MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 267

Episode Date: February 3, 2015

Featuring Chris Weidman, Demetrious Johnson, Gilbert Melendez, Benson Henderson, Rashad Evans, Cesar Gracie, Ed Soares, and Mike Dolce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I was just talking to myself for around 12 minutes, and then I realized this wasn't actually live. No one was seeing it. I hope the guys in the back liked it. I actually thought it was one of my better intros. If you're watching us after the fact, well, this doesn't really. affect you. But hey, they tell me I have to end the show at 430. I'm going to 445, my friends, and there's nothing you can do about it. You'll have to kick me out of this place. So anyhow, sorry for the delayed start, but here we are, ready to go, right? I'm looking at it. We're good.

We're live. How about that? Episode what, 260 something? Still can't get it right. But we have a lot to talk about my friends, so no time to waste. Welcome back. I'm I'm in New York. Last week there was a blizzard. This week there's some kind of crazy freezing rain, sleep going on outside. But we are here. We are ready to talk. And what a month it has been.

January finally over. I'm very excited to finally put it all to rest and get some perspective on all of this. Because in my opinion, it was one of the better months in UFC history. I mean, you look at the ratings, the gate, the attendance, and thank the MMA gods. It all came together. All the main events came. came through. They were great, and there's a lot to discuss. Of course, no bigger story this weekend, in my opinion, than what happened Saturday night in Las Vegas. Anderson Silva

coming back 13 months later. And this is the part that really wasn't discussed, in my opinion. He was coming back to the same arena. I mean, he wasn't fighting, you know, in Brazil. He wasn't fighting in New Jersey, Texas. He was coming back to the MGM where 13 months ago he broke his leg in the most gruesome way possible. He was carted out. I was standing right there when he's being put in the ambulance. I thought that was it. This guy's done. He's staring at 40. There's no way he's coming back. He comes back 13 months later. And let's be honest, he could have come back 11 months later, if he wanted to, 12 months later. And he goes out and he beats Nick Diaz. I thought it was one of the more entertaining fight cards, especially in recent memory. The prelims were great. I thought they

lived up to whatever hype there was. And the pay-per-view actually exceeded my expectations. First three fights were super fun. Great finishes. I didn't have a big problem with the co-main event. I know a lot of people were booing. It was a very weird crowd in Las Vegas. They were boo-happy. And then the main event was fun as well. We'll talk about all of that. I want to talk about it a little more, but we have started a little late, so we won't have a lot of time to digest at all. But there's certainly a lot to sink our teeth into. And we have have a stack show for all of you, my friends. There is so much to get to today with so many guests. So let us get into it. Four o'clock, we'll take your questions and comments. As always,

hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. And you can also leave questions or comments in the comment section below. 355 will go inside the vault. Got a good one this week. We short changed you last week, so we got a good one. 340, we're going to talk to Ed Soros, the long time manager of one Anderson Silva. You know, on Saturday night, I posted a picture on my Instagram, and I said, is this the last time we'll ever see Anderson Silva fight? Is this the last time we'll ever see Anderson at a press conference, post-fight press conference, after one of his fights? Well, he, Ed Sores, weighed in Saturday night after the fight. He said, nope, definitely not.

Let's just give him some time, which I thought was interesting. So I want to talk to him about that in the whole week. 320, we'll talk to Caesar Gracie, the longtime coach and mentor of Nick Diaz. He was back in the mix this past week in Las Vegas. so I want to talk to him about where Nick goes from here, the fight, all that stuff. Nutritionist and trainer to the stars. Mike Dolce will join us at 305.

Talk to him about Calvin Gaslam and John Lineker, two former clients of his missing weight badly on Friday and also Tiago Alves, current client, winning. Great comeback fight. Jordan Mien looked so good in that first round. Basketball, mesh shorts and all. Then got a little cocky, rolling thunder, Somersault, and then got knocked out.

TKO. Great kick to the body. 245, we're going to talk to Benson Henderson. It was announced late Saturday that Benson Henderson has saved UFC Broomfield. February 14th, Broomfield, Colorado, Fox Sports 1. That card decimated by injuries. It was supposed to be Matt Brown, Tarek Safedine. Safferine pulls out.

Brown gets moved to Dallas. Then it's supposed to be Wonderboy Thompson versus Thatch, Brandon Thatch. And Thompson gets the same injury as his training partner, Chris Wydenman, rib injury. So then they call it Benson Henderson, who has been flirting with the idea of fighting at 170. They call him up to save the card. He just fought against Eddie Alvarez. He was supposed to fight April 4th against Jorge Mazvedal.

And he says yes. So less than a month later, Benson Henderson making his UFC Walthorate debut main event in Colorado against Brandon Thatch. Very interesting. So we'll talk to him about that. 225, we're going to talk to Rashad Evans. Of course, his good friend, training partner, Anthony Johnson, coming off a huge win over Alexander Augustine last week. And on Saturday, Dana White said something interesting about Rashad said he's still injured.

So I'm curious what's up with Mr. Rashad Evans because he was supposed to fight February 22nd against Glover-Teshirea. 225, Rashad Evans, as I said, 205, Gilbert Melendez. We're going to talk to him. He was in Nick Diaz's corner. Interesting, Gilbert Melendez was working for ESPN and working Nick Diaz's corner. So a very interesting weekend for El Nino. Also, he has some thoughts on what's next for him.

145, we're going to talk to Demetri's Johnson, who is the UFC Flyway champion, also a big Seahawks fan, so he must be sad. I went on this whole rant in our fake intro, the one that never aired, about the Super Bowl champions, not really being the world champions, because that's the one sport, in my opinion, where you can't really call yourself a world champion because it's really dominated by Americans. 99% of the players in the NFL are American. All the teams are American. NHL, NBA, MLB, they could say they're world champs. UFC certainly, but Super Bowl, get out of here. Not even close. Anyway, we'll talk to him about what's next, because McCall-Linnaker was kind of a mess

as far as the flyweight division is concerned. Linneker is moving up, so what did it really mean? And then 125, we're going to talk to Chris Wyden. And to answer your question, Eric, we are going to stick with that time and just move along. Chris Wyman, of course, it was announced on Friday out of the UFC 184 fight against Bitor Belfort. Very sad.

Very bummed out about this one. I was so looking forward to that fight. injured his rib, so it's kind of a mess right now because Vitor was offered a bunch of fights. What I was told, Dana White said this on the post-fight show. They offered him, they called up Liotto Machita. Liona Machita agreed to take the fight for the interim belt, and then they called up Vitor Belford, and he said, thanks, but no thanks. Not enough time to prepare for Lita, Southpaw. I can't confirm that I did hear from two sources. Vitor countered with Mark Munoz, fighting on that card against Jukau-Carnero.

Of course, you've seen not interested in that. That doesn't make a lot of sense. But he did counter with that. Right now it seems like it's up in the air. From what I understand, Musassi was discussed, Rockhold was discussed, but right now none of those official. I don't think the Rockhold one's going to happen.

He wasn't interested in that because, of course, he beat Luke Rockhold, and Musassie has been campaigning very aggressively. I don't know if that's going to happen as well. They want to keep Vitor on the card, and I don't blame for that. because L.A. has been kind of hit, and they had to cancel U.S.C. 176.

But I don't agree with the idea of putting in a interim title. And, of course, my colleague, Guillermo Cruz, reminding me he just wrote this on the site that they were asking for YOL Romero as well. But, again, I don't know how much that makes sense, especially for an interim belt. The thing is, and Romero was supposed to fight at UFC 184, Chris Wyman last fought in July. I mean, we've had guys out for over a year.

My theory is, if you don't have a fight booked within a year, then you could start talking interim belt or stripping. But he last fought on July, and I know he pulled out twice, but I just think that's not the right call. What did I say? I said Benson fought Soroni. Yeah, I meant to say Benson fought Toroni, not Alvarez. So anyway, I had all this stuff to talk about,

about UFC 183, but we'll save that for later because in a minute we're going to be joined by Chris Wyman himself, some unfortunate news, really looking forward to that fight. They've been going back and forth for quite some time, but alas, we are going to have to wait for that fight. I want to see that fight.

Part of me understands why they want to save UFC 184, but the other part of me feels like, I don't want Vitor to fight and then have to sit out, you know, three, four, five months, not be ready. I'd rather him just wait at this point for why I'm going to come back, who will hear from him in a second,

but from what I understand, he'll be ready in around April, May. so why not just have Vitor wait. But you got to think here now, like the Benson-Henderson situation, I get that you want to save, not save, because I think Ron Rousey versus Katzengano. Remember when that fight was first announced as a co-main event, I said, I thought Rhonda, especially in L.A.,

can, she can main event on her own. I think she's a big enough draw. And now she is. She likes to do the co-main event thing because she has to do less media then, but now she's going to do a whole lot more media because she's at home and she's main eventing against Katzenegano. Now let us go to our first guest of the day.

I believe he is joining us via the Magic of Skype. He is the reigning and defending UFC middleweight champion. The one and only Chris Wyman joins us. Chris, how are you? I'm good. How are you doing? I'm great. So, you know, thank you very much, by the way, for joining us.

I know it's not the best of times. We were just talking about the entry, but let's hear it from you. What exactly happened and when did it happen? I guess last week, the end of the last week, it was pretty quick. I was at Hosta Wrestling, was hitting a switch, which I've done about one million times in my life, and all of a sudden it was just, you know, heard three pops, and it was extreme pain to the point of, you know, it was just, it was almost like I was paralyzed, it was bad, so just out. Went right to an MRI.

I found that out of fractured cartilage. You know, I still wanted to fight. The doctor that I saw in New York was like, I don't think it's a good idea. Then they called the doctor in Las Vegas, the UFC doctor. And, you know, they didn't want me to fight as well. You know, it's just very disappointing because I've been feeling so good. I wanted to fight Vitor so bad. And for me to be pulling out of this fight definitely really suck.

I'm just pissed off. You know, if there was any injury, like, you know, any other injury where I could move just a little bit, I'm still taking this fight, but I just really can't do anything. Any type of movement hurts. You know, my last fight, I fought with a broken hand. I fought with broken ribs before. And I was able to get through it, but this is one of those injuries

where there's just, there's nothing I really could do. So it just unfortunate really sucks. I'm apologetic to the fans. Even Vitor, I know he's coming out and trying to come on me. But, you know, I did feel bad for him. I don't know if I feel as bad for him now. But I feel bad for the fans. Everybody bought tickets.

You know, I definitely feel for you guys. I'll be back. I'll make it up for you guys very soon. You know, this is an injury. I'll be six to eight weeks. I should be back April and May. I'm in great shape. I'm in the best shape of my life right now.

So it's one of those things like I'm just going stare crazy. that I can't do anything because I feel great other than when I start moving, then I realize real quick that I do have an injury. So what's the rehab involved here, or is it essentially nothing? You just have to sit on the sidelines and wait? Yeah, basically nothing. I can't do anything. Anytime it hurts, it holds it back.

So anything that can irritate it at all, which is a lot, like coughing, sneezing, moving, it's kind of brutal. but so yeah no physical therapy but I did speak to Lorenzo he spoke to some athletic trainer that worked with Denver and they might send them out to take a look at me and work with me I don't know I'm gonna probably talk to Lorenzo this earlier this week I mean this week and and see what to deal with that is but I don't know we'll see when did you tell the UFC that you couldn't fight well I didn't it's not like I told Mike couldn't fight their doctor They're doctor.

So I went right to the doctor, got MRI because I knew it was serious. I could hardly walk. You know, I couldn't posture up. It was just very, very, you know, painful. So I'm like, I've got to get this thing checked out. And when I saw the doctor, he was hoping it was a muscle tear in between the ribs, which is a very painful thing, too. But if you inject it with something, you know, like a cortisome or something like that,

you might be able to get through it. So that's what we were hoping for. And that's what, you know, I was praying for. But then we got the MRI results back. and he was like, there's nothing we could do. There's no, the injections won't help it because it's the cartilage. And it's just a tough situation. So he just sent the MRI results over to the UFC.

And instead of me, Colin Lorenzo and Dana on my own, I was like, let the doctors talk and let them talk to them because I don't know the deal. I want to fight, but it's something that they wouldn't let happen. So mentally, I mean, I know you've wanted to fight Fitor for quite some time. And, you know, you guys were scheduled to fight in December as well. How did you process that information? And you were a month away. You say that you're in great shape.

In fact, I was flying to Las Vegas with Ray Longo, your coach, on Wednesday, and he was so confident and so excited for this fight to finally, you know, put away Vitor Belford and get rid of him from your life. And then this happens, you know, the next day. So how did you process the whole thing? Oh, not good, man. Not good. I got depressed. I got, like, depressed for a couple days.

I'm kind of coming out of it now. But it's just really tough, really tough for me. I just feel like, you know, I fought through so many injuries. I've had them every time I'm in a fight, you know, there's nagging injuries and stuff like that. But I've fought through some significant injuries that, you know, most guys would pull out for. And I was more than willing to do something like that for this fight if it was to come up. But this is just something I couldn't do. And it just sucks because Vito, I think, is a great matchup for me.

I just heard you say that he wanted to fight Mark Munoz. This guy's a mental midget. in there with anything and beat him. I just need to be able to move a little bit. And so it just, it just sucks where I'm at. So, Vitor, as you mentioned, went on his Facebook page yesterday and, you know, ran through the timeline, I guess, or his version of things. And, you know, you do have to feel for him to a degree because all signs say that he is ready to fight and he's wanted this for quite some time. He did avoid a few little pieces of information, you know, the award show, drug test,

that delayed things and, you know, that's, I guess, his version of the story. But I'm wondering, did you actually read that? And what was your reaction when you read what he had to say about things? Yeah, I went from feeling bad for him to getting pissed off at him. I'm just like, are you kidding? It's a lot of ignorant things to say. And he's leaving out a lot of information. You know, and I don't like to kind of, I don't like to take jabs at people

all the time and stuff like that and other fighters you know i have a lot of respect for him uh you know i watched a lot of tape leading up to this fight i have respect for him i think he's a good fighter uh and and definitely it would be a good test but when he starts talking you know saying i i pulled out three times like just doesn't make it doesn't make sense he failed you know i was scheduled we weren't we we we we didna coldman asked if i was going to be ready to fight in may um and i said this is the first time that we talked about fighting against vitor and i said I said, yeah, I think I'm going to be good. And the thing is, after my second-endis-sino-fite,

I had both my knees, they kept, my meniscuses, were popping into my joints and lock it on my knees. And Lorenzo and Dana, they wanted me to get surgery after that fight. No, I'm sorry, after my first-handic-sand-sand-sand-sand-sand-fite. They wanted me to get surgery before my second-an-sand-sand-sand-all fight. And I was like, no, no, no, I'm good. I could deal with it. It's not that bad.

