MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 266

Episode Date: January 26, 2015

Featuring Daniel Cormier, Dominick Cruz, Makwan Amirkhani, Joanne Calderwood, Sara McMann, Thales Leites, and Jake Matthews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello again, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani. Inside our New York City studio, outside, it is snowing. The smart people who work for all the news channels are saying that this is the blizzard of the century. It hasn't quite started. It's snowing right now, but a lot of people are freaking out. In fact, I just read on Twitter that the governor of New York, Governor Cuomo, has just declared a state of emergency. Everyone is freaking out.

They are closing the trains, shutting everything down. Everyone's going home. Everyone's running for safety. But guess what? We have stared the storm in the eye. And we are here doing this show live. Now, if you're watching the show live, you know that we're starting 30 minutes earlier because just in case things get a little messy at around. On 3 o'clock, we thought, well, it'd be better to do the questions, comments, all that stuff at the beginning of the show so that we can get everyone home safe.

So we're not short-changing you. We're just starting the show a little earlier. And if you watch the show after the fact, you download it, this won't really affect you all that much other than the fact that the questions are happening at the beginning of the show. But we wanted to do the show today, my friends, because there is so much to talk about, screw the weather, screw safety. We need to talk about some fighting. Of course, I just got back from Stockholm, Sweden. and let me tell you, Stockholm is an unbelievable city. If you have never been to Sweden, I highly recommend taking a trip.

Now, this isn't the peak season, if you will. In fact, the plane was pretty empty going down there or over there. I hear the summertime's beautiful, but it was actually really beautiful mid-January. Other than the fact that the sun rises at 8.15 and sets at 3.45, I was trying to stay on New York time the whole time, because the event was happening at 4 a.m. Sunday morning. So I would go to bed at like 6 a.m., which is really 12 a.m. here in the United States, East Coast time, wake up around 3.45 or so. On Saturday, I'd even see the sun.

When I woke up, the sun was setting. It was very bizarre. But a very memorable evening or morning in Stockholm. Of course, once again, these Swedish fighters not doing too well. I believe since the last event in October, they're now 0 and 6 in Sweden. And none bigger, of course, than Alexander Gustafson,

who lost to Rumble Johnson, dominated, annihilated, obliterated by Rumble Johnson. In my opinion, that fight should have been stopped earlier. Mark Goddard gave Alexander Gustafsson every opportunity to recover. And I think he didn't want to be that guy

to end the fight early in Sweden, especially after what happened in the Dan Henderson fight in the co-main event. He gave him a lot of chances by the end. by the end, you know, Gustafin's head was flopping up and down. Of course, it was the right call. In my opinion, he took some unnecessary blows. But the big story, of course, is that Anthony Rumble Johnson is now the number one contender in the UFC light heavyweight division. He's going to fight John Jones next. He presents a whole new set of challenges for John Jones. It's going to be a lot of fun. He has a lot of power. He's a dangerous man. He's a scary man. And what he did to Alexander Gustafin in front of almost 30,000 people, a lot of them from Sweden, you know that that event was the second biggest in UFC history the biggest outside of North America ticket sales coming from 44 different countries but it was very important for Swedish MMA in fact you may have heard me talking about this on the Fox broadcast how about

that getting a little airtime on the Fox broadcast that was a lot of fun with the fans did you see that the sweeping camera all around it was it was a career highlight for me no doubt um and they all went home kind of kind of shocked it was a stunned silence in the air at the Teletu Arena. Everyone very surprised, everyone very sad about Gususin. No one's Saturday than Gustafin himself. So now it's Rumble Johnson versus John Jones next. Also, Gaggar Musassi picking up a big win over Dan Henderson.

That was controversial. Ryan Bader getting over the hump, defeating Phil Davis. And on the main card, Sam Cecilia, defeating Akira Korsani. Sweden is in the books. We're going to talk about it all show long. But also, we have to talk about what's happening this Saturday. The train rolls along for the UFC. It never stops.

And this completes one of the more interesting months in UFC history. These two men right over there. You see them facing off? Very rare that we actually have both guys fighting in the main event. Anderson Silver right over there. Nick Diaz right over there. This is a fight that was announced in around July or August of last year. When they said January 31st, that felt like an eternity.

And now here we are just days away from one of the more, anticipated fights in recent UFC history. Two guys who have very passionate fan bases, former UFC middleweight champion Anderson-Silva, former Strike Force welterweight champion Nick Diaz, both guys coming off very long layoffs. At one point, we didn't know if they'd ever fight again, especially Anderson. It's amazing to think that, you know, a year and a month ago, this guy broke his leg in the most gruesome fashion possible, was dangling. And we were on this show talking about him never fighting again potentially.

Now, here he is. five days away from fighting Nick Diaz. It's unbelievable. And it's a great card too. In fact, I think the Fox Sports 1 prelims are more interesting, on the whole, than the main card fights. McMahon, Tate, Linneker,

against Ian McCall. Those are very important fights in their respective divisions. So a good night coming up in Las Vegas. We'll talk about that as well. Who's joining us on today's show? At 305, we're going to talk to Sarah McMahon, aforementioned Sarah McMahon has a very big fight against Misha Tate. It's going down on the Fox Sports

one prelims. Both of them, big names in the UFC Women's 135-pound Division. Undefeated Walterweight prospect Jake Matthews will be stopping by at around 245 Eastern Time, 645 AM Tuesday morning in Melbourne, which is where he currently resides. And it's a very international show today. We've got a guy from Australia. We've got a guy from Sweden stopping by and a young lady from Scotland. At 225, we'll be talking to Daniel Cormier. What's next for him?

John Jones asking the public via Twitter. We'll talk to him about what happened in Sweden. He was there, of course, alongside Brian Stan, John Annik. The whole team was a lot of fun working with those guys until the wee hours of the morning. 205, we're going to talk to Makwan Amir Kani. This guy is... An overnight sensation. People love watching him eat apples and plums.

It's unbelievable. Defeated Andy Ogle in eight seconds. Mr. Finland, he calls himself a very interesting character, a new face for the UFC. And the man knows how to sell himself. Looking forward to having him on the show for the first time. 145, we're going to talk to Joanne Calderwood. She, of course, from the Ultimate Fighter Season 20, won her UFC debut in December. UFC announcing on Friday that they are going to Scotland, her home country in July.

But I think she wants to fight before that. We'll talk to her about all of that. 125, we're going to talk to Tiles Ladies, who returns to action this Saturday against Tim Boch. He is on a role, my friends. He was released from the UFC since then. He's only lost once. He got back into the UFC year and a half ago, and he hasn't lost since.

Has looked very good as of late. And then at 1 o'clock, we're going to talk to Dominic Cruz coming off of another knee surgery. Also talked to him about his teammates, Phil Davis and Alexander Augustinson losing on Saturday night where they go from there. And what's next for him, his recovery and all that good stuff? Maybe even get his thoughts on Nick Diaz and Anderson Sylvie. He's such a great analyst. But as I mentioned, we're going to take your questions and comments, talk a little bit beforehand because we wanted to start the show early. Mr. New York, Rick, how are you? I'm doing well. How about you? I'm doing great. I heard that you had a great

night on Saturday. And by the way, you're very popular in Sweden. A lot of people asking me, where's New York Rick? How's New York Rick? Say hello to New York Rick. One man in particular had a request for you. He said, can you please tell New York Rick to stop licking his lips when he speaks? What do you have to say about that? Do you think that you look him too much? No. You don't? Why don't someone say that? I got it from the one and only New York legend, hello, cool J. Oh, that's right. Ladies love cool James. I don't. I don't. I don't know. I don't consciously do it, but I'll take it into advisement. I'll try and see if I can cut it out. How do you feel about the blizzard of 2015? Not worried at all.

Are you free, you know, this is a typical June afternoon in Montreal, just for the record. Well, I mean, I don't know if I'd say that just because, you know, I'll say it. In New York, the things shut down differently. If the subway's not running, it doesn't really matter. you know in Montreal it's different than the commute is different than in New York if the subway shut down it is going to be a problem if the bus is shut down it's going to be a problem but I don't I'm not worried at this point to be honest with you I know a lot of people are freaking out I'm not really freaking out you hear that my friends you hear that citizens of New York New York Rick your very own New York Rick is not freaking out so everyone just take a deep breath all right we'll we'll get through it together except for Will remember back in the day her

Standy, we had that live shot of the street outside the studio. Can we get that? Can we send Alex out there as our embedded reporter to report live from the scene? What do you say? I think we have the capability to send them with an actual camera on his, you know, on his shoulder. That'd be nice. So let's, let's, I'll start arranging for it. Okay, thank you. But while we do that, yes. Let's talk about the previous event a little bit. Yes, yes, but tell me, you had a great night, right? I did. I had a pretty good betting night. I bet on Ryan Bader and I bet on on Rumble Johnson. And they were, you know, two to one dogs each apiece.

Rumble, even a little more, I think he was 285 when I bet on him. So it wasn't bad. Did you pick Rumble via finish? I wonder what Rumble via finish was probably, I think it was at around four or four and a half to one. I didn't just because I actually thought that Gustafson has been hit a lot. That's the reason I picked Rumble. Gustafsson has been hit a lot even in his wins. But he's super tough.

I mean, even you can see it at the end there. He never went completely unconscious as Rumble Johnson was landing, you know, sledgehammers on him. So I thought that there could be a scenario where Rumble beats him up a little bit and gets a decision. That said, I mean, clearly finish was the more likely outcome, but I wasn't, I wasn't 100% sure on a finish. But I did think that Rumble was going to win this one. And what about my cameo on Big Fox? I mean, that really was the big star, the big story of the evening. What'd you think?

I thought it was fantastic, but maybe next time I'll be right next to you. Maybe you say, I've got a guy who's popular in Sweden. This can help the ratings. And then you bring old New York Rick over. It's pretty typical. I mean, here I am trying to bask in my glory and you make it about yourself. Yeah, I got to do what I got to do. Yeah.

Well, I'm glad that you were watching. No, I was watching and it was pretty awesome. It was awesome. How rowdy were the fans? They were great. And remember, you know, when I shot that, it was like 1 a.m. over there. And they did not miss a beat. They were excited.

I mean, they were really excited for their own guys. Then they went 0 and 3 again. Remember last time they were swept on the main card. And I asked Gary Cook this question afterwards. Does this hurt the market? Of course, he said no. But, man, I got to think that they're going to take a break from Sweden. I mean, you ask people to come and pay $3.1 or so a million-dollar gate.

And then that happens. That's got to be a blow to the market, in my opinion. I've heard this from international fans a lot. They don't care? Not that. They don't necessarily have to see all their hometown guys. Sure, that's true. But they want to see the best possible cards.

So if you bring fighters who are recognizable and, you know, that fans from those international countries and territories will like, it doesn't have to be, you know, a nationalistic thing. I know. And in fact, I've heard fans say that they'd prefer that. Like, rather than having a lower level guy just because he's from Sweden, bring us a higher level guy. who's not from Sweden? I wonder, yeah. I wonder if, let's see, I don't want to say Anderson, Nick, because that's a special one.

But, like, Wydenman Belford, does it sell 26,000 seats? Well, I mean, Gustafson's a different thing, because he's at the very, very top. But I'm talking, like, the guys on the lower, you know, part of the card, maybe if you fold that in with a better fight than necessarily having, you know, a Swedish fighter just because he's Swedish, it would work out better. I've heard that quite a bit from international fans,

whether it be Brazil, whether it be, you know, Sweden, I've heard that before. So I don't think it necessarily hurts them as long as they improve the card quality. I don't think going 0 and 6 for Sweden is really that big a deal. All right. Well, let's answer some questions.

Let's do it. The first question pertains to this very directly. How badly, if at all, do you think this affects the Swedish market for the UFC when the majority of Swedish fighters on the card lose? This has been the case in the last two Sweden events. In general, how much impact do you think

having local fighters on the card has on fan interest? So I've expressed my opinion. What do you feel? I think it's a blow. You know, all week long when I was there, I got there Thursday morning. People were very excited about Alexander Gustafin. He is a big deal. You know, I said on the Fox broadcast that he is the second coming of Ingemar, Johansson.

I said this was the biggest night for Swedish combat sports since June 26, 1959. That's when Ingemar, Johansson knocked out Floyd Patterson to become the boxing heavyweight champion at Yankee Stadium. And that was no hyperbole. No one told me to say that. This was a huge deal for Swedish combat sports. Alexander Gustafin is arguably the second most popular athlete in Sweden behind. Latan Ibrahimovych, who is the soccer superstar. And as far as fighting is concerned, there's no great Swedish boxer right now.

He is arguably the most famous fighter since Ingramar Johanssen. If you don't know about Ingrammao Hansen, he had three fights against Patterson. He was a big underdog. Went to Yankee Stadium, knocked him out. They fought twice more. And he lost those. but still he was a gigantic superstar. So I think it's a big deal.

I think they need to take a break from the market. And I think there are other markets clamoring for some UFC action. They're going to Poland. They announced that Scotland, Germany later on this year. I think they take a break because the last two events have not been good for the market. I remember last time, Guserson had to go to Facebook and tell everyone to chill out. It's a bummer when you're staying up that late, paying all that much money, and your hero, your local god, loses.

So my guess is they take a big. bit of a break. I didn't account for the time thing when I was saying that. So that's certainly a thing. Nobody wants to come out in the morning like that and see their guys lose. So certainly. If they put it on at a regular time and filled it with a really solid card, I could see it doing the same kind of gait as a Gustavson fight. Because I think they're fans of the sport much more so than, you know, specifically national. Yeah, exactly. They really love it. I mean, it's it's so much fun to go to these foreign markets. for the first time, at least for me, and to see how knowledgeable they are about the sport.

It's really cool. Okay, next question. What do you think should be next for Gus Simpson after has lost to rumble? I lean towards D.C., and I want to get his take on this later on. I lean towards D.C. I think that because both of them have lost, there are a few ways you can go. You can go maybe Gus Evans and then D.C. Bader. But to me, the fight that I want to see the most is Gus D.C. That, I mean, that could have been a title fight if obviously they both won their last fight.

I think that's, once again, you know, given the state of the light heavyweight division, that's very much a number one contender fight. They don't lose all that much by fighting each other and, you know, losing to John Jones and Rumble Johnson, respectively. I don't think you should go, you know, too far down in the rankings. It's a fascinating styles matchup. It's a high-profile fight. That's the one I want to see.

What do you think? I'm on the same page. I mean, there's nothing else to be said. Whoever wins that fight can be catapulted right into a title shot immediately. And I said, I said, Ryan, Bader got over the hump and he did, but I'm not quite sure I want to see him in there in a number one contender fight just yet, especially with John Jones a champion. He already beat him quite convincingly. That was quite a while ago, but the performance from Bader wasn't one that makes me necessarily

clamor to see him get a title shot. If he had gone in there and knocked out Phil Davis, now we're, you know, that's part of the conversation. But this wasn't one that you came away thinking, I cannot wait to see Ryan Bader versus John Jones. If he had made more of a statement, you could have an argument for sure. But certainly he's one or two away at most, at very most. And by the way, while we're going through the questions, I do have to give a major

shout out to the UFC UK team. I guess they're the EMEA team. Europe, Middle East, Africa. These individuals are the most pleasant, professional PR team, marketing team, whatever you want to call them that

I've ever worked with. in any organization. It's almost like a different promotion, to be honest with. I'm not taking anything away from anyone else. I think most of the people that we work with are tremendous, but they are on a whole other level. It is such a pleasure. I wish all the events could happen over there because it's just a lot of fun to work with them, and they're so accommodating and professional, so I do want to give them a shout out. And Dave Allen, as well, who's the new kingpin over there, a real class act, Gary Cook as well, all of them. So it's always a lot of fun going over there. Last time I was there was Dublin. Sweden was no different. I want to thank

them very much and give him the old tip of the cat. Our next question, John Jones, his path. He says that after defeating Rumble, he would be clearing out the light heavyweight division. What challenges are there left for John at 205? You know how I feel about this? I like to see Dominant champions. I want to see you guys doing their thing for a long time. I don't know about John moving up to heavyweight at this point in his career. He's still very young and I still think there are challenges for him at 205.

Of course, let's see what happens with Rumble. And then he does make a good point, though. I mean, you look at the top guys right now. Who do you have? Evans, Bader, Gus, D.C. He's beating them all. I still think there's money to be made in a D.C. rematch. I think there's money to be made in a Guserson rematch.

But he does make a very strong case. Although, when we saw him, you know, in early January, he said he doesn't want to move up to heavyweight anymore. So I don't know what he's talking about. I think he just likes to mess with people. Yeah, why not, you know, tease it both ways. Hey, I'm going up to heavyweight. Hey, I'm staying in this division.

Leave his options open. Tease it. Keep the people wanting it. And again, I'd like to see him maybe have, you know, a warm-up fight, if you want to call it that, a James Irvin type of fight at heavyweight. I'm cool with that. But I'm not cool with him fighting Kane right off the bat. I mean, who knows if Kane's even the guy at that point. Yeah, or Redoom.

Yeah, I think he's right that he would have cleaned out this current, the way this current division looks. but as we've had a version of this question before and there's always guys that come out of nowhere and something will happen where there will be a legitimate contender for John Jones. Is he going to easily dispatch of them? Quite honestly, probably. He's really that good.

But let's just be honest for a second. I mean, look at the rankings. Look at who's even coming up. There's really, you know, before you could say, oh, there's rumble here. Even like a Phil Davis or a Ryan Bader. First of all, he's beaten Bader. And then a Phil Davis is a guy who, you know,

most of the guys he's beaten have beaten. It's really, it's not looking like a promising contender is going to rise. And there's no Chris Weidman, right? There's no prospect that anyone says, unless I'm forgetting someone right now, I'll top my head of. That division is relatively old in general. Old, and if you look at the other divisions, in the other organizations, like if you look at 205 in Bellator World Series of Fighting, there's not much there right now for him.

