Bellator won't be the same.

There are a lot of big names. You know, you can be a part of a whole thing. The whole company doesn't fall on your shoulders. Do you see the differences there, you kind of regret the way it was done back in Elite XC. You know, like I was saying, Ariel, man, I don't want to think that much. You know, I like to keep shit basic, basic, basic, you know, like simple. I'm not sure, and I have to really put that in some thought and get back to you on that answer.

But, you know, everybody does what they do. Belator is huge, you know. You know, no one, not one person don't literally have to carry. the company, but as a whole, as fighters as a whole, you know, we come together as a whole to promote and help build and make ourselves better, make the company better. And, you know, the fans, the fans are the ones that connect with each individual fighter.

For some reason, there's something about us that everyone out here in this world can relate to, and that's what makes the fights interesting. That's what makes the fans want to see us more, you know, want to watch out and tune in. How many more years do you want to do this for? I mean, until the body can't go no more, you know? I'm in it for the long haul. Okay.

And then my last one is, you know, what do you say to those people who scoff at this? Oh, Kimbo Slices, he hasn't fought in five years. He shouldn't get this opportunity. What do you say to the haters out there who are kind of rolling their eyes at this news? We need the haters. I mean, even though they are haters, they're going to have their own comment. But at the end of the day, we know it's love. You know, we give them something to talk about.

You know, I'm saying? We give them something to bet on. You know, we give them something to have something to say about, it's good barbershop talk, it's good bathroom talk. You know, it's good communication. It's good for communication. Yeah, no one. I like that either.

No one produced that more than you. You know, I got to say your voice sounds great. You seem to be in a very good place. You seem very content, very happy, very excited, perhaps less pressure on you. It's really a pleasure to talk to you again, Kimbo, after all these years. And by the way, I never said this to you, but why not right now since you're restarting your career?

I always appreciated you giving me some time as a youngster coming up in the game. You're always very kind to me, and I really appreciate you coming on the show here on short notice to talk to us. So best of luck to you. Congratulations on signing with Bellator, and thanks again for giving us a few minutes of your time. All right, hell. Thank you, man. Thanks for everything as well. All right, there he is. Kimbo-slice. How about that? Last minute, you never know who's going to pop up here on the MMR. Great stuff, and I appreciate everyone.

involved in Team Kimbo and, of course, Belator as well for hooking us up. Kimbo Slice, about to be 41 years old. There was nothing like it when he came onto the scene with Elite XE. I'll never forget being in attendance at the Prudential Center in Newark. When he fought James Thompson, the network debut of mixed martial arts. That was a crazy event afterwards. Brett Rogers campaigning for the fight, going back and forth. And now here we are.

What was that? That was 2008. 2008. seven years later almost, still relevant back in the scene. And Belator kind of surprising a lot of people by bringing him back, but that's what they want to do. That's their MO. They want these names that are going to bring the older fans,

fans who may not be following MMA as much. Everyone knows Kimbo Slice. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I have been asked, where is Kimbo? Do you remember Kimbo? Whatever happened to that guy, the street fighter guy, the YouTube guy, the guy with the beard. He resonated with people.

He struck a chord in many casual fans, and I'm sure Beltaur looking to reignite that interest once again. So they have signed Kimbo-Sliced Kevin Ferguson back on the scene, hoping to make his debut in the summertime opponent TBD. But that should be an interesting story to follow. We appreciate him stopping by very much. I understand he was just listening to the show and thought, you know what?

I need to speak to Ariel. Isn't that the case, Mr. New York, Rick? Yeah, I think... That's what he said, right? We've got the fans watching worldwide, and Kimbo's in that group. Yeah. How about that? Kimbo slice.

All right, well, that was a lot of fun, and good work getting him on short notice. I know that was all you. Sly bastard you. I'm not going to take all the credit. You should. But I'll take all the credit. Fair enough. All right, let's go inside the vault.

How about that? I was waiting for an amen. Yeah, how about that? Nothing. Just a smile. All right, I'll take it. UFC is back in Sweden this Saturday, and the main event, of course, is Alexander Augustus in versus Rumble Johnson. On the line, light heavyweight title shot.

John Jones. Oh, yeah. Have you heard about John Jones? He did an interview yesterday. I'm sure we'll get to that after Inside the Vault. For now, let's go inside the vault. I spoke to Anthony Johnson way back when. One of my very first interviews, actually, as far as on.

camera stuff is concerned. And if you recall, July 19th of 2008 was a very special day in the history of mixed martial arts. Affliction announced that they were going to put on a show that day. It was going to be Fyodor Emilienenko versus Tim Sylvia. They were going to put on their very first show. This caused a lot of drama in the world of MMA. They got banned by the UFC. You know the story by now. Well, just a few weeks before their debut event, Honda Center, Anaheim, UFC announced that they're going to counter-program this show. They're going to put a free show on Spike TV

and it will be headlined by Anderson Silva versus James Irvin. This was big. Competing shows, it was very interesting. Anyway, one of the fights on that show, Anthony Johnson versus Kevin Burns. You may remember this fight, went into the third round,

eye pokes galore, and then at the very end of the fight, Kevin Burns, pokes Anthony Johnson in the eye, a horrible eye poke. The pictures afterwards were gruesome to look at. But referee Steve Mazagadi calls it a TKO victory for Kevin Burns.

Clearly, if you look at the replays, it was obvious that Kevin Burns poked them in the eye, very badly. And there was some talk about overturning it, campaigning for a no contest, things of that nature, you know, going to the commission, it never happened. Until this day, it's still considered a loss as far as Anthony Johnson's record is concerned. The following week, after the controversy, after him getting poked, after him being an incredible amount of pain, and his eye was immediately shut, and he posted pictures online.

I remember it was a completely different color. It was gruesome stuff. I ran into Anthony Johnson at the Elite XE event in Stockton, California, July 26, 2008. And that, of course, was the event headline by Scott Smith and Robbie Lawler, too. Nick Diaz also on that card against Thomas Wildman Denny. I ran into him, and he was sporting a pretty big patch over his eye. he had just had surgery. So I wanted to know how he was feeling, what this means for his career, all that stuff.

And he went into it in great detail. And it's a lot of fun to, you know, now that he's 100% to look back and see, you know, this is a guy who has been through so much to get to this fight, the Gustafin fight, you know, the eye poke, missing weight, becoming somewhat of a laughing stock, getting cut from the UFC, having to work his way back up. And then most recently, indefinitely suspended. But at least right now, he has dodged all those bullets. He's fighting in a gigantic fight in a soccer stadium this Saturday on Big Fox, one win away from fighting for the belt.

So I thought it would be fun to go inside the vault. Look back at that interview, July 26, 2008 at the Elitexie event in Stockton, California. Anthony Johnson talking about the horrible eye poke injury that he suffered against Kevin Burns. Here it is going into the time machine almost, what, seven years ago. M-Arated.com being joined by Anthony Johnson and Anthony, the internet world, the MMA world. Very concerned about your health after last week's tough loss to Kevin Burns. First off, update us on how you're feeling. I feel great right now.

I had surgery last Wednesday or Thursday. I can't remember. I was so drugged up. I mean, my mind is gone. But my retina was detached. And I had a laceration basically from one end of my eye to the other. And they did laser to fix my retina. and they put stitches in my eye.

So right now I got stitches on my eyeball and it sounds pretty gross, but, I mean, it is what it is. Are you expected to make a full recovery at the end? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They said I could be back by September, but I'm guessing October, you know,

just to get my eye time to recover. Is this something where you think it might make you a little apprehensive the next time you step in the cage getting worried to get that eye injured again or do you feel as though, you know, you'll be able to put it past you at the end of the day? I don't worry about my injuries, man.

I go in there and fight. You know what I mean? That's part of the sport, and that's my job. So any injuries I get during the fight in training or anything, I don't worry about it whenever I fight. So you know me, I'm going there and give him my all, so it doesn't matter to me. If I'm hurt or not, I'm just going there and fight.