So then we fought the second-an-sicil-five. and then as we started talking about fighting Vitor in May my knees started they started clicking in again and that's right about the time when Vitor failed his drug test and he was off and I'm fighting Machita in May and then then I'm like and then I'm like listen my knees let me just get this taking care of now and this is all this debacle of whom I'm fighting

and I was like let's move back like four weeks they end up making it back two months to July and I was fighting Machita so I don't Vitor, first of all, Vitor, so he failed the drug test. Usually, this is a second drug test that he failed. Usually he'd be out for at least a year. But I think they tested him when we didn't,

there was no bad agreement. So they couldn't really punish him, I think, the way they wanted to. He wasn't licensed, was the real problem. He wasn't licensed. So the guy's lucky as anything that he's not in trouble. I mean, he's a two-time convicted juice head at this point, and he's not realizing that.

I understand he hasn't fought a long time, but that's his fault. You know, I fought, I fought in July. I fought six months ago, five months ago, whatever it is, against Machita. And then the second time he was saying I pulled out was after I'm a cheetah fight, so I fought with a broken hand, which I didn't know. I thought it was sprang.

It was a misdiagnosis right before, but they ended up realizing it was broken the whole time. They ended up, they wanted to make this fight with Vitor. So they said December, I'm like, okay, but my hand wasn't healing. I would go back to the doctor. I find out my hand's still broken from before my machita fight. So then I'm like, all right, I need four weeks to let this thing heal. They're like, okay.

But they had the Anderson-Sill fight they were just made. They had the John Jones-Cormier. So they had to make it into February. So they had to push it back further than I would even want it to. And then this time is just unfortunate. But for him to be complaining for a guy who's failing drug tests and should even be able to fight up until this February. Because he just failed, like, I think, last March or February, February of March.

is just crazy in me. Let me ask you this. What was your... Go ahead. Go ahead. No, I'm good. So as I was saying before you came on, last time you fought, UFC 175 in July, there has been some talk of putting in an interim title.

And, you know, we've seen this in other divisions where guys have been out for quite some time. Sometimes there's an interim title, sometimes not. When you heard that this was being discussed, considering the fact that you haven't fought, you know, since July, it's not even a year, what was your reaction to the end of the end of the end? idea of an interim title.

Yeah, I thought it was kind of stupid. I'm just like, hang on. Anthony Pettis was out for a year. Johnny Hendrix was out for like, what, 10 months? I don't know, 12 months. You're the reporter. March. He fought in March and then he fought again early December, so around nine months. Okay, nine months. Kane Velasquez, they just did an interim title. He was out for how long a year and a half? Well, he hasn't fought since October of 2013. I can't do that math, but it sounds long. Yes, it is.

So I've been out for six months. I just get an injury now that is just going to bring me to six to eight weeks and I'm ready to go. So for them to do interim belt is kind of crazy. It doesn't match up to what other guys, when they've done interim belts. It's not like I'm going to be out. You know, I don't have an ACL tear. I'm not going to be out for a year, you know, indefinitely no matter what. Hopefully this thing heals even fast in the 68 weeks and I'm ready to go.

Are you kind of hoping that Vitor doesn't get booked? So on the other side, the interim belt thing. Yeah. I spoke to Lorenzo about it, and obviously I told him, I'm like, you know, I don't get why I'm, you know, do an interim belt. What does that really mean? He's like, you know, it means nothing. It's really just a way to promote a fight, you know, it's a way to get people excited. You know, it's a belt, and then you can do champions versus champions.

So I understand, I understand the business side of doing it. Yeah. It just, unfortunately, sucks out as me, and they're doing it with me. But I understand they want to save this UFC 184, not taking away from Ron. but it definitely went down. I think Ron Lake a headline on her own, but I'm sure it'll do better if Vitor's on there too. So I understand,

and if they were to make an interim belt, it makes it even more exciting. So I understand where the goal with it. But obviously, as the champion, you know, I don't want other people to think that they're the champion in my way because I think I'm the only champion in the way. So right now there is no fight for Vitor, as we speak today Monday afternoon.

and are you hoping he does. Hang on. Hang on. The other thing that about, the one thing that I'm thinking about long term is that, let's say if they did make Vitor Musassi for In the Belt, I'm ready to fight. I'm going to be ready in, you know, let's say six weeks from now. I'm young and I heal up.

I'm ready to fight in six weeks. I'll be ready to fight by end of April, you know, May. If they fight, if they fight in this, on this UFC 184 in, you know, four weeks from now, when is Vitor or whoever wins is going to be ready to fight again? You know, they're going to need a four or five months. So now, then I'm going to be on the shelf forever.

Right. You know, then let's say one of them get injured or I get injured. Let's say, I get injured. I'm not going to say I get injured. But let's say one of them get injured. Then I just, listen, man, I want to be on champion. I want to fight as many people as I can. And I want to dominate this division.

I want to fight a couple of superfights, and then I'm out. That's the game plan. I'm not losing to anybody. you know, you know, I've said, I've said this all before. Everything I've said has came to fruition. I said I was going to beat innocent and so people left me. I said I was going to beat them again. I said I was going to finish them both times.

Unfortunately, the leg break is not the way I would have wanted to go. You know, I'm on a mission. There's some curveballs that got thrown into my dream, but I'm on a mission and it's not finished yet. So to be clear, you're kind of hoping. hoping that they don't book Vitor so that you can be ready to fight in April May, right? Yeah. Okay.

Yes. Yes. You know, yes. I want to fight Vitor. And I wanted to be as soon as possible. So that's my goal. If they do another fight with Vitor, it does screw me unless, you know, what I was thinking is if Aniston Silva did really good in this fight, they were probably going to try to even, if they made Vitor fight,

they probably have Anson skip over Vitor and I'd be fighting Anson again. because it's a big fight. But I don't think that's, I think that might be out of the question now. So I just want to fight as soon as possible. So it looks like, I want to fight a beat tour as soon as possible is really the answer. You say out of the question,

I mean, what did you think of his performance? Anderson returns 13 months after your fight, beats Nick Diaz, five rounds. What do you think of it? It was a very weird fight. I have a lot of respect for both fighters, especially Anderson fighting him twice and I've actually grown to respect

Aniston even more we spoke to him a couple times at the time of now event and I think he really has grown as a person just likable guys really became a family guy more spiritual I think he's just really grown as a person

so I have a lot of respect for him in the fight I'm happy that he came back he was healthy he was able to go out there and get a W but did I think he looked impressive no I don't think he's what everybody

but I thought Anderson would look like and what he could do to Nick Diaz. You know, there was a lot going against him with the leg injury. You know, it didn't seem like he was kicking the legs as much as he usually could. But, you know, I don't know.

You weren't blown away. You don't think he deserves a title shot after a performance like that. No, I don't think he deserves a title shot. There's a lot of the guys that I think are better than him right now. Do you think he should retire? Do you think he should just leave at this point?

I mean, he comes back, exercises those demons. He's almost 40. Considering what you saw, you know, just to put yourself, because you were a fan of his. You call him grace of all time, all that stuff. I know you've watched the sport for a long time. Do you care to see this guy fight again? You know what? Being the champion, I know this ends up going further than I even want my comments to go because in my opinion, I don't think really matters that much and I don't want it to weigh on him at all. Fair enough. For me, as a fan, if I'm just a normal person, I want to see him done. You know, As Chris Wyden, as me, you know, you want, it's a big money fight, you know, eventually, you know, a third fight.

But I really just, I like to see him retire. And I think, you know, he's got a great family. He's got five kids. He's made a lot of money. He has a great legacy. He just won a fight. I wouldn't mind seeing him retire, you know, on a W. You know, I checked out your Twitter.

You wrote a brief thing about how disappointed you were. And I just couldn't believe, you know, humanity is a very interesting thing, and it could be downright disgusting at times. Like some of the comments that you were receiving, just unbelievable to me. Did you read anything? Did you post that thing and go away? Did you read anything? And what do you say to the person sitting at home, you know, if you haven't read anything,

the person who sits at home and says, all right, this is the second time you pull out? I mean, what's going on here? Are you brittle? What's the deal? So can you answer the backlash if you read any of that? And if you haven't, I would suggest probably not reading it. And on the flip side, what do you say to those detractors? You realize everything I've been through?

Do you think any of that stuff gets to me? It doesn't really get to me. I fought innocent and so twice. Things that people said after my first fight and after my second fight to me are mind boggling as far as humanity and where people's minds, you know, can go is pretty crazy. But yeah, I did read some of it. And it's basically, you know, me getting called the P to the Y, a bunch of times if you catch my good guess my drift you know without being vulgar on this uh sure

thing but uh you know i'm getting called you know the peter the y the y and the thing is people so easily forget you know my last fight i fought with a broken hand you know a confirmed broken hand i fought alessio saccharron two weeks notice with a broken rib confirmed broken rib um you know my last my last my last fight with broken hand i i wasn't able to spar or even hip pads three weeks before, even in the locker room. I couldn't even hit a pad without extreme sharp pain because of a broken ham. I took Damien Maia on 10 days' notice and cut 32 pounds in 10 days. Almost died cutting the weight.

And then I get an injury where I could hardly move and I'm a P to the Y. So it's just funny how people, you know, I could go from being the toughest guy in the world to being that word. Right. So it's just funny how people flip-flop and they forget so easily. You know, after they see me fight again, after my next fight and I smoke Vitor, you know, I'm not, they'll calm down with those words for a while. But as soon as something bad goes again, you know, something bad happens again, they'll jump the other way. I'm thankful to all my loyal fans. I did have a lot of support.

I saw on my Twitter and stuff like that. Anybody, you know, stuck through me through these times, you know, I fought, you know, the greatest of all time, and it was hard to kind of vouch for me and believe that I was going to win, you know, through those two fights. And to say vocally without getting backlash from wherever you're talking to,

so the people that supported me from the beginning, I really appreciate it. It means a lot. And for all you guys, for all you guys that hate on me and are talking crap on my Twitter, you guys are going to get a reality check soon. You know, and I'll put you guys in your place.

And you guys are very near-sighted, it. You know, you guys don't get it. You know, I spoke to you briefly late last week, and you're obviously very down, but I'm wondering if you have turned the corner yet. Like, you're obviously aggravated, and I'm wondering if this has now become super motivation. I know that you can be a pretty competitive guy. Do you think this has lit a fire under you, this criticism, this setback, what Vitori says,

like, are you using this as motivation yet? Are you still in that sort of... I'm getting the chills just thinking about it right now. Really, and getting the chills and holding myself back and getting too excited right now and too emotional. And telling you what I'm going to be doing at Vitor, because I want to stay within myself here. I know you want me to go off. No, no, no. I just, I'm holding it in and it will be released on my next fight day, hopefully in May, late April, May.

But I'm healed. and I can do my thing again. Did you get a little bit of a boost, some motivation, were you uplifted seeing your friend, Ally Quinta, come out there and have a great performance, a career-defining performance, at least at this point against Joe Lozahn. Did you see that on Saturday, and did that kind of get your juices flowing as well?

Yeah, I'm so happy for that kid. It was one of the first fights that I wasn't Caged side going nuts, but I was going up in the room. And, yeah, I'm just, I'm so happy for him. You know, he's proven a lot against some really tough guys. You know, Ross Pearson, you know, he's on three knockouts, three win by knockout streak. Ross Pearson and Joe Lozahn, you can't get too tough for guys.

Ross Pearson, a dangerous striker, and he stops him him strikes. And then Joe Lozahn, who is really dangerous everywhere, a very unique style, very tough guy. and he goes out there and finishes him. And he keeps his composure. He's really, you know, when I got into the sport, I was in the sport before me, actually. He was like a 14-0 amateur. He might have one or two pro fights already.

And I was kind of looking up to him. I remember watching him the way he mixed it up, his striking and his wrestling and his kicks and his punches, and kind of admiring him and learning from him. And I'm still learning from him. So he's a big inspiration. Before I let you go, I'm wondering. is there a chance that the Vitor Belford, Chris Wybin, fight happens at MSG?

I know you're on the inside. I know you know what's up in Albany with Sheldon Silver appearing to be on the outs. Is there a chance that New York gets legalized this year and we see you fight Vitor and MSG? What are you hearing? You guys really think I'm injured? Oh, could you imagine?

I just popped as a fan. Could you imagine? You guys think this is real? Wow. S.G. Late May. Get out of here. No, I'm just kidding.

Oh, my God, that would be incredible. That's true. But who knows, I would love to be fighting an MSG. Obviously, that's a dream of mine to fight in Massachusetts Square Garden, fighting in New York in general. Are you hearing anything about that? I'm a foot on the East Coast. Right.

Since before my, before I got on the UFC, so I haven't been able to come back and let, and kind of cheapen the airfare for everybody in New York. Are you hearing anything about it? Well, I know is that the guy who sponsors the bill of MMA is going to be the Speaker of the House, so that's huge. Yeah. I don't know the timeline as far as when they could get a vote in. Because the thing that always held it up, obviously I know you this.

I know you know this, but as far as, like, just the audience, is that Shelton Silver was the Speaker of the House, and he was the guy who controlled putting the vote on the floor for the Assembly. Correct. And it would always pass to the Senate and then it gets to the point where the vote would have to go on the floor to get voted on by the Assembly. And Shelton Silver would never put the vote on the floor. even though if it did get voted on in the assembly because I spoke to pretty much all the assemblymen it would have been almost a unanimous vote of getting in

but he held it back so now we're going to be able to get that vote on the floor and get it voted in but I just don't know when they could do how it works with getting that when the vote is able to start yeah I think obviously May April be a little soon especially you get the athletic commissions involved but hopefully 2015 is our year for everyone living in New York and wanting to watch MMA and MS. Barclay Center and all the arenas in this great state.

Chris, we appreciate the time very much. Get well soon. Keep us posted on your progress. And hopefully you do get that V-Tor fight because I think both of you want it very much. I think the fans want it. And hopefully it happens sooner rather than later. So thanks so much for stopping by. And again, get well soon.