Yeah. Maybe Liam McGee? Great names, but, you know, nobody who's one of these guys who's going to be. be able to put it together and build on something. They're more of established guys. Okay, next question. Ryan Bader. With his win over Phil Davis, should he be matched up with Rashad Evans next? Both men are coming off wins and similarly ranked.

I like it. I think these are the two no-brainers. Is Cormier, Gustafson, Bader Evans, right? I heard, and I haven't confirmed this yet, that Evans is going to take a little more time off just to be 100%. Perhaps he was rushing his return a little bit against Glover. they were supposed to fight February 22nd in Brazil. I'd like to see him wait until he's 100% no rush at this point.

But if he is ready to go, Bader coming off that win, I think that's a really tough fight for Ryan Bader and a good reintroduction for Rashad Evans. I think that makes all the sense in the world. Got to be. Okay, these next two are tied a little bit. So I'll read them together. The reffing question,

did any of the roughing seem dodgy to you on Saturday night? You mentioned one at the top. The Hendo fight, the Andy O. or the Gustafsson fight, love to hear what you thought. So quickly on those, did you have a problem with any of those? I had absolutely no problem with any of the decisions. Andy Ogle losing to Ameriqani, I thought that was the right call. With all due respect to Joe Rogan, who I think is obviously a brilliant mind.

That's the next question. Well, let me just tie it in here. Okay. I didn't see what the big deal was. I mean, Andy Ogle was trying to take down the referee. He was clearly out. It was the right call. And in this day and age, you know, when we're worried about,

head trauma, concussions, all that stuff, especially Rogan, who famously had that discussion with Brendan Schaub. It was the right call, 100%. Henderson fight, right call, in my opinion. He's taken a lot of shots, and even if you ignore everything he's been through leading up to this point, he was out there for a brief second.

He was out. It was the right call. And then the Gustafin fight, my issue with that was, of course, it went a little too long. Now, here's the thing. To me, it was clear, and I have a lot of respect for Mark Goddard, but it was clear that he was taking into account the setting, the situation, the fighters involved. If that was the first fight of the night, if that was Chris Beale versus Neil Siri,

I feel pretty confident saying it would have ended earlier. But you can't, when you're a referee, in my opinion, look at a situation and say, all right, this is Sweden, this is the main event, this is Gustafin, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't like that. I think all fights should be reft equally. I thought that went too long. I thought if it went too long, not by much. because Goddard made it clear, Alex, you need to get out of this position.

And you know what? He got out of the positions. It wasn't like he wasn't moving. There's guys who completely turtle up and just continue to take punches. He was giving his best effort to at least, you know, move, get Anthony off his back, move to a different position. And I really can't fault Goddard for that. He gave Gustafsson the opportunity that I think Joe Rogan. When his head was snapping back those.

Yeah, but that's when he stopped it. Those two real brutal hammer punches, that's when he stopped it. But he was trying to give Gustafson the opportunity that Rogan was saying Ogle deserved. Now, I think in those cases, it was different. Ogle was out and Ogle was trying to take down the referee. And I don't think he needed any more time to be able to work out of it. But Gustafsson, I feel like he was moving enough and trying to get out of it enough to the point where you have to let him try it. I think if you ask if you ask Gustafsson, he'll probably feel the same way.

Did you see my post-fight interview with Gustafsson? I didn't. What's wrong with you? Come on. I mean, it'd be nice to have some support, you know? Tell me about it. I asked him about... There was a point in the fight.

It happened very quickly. If you slow it down, you can clearly see it. There were people telling me, I didn't see it at first. Oh, is this about a head butt? The headbut. There was a headbut. That's how he actually was knocked down at the beginning of the entire flurry.

There was a headbut, and it's pretty clear if you slow it down. Now, again, not taking anything away from from Anthony Johnson, I think it was obviously accidental, but there was a headbut, and that clearly was the beginning of the end, in my opinion. I have not seen that clip yet, but I'm going to go look for it now. I've heard a lot of people saying that, and I don't know.

We have about a minute each for these. Let's hit them quick. Is Joe Rogan getting burnt out with four shows this month? The bizarre after interviews with Ogle and the Henderson fights, usually when the other fighter is grappling the ref, there isn't a question if they were out. Any inside info on why Rogan was so grumpy and uncharacteristic in his behavior? No, that's a question for him. I mean, what was wrong with the Henderson one?

Well, did that go on weird? I think he, in that one, he was arguing for it not to be stopped, whereas most people thought it should have been stopped. So he felt the same about Ogle and Hendo. He thought it was premature? Or maybe he felt it was good. I don't remember exactly. I remember thinking there was something weird there. I saw him right after when we interviewed Gary Cook. You didn't see it, of course. No, I did. I actually did see that one. That one was on the end of the, the broadcast, so I did see that one. It was? Yeah. It was on Big Fox?

Yeah. No, it wasn't. They ran... I could be completely making this up, but I believe it ran until... No, no. Or maybe I was watching the Post-Fite show, but either way, I did see... I did see that one with Gary Cook? When we were Caged side? Yeah, right in front of the Cates. Did they open my mic a little too early? I don't know. Someone said that. Because when we were standing there...

Well, we were looking at the screen and Gary was there, and I've never really done an interview like that. And I was like, hey, Gary, look at us. We look pretty good on TV. And then one person tweeted me that they heard that. Thank God I didn't say anything worse. No, I don't know. I didn't pick up on that. Anyway, I saw Rogan because we were standing in his spot that he usually stands in with Mike Goldberg, and he seemed to be fine. So, I don't know.

I mean, he has his opinion. That's why they pay him. You know, you don't have to agree with the guy. He's the analyst, and he's going to weigh in, and he should weigh in. I'd rather that than someone who is just on the fence the whole time. But you don't want to take away from the fighter's moment as well. Like, you don't want to push that issue. You know, ask maybe one, two questions in the post-fight interview,

but also the guy just won in eight seconds in his debut. He lives very close to Sweden. He's from Finland. You don't want it to overshadow everything. And I thought his response, Ameriqani's, was pretty hilarious afterwards saying that he thought he was drunk. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, he's great.

When somebody asked him about the rematch, he said, a rematch, how much, like, faster can I beat him? Right. Okay, next question. What is the people's main event this weekend? As much as I am a huge fan of Anderson, for some reason, I'm leading toward Kelvin Gastilum and Tyrone Woodley as the people's main event. You know, sometimes, as I've mentioned before, the people's main event is the real man. It has to be.

What? This is Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz. Are you crazy? You disagree? You disagree? Really? You're not interested in Anderson, Nick? How about this?

We'll jump to the next question. Okay. Do you think Anderson versus Diaz will be competitive? And I have an answer for that. Okay, go. I don't. No, but still, it's still Anderson and Nick. Is it?

What do you mean, is it? I don't think it's going to be a competitive fight. I'm not that excited for it on paper. You're picking Nick, of course. Huh. Unless Anderson, I'm excited for the hype surrounding it, you know, what kind of media is going to come out of it. But the actual fight, if Anderson Silva looks anything like Anderson Silva of past. But you know what I love about this fight?

There are so many questions heading into it. Okay. How does Anderson? look after the layoff? How does he look after the leg break? How does Nick Diaz look after the layoff? How does Nick Diaz look at 185? How does Nick Diaz look against a striker like Anderson Silver? There's so many unknowns. Now, I agree. I think most people are picking Anderson Silva, right? I haven't really seen anyone go out and say Nick is. And what's, what's the odds right now? I think Anderson's like over four to one is a favorite. Really? Wow. It makes it makes perfect sense. Nick Diaz's style is not the style

to beat Anderson Silva. But if I ask you, which fight are you most looking forward to, if you have to buy this pay-per-view, what's it all about? It's Anderson, Nick. That is, for me, people's main event. You're going to tell me it's Woodley Gaslam? It's Linnaker McCall. Really? Yeah. That's the fight I'm looking forward to the most, to be honest with you. Great fight. Hopefully it happens at this time. All right. But I'll say this. Of course, you know, the things that are going to be talked about and come out of this, the fact that this matchup exists, certainly that's the most important and the most interesting part of it. But as I'm saying, Like, if Anderson Silva steps in the cage and is Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz steps in the cage and it's Nick Diaz and they fight, and they always fight, it's not going to be that competitive.

Yeah, but what if it's a different. If Anderson, well, that will be interesting. Yeah, so that's why there's a few. You can't predict that. You can't say, oh, Anderson's not going to look like himself. That's not really, it doesn't work that way. But you can think that. It may be possible.

I wouldn't bank on it. I wouldn't personally bet anything on that. But if there's, there's some doubt in the air, that makes it a little more interesting. This was Anderson versus Nick, you know, November of last year before the leg break and the second loss. Okay, you may feel very strongly. But there's still some lingering down. What about that leg? What about that time off?

He's close to 40 years old. There's a lot of things that can happen. Yeah. There are things that need to be, you know, cleared up. There are things that we need to see. Man, it just doesn't. He has never been stocked and slapped. Who Anderson's over?

Yeah. We don't know how he's going to react. All right, let's go. Last two very quickly. Yeah. With Sheldon Silver temporarily stepping down, how big of a step did MMA take to enter New York? You know, you never know what kind of, you know, reach and what kind of influence someone has when they step down in politics. I mean, it was just a temporary leave of absence.

So it's not like he's gone forever. If you don't know a lot about the story, Sheldon Silver, the assembly speaker has really been the biggest thorn in Zufa side, not even allowing the bill to legalize MMA get to a vote. He doesn't even allow it to get to a vote to let the people decide. He's gone, corruption stuff. He might be gone for a very long time, but right now it's just temporary. So let's see what happens. I'll say this, the chances of MMA getting legalized a lot better today than they were last week. So there's some hope.

And from talking to people in Zufa, there are a lot more hopeful today than they were last week. So let's see what happens. I'll leave you on this. And then I will go get Mr. Cruz. Yes. Should Anthony Johnson's weight-cutting story to find his career, when will we stop being so intrigued by it? Well, I think

if he gets the title, if he gets the title, I mean, in my opinion, the weight cut stuff is a part of his story. It's what makes his story so great. This is a guy who came into the UFC in 2007. He was cocky. He was

you know, he wasn't the media darling, the professional that he is today. He thought that you know, he was invincible at 170. He was very stubborn and refused to consider moving up and weight. He gets his eye poked by Kevin Burns, has to have surgery. Who knows how he's going to respond to that? He responds very well. He knocks him out. And then he starts to struggle with the weight. Misses weight three times, fights Vitor Belford in Brazil and brutally

misses the weight. I mean, 13, 14 pounds over gets released from the UFC. And he told me this great story about being on the plane back home with his coach Henry Hooft. And he said, okay, I'm in your hands. I'm going to stop being selfish. I'm going to start listening to you. I'm going to stop just ignoring what everyone is telling me, and I'm just going to give you my career. Take me where I need to go, and look at him now. I think it's nine in a row now. He's knocking people out.

He looks fantastic at 205. He is a scary man, and I think that stuff, the weight cut issues, the release, all that, that makes the story that much more amazing. This is a guy who was knocking people out 170. Now look what he's doing at 205, at 205 pounds against the baddest guys in the world. knocking out, Gususon, shutting out Phil Davis, knocking out Antonio Hosierre and O'Gera.

And let's give some props to World Series of Fighting. World Series of Fighting helped resuscitate his career. They gave him new life. That's why those organizations need to be around. To develop talent, to make new stars, but also to give guys like Anthony Johnson who aren't ready to say goodbye, who aren't ready to pack it all up,

a chance to reinvent themselves. And that's what he's done. It's a beautiful thing. And then you see how he talks afterwards, the respect he gave to Gususon, the respect he gave to the crowd, telling them not to boo, and I just all that stuff. I mean, it's just, it's just an amazing story, and he's really come a long way. If you remember the guy from 2007, 2008, he has certainly come a long way, and it's, it's one of the best stories in recent memory,

and he's doing it all right. I know he had the issue that, you know, got him suspended, and hopefully that's all cleared up. They said they looked into it, they investigated it, all that stuff. Hopefully he's a changed man. He's a better man now, and he's just, you know, a few months away from obviously the biggest fight of his life. If it gets bigger than Sweden, believe it or not, and if he can do what he did to Gustafsson against John Jones, holy mackerel. But right now we have a guy who is young in his prime with knockout power. You know, I know John has faced the best of the best,

but known with those characteristics, young, prime knockout power and pretty good take down the fence as well. Let's see. The black Australians deserve a lot of credit for what they've done with Anthony Johnson. For now, let us go to our first guest of the day. That was a lot of fun. We welcome in. former UFC Bantamway champion.

My colleague over at Fox Sports, the bearded one. I like it, Dominic. Dominic Cruz joining us. How are you? Oh, I don't hear Dominic. Just one second, guys. Is this mic on? No. One second? Gentlemen?

We'll get you in a second. I promise, Dominic. It's great to see your face. Okay. We're just going to fix this in a second. Dominic Cruz. I want to have him on to, of course, about what happened on Saturday, but also to look ahead to next Saturday, UFC 183, Nick Diaz, Anderson Silva. It's a very interesting time in the UFC, also a very interesting time in his division. It was just announced last week that Hafeel Sunsau will meet Uriah Faber.

That will be taking place in March in Brazil. And of course, it was also announced recently that T.J. Dillishaw will meet Hennon-Berau for the UFC Bantamweight title on April 25th in Montreal. That is Barrow Dilashaw 2.5. Because of course they were supposed to fight a UFC 177 and, well, we all know what happened there. Barow, Miss Wait. We saw Joe Soto fight T.J. Dillashaw. How are you looking, gents? Sorry about the delay, Dominic, but it's great to see you drinking that coffee.

You look fantastic. Okay? Should we just go to the phone? Yeah, let's please go to the phone. Maybe we'll just keep you up on the screen and we'll call your cell phone right now, right, Dominic? I think the blizzard has gone to us. There he is with his phone. We'll get him in a second.

After Dominic, we're going to be talking to Talis ladies, another guy who has really turned around his career. You've got to love stories like that. Guys going out, getting cut, and not giving up on their dream, fighting their way back, and then doing great things on the biggest stage possible. Eric, are you calling Dominic? All right, I see him talking on the phone right now. Dominic, are you there? Hi, what's going on, man?

Hey, it's great to see you. Sorry about that. I'm not sure what happened. We're in the midst of a blizzard here, so perhaps the weather is affecting us. But if you could just turn down the volume on your computer, because I think we're getting some feedback there. There you go. Is that better? Okay, cool.

Yes, that is perfect. Thank you very much for joining us. First things first, before we get into all the analyst stuff, let's put the fighter hat on for a second. I know you underwent surgery last week. How did it go? Well, well, I've obviously done this more times than I'd like. but I've become pretty used to the sequence of events that take place right now. I'm in a machine that kind of bends my leg and I get to move at 10 degrees every day.

And I'm on 80 degrees today. I get to go to 90 degrees tomorrow. Then I go see the doctor on Thursday and then rehab starts. So I'm right on track. Every surgery was very successful and I'm feeling absolutely optimistic. That is great. Great to hear. Did you go to the doctor in L.A. that, you know, GSP went to,

Connor McGregor went to, or do you have your own guy? I don't know who Connor McGregor went to. I know GSP went to a guy named Al-A-Trash, and that's exactly who I went to. The first time I went with a different doctor this time, I used the chief of staff over there, the head doctor of the entire clinic. The guy's a beast. He knows everything, so, and I trust is what he does. And then now for this surgery, something that I did for my own well-being was I made it so that my physical therapist, my doctor, and every physical therapist I have now are all talking, all in communication, and all on the same page.

That was something that never took place in my first two surgeries. And that, in my opinion, is one of the hardest things to do because doctors separate themselves so much from recovery that it just becomes you and the therapist. But I was able to get my therapist, Gavin McMill, in there with Alatrash, to watch the surgery. They're on the same page with what I need to be doing to get back in there. And everybody's been very helpful in making sure that this surgery is completely successful at the highest level, the very first time around instead of it failing like the first time. And I've definitely made sure that everything was, you know, all my eyes were dotted and my teeth are crossed on this surgery to get back in there as soon as possible. You know, I saw you, it was, I think, UFC 181, I believe.

Was it 181? No, it was 182. It was D.C. Jones, right? When you were in Las Vegas working for Fox. And I was just blown away by your demeanor. I mean, of course, you were going through a lot, but you're so positive and you're in such great spirits. And I see you right now after the surgery, and I saw you tweeting about it and all that.

I mean, you hate to compare one injury to the next, but do you feel like those situations helped you deal with this better? I mean, were you not this way the other times? You're more of a veteran at this stuff, and that's allowing you to put on a happy face and just move forward? The truth is this, Ariel, and I said it. I don't know if anybody listened to my interviews or actually heard the words that I was saying.

I try to say exactly how I am and when I'm at and be real with that every time I talk. And something I said in all my interviews in the past where how much I found myself over that time where I was just sitting idle and had nothing to do. I literally had to find out, who I am and who I was outside of fighting. I legitimately had to rebuild my persona because all I knew of myself up to that point,

I was young when I first hurt my knee. I was only 26, and I had four world titles, and that's all I knew of myself as being a world champion and becoming the best fighter on the earth. That's all I wanted. That's the only thing I saw for myself. When I blew my knee out, it completely derailed any of my goals, any of the things that I chose that I wanted to do for myself.

off any of my future that I saw, it kind of just got thrown in a dumpsterle in a sense because I was so hurt and I knew I was out for so long. Dealing with that kind of depression, dealing with that kind of, you know, low, it really taught me how to deal with ultimate lows and what I need to do to get through it. And 100% going through those first two surgeries that I've gone through has absolutely equipped me for this third one and giving me a different. mindset as to what I need to do to get through it strategically and perfectly to come back just as strong as I did before.

It's amazing. Did they give you a timeline? Is it going to be your typical, you know, 11 or so months or perhaps shorter, longer? I mean, do you have any kind of timeline? I'm looking probably about nine months. Wow. Yeah, a typical ACL surgery is six to nine months minimum. And, you know, I'm just going to say nine months just because that's what the doctor's.

say. That can be later or that can be a little bit sooner. There's no way that it'll be any faster than six months legitimately because the blood flow that needs to be reassembled in that tendon being my ACL, it takes a minimum of six months for it to be at its maximum blood supply going to that tendon so that it's at full strength. And at six months it will be there, and then the training starts, building the muscle back, getting the atrophy, back to full form to where it's not a little skinny peg leg anymore. It's a regular leg that I can do some damage with. You know what my theory is?