All right, I noticed you talking to referee Steve Mazagati before we spoke. Obviously, I'm sure you felt he made a bad decision on Saturday night. What did you guys talk about? Oh, man, he just apologized. He was, you know, being real cool about the whole situation. I knew that he was at an angle where he couldn't see the finger going in my eye. And, you know, that's what happens, you know. He was doing his job.

He called what he thought he saw, and I can't complain, you know. I wish that he would have, you know, said something soon about, you know, the poking in the eyes before. But, I mean, like I said, it is what it is. You know, he did his job. He thought I got hit with an uppercut and then called a TKO. and after he saw the replay on the big screen, he said that, you know, he called the commission the next day and told him just, you know, to try and fix it, he apologized to me for everything. So it's all good. You've had some highs and lows in this sport. Was that the lowest moment for you in your career thus far?

Yeah, it was. You know, but you know what? It also made me stronger, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm going to come back stronger and better next time I fight. And anyone talked to you in the UFC about what's up next? No, no. Right now, only thing we're worried about is my eye. That's what everybody's worried about. That's what I'm worried about. I just want to come back stronger and better for my next opponent. And, you know, to let the fans know that I'm doing all right in my next fight when I knock my next opponent out. All right. Well, he is Anthony Rumble Johnson expected to make a full recovery. Best of luck to you, Anthony. Thank you. So there it is. A lot of fun to look back at that, and he has come a long way. Of course, the fight was never overturned. It's still a loss on his record. when you look at Anthony Johnson's record, I mean, it's really an amazing thing what he has been able to do in his MMA career. When you look at the people he has lost to, of course, Kevin Burns fight, I mean, I don't know if I really want to consider that a loss. Lost to Rich Clemente way back when UFC 76, September of 2007.

And then afterwards, Josh Kosteck, but he has improved a hell of a lot since then. And as far as his wrestling is concerned, he lost via second round submission. And you know that, you know, the weight was a very big deal for him. I mean, he was struggling a lot leading up to the fight, and he was unable to, I felt, live up to his potential as a welterweight. Then, of course, the Vitor Belfort debacle, when he missed weight by 12 pounds, he was fighting at middleweight, moving up, and then he gets cut. Since then, he has won, what is it, eight in a row, one, two, three, four, five, six,

7, 8. David Branch, Estavis Jones, Jake Rochall, DJ Linderman, and then it starts to get interesting. Andrea Olavski at heavyweight, Mike Kyle knockout, Phil Davis, unanimous decision, and then he obliterated Antonio Hoseerio Nogera back in July. He has been on the sidelines for a little bit, longer than he wanted, of course, because of that indefinite suspension, he was accused of some domestic violence. UFC investigated it and it came out that, you know, he should not be cut, he should not be suspended, and he should be fighting in this fight. So it's going down this Saturday night in Sweden. It's actually going to be taking place Sunday morning in Sweden Saturday night here in the United States, and it's very important as far as the light heavyweight division is

concerned. Also on that card, Dan Henderson going back down to 185 against Gagra Musassi, Ryan Bader versus Phil Davis. Also important in the light heavy. heavyweight division and Akira Khorasani versus Sam Cecilia rounds out the main card on Fox. I'll be there doing my Fox duties. I'll be on the desk and whatnot doing some interviews as well. So that should be that should be fun as always. Now I know a lot of people are asking me about Miracle Krocop. I, you know, I'm doing the show live and I'm trying to talk to people at the same time. I reached out to a very high-ranking UFC source and asked him if he was signing with the UFC, and I was told no.

Now, I do believe, let me look into this right here, I do believe that, yeah, Bloody Albo is reporting, according to a source, that Kroka, a Croatian sensation himself, has signed a new multi-fight deal with the UFC. This written by John Joe Regan, who I know, has ties to Mirko ties in the sense that I know he has spoken to him before

and he's a very well-respected reporter out of Europe so I don't think he would be pulling that out of his butt but I will say that as far as my brief reaching out to went I was told not true. He did on his Facebook page as I told Scott Koker

post a picture of the UFC logo so who knows and now Scott is saying that after all after on Friday saying that he was interested in it seemed like they were pretty close Mirko Krocop back in the UFC interesting stuff mr. New York Rick mr. Halwani what do you make of that you think he's going to the UFC what are your sources telling you I don't have any my sources are Ariel Hawani yes and that's that source is telling me that their source says it's not happening but I've been known

to get a few, you know, fibs here and there. No, that's true. People throw out some lemons. What, overall, my overall thoughts about it are just, you know, this isn't quite surprising to me, especially if Bellator, you know, verbally expresses interest, then it makes perfect sense to, to want to get Miracle away from, from Bellator. And, you know, this is, I mean, they just resigned Rampage. This isn't really, you know, some kind of out-of-left-field thing.

It's certainly, you know, big news, but it doesn't have the impact that maybe this would have had a year ago, you know, a year and a half ago. This is kind of the environment. This is kind of the back and forth between the UFC and Belator these days. That's what it shows. That may be in the future if one organization is interested in signing someone, they shouldn't tell us beforehand. And also, I mean, this, you know, I'm not a lawyer or anything, but in terms of, you know, the, you know, the lawsuit against the UFC, it would be very hard to argue that, you know, Bellator is not a legitimate competitor in terms of whether they're a monopoly or,

or, you know, the only, the only pony in town because they're not. Belator is a legitimate, you know, organization for MMA talent out there. And, you know, World Series of fighting is still there. So I think that it's an interesting time in MMA and an interesting time for the UFC, Bellator, everybody involved. Yeah. Let me go to John Joe Regan's Twitter page here because I saw some people were retweeting him. I'm trying to go back to the beginning. He has tweeted a lot. Oh, here it is. John Joe Regan, he tweeted this. Krokoop is returning to the UFC will be announced shortly. Just got confirmation on it now from a source, very happy face close to the situation.

Belator wanted Krokoop and had a deal 99% done when UFC heard about it and stepped in with big money to keep him from Belator. UFC is taking no chances with Scott Coker. Oh, what? Well, we're on the edge of our seat. No, I'm just reading. Talk amongst yourself for a second. Talk amongst myself.

How about I'll answer a few Twitter questions. We had some that were actually, not Twitter, rather, the website. We had a few that were actually directed at me, including one that asked me if I'm on the Connor McGregor hype train yet. And the answer is, I've always been on the car. Connor McGregor hype train. If you don't remember, after Connor McGregor beat Dustin Poet, you can go back to the tape and see me draped in the tricolor singing the song that is now associated with Connor McGregor.

I'm the biggest Connor McGregor fan in the world. I'm the biggest one out there. So am I on the hype train? I'm the conductor of the hype train. Wow, what? Okay, I heard that. The conductor of the hype train, when did that happen officially? Was it Dennis Seaver that...

No, no, no. This is a long time, long time. I think, you know, back when he was fighting in regional promotions, I was, you know, thinking about how good this kid could be. Also, I was just thinking about this. The idea of calling a grown man kid, it's weird. Like when Yerai Hall was doing his encaged thing, it struck something in my ear that caught a little weird. And I just called Connor McGregor a kid, so I apologize.

apologize for that because I just heard about me. Who's actually older? Between Uriah and... No, between you and Connor. Oh, I think, I think Connor. I feel like you're pretty close. Let's see. Is he, is he 27? What is he? No, he's younger than me. He's 26. He's 26. What are you? I'm 27. Oh, look at you. You can call him a kid. I mean, he's born in, he's born in the summer of 88. I'm born in the summer of 87. kid. I guess he's a kid. Yeah, it fits. So what, I mean, I know you were on the show and all that, but it was somewhat in jest. Why are you a believer now?