All right, guys. Thanks, Ariel. Guys, I appreciate the support. All you haters. I don't know what to say to you, but bye-bye. All right, there he is. The UFC Middleweight champion, Chris Wye, Weidman stopping by.

Great stuff from him, passionate stuff, real stuff. And we wish him the best. It's a lot more fun when the champions are healthy. By the way, I didn't mention this at the top of the show, but you probably noticed by now my voice is a little shot, a little under the weather, but that's it. So we're able to do the show, no problems, but it doesn't sound like my usual sexy self. We go now from one champion to another UFC middleweight champion, Chris Weidman. We now go to the UFC Flyway champion, Demetrius Johnson,

who I appreciate stopping by because I'm wondering if last night was a bit of a bummer for him. Demetrius, are you there? Yeah, man, what's going on, Arrow? My condolences on last night. Did you go to the game? No, no, no, no. I was at home. How did you react to that?

Oh, that shit happens, you know? My wife, I was like, once Jeremy Church caught that crazy ball. I was like, oh, that's game. they're going to give him the beast mode. He's going to run in. We're good. He needs a 20-yard line. And sure no.

Nothing is, like, nope. Anything can happen just like you. You know, I get nervous when it's one minute left in your fight. Even though you look the guy's ass, I still get, you know, anything got to happen in one minute. Sure enough. And I was like, you got to be effing kidding me. Do you think that was the worst call in the history of sports?

Man, it's hard. I mean, obviously, you know, they have their shoes at the playoff of it. You know, they're professional football, you know, professional, you know, professional, So, I mean, I can't say, you know, it was the worst play called in history. But if it was me, you know, I'm a professional coach, but I would have given it to, you know, Turbin or Lynch and just work my way. And they had, like, I think, all the timeout left.

And it was maybe 15 seconds left in the game. I mean, I were to put my age and all bats and, you know, give the one of those guys, slow touchdown, kick the field goal, you know, do a deep kick in there and get time ready if you can make it down, you know, with, you know, the LOB and the secondary seat they can, if Tom Brady could get past them, I would have put my age in that basket instead of trying to bleed the clock. By the way, what's the mood like in the state of Washington today?

You know, it's pretty, like in the only thing, you know, there's not a lot of traffic to the gym, so I think the hardest thing is that people are upset because they could have, you know, made history two-time football champion, and I think that's what hurts the most, especially for the place. They work so hard to get there, then they come up short, at one yard line and it's like, you know, what can you do?

You know, but they had a fantastic season and I'm sure they'll be back stronger than ever. Two more things, because I'm just curious to get your perspective on this. What's your take on Marshawn Lynch? He's kind of, you know, our Nick Diaz in a sense, although Nick is a lot more open and verbose and interesting, but he is a hot topic.

He doesn't like to talk to the media. You're great with the media. What's your take on someone? Do you get where he's coming from? Or as someone who likes to be a role model and he plays for your team, do you get annoyed by his aunt? No, no, no.

I mean, I can appreciate it because he doesn't want to talk. You know, he says, I'm all about the business, you know. I'm a fan of martial lunche. What he does on the field not because of the interviews. And, you know, sometimes if you talk in the media, they can misconstrude or twist the words that you say in the interview to make it sound like something you want to do. And when I heard in the past, that's what happened to him.

And he goes, you know, epic. You know, I'm not going to do media anymore that you guys don't put out there what I say. So it happens to make much much much more than it, you know. I mean, I've been interviews and next year, it headlines something I didn't even say, and then I get pissed off, and things go down at that down the barrel. You were at the media row earlier in the week before going to UFC 183. How did the people, you know, like the mainstream media types, you know, the snooty types,

how did they receive you? Did they appreciate who you were, what you've done? Did you get the sense they knew who you were? You fought on Fox. So you had a great picture with Mr. Icky shuffle. But overall, I mean, what kind of love did you get from the people? How did you react and how did they receive you? Yeah, you know, the media who knew by Mixed March Lars, they loved it.

You know, they thought it was awesome, especially me being a hometown guy at Seattle. You know, I still live here, train here. You know, I'm not like, you know, Misha or Ben Henness who packed up and moved away to a different state or whatever. But, you know, that's their life, but I still live here. You know, I drive by the Seattle Ciax train facility every single day when I'm going in the gym. And, you know, the ex football players, they receive me pretty cool because, you know, I have the belt there. and they showed me their Super Bowl ring, and I was trying to switch one because, you know,

I have the fake belt of the repress. I was trying to get a Super Bowl ring out of it. And they loved it, man, and it was awesome to see, you know, how many ex-school players there, you know, respect me because I'm a championing sport. Wow, I like the little jab at Mishan Benson. That was nice. Subtle.

So subtle. Subtle. Everybody was like, oh, you don't live in Seattle anymore. Do you have to do? I live right down the street. Like, I went to high school, middle school, elementary here, bro. like I've been here longer

and a Russell Wilson has what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so let's talk about the fights. You were there on Saturday in Las Vegas. I'm dying to ask you this. You know, a lot of people thought Linneker McCall,

number one contender fight. I mean, it makes a lot of sense, especially if Linneker won. And again, he missed his weight. And finally, Dana White says, you're done at flyweight and you got to move up to Bantamweight. And now he beats the number three-ranked guy,

I believe he was at the time, and what does it all mean? It means nothing because he's going up to 135. What was your take on that whole situation? Do you agree with Dana White saying, okay, I don't care if you want to go in, you're going up, or does a part of you really want to fight this guy now?

Because it's clear, at least to me, you know, as long as, you know, Dotson is out and McCall just, I mean, he's the number one contender, right? Say, I mean, first of all, you know, I have to give it being white. These guys keep on doing it, man. I mean, it's not like a one-time thing, you know. Same thing with that Kevin Gaspel fight.

Like, you know, their great athletes, they fight well, they can beat, you know, top of ten. for the same time, it's not fair. It's not part of the point. You know, at the end of the day, it was a ditch weight, you know, even though he would call me $126. And, you know, it's great that they don't want to make him do it.

You know, I'm sure John Loneckerra have a great, you know, career up at 135. He'll probably knock some guys out up there, but it does suck for the five-way division because, you know, that was the number one contender. I mean, he's been on a hot street, you know, destroying his opponents, you know, not just squeaking by, and it would have been made for a great fight for me and the fans. So now you're kind of left in the,

in limbo, right? Like, were you told that if you won and made weight prior to the fight, prior to the way in, that that was the direction they were going in? Yeah, you know, that's, you know, something, you know, they hinted at you know, over there and you can never

, you know, you're aging at basking until you get that contract. And even then, somebody, you know, look at B-Tor-Bowport and Chris Wyman, you know, they're about to get it up. And next you know, somebody got injury. Now they're sitting in in limbo again, you know, Chris Levin can get another injury, hopefully not, knock on wood.

You get an injury. and Chris, I mean, because Boca is still waiting, and next you know, a year and a half goes by, the middleweight champion hasn't been defended. So nothing's for certain in this sport. All you can do is take care of yourself and save your money and wait for your next fight. What do you think of Linneker rubbing his belly towards the end of the fight? I thought it's hilarious. Really? He was like, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, laughing.

And, you know, and he and McCall's a fat boy and talking all this trash. And the thing is, I mean, you don't talk trash, you know, you got to. you know, not back it up. I just got to watch what you say. And, you know, at the end of the fight, you know, email calls walking past me, and I went straight to his face. And I said, hey, man,

even though you talk shit about me, great fight. And he had something to say. And I was like, you know, people are like, what you said. I was like, dude, it was true.

He was talking all this trash. And, you know, I mean, he had a great fight. He's a great guy, a great person. You know, he's not out there, you know, committed crimes. And, you know,

he follows a role in a sport because he doesn't do any drugs. So I got to respect him. as an athlete, but, you know, when it comes with people talking trash, you know, I got to call him out on it, you know. Well, he did tell me before the fight that you know that he is better than you. Did you see that, and what did you make of those comments?

No, it's not like, I mean, even though I'm not fighting John Lennifer, you know, I know how to approach him, I know how to get the fight to where I want it and not try to negate what he's good. You know, John Lentuck was very good about throwing a lot of combinations

and thrown to the body into the head, and I've already, you know, me and Matt and, like, Coach Brad, we've already thought of the perfect game relationship to say how to beat him like that because he's not the first power puncher I've ever fought. He's definitely, he would have definitely been the first power puncher I fought who doesn't make weight in cross this and a certain way. So we really knew what I was going to do to him. So, but I'm talking about McCall's comments.

What did you think of that? Oh, I didn't care. I mean, just like anybody else's comments about me, I don't care about him. I mean, obviously, when we get face-to-face, you know, I'll have words with him, whether or not it's, you know, he said it, and he fought, he lost, and that's the same of it. Because the first fight was the draw on the second one, you obviously beat him rather convincingly. Do you even think there's a score to settle there? You know, not at all.

I mean, I think he wants to start out score because he got the short end of the stick. I guess she's saying, you know, like I said, and, you know, it was a great fight, you know. Obviously, you can, you go back and look at the pictures. with me weighing in and when I got an octagon, I was just totally different person, you know. My diet was horrible and things happened. But, you know, we fought the second time. It was his choice to not take it so seriously, as he says, and coming to the fight, that or whatever, that's his call.

I mean, if he really, really wanted that fight, he would have came in, focused, determined. He goes, I know what the end game is. I know what the end goal is, and that's going to be fighting Joe's going to beat it for that belt. Obviously, he's fucked off. And, you know, granted, people have things gone on their lives and all that stuff, you know, I've lost one of my, my, my wife had a miscarriage, right before I thought to have the biggest fight in my life. And she'll be it and here I am in emergency surgery.

And she's, you know, having emergency surgery because she had internal bleeding. So people say, oh, my life has been shamble. Like, I've gone to that shit before, too. Wow. I did not know that. And, of course, she's doing a lot better. You have a son. You have another kid on the way, right?

Yep. Is this kind of a, and I wish you guys the best with the second pregnancy. and I know it's soon wrapping up. I'm sure she's excited about that, but is this kind of a blessing in disguise for you because you told me a few months ago that you wanted to fight before your wife gave birth, and maybe now with Linneker having to move up

and McCall losing, it will delay your return. Is that a blessing in disguise? Yeah, you know, it kind of is. As for a family man, it's nice to be able to know that I'm actually going to be there for my other friend's wedding. I mean, not wait. Hope I'm there for that guy.

But, yeah, I'm very happy. you know, they're thinking about possibly happy fighting bay. So the baby's due April 11th, so I'm happy to be there, and very excited. So are they talking Memorial Day? You know, that's why I told them. I was going to get at Memorial Day weekend, you know, John Jones, and Rambos is going to fight on that, hopefully, and I don't mind flying a little mouse in there to try to display his skill set. And it doesn't matter who it is, you know, obviously, Horacea, you know, he's been whooping people's butts.

In the Flyway Division, he's on a hot little win streak, and I wouldn't mind touching myself against him. So you think that's the guy who, at least right now, deserves it most? Yeah, I'm afraid. You know, he's been on the street. Even though what Doc has accomplished in the past, he's been out, oh, wow. And the two guys beat, you know, John Morade, he beat him before already, and then I think he knocked out, what's the guy's name,

there are a lot to do, and I haven't heard of him. I haven't seen him. He wasn't on a hot streak, so I'm pretty sure. You know, Doc's not doing well. he's pretty, I'm sure he's healthy. And if they want that's in the fight, and he'll fight, that's really fine, too. It's whatever.

What do you make of Horaguchi's saying after his last one that he doesn't want a title shot? He said he wanted at least like two more fights. Is that a little strange to you? No, not at all. I mean, he's just to ruin and he can control it. And if he felt he's not ready for a time shot, that's his choice, you know.

He just makes smart about it. You know, when I end up in this point of this martial arts, you know, I couldn't want pro. after my first four amateur fights, but now I was just taking it slow, what you do, multi-fights, boxing, I want you to do some bigoted turns. That way when I become in the U.S.

When I get into a U.S. I become champion, I'm here for a long time. I'm good everywhere, and I'm well-seating. Did you ever consider, you know, in the recent weeks and months, a fun fight at 135 just to get your, you know, your sweat on, your juices flowing

because there isn't a clear-cut guy right now, or are you sticking around at 125? I'm figuring around 125. I mean, if I want to get my sweat and my teeth is going on, I just get it on anything. I just, let's just fall hard. Let's just make it happen. So I can get that happening, you know. And I told, I thought, I thought of D.D.

those weekend, I was like, hey, I told everybody that I'll fight you. And I did know, like, yes, I told him, we don't get paid. And I said, two million dollars. DGD., he goes, F yeah, I'm down with that. So anything less than that? No, no bantam wait for Mighty Mouse. I guess not. I guess not.

I left Dana. I mean, maybe one million. Dana, what's come out with that? Yeah. One last thing before I let you go. You know, you came out and I thought your comments were great because I've talked about on this show how I feel like your relationship with Xbox is the best sponsorship in MMA because it's a Northwest company.

It's clean. It fits your personality. You're a big gamer, all that stuff. And one of the byproducts of this Reebok deal is at least in Cage, that's going to go away. Do you have any more? insight as to what the state of your relationship is and how do you feel about the Reebok deal now a couple months after it has been announced? You know, my feelings are exactly the same, you know, I read, I got the whole basically

package about, you know, this is what you got to do during fight week, you reach a package and your corner, man, we'll get all this stuff and, you know, like I said, it legitimizes the sport and, you know, it gives, just gives that professional look, you know, a lot of guys out there this week, you know, I had dynamic factor, I know, which there's nothing wrong with that, but you know, it's kind of hard to see the relations of an awesome sport like much much far as to be, especially with dynamic

faster, you know, not hitting on because they're actually putting money into the sport and giving guys a paycheck. And, you know, I must have much a day with the Xbox on those guys, see how people to go in and see with the guy in the work, so whatnot. But in any of the day, you know, I can't wear Xbox similar once in July

2015. And hopefully, you know, Reebok wants to sign me on. Before that, I did with John Jones and, I don't know, I think I'm an ambassador. You know, I'm a guy who works hard, and I've never given so many a doubt to not get behind me. But no talks of that just yet? No, no, no, no.

You know, Reebok hasn't reached out to me yet, and, you know, we obviously haven't reached out to Reebok yet, and we hope, you know, they take the first step or USC makes that step, you know, because, like I say, you know, I'm not kind of guy who's going to, you know, sign on with something, and something bad's going to happen. You can trust that, you know, which you get is what you're going to get.