I think you become a better fighter because now you have two bionic knees. I mean, now no one can stop you, right? Yeah, that's a nice thought, Ariel. You know, I wish it really worked that way in this world. But I will say it is this. I basically do have two brand new knees, and people might not look at it that way. You know, I see the tweets and stuff.

It's hilarious to me because I've gone through this so much. I'm ready for the Dominic's done. His knees are like paper. He's never going to make it. Hang up your glove. You know what's shocking to me is when I get tweets from people that tell me, you know, what's the point, Dominic? I think it's time to hang them up. You can't do it.

It's like, why do people, it shocks me how people will go out of their way to tweet me, how I can't do something. That shocks me more than anything. It doesn't bother me. It's just like people are literally going out of their way who don't know me on a personal level. to go onto their Twitter account and tell me, you can't do it. Your knees are too thin. You won't be able to.

You won't be back. It's like, you really needed to do that for yourself to feel better for your day-to-day guy? It's disgusting. I feel when I see that stuff. What do you do? Do you block them or you laugh? What do you do?

I laugh. Depending on how deep they go into it, I laugh. Usually if it's too negative, if it's one negative thing, I'll usually just block them because even if they follow me, I don't want negative words spoken to me. You know, I don't even, I don't have room for that. I got too much to do.

And too big of a mountain to climb to have somebody telling me every step of the way that I can't do something. So I just block them. That's a beautiful thing of Twitter. Yes, it is a beautiful thing. And I do it quite often myself. All right, let's take off the fighter hat now. And again, wish you the very best. And I'm so, I'm blown away by how you handle all of this.

It's really commendable. And I think a lot of people should look to you when dealing with situations like this. As athletes had how to move forward, you do a fantastic job. job of that. So, you know, my, my utmost respect to you on all of this. You were watching on Saturday. I know you were, you were tweeting about it. A tough night for your team. In fact, I saw your head coach Eric Del Fierro at the airport Sunday morning. He was obviously very down. It's a long trip to make from Chula Vista, California, all the way to Sweden and have the night go that way. Let's talk about Phil Davis first. Do you think he did enough to win that fight?

I thought he, I thought he looked like Phil Davis. You know, I thought he, when he, out there, pushed the takedowns when he needed to. Look to throw some big strikes and land, but he looked like Phil. And we knew that Bader was going to be a tough test because the wrestling was going to kind of nullify everything. But in my opinion, Phil did do enough to win that fight. But that's here, you know, nor there anymore. The decision has been made and nobody can overturn it or change it.

In my opinion, the difference in that fight was, you know, 10 shots to nothing. Now, regardless of whether Bader stuffed the shots or not, if you, I mean, this isn't a wrestling match, but wrestling rules do kind of have to be a little added to an M&A match. And if anybody in wrestling shoots 10 plus shots and the other guy shoots zero, that's an automatic stall call and points or award to the other person, you know. It's just so much, Phil was putting forth so much offense, so much energy, throwing a lot of punches at the same time. I think that Bader landed more of the effective boxing strikes,

but I think Phil kept a higher offensive pace, and also landed a takedown. And, you know, I think he did enough to win, but it doesn't matter anymore. When you say it looked like Phil Davis, I think that's a very interesting thing to hear from you, because the consensus seems to be that he hasn't evolved enough. Like, you know, you know what you're going to get from him.

You know, you look at a guy like Alexander Gususon, how he was before he went to Alliance, and afterwards, totally different fighter. What he does on his feet, is take down the fence, his takedowns as well. In your opinion, is Phil doing enough to evolve as a fighter, or have we seen his ceiling at this point? I think Phil is evolving.

I think that people are watching the wrong things that Phil's evolving at. People kind of don't give Phil credit for the things that he's actually evolving at. And what I mean by that is striking defense is a huge thing. It's very important. it's actually something that's very under unseen in mixed martial arts, in my opinion, is good striking defense. Phil has some of the best striking defense in the division. He hardly gets hit.

He takes very little damage, and he knows how to wrestle and shoot at the right times. So what Phil is evolving at is actually his striking defense, not taking damage. And the reason why people don't give it a lot of credit is because his offense does need to evolve a little bit more. The problem, in my opinion, from watching on the outside looking in, excuse me, with Phil's fights, is the fact that he doesn't make people respect his offense quite enough. So guys are able to just stock and stock and stock because he doesn't quite just sit down on some of those big punches that he absolutely could.

Phil's still evolving in that sense with his offensive output. And I do believe 100% that it will come to him. It's just, you know, he really hasn't been in the sport this long. Phil was forced to go from a high-level wrestler straight-in. into the highest level of the sport, almost competing for the title right away after what, he's been in the sport maybe four or five years. I've been in the sport 11 plus years, and that gives me a lot of time for adjustments. When you do what Phil did, where you come from a high-level wrestling, and you go straight in

against the best fighters in the world, it makes your defense very good, and it makes you learn how to not be finished, and then the offensive part in the finishes, those come later, generally speaking. And that's something I think Phil is going to continue to piece together in his offense with his time in this sport, and he can be hard to deal with. Would you like to see him be more aggressive, or does that, as far as a striker is concerned, or does that all come together with what you were just talking about? It does all come together with what I was just talking about, Ariel, and I would like

to see Phil be a little bit more aggressive with his strikes. And what I mean by that is you have to, in a fight, let's say Phil's goal was just to get a takedown. Let's just say that. If you're fighting somebody and you know you want that take down, the first step to getting that takedown is you have to force your opponent to have some respect for your striking. The fight starts on your feet, throwing punches. So if that guy doesn't respect any of your power, doesn't respect your ability to possibly hurt him, cut him, or finish him with strike, and it's a lot easier to stuff to take down if you're not worried about the power. punch is doing damage. Now, if you really hurt somebody striking, you're hitting them with long

combinations, you tag their legs up, you cut them, you really hurt them and get their, gain their respect early in that round, now they have to focus on your striking and they can't think about only your wrestling shots coming at you. Do that make sense? Absolutely. So, Phil somewhat, in my opinion, really needs to sit down with some of these punches offensively. You really need to piece together some longer combination strike and really make it to where he gets completely comfortable in the stand-up realm to where he doesn't even need a takedown. And then when he needs that take-down, it will be there because he threatened and gained the respect to the striking so much. Great insight. And more to your points, according to our resident statistician, Michael

Carroll of Fightmetric, Phil Davis, avoided 72.3% of opponent's significant strike attempts. And that's the highest in light heavyweight history. So that's a... my point. And his defense is that's something that fans, people at home, aren't going to see. They're just going to see he's running. That's incorrect. Phil is moving his body very strategically at the right angle, moving away from the power at the right time, moving away from the faint at the right time. There's very fine tuning things that he's doing in there to not get hit with 70% of the strikes thrown at him. That's a big, hard thing to do when you're trapped in cage with a giant individual like Peter,

Oliver Tashara, or anybody else for that matter. Would you make of the stoppage in the Dan Henderson-Gagor Musassi fight? Was it the right call in your opinion? You know, I think that it could have gone longer, but if you look at the position that the ref actually jumped in, that's a position where if Gager Musassi didn't get stopped, he was in such a dominant position.

basically knee on belly with his left knee crossed over the bottom arm of Henderson, which means he was trapped. He was eating at least three or four more super tough, hard punches for Musasi before he got up from that cage and was able to threaten to take down it off, and he was already rocked. So in my opinion, if the ref wouldn't have jumped in, he wouldn't have had, he wouldn't have able, Henderson would have been able to even, like, put Musassi on his back at the very end of around the way he did. He would have just eaten a bunch of punches and been out a lot dirtier than he was.

So I think the ref did make a good stoppage in that. Would you like to see Dan Henderson continue fighting? I love watching Dan Henderson fighting. I think that it would be great to have him around because being a fighter myself and having people say the things that they've said to me, I understand where Henderson's at in the sense that people are telling them maybe you should stop, you're not looking as good as you used to this and that. I think Dan Henderson can still be anybody in the way.

the top 20 of the division on any given day. Maybe don't put him against the top 10 guys. I think this guy loves to fight. I think it's in his heart and his soul in his mind. If that's what he loves to do, it's what he enjoys, why would you deprive somebody if that's what they enjoy doing and you're healthy enough to do it? That's Dan Henderson's choice, and I think on any given time,

he can still take out, you know, anybody in the top 20, not necessarily. Maybe he's not in the top five guys anymore. Maybe even not the top 15, possibly. I don't know. But put him against the top 20 guy and see how he does, and then go from there. Let's talk about the big shocker, Rumble Johnson coming to Sweden, finishing Gustafson in the first round, some major shots Gusufson took, especially later on.

What did you think Gusufson did wrong in that fight? What do you think he should have done and didn't do in that fight? You know, that's a hard fight. That's one of those first round knockout things. Yeah. When you're 205 pounds and a guy hits you, you go down or you don't. that's a game of everybody in a fight gets punched. Every single person in a fight gets punched.

And I tell this to all the guys that I coach, I say this is a game of numbers. You never are 100% going to go in there and win. But all you can, I tell my guys this all the time, all you can do is bring down the chances of you getting finished, hurt, or losing. All you can do is make it like 30-60 and give yourself the 60% chance

and your opponent the 30% chance of winning. And the way you do that is make sure you're in top shape. You never get tired. Your defense is good. You're hard to finish. You're durable, and you move your feet a lot. There's all these things that make it harder for you to finish it. Mostly cardio brings your percentages and your chances up.

Alexander Guston was in top shape. He was ready for this fight. He got caught in the first round against Rumble who hits like a trade. He threw a push kick up the middle. And when you throw that push kick up in the middle, the only thing I don't like about it is when your foot comes down, your head always comes back down on the center line. It doesn't matter what you do.

When your foot comes up the middle and you bring the foot down, not only are you stationary, but your head has to come down on the center line, and that allows counters. And that's what happened with Alex. He threw a push kick up the middle, which is actually a very effective kick for him, and it works very often,

but it's stationary for just long enough for rumble to catch the foot and throw a power overhand right and clip him. He got caught. He tried to tough it out. Couldn't do it. Anthony kept the pressure because it was so early and wasn't tired enough, and he was able to get the finish. I think if they fought best out of three, I still take Alex.

I really do. But I do think that Rumble is a beast, and he's hard to deal with, and I give him nothing to respect for the win, because he's earned every step forward. He's taken. He didn't get no easy ride up to the top. He fought Phil Davis and Alexander Gustafson, and that's after a bunch of his own trials and tribulations before those issues. So my hat is off to that guy, man. He's shown a lot of composure, a lot of mental strength, and a lot of positivity, actually, with all the circumstances that have been run by him.

Reminds me a lot of you. Do you give him a shot against John Jones? I give him a good shot against John Jones. I do. The reason is he's so powerful that I think that he has a good case with moving forward and being able to withstand some of the striking power of Jones. You know, you watch the guys that Jones fights, and he keeps him so far out, and he's so ranger. And he does damage with those punches.

Guys can't come forward. I think Rumble is powerful enough that John Jones has to respect the punches similar to what I was explaining. Phil needed to do early in this fight with Rumble and everybody else, and Bader also. Rumble has to go in there and force John Jones to respect him immediately. And as long as he does that in the first, second rounds, I think he has a good thing. this fight coming up. And as fans, we've got a super fight coming. Let me ask you three quick predictions, and then we'll let you go, and we really appreciate

the time. I'm sure your hand is a little tired holding the phone, so thanks a lot for that. We're making you work here. Anderson Silva, Nick Diaz, this Saturday, Las Vegas, UFC 183. Who's your pick? I'm going on with Anderson Silva. The reason I'm going with Silva is he has more tools. He's got kicks, elbows, knees.

he's just as fluent on the ground as Diaz from what we've seen for the most part, or maybe not as fluent, but at least as offensive on the ground. And that kind of makes it a good matchup for Diaz and Silva both. But more Silva, because Silva has seen so many different styles that if you really look at what Diaz brings to the table, it's boxing, what Jitsu off his back. That being said, that's nothing that Anderson Silva hasn't seen before at the highest level. So there's nothing that he can really shock Anderson Silva with.

And if you look at it the other way around, Anderson Silva has everything he needs to shock Diaz. And I'm sure for you, Anderson, another inspirational story coming back from his injury and now fighting once again on the biggest stage possible. Faber Sunsau, who's your pick? You know, I actually like a Sunsau. Oh, yes. I love it. I do.

I like a Sunshael in this rematch, and I'll tell you why. Sunsau has made changes in his game. This goes back to people evolving. You look at what if Sunsau's done to get on the street, he's made legitimate, strong working changes to his fight game. He's hard to take down. He doesn't accept the takedowns away he would earlier in his career in the WEC. In the past, he would get taken down, close his guard,

go for a guillotine, and then end up the rest of the round. on his back, possibly getting choked, which is how he got choked by favor and scrambled. I think Upsom South pleads a different case in this fight because he's not going to be okay with the takedown this time, I think. I think he's going to use a jih Tjitza to get backstanding, and if he creates a stand-up fight with favor, anybody who creates a stand-up fight with favor doesn't allow favor to get into any kind of grappling situations with them. They usually beat favor.

I think U.S. and South striking is awkward enough, strong enough, and useful enough, that he's able to go in there, keep the fight striking for three rounds and possibly come out with a decision. Wow. And finally, of course, Dillishaw Boreau, your pick? I got to go to Dill Shal again. I like Boreau, but I think after watching his last fight, watching Dill Shaw, Dill Shal's confidence, his mind is a different place.

I think that Boreau having that loss, I think it definitely shook him. I think getting this last win really put some wind underneath the sales, gave him a lot of confidence, made him know that he, is as good as he always was in his mind. But really, it comes down to Dillishaw, who went out there and beat him. A beating that he took from Dillishaw like that isn't easy to get your mind passed. I mean, he got knocked down and beat down for four rounds before that,

plain and simple. That's not easy to accept. So I think this is a big hurdle for Hennon, but I will say Henning goes through there and beats a guy like Dilsha after what he's gone through. He's going to be one of the hardest guys in the world to beat after a fight like this, if he can beat Delsha. The confidence will be through the roof,

and I think he'll be able to stay around for a while, maybe even face me when I come back. And you got next, right? I still say, huh? I sure hope so, man. I'm here looking positive, man. People are saying, what's this guy going to do? How's he going to do it?

I'm saying, why can I? I can't wait to get back there, you know? And in the meantime, I'm going to make the best of my life. I'm going to enjoy fighting. I'm going to enjoy commentating with you and the rest of the guys. And I promise you, I'm going to keep getting better. I'm going to be in the gym. I don't think I'm not in the gym.

One of the best stories of 2014, your comeback against Mizugaki, that amazing performance in Las Vegas. I can't wait for your comeback fight, this time for the belt. Whenever that time comes, I will be there, and I will be very proud of you, my friend. Good luck with the recovery. Happy to hear the surgery was a success, and tremendous stuff, as always. Your analysis is always on point. Really great having you break down the fights for us.

Thanks for having me, Ariel, and thanks to everybody for the support and love. I appreciate everything from everybody. and the patience on waiting for me. I'll be back. I won't disappoint. Thanks a lot, Ariel. All the best, Dominic. There he is. Dominic Cruz, the former UFC Bantamoy champion, very much looking forward to his return. I have no doubt he came back from two injuries. I have no doubt he will be back soon enough coming back from a third ACL surgery, and hopefully when he comes back, he does get a shot at his belt, the one he had to relinquish. All right, let's move along now. UFC 183, as I mentioned, coming up this Saturday in Las Vegas,

a big one headline by Anderson Silva versus Nick Diaz, a man who knows a thing or two about Anderson Silva. He fought him at UFC 97 in Montreal is our guest at this time. Talas ladies joins us from Rio de Janeiro. Talas, how are you?

Talas, are you there? Did he pull a Tim Sylvia on us? Talas ladies going once. Let's calm back. What pass? He didn't want to hear our breakdown. Okay, we're going to call him back. Meanwhile, I just got a notification that my flight to Las Vegas Wednesday morning was canceled.

So hopefully I'll be going to a UFC 183. Be nice. How's it looking out there? Pretty bad? I'll tell you where it looks really nice these days. Rio de Janeiro. Talas Ladies has won seven in a row. He was released from the UFC after his loss to Alessio Sokara, UFC 101.

Since then, he won three in a row. then lost to Matt Horwich and then proceeded to win seven in Roan his last two fights looked really impressive. He caoed Francis Carman at UFC Fight Night Henderson versus Dosangos that was August of last year. Prior to that

he T-KOed Trevor Smith the first round just 45 seconds. Remember that fight in Abu Dhabi? And also prior to that he defeated Ed Herman, UFC 167, Tom Watson at UFC 163. That has been his run thus far in the

and now I believe he is joining us. Talas, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Hey, my friend, thank you for joining us. So we were talking about your great run, your return to the UFC, of course you're fighting Tim Boch this weekend. Can you tell us, is there a reason why you've looked so good upon returning to the UFC?

Has something changed for you? A lot of things changed for me, especially my mind. Now I'm more aggressive and I'm training more and I'm feeling more comfortable and confidence. basically it's the confidence, you know.

I've been working in my mental game, and it changed my life for sure. It makes a lot of sense for me. So when you were in the UFC for the first time, you weren't confident in your abilities? Oh, I was. I was confident, but when I started to do the BJJ mental coach, there's a problem with my friend.

At the beginning, he was just doing it to the jujuts. guys and then we start to work. It makes a lot of difference for me because I've been working with my mind different and now I'm thinking and it changed for me a lot. Of course, I've been training too, doing all my

stuff as the same or more, you know, more professional. But when I changed in my life and I started thinking positive for everything and believe in me every time, it changed. Did someone help you changed? Did someone help you start thinking more positive, have more confidence in you? Yeah, it's my friend Gustavo Dantas, who has the BJ mental coach, Rubin.