No, I, my God's honest truth, I think, I've always thought, Connor McGregor needed to prove certain things in the cage before I was ready to, you know, anoint him, before I was ready to make the same kind of claims about him that other people were doing. Like, after the Porre fight, it was very clear to me that he had the skills that I, you know, was wanting to see to compete at the very highest level, including, you know, a fight with Josealdo. Do I love, do I still love, you know, everything he does, all the, you know, the repetition of some of the lines and all that stuff? It's not my favorite. But as a fighter, Connor McGregor is, A, very good, and B, box office. want to see him fight and he delivers every time he goes in there he didn't he didn't quite do it in two minutes but he did it in two rounds he promised to finish and he got it and you know there's the the hype behind and the promotion behind deniseever wasn't big and it was fine well my my

thing is who cares if you're if they filled the arena they did great numbers on fox sports one yes they did the right thing obviously um so What I was saying was even though there wasn't the promotion that needed to be behind Dennis Siver for everybody to feel like it was fair, quote unquote. Dennis Sever is still a good opponent, and I think that, you know, if I had to rank him, I'd say his, it could be close, his second or third best win. His first, I'd say, Porier, second Holloway or Sever. Those I think are relatively close if you swap them. But Connor McGregor is building himself a resume. and I've never questioned his talent.

I've wanted to see it, and now I've seen it. And after the Poiré fight, that was the one that I really started believing that this guy could be something special. What did you make of the post-fight scene, jumping out of the cage, getting in out of those face? Would you make it the whole thing? Incredible. I mean, there are two things at play here. And I mean, everybody's already dissected this. The idea that Connor McGregor had to jump out of the cage and getting Josie Aldo's face is hilarious, smart, good promotion, exciting.

And the fact that Jose Aldo reacted as if Connor McGregor was, you know, the jester dancing in front of him. He had no, he didn't recognize it as a threat. He was tickled by it more so than threatened, in my opinion, which is, you know, Josialdo is an ice cold. MFer. And how do you think that does on pay-per-view? Connor McGregor hype is real, man. It's people want to see him. I'm not one to, you know, guess pay-per-view numbers. I don't know the first thing about that, but I would guess that it does very well. I would not be surprised if he was right and it did better than Jones Cormier. You think? I wouldn't be surprised. Wow, because the thing is, the interesting thing about it is,

Aldo is is is is so respected and so great in our world, but he can't he can't actually go out and promote. I know I know but I think I think they'll they'll find a way with just Connor McGregor and selling it you know as as Josie Aldo is is so so uninterested that he can't even promote it. I could I could see it happening. I could see it happening. Wow that is he's a force he's a machine. Connor McGregor is a is a machine promotion-wise. How do you feel... See, I need to say something about the whole Ali stuff

because people get all upset. Yep, let's hear it. You go first. How do I feel about the... His name being in that same sentence. Don't love that. I mean, it's... Even the people I know who don't follow the sport,

like, I'm very much inside the MMA bubble. I see a lot of it. I pretty much consume, like, 90% MMA and then I have time for the rest. The people who are outside that bubble, who are, you know, casual observers, saw the thing on on the NFC or was it AFC, I forget which championship game, but they saw the plug for Connor McGregor as, you know, the white Muhammad, the Irish Muhammad Ali, I apologize. And they saw, you know, some of the promotion, the commercials, the posters in the lead-up and

and the talk of him as the Irish Muhammad Ali. And they were not impressed by that. So if the idea was to lure people in and say, you know, this guy's bad and this guy's, the talker that Ali was and the fighter that Ali was, I don't think it necessarily worked. The people I saw it didn't really work on, they were more like, are you sure? And then they confirmed with people who do follow the sport and heard that it was not true. maybe that was enough to get them interested and trying to watch it but i don't love that as an angle i think connor mcgregor does enough to sell it without the irish mohammed ali you probably want

to be careful when comparing him to a legend of of ali's stature especially you know the things he did outside of the actual sport um but hey i mean i don't know if the if the numbers are right If they got the best number they ever did on Fox Sports One, who am I to tell them? Yeah, I'm very interested in seeing those official numbers. So how about this? I saw some people asking me, can you break some news? Can you do it? Prove that you are the reporter that we think you are.

UFC President Dana White has just confirmed to me that Mirrokoff has, in fact, signed with the UFC. We were going back and forth and we got it done. he would not give any further details, but it is official. Mirro Krocop, the Croatian sensation himself. You have heard it here first from Dana White. Has in fact signed with UFC. Now I say you have heard it here first. I must give all the credit to John Joe Regan of Bloodyelvo.com

who first reported it according to a source. And that article is up there right now. But Dana White has confirmed to me that Miracle Krocop has signed with UFC. Now what do you think? I think the same thing I thought before. I thought, you know, it doesn't surprise me. This is the climate of the sport right now. But, I mean, you know, I like these kind of fights.

I think we have a few questions that kind of go down this path, that we might be able to dovetail off and talk about this a little bit in some of our questions from the website. Really? People are asking about Mirko? We may have, I didn't select one of those, but people are asking about, you know, rampage and asking about, you know, Some of the other signing, like Kimbo, just the idea of signing people who may not have necessarily been signed a year or two ago. And we can kind of, you know, talk about that a little bit. Okay, you know, I'm really interested in seeing who they match them up against. Mirro Krokoop last fought in the UFC, UFC, UFC 137 October of 2011.

He lost to Roy Nelson. Since then, he is three and four as an MMA fighter. Of course, he has also competed in kickboxing most recently defeating Jarrell Miller at Gloria. 17 in Los Angeles. That was in June of this past year. He has two wins over Satoshi Ishii. He did lose to Alexei Olinick, who is now a member of the UFC. Wow, that is pretty big news as far as big names coming to the UFC.

He is 40 years old, turned 40 in September, one of the most beloved MMA fighters of all time. And now he is back in the UFC, per Dana White, once again, first reported by John Joe Regan. Let's get into the questions. Wow. I mean, it seems to always happen during the show. Well, that's why this show is the show that it is, I guess. Kimbo Slicse, Mirro Cop. Hey, can you do me a favor?

Can you get Miracle on the phone? I'd like to ask him a few questions. You know him quite well. Friend of the show now. Friend of the show. I feel a little uncomfortable calling up Mirko. Why? He's such a, he loves the media.

He'll sing some California. What is it? I was going to say Californication. What was the name of that? California girl. Was it? Yeah, I wish they, yeah. Is that, I really don't know. Have we talked about that I don't listen to music on this show?

It's a very bizarre thing, although your first Twitter handle was... Music-related, yes. Which I find very strange. Yeah, at the time I had, you know, come across the music, but I don't... Even then, I didn't have any MP3s. Okay, let's get into it. We were just talking about... Bear with me a little bit.

The computer is... California Dreamin. There you go. Michael Carole. Wait, California Dreamin. That's the name. Wasn't that like a show on NBC back in the day? Yeah, probably.

Anyway. By the way, I spoke to Rami Gennauer, who is the brains behind Fight Metric. I was in... Where was I? In Boston. And it was great to see Rami there. You know why?

Because I was doing my Fox stuff and I see a man walking by with a KIPA. And you don't see a lot of Kippas backstage at a UFC event. And Rami is a practicing Jew, which is always very exciting to see. And I haven't spoken to Rami since he was on this very show. So I was able to talk to him a little bit about what Fight Metric is doing, and they have some very exciting things in the works.

I also spoke to him about the prolific Michael Carroll, the number one fan of the M.MA hour, who is kind of our stat boy, who drops his nuggets here and there. And also, I mean, I feel like he has a budding rivalry with New York, Rick. I feel like there's something there that we need to tap into. me and Mike? Yeah, I mean, I just feel like there's some animosity at times. Accurate?

Inaccurate. I didn't feel that way, but now that you're saying it, it makes me think, you know, Michaels may be whispering in your ear a little bit. No, nothing. No, I don't feel that way at all. Okay, fair enough. Mike, man, he's the best in the business. Nobody has, you know, the stats quicker.