You're not going to be shocked. Like, oh, my God, that's happening? What? Yes. And by the way, are you confident that, you know, that was a good deal for you. You've never actually come out and told us how much it's worth, but are you confident that you will not be losing money

as a result of this? You know, I think it's hard to say, you know. I think we don't know what the numbers that actually are with Repop. So until then, I can't say that. Who knows, Reebok. I was like, yo, you know, this would be changing the kid. This is 1-2-5-8-8, and this is what, you know,

six to sending something to get, and everyone might be extremely happy. And, you know, there's going to be something like that person who will not be at set. So until we figure out what the exact numbers are going to be, you know, I can't say anything. So, you know, like I said, I'm very happy for the sports and the U.S. for running a big deal, and I hope it benefits everybody. All right, fair enough. Well, TJ, great to talk to you, as always.

I know you were mad at me for being a little late, but it wasn't my fault, I promise. We had some technical difficulties. You were cracking the whip on the text, but you deserve to be. Your time is precious, so I apologize for that. But I do thank you very much and appreciate your time here this afternoon after the disappointing night in Seattle. My heart goes out to you guys. That sucks. As a Buffalo Bills fan, I know a lot about heartbreak, and at least you got one last year, so I'm still waiting for my first.

Hey, don't worry. It's going to happen. Nothing lasts forever. That is true. Thanks so much, man. Good luck in your next fight. And, of course, good luck to you in your next fight. wife on the second pregnancy coming up.

I guess it's not really a pregnancy. The pregnancy is happening, the second delivery. Yeah, yeah, we're praying for the oven to let us know. The bread's done baked, I guess, if you say. All right, good luck to you guys. Thanks, DJ. Thanks, buddy. There he is.

Mighty Mouse, the UFC Flyway champion stopping by. Great stuff from him, as always. And I do agree. I do think he should be a part of that team rebuck thing, especially with that sponsorship. That's a great one. All right, let's move along now. As I mentioned at the top of the show, our next guest was a very busy man this past weekend in Las Vegas.

Not only was he working for ESPN, and I'm assuming doing a great job, I didn't have a chance to see it because I was there working as well. But he was also cornering his longtime friend and training partner, Nick Diaz. He was there at the MGM on Saturday. We'll talk to him about all that right now. I'm talking about El Niño Gilbert Melendez. Gilbert, how are you? I'm great, man. How are you doing, Ariel?

I'm doing great. So what a weekend for you, man. Was that a little stressful? be doing the TV stuff and corner your friend? Actually, it wasn't too stressful. My obligations for ESPN weren't much on fight day. On Friday, we had some obligations, but, you know, it was just intense and fun, and, you know, it's a little draining, but, no, it wasn't stressful or overwhelming.

You know, I love the sport area. I love it. I want to be in it because the day I die, so, dude, all that stuff is fun. Was it hard for you because you're so close to Nick, you know him so well, you know everything you've been through, you know, you're not, you know, you're breaking it down technically and all that, but is it hard to do that when you're talking about a friend, a really close friend? You know, I guess it's not hard. It's not hard at all.

But am I biased? You know, of course I'm biased towards my team at all the times and I will be, you know, and I really felt that Nick did a great job. And I did the judge. The judge is not giving him any rounds, you know. But yeah, of course I'm a little biased. I always will be. and that's just how I roll, and I see things differently

because, you know, you're so tight with people. But no, man, I could easily do my thing and hopefully still, you know, keep my credentials and credibility while I speak. You know, I got to say, that first round, in my opinion, one of the most entertaining first rounds I've ever seen. It was just, it was surreal. It was like watching a video game come to life.

Like, A, I never thought I'd ever see these guys in the cage. And Nick doing what he was doing, trying to get Anderson off his game and, you know, lying down all that, I mean, it was just, it was entertainment to the highest degree. Did you know he was going to do that? Because all week long, he was so respectful towards Anderson. You know, Nick is always Nick.

You never know what you'd expect. But, you know, back to what you first said, I wasn't odd to. I'm in the corner as well, and it's hard for me not to feel the same way. I'm like, holy smoke, you're in the cage with Anderson, you know, and sitting there watching it happen. And then I start seeing Nick do his thing, you know. And I did remember Nick mentioning, you know, it's hard for it. I'm not saying Anderson, you know, was running or anything,

but, you know, Nick said he was going to try to take the center of the octagon and, you know, try to get the fight going. And if he was backing up and not standing to toe with him out the gate, he was going to do his antics. I didn't know that's what was going to happen, but he was going to do his thing. And I think that's where it came from. It wasn't, you know, he was kind of putting that chalk line right in the center of the octagon and standing there.

And, you know, eventually I think we got a little bit of that, a little taste of that here and there, been standing toe to toe. But, you know, you never know how to expect with Nick, but, you know, I was right there just like, as much as you're trying to be a corner fan and a teammate as much as possible, you're in awe. And watching, you know, one of your teammates and one of the best guys in team represent for you against the greatest of all time. And, you know, it was a treat for me. Were you surprised Anderson didn't respond? Because I thought it was a brilliant game plan because the old Anderson typically does that stuff first. And I thought that he would respond and say, oh, you want to, you want to play that game?

I'll play that game with you and put the hands down. He had his hands up the entire fight, and it almost felt like he was very nervous walking to the cage. I don't know if you saw it, but he was breathing. He seemed very tense, and then afterwards he broke down crying. So there was obviously a lot of pressure on him, but I'm wondering if you were surprised that he didn't let his guard down to try to go tit for tat with Nick. I was pretty surprised that, you know, and it was also impressive for Anderson to stay composed and have perfect form the whole fight. That was, you know, we never seen that. You know, he fought a very disciplined fight and was actually in real.

really good shape and was able to keep that, that form the whole 25 minutes. And, yeah, I was, I was impressed and surprised with it. And I thought he would, he would try to play that game a little bit. And I think in the first round it was, you know, you know, Nick's goal was to get him to stand a little more toe to toe so he could be within reach and try to hit him a little bit more. And some of it worked, but, yes, I was surprised that Anderson didn't strong completely and give us more of a reaction with that kind of stuff.

Nick said afterwards he thought he won. Do you agree? I thought there was some really close rounds, and I didn't agree that Anderson won every single round. I thought the first and second round could have been Nick easily, and I thought the fourth round was one of those rounds that could have win in Nick as well. So, I mean, do I think it was, you know, it was an easy thing to score, and do I say that, you know, he swept in and won every single round? I thought a lot of those rounds were close, you know? And I thought Anderson definitely won the third round is the round I give it some. But the first round, second round, I'm encouraging Nick.

Keep doing what you're doing. You're in this fight. You're winning these rounds. You know, it's a tough fight to score, you know, and it's a tough fight to fight. But with that size difference and everything, you know, Japan style, you know, I would give that to Nick. Last thing on that fight, do you think Nick Diaz ever fights again? Do I think Nick Diaz ever fights again? Well, man, it would be a shame if he didn't.

That's all I could say. It would be a shame if he didn't. I think he's an amazing fighter. and I think he needs big fights to get him excited, and if we can get him another fight to get him excited, I think we'll see him there again. So I think there's a strong possibility that the UFC can make that happen. So he hasn't closed the door, though, as far as your concern?

As far as I'm concerned, I can't really speak on his behalf. I don't think so. I don't think he's done. Okay, that's very good to hear. Let's transition to you, of course. We last saw you December 6th in Las Vegas against Anthony Pettis. Are you over the fight? Have you moved on or are you still harping on it?

Oh, you know, it's hard to get over. You know, there's a couple times where I'm just, you know, either training, running around or even eating dinner with my wife, and I just, you know, you just scream out of shit, you know, out of nowhere, you know, and it just comes back out of your mind out of nowhere, you know, you're messed up and, you know, you wish you could have done things differently. So, yeah, I mean, the pain is not as extreme,

but it's always in the back of your head, you know, and until I move on and have a better performance, you know, I think it'll hurt less. But yeah, I'm over it mostly. I said this afterwards, but I want to say to you, I was so impressed with how you handled it. I mean, you turned into an analyst after the fight and your post-fight interview in the cage,

almost breaking down what went wrong, and you handled it with all class. It was really, like, if you want to show a fighter how to deal with a loss, especially on that stage, just show them that two-minute interview because it was super impressive. So, you know, kudos to you. You handled it like a real pro and with a lot of class.

you have a theory as to why it turned out the way it did, or did you just think he was the better man that day, or did you do something wrong? You know, he was definitely the better man that day, you know, but I think I could be the better man on another day. And, you know, I feel like, you know, you have to be very focused in your fight. You can't lose a split second of focus, you know,

and I feel like I did that, as well as you have to be a disciplined fighter and fight perfectly that night. You know, you're a perfect fight and as perfect as you could be. I'm a very focused fighter who doesn't really splinch or, you know, just kind of don't make any mistakes. And that's where I get far and, you know, had a little lack of focus in there, a little too overly aggressive, which, you know, leads to not as much discipline, you know, which became sloppy, you know, wide punches, you know, and, you know, which, you know, which led to me shooting from far and, you know, getting hit,

and then, you know, just a slow reaction, and next thing you know, your guillotined, you know, and it wasn't that I quit out there, I just feel like I got to fought a better, more discipline fight, and I knew it as was going on. I got over-aggressive, and that's what happened. But, uh, but, uh, but yes, you know, it's hard to deal with it, but I'm moving on. Did, did the long layoff screw with you a little bit? I mean, it had been quite some time over a year since you had fought. Were you out of it?

Did you feel out of it? Well, I would say it was a very productive year for my career, my brand. I did some really good things as being an analyst and the TV show and, you know, doing a lot of things. But as a pro fighter to stay sharp at your age, it's like, you need to be in the gym a lot more and be there a little bit more. And I had a very strong training camp, and I trained strong, but it's like, you know, it's more than a 10-week camp now. It needs to be, you know, year-round prepping and staying sharp. And I feel like I should have been a little more prep, you know, going into a train camp. And, you know, it's no one's fault but myself and my own.

And, you know, again, I'm always a student of the sport and I'm learning. And, you know, it's one of those things, too, the sports evolving and getting better. And it's one of those things like, hey, you're good with what you're at. So you just kind of like, okay, you just kind of keep it there and you stay in shape. And then there's things like this fight that motivates you to stay in the room and reinvent yourself and be in there and get even better and prep. So by the time you're training camp, you're just getting in shape. So I could have spent a little more time in the office training.

So I'm working on that right now. So what do you want to do next? What makes sense for you as far as you're concerned? What's your plan now? You know, I look down the top 10. I look at the lineup and I see a lot of guys matched up and I see a lot of names that I'd like to fight. You know, the one name stands out, you know, big time to me.

This is a person who probably doesn't like me much. And sometimes, you know, maybe I feel mutual. But I want to fight them because, not because of that, it's not personal, but because I respect them much. And I think they're a great fighter, but at the same time, I think we're a great matchup. And we wanted to fight each other for a long time. So, you know, 80 hours is out there and he's open to fight me.

And I think he is. There's no doubt in my mind. He's open to fight me. I think we should finally make a date and we should try to fight each. other. And, you know, to me no better place than Mexico City would be the one of doing on, if you ask me. But, you know, if we can make that happen to you, you can make that happen, and Eddie wants it, I think that's the next fight for me. So Mexico City is rumored to take place June 13th later on this year, and it's going to be a big one. Hopefully, Kane Velasquez will be

on it against Fabrice Radoom. Verdun was on our show a couple weeks ago saying that that's what he is hoping for and has been told tentatively. And I love the idea of the fight. longtime listeners of this show will remember that when you were in Strike Force and Eddie was in Bellator, Eddie called into the show when Scott Koker was on asking to fight you, and it never worked out. Scott couldn't make it happen, co-promotion, all that. So this is a fight that's been years in the making, two of these sort of underground kings, if you will, guys who have been champions and other organizations and, you know, finally are now in the UFC in the same organization. You mentioned maybe a little bit of an issue with him.

What is that? Where does that stem from? You know, I believe I was calling Eddie Alverns out first. You know, again, you know, I called him out because I thought he was one of the best guys. And initially I called him out, you know, back in the day, thinking that strike force and Ballarat's could have made it happen. I mean, this is years ago. Yeah.

And, you know, and I think he took it a little bit as an insult because he thought it wasn't, it wasn't even possible. You know, why even calling me out? It's not even possible, you know, stop saying my name, you know. And then, you know, it just kept going first full circle. And then he's calling me out. And, you know, he put some nasty. tweets about me here and you know I never really fazed me but uh but you know let's just put it this

way man it's just uh you know two guys that uh probably are similar fighting styles you know uh would would be a good recipe for a badass mma fight so uh you know all that stuff aside you know it's not really personal i really don't care how it feels i really don't care much about him but i do respect him as a fighter and uh you know and you know i'd like to share the octagon with them finally i'd like to share it and just, you know, figure out who's a better fighter. I feel like an Alvarez versus Melendez fight, just those last names alone in Mexico makes a whole lot of sense. Do you speak Spanish, by the way?

You know, my Spanish is Massimenez, so I talk this all the time. You know, I try, you know, it's tough, you know, I didn't learn it when I was young, but, you know, I'm working on it here and there, and I'll give my best in an interview. But, you know, Ariel, there's no doubt about it when I fight, you know, I feel like I can connect to the Mexican people just because I truly fight like a Mexican. You know what I mean? Yeah. And, you know, sometimes I feel disconnected from the culture because of my Spanish.

But, you know, being able to go out and represent in front of Mexico and showing my style, you know, there's no doubt where my blood is from, you know. So, you know, so I feel that's my best way to connect to the people when they see me fly. But, yeah, I'm working on my Spanish and I'll get it one of these days. Have you pitched this idea to the UFC? And if so, what have they said? You know, I believe, you know, Rydolp, my management, part of my management team, mentioned it to Joe Silva. Yep.

I didn't really have a chance to mention it to the bosses yet myself or anyone. And, you know, I think it's in their ear. I knew Eddie, you know, was supposed to fight, was supposed to buy Benson, and I know he pulled out. I don't know. I believe maybe an injury or something or, you know, or a clue. I don't know exactly what it was, to be honest. But, you know, I hope he's better.