He lives in Arizona. He's the Brazilian guy, and he teaches jiu-jitsu class there. He will be in my corner. He's out in my corner. Since my returning UFC, he's always in my corner. Do you remember what the feeling was like after UFC 101, when you were cut from the UFC, you know, you had lost a couple of fights. You weren't obviously performing to the level that you expected yourself, and now you have to go back and work your way up. You have to go on the regional circuit, so to speak.

Do you remember how you felt when you got the news after the Sakara fight, split decision, somewhat controversial, that you were no longer employed by the UFC? Yeah, it was much controversial, but it is what it is, yeah. There's no things to say. I had to do my work way better than I did. You know, I lauded the judge's hand. They did a big mistake. and it happens.

It makes me, you know, everything happens for some reason and wasn't different with me. I was out at the UFC, but the life continues. I was still fighting in another shows. And after this one year, I had knee problems. I had the surgery in my left knee, and then I was coming and recovering, and I had another surgery in my right knee.

And, you know, it makes me stronger. it should be it should it should it should bring me down but you know I was you know

I put in my mind he'd have to change something in my life it would have to bring me more healthy

and physically you know mentally spiritually and all these things and you know your mind is your brain

is control your body and then I start to to think like this, you know, and everything changed for me and I had, you know, that

situation was very bad for of course, for all the fighters. So, it's a nightmare for all the fighters that injury. It happens with me but it bats now and now 100%. Did you think you would

get another chance though? Were you confident that if you want a few fights, you would get a second shot in the UFC? Yeah, why not? Why not? I've been working on it. Yeah, but step by step. My next step is the real tough fighter, you know, real tough challenger, and all my focus is on team both now. Yeah, and we'll get to that in a second.

I heard a story, and I want to see if it's correct, and if you can tell it to us, that it was, in fact, your teammate, Jose Aldo, who helped get you back into the UFC. Is that true? Yeah, that's true. We were having a negotiation, and we just was, you know, waiting for that one hockey.

And then I was talking to him and said, oh, I'm going to try to help you, you know, to try to finish you as being real. And then he sent some to the news and he was a good friend. That's amazing. What a good friend. Yeah, we are close friends since a long time. Since when he comes to Manau's really on the other one, we always train it together.

We are close to us. Not only the gym. Have you talked to him about Connor McGregor? I thought that his demeanor and the way he acted when Connor jumped over the cage and went face to face,

he really came across like a real champion, a class act. Have you talked to him about his trip to Boston and what he thought of all of that? To be honest, it is good to the sport into the show

because McGregor is a great fighter. He deserves the title shot, but, you know, and he brings the the eyes of many people who maybe didn't like the UFC and the MMA, and now they have all their attention because that, you know, that trust soft and that things. It is good. It is good to the show.

It is good to everybody. A lot of people want to see that fight, but just that message to McGregor. He's a good fighter. He deserves that Aldo. he, Aldo will kick his head death deathily, Aldo will kick his legs

stronger, and then, and he won't walk for one week. I can tell you this, for sure. How do we knock him out? You think he'll knock him out?

Yeah. Have you ever seen him so fired up before a fight? Like, has you ever felt this way about an opponent? I'm sorry, I didn't hear. Have you ever seen him

so excited for a fight to shut someone up? You know, it seems like, Yes, he's smiling and he's calling him the Joker, but deep down, you get the impression that he really wants to beat him up. Have you ever seen him like this before? Who? You mean, Judge Aldo?

Yeah. Oh, he's every time focused on his next opponent. Doesn't matter. His mind is excellent, he's 100%. Every time, doesn't matter what happened. He's every time focused on 100%. And, you know, when I see him, I try bringing, like he's...

style to my life too. His mind is really strong. Doesn't matter what happens. He's every time thinking positive, focus, and he always believed in his victim. It won't be different. You know, every time this thing, when he has a challenging,

he put all his mind on that situation, on that challenger, and he did that guy. It doesn't matter. It tough fighters, for sure. Number one in the world, in the division and he'll be the guy. He's a beast. I've been wanting to ask you this question for quite some time.

You know, I've been so impressed with your return defeating tough guys like Tom Watson, Ed Herman, Trevor Smith, you T-K-O'd, Francis Carman, you caoed. But what has gotten me most excited about your return to the UFC is your walkout song. Because on this show, I said that if I ever had a fight, which will never happen, but if I ever did have a fight, I would pick three little birds by Bob Marley as my walkout song

because when my first son was born, I used to play him that song all the time. When I hear it, it makes me cry. And I need to know why you pick it because every time you come out to that song, honestly, it makes me want to run and give you a kiss. I love the song so much. I love the song.

I love that song as your walkout song. Oh, first of all, because I love, you know, Bob Marley's songs, and, you know, and his music means a lot of to me is a good thing. You know, it's a simple things and good things in the life. what happened in life is exactly that song is simple songs simple words

two little boys by my daughter's step singing street songs everything you know it's going to be okay it's going to be right and you know my daughter loved that song too since since she born I used to play that song to her and it makes part of my life this song and reggae music it's amazing to me I love the reggae music and not only Bob Mali but you know nice roots in a reggae band from

Brazil, Peter Tosh, you know, a lot of, a lot of reggae music is every time good to me. It makes me relax, and especially that song makes me more confident.

So when did you start using that song? Ah, a long time. A long time. Every time, when I, when I fight, I used to to walk with Bomb Wally song.

And once I said, oh, two little birds is I used to go with the get-up stand-up, No more trouble. I did it already. I already did Transyl rock too.

And could you be learned. But that song was, you know, was 100% for me and, you know, makes me relax, get aggressive and confident. It is weird,

but it is, it is. Against Anderson, which song did you come out to? I was, I picked Bob Mali's song at the time. and then I white said that

I couldn't go with the Bon Malice song because he needs to be more aggressive and I think Welcome to the Jungle from Desert Rose at that time but I like Guns and Rosen Rosen Rosen but you know I think at that time I picked a Bonnale song for sure

and I remember and I couldn't go because the music the song was so relaxed and they asked for something more aggressive to get in and I think it that song. That's unfortunate. I think you would have won the belt

if they let you stick with the Bob Marley song, to be honest. It's not easy. It's not easy. Not only a song. There's a lot of things in Bowman. Yeah. Do you ever watch that fight again?

Do you ever look back at that fight? It was a very bizarre one, and, you know, they were booing and everything. Do you ever look back at that fight? Yeah, I saw a couple times. I didn't like that one. You didn't like watching it? What?

You said, You said you saw it a couple times and didn't like it, obviously. Yeah, yeah. You know, I was a challenge. I should go more forward, you know. I have to show to the word why I was there and why I deserved to be there and, you know, hunting the belt. And I did, and I was, you know, I was trying doing my game plan and the first and the second round. And then, you know, when I, when it didn't work, I got frustrated, you know, my mind.

and, you know, happens exactly what you saw, but, you know, it makes me work way better my mind, you know. Definitely bad fight, you know. If I had a better mind, I don't know if I, you know,

you win or not, but I have to be more aggressive and confident. On the story, the champion, you know, he beat a lot of guys for a long time, and he deserves, you know, he's returning. And I respect him for sure, but, you know, I should be more aggressive back.

As a challenger, you know, I should be there more aggressive and, you know, like Thursday, want to show to the world why they should be there. Right, and now you're... It's made for sure. Yeah, now you're very, you're a very aggressive fighter. What's your relationship like with Anderson? Do you ever see him now? Are you guys cool?

No, I'm okay with him. We are not close friends from here, but, you know, when I see him, hey, how are you? I don't have any problem with him. And when he fights, when he will fight, I work for him for sure. He's a Brazilian guy. He won the gym for a long time. We have to.

Of course. We have to understand that the, I'm sorry, didn't? No, I was just wondering if that performance was the biggest regret of your career. Is that a performance of what? If that performance was the biggest regret of your career. Probably, yeah. You know, because of the situation, you know, and it was the title shot. You know what I mean?

Mm-hmm. How do you see this fight against Tim Boch going on Saturday? And I can tell you that we're looking for the submission and the knockout for every single moment. Well, of course, fighting smart, fighting intelligence, and fighting forward. You know, I'm ready for final scan, take down the test, take down, and on the ground. It doesn't matter how the fight goes. I will be ready and it will be aggressive. All right.

Well, I look forward to it very much. And are you going to be walking out to three little birds? For sure. All right. I'm concerned already. Three little birds. Can't wait. And if you win this fight, I'm assuming maybe you get into the top ten.

Is that what you're looking for? You're right now 11. Yeah, I'm 11 right now. Probably going to top 10. I don't know. Depends, you know, if I will win or not, depends how I will win. lot of things in the moment.

Right, of course. Well, looking forward to the fight, it's happening on the pay-per-view. It's a very big pay-per-view for the UFC, Anderson versus Nick Diaz. Another important fight at 185, Tim Boch versus Talas ladies. Talas, I know you're flying later tonight,

so I really appreciate you coming on the show for a few minutes. I look forward to watching you in action and hearing that song as you walk to the cage on Saturday. For sure. Thank you, guys. I appreciate our time, and I see you soon. All right, Obrígado.

There he is. Talis ladies stopping by. he has really turned around his career. He has looked very good as of late, and that's an important fight in the 185-pound division. Tim Boch, a heavy hitter, a man who knows a thing or two about comebacks as well. He was in desperate need of a victory in his last fight, came back, was not looking good early against Brad Tavares in Maine,

an important fight for him in his home state, and then he came back, much like he did against Yushin Okami, way back when at UFC 144, came back and, and finished Mr. Brad Tavares. So that's happening on Saturday night as well. All right, let's move along. Let's go to our next guest. Hopefully she's here.

When I was in Sweden, we were trying to track her down for the last, you know, it was like Thursday, Friday, Saturday to get an interview, but she was so elusive, much like she is in the cage. But I think we have finally got our hands on her, and she is joining us right now via the magic of Skype. She is the pride of Scotland, the one and only, Joanne Calderwood joins us right now. Joanne, how are you?

Hey, I'm good, how are you? I'm doing great. So we got you. It's great to have you on the show. You're back from Sweden, right? Yeah, I got home yesterday, so pretty tired and jet lagged. Well, not jet lagged, show lagged.

Yeah, it's only a one-hour difference, right? No, three hours. Three hours. All right, that's not too bad. Yeah, it's not too bad, but, you know, Saturday and Sunday. I just ran it in one whole day. That's true. How did the people receive you?

Because I saw you in the hotel. I mean, you're a fan favorite. The fans love you. Everyone loves you at the event, 30,000 people. What was it like? Did people show you a lot of love? Yeah, yeah.

I got a lot of love. And that's my third time in Sweden. So especially Swedish people, they seem to like me, which is always good. So hopefully, possibly, in the future, I can go back and be on one of their cars.

You strike me as the kind of fighter who enjoys going to the fights but doesn't really enjoy it because you'd rather be fighting. Like, yeah, it's fun to watch the fights and take it all in, but you really want to fight and you'd rather be in the cage. Is that accurate? Yeah, like, I don't really watch a lot of the fights and stuff because unless my coach tells me to watch this fight for, like, to watch the way they move or that. but I'm kind of like a bit jealous and yeah I just I'm and just wanting to be in there it's so it's good for a wee while but then you start to realize wait a minute I should be in there and I should be on my next fight and it should be yeah it should be me in there so you were in the crowd when Alexander Gustafson lost right yeah what was the mood like in there well and I think everyone was just shot how quickly the fight was over. And yeah, I mean, who doesn't like Alexander and who doesn't want to see him go well and stuff.

So, yeah, he's really humble and it's just hard to see that. And to be on your home soil, I don't know what he was feeling, but we were all feeling it with him. Yeah, and I know you have the same management team, so it's a very personal fight for you. fight for you and your team as well. They also announced the night before that the UFC will finally be going to Scotland in July, July 18th. And now it's January. And one would think that you would be on the card because you're arguably the most famous fighter coming out of Scotland, man or woman. But I get the impression you don't want to wait till July, right? Yeah, like July's like seven months. I don't even wait. I don't even want to wait seven weeks.

So I spoke to Sean Shelby and I don't know. I was kind of getting my hopes up and I don't know if I'm going to get another fight but I can just, all I can do is keep training and keep my fingers crossed and make sure everyone's harassing them and I was harassing them as well but I don't know if they listen to the fighters

but they certainly listen to the fans so if anyone's listening, get onto them. I hope. Go ahead, sorry. Seven months is, sorry, seven months is far too long. Yeah, I was going to say hopefully at least one person is listening and they can relay that message. Is that the impression he gave you?

Yeah, you just kind of, he says like my record and I don't know. Maybe you could answer this, like, is it because I'm undefeated? because I think there was more girls in the division where a lot more fights, and he said it was my experience, so I just don't understand. Here's my theory. You want to hear my theory?

My theory is the next title fight is happening March 14th, right? Yeah. They want to save you for a title shot four months later in your home country. Now, this is just me talking out of my behind. I have no inside information, but it would seem to work out

if they're going to keep you on the sidelines for that long, right? Would you be okay with that scenario? Of course I would be because, like, Scotland, title defense. I'm on backyard. I'd love that. But at the same time, I like to stay active. But, yeah, I'll wait. I'll wait.

If it's for the title, I'll wait. Only if it's for the title. If not, you want to fight and you want it soon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only that's my, in fact, actually, I have to do as the UFC essay. So if they say you're waiting until July, then basically I'm waiting until July. So how did you end it with him? Like, what do he say to you?

I'll get back to you. Like, where do you stand right now? He says he's thinking about me and he says that he knows how much I want to fight and he's just looking for space and looking at the, the division and like he has to take into consideration my record and he says commissions won't let me fight like some of the girls that are wanting to fight me so because they're inexperienced because they're inexperienced compared to you is there someone that makes sense for you like like someone that sticks out like oh okay if i fight this person in march or april that that would be a big fight that

would get me closer to the title in July, perhaps. Yeah, I'd quite fancy any of the girls at the top of now, obviously. Gadela just closely get defeated by Joanna, so I'd quite happily fight her before it. Jessica Penn's also up there, so, yeah, I would fight any of the girls. Who do you think wins between Carla Sparza and Joanna Yianjajek? I think Carla will win, but I hope to. Joanna wins because if your fear is right, and I'm fighting in July for the title offence,

I would rather face Joanna because I think she would give me an awesome striking war and the fans would love it. How has life changed for you since the show? Are you a lot more popular? You walk down the street now. Does everyone know who you are? They're coming to take pictures, autographs and stuff like that? Yeah.

I pretty much don't step outside of the gym, but yeah, when I do go out, there's a few people that kind of recognise me, but usually I'm under a hat or under my hoodie, so I could walk past anyone and they not notice. But, yes, it has got a little bit crazy, but I'm still loving, I'm living my dream, you know, so I'm grateful. Although that small part has changed, nothing else has changed, that I'm still the same person and still training hard. So that's the main thing. You don't live in the gym, do you? I wish. Although the crash mat's comfier than my bed.

Wow. Really? Is that true? That's not a good thing. Yeah. Have you ever laying a crash mat? Yeah, I know. Comfiest thing ever? Yeah, I guess.

But you say you don't step foot outside the gym. You have to get to the gym from where you live. So at least you have a bit of a journey, right? Yeah, it's like five minutes. But other than that, you don't do anything outside of training? No hobbies. No, this is my hobby in my life. Just trying to get better.

And to do that, you have to dedicate a lot of your time to it. So, yeah. I mean, I do go out. I go for dinner and stuff. Right. I go for my shopping. You know, I remember when you went on Instagram while the show was going on, and it seemed like you were a little bit frustrated

with the way was, you know, you guys were being represented, the way the show was being produced. Did you even watch all the episodes or after a few weeks and of course you knew what happened, did you just say, all right, screw this, I don't want to be a part of this anymore? I wish I could have done that, but I was doing a blog every week,

so I had to watch the episodes. It was good to see you, like, because obviously people want to talk to you about it and it was good to finally talk to people and see their feedback and stuff. Everything was positive, so although there was a lot of negative things that I took from the show, there was a lot of, it was probably more positive things that I could concentrate on. So it wasn't all bad. Do you regret taking a part in the show that would you rather just gone through the UFC,

like some of the other women that have come in and bypassed the show? Yeah, of course, because they got to fight before me. Yeah. You know, so... But, I mean, it was a great opportunity and great experience, but it was pretty tough, and I don't know if... I don't like having regrets, and I don't like saying, oh, I would not like to do that again

because it's kind of got me to where I am now, and I wouldn't... I had the awesome fight we see Hugh Ham, so... I mean, everything happened, for a reason. Sure. And of course, you're a lot more popular now, though I know that's a gift and a curse when it comes to you. What did you make of your performance against Ham? Were you happy with it? Yeah, I was. I was really happy with it. I got to show some things that I was working on. I was trying to nail everyone with that spinning back kick, and obviously I throw that spinning elbow

as well and although I didn't I miss once but I hope our way one of them so it's always good when you can show new techniques and make a highlight real like a move you know some fighters

especially when they come from Europe they want to move elsewhere go train elsewhere because they feel like they need to evolve we had Joseph Duffy on the show last week who's going to try star in Montreal of course famously the SBG guys most of them have stayed close to home how do you feel about that Are you interested? Are you thinking about spreading your wings?

Or do you feel like you have the right team with you in Scotland? I'll tell you something. Before I was, before I started fighting MMI, I contacted John Jackson's MMA. And just because I was trying to get fighting stuff. And I was like, maybe you do have to go out to one of these camps in America. And you have to train Mule them and get to know them. And that's the way to get fights out there. But they never got back to me.

What? When was that? How long ago was that? Well, I've been fighting M.M.A. now for three years, so just three years ago. Okay. Before you had any fights? Yeah. Okay.

And so, yeah, I'm here with the Dinky Ninjas and under James Dillon, and he's an awesome coach. He's really intelligent, and he puts a lot of time in with my training and my fight camps. So, I mean, I don't need to go anywhere else. A lot of people say I need to go to America and stuff, but they don't know what I've got here. And they don't know. I'm surrounded by great people and great training partners, and we all feed off each other.