It's not only the speed that he gives the stats, but it's, you know, that they're relevant and they're important. I got nothing but love for Michael Carroll. Shout out to MJ flip the script. All right, let's go. How about you trying to rile that up? What was that? Michael Carroll.

Look, I'm just trying to clear up the issues, the beefs. I'm trying to help you guys out. He's a great guy. You're a great guy. You know, I want you guys to be. I don't like this. I don't like where this is going. I got to have an offline conversation with Michael Carroll.

Offline conversation is straight out of the Scott Coker book of interviews. Listen, I'm going to talk to Michael Carroll in a week and I'm going to report back. Although credit where it's due, he said six to eight hours for Paul Daley. That's a first. No, I need a week for Michael Carroll. All right. Connor and the media, this is the longest we've gone without going to questions. Now we're going.

What do you guys think of Connor's comments? Breaking news, damn it? Okay, yeah. And me just, you know, kind of talking a little bit. That was good. Also, what do you think the strains of being a rising star must be like? I thought the comments were almost exactly like GSP's in the past. Connor seemed particularly glazed over in a lot of his interviews in the lead-up to the promotion to Fight Night.

What do you mean glazed over? Like he wasn't into it? Yeah, maybe he means like, you know, aloof kind of not as, you know, focused as he might have been in the past. You know, I have to be honest, I feel for the guy. I mean, he says he's doing 14-hour days. He's doing brunch shows. He's doing morning shows. He's doing breakfast shows.

I mean, look, like we were talking about with Page, you find yourself in these shows and you have people who don't know a lot about you who are asking you the same random stuff. I mean, it's not even that random. I mean, it's kind of cookie cutter stuff. And I can see how that can get a little tiring. You know, so I feel for the guy,

but I know deep down he understands that he has to do this stuff. This is the reason why he is as popular as he is. And the reason people are so attracted to him is because of his personality, what he says in interviews, he's somewhat of a fresh air. I mean, that's how people,

get emotionally invested in these guys. So I think he was venting a little bit. And that's why I asked him the question because it does seem a little funny to be at a press conference, to do the media that you do. And I know he doesn't have a complete say about how much he does

and then to complain about that media. And you're relatively new in the game. I mean, if you win that belt, guess what? You're going to do a whole lot more media. The media isn't going away. We've seen guys like GSP complain about this in the past, but they all end up missing us at some point or another.

This is just a product of his popularity and his fame. and his personality as well. He tells you how he's feeling. So I have no problem with it. I mean, he's great, and it's kind of a double-edged sword. The better you are, the more interviews you're going to get, and the more interviews that you get, you know, you're going to get a little annoyed along the way.

I can't say I honestly felt that. You know, I thought it was pretty... He brought it pretty strong, yeah. Yeah, I thought it was pretty standard Connor McGregor Fair, and he gets it. You know, like, you know, I've said this many times, I'm personally not like in love with all the stuff he says. His brand, you know, his brand of promotion.

But like it or not, it, A, works. And B, he's very good at it. He, he, there's something magnetic about him. There's something very polarizing about Connemer Greger. And it's not an accident. And he's a very smart person when it comes to fighting and when it comes to promotion. I appreciate, no doubt about it. I appreciate what he brings to the table.

I also appreciate what he said about me at the Post-Five press conference. That was very nice of him. He doesn't give out a lot of compliments, so I thought that was a nice compliment. And also, you know, I wanted to just touch quickly on the Ali thing, unless it comes up in a question. No. Because I didn't answer it. I was trying to buy some time as I was doing the texting. I posted a picture yesterday, and I can't lie.

Had nothing to do with what Lorenzo or anyone else said about him. In that moment when he was yelling at Aldo, and Aldo was stone face, he was smiling but not reacting the way maybe kind of wanted him to react. In that moment, it reminded me of that famous Ali Frazier moment where Ali is yelling big mouth to Frazier. Now, I hear some people say, well, you just call Jones DC Ali Frazier. I'm not saying this is Ali Frazier. What I'm saying is, A, it reminded me of that. B, everyone has their own Ali Frazier.

You and I have our Ali Frazier moments. Every person, to me, Ali Frazier is the pinnacle. It cannot get better and bigger than that as far as combat sports are concerned. Everyone has an Ali Frazier. Tom Brady has an Ali Frazier moment. Michael Jordan has his al-that, to me, is my way of describing. I'm not saying that McGregor is the Frazier. You get what I'm trying to say here?

But you can't help but go to that place, at least in my mind, when you think of fights, because that is the gold standard. It all came together in that fight. It was bigger than the sport. it was larger than life. He had Frank Sinatra there as a photographer, ringside. There's nothing bigger than Ali Frazier in my mind. So when people try to compare him to Ali,

when people try to compare him to Ali, when people try to compare this fight, I'm sure they will, to Ali Frazier. In my mind, what they're saying is it's the biggest, it's the best. It's this. Ali is almost, he's almost like a... Synonymous? He's a characteristic now. He's an adjective at this point.

You know what I mean? But no one can touch him. the reason, if Ali was just a great fighter, he would be remembered like a George Foreman, like a Hagler-Herns. He would be remembered like a Smoky Joe Robinson. He would be remembered like a Floyd Mayweather, like an Oscar Deloia. He would be remembered as a great fighter. But he has remembered the way he is. He is known worldwide because of what he did outside of the ring. Of course, the talking all this stuff, but it was the political movements. It was draft dodging. It was standing up. His famous phrase, I ain't got no

quarrel with him viet Kong. I mean, it's all that. That's what made him who he was. In my opinion, leaving the sport, getting suspended, his stuff with Howard CoSel. That's Ali, no one can touch that. In this day and age, it wouldn't even happen. It couldn't happen. Connor himself says it's not even fair to Ali and himself, to be honest, to put him in that category. So I just feel like that's a crutch that people go to, and perhaps you can say that I'm guilty of this as well, but it's more in my mind the gold standard. That's what we want every fight to be. That's what we wanted to to all feel like Ali Frazier. And I do believe, by the way, I want to clear this up,

I do believe that every grate needs a foil. And Joseo Aldo has always been here. He's always been below the Silvas, the Shoguns, the Nogueras. He's always been here. I was at UFC 179. That was in a sold-out arena, and it was smaller than the HSBC arena. It was the Maracarizino, right?

It was the smaller gymnasium. And that was the Mendez fight, and he had a rivalry there. He couldn't even sell that out. This is going to take him to that next level. And that's why I believe Aldo needs McGregor more than McGregor needs Aldo. McGregor was going to the top. He was going to the title fight regardless of who was there.

If it was Mendez, he'd be calling him a shrimp and all this other stuff. Aldo's there. And it makes it even more special that he's the legend that he is. But Aldo has never had that guy that brings us out in him. Mendes didn't do it. Faber didn't do it. He's had great fights. But no one has tried to get under his skin and tested him the way McGregor.

And no one has this passionate fight. following and fan base that McGregor has. That's what makes this so special. And people maybe in the back of their mind are thinking either A, he doesn't deserve it or B, he might be the one. That's what makes it special. And Aldo needs that. Aldo needs someone to help elevate him, like Chale and Anderson.

Anderson was so good for so long, and then someone started poking him and got people interested in this guy. Cormier-Jones. It's not going to be another fight. So that's what I mean about that. People on the Internet saying that I said, Aldo needs to beat McGregor to cement his legacy. if Aldo retires right now, he's top three

greatest of all time. Top four, top five max. If he retires right now, he has nothing left to do as far as cementing his legacy. His legacy is already cemented. But if he wants to be the icon, the promoter, the poster boy that I'm sure he wants to become

and make a whole lot more money, he needs a guy. Connor is going to bring him to that level. And that's just the fact. I get what I'm saying? I do get what you're saying, but I think that's more specific to Jose Aldo and Anderson Silva because of the fact that they don't do American media, you know, the way that... But even in their home country.