I hope he'll be better by June. And I hope he'll be healthy. I never wish any ill or pain on anyone or any of the fighters. But I figure, you know, spiders, injuries take about four weeks, five weeks, whatever, whatever's going on. But then hopefully he'll be better by that time. But, yeah, we put the word out there, and hopefully he's pretty kind of hurted itself. And are you okay with waiting until June?

Because we were talking about the inactivity. That would be around six, seven months. Because Mexico means a lot to you. Would you be okay with that? I would be okay with that. You know, ideally, I was hoping to maybe even fight a little bit earlier, you know, somehow, you know, I missed to want to that. But talking over my management team and everything, you know, we thought, you know, Mexico would be a great opportunity. And at this point in my career, you know, like, hey, man, I got a lot of fighting in me, you know, but I'm also a lucky guy and I really enjoy my career.

I really enjoy this sport. And, you know, how amazing would it be to fight in Mexico City and, you know, and get out there a little early, maybe go take a run by the pyramid. You know, just to really, you know, enjoy the moment. And, you know, and you got to do that in this sport and really enjoy the moment. And I think being in Mexico City, and for everyone out there would be one of those memorable five memorable moments. And I've been a part of amazing, you know, part of amazing cards. You know, I fought in Hawaii and BJ Panfok Gomi, you know, it just would be awesome. It would be another badass card with, you know, Canberts for Doom in Mexico City.

It would just be another great story in my career and for myself. So it just sounds, you know, it just sounds awesome. Yeah, no, it's a great call. there for the first show back in November and Kane wasn't on it. I can't imagine what the atmosphere would have been like had he fought on the car, but they were unbelievable. The place was full. It's a huge arena. It's a massive

arena, one of the biggest, and the crowd was very knowledgeable and very into it, a very boisterous crowd. So I think that's a phenomenal idea. I'm wondering, did you watch his fight against Seroni his debut in September, and what do you think of his performance? I did see his fight against Seroni, and

you know, I felt like it was a decent performance, and, you know, the late kicks really just started doing the damage for him. And, you know, that really took him out of his game and Saroni's long body and some of those lead knees and kicks. And, you know, I think stylistically it was a bad matchup for Eddie. And then also, Cowboy just really showed a solid take-down defense. And Eddie is a – it was my pick to win because I thought he was going to be able to eventually

get the take-down and put Sironi on his back. But, again, Saroni has just been an animal lately. and was able to defend the takedown. So when I saw that, you know, I thought, I thought Eddie, you know, was doing well, except, you know, he just got picked apart in that leg and just eventually, you know, collapse, you know. It's tough, man, you're fighting Calvary Soron, and, you know, he's a tough guy. So, you know, I think he did all right, but, you know, not the best.

It's not your dream, your dream opening fight for the UFC, I'll tell you that. You know, you mentioned your longevity. You've been doing this since October of 2002, so a pro. coaching 13 years. And you're, you know, early 30s, not quite mid just yet, 32. How many more years do you want to do this for? You know, as long as my body lets me do it, Ariel, you know, I feel like it's just important for me to just feel healthy and make sure I take the appropriate steps to last long as possible, you know, and, you know, I'm becoming wiser with my ears. And, you know, I feel like I learned a lot from my last camp and my last fight. And I have a different mindset, you know, looking at this. But, you know, You know, I think it's endless, you know, if I stay healthy and, you know, and, you know, and I can do this for a long time, you know, you see people doing it for a while. But, you know, once my body starts calling it quits, and, you know, once I don't want to become

a student in the sport, I don't want to evolve and, you know, and I keep getting hurt, then, you know, I'll hang it up at the right time. But, you know, I'm a warrior in blood, and I love to continue to learn and test myself, and I'll just let time tell, you know, but, you know, I cannot stay out of the gym. I'll be, I'm obsessed with compulsive, man. If I don't get my work up then, I start getting edgy and acting weird, and it's just not healthy for me. So I'll be in the gym to the day I die, you know.

Whether I'll be in the cage, that's a different story, but I'll be in the gym for the day or die. And based on your TV work, and I know you have the El Nino Training Center in the Bay Area, do you want to transition at some point into being a coach, like really having a stable? I know you have the scrapback and everything, but you envision being, you know, like a Greg Jackson or something like that, a guy who will be traveling the world with your guys and really developing a team. I would love to do that one day. You know, I got a great gym at the only training center, and I have some really good coaches, which I believe, you know,

and, you know, a five-year-future I'll be able to even expand a couple in the Bay Area. And, you know, maybe have three solid gyms. That's a refinery for some top fighters in the Bay Area. And, yeah, you know, the whole team, I got a good lawyer, Sam Awad. You know, I'd love to do the whole management, head-to-to-to-to-take-care of fighters and, you know, my fighters, at least, and really try to guide him and help them learn from my mistakes as well as coach them. Again, I love the sport, man.

I love to be a rep. I love to do everything if you ask me, you know. But, yeah, mainly, I would love to coach. Well, it was a very interesting year for you because you kind of changed the game with the way you dealt with free agency and you got a great contract, the TV stuff. You know, being on the ultimate fighter, I know the title fight didn't go your way, but now, you know, you prove once again calling this shot in Mexico, Eddie Alvarez, To me, that would be an unbelievable co-main event to the Verdume-Cain fight.

So I'll throw in my vote. Here's hoping the fight happens in June later on this year. Good luck getting the fight, Gil. And great job this weekend. I know it didn't go your guy's way, but I think Nick did a lot better than most people expected, hung in there. And hopefully, I echo your sentiments. Hopefully he does return because I think there's a lot more fight left in him. Anyhow, good luck to you, Gil.

Always a pleasure to see you as I did in Las Vegas, and we'll talk to you very soon. Thank you very much for the time. Thank you, Ariel. Appreciate the interview. All right, there he is, Gilbert Melendez. Waning, Eddie Alvarez, I love that fight. Remember on this show, back in the AOL days, I mean, we had Koker on, and Koker was on,

and Eddie called in and asked for the fight. And then Bjorn, I believe, if my memory serves me, Craig, Bjorn was releasing text messages that he was sending to, to Koker, asking for the fight. It never came to fruition, kind of hard to make those fights, especially when you have two promotions, on different networks and all that. You can just ask Gilbert Mani Pachian and Floyd Mayweather about that.

But it never came to fruition. It was always a fight that people wanted to see because they were both outside of Zufa. They're both outside of the UFC. So we thought that there was a better chance of a co-promotion happened. But now they're both in the UFC. And here's hoping everything is okay with Eddie Alvarez and he's able to return.

Hopefully he wants to come back. I mean, he hasn't fought in a while. So I wonder if you'd be okay with waiting until June, but that's the fight that I want to see. Even if you look at the rankings, it makes a lot of sense, I think. I think Eddie's probably ranked a little too low. So it seems like, give me one second here. Just giving my number, maybe I wrote something.

You know, one guy who will know a lot about Mr. Eddie Alvarez is Rashad Evans, who's supposed to join us any minute now. Shod Evans, of course, a member of the Blacksillians, the unofficial, maybe official team captain, they've really turned the corner. And, of course, no bigger performance than the one recently by Anthony Johnson going to Sweden, silencing 26,000 Europeans,

finishing Alexander Gustafin in the first round, and now he will meet John Jones later this year. We go now to the phone lines and welcome in the aforementioned. Rashad Evans. Rashad, how are you? I'm a good area. How you doing, man? I'm great. Thank you so much for joining us.

So we got a lot to talk to you about. But I got to ask you first things first. What was your reaction? Where were you? What were you thinking? I know you weren't in Sweden because I didn't see you there, but put us into the moment. Your boy, you've known him for so long. He's your guy.

You've trained with him. You've seen him go through the ups and downs. Going to Sweden and doing what he did to Alexander. Put us in that moment. What exactly was going on in your life in your head? Well, I was at home. I don't want to be around too many people because I get to, anxious when somebody in close to the fight.

And when I seen him come out, he just had this look in his eyes as if he was like, um, super focused and, uh, ready, but at the same time, an amazing calm and relaxed. And I was like, oh, man, Gus is in trouble. And, uh, you know, in the first exchange, I got kind of nervous and you got, poked in the eye. Because sometimes, like, when you watch a fight and somebody gets poked in the eye, that that's an intention breaker. You know, anything you can, you know, something like that, get hit in the cup or a blow or anything like that to stop the action. When you're not in a favorite territory, that can be an attention breaker and that can be, you know, go against you. So I got

kind of nervous about that. But, you know, he came back with that big overhand right, right on his neck and just went to work. And then I was like, that's my boy right there. I was just, I was just overwhelmed because, you know, to really, to really get a sense of what I'm feeling, you know, what I was going through was just, uh, Anthony had, you know, when he came onto this team, he was, you know, a 170 pound, he was trying to make it. And he's really, really struggled to find his rhythm. You know, he's seen flashes of, if he could be something at 170, but he just, you know, he was missing that other thing.

And there was no sign that he'll ever, ever get it. You know, it was, it was almost in case of he has almost all the talent. in the world, but just really something missing, not enough heart, none of this, that he just would not get it done. He'd never be at that elite level. And when he came here, you know, you see, I see him just trying to, you know, kind of shed that and trying to find his flow, trying to find this rhythm, trying to find out of who he was as a fighter and as a person.

And, you know, even getting in the UFC and having a failure of missing weight and getting out of UFC, you know, it was something that was just, it was hard for him. and it was hard to be his teammate and his training partner because, you know, you don't want to see that prognosis on anybody. You know, you don't want to see nobody just down and out. You don't know what to say. You don't know if you're ever going to fight the UFC again. And, you know, that's everybody's ultimate dream.

So to see him, you know, lose his, it was hard. But he kept fighting and he got better and he got better. And then now he's on the stage and now he's showing what all the hard work and everything else has made him into. You know, people like, oh, AJ is a monster, this kid has been a monster. He's been this way. Now he's just showing everybody who he is.

Honestly, though, did you think he could do this, get to this point, 205 pound, number one contender? Did you really think he had it in him, or do you think he'd be, you know, a great fighter and all, but just never quite reached level, like, say, you were at? You know, the first time I really, really realized that AJ was going to be a problem

is when he was actually training for Vitor Belford. and at that point, you know, at the point it was, it was like, you know, I was a bigger guy, you know, and, you know, before that, you know, it was, I felt like I was able to, you know, kind of get at him a little bit, but then that camp, something changed. Something changed. I couldn't get AJ no more. Like, I couldn't get at him at all. Like, it was, I was like, man, AJ came to better on me. I'm like, what the hell is going on? And he just, he just grew and level, you know, and he kept getting it. better and better and better and better. And once somebody gets better like that, it kind of forces everybody else to get better too. But AJ was leading the pack and just these games, you know,

and getting better in all the areas. His wrestling got better. That was his first thing that got better. Was his wrestling? You know, his wrestling got better. And then his crown game got better. And then he gained tremendous amount of confidence in his stand-up and his ability to knock people out. And then now to the point where he's in the gym

and he's training, you know, any given moment, somebody switched up and they change up the speed on him, and they try to catch him in one, oh, he'll probably knock that person out. You know, and that's just how AJ's had developed into the fire that he is today. Now, it's been built over with this confidence that he has himself now. Where did humble AJ come from? Because, you know, when I first met him, you know, doing interviews and stuff,

he wasn't like an asshole or anything, but, you know, he was a little cocky. He was a little standoffish with the media. Now he's such a pleasure to talk to. He's so down to earth. I mean, the way he handled Sweden and the post-fight interview talking about Gustafin, it was really commendable stuff, total class act. Where did that guy come from? You know, life has a funny thing that does you sometimes.

You know, life humbles you. And, you know, with the road that he's had, you know, even with the trial of tribulations, that, you know, that keep on trying to get him down, is that you're humbled. You're humbled in a process of almost having it and almost losing it. and knowing the difference of what it means to have both. And then when you get it, you appreciate it. You see things differently. You see life differently.

And I think that's what you're looking at with AJ. You're looking at a guy who just sees life differently. Because, you know, even though everybody's like, oh, he's a flavor of a month now, he knows that. He knows that people, you know, they're going to give him hype and all that. He knows that. But he knows not to buy into it, too. He knows where to leave it. He knows not to make that his identity.

He knows to say, you know what, I'm AJ and I'm this big bad dude, not knock anybody out and carry this, that kind of arrogance. He knows that because he knows that, you know, people hype you up, they build you up, and they break you down. But if you never let anybody make you who you are, then you never have to worry about anybody destroying you. Okay, last thing on him, he's going to fight John Jones. You obviously know John as well as anyone. You fought him, and, of course, you trained with him for quite some time. And I know you predicted an uppercut, K-O-win. but can you break it down?

How do you see this fight playing out? Because it's the idea of seeing John Jones at this point knocked out cold. And this really is one of his most interesting tests because he's never fought a guy at AJ's level and age with that kind of knockout power. So it's a fascinating matchup. It's a fresh matchup.

But how do you actually see it playing out? Well, the thing about John and John's that makes him so dynamic and make him probably one of the best ever, is a site that he's able to adapt his game. plan to the guy he's fighting and then I'll fight the guy in his own game now that is something he could do and in a lot of athletes that he's safe but he can't you can't you know get punching power he's got a puncher power you don't and John does not have that kind of puncher power he has been very damaging elbows and stuff like that but if you're looking to fight an in-close

fight with a guy like AJ he hits you you're going to get knocked out you know and if you're looking to take him down good luck because he's amazingly hard to take down he has heavy hips and and you are to get hit before he go in. Now, John is very creative, and AJ has never went with somebody who is such a creative striker as John, but let's be honest here, John, John, you know, he can be hit.

Guston's show many times that he can't get hit, and, you know, Justin started a lot of his onslaught with the table combination, and his favorite combination is the uppercut, leading with the uppercut or finishing with the uppercut. And that left hook, Those are AJ's favorite punches. You know, his hardest punch is the haircut.

You know, and I think that if they start exchanging, which they will exchange and they're going to exchange because AJ brings out of pressure, he will catch John and he will knock them out. Early? Will it be early? Yeah. Yeah, I'll say within the first two rounds, for sure.

Wow. No contest. That sounds like an easy night. Well, it's not, I mean, just to say it like that sounds like I don't have any respect for John Jones and what he's done, you know, as far as being the champions of the last years. But let's be honest here. You know, it would have come down to it, it's just punching power.

This kid can really hit. And John makes himself, John, John does not. I'm not saying John can't take a hit, but I'm saying he's never been hit with somebody like this. You never get hit by somebody like this. Okay, let's transition to you because you were supposed to fight February 22 against Glover to Shera. Glover pulls out of the fight. You know, you'd be 20 days away from. your much anticipated return.