So, yeah, I don't want to be anywhere else. You know, the UFC announced recently that Paige Van Zant is fighting Felice Herrig on Fox, main card on Fox here in New Jersey, actually across the river in New Jersey, not too far from here. That's a huge deal for the Strawweight Division. but they're not the biggest names, they're not contenders.

Of course, they're pushing Paige quite a lot. What do you make of that? Are you happy that they're getting the opportunity on Fox? Or do you feel like Paige said to us last week, oh, I know why we're fighting each other. We're the two pretty girls, and that's what they want. What are your thoughts on that fight and the opportunity that they're getting?

Because women's MMA, thus far, in UFC, a lot of those fights haven't been on stages like Fox. I mean, if that's true, then it's pretty shit. like what I was saying about the what Sean Shelby was saying about my record. I was looking at Page's record and Felice Felice has got a ton more

experience on her so how can that happen? You know but I would hope it's not down to their their looks because like it's a sport at the end of the day it shouldn't come down to if you're good looking or not it should be if you're

a good fighter or not so but it's going to be a good fight. The two of them, even though, I'm not going to comment if they're good looking or not, but they are good fighters. Sure, sure. No, and I wasn't, by the way, I wasn't asking you to comment on that,

but just her theory, throwing out that theory, because let's be honest, it comes into play a lot whether we like it or not for women's MMA, which is unfortunate, and I agree with that 100%. What do you make a page as a fighter, though? Because she is getting pushed a lot. I mean, she had one fight on fight pass, and now she's really getting a push from the UFC.

Yeah, she's really young, so she's got a massive career ahead of her, so, and her record's really good. I think it's like 4 in 1, so yeah, like she's got a ton of experience to get, so they're pushing her in the right direction. I'm a little torn about your new Twitter name, Dr. Neville.

because I think it's amazing it's a very clever name and I want to ask you where you got it from but the old one was just amazing I mean it was even more amazing

than the new one bad mofo Jojo did someone tell you that you had to change the name and if so where did you come up with Dr. Neville yeah basically

when the whole the ultimate fighter was coming out and they contacted me because it would be on Fox and they said they couldn't use my Twitter handle

and would I kindly change it so I put it up to the fans actually and I said right I have to change my Twitter name what do you guys want to what you can pick so basically

there's a shitload of options but I picked Dr Neville because one of my Invitifftive fights badge Routen was commentating and he said that he called me that so

wow a few people had mentioned that so I was right I'll go with that but now on UFC like

they're saying like my nickname's bad motho and I'm like oh okay is it back in play or what am I doing here

did you ask them you should ask Sean that question too yeah yeah I didn't ask I just assumed that it's okay now like it's not

on the ultimate fighter now so can do what I want So are you going to go back to it? I like Dr. I also put this up to the fans. Do you want it back or what?

But I would like Dr. Naval. So my Instagram's bad motho, so I've got both of them. What did they say when they announced you in the cage? I forget now. Bruce Buffer. They asked me if I wanted a nickname, I just said, just say, Joanne Calderwood. No nickname?

No. Because at the time, I was. I was like, I don't know if the, because you know bad muffo, you know what it stands for. Sure. When they pointed it out to me, I was like, oh shit, yeah, it was quite bad.

So maybe. Well, you didn't know it, you didn't know until they pointed it out to you what it meant? I mean, I got what they were trying to say. Sure. If, like, people were, if young people were looking at it, and I got,

I got what they were meaning. Like, it is not a nice name, but I, I'd never want it to come across like that. But, yeah, maybe next time, Bruce Buffer. Yes, let's ask you two more questions, and then I'll let you go. What does your lovely mother think about your success?

They showed her at the beginning of the Ultimate Fighter. You have a great relationship with her. She seemed a little bit emotional about you leaving home. What does she make of all this? She was emotional because, you know, when she was doing that in the video, she was, like, putting my washing into her. so she was probably just emotional shud to do all my washing.

But yeah, she supports me 110% and she's great. So she's a really positive and great role in my life. So I thank her for the way I've turned out and stuff. She'll be at the fight in Scotland, I presume. Oh, yeah, yeah. She always wakes up, so this is good that it will be in her time zone, same way everyone else from Scotland. And finally, I'm just wondering, you know, you're so soft-spoken, you're such a smiley person, a happy person, at least it seems.

What pisses you off? What gets you most upset? Is it when they don't give you a fight? Is it when you're on the sidelines watching these other people fight? What really gets Joanne Calderwood upset? Is there anything? Yeah. Hey, we're just talking about you.

That's my mom. Wow. Can I say hello to her? Yeah, Mom. Come and say hi. Hello there. Mrs. Calderwood. How are you?

She can't hear you. Oh. Just say hello. I'm a big fan. I love mothers. I hope to meet you one day. Tell her I'm a fan. He's a fan.

No, I'm not going to speak to her in case she embarrasses me. Oh, come on. She loves you very much. What bothers you? What gets under your skin? Probably when I don't get enough sleep. Oh, really? Yeah, I love my sleep.

and obviously I need it the way I train and stuff but not a lot of things pisses me off but yeah sleeping, lack of sleep and not having a fight coming up well on that note you don't have a fight coming up you're probably tired from your trip so

then I really appreciate you coming on the show because both those things are happening right now to you looking forward as always to watching you fight you're such an exciting fighter and it was great to see you in Sweden over the past weekend and thank you for doing this interview I really appreciate it as well No problem. Anything that...

Not a promise. All right. Thank you so much. There she is. Joanne Calderwood, bad mofo Jojo, aka Dr. Neville, the pride of Scotland. Joanne Calderwood, one of the very best straw whites in the world. She is ranked number five right now in the UFC, and she's looking for a fight. Let's see what happened. So if you want to know the latest about my flight, I got canceled Wednesday morning. They're giving me like a play-by-play.

But now I have a new fight. How about that? A new flight. I should say. Thinking about people not having fights. So up next we are going to, right now I'm going to be joined by the latest sensation. The UFC, his name is Makwan Americani. He made his debut, of course, on Saturday night.

He defeated Andy Ogil in just eight seconds. And this man is beloved in Finland and now all over the world. taking the UFC by storm, taking the world of MMA by storm. He joins us right now. Via the magic of Skype. There he is. Mr. Finland himself, Makwan, Ameriqani.

Makwan, how are you? I'm fine, thanks. You. I'm great. What a pleasure it is to have you on the show. You are a overnight sensation, as they say here in the States. Everyone talking about you, excited about you.

What has the last 48 hours been like for you? Well, who's this fellow? this one he will be the future champ oh wow what's his name Liam

Liam yeah show your fist oh yeah he looks like a tough guy missing a couple of those teeth is that is that your son no it's my friend's son

oh okay they will see so what has he'll be shy that's okay I understand but it's great to have you on the show Liam, thank you for joining us as well. So, Makwan, what do you think?

I mean, the last 48 hours, 36 hours or so, it's been unbelievable. What has it been like for you? Well, first I didn't sleep for like one day. Then I haven't like got a time to be alone and think about it. But wow, it's a huge step for me. I didn't expect this. and I knew that it's going to be a short fight, but I didn't know that I will make this kind of like a move

that everybody will know me and, you know, I'm happy. Clearly, you have a big smile on your face. Any good stories? Like, anyone reach out to you and say, wow, I was watching someone from Finland, a famous person, someone reach out to you. Anything good happened as a result of this? Just good things.

like people in Finland they are going crazy. The girls are like chasing me and I'm just running away and hiding. Managers are fighting. My managers are fighting. Yeah. Everybody tried to like get in touch of me. One thing is I have always responded to every messages that I get. But I need to say now to everybody that.

I'm very thankful for the messages that I get from you guys, but just want that they understand me that it will take amount of time to answer to everybody. But I will answer. I will use the time that it needs to answer to everybody. Even there will be millions of messages. And I'm assuming the girl's chasing you, that's nothing new for you, right? I mean, that's just a typical day in your life. Maybe it's reached a whole other level now.

Now it's just a lot more, but I'm assuming here and there it's always happen. Yeah, it's something like that. Well, let's answer the question that I think a lot of people want to know. Are you a single man? Me? Yes. Yes, I am. Oh, wow.

Now things got a lot more interesting. I was in a big relationship. It was like five years. And when I broke up, that was a time when I started training and have a look for a girl or relationship. So my concentrate has been actually in wrestling, not in MMA, but now when I got this UFC contract, this was the first time when I actually like concentrate 100% for just MMA. so that's why eight seconds you guys need to look at that fight again it's not eight seconds

it's six really yep how many times have you watched it I think millions of times like there are different kind of videos they made this tag live it's so funny 66,000 views right now I saw this morning Yeah, I'm a beast.

Are you a thug? Oh, here it comes. Here's the apple. Are you eating an apple right now? It's not apple. It was in front of me like one hour. I was like, okay, now I'll take it. What is going on with this apple thing?

You're eating an apple, you're eating a plumb. Let's show this video while he talks about it. There are videos of you eating fruit online in a very, dare I say, sensual way. What is going on over here? Actually, I sent that video to one. a friend of mine, he hates that sound. So when I realized that he is hating, then I knew that actually everybody hates it.

So let's put it on Facebook, so to let people hate me even more. So you don't mind that people may hate you, that you might come across as cocky? No, I don't. They can hate me if they want, but I don't hate people. It takes a lot of energy.

from a human if you want to hate some people. I rather love people. It's much better. You're a lover, not a fighter. Wait, now you're cutting the apple? Is that what's happening here? This is not as fun. No, I hate orange.

Oh, orange. Okay, a different kind of fruit. That's exciting. So, of course, everyone talking about Joe Rogan and what he said about the fight, what he said to you afterwards. You know, I know you said in the press conference that you thought he was a little bit drunk,

but honestly, did you feel like he took away from your moment? No, actually, there was this funny thing. Somebody wrote to Internet that I'm 100% sure that when the drug test will come out, Marcon will have positive in ecstasy. So I was like so happy I didn't bother me. So it was in a different way. It was a good thing because people started to talk about it even more.

I got more intention. So thank you, Joe Rogan. And that was really a dream of yours? Like when you were a kid, you remember thinking that, you know, you want to be on Fear Factor, you want to talk to Joe Rogan? Yeah. I love his voice. The way he talks, it's something that I will never forget when I,

I was a kid, we were watching this fear factor with my family. So I have good memories of that. So that's why it was a... And we were in training today. And there was this another UFC fighter, Nicholas Baxter. And he said, I'm so jealous. You met Joe Rogan when I was fighting in Berlin. He wasn't there.

So you went back to the gym today. No breaks for you. No, man. Back to office. And correct me from wrong. you're moving from Finland to Sweden, you're going to train full-time at All-Stars? Yeah, I'll do that. In All-Stars, you don't have to worry that is there somebody, is there people in training?

It's always full and everybody has their own goals. So it's, I don't feel like I'm the only one who is chasing something. Everybody is like, like, they have the same mission that I have. good to be with them. What was the mood like at the gym today after what happened on Saturday? Well, when I went to the gym, everybody was clapping their hands and saying good things to me, so I felt very happy. But of course, you know, the leader of the team Alexander Gustafson lost.

So were people down or are they still positive that the team will rebound? Well, of course, it affects. and I was like hoping so much that Alexander wins that fight because our after-party depends on him. So when he lost and everybody was allowed down. But I don't doubt that Alexander will come much back, like much stronger. So did you have an after-party? No.

It got canceled. So how did you celebrate? We went back to the hotel and, I was just teasing Bert Watson and took some videos with him. And we were just in my room and watching video clips and talk about everything. Do you think it's absolutely crazy to even suggest that this was an early stoppage? I mean, do you think it's clear-cut 100% that was the right call when he made it? Of course, it was a wrong call, what Joe Rogan said.

I would... If a referee wouldn't come between us, I would do very bad damages to Andy Ogil. So it was just a good thing for Andy that he came between us. You're originally from Iran, right? Yes. When did you move to Finland? Well, we came to Finland, 93. Why did you leave?

There was a war against Iran and Iraq, so it was a good place to us. Saddam Hussein went crazy, so we just ran away. We came to Finland then. It was a good move. Why did your family choose Finland? I don't know. I think they didn't like the warm weather, so he came to Finland. And I was reading your bio.

You said that your hero is your father because he took you guys out of Iran, but he's no longer with us. When did he pass away? A year after when we were. in Finland. Actually, he was 11 years in war. Wow. So he got shot 11 times.

They were always like three months in a war. Then they came back and just repeat that 11 years. So when we came to Finland, he put us in a wrestling club right away. And when I broke my finger in a lot, not this U.S. FFSI fight, but last fight before that, the doctor said that you won't hit with that finger, with that arm anymore. So I was thinking like six months I didn't do anything.

Then my brother said that, do you want to throw everything away or what? So I quit my job and I told my mom that can you just make food for me and wash my clothes? I can like one time to put everything into this

board and watch what happened. So it was a good move. And you currently live with your mother? Yeah. I don't have a girlfriend or wife so and she hasn't like a new husband

and she doesn't want because I remember she said to us she wants to be loyal to my dad, so she wants to show us what love is about. So that's a good way to show your kids that having someone in your life is much more than just getting married. Sure. And you mentioned in the – and by the way, I love that, and I agree with her wholeheartedly. You mentioned in the press conference that you're going to buy her a new bed, like 10,000.

euros. So right now she was sleeping on a mattress? Yeah, in a living room. How come? How many people live with you? Only two, but there is my sister in the other room and I have my own room. She sleeps in a living room. And your mom was at the fight? Yeah. What was your reaction? What was it like when you saw her? Well, of course, I was like, I need to be smiling that she doesn't cry, but I cried before she and everybody recognized me at the audience.

So they stood up and everybody was clapping their hands. It was even the fight was going on there. They didn't care about the fight. Everybody was just clapping there. It was such a moving moment. One of the happiest moments of your life? Yeah, it was it. I think she will live much longer now. Yeah. And are you going to move out? Like, forget about the new bed. Are you going to get a new place so that, you know, you can have more space with your sister and mother?

Yeah, I will do something that changed their life. I will be in Stockholm. So. Right. They're not coming with you. No, we have like, I have five sisters and two older brothers. Wow. And I had actually one other brother. He passed away too, so we don't want to move far away because she will be alone if we move out. So we try to be close to her. Have you bought the bed yet?

Yeah, I'm still in Sweden, but I go back Thursday and I have some media meetings. after that we surprise her with my sisters we go and buy a bit is this all a little overwhelming for you all this stuff the media and everything everything has changed for you in the span of a few days is it a bit overwhelming well yeah in Finland they are calling me a new slatan of Finland so it's a huge thing like life can change in six seconds six seconds and when do you want to get back in there because I know you haven't been punched and you say you're you are very proud of the fact that in your fights, you don't get punched in the face, so you're healthy right now.

When do you want to get back in there? Well, I want that the UFC gives me a time to train and be much better in the next fight. But maybe in this year, I don't want that they throw me to the wolves. But I'm like Aladdin, the diamond hasn't been found yet. So just let me train and I will entertain people. And is there anyone in particular that you would like to fight? No, I don't have anything in my mind. Actually, I don't even watch USC.

I need to be honest. I have watched only one UFC fight now, and this was second, and I was fighting. What was that first event? It was this Boston I was in Sweden I was like And my friends were like Would you like to come and watch UFC

I was like okay I can come Wait the one last week With Connor McGregor That's the first fight you've ever seen Yeah That's unbelievable you never watched anything before Why did you even become a fighter then How did you even know what it was

Like I said I didn't want to throw 21 years of hard work away and I don't want to use any more like a time that I use in training my free time is something else it's not about the sport only sport that I watch is tennis tennis so what do you do in your free time like what's your favorite hobby I like to go fishing fishing is it popular in Finland fishing yeah what what what fish in particular well usually I

I don't get anything. That's normal to me and my cousin. We go fishing in the summer, like every day, but we don't get anything. And it's just we went to Norway. And a friend of us said that you need to come and fish with us. We will get like a big fish. And there is like an ocean.

So fishing in Norway is like a huge thing. So we went to fishing. And everybody next to us got like, big fishes and we didn't get anything. So we said, I think it's good to just talk. Well, you have more success inside the cage. My final question for you is, your nickname is Mr. Finland.

You came in second place, right, in this competition. Are you considering re-entering the competition? Because I think now with your newfound fame, there's no chance that you lose that thing. No, I'm in UFC now. I need to concentrate on that. And it's good to be, it was a good move that I went to that beauty contest because it's a it's a pretty bad thing for fighters if you

lose for a model. That's true. It's must hurt if your friends are like, ah, you lost a pretty boy. I love it. What a story. Congratulations on your win, on your success in your UFC debut. I look forward to watching your career. And I think I saw him over there.

Thank you very much to Thomas for hooking. us up with you today. Thank you. Was your name Ariel? Yes, that's my name. I think your parents wash a lot of clothes because they gave you this name. Well, not quite. My parents are also from the Middle East. Really? My mom is from Lebanon and my dad is from Egypt. Salam alaikum. Salam alaqum. See, we're brothers, you and I. Yeah, I salute you. Thank you very much. All the best to you, my friend. Enjoy your newfound. success and fame, and I'll see you very soon. I appreciate you coming on the show today. Thank you. Thank you, having me.

All right, there he is. Makwan, Ameriqani, stopping by the overnight sensation wins in eight seconds, although he says it's six seconds. Great stuff out of him. Beautiful to see stories like that. Oh, I forgot to tell New York Rick something. Are you having trouble connecting with Kormier? I think I have a new name for you. You have a new name? Oh. Here it is. I'm going to call Daniel Kormi now. He was with me in Sweden working for Fox. It's so great when you have these stories.