They aren't... He isn't the star that Anderson's... No, I agree with you. But I think that a lot of that comes from, you know, Jose... They're viewed as elusive. And part of that, I think, is the language barrier. I don't think, you know, like, who's that for GSP? I don't think he has one.

I will say this about GSP. If you recall, the second Matt Sarah fight was a phenomenon. Yeah. The second Matt Sarah fight sold out the Bell Center, which was what, 22,000, 23,000, something like that. UFC 83. Matt Sarah was saying, hey, French Eagle, have some wine. I always felt, by the way, and I've said on this show, I always felt they should have done a third fight between them. I know, yeah, you've said that.

The second Matt Sarah was that rivalry that made people really truly fall in love with George St. Pierre. and hey, he lost in the first fight, like Ali, you know, again, I keep going to that, but everyone needs, if it's so dominant, if it looks so easy, if it's so one-sided, they can't gravitate towards it. And if you have, as much as people don't want to admit it, you have some trash talking, you have some back and forth, you have some controversies, some low blows, some insults, that only gets people more fired up. I've been there now. These people were going absolutely apeshit when McGregor jumped the cage and went after him. And that moment is going to be replayed until forever. And in my opinion. So if you're asking about GSP, that was his guy. Now, now, not everyone has a guy. And they don't get to fulfill their stardom. Not everyone has it. Who didn't have a guy? I don't think GSP has a guy. That is the one that's closest. Now, later on in his career, he may not have had the guy. You know, Nick Diaz tried to bring it out of him, but it was too one-sided. There needs to be, by the way, more than one fight here. I think of it this way. Let's imagine that Connor McGregor was the long-standing champion, right? I think his mouth,

can sell it as the champion. And I don't think he needs, you know, I think we're looking at it as Joseo needs Connor McGregor. But yes, he does. But that's because Connor McGregor does the things he doesn't do. If Joseo Aldo was the complete package when it comes to promotion, when it comes to fighting,

I mean, his fighting, we know he's the complete package. If he had the promotional skills that Connor McGregor has, I think they could throw anybody in there. And I think the same thing could have been said for John Jones. Now, the DC Cormier, I'm sorry, the Cormier-Jones fight was huge and a really good indicator for John Jones. But I think he could have continued to just be dominant and he would have been polarizing. And, you know, maybe if this story, the cocaine thing had come out, it would have still elevated his exposure to this level. I think that Aldo specifically needs Daniel Cormier, needs Connor McGregor.

but I'm not sure that every guy needs that guy. I think that Connor McGregor, if he was the champion, could sell those fights on his own without having the guy. No, because then it gets mundane. And if you have someone just blowing through all the top guys and there's nothing to gravitate towards, how about this? Speaking of our buddy Michael Carroll,

GSP, he just suggested this to me. GSP, BJ Penn. That was fierce stuff. I would love to say that BJ was that guy, but I don't think he was. UFC 94? That was gigantic. Oh, it was a huge fight.

But if you're saying one huge fight makes that rivalry, I don't think it does. No, but that was a rematch? And the first one was controversial? Yeah, the first one was controversial. But let's not pretend that at the time the first one was some kind of, you know. But what did it turn into? Yeah, no, it was a huge fight. It was a title versus, and it wasn't title.

It was champion versus champion. It was a super fight. He was coming back up. I mean, that was a big deal. That was the first time I had a friend who was not interested in MMA, want to go to the bar and go watch him and that. Of course, and BJ Penn, you know, the low blows about the steroids. And, you know, you remember the prime time where they were calling him out in the first episode and then he comes back in the top of the second episode. And he's talking about how, you know, you tap like a bitch and all

that stuff. I mean, that was serious stuff. Frank Meere, Brock Lesnar. I don't think Brock Lesnar would have become the star that he was if he didn't have Frank Mear beating him in that first fight. Crazy, I know. Chuck Lidale, Tito Ortiz. Everyone needs a foil. It can't, it can't just be one-sided. You can't. Yeah, but I think in hindsight, we're able to say, oh, that was the guy because that was the biggest one. Of course, sometimes you need some space. But I don't think, I don't think, I don't think

that BJ Penn was the guy as much as I would love to have said that. I don't think he was the one who took GSB to the next level. I don't know about that, but not everyone gets the guy. I really do believe that that was a big deal, but okay, fine, not everyone gets the guy. Connor is the guy right now.

Connor is Aldo's best chance to take the next step. Aldo talks about money, wanting to make more else up. Connor is the best the best guy to do that. 100%. No one ever talked about

Aldo selling out a stadium. I don't care where it is. If there's a guy that can take him to Ireland to sell the stadium, that's a first. And by the way, they could sell up Brazil especially after what happened

on that Q&A. Remember that Q&A? That was insane. Yeah. That was way more hostile than Boston, by the way. They wanted to kill this man. There was security up there

on the stage of them. The one on Friday, while fun, I did feel like it was a little embarrassing at times, and I kind of felt like the champion deserved a little more respect, but he took it all, you know, he took it all like a champ and played them off, you know, as just being these drunks and all that stuff. But it wasn't anywhere near as hostile as Brazil was.

I mean, in Brazil, you always got the feeling that something was going to happen, and Connor just ran right through that. Point being, no one has brought that out of Aldo. No one has made him feel, even though he's laughing and all that stuff, No one has made him feel this way. And by the way, when I was interviewing Jose backstage after the fight, Connor was doing the...

Oh, really? He was doing that to him. It's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. So this is what Aldo needs. And that's why I think when I say he needs it more than Connor needs it,

it's because Connor was going to pick that fight with... Whoever the champion was, yeah. But I think that's kind of my point, is that Connor could do this with anybody. You know what I mean? I think he, I don't think necessarily, I think this is specific to Joseo Alto. I do, it, it almost sounds like I'm making the argument that rivalries are not important. They are.

But I don't think that there's a one guy for every guy that elevates them to the next level. I think that there might not be, but, but can you, can you agree that every guy can benefit from that guy? Every guy almost needs that guy to take that. Connor McGregor is the best thing that ever happened to Joseo Alto. And the rest of the division, honestly. The rest of every featherweight owes him a, and I, I think. I think, I could be wrong, but I think Frankie Eager thanked Connor McGregor when they came back to the studio for elevating the division. Sure.

And Frank Eggers is a sharp cookie. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and even, you know, even if George St. Pierre didn't have that guy, he would have been a bigger star if he did find that guy. If there was truly that guy. Man, imagine. GSP, like in a trilogy against somebody that, like, oh, man. Anderson Silva Chale? Okay, it goes on and on. Let's continue.

Okay. We can talk about this one topic. We have like 20 questions left. Okay, let's go. Let's blow through them quick. Let's do them quick. Is it a good idea to go to Vegas instead of Ireland for Josie Aldo versus Connor McGregor? It would be mass international exposure in the first ever stadium show. Here's why it's not a bad idea.

It's not a bad idea because look at Jones, D.C. Jones, D.C. wasn't sold out. It still did $3.5 million in the gate. So you can sell tickets for a much. higher price in Las Vegas. You don't even have to sell out and you can get a gate like that, 3.5. By comparison, Boston was like 1.4 or something like that. And that was essentially sold down there. There were way more people there, a few more thousand people. So if you go to Ireland, not only are you traveling abroad, not only are you having to, you know, fill up an entire soccer

stadium. And production-wise, as Dana White was saying on Sunday night, you have to put a cover, you have to put up big screens, you have to do all this stuff, all that costs more money. you're going to have to make the tickets a lot less cheap because a lot cheaper because of the fact that you need to fill out a 90,000 seat stadium. You can't make the tickets, you know, $1,000, things like that. You're trying to fill up a stadium in Ireland of all places. And then you have this curfew that you have to deal with.