It has been quite some time since we've seen you in action. And the light heavyweight division is super interesting these days, especially with Gustafin losing and Kormey losing as well recently to John Jones. But Dana White mentioned something

in passing on Saturday night very briefly that kind of, you know, it gave me pause. So I got to ask you this. He says that you're injured. Is that accurate? Well, I mean, I just have to to heal up a little bit.

You know, I had to give some things cleaned out in my knee. and, you know, I was going to take my time getting it all healed up. You know, I felt like, you know, when there was rumors about me fighting Gus, that I may be, you know, coming back a little bit early, but then I started helping AJ train for that fight with Gus is in, and I started feeling a bit better than you often to fight Glover, and I was like, okay, find it.

But, you know, just kind of ramming it up a little bit, kind of aggravated my knee with it, so I had to get some things straightened out with it, but things are going good and it's feeling strong. And, you know, I'll be back out there before I know it, but I'm just going to take my time and get healed up properly all the way through. Was that the same knee that you injured prior to the Cormier fight last year? Yeah, it's the same knee. It's the same knee, but just, you know, the time that I had off

and, you know, not being going at that level and then jump, right back into it and going to it, it kind of aggravated my knee a little bit. But, you know, I just need to, you know, make sure I just take my time with it and not, and truly, truly build up the strength. And I was trying to, you know, maybe try to cheat the system a bit and go and not do all the rehab that I need to do to make sure that it was fully strong and fully where it need to be

before I got back out there and competed. Did you have to have another surgery? No, I just got some things cleaned out with it. Okay. And what are they saying now? Like, what's a reasonable month for you to return at this point? You know, they say it actually fine in a couple months, but I'm just going to, you know, I'm going to really take my time,

but I'm just see, you know, when, you know, because I want to get my leg strong. You know, I want to be back how it used to be. And, you know, the right one was skinnier than the left one, and it just wasn't feeling right. So I want to make sure that I really build it up. And, you know, I'm really, really anxious. to get out there, but I can't let my anxiety give way to what's best for me as far as navigating

my career. You know, I want to go out there and compete with these guys, but I want to make sure I go out there and bring me. You know, I don't want to go out there half-cocked and be like, yeah, but you know, on my knees, not 100%. People don't want to hear that crap. You know what I'm saying? You go out there and you don't look good.

Hey, you need to retire. That's what they're talking about. Right. And I don't want nobody to say that about me. So in a way, was the Glover injury a blessing as well? Like, do you think you wouldn't have been ready for that? You know what? Looking back in hindsight, I think it was a blessing.

But, you know, no matter what, how my knee was feeling during camp, I was going to fight anyways. I was going to fight anyways. And it was just, you know, a courteous thing happened. It's like once, you know, for me, when I have a fight date and it's locked in my mind and I put it on the calendar, then that just becomes, my ultimate destiny, and it's going to take something, you know, very hard for me not to do it once I signed on to do it. And I didn't care what was going to happen.

I was like, you know, I need to do this fight. And, you know, it was bothering me, but I figured a way to train around it and to make sure that I could do it. I don't know how I would it look, but I was going to fight. What did you think of that matchup? I didn't really love it for you, to be honest, because you were coming off a really great win over Chale. That feels like ages ago, and he was coming off a pretty dominant loss. I don't know, it just didn't make a lot of sense for me, for you. What did you think of it?

Do you still want that fight, or would you rather something else when you return? You know, I felt it would have been good in a sense that we're both, even though I came off of a win against Shale, I was still in a position of comeback. And, you know, I've been out for a year off of injury, so I'm in there. this comeback position. Now you have him having to suffer two loss in a row. He's definitely a position of comeback. So you have a great story of two guys trying to come back.

And as far as the match-up actually goes, I thought, you know, I thought I favored in a match-up. I felt like I would have been able to do my thing with him. But, you know, Glover is a tough fighter and, you know, he's a tough outing for anybody, you know, with, you know, a punch of power that can change a complexion of a fight with just a, you know, a littlest effort, you know, he's somebody you have to definitely respect when when you're inside, they would have been able to come back in, and look strong and dominant against him. Dana White said on Saturday that he's down with the D.C. Gustafin fight, but they both have

separate fights coming up next. They won't be fighting each other. Is it fair to say that you're not fighting either of those guys because you want to take some more time off? Are you in the mix for either of those fights, or is that not accurate? No, I'm not in. next to those fights. Okay. I don't know who those guys even would fight thinking about the matchup. But, you know,

the weight class is definitely interesting, you know, definitely interesting, man. AJ, AJ come there and shake things up a bit. So it's interesting. Yeah. And one reason why I felt that

AJ was going to win against Gus him more or less because I like Gus and Gus is a cool guy and everything, But, you know, I honestly felt like he was acting like he was a champion. You know, he had a great fight with Jones, and it could have went either way. But then he let the hike get him. You know what I'm saying?

He let the hike get him. And it's hard because when you got the UFC machine behind you, hyping you up, putting you in video games and stuff, I was on video games and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, you kind of feel like you are the champion. You just ain't got your belt yet, but you're overlooking people. And then we overlook people, that's when you get, that's when you get a hand to you. Yep. Actually, John said the same thing.

And they'd even fight again yet, so we'll see if that fight ever happens. By the way, what happens if Anthony wins the belt? What does that mean for you as a light heavyweight? You know, I don't know, to be honest, man. It's a hard, it's a hard choice. You know, I've been a heavyweight, I mean, light heavyweight for my whole career. So it was really hard to just, you know, go anywhere else. So I don't know, man.

I have to see what's bad, you know, what's for me. But here's the thing, man. Everybody asks me a question. And I don't really like to put too much thought on the what if of things. Yeah. Because a lot of times when you start putting a wood of things, in your mind you start acting like it's already happened. And you start acting as if it's already happened. And, you know, it made, that doesn't, that doesn't, that wouldn't help me to act like this is, as if it's already happened.

This is the way it's already, you know, going to be. So I need to do this or do that. You know, I'd rather just let, you know, let the cards fall in May and just go from there. But you will. I'm sure that. Sorry. Yeah, and then I'm sure that I'll figure something out when the time comes. But you will be back this year, right?

You're shooting for 2050. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to come back this year, man. This is it. I want to do at least two fights this year. Okay. At least two fights.

Let me ask you this before I let you go. Have you talked to Vitor Belfort, and how pissed off is he? You know, I haven't really spoke to him, but, you know, I know that he's a bit upset. But, you know, one thing about Vitor and I've learned just through, you know, some of the things that I've been through, you know, he's kind of giving me some of the best advice when I was on my lowest days, and he's amazingly patient person when it comes down to it. And, you know, he's, you know, he's always got the good advice to be like, you know, be patient, your time of calm and stuff like that.

So I'm sure that he's probably doing the same way. I do know he was a bit frustrated in the beginning just because he's, you know, you got to see, Reto's all revved up. piece, he's ready. Yeah. He's in a red. And this race car has been in a red for a long time because I understand he's supposed to fight jail in June.

So he's been training for a long time, which is little breaks in between. And his body and his mindset and everything that he's put forward to fight, you know, he's just been on point. So he's really got his mind. He got his mind around the fight at the 28th. And it was a bit disappointing. But I'm probably going to give Vitor a call on and talk to him. air, but I'm sure he's going to just be, you know, the same.

You know, we just want something doesn't go his way. He's amazingly patient. And we just had Gilbert Melendez on the show, and he was suggesting an idea, which I think was a great one, him fighting Eddie Alvarez in Mexico. Do you have any kind of update? I kind of view you as the captain of the team over there. We've been kind of dark about Eddie. You know, do you have any idea when he'll be able to return or anything like that?

You know, I really don't know when he'd be able to return. honest, you know, Eddie took some time off just to deal with some things. And, you know, he's, you know, he's been training and stuff like that. So I think, I think once you get some things sorted out, he'd be definitely ready to fight, whoever. He's hungry to fight, to be honest. You know, he's in a gym training, helping out the guys in the gym. And, you know, he's ready to go. All right. Well, Rashad, thank you for the time. And I hope that we get to see you back sooner rather than later. Man, I hope so, too, Gary.

I hope so, man. I miss you out there. It's been so long. UFC 167, and there are a lot of interesting fights right now for you at at light heavyweight, maybe even at middleweight as well. Who knows? But I wish you the best. I wish you the best.

I hope you get well soon. And congrats to your boy again, Anthony Johnson. Will you be in his corner, by the way, when he fights John? You know, I don't know. It's whatever he wants. But for the most part, rather than in this corner, physically, I'll always be in this corner. You know, I'm going to be on a ride with him, man.

So I'll be there. All right. Thank you so much for the time, Rashad. Always a pleasure to have you on and get well soon. All right, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. There he is. Shogah Roshad Evans stopping by. It has been a long time since we've seen him in action, and we miss him.

A very important part of that light heavyweight picture. It'll be interesting to see what he does. If Anthony Johnson, if Anthony fights before, he returns will be very interesting to see if he does change weight classes. You shall see. Speaking of changing weight classes, let's go to our next guest. How about this one? Coming out of left field, you know, was announced on Friday that Stephen Thompson was out

of the Brandon Thatch fight on February 14th in Broomfield, Colorado. And then Saturday night announced on Fox Sports 1 that former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, who, as you may recall, had been kind of flirting with the idea of moving up to 170, would be coming back on. less than, you know what? What is it? It's like 10 days. It's like less than two weeks notice to fight Brandon Thatch at 170 pounds in Broomfield,

Colorado, main event, Fox Sports One, unbelievable stuff. So we have to talk to Benson about it. He's joining us right now on the phone. Benson, are you there? I am here. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for joining us.

So give us the timeline. How did this thing materialize for you? Joe Silva texted me during the fights on Saturday asked me if I'd be willing to go 170 Help the UFC out They needed, you know Main event 170, they lost third tie So like sure, I'll help you guys out, you know

Look at you, company man Stepping up You didn't have to do that I always say that but man I don't think, uh, yes, I would agree Well, because you know It's interesting that I sort of make that joke is because you felt like you didn't get the love

when they didn't tell you about the Soroni fight and here you are stepping up in a different way class. Why did you feel the need to do it? I don't think I said that, actually, but I wouldn't exactly disagree with Neil Ralph who does say that. Okay, maybe you implied it. Is that fair to say? Maybe.

Okay, okay, fair enough. But as far as stepping up, taking the fight against Brandon Pat, I think it was a good opportunity. You know, Joe's over hit me up. that was a pretty good opportunity. I have been thinking about the idea, open to the idea of going to 170. I had to be the right matchup, the right time,

all that sort of stuff, you know. So we thought this one was a good matchup, a good timing of still in shape. I'm in shape all the time, you know, but, you know, being so close to the last fight, still in pretty good cardio. So we thought, you know, let's do it. Let's go for it.

So is this just a pit stop at 170 or are your days fighting at 155 done now? I would say it's just a pit stop. tough right now. I would not say that I am going to stay at 170, but more just closer with the idea of a 170 and then see how it goes from here.

I was told that when they reached out to you, you'd even think twice, you didn't ask anyone. You said yes as soon as they asked it. Is that accurate? Yeah. Well, my wife was sitting right next to me. I first had to clear with the boss. Yes. I asked my wife who's in there right next to me, and then I I just texted my coach, John Crouch, you know, one of my best friends and my coach.

So I want to make sure he was cool with it. I hit him up real quick, real quick, and I texted him Brian Thatch, you know, February 14th, main event. He texted back like two seconds later, done. I texted Joe Silva maybe two minutes after he texted me, and I said, time me up. And this is a great fight for the market because Thatch is from Denver. You were born in Colorado Springs, right? Yeah, yeah, I was born in Colorado Springs.

So did that add to it? I mean, did you even think of that? Did you say, oh, this is funny. I get to go back home? Oh, yeah, yeah. I saw in Denver a couple times. It's always cool. I love Denver.

I lived there for a year. My first started doing an M.M.A. training. That's where I was able to see Cowboy and I both come up in the Denver scene. Alvin Kid Robinson. A lot of the Denver guys, I was able to see them all coming up at the same time that I was. So it's always nice to come back to Denver. I love finding in Denver, actually. And what do you know about Brandon Thatch?

Because, I mean, of course, not saying white class. He's an up-and-comer. People are very excited about him. But he hasn't fought since November of 2013. How much did you know about the guy? Actually, to be honest, I don't know Mr. Brandon, but I didn't even know a whole lot about him. I knew of him from Denver. I know John Crouch, I knew of him and knows him and stuff.

But because, you know, 170's not my weight class. My weight class, I know most of all of the guys. I know what if I'm on their training partners or I know what gym they're at, all that stuff, you know. About 170, I don't pay that close of attention. So I was a little bit, you know, I didn't know all the details behind brand patch. I'm, you know, watch any tape on him or any that sort of stuff.

So I'll have my homework cut out for me for these next week or so. So two days later, how much do you know about him now? I know a little bit more, you know. You hear from guys who've trained with him, watch some of his highlight real, you know, online, that sort of stuff. So I know a little bit more. And, you know, as I mentioned earlier, you just fought a couple weeks ago. You fought against Donald Seroni.

I know you were very disappointed about that decision. Are you over the fight? I mean, are you kind of using that disappointment as fuel going into this fight? Are you still harping on it? No, not really. I wrestled all growing up, you know, since I was 13 years old, 12 years old, or whatever. In wrestling, you can have the most. closest heartbreaking gut-renting loss, and, you know, 20 minutes later,

you go up again and wrestle again and you have another tough match. But wrestling definitely helps you a lot in life in general, but when it comes to, you know, accepting the loss, man up and moving on, moving forward, and as I was able to do with Sony, like the judges, you know, announce their decision. I don't agree with it, but, you know, it is what it is. You can't, you can cry about it as much as you want.

You can whine. You can, you know, be a crybaby, so to speak about it. But at the end of the day, it doesn't do anything, you know. All that time, all the effort, all the energy you spent crying about it, whining about it. You got to get back in the gym at some point in time. So, you know, I was able to get back in the gym on that Wednesday or Thursday or so right after our fight. I was back to the gym the next week. And I put all my energy on my focus on, you know, getting better, getting warm for the better every single day.

have you watched it on TV and do you still believe you won the fight? Yes. Yes to both questions? Yeah. Do you feel like if you had two more rounds, it would be a lot more easier to judge that fight? I would say that yes, if we had two more rounds, which, you know, it is what it is. We were the co-man event, but if we were to have two more rounds, I think the outcome would have been different, of course, and it would have been a lot easier for the judges who were judging the fight to make their decision.