Guys coming out of nowhere, I mean, honestly, how many of you out there knew who Makwan Amir Kani was? This time last week. I'm guessing very few of you. Now, here we are talking about this guy, defeating Andy Ogil. I think it was 100% the right call. Came out there with a flying knee,

much like the Maximo Blanco fight. I knew this was going to happen. My mother is watching the show right now, and she's not a fan of the comment from Amir Kani about my name. There is a laundry detergent named Ariel, which I think is only popular overseas, perhaps only in the Middle East. And I think that's what the joke was. I think he was trying to pay me a compliment,

saying that I'm a clean guy, something like that. But anyway, it's funny. His name is like Amir Khan, except you put an eye at the end. It's always fun when they go to these new markets. They give a guy a chance, of course. He has a connection to Sweden. He's from Finland now, and he becomes this big star all of a sudden. And that's the beauty of having this show on Fox Sports 1,

as opposed to a fight past show, which these events have typically been taking place on, because now a lot more people are talking about him, getting all excited about him. Heck, they could have thrown that thing on Fox. it was just eight seconds long. I did briefly speak to Andy Ogle afterwards. Obviously, he was down, but he did mention something interesting about being in a better place now.

You know, he went to train at Alpha Male for six months leading up to the fight. Your eye favor was very excited about him. And he said, you know, in the past, he may have taken a loss like that a lot harder. But now he feels like, now he kind of feels like, you know, he did everything he could to win that fight. He put it all out there. He gave it his best shot, and it's hard to walk away with your head down when you know that you gave it your all. So it's part of maturation of a fighter.

And speaking of that kind of mindset or a fighter trying to regroup after a loss, I did speak to Akira Khorasani. I mentioned this on the post-fight show. He lost to Sam Cecilia, another brutal knockout, and he said that he could fight until he is done until he is dead. But he doesn't believe his brain can take much more damage. and he implied that this is going to be it for him. I also spoke to his longtime friend and coach, Roger Mamadov, who actually has a school

a couple blocks from where I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and he said he doesn't want to be a part of that anymore. He thinks it's time to say goodbye. The school's Williamsburg MMA. That's where Akira trained for this fight. Oh, Korme gave me the wrong name. There it is. Yeah, there it is.

There's the right one. Daniel Cormier, always giving us some trouble, huh? How's a look out there? Blizzard? Still going nuts? Everyone going crazy over there? It's happening. My friends over at severe mMA.com, giving me the heads up.

Their Connor McGregor docus series starts tonight on RTE2. That's in Ireland, 10 p.m. GMT, 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Or on RTE.c. Slash live. You can watch it there. Got a sneak peek of that. It looks very good. They followed him for several months. And it's going to be airing. I don't think it's going to be airing right now in the United States. But if you're watching us in Ireland, I know a lot of people are tonight on RT 2 10 PM GMT, part one of their Connor McGregor docus series. All right, let's move along now and go back to the Skype machine. Is he there? Yes, there he is. Daniel Cormi, what's going on, my friend? That was good, man. How about you? I mean, you give us three different.

Skype names. Thankfully, we got it done. Good thing we're not a live show or anything. It wasn't that many, bro. I'm just saying greetings from Sweden. Still on Swedish time. It's almost bedtime. Are you tired?

Oh, I'm actually about to hit the sack for the evening. Can I just say something? You didn't really adapt well to the Swedish experience. You were complaining about the food, the time zones. I mean, you were a bit of a crabby-appi over there. Hey, man. I don't deal well with the time, with the difference. I just slept the whole time and it was cold.

It was actually terrible. The weather and stuff, the people were great. The people were great, but the time, everything else was pretty bad. And you had to work at like 5 a.m., right, after the fight? Were you tired? We didn't get back to the hotel until me and the people from Fox. We got back at what, 6 o'clock in the morning. we got back from the show.

But you know what, the aerial, man, it was an unbelievable show. Just the amount of people and everything was crazy. You know, it was a big, event feel. Did being a part of something like that

get your juices flowing again? Obviously, you were down after the loss, but did it kind of reignite you a little bit? You know what, man, a little. But the only thing that really kind of gets you going again is just time. You know, I just time. I had time to start.

to feel better, get back out into the world, and then kind of see the division start to shake up and play out, I mean, and that's what kind of gets you going a little bit more than, more than the actual event. The event was cool. I was a fan in there, and it felt good to watch it as a fan. Are you over Jones yet, or is it a little tough to get over it in like three, four weeks? No, I mean, I'm not over it. It'll never be over. You know, I mean, I, you know, I'm not, I'm not a sore loser or anything, but, you know, Nothing changed. You know, there's no relationship between John and I.

There won't be a relationship between John and I. And I just hope that we can cross paths and not actually go after each other. Because if that would happen, you know, I wouldn't be opposed to it. Like if you see him, if you're in Vegas working a fight or you're at some kind of convention, you see him, you're afraid you might go after him? No, no, I don't think I'm going to just go after him. I mean, we may, you know, I think after all the hard feelings, you know, the words will probably still be flowing, you know.

Anytime you have a situation like that where things are so real, it doesn't just disappear, you know? Yeah. You know, it was obviously, you know, there was a lot of emotions and everything like that. And I remember seeing you at the press conference and he wasn't letting it go. I mean, you were sitting there, your head down, and he's just going on and on and on about, you know, not feeling bad and all that stuff. Was that one of the tougher things?

Was that one of was tougher than the loss just having to sit there and listen to him after the fight? No, I mean, the loss was tough. you know, more than anything. You know, honestly, Ariel, you know, for me, uh, at the end of it, I thought that, that's exactly what he should have done. You know, I mean, what I have done that, no, but, uh, that's exactly what he should have done as a warrior. You know, John said a couple things that stuck with me.

It was, uh, you know, I don't feel sorry for him. This is combat. That's the truth. You shouldn't feel sorry for me. He, he won on that night. You know, he, he got his hand raised. So, you know, he, he had the right type of attitude. So, no, I mean, obviously I was pretty emotional because I put so much into this and I thought I could get the job done.

But you know what? No, man. I think it just serves as motivation. Was this a tougher pill to swallow than the Olympics? You know what, man? I think so because in the Olympics, you know, I did some things wrong, you know, not diet in the correct way, not always doing things right in this time I did. You know, so I thought all my ducks were in a row. I thought the stars were going to a line for me and they didn't.

So, yeah, it was tough. You know, it was very tough. I really did believe in my heart that I could get the job done. And when I didn't, it was tough. How big of a deal was it not having Kane to train with? You know, man, now I'm looking back, now I'm looking back, talking to Bob Cook and my management, it's like it was a very big deal because, because, When I got to that fourth round and fifth round,

I didn't have that push in the gym that I needed to make sure that I was okay. You know, so, yeah, it was a very big deal. It was a very big deal not having Kane because Kane, you need those days where you're in the gym and you don't just have success. You get beat up. Like there are days where Kane will literally just beat me up. And I needed that in preparation for someone like Jones, you know. So you saw the beginning of the fight.

was able to keep a pace that I wanted to keep for five rounds, but I didn't necessarily have anyone to push me in that fourth and fifth round to make me do that. So it was a big deal not having Velasquez for this fight. But you know what? At the end of the day, John got the job done, and, you know, hats off to him. You told me after the fight that the, are you okay over there? Yeah, I'm just telling Selena by she's going to yoga.

Oh, okay. That's nice. Tell her goodbye as well. Ariel said goodbye You told me after the fight that you took the fourth round off Do you regret that? I do I do

You know you can't think your way through a fight You know I I fought very hard the first three rounds And then in the fourth round If you watch our body language I think you watch the fourth round back You watch our body language And Jones kind of was standing there

Waiting for me to press him again And then I didn't And that's when he started to kind of come forward and go, okay, I can kind of start to do my thing a little bit. And that's just me as an analyst, not even me as a fighter. You know, I was thinking, you know, first three rounds were very competitive. I was doing well. A fourth round was, I don't know, you're kind of thinking your way through the fight,

like kind of take a breather in and try to win the fifth. But John took the momentum and I was never able to get it back, which was a very bad mistake on my behalf. First three rounds, you know, very competitive rounds. We were both hitting each other, scored punches. and it was very competitive, you know, and watching the fight back, you know, I'm not exactly sure how going into the fourth round I wasn't winning the fight. So you think that it was wrong, the judge of scorecards? Do you think you should have been up? Well, I mean, you know, I firmly believe that as a champion, you get the benefit of the doubt.

So I don't have a problem seeing them scoring around. scoring the fight four to one. But I also thought more realistically, just the second and third round, I thought I won those rounds, but he won the fight. Make no mistake about it. John won the fight.

Right. First round, John won. He won the fourth round going away, and in the control that he was able to put on me in the fifth round, won him to fight. So he won the fight. Third round was very, very close.

And if they scored it for him, it's not like it's a robbery. I'm just saying I thought that, well, I mean, just looking at the judge's score, You know, two judges scored the second round for me. One scored the third round for me. So people actually thought those two rounds were very close, I guess.

Have you been able to watch it since it happened? I've watched it 100 times. Really? I've watched it 100 times. Why watch it so much? Why put yourself through that? You have to make it. It has to burn, Ariel.

It has to feel so bad. It has to punch you in the gut every time you watch it. And I do. And every time I watch it, I watch a very competitive fight. And then I watch one guy. stayed a course and I watched one guy get off course and that guy is me and I watch my facial expression change and I watch my demeanor change and I make and I and I watch me go into a mode that I shouldn't have been fighting and I should have continued to go forward I should

have continued to pressure him and press him and uh there was a moment in that fourth round man where where one guy was going to go up and one guy was going to go down and if you look at us both there was concern on both faces he was able to get through it. and actually do his thing and won the fight. How much does the wrestling kill you, like that you weren't able to take him down? It didn't. You know, it doesn't. You know, when people asked me before, you can go look at my tweets, you know,

what if John takes you down? I said, well, I'll just get back up, and that's exactly what I did. Sure. You know, so it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't that it, you know, it surprised me that he could wrestle. He pushed me against the cage and got his hands locked. I mean, he's a tall guy, you know, it's hard to defend whenever a guy that tall get you against the cage and get your hands locked, but wrestling situations out in the open.

Neither one of us had much success at all. We tried, but neither one of us was able to score. And then I could never get on his legs. He did a very good job of actually making sure that my hands didn't get completely locked around his legs because if they did, I thought I could finish the takedowns. As I did in the fifth round, when I was able to finally get my hands clasper around his legs,

I was able to take him down. But he did a very good job. You know, hats off to his coaching staff. they know me. When we were chest to chest clenches, they did a fantastic job of him, keeping my hips away so that I couldn't get inside to tie him up. And, yeah, they did a good job.

His coaching staff did a really good job, and I thought I made some mistakes inside him to fight. How about him breaking out the sucket sign at the end? You know, man, you know, he just, you know, he just, I don't know. It was his initial, his immediate reaction. You know, he was going off of emotion still, at that point, you know, he had, he had, uh, I should have never stopped, stop, uh, fighting whenever, uh, he picked his hands up.

Mm-hmm. He, he hit me. And in my, you know, my reaction was to swing back. I, I guess it was a little after the whistle. I'm not, I'm not exactly sure. But in that moment, you're just kind of still fighting. But, um, I should have never, I should have never stopped fighting. Uh, his initial, his immediate reaction was to, to do that, which is, which is fine. You know, all that, again, all that serves as motivation. Like, it's all, we, we, You know, as I told John before, you know, this isn't the end of this. Like, this does not end because we fight tomorrow night. You know, we will be, we will have, you know, this stuff going on for the rest of our lives.

Final thing on John, you know, it's unfortunate you weren't able to really, you know, lick your wounds and do what you have to do after a loss because of the cocaine thing coming out. I mean, you were thrown right back into the mix, doing media, all that stuff. What's your take on that whole situation now that it's over? He was fine. He did the interview. I'm sure you've seen all of this. The way it was handled, you not finding out before him being allowed to fight. What's your take on the whole situation?

Well, I mean, you know, again, you know, as I've said time and time again, you know, you just kind of hope that he finds help and gets going in the right direction. But you know what, man, none of that matter. Because as I look back on it, I think if they would have said, well, he had this, this or the other, he felt this or he did this, I would have still fought him. So it wasn't that big a deal. You know, like, it's not like if they would have said, well, he failed the test for cocaine, whatever that stuff is.

I would have said, well, I'm not going to fight him, take his title. I would have said, okay, that's fine. Let's still fight on January 3rd, you know. So it wouldn't have changed anything. So it doesn't change anything for me now. You know, he won the fight, man. He went to the MGM Grand on January 3rd, and he got the job done. So it's whatever.

You know, I don't really think about it. I don't care. You know, I'm just really trying to sit here and figure out what's next. Would you have liked to have known beforehand at least? No, I don't care. Like, it didn't matter, you know, because it wouldn't have changed anything. If I was a guy that it would have changed something, yeah, but it didn't matter. Like, what are they going to do?

Tell me he took some recreational drugs and that it's going to put the fight at risk. Reality is, I probably would have said, well, we don't need that to be public because I want to make sure we fight. Okay, so let's talk about what's next. You were there in Sweden. You saw Rumble Johnson knock out. I mean, it was unbelievable stuff. And I know you were flip-flopping a little bit. You picked him, you didn't pick him.

But honestly, did you expect Rumble Johnson to do that to Gustafson in Sweden, of all places? Man, I tell you, man, I was Friday. I watched him at the way-ins. And then after I was like, Anthony, he's going to win this fight. You know, I was like, he's going to win this fight. He's going to do it impressively. And then afterwards, I got to thinking about it. I'm watching the fights again.

I'm like, man, you know what really skews us? It's these fights at 170. And then the Vitor Belfort fight at the catch weight. Yeah. That's what messes with me. Because I'll go back and I'll watch those as I prepare for a Rumble fight. And I'm like, well, what if this fight goes long? What if he gets tested as he did in the Cost Check fight?

What if he gets tested? You know, and I'm like, yeah, that's probably going to be what cost him. But then I was wrong. And you know what? But it's like, I'm not, this is not like, I'm not basing these thoughts on nothing. I'm going back and watching performances or sometimes even at 170, Anthony looked ridiculous. And then other times he just didn't.

look as good. So it's like, I'll watch these things and I'll watch Gustafson and you don't find those performances from Gustafson. So it's almost like you just kind of, I was kind of safe, I guess. And so do you think he has a shot against John? Man, let me tell you something. As you watch John and I's fight, you know, I was able to hit him a lot of times and I don't know the exact number, but if he cannot take those types of punches against Anthony Johnson, I think Anthony is a phenomenal puncher. I think he's an unbelievable kickboxer. And his confidence right now is through the roof, man.

I believe he does have a chance. As a betting man, I don't know if I would pick him in this fight just for all the tools that Jones has. And I think that, you know, as I said, you know, John, he's smart. He's smart inside the cage. And, you know, he, I think he'll, he'll try to find ways to actually take away Anthony's biggest weapons.

And so I'm wondering who you want to win that fight because Rumble presents a new opponent for you and gets you right back in there, but John is still the guy that you really want to beat and you're still very much in the mix. So when you watch it, who will you be rooting for? I won't be rooting for anyone. I mean, anybody, you know, in those aspects, but in terms of the person, Anthony Johnson, who's who root for Anthony Johnson? He's a great guy.

You know, I talk to Rumble. I text with Rumble, you know, and I'll wish him the best. I'll give him any clues that we may have saw over the course of the fight and some feels that I felt. But professionally, you know, obviously you always want to be the guy that beats the guy, and Jones has been the guy. So I'll be rooting for Rumble Johnson to get the job done. And you know what, man, the thing about Rumble Johnson winning is that it changes the division.

It's always nice when division changes, but it does. doesn't really change where we are in terms of getting a title shot again, because if John loses, he gets another title shot. So, uh, John losing would actually make it worse for a guy hoping to get back and fight for the championship. That's interesting. So I was asked at the beginning of this show, who do I want to see you fight next? And I said Gustafson. I think that's the fight that makes the most sense for both of you, gets you right back in there. The winner could very well be the number one contender. What do you think? If that's the case, yes. I mean, he's got the biggest name. we're both coming off of a loss,

so it makes sense. You know, so if that's the case, yes. If the winner, if they say, Daniel, you and Alexander fight, and the winner will get a title shot against Anthony or John, then yes. But, I mean, any of those guys, you know, I don't, I don't, I've never, I've never once picked a fight. You know, the UFC has always called me and said,

Daniel, you're fighting this guy, you're fighting this guy. You know, I, I, I, uh, when I fought John for the belt, I had fought Patrick Cummins and Dan Hendon. But that was supposed to be Rashad Evans. Sure. You know, so my first fight in the division was supposed to be Rashad Evans. So they always tell me, you know, I never turned down a fight. And if I was going to turn down any, it would have been Rashad because we're buddies.

But I don't turn down fights. They say, Daniel, you're going to fight this guy? I say, okay. So if it's Alexander Gustafson, okay. If it's anyone else, okay. You know, but it needs to be a guy that has name recognition where the people say, okay, Daniel beat this guy. Let's either see him fight for the championship again.

or he's very close. Because to me, it's like Alexander and I realistically are two guys that can fight for the belt. Once you get past us, there's not many in Rashad, you know, but they're all rematches. Rashad Gus and now are all rematches and past them.

Who are you going to put in the cage with John, you know, Bader who would also be a rematch or Ovent St. Prue, you know? So the division is pretty top-heavy. And I think, I think it'll end up being one of us fighting for the belt. You know, so maybe the golden ticket is Gustafson, because if Rashad gets Gustafson,

Rashad may get the title shot if he wins, you know. So maybe Gustafsson is the golden ticket. Well, if I look at who's out there, the options for you, Davis, Bader, Evans, Gustafsson, those are the four options. And I think the biggest one and the most high-profile one would probably be Gustafsson, in my opinion. Yeah, you know, yeah, it is. It is the most high-profile.

I want big fights, man. Once you're involved in a fight like John and I, the magnitude, you don't really want fights that don't feel the same unless it's one thing, okay? There's a rumor floating around right now that the UFC is going to Louisiana. Oh, yes. Then I wouldn't mind actually not fighting on a pay-per-view. But if they are going to Louisiana, I would love to fight there. I would love to headline a car in Louisiana because I think I could sell the place.