And then on top of all that, you have the pay-per-view issue. If you want it to be in prime time here in the United States, it's going to have to be in the middle of the night. Then it goes back to the curfew. If you want to do it at a certain time where the curfew doesn't come into plain Ireland, it's going to be in the middle of the day, and they firmly believe that they lose out on pay-per-view numbers. Vegas is home for them. It's cheaper for them to put on an event there because it's all local, and they consider it the fight capital of the world. So if it's not going to be in Brazil, I thought Brazil would be perfect because it's the champion home.

I think they could sell a lot of tickets, but can they sell the same amount? No. So if it's not going to be in Brazil, if it's not going to be in Ireland, it has to be in Las Vegas. Unfortunately for those fans in Ireland. I'm fortunate for the fans in Brazil because I thought that would have made a lot of sense. But if you actually look at the numbers, Vegas sells the most.

Our next question, how far is Jose Aldo from Jones as the pound for pound best? Where would a defeat of Connor McGregor put Aldo compared to John Jones? Would it be enough to consider him better than Jones? Yeah, I don't know about that because McGregor, while he may be a great champion,

he may be a great legendary fighter. He's not quite there just yet. I mean, let's not kid ourselves. he's had a very nice run and I think it's crazy that people still say on my Instagram I posted a picture of him and they're like oh the UFC's ramming him down on our throats I mean he's 5-0

4 out of his five fights are finishes what are they 3 out of the 5 are finishes in the first round the other one is second round finish against Dennisiever he beat Max Holloway half of the fight he had a torn ACL and by the way every single one of his wins all those fighters are still in the UFC

and by the way all of them are still thriving in the UFC Holloway is still there, Brimage still there, Porre is still there, Max Holloway is still there, they're all still very much players. They're not on the verge of being cut or anything like that. So all that being said, he doesn't have the resume that Rampage had, that Chogun had, that Machita had, that D.C. had. I mean, he just doesn't have that right now. So Aldo doesn't get elevated as much.

My opinion, pound for pound, I'd say he's probably at least right now, Is this all time or right now? Right now, he's number two. There's no doubt about it, but John Jones still number one, and he would remain number one, even if Aldo beat McGregor. Sean Spencer versus Cahall Pendred. Where do you guys rank this decision in the worst decisions ever? The fight was not close at all.

Cahall nearly got finishing around one and still got the round. Also, not to put you on the spot, but do you think it's possible judges are communicating with each other? I'm not believing for one second that two out of three judges honestly gave Cahall every round without talking to each other. I don't know about that one. Yeah, that one let's eliminate. I don't think that that's the case.

I think they were intoxicated by the crowd. That was a very pro-pendred. What, what? Intoxicated? I mean... Yeah. It can be intoxicating by the crowd. Yeah, yeah.

I'm not saying they were drunk, but you can be intoxicated by that. You get what I'm trying to say, right? I do. I'd love to watch a... By the way, I'd love to watch a fight one day as we sit here and always critique the judges. I'd just love to watch a fight. I'm not giving them an out,

but I'd love to watch a fight from their vantage point, because as you know, you've been there, you know, you know how it could be when you're close. It's a very different ball game watching a fight so close. So I would just love to do that one day.

In any event, it was a bad call, and I think Sean Spencer won 2928. If that's the case, then we need to fix where they're sitting. Yeah, but that's the case. That's the way it's always been. Well, I'm saying, if watching it from their perspective, you see that fight for Kahal,

whereas most people agree it was for Sean Spencer, then they need to be sitting somewhere else or they need to have access to something else. I mean, I don't think that because they're put in a tough position, that's a justification, you know? No, no, no. I'm just saying, I'm just curious if it really is an issue, if this is one of the reasons why they appear to be so incompetent at times. But it's up there.

I mean... It's a bad one. It's a bad one, yeah. It's bad. And, you know, I think Kahal Pendrad needs to come out there and do something special in his next fight

because his last fight was super close as well. In his first fight, he was getting obliterated, but then he came back, obviously, and won. This one's controversial. He needs to almost get back

in the good graces of the public. How about this? Would this get him back in the good graces? C.M. Punk versus Kahul Pendred. They've been going back and forth on Twitter. Pendritred wanted the fight,

and by the looks of things, it might be competitive. He also has a bigger name that any O&O or 1-0 fighter the UFC may bring into Fight Punk. What do you think about the potential future matchup? I don't see it happening, and that's just my two cents. If I'm Cahal Pendrad, I keep that going. I keep that going as long as I can.

Let people believe that CM Punk can beat you. That's the best thing that can happen to. Are you kidding? That is the lottery ticket right there. That fight will be promoted more than any fight in recent memory, and maybe of all time. That's going to be a very big deal. So if I'm Kahal Pender, I keep that going.

Let people believe that you're a tomato can and all that stuff. But I just have a feeling that punk is going to fight someone with less fights on his record. By the way, while we go to the next question, I just want to mention, since we are breaking news left and right here, MMA junkie.com reporting that Kung Lee has retired from mixed martial arts. Wow. This reported by Stephen Morocco, after several months of weighing his options, middleweight Kung Lee has decided to hang up his MMA gloves.

So that's on MMA junkie.com. And oh, by the way, on M.A. fighting, we broke earlier today that Van der Leis Silva has filed a lawsuit against the Nevada Athletic Commission. They have 30 days to respond. It was filed late last week. And that, of course, in response to them giving him a lifetime ban, his team, lawyer Ross Goodman believes that they don't have the jurisdiction to do that because he was not a licensed fighter in Nevada at the time. So that's going to be very interesting. Okay. This is not the one hold on the computer.

man, the computer today. Just a normal Tuesday in MMA, right? Yeah, I love it. I was going to say, oh, well, yeah, just a normal. Oh, I was going to say the topic of Kungley, you know, being a UFC fighter when that lawsuit came out was quite a bit of a discussion at the time. So I guess this alleviates that a little bit. I guess, but he's still contractually tied to the UFC. Sure, but if he's retiring from MMA.

Sure, sure, sure. Oh, great. Is it back? Oh, wow, look at that. No, it's not back. The white screen of death. Yeah. Hang tight, folks. Let's answer some from Twitter.

I'll just read these ones out to you. Okay, if you need a couple minutes, I could do something right here. I won't need a couple minutes. Just one question. Okay, okay, okay. Let's do this question from Twitter. Yes. What did you think of the Conrad McGillicuddy video starring Ricardo Lamas?

You know, I give him an A for effort. he certainly put a lot of time in that one. He certainly, he went to great lengths. The production was actually quite good. And I like the fact that he was showing his personality that has always been a knock on Ricardo. He has always kind of been a little reserved and not promoted himself as well as others.

So I give him an A for effort, and his timing was great as well, putting that out just a couple of days before the fight. That I think it was particularly funny? No, I don't think I l-oled once. That kind of humor, just not really my style. But he got people talking, A for effort. He got Connor McGregor talking.

He got Connor McGregor fired up, right? Yeah. And Patty Houhan as well. I think it did its job. It did its job. Now, if we're going to actually break down or grade its comedic efforts, then I don't know if it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. But he's not a comedian.

He tried great for him. He got his name out there. and it seemed to have worked. So A for effort, in my opinion. But was it funny? I just didn't laugh. I didn't think it was funny. It has nothing to do with the topic.

It just, I didn't know well. Did you? I did not, you know, I thought it was amusing. I wasn't, you know, it wasn't like watching a stand-up set. It wasn't the funniest thing I've ever seen. But I don't think there should be any kind of, you know, larger critique upon it. And he took a shot. Yeah, that's it.

You know, look. It was what it was. Let's not. That's why A for effort. Yeah, I like that. And by the way, it has, as of right now, 313,000 views. Yeah, I mean, that's, yeah. It did its job. It doesn't have to be funny if everybody's watching it.