You know, I'll be honest, I didn't see it this way, but I did see some people call it kind of a glorified sparring match where it felt like you guys like each other very much you didn't want to go in for the kill. Is that fair? No, I think those people don't know what they're talking about. Those are the same people that say, oh, kick his butt, knock his head off. they're the ones who say kick him when the

head when the guy's on the ground with three points on the ground you know so no I don't necessarily agree that Donald was coming after me I was going after him your training partner who you train with every single day you know your brothers who you love my brother's here

who I care with every day at my gym to MRA lab in Bend de la Arizona I beat the crap out of them there's no there's no uh oh faring session or you hold back because of any of that stuff

I don't feel like But that's not to me. But you guys are boys, and in fact, correct me from wrong, did he yoke you up with Super Bowl tickets yesterday? He did. Wow. Him and Budweiser, he's sponsored. They took me up with the two tickets to the Super Bowl.

He actually, before the fight, he said, oh, yeah, I think I could give you the two tickets or a couple tickets to the Super Bowl. And I was like, oh, yeah, sure, thanks, man. I appreciate it, brother. And then, you know, that's not a time from beating you up, though, don't you know? Like, oh, yeah, I don't worry about your thoughts on.

and then after the fight. I was like, oh, I don't put your stupid stupid two-roll tickets. You keep your ticket. Okay, no, I'll take it. I'm always just joking. And you're a Seahawks guy, right?

Carolina fans first, but yes, definitely a Seahs guy because I'm from Seattle, so a big Seahawks fan for a long time. You know, I've lived there than a entire arm. Okay, so just for fun, let me ask you the same question

I asked Mighty Mouse. Was that the stupidest playing in the history of sports? I don't think you can say that. No? I don't think it's fair to Pete Carroll. It's not fair to Russell Wilson to say that. Half time, going into half time, they had like 30 seconds after the clock.

They go for the touchdown rather they go on for the field goal. They decided not to play it safe. It was a great call. Everyone was talking about it. It was a great call by Pete Carroll. It was awesome. It was amazing to go for the touchdown. It's the same thing.

If Russell Wilson makes that throw and the corner does not intercept it, everyone's talking about always a great decision. It was a very smart. to not run the ball because everyone knows you're going to run the ball with Marchion and Lynch, but to throw the ball instead. It was just a great play by the corner to make that interception. And there's always a risk of a turnover. What if Marchon had the ball and he was running?

What if he p.monds? There's no – I think it's hard to say that about Pete Carroll and the Seahawks. I know you've got a ton of people saying that, but I think Pete Carroll knows what he's doing. He's pretty good. You know, he makes a lot of correct decisions. I think that was a good decision. It's just, that's the way they could come from sometimes.

I feel like you got love for a guy like Marchand and his stance towards the media. I feel like you can sympathize with him. Am I, am I right? I'm a big fan of Marshawn and how he does think. I like him a lot, definitely. Don't go Marchand on us, right? Please.

I would think about it. Trust me, man. I know. I feel like you're always on the edge of going Marchon on us. I'm actually kind of shocked that you're on the show to begin with. right now.

The media, you guys, you guys do different things, man, like, you'll, you'll take a, uh,

like you and I, we're cool. We, we, we have, uh, good conversations. I'll,

I'll call you a buddy. Uh, thank you. But for us to do it, for us to do an interview. And then, you know, uh,

I read an article that you write about me. And then in the article, you know, word things very differently than how I said it. You, you purposely, you know, put this sentence before this sentence,

even though I said, you know, sentence number one or sentence B, you know, afterwards, you put it before sentence A. So it makes it make me sound differently, you know. Like, the journalists definitely do that. They definitely sensationalize stuff to get readers to click on their page and read their articles. So, yeah, man, the media is, I don't know.

I'm not the biggest fan of it, but it's, you know, I'm not being kind of doing taxes either, but you're going taxes. Wow. In the same category is taxes. That is horrible. True, though. Very true. I almost, yeah, very similar. Wow.

Well, I appreciate you coming on because I've been trying to get you back on the show for a while. And it's interesting because you just tweeted before coming on the show, wondering why I was ducking you. Why I was ducking you. First off, you've been ducking this show, my friend. How many unanswered texts do I have for you to come on this show, A? And I mean, like, how many times have we been in the same city? I come with my gear.

And you're always like, oh, you know, I got a fight coming up. I don't want to break my ankles. I'm afraid, you know, because I threw out the stipulations. that I would retire and I can't do that right now. I just got married. I mean, excuse after excuse. At this point, I'm just going to take my business elsewhere. I think we're definitely going to have this game.

Let's do it in Denver afterwards or something like that. High altitude. I can't deal with that. No, okay. That was an excuse. Not where it is excuses. I'm going to get a video of it. I'm going to make sure we video that and we post it up, man.

You know what? This is the thing that I'm going to propose. International Fight Week. money proceeds go to charity the much anticipated one-on-one Halani versus Henderson what do you think sounds good to me set it up when is that

July? Oh you got you got plans of course of course look at you backtracking if I am there it's on for sure I have to double-track with the boss I get to double-tack of my wife if I'm allowed to go to that international fight week then I will for sure

give you a couple of lessons in how to play basketball. For three. I won't even charge you for the lesson. Oh, wow. I give you three lessons in the hotball basketball. Just like Dwayne Ludwig. Did you see my boy Carl Hass? He actually made a poster.

Did you see this poster? I did, yeah. I did see that, yep. It's kind of messed up, though, because you're dunking on me. So I guess you'll get one point in, but you're not a dunker, right? You don't got hops like that, right? I could, the most I could do, like, right?

Like my freshman, sophomore year in college, I could dunk in tennis ball. But that was the most I could do. I don't think I could get close to that now, though, probably not. Okay. Ooh, that would have been weird. Let me just ask you a couple more things, and then I'll let you go. Speaking of that altitude, are you going to go early? I mean, there's not much time to prepare, but you are fighting in Colorado.

I know you're from there, but it's – and I know Arizona has pretty high altitude, too, but is it like in Broomfield? What do you know about that? It's definitely a mile up. Yeah. I know it takes 22 days for your body to get actually, you know, legitimately fully acclimated to the high elevation. I don't quite have 22 days.

So I'm in shape. I'm always in shape. I'm always in the gym packing and getting ready, you know, getting 1% better every day. But I don't have those 22 days to acclimate to high elevation. So we're going to go in there and, you know, go get the job done, do whatever it takes to get the job done. If I got to take him down and lay on top him for five rounds,

if that's what it takes for the judges to award your decision, guess what? I can do that. The fan of mine, I like it, but I can do that if that's what it takes. Right. If it takes me, you know, freaking punching him in his left Victoria muscle 17 times in the fight, and then the judges say, okay, well, you win because you did that, I can do that too, no problem.

Like, whatever the criteria is in the judge's eyes how to win a fight, I can do that, no problem. You give me the criteria, you know? So are you going to go early? though? No, not really. I'm going to go the same time as always all the fighters go out.

Wow, okay. Oh, that's interesting. And you were supposed to fight April 4th against Jorge Mazvedel. You were replacing the injured Bobby Green. Is that a fight that you still want, or are you okay with that not happening? All my dad's side of the family lives in Virginia.

They have been begging me to fight in Virginia. Like, I can control that guy. It's not on me, like where the U.S. He fights at. It's not like I can hit up Dana. Hey, Dana, I want to fight in Virginia. So put that together and get it set up for, you know, like I definitely don't have that kind of a pull, not even close to that in the EURC.

So all my dad's side of my family is begging me, or they are begging me to be on my card in Virginia. So I will do my best to make sure that I am on that car in Virginia. The one April 4th, you want to turn around that quickly? I'd be open to it. Obviously, you know, it depends on how I feel after this fight against Brat. Brandon Thatch, he's a lot bigger. Maybe I'm a little bit more beat up, a little bit more sore than I am after most of my fights. Most of my fights, I'm really, I'm pretty good.

I don't have too many bruises. I've had one back eye on my entire career post-fight. I'm not really too banged up. I never had any cuts or anything like that, you know. So hopefully that goes the same way against Brandon Fats. I'm able to get out there in Virginia and go show out for all my uncles and aunts and cousins. final thing how much are you looking forward to not having to use the towel on the on the scale when you when you weigh in i mean this is going to be a real treat for you right

yes i am uh very very excited about that uh being able to compete and not have to be able to train to compete and do everything and not have to worry about not have to stress about not have to physically go through uh the the drastic cutting of your calories the drastic losing of water weight. You have no idea how excited I am for that. How much you weigh right now? Not too bad. I'm pretty good for 170.

If it was 155, there's no way. Okay. It'd be tough. I'd make it, but it'd be tough for me. By the way, I'm sitting pretty good. Our basketball game will be at 145, so we'll have to weigh in before then, all right? All right. We'll see about that.

I'll get a couple of talents in leeway. How about that? In the words of the great Nick Diaz, don't be scared, homie, all right? The time for talking is over. Believe it or not, I've heard that one you're right to say. In that time, I wasn't too scared. I'll make I'll be too scared this time either.

Benson, I really appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much. Good luck. This is awesome. The card was pretty much dead, and you made it a hell of a lot more interesting. So I can't wait for it. February 14th, Broomfield, Colorado.

Benson Henderson, making his UFC welterweight debut against Brandon Thatch. What an amazing and interesting fight that is. Best of luck to you, my friend, and we'll talk to you very soon. Thanks, fun. All right, there he is. Wow, that is fun stuff. Benson, Henderson, Brandon Thatch.

I love those fights that come out of nowhere. Much like Anderson-Silvin Nick Diaz, I mean, I'm not going to compare it as far as the magnitude of it all, but they just kind of come out of nowhere, and then you see them, and you're like, wow, that's a lot of fun. I like that. That's great. Brandon Thatch, I think we've forgotten about Brandon Thatch and how good he is. He hasn't fought since November of 2013. This is one of those guys that, you know, when he came to the UFC, and even, you

even before that when he was fighting, you know, he was fighting in Ring of Fire and some other promotions. I mean, a lot of buzz about Brandon Thatch. One of those guys that you knew right away would be an interesting prospect to watch develop in the UFC. And now look at him. He is, he's looking very good. He's finally back. Both Colorado guys, great fight. Very interesting. It sucks. I like the Wonder Boy Thompson fight. I know it wasn't your traditional main event. It didn't have that star power. That was a fun fight underneath Matt Brown versus Tarek Safedine, but this is intriguing. A lot of interesting levels to this one.

So we'll see it February 14th. It airs here in the United States on Fox Sports One. All right, let's move along now. And as we said at the top of the show, it was a tough weekend for Kelvin Gaslam. He missed weight by nine pounds. He lost the Tyne Woodley. John Lineker also missed weight,

but he beat Ian McCall. Both guys have to move up now. Dana White's saying that both guys have to go up a white class because they have missed weight too many times and the UFC just doesn't want to be a part of that. So I wanted to talk to a man who has worked with both guys and also had a very good weekend himself. He's been working with Tiago Alvis for quite some time.

Tiago Alva's winning on Saturday, defeating Jordan Mian, a nice comeback win, a great comeback win for him. And, of course, he made weight as well. So a great weekend for Tiago and his team. Of course, I'm talking about the one and only Mike Dolce who joins us now via the magic of Skype. Mike, how are you?

I'm great, Ariel. How about yourself? I'm great. Thank you very much for joining us. And by the way, congratulations on winning that award on Friday at the World MMA Awards. So let's talk about Tiago Alvis first. You know, he looked good. He had a slow start but came back.

You know, is that the kind of win where you're like, oh, thank God everything went away? Because let's be honest, the first round didn't really go his way. He was getting dominated rather easily. Absolutely. And I think that was a good fight for us and for Tiago, where he had the, the, three-round war with Seth Baczynski, though Tiago was fully in control the entire time. He never really had to go through adversity. With this fight with Jordan Main, who's very top rank number 13 in the Walterweight Division,

Tiago had to fight through adversity and really get his chin-checked. And he walked out of there. He's like, I can take shots from anybody in this division. And this really built his confidence moving forward as he progresses up the ranks. So he said, Welterweight Division, I'm back. Do you feel as though he has turned the corner, the injuries? I mean, he was out for two years. He was supposed to come back in August, had to pull.

whole out. Is Tiago Alva's really back? Tiago Alves is back 100% better than ever. He needed that time off to heal up the injuries. We had his body, you know, totally renovated and fixed during that time, but more so his maturity. Tiago was a guy who was thrust in the scene in his early 20s. I think he's been in the UFC for 10 years. He was given the title and earned the title shot with George St. Pierre in 2008, long before he was mature enough in his lifestyle to really succeed in Excel. Now, just over you know, 30 years old, he's mentally prepared, physically ready. He's going to make a run in this welterweight division.

Great news. Great to have him back in the mix. Okay, let's talk about Kelvin. Explain to us your relationship with Kelvin because, you know, you had worked with him prior, and then there was a story that came out, I believe it was on ESPN.com, prior to the Mexico fight with, and correct me from wrong, you're saying that you wouldn't be able to be there in Mexico, but then you were in Mexico. You were doing stuff for UFC Finn. He fought in Mexico, and then he said that you didn't respond to him when he asked

you to work with him. And then, of course, he fights this weekend and you're not there, and he misses weight badly, and Dana White says yes, to move up. He loses his first fight. So what is going on between you and Kelvin Gasselm? Kelvin and I were friends. I mean, we really enjoy each other's company. We have nothing but love for each other. In Austin, you know, we hung out. That was, God, I forget, in November after the Mexico fight, we hung out and had dinner together in Austin after the ESPN reported come out. And that was completely wrong. Kelvin, after he had missed weight in the middle of summer. He contacted me a few weeks later saying, hey, bro, can we work together for

this next fight? Not sure when it's going to be, probably going to be in Mexico. I said, absolutely. I said, but we need to start working right now. So I don't want to be just a weight cut guy for you. You've got a lot of lifestyle issues, and that's where we'll be best, because I'm a longevity advocate. This is about this kid being healthy. The healthier he is, the better he can succeed. And he said, definitely, let's talk, you know, on Monday, this was on the weekend. I didn't hear back from him for almost eight weeks until September when one of his coaches called me as coach Terrell. And I said, coach, listen, I'm already booked now. I'm booked with Nick Lens, who's fought in September, was scheduled, Manning Gambierian, who's fighting in September,

and UFC Fit had retained me to do promotions of the series in Mexico. So my schedule, typically, books four months in advance due to these fight cards and such. And at that time, I was already booked, unfortunately. So I did communicate with his coach. I don't know if his coach communicated with him. So I never ignored him. And I did say, it's not fair to Kelvin that I'm too busy, but contact me. Like I can consult, I can look over some things, I can help, but I can't be there for him, therefore I can't be with him. I didn't want to misrepresent myself to him and to his team.