And also, it would get me another five-round fight heading into a championship. rematch. Gus versus DC in Louisiana. Gus got to fight at home, so it's time for him to go fight at somebody else's home. Wow. Have they told? Yes. That's the problem, though, Ariel.

It's like if you, if Alexander and I fight, that should be on pay-per-view because it's such a big fight. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, so I would essentially have to give up on the dream of fighting at home in Louisiana because there will be no pay-per-view in Louisiana. So Alexander and I would be a paper-view. view fight if we were to fight. Yeah, but you'd rather be on the Louisiana card than a pay-per-view next, right? That means a lot to you. I would like to fight at home. Yeah, I would like to fight at home. I think it'll be great. And plus, like, just thinking about, I don't know when the card is. The card could be at the end

of the year. Sure, sure. So I could type again and then again. So I don't know when the card is. But if it's late in the year, then, you know, yeah, but if Gustafin and I fight, realistically, that should be on a pay-per-view because it's a big fight, you know. By the way, the, the The rumored numbers, the pay-per-view numbers, the ratings on Fox Sports 1, the prelims. Does that soften the blow? Yeah, yeah. Hold on a second. My dog is freaking out.

Hold on. Okay, okay. Just had a couple more questions for Mr. Cormey, and then we'll get to Jake Matthews. I was asking about those rumored numbers, 750,000 pay-per-view buys. That has been reported. The second-highest prelims. Oh, there he is. Look at that little guy.

It's Jade. Hi, Jay. Oh, it's a girl. Hello, Jade. You look like a puppy kind of guy. I know she's full grown. Look at her. Look at that.

Wanted to ask you just a couple more questions and then we'll let you go. And thanks for the time. The numbers, the pay-per-view numbers, is that softened the blow a little bit? Well, you know, that's good. You know, that's a good thing. You know, it's kind of what we expected with everything that had been going on between John and I. So, yeah, I mean, it's good. You know, obviously you do well financially whenever you do.

Good numbers. And then what about my cameo on Big Fox on Saturday? I mean, that was big, right? Can we just talk about that for a second? Let's talk about it. Let's talk about the fact that you made it. I made it. You have made it onto network television, and your mom, Mrs. Helwani, was so proud of you.

I saw her face on the Skype that you guys were doing down in Sweden. Yeah. And she was so proud to look on a mother's face when her son finally makes it. She loves you. What a man. She's a big fan of D. She loves too. She loves me too.

She was like, oh my goodness. this look at him. I said, look at Erie. And Kurt Menafee saying that I'm a historian, I'm a man of the people. I mean, that was great. Hey, when Kurt Menofy says something about you, you listen. It's Kirk Menofy is the man. He is the man. What a voice that guy has. Oh, I don't mind to something like that.

Hey, you're going to be in Vegas this weekend? I'm going to be in Vegas this weekend. And I'm going to see Nick. Doing the paper view broadcast and, and I think I'm going to be playing like a poker tournament on Thursday night, so wish me luck. Hopefully my luck's a little better than last time I went to Vegas. That is true.

But who's your pick, Anderson or Nick? You know what, man? I love Nick Diaz. I think he's great. But I just think the size is going to be a little too much for him. Man, it's, uh, he's, Anderson's a big guy. I mean, I stood next to him. I'm like, this dude is big.

He's as big as any of the 205-pound guys. By the way, congrats to your Seahawks and good luck to them in the Super Bowl. I know that was a big deal for you. Yeah, you know, my Seahawks, they got it done. but it's like now I'm torn. You know, it's between my Seahawks and my Patriots, you know, my Saints kind of bringing up the rear. But my Seahawks and my Patriots, you know, that's going to be a good one.

You know, I watch my Rockets play my Golden State Warriors the other day, and it was also hard for me to do. Yeah, you've been on the Clay Thompson. I mean, you were Clay Thompson's guy like from way back when. Oh, I mean, from the start. I called that 37-point quarter. You know what I remember in Sweden? I go, hey, Ariel, Clay's going to get him for 37 tonight in the third.

Hey, last question. Royal Rumble. Your thoughts? Did you see it? Best triple threat match of all time. Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, John Cena. Me and my son watched it last night. He thought my boy hates when John Cena loses. So for all the booze, that guy comes out and people boo him, John Cena. But the kids, they love him, dude. My son cannot name Brock Lesnar, cannot name Seth Rawlins or anyone else. He just knows John Cena loves him. Brian Stan told me John Cena has done more make-a-wish foundations than any athlete in history or a performer. So, I mean, he's a good guy.

And you could tell by the most innocent people in the world, they are drawn to him. Like my son, he's done nothing wrong in his life. You know, he's just a kid. Right. And he's drawn to that guy as a person he wants to like, you know. So it was the greatest match ever. Royal Rumble, the actual Rumble match was, you cannot know who's going to win it. when it starts and then it just happens that way.

Like, I mean, when it was Roman Reins and the big show and Kane at the end, I'm like, well, obviously, Kane and the big show aren't going to headline WrestleMania. That makes no sense whatsoever. She's like, okay, Roman Raines is going to win, and then outruns Rusev from under the ring for the last half an hour. Like, what is going on? Don't insult me.

Err. Don't insult me. It makes me think Rusev has any chance of headlining WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar. I heard Brock was great. it would have been better if they let the guy Daniel Bryan in there because then at least you're thinking maybe it could happen I heard Brock look great though lean and mean

he physically looked like he might be ready to get back down to the weight class wow amazing boys are going to be lining up to fight Brock Lesby because you know those people of view numbers are going to be good Daniel pleasure as always thank you so much it was great working with you in Sweden and flying back home with you as well although you were in business I was in lowly coach and I look forward to and I came back and visited it I came back and visited yeah I know you did your hair is looking great by the way don't cut it hey my hair looks terrible I watched TV this weekend

Kevin Jackson my idol Olympic champion and all my friends from wrestling were like what is wrong with DC's head it looks like somebody is shining a mirror from the top of it it was bad I need to keep it much shorter just like Chicago just like Chicago for boyette exodus thank you Daniel see you in Vegas All right, Ariel, see this weekend. There he is. The one and only DC Daniel Cormier. Great stuff from him, as always.

Really enjoy having him on the show, and great to see him back on the horse sooner rather than later. In a minute, we're going to be joined by Jake Matthews, another youngster, second youngest fighter in the UFC right now. I say another. I was thinking about Amir Kani. It is approximately 6.57 in the morning where he is calling us from Melbourne, Australia.

Of course, Australia, another hotbed for mixed martial arts, and there are rumors of a big show happening down there in around November of this year. So I'm sure he's hoping for that, but of course also probably hoping to get back on the horse sooner rather than later. Same situation as Joanne Calderwood, in a sense, although November is a lot further away than July,

so he'll probably get up back on the horse at least once or twice. Has looked very good in the UFC. He was on Tough Nations, of course. Didn't win that show. Went out there, got a win. And then since returning to the UFC has looked very good

and is one of those prospects to watch 8 and O right now and certainly climbing up the ranks and getting a lot of attention and doing so. I believe he is joining us. Yes, he is. Let's go to the Skype Machine. Very early in the morning, there he is.

Jake Matthews. Jake, how are you? I'm good, thanks, Sarah. How are you? So what time is it over there? Is it in fact 6.58 in the morning? Yeah, exactly 6.58 in the morning. Wow.

Nice and early. Is this crazy for you? Are you a morning person or is this a big nuisance? No, I'm a morning person. I'm always up early regardless. I always love to get up early and just get the day started. So I appreciate it. I know it's summer over there, right?

Yeah, yeah, it's supposed to be, but it's not very warm here in Melbourne. Well, I'm not feeling too bad for you. know there's a historic blizzard here in New York City. People are freaking out. I've heard that, yeah, they're calling it the blizzard of 2015. I've heard, so I hope everyone's staying safe. You spent some time in Canada when you were on the Tough Nation show and it was snowing over there. Are you a snow kind of guy?

Do you appreciate the snow or are you more of a warm weather beach kind of guy? I'm both, but I love the snow. But just here in Australia, we don't have much. I think there's about three mountains in Victoria. where I'm from that actually have snow on them and it's only for, you know, a couple of months at a time of year, so we don't get much here. So you haven't fought in a couple

months, but yet I see, and correct me from wrong, a bit of a black eye over there? Yeah, a little bit, had a big sparring weekend with some of the guys from the tough nations. Okay. They came down from, we all converged here to Melbourne,

had a big sparring weekend, so I got a little bit beaten up, but I'm just recovering at the moment. A lot of people wondering what's next for you, do you know yet? I have no word, no harm. But, you know, I'm not in any rush to have any fights. I'm only young. So, like, let's say, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

So I'm just going to wait it out, see what the UFC have in store for me, and just take it by you. Although I like very much, after your last fight, you called out Joe Ellenberger. So you seem to be the kind of guy who knows what he wants. You know who you want next now, because I don't know if Joe makes sense right now. Yeah, well, at that time, it did. Yeah. You know, Joe, I think, we're both one and oh in the UFC.

and Joe has a big name behind him. He's, you know, Jake Allenberger's brother, so people would want to watch that fight. They know who he is. So it made sense. Yeah, but he fortunately came off a loss. So, yeah, I didn't have anyone else in mind. At this point, it's just whoever the UFC think I'm ready for, and I'm just ready for a step up and I just get the job done again. You're 20 years old, right? Yeah, that's right, yep. Second youngest fighter in the UFC. in a million years did you ever think at 20 you'd be doing this on this stage the major leagues of MMA it was always the goal to you know to get in I always wanted to getting young try and be like one of the youngest UFC fighters but you know in reality you always thought I always thought

about mid-20s when I've had a lot of fights got the experience up yeah but I worked really hard I was training up to you know twice a day even when I wasn't fighting the UFC so I guess when you're putting the work out. It sort of makes sense. But yeah, I was just a big privilege to be one of the youngest UFC fighters. So as I mentioned, you were on Tough Nations. It didn't go your way. Was it hard because, you know, a lot of those guys on that show, a lot older than you, a lot more mature. I mean, they've been through a lot. You're just a youngster. You're in your teens. Far away from home. I mean, as far as possible, you're in Canada, up north, Montreal, all that stuff. Was that just difficult being away? Were you homesick?

Yeah, a little bit, but yeah, that's no excuse to not win the fight. I just didn't perform on that day. It was a different environment without the crowd and you know, you have all the cameras and there's no entrance music and it's a bit quiet. So it was a little bit different and that was the first time I did have fought inside an octagon. All my other previous fights have been inside a boxing ring. As I think most people know, in New Victoria, the octagon was illegal. So all my fights had been in the ring before that. But yeah, the environment was a little be different, but I just didn't get the job done on the day. So has the ban on the cage in Victoria, has it been officially lifted? Well, not as of yet, but the government party that

wants the cage to be legal, they're now in power. So hopefully we'll get overturned soon and we can get a UFC event going here in Melbourne. From what I understand, after the show, you decided to go to Albuquerque to train with the Jackson's team and you thought you were going to get a call you were with Kyle Nolk over there to fight but the call never came you had to go back home get a fight then you got the call how disheartening was it to go over there to to move away from home to be on your own again and never get that call um it was hard that wasn't the reason I went over to Albuquerque I just you know I wanted to go over and and really measure myself against those guys that are you know the top echelon of the UFC um you know and just experience that

different environment over there. I'd never really be over to the States, let alone trained over there. So it's good to measure myself against those guys, see where I was at, what I need to work on. And yeah, when I found out that wasn't going to be on the finale, it was a little bit disheartening. But I called my dad, spoke to my dad, and he just said, you know what, I'm going to get back in there, get the winds up, and we'll be back in there by year's end. So we did that and, you got the call-up for UFC in Auckland. So it's interesting that you mentioned your father. Your father is your coach, correct?

Yeah, that's right. Your brother, who's around 16, 17 right now? Yeah, he just turned 17 in November. 17, he's your main sparring partner. Yeah, it was back for my Auckland fight. Now, we've got a good team together with Daniel Kelly, Richard Walsh, Brennan O'Reilly, who all converge either in Sydney or in Melbourne and spa now. So I've got some other sparring partners, but for that fight, we had a six meter by four meter sort of shed in the backyard.

And that was my main gym for my fight in Auckland. Wow. Yeah, my little bundles on, my main training partners for that fight. So it's stepped up a bit now. I've got my own gym, a nice big facility and good training partners together. So, yeah, so people can expect another step up in my level again. But you say your own gym, do you own the gym? Yeah, yeah, I do, yep.

Wow. I do. that's amazing and what does your mom do she's a part of the team as well right yeah my mom I guess my nutritioner she cooks or my food make sure that's amazing um yeah like ice all and key yeah still

still makes my bed for me in the morning so she takes care of me and she's always front row supporting and your brother does he want to be a pro fighter as well um he hasn't had a fight as of yet um I guess you know that's sort of up to him he loves training he loves being around the gym you know, loves hanging around with all the guys from the gym.

So I guess wait until he's old enough. And if he wants to jump in there, he can. He's definitely going to be a monster. He's already giving me a hard time. He's only 17. So, yeah, he's definitely going to be a good fighter if he chooses to go down that path. Life must be so amazing for a 19, 20-year-old, fighting in the UFC, being on TV. I mean, you must be the bell of the ball.

What do some of your friends do? Like, what are their typical jobs? Or they probably are in school, I bet, right? Yeah, I've got friends in school. I've got friends that are in the workforce. Yeah, either studying. I've got friends that work, you know, from anything from pulling telephone cable,

I've got friends studying law. So it's just from one extreme to the other. But they're all just normal people. I don't really have any too many, you know, good mates that are fighters. They're all just average guys. I sort of like it that way. You sort of get to get away from the gym,

away from fighting, just hang out with your mates and sort of just not think about fighting for at least a few hours a day. Do they all support you, go to your fights? Yeah, they all support me. They all came up for the Sydney event, and even before the UFC, they're always front row. And they've been my mate since, you know,

early days in high school, so it's good to have that support around. Why is your nickname the Celtic Kid? Well, at the time we came up with the... the nickname my great-grandma passed away and she put together like a heritage book like an ancestry book um you know following our lineage back and we found out that we um originally came from Scotland and so he wanted to throw the Celtic in there and I was only about 16 at the time so you know he sort of threw it together a Celtic kid and uh yeah it's just stuck ever since so

do you really want to fight on that Scotland card that was just announced I just I just just saw the card yesterday that was announced. I'd love to fight in Scotland. I've never been there. You know, be able to go see some distant relatives and just be able to fight, you know, in a country, you know, where my roots are from. I think with a Celtic kid, you know,

I think it would just work. So I'd love to get out there and get a fight in that Glasgow card. And from what I understand as well, you're a big Cona McGregor fan. Yeah, I'm a massive Connett McGregor fan. Why? Just the way he goes about

not only fighting, but the way he promotes himself. He's probably the best self-promoter in the game. And his fighting style, he backs it up. He just destroys everyone. It's hard to see anyone beating him. He's just that guy at the moment that just, you know, when the Otamachita was, you know, at his peak. And John Jones, you just can't see him being beaten.

And I just really like his fighting style. And yeah, he's just a good fighter. And coincidentally, you're now represented by his management team, Paradigm. That's right. I'm the new member on Paradigm. I'm super excited, especially signing at the start of the year. I know 2015 is going to be a big year. So to have them behind me, I can't wait to see what they've got in store for me. Did you reach out to them because they were Conner's guys or did they reach out to you? They contacted me. I've heard of them before and it was a sort of coincidence. Myself and my manager, Gary Scott, who's actually joined up with Paradigm now.

We were actually looking at Paradigm and a couple of others to approach. just so happened they approached me at the exact same time. When you were growing up, you know, Connor wasn't around, of course. Who was the guy that you tried to emulate that you dreamed of fighting like? When you were growing up, growing up right now, but you know, when you were younger. Yeah, George St. Pierre was always the guy. And for me, he's still my all-time favorite. I always sort of try to emulate him inside the Octagon, but more so outside the way he's humble.

He's humbling in victory and defeat. He just carries himself like a professional athlete. So I definitely try and be like George in every aspect of the game. And as I mentioned earlier, there are some talks of the UFC holding a massive event in Melbourne next November. This coming November, 55,000 people could be very well the biggest event in UFC history. I'm assuming that's a goal of yours, right? You want to be on that card? I will be on that card.

absolutely. I'm going to do everything in my power to get on it. I want to be the Melbourne guy on the card. I want to be the draw card that everyone wants to come and see. That's going to come with winning fights before that. So I'm going to get in there, get the job done, and close out the year with a big performance and a big win in Melbourne. Can they really sell out a 55,000 seat arena? Can they actually, is it that popular there?

UFC Melbourne is the is the mecca for UFC in Australia the events in Sydney and Queensland I think it would be safe to say that half the crowd in those events came up from Melbourne just massive following massive support here in Melbourne for the UFC

so I believe they'd sell it out and it'd sell out fast Well I wish you the very best Jake Thank you so much for waking up early for us And coming on the show and congratulations on your early success in the UFC of luck and I look forward to your next fight and seeing you on that Melbourne card later on this year. Thanks, Sarah. My pleasure. All right, there he is. Jake Matthews. Remember that name, a very big prospect in the UFC coming up. He has won his first two fights. Defeated Wagner

Hosha in November. Defeated Deshaun Johnson, 155 pounds. Earlier I said he was 170. But the Celtic kid as he calls himself. I said Celtic. I wonder what's the difference in Celtic and Celtic. I mean, I know they're spelled the same way, but what is the difference? Someone let me know. All right. Show coming to an end, but we have one more guest to go. As I mentioned, UFC 183. Prelims are fantastic. Really great stuff. John Leniker going up against Ian Uncle Creepy McCall. Number one contender could potentially come out of that fight. Derek Brunson versus Ed Herman.

Remember that fight was supposed to take place in December. Brunson, sick, had to pull out. Hafele Natal versus Tom Watson. Solid fight at 185 pounds. I feel like those two have fought like a thousand times already. And then the featured prelim fight is Misha Tate versus our guest at this time, Sarah McMahon.