Right. Shields versus Paul Harris, are you guys as excited to see this matchup as I am? If Paul Harris beat Shields, there isn't really anybody left for him to face in the WSOF. Is it possible Paul Harris has a similar clause in his contract to Fitch that would allow him to go to Asia and fight Ben Ascran? Well, I don't know about that because all contracts aren't created equal, but I will say that I do believe. believe this is the most interesting fight in the history of WSOF. This is the best fight. It's very rare that a promotion can put on a fight outside of the UFC where you have legitimately two top 10 guys going at it. Now, Jake Shields, my opinion, still top 10. You know, I do my rankings for

SB Nation still top 10. Paul Harris is very much in that discussion. You know, he will be on the back end of top 10. There's no doubt about it. But you look at some of those guys, I mean, can you make the case that Paul Harris is a top 10 fighter and Ascran isn't based on who he fights and defeats? You can make that case. And I know a lot of people consider Ascran a top 10er. He just submitted John Fitch in very impressive fashion. So anyhow, I think it's a very good fight. It's a great fight. It's a very interesting fight. Shields made quick work of Brian Foster. He looked really good. And I love that fight. I think it's so great. And I wanted to go to the ground right away. I want to see what happens. our next question

Oh there was another question there right at the end? Yes Also on the subject of WSOF Do you feel they will still be around Come the 1st of January 2016? Yes Yes We had a few questions from our friend James Glory

Let's rattle him off real quick I figured Yes, so many questions every week Oh he's the man Let's give him He's the most If I could create My favorite internet commenter

I would just say James Glory Make James Glory part two Let's, he's the best. I picked five of his because I felt like, today's the day we pay tribute to James Glory. Let's hit him real quick. Unbeaten Khabib has recently been saying,

how about May for a fight with Cowboy Soroni? What do you think of the matchup? Is Cowboy ready to face Nirmie, or does Cowboy have the answers to beat the highly talented Kabib? Make it happen. Co-main event Memorial Day. Connor and Soroni seem to be magic. Let's do it.

I agree. Let's do it. Mr. Wonderful versus. Darth Bader. I know it sounds like something from a Marvel comic, but this fight is no joke. Which fighter stands to gain the most from this awesome clash? Who do you think will win? Will they stand and duke it out? Who do you think wins standing? Or will their elite wrestling draw them into wonder for the eyes on the mat? Who do you think wins on the ground? A lot to unpack. Let's hit it one by one. Here's what I'll say about the fight. I think Bader has more to gain

because it seems like Bader has always been... I mean, Bader right now, you can make the case. He's kind of on the cusp of like gatekeeper status in the sense that he wins all those fights. and then he gets the big fight. He gets the John Jones fight. He gets the Glover-Toshera fight. He gets the Leona-Machita fight. He can never get over that hump. And he's been given a lot of opportunity.

Tito Ortiz, right? Phil Davis ranked above. Well-respected fighter. I think if Bader wins, he finally gets over that hump to a degree. Davis needs this win to just remain relevant. You know, he's coming off a dominant win over Glover. Johnson beat him quite convincingly back in April.

He just needs to stay relevant in that division, because his number might get called sooner rather than later because there just aren't a lot of guys out there. So if he wins this fight, I mean, he's probably one-win away from being right back into that title picture. Bader has more to gain because of the big name. Davis just needs to keep winning, if you get what I'm saying. Do they stand?

Do they trade? I feel like it turns into more of a grappling match. I don't see them going 15 minutes of striking. And I know that two wrestlers usually equal striking, but I feel like they're going to want to test each other out. fight fire with fire. What do you think? I think it'll be a combo. I'm not down on the fight, by the way.

Bader's been a little more comfortable on his feet than Phil has in the past, so I think he's going to want to definitely try and land a big punch. He's got a lot of pop. Davis is going to probably be a little more inclined to get it to the map, but I don't think he's necessarily, you know, he stood for most of the time with Liotto Machita. You know, whether you thought he won that fight, lost that fight on the judge's scorecards, you have to respect the way he, you know, know, stood there with Lioto Machita for quite a bit of it.

So I know people are, you know, quick to jump on Phil Davis is striking, but let's not pretend that, you know, he's some kind of guy who just turtles up once he gets hit. He can stand for a little bit, and I think we'll see everything. I think it'll be an MMA fight. Next question. Again from James Glory. If Nick Diaz wins against Anderson, do you think the UFC will sell us the rematch with Robbie Lawler? We will see the KEO from the past to get our juices going and the storyline develops.

Aside from this reason, do you think Nick earns the title shot with a win? How excited would you be for the Diaz versus Lala rematch? Very excited. I love that first fight, and yes, I can see that happening. Much to the chagrin of roaring and all these guys, I can see that happening. Even though it's at a different weight class, so of versus. Absolutely, absolutely. Now, this is just a total guess.

I have not asked anyone that question, but I can see it happening. And by the way, Dana White said recently he would love to see that happen. Kimbo Slice, signs with Bellator MMMA. Bergie Furr. Kimbo of the MMA Hour. what do you guys think of the Kimbo signing? I'm sure you will have talked to Mr. Coker about the topic among many. Little did he know we would actually talk to Kimbo about the topic.

So how do you view the fight and who would you like to see him fight? You know, I don't hate it. I had a, my reaction was, all right, we're in that stage now where Belator is trying to bring out these names. I mean, if they hadn't signed Stefan Bonner and some of these other guys recently, then it would be more surprising. Or if this was the Bjorn Rebony tournament era, it would be more surprising. but it's not. So Kimbo is one of those names we were talking about.

That's why we bring up Gina Krono. She wouldn't surprise me as well. Now, if the UFC signed him, it would be different, but they're in a different place. They're trying to do something a little different, and I respect that, and I have no problem with it. You can't, by the way, anyone hating on it, I guarantee you, like the CM Punk thing,

they will be watching, no doubt about it. Like Tito Bonner. Like Tito Bonner. Do you think Kimbo got a fair shake in MMA? What do you mean? You know, he's the punch. line of a lot of of MMA kind of jokes

and things like that. I mean, man, the guy made a lot of money, a crap load of money. He was main eventing shows on CBS before those ever a UFC on Fox. I mean,

fair shake by the losers, you know, who are going to nipick and hate on everything in the M.A. That's small, small, small, small vocal minority. Maybe not, but who cares?

Historically, he is still one of the most recognizable names and faces in the history of the sport. Whether you like it or not, it's true. Broke records on the Ultimate Fighter,

broke records on national TV, what more can you want? Yeah, and I think with maybe more favorable matchmaking, he wouldn't have been out of the U.S.C. Like, I don't think that... I think he deserved another shot. Yeah, I don't think that he necessarily had such a, you know, a joke of a career. The way he's become a punchline, you know,

to people who look at this as, you know, a circus thing, I don't necessarily feel that way about Kimbo's Slicse. And by the way, it's going to be scrutinized because he's, you know, 41 and all that stuff. and, you know, we know the YouTube stuff. But at the end of the day, he's with a team now, and Belator is very transparent about what they want to do. And it's not like he's just Kimbo-Sliced YouTube guy now.

He has, you know, some fights under his belt. He's been boxing. He's been somewhat active. And, you know, at the end of the day, he's a very big name, and they need those guys. So they're going to go out and get it. And, you know, I've really no problem with it. The fights that they should make, obviously, I mean, Tito versus Kimbo,

as he was just alluding to, would be the highest-rated Belator show without a doubt and who knows how many people it can get depending on how they promote it but it would do gigantic numbers so I wouldn't be surprised and he's very smart and I want to say one more thing about Kimbo you can tell he has come a long way that was the best sounding Kimbo I've ever spoken to he has really come a long way

it was very cool to hear from him I would love that I have no problem with it I want to see him fight and let's do it last question from James Glory shout out to James Glory Stand and Bang how about the matchup between Rampage Jackson and Fabio Maldonado UFC 186, April 25th.