Sarah, how are you? Hey, I'm good, how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for joining us. Were you surprised that your fight wasn't on the pay-per-view card? Yeah, actually, I was a little bit surprised by that, considering that we're both high-ranked and Misha's pretty, you know, popular and well-known. So I actually thought that was pretty surprising.

Are you disappointed? Oh, no, no, I don't. I really don't care as much, but I'm surprised. I mean, I'm actually happy that I get to watch the main card. Sure. You'll be done and hopefully for yourself celebrating a win and then you get to watch the Great Anderson Silva versus Nick Diaz. This is a fight that you were asking for, you were campaigning for.

Why did you want it so badly? Well, I had a hard time getting people who wanted to fight me. And I knew like some girls were, you know, like maybe had other fights lined up. But since I thought, okay, Misha just came fresh off of a fight and a win against an undefeated opponent. And I thought, you know, Misha's pretty game for this, you know, for higher level fights. So I thought it would be really good fit for me. And I want to fight the top-ranked girls. So she's high-ranked coming off a win.

You know, I thought it was a smart match-up. And you kind of had to chase her, which doesn't really seem like your style. Did you feel like if you didn't go out there and get aggressive on social media and all that, you wouldn't get this fight? Yeah, I started to get the feeling that it was going to be a lot harder unless I start really asking for people. And, you know, even forcing them to say no to me, instead of it being behind closed doors,

to say, no, I'm not going to fight her, you know, or, you know, try to avoid it. So it is kind of, I feel like it's almost like peer-pressuring people into taking the fight. But, you know, I think that, you know, she's games. for it. Are you, are you, are you comfortable with that? Like, from now on, are we going to see a more aggressive Sarah McMahon calling our shots? Not in a disrespectful way.

Sure, sure. But, yeah, I think that in life, you know, like, you're not going to get anything if you don't even ask for it. So I'm kind of taking that approach to it that if I don't ask, if I don't, you know, try to generate interest, if I don't try to say, hey, you know, UFC, like, people would want to see this fight, you know, this is something that could. make you money or whatever, you know, then what reason do they have to put on the show, you know? So I will be a little bit more outspoken about it, but never, you know, never disrespecting the people that I fight because, you know, they're the ones out there. They're the ones putting it on the line.

They're doing this for a living, so I don't feel disrespectful towards them. Was that a lesson you learned, you know, the whole Ronda Rousey fight? You were in the main event, the spotlight, and you were a little. little reserved and I know the fight, you know, came together very quickly, and she was the big draw and the champion, and she does more of the media, but, you know, you were criticized a little bit for not putting yourself out there. Did you learn that lesson from all of that? Actually, probably not. I don't, I know it's terrible. I know that I could put myself out there more, but what people also don't realize is that that means that I will be taking

things that are more private and personal and sharing it with the entire world, you know, and that's something that there's some things I'm very comfortable sharing with the entire world and something that I really wouldn't, wouldn't like to. And so if it means that I get a little less attention, then, you know, then that's okay. Like, I know when to pick the things that mean something to mean they don't. And, you know, we spoke about this briefly off-camera, if you will, in private, leading up to the fight, and even just a couple of days ago, you were going through a lot personally at the time, which an outsider would say, well, this would get people to be a fan of yours and to want to root for you more,

because if they knew what you were going through, perhaps it would make you, you know, more of a fan favorite, they'd get emotionally invested in the fight, they'd want to pull for you, root for you, all that stuff, but you chose not to discuss it. And correct me from wrong here, are you willing to speak about what you were going through last year? at around this time when you were about to fight, Ronda Rousey? Yeah, I'm more comfortable, I think, now because I'm like, the situation is a lot farther past, you know, and I've had a lot of time to come to terms with it. But, yeah, before the fight, actually the reason why I pulled out of my fight against Sarah Crosman

in last August was because shortly after I accepted the fight, my dad had cancer had come back, and he chose not to do chemotherapy, so he was just basically choosing that he was just going to, you know, live with the cancer until it killed him. And the very, like the cancer that came back was very aggressive. So I decided that I would rather spend time with my father than prepare for a fight because I didn't know. I mean, the doctor told me that he could have, you know,

just weeks to live, you know, before he could be like, delirious and not be able to communicate. So I was, you know, traveling up there. I just basically wasn't really training. I was focusing more on spending time with him before he passed away. And then I got to call to fight Rhonda. And then from what I understand, that kind of lifted his spirits as well, right? Yeah.

So he'd gone, like, months of, you know, deciding that he, he wasn't going to do chemotherapy and he wasn't going to live. And the fight, you know, happened. And basically it was essentially presented to me as, you know, if you don't take this fight, you may never get a chance to fight Rhonda. She might go into movies. This could be your only opportunity. And so, like, I was really struggling with it because I really hadn't been training.

And, you know, things were really hard for me emotionally. I'm a huge daddy's girl, so that was really hard for me. But when I accepted the fight, and my dad was like the first person that I told about it, and he decided because of that, that he was going to go through chemotherapy because he didn't want to die before he got to see me fight. Wow, that is unbelievable. Was he at your fight against Rhonda? No, because his immune system was still really compromised.

Okay. So he still was going through chemotherapy. And so he watched it from home. How is he doing now? He's been really good. The chemotherapy was, you know, it was very strong, and they were really aggressive with it. And he has the kind of cancer.

It's lymphoma, but his type of cancer is very receptive to treatment. So he's, I mean, he struggles because he has, like, that there's a lot of after effects of going through chemotherapy, you know, with your body. But, you know, the other option is probably far worse considering you're not alive. Sure. But, you know, he has different, you know, pain or, like, a struggle using his legs and different things like that. So, but he's here and, you know, like, essentially, like, no matter how that fight would have gone, I got more time with my dad. So it was going to be a win for me either way. So this might sound like a bit of a crazy statement, or a question,

but is it possible that you just getting the Ronda fight help save his life? No, that absolutely is what happened. He was in, he was not going to take chemotherapy. And like, his length of his neck were swelling so that, like, he literally was on the brink of death. And, like, I mean, we had hospice nurses coming to our house. Like every time that I drove up there, I was very aware of the fact that it was probably the last time that I was ever going to see my dad, you know? Wow. So he really like cut it so unbelievably close to death.

It is ridiculous. And what are they saying about his long-term future now? He's doing great. His body responded well. I mean, it's in remission. So we really hope that it doesn't ever come back. But he responded very well to it. you know, he didn't even really lose that much weight.

This time going through chemotherapy, he didn't lose his hair like he did the first time. So he really, his body is very hearty, you know, like very, very strong. Because chemotherapy is like, it's kind of poison in your body, you know, like you're poisoning your body to kill off as much cancer as you can. And, you know, which also kills healthy cells, but he did really well. Was it just? By the time I fought, he only had one more treatment left. Wow. And he hasn't had to have any since then?

No, and he had a PET scan, which is a scan of your entire body, and they said that he doesn't have any cancer cells that they can detect. Was this one of those things where right away he decided when he heard about the fight, okay? Because, like, it must take a lot for a person. I've known people who have been in this situation as well to say, I don't want to do chemo anymore. So was it right away, or did he think about it? I mean, how did he react to that?

Because that's an unbelievable shift from just saying, I'm going to stop doing this and see what happens. It was, I think it was like a day. I mean, it was a very short turnaround. He was pretty excited when I told him about it. And, you know, like I kind of just thought in my mind, like I hope that he can survive until then. But I didn't really, you know, looking at him,

I didn't think that there was a strong possibility, but I never, in telling him, I never expected that he would. Like, he was very firm that he was going to. I mean, he divided all of his things to give to people when he passed away. Like, he knew what he wanted, dumped his body whenever he passed away. Like, we'd come through everything. So I was really shocked and extremely happy when he decided that. Were you going to say no? and then he said to you, I'll go back on it if you take the fight.

Like, was he the reason you also took the fight? No. The reason I took the fight is because at that time, too, I was really struggling. You know, like, I've lost people in the past, and when somebody's, like, kind of just ripped and taken from you, it's, you know, like, you have a different kind of set of emotions that you go through, but I've never lost anybody slowly and watched them, lose like little bits of their you know like capabilities and uh you know watch them like in pain

and so like I was really struggling you know like I even I went on antidepressants like I I was drowning you know so like taking the site like I think that um I thought the opportunity was going to be gone as part of it and then I needed something like I needed something to look forward to have hope, you know, and to, and I trained my whole life. Like, it was training, it was like a coping mechanism for me. And so, like, I knew that I needed to, I needed to prepare for something. I needed to be in the practice room, like I, not practicing was having it making it even harder for me to deal with losing my dad.

Looking back, were you not in the, sorry? No, go ahead. Looking back where you, is it possible that you weren't in the right mental mind for, frame to fight the champion. Big stage, first main event in the UFC, do you think the stuff that you were dealing with personally affected your performance? You know, I think about it, and I just don't know. You know, because I've actually, I've competed a lot with different things going on.

And I know that, like, stuff like that can affect you mentally. Like, if we were talking about somebody else, I would say, oh, well, of course that affected them, you know. but when it comes to me, I think that, like, I feel a little bit more stubborn about things. So I wouldn't, I would never turn around and blame anything on certain factors. And I feel like I was very physically prepared. And as far as athletically, I think that I was, you know, really good. But I can't, I really can't deny that I started my camp in a really, you know, dark place.

and then I was struggling with a lot of different emotions before I said yes to this fight. And the UFC knew that. Did they try to get you to speak about it and do countdown shows and all that and you say no to them? Because it's pretty amazing that this never came out before a main event title fight against Ronda Rousey. Did that ever come to, you know, to light? Did they ever say, we want you to speak about this so that we can promote you a little more? No. nobody had, you know, talked to me about it.

Okay. And I think they kind of knew that, like, I like to keep things private. But the people who did, I think it was a countdown, they tried to surprise me. And they're like, they said something about like, well, how are you feeling that your dad died? And he obviously hadn't died. So I, like, looked at them. I was like, my dad's alive. And they're like, oh, oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. You know, like, I think they tried to catch me off guard. Oh. And I was just like, and then that was like all that was said about. about it. So I was like, oh, they definitely know, but maybe, I don't know, like, if they were trying to get like a expanded reaction. But they got one. I was like, what? You know, I remember noting how classy you were in defeat, and especially it was a very controversial finish. A lot of people thought that Herb Dean stopped the fight too early. But because at that point, you said

your dad, you know, had just one more chemo session left. You know, he was almost in the clear. Was it easier to swallow that pill, the frustration of the loss, the controversy, all that because you knew that bigger things were happening and more positive things? I mean, at the end of the day, it's just a sporting event and your father was, you know, turning the corner and feeling a lot better. Is that why you handled it so well? Yeah, that definitely is part of it. And also knowing that I have a lot of really wonderful things in my life. So I know that, you know, even though it hurts to lose, like I really do have, you know, a lot to be thankful for. And part of it is that I'm not entirely surprised, you know, like, I think that if somebody,

like, Landa, you know, is that, you know, makes that much money for the UFC and, you know, is that, you know, popular or whatever, it's going to be extremely hard. Like, I knew going to the fight that even if it goes to a decision, I don't care if she looked like I mauled her. You know, it would be very difficult to pull off a decision. So I trained with the anticipation that if I didn't finish her, whether it be by strikes or, you know, submission, that I'm probably not winning that fight, you know. And that really is how I approach it, you know, like you see decisions that you don't agree with all the time. So, I mean, against somebody who is that, you know, powerful in the UFC, Yeah.

You have to anticipate that. But do you think that came into play when Herb Dean was reffing the fight? Because he doesn't work for the UFC. No, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. It could have been because, like, it could have been a number of factors. It could be because we're females. It could be because other fights had gone on longer, you know, like, it could be.

that that was just his natural assessment of the situation, you know? I mean, I really don't, but I go in there not thinking that everything's sweet and nice and fair, you know, and I think that you have to know that if you're living in the real world. Right. Things aren't set up equally unfair. So it's better to know the situation that you're probably in and account for it. Do you watch it a lot that fight? No, I don't watch it.

I watch it, like I've watched a few times more to see what I technically did right and wrong. Mm-hmm. And then I just put it behind me. Do you think because it was controversial, you'll get another shot? Are you confident of that? Or do you have your doubts as well? No, I think I will get another shot. I think that there's not a lot of girls that are coming up that are showing that they would make, you know, a good sell for a title fight.

And I think that what I did in the previous minute before the knee was exciting, and that's something that people would want to see where it leads, you know. Do you feel like Misha gets you that other shot, or do you still think you have a few more fights to go? No, I think Misha definitely does. I think a dominant win over Misha will put me right there to fight Rhonda. Wow. And wondering, is your father going to be there on Saturday?

I hope so. Oh, no, no, not this Saturday. Okay. No, he's not, yeah, but if I fight Rhonda again. He will be there. I hope that he'll be able to. But he'll be watching on Saturday. Yes.

That's great. I mean, my family, like, my family and friends don't exactly love watching me fight. Sure. And he'd love me chasing my dreams, but they're like, we don't really want you. Like, when you retire, we're all going to be a little bit happier. They'd prefer you do something else at this point. I think it's just too hard on their nerves, you know? And you're 34.

I mean, do you have a cap as to how long you want to go? Well, I think at like 35, I'll reevaluate and look and see how my body is feeling, you know, how I'm feeling as far as, like, my athletic peak, you know, like where I'm at with, like, my daughter, and then I'll decide from there. So it's more like that's, I don't know. I thought that maybe I would already be at the point where, you know, my body would say, okay, we're done with this. But I haven't really reached that point yet. So I'm just kind of, I mean, any fight could be my last fight.

Sure. How does your daughter feel about her mom fighting? She likes it. She thinks it's cool. I bet. She's asked, like, are you going to be a fighter when you grow up, like your mom? She's like, yep, and she does smile. So that's amazing.

Cool. How old is she? Yeah, she's five. And does she go to your fights? So she doesn't come to my fights just because it's a little bit, it's a little bit too hard with interviews and cutting weight and, you know, everything that goes on before. And I kind of have to, um, a little bit detach from the caring, nurturing mommy role and kind of get into the, you know, like, you know, fighter, I'm going to go out there and try to hurt somebody role. So it gives me a couple days like buffer to kind of shift gears. Does she watch them though live or after the fact?

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, she does. She likes watching my fights. That must be wild. Especially for her friends, you know, to tell her friends that. I can't imagine what the, what the parents think at her at her school about her mom, the fighter. You must be the coolest parent there. Yeah. They all come up to me. They're like, we're going to be written for you Saturday. Like, they're all, like, I never thought in the South that it would be as embraced as it is. So, but they're very supportive. Well, I wish you the best of luck. Thank you for sharing that story with us.

And most importantly, I'm so happy to hear that your father is doing better. That's tremendous news, amazing news. And hopefully, you know, that he can have a long and healthy life and watch you compete or soon not compete for many, many years to come. So really, really happy to hear that. that, Sarah. All the best to you. This is a great fight. It's headlining the Fox Sports One prelims on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Sarah McMahon versus Misha Taito, the very best at 135 pounds. A pleasure to speak to you as always. And once again, my very best to your father and hope everything goes well from here on now. All right. Thank you very much to Sarah McMahon for

joining us. Great stuff from her. Some pretty heavy stuff. You know, as I mentioned, I did know a little bit about it last year, but she didn't want to speak about it, and I respected that very much. But now that her father is doing better, she was willing to do so, and I respect that very much. So all the best to her and her family and looking forward to that fight. That is a great fight coming up Saturday night in Las Vegas, UFC 183. Just days away now, Anderson Silva versus Nick Diaz. Going to be a great one. I'll run down the card and then I'll say goodbye.

Anderson Silva, Nick Diaz, of course, Woodley, Gaslam, Lozon, Iaquinta, Lytis versus Boch. How about Jordan Means versus Tiago Alves? A great fight at 170. And then you got Misha Tate versus Sarah McMahon, Herman versus Brunson, McCall, Lenacher, Natal Watson, and then on the Fight Pass prelims, Brando

against Jimmy Hedis, that's fun. Alcantara versus Moria and Tiago Santos versus Andy N's. That's this Saturday on pay-per-view, FS1, and Fight Pass. I will be there. Hopefully I'll be there. Flight got canceled, then rebooked. but I think I think I'll be there at some point, hopefully.

Alex, you can hit my music. We got to go. No time for Inside the Vault this week, because we got to get out of here. There is a blizzard outside, my friends, but we did the show. We did a great show. So congratulations to all of us, and congratulations to all of you for watching. And by the way, speaking of congratulations, I want to thank Fighters Only for nominating me once again for the World MMA Awards.

And I want to thank all the fans who voted for me. The awards are taking place this Friday. So if we're going to UFC 183 and you have nothing to do Friday night, I don't know if the general public can go. I think you can. Anyhow, the awards are taking place this Friday, the Venetian. And I really want to thank everyone who voted for myself and also for MMAFighting.com.

We won last year, so who knows? The voting is done now, but before the show, I wanted to thank everyone. I wanted to remember that. I also want to thank everyone in Stockholm that had the pleasure of meeting. What an amazing place, a beautiful place. By the way, I got the meatballs. I had the berries as well. Fantastic. You should go there just for the meatballs and the berries.

Really great. Really enjoyed being over there. That was a great atmosphere. And I hope to go back sooner rather than later. I want to thank everyone who tuned in today, especially live. And all the best to everyone on the East Coast as this blizzard comes through. Everyone stays safe, warm, and all that good stuff. My thoughts, my wishes, my good feelings go out to the people on the East Coast who are about to be hip-hop.

this thing. Thank you very much to Dominic Cruz. Good luck to him. Thank you very much to Toslides. Good luck to him this Saturday. Thank you very much to Duran Calderwood. Makwan. Amir Khan. Great stuff. Daniel Cormier as well. Thank you very much to Jake Matthews. And best of luck to Sarah McMahon who fights this Saturday. UFC 183, Anderson, Silva, Nick Diaz. Can't wait for it. We'll see you on Monday. Until then, I say, peace. So I'm out of you. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage,

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