Do you think it will even go to the ground once, apart from someone going unconscious? I think it's a great matchup and should be real fun to watch. So we were kind of debating this topic. And I feel like, correct me if I'm wrong, they didn't quite go my way, they kind of went in between us. I didn't go your way with the legend. They didn't go my way with the youngster like Jimmy Manoa.

They went in between, they gave him the human battering ram that is Fabio Madanado. I'm fine with it. Is he a battering ram? I mean, okay, he's more of a punching bag, right? Closer. I just meant someone that gets hit a lot. But yes, I see your point.

I'm okay with it. I'm okay. I mean, but I think, I think. It's a showcase fight. Yes, and I think that's why I think it's closer in my favor. And that's why I picked this question, of course. Really? He's not a legend.

No, he wasn't a legend, but my point was to put him in a fight that makes him look adequate or makes him look good. So just putting him against Jimmy Manow. I wasn't saying putting him against, like, Phil Davis. You were saying Jimmy Manor, he's going to elevate Jimmy Manoa. Right. right, right. Well, look. If Fabio knocks out Rampage, you don't think it elevates him?

Oh, well, I mean, we're... But that's what would happen. He would be elevated to a degree. Right? Yeah, I won't say anything else. What do you mean? You don't think that's going to happen? I just... No love for Fabio?

I think Manoa had a more reasonable... Sure, sure. Chance to do that. That said, I mean, Fabio Maldonado is probably the toughest, the toughest dude in the U.C. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't have a problem with the matchup either. I think it's pretty cool.

In Montreal. Let's move to Twitter if the computer lets us. All right. We got a few quick ones. Yep, yep, yep. We knocked off the Conrad McGillacutty. Yep, yep, yep. Oh, my good friend Felix.

Who we talking about? I see on Twitter Felix Bond. Oh, well. Is he not getting in there? Oh, he's getting in there if we. It feels like the whole thing is spasming. Don't stress. We'll get it.

Not stressing. Going to Sweden tomorrow, by the way, my friends. That should be fun. What should I eat? Tell me, is there really Swedish meatballs, or is that just something that ignorant Americans talk about? What about those Swedish girls that they had at the... I don't get it.

What I wanted to know, I was dying to ask them, because they were right next to me. Are they in fact Swedish, or are they just blonde girls? I have no your guess is as good as mine you were there yeah I should have asked them I don't be a creeper

I didn't get it but it was cool that they did that it made it feel all international but what did they do with them oh it was just a it was just a thing to promote it was just a way to promote it as opposed to just putting a picture

of Anthony Johnson and Alexander Gustafin they said hey these girls are here no what you didn't see it I saw it on Twitter but that's all I saw you were watching I was watching

what they do Was there like a spot? I didn't know. Oh, they went to them a few times. Like when Goldberg was talking about, yeah, they're like, oh, we're coming up. And that's what they would show as opposed to Rumble or Gus or something. Oh, wow. Yeah, they use them as a promotion.

I don't remember that at all. Shows on much I was paying attention. And by the way, my apologies to the Clark family. I misled them calling their fight against Michael Kiesa, the co-main event. That was my mistake. I apologize. I screwed that one up. And I know all my biggest fans are very happy about that.

But look. Even the greats have an off moment here or there. Jordan missed a couple shots, didn't he? One or two? Tough to remember. J.R. Smith didn't. He did not. Never misses.

Can you? Should I read this or what? No. Wow. What? I'm just staring at a question. We got two quitter questions. We got two quitter. Twitter.

We have two Twitter questions. Yes. Left. Can you find out who those women were that were standing right in front of Joe? No, no, no. Not the Swedish one. Oh. They were standing to the right of Jose.

It seemed as they were not getting along. Well, one of them was Jose's wife, the blonde one, and then the brown-haired one, red dress. I think he's talking about Connor's girlfriend who was with the red hair. And then the girl who was like underneath the barricade when the picture was taken. I believe that's a family member of Connor. It might even be his sister. There you go. They weren't part of Team Aldo.

that's for sure. And why put Aldo next to the McGregor family? By the way, the greatest guy, Connor McGregor's father. I am such a big fan of Mr. McGregor. He is such a character. I saw him at the Wayans. He's drinking. His mom's wearing a full fur outfit. I mean, if you watch them, if you watch or talk to them for like a minute, you'll understand why he is the way he is. Mr. McGregor is such a joy to talk to. I love seeing that guy. Now, how about next time you do tea with Patty Hulahan, you sit down with the McGregor. as well. Make it a family.

I imagine going to the McGregor's house for a family dinner. Done. My next masterpiece. Done. I want to see it. All right. But great, you know, great stuff with the tea thing, by the way. Oh, you like that.

It's quite good. Appreciate it. Next thing. Benson's absence at the post-fight presser is really unusual to me. Do you think he is upset at the UFC or Dana? No, I don't think so. I mean, he was very disappointed. He thought he won the fight.

I'd love to watch that fight again. I haven't had a chance to do so. You know, we wanted to talk to him for, he didn't want to do so. So he lost the fight and the co-main event loser isn't always there and it was a pretty full table to begin with. So I didn't think that that was a big deal. I mean, was he unhappy about them not telling him before? All that stuff is very valid. But in that moment, I think he was just pissed off about the whole thing and didn't want to be there to talk about it. And I don't blame him for that. That's it. That's it. Before I go, courtesy of my friend. where is it? Can I find it? Can I find it? My friend who has long been a supporter of one Miracle Krokoop,

Ina Ferensik. I believe I'm getting it correct. Just sent me a statement from Mirko himself. Oh, and I'm going to play this song while reading the statement, just in honor of the newest member of the UFC roster. According to his official Facebook page, actually his official website, Miracle Krokoop has said this. Dear friends, information is true. Sounds so military-like. I'll have my first fight in April. There are several fights that I would like to do before I retire. Some rematches that I want more than anything.

No matter what the outcome is, I will prepare myself and give it my all. Thank you, UFC, for making my wish come true. Miracle Crow Cup back in the UFC. How about that? What a video. Pat Barry, Miracle Crow Cup. Maybe the greatest video in the history of the Internet. In any event, congratulations to him, and that should be a fun thing to monitor as we get closer to his return.

Holy moly, who would have thought that at the beginning of this show? Alex, you can hit my music. So Michael Carroll, speaking of which, he is prolific today. He loves that I gave him a name drop to his boss. He wrote, it's a little loud. I went to Stockholm for the Gustaf and Silva show on Fuel TV a few years ago. If you have time, take the Metro to... Garnia Stan, which is the old part of Stockholm, find a cafe and get some Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and...

Lingonberries. Can't go wrong. What are Lingon berries? Anyone know? Never heard of such a thing. But I can't wait. Only in Sweden. Lingon berries. Is that a fruit? Lingenberry. Interesting. Well, that should be a lot of fun. I head out tomorrow. UFC on Fox 14. great atmosphere there. I've always wanted to go to Sweden, so I'm looking forward to this one very much. For now, we say goodbye to all of you. Thank you to everyone who joined us on the special Tuesday edition of the MMA Hour. I want to thank everyone who tuned in. I want to thank everyone who stopped by. I want to thank Pizzi Carroll of Ireland, not England. Great stuff. Severem.a.com. Check them out. I want to thank T.J. Dillishaw. Good luck to him.

UFC 186, Montreal, Hennon, Borough, 2.5. I want to thank Joseph Duffy. Good luck to him in his UFC debut, UFC 185, Wagner, Posha, Dallas, Texas. Thank you very much to the strawweight sensation, Paige Van Zent. Good luck to her, Feliz Herrick, UFC on Fox 15. Thank you very much to Fabrice Radoom. Good luck to him against Kane Velasquez. Thank you very much to Scott Coker for stopping by. Great stuff as always.

And thank you very much to the one and only Kimbo Slice for stopping by as well. We'll see you next Monday. Same time and place. Until that, I say, Pace. Support for this show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu.

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