And then we fast-ported and we see what happened. And that was sad to say. So what's your take? You just said he had some lifestyle issues. I mean, why is this guy missing weight so much? You know, I'm a science guy. If you look at Calvin's body, look at his lean mass ratio, He simply carries too much body fat to compete successfully at that weight class, very similar to Johnny Hendricks.

Johnny Hendricks has such problems with his weigh-ins because he balloons up in the off-season. He carries too much body fat. It's extremely unhealthy to dehydrate the muscles where you can't dehydrate the body fat. So it strictly comes out of all the vital areas of the body, and that causes these poor performances. And I believe that's exactly what happened to Kelvin. at Tiago Alvin is the biggest welterweight in the division right now. We have more muscle mass than everybody else, but you look at how lean he is. And Tiago, Johnny and Kelvin, they're all the same height.

They're all right about 5'10. If Johnny and Kelvin had the same body fat as at Tiago, they don't live the offseason like Tiago. Tiago follows my program 12 months out of the year now, and that's the maturity I was speaking about. Kelvin's a young kid. And I understand he's a young kid, he's got some fame, he's got some money, and I don't think he's surrounded by the healthiest people year-round, but he's a professional, and he's got to make these professional decisions on his own. He could be the welterweight champion. I've said before,

if Kelvin gets his body fat down to, you know, 10% or so, which is perfect for combat athletes, 7% of competition, I think 170 is easy for him, and I think he grows into a very dominant lightweight. Now, I'm not saying he should go there, but I'm saying based upon his frame and based upon his body fat ratio, that's not outside of the realm of possible. Right now, if he just drops his body, he's probably, you know, high teens, 20% body fat, if he gets that down into the 10, 8% range, he makes 170, no problem, eating all week. That's what I'd love to see. I'd like to see this kid be healthy.

So why didn't you work with him for this fight? For this fight, I already had Tiago on the card, and he never called me. Oh. You know, and that's, I would love to work with him. You know, I think he's got to, why wouldn't I want to work with a kid like, Kelvin. And that's why a lot of the media, all the headlines, it was all BS. Why wouldn't a professional? Why wouldn't I want to work with a rising star like Calvin Gastilum? It's silly that I'm ignoring his phone calls. I mean, that's just the media trying to sell copy. And it's

unfortunate because it's not true. And nobody even contacted me for a comment. They just put these stories out there as if that's fact without any sort of a back. That's bad journalism right there. Contact, you know, definitely verify the story, verify the source. Nobody did that. Why would I not want to work with a kid like Kelvin? And the work that I did do with him was for the Brian Melanson fight. You look at the way he looked on the scale physically. You look at the way he performed. You look at everything he said.

The kid was in great shape. He felt amazing. He was fully fed, fully hydrated. That's what I'd like to see from this kid moving forward. So do you think it was a mistake to let him fight? Considering the fact that he was hospitalized on Friday, had so much trouble, reports of him being carried out, throwing up all this stuff.

If you were in his corner, would you have advised him not to fight on Saturday? I don't think I can speak to that because I didn't see what he went through. And there's a lot of smoke and mirrors that go on. Through the media, you know, through the fight camp, a lot of athletes have flu-like symptoms while they're cutting weight. A lot of athletes throw up while they're cutting weight. I've seen the worst of the worst, and I've seen athletes. I mean, Rampage. When Rampage fought Lyotamashita, Quentin was the sickest, I think, I've ever seen a human being.

And he was able to battle back. We battled through the weight cut. He made weight, and he went out there, and he won a three-round decision against Lerda Moshita, who I think was one of the toughest stylistic opponents that Quentin had. So sometimes as an athlete, you just need to nut up, get out there and do your job. Was Kelvin's health at risk? I can't say. I don't believe so.

Otherwise, I think he would have been flagged and pulled from the car. I think it was a little more spinning the story just to kind of get the focus off the weight issue, the weight cut issue. And they wouldn't have let him fight if he was truly unhealthy. So Dana White said he has to go up to 185. You're talking about, you know, he could be a lightweight. Do you think this is bad for his career? This is a guy who's undefeated going into this fight, maybe one or two away from fighting for the belt.

Now he's to go up to 185. There are some monsters there. Are you concerned about this? Yeah. Gariah Hall, you know, at 185, and he's had some other winds of 185 in much smaller shows. But come on, there's no way a kid like Kelvin should be fighting the guys at 185 pounds.

those guys are absolute monsters. They're going to walk into the octagon with 20 to 30 pounds more lean functional muscle than Kelvin with, you know, four inches in height and probably, Jesus, four to 12 inches and reach over him. So as good as Kelvin is, now he's giving up a lot of advantages. He could probably pick off some of the guys outside the top 10. Once he gets into the top 10, he's fighting the Killers Row at 185 in all the divisions, even down at 155. That's not an easy division either.

But you want to bring as many skills and attributes with. you to competition and he's going to be giving up a lot of his skill set when he goes up against the bigger guys and god i hope he doesn't walk in there thinking well now i don't have to diet anymore and he and he adds even more non-functional body mass because that's going to lead to you know very serious long-term issues to his career i know you don't need more work but you did call him your friend and you seem pretty passionate about the idea of him fighting at 185 not being a good one, will you try to rekindle this working relationship and maybe talk to Dana and say, look, if I work with this guy, because Dana has said, you know, we want this person

to work with Mike Dolce. He has endorsed you. So will you try to make that happen and get him on board with that idea if you are working with him? I mean, it's awesome when I hear Dana and Joe Silva and Sean Shelby, when they reach out to me with some questions because they've seen for over a decade what I've done with athletes behind the scenes. And they know how much I care, how compassionate I am and they know that I put the health of the athlete before everything and we've never had an athlete missed even with Johnny Hendricks Johnny's never missed weight I mean it takes every ounce of skill that I have to get Johnny on weight but he's never missed and that's why they kind of recommend me and they they ask me what I think about certain situations with Kelvin I'm

always here my phone my phone's right next to me right now on his coach did call me uh and say hey let's talk after this of course I would have that conversation but again then you know I I got a baby on the way right now. I have a very full dance card with the career athletes that I do work with. I have a soft spot in my heart for Kelvin. We spend a lot of time on season 17 in the ultimate fighter together. I want to see him succeed. I want to see him, you know, make millions of dollars and take care of his family.

And I'm available. We just got to make sure the time is right. But truly, he's got to be committed. This is a 52-a-week, you know, year job. And a lot of the guys that listen in right now, you have to be a pro 52 weeks out of the year. There's no in-season, off-season, MMA. this is your life. This is your life, guys and girls out there.

You've got to take this stuff seriously. And nutrition is the one thing you can control. Your conditioning, your shape, your health is the one thing you can control. So, I mean, that's the easiest thing, and it's often most neglected. That's unfortunate. Before I ask you about Linneker, you mentioned him a couple times, so I want to ask you about him. Johnny Hendrick said after the fight against Robbie Lawler in December that, you know, he ballooned too big and he thinks it was an issue.

How much of an issue, as far as his performance, in that fight was the fact that he got too big and had to cut too much weight. Do you think that if he had a normal weight going into the training camp and didn't have to cut too much that he would have won that fight? Absolutely. I think Johnny did win that fight. I mean, 10 out of the 12 media members that saw the fight through, you know, a third-party poll said Johnny Hendricks won the fight. Most of the people that I've spoken to think Johnny won the fight. Robbie's awesome.

Either way, it doesn't matter. Robbie's a champ. Love that. I personally try unbiased watch. I felt Johnny won the fight, no problem. But outside of that, did Johnny deserve to win? Not based on his off-season. I mean, Robbie, I know Robbie.

Robbie, 52 weeks out of the year, the kid is in the gym. He's training. He's eating super clean. He's a serious professional. You don't deserve to beat these guys if you're not living the same lifestyle. Talent and a hard punch is only going to get you so far. So you've got to earn the victory long before the fight. You know, the mom-in-howie quote, the fights are won and lost.

months before on the dark, you know, cold mornings. When you get out there, you do your road work. That's when guys like Johnny, that's where their excellence will really be achieved, or that's when greatness is going to be lost. And I would love to see Johnny really dial it in. And it seems like he's doing that right now. But we won't know until fight week comes. I mean, that's the unfortunate thing with Johnny.

Well, his fight is a little over a month away. How's he doing? Is he as big as he usually is, or is he taking more seriously? He, you know, I think that the good, there's a good and bad thing about him taking the fight on such short notice. He took it on short notice, which means his weight didn't blow up nearly as high. He stayed in the high nine. He didn't get higher than the high 90s, which is big for a welterweight. Yeah.

But he didn't get into the mid-200s, 210, like he normally would do. The bad thing is that short turnaround is hard when he went through a weight cut like he did, when he went through, you know, the type of fight that he had. That was a hard fight. Robbie landed some serious shots, not just to his head, but to his body. That was a hard fight Johnny went through. But Johnny's a champion, man. You can't count the kid like Johnny Hendricks out.

Look at his body of work. Look at what he's done. Look at his GSP fight. I think he manhandled GSP. How do you count out a kid like Johnny Hendricks who's a born winner? But he's got Matt Brown. Matt Brown is a stud. I'm friends with Matt also, and Matt is training.

You know, number one contender fight right there, I think. Okay, let me ask you about Linneker. What an unfortunate situation this is? because here's a guy who, if he wins that fight and makes weight prior to it, he's probably fighting for the belt. He beat Ian McCall. There aren't a lot of contenders. He's a great fighter, but unfortunately he misses weight again.

This time he weighs in at 130 for a fight that, you know, the limit is 126. And Dana White says he's got to go to Bantamweight. What's he doing wrong? Because you've worked with him a bit too, right? Yeah, I worked with Linnaker. God, I think it was 2013 or 14. I forget the year now. after one of his spectacular missing of the weight instances.

And that he got on my program, and I think on MMA fighting, actually, the article was about Lenaker, who lost 11 pounds the first week following my eating program. He said he normally walks around in the mid-60s within a week of being on the Dolce diet. He was walking around in the low 50s, and he felt absolutely amazing. For some reason, he and his camp felt, and this happens a lot. He and his camp felt, well, we're making such good progress right now. We don't need Dolce, maybe because they don't need to pay Dolce. which is fine, I'm busy enough, and they stop working with me.

And what happens? Linnaker goes out and misses weight a couple more times, and he lost his title shot. God knows how much money this kid lost because of that. He lost the faith of the organization. He lost the backing of the fans. And I think he can probably win the title at 135. I don't know if he can beat T.J. Dillishaw, who I think is the best phantom weight in the world right now.

But at 125, I think, you know, Linnaker was the clear-cut number one challenger, and he lost that opportunity. God, you don't want to lose this stuff on the scale. Yeah. I mean, again, these are the things that you can control. It's, you know, how dare you? And, you know, to be that far over, it's not like, you know, you collapse to pound over and your body just shut down.

We've seen that before. You can't blame the athlete when they try. To come in, you know, four pounds, 10 pounds overweight. Guys and girls, that is not professional. Imagine if you didn't do 50% of your job. I mean, that's what this comes down to. There's two parts to the contract. You make weight, you fight.

You don't do 50% of your job. God, you're just not a, you know, not dependable at that point. I know you're a good guy, but honestly, when someone says to, yeah, we could do this on our own, what you were doing, you know, working, you know, making wonders out of this guy and getting him back on track, cutting all that weight. And then you're there in Vegas and he misses the weight after they told you that. Does a part of you say, I told you so, do you kind of smirk deep down inside? You know, I don't.

I mean, it's, it bothers. It bothers me. It bothers me when athletes miss weight, and it's not just talking out of the side of my mouth right now. I want to see these athletes healthy. Again, I'm a longevity advocate, and I don't want to see these athletes suffer. And this is our sport. When athletes miss weight, it makes us all look bad. It really does. From the journalists to the promotions, to the fighters, to the coaches, it makes us all look bad and we're not taking it seriously because it's as if we're not disciplined and dedicated enough to do our jobs. I think it's ridiculous. To see a kid like Linnaker or Calvin, when I know the work that I did with them, I know what I was. was able to do to help them. I know they would have made, you know, I add zeros to people's paychecks.

I mean, that's a fact. And, you know, that's a little bravado with me saying that. But, you know, you look at the paychecks of athletes that I've worked with for a long time, guys like Hendricks, guys like Nick Lens, guys like Tiago Alves. I help these guys really move up the pay scale. Mike Pyle very fast and they're able to go out there and really provide for their family for a very, very small, you know, minuscule percentage of those earnings. and for them to kind of make it about money,

it shows that there's a greed and there's a selfishness out there because they're typically not paying their other coaches properly. They're not doing the right things, and typically they're cutting corners. So it's part of a bigger, a global problem. And it's not me,

because I'm not the only guy out here doing this. I mean, there's other great nutritionists and dietitians in this field. You don't have to hire Mike Dolce to come in and revolutionize the weight-cutting game. There's other people out there. Get somebody who's qualified. Get someone who's a qualified.

experience, someone who's done it before and has a resume of doing it with repeated results, that's not a problem. Unfortunately, these guys and girls, they're not doing that, and it makes no sense. They have world-class jiu-suituitous, world-class striking, world-class wrestling coaches, and then they're listening to, you know, their local buddy or, you know, a personal trainer, or sometimes one of the skills coaches. Right. Now, you know, a strength coach isn't going to go out there and show jujitsu technique.

why would a jiu-jitsu coach teach a fighter how to cut weight and lose weight and weigh in rehydrate for competition? That's not very professional to disconnect. Well said, as always. Congrats on a great weekend, Mike. And thanks for dropping some knowledge here. It's always great to talk to you. I appreciate it, Eric. Thank you.

And congratulations to you also, man. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it very much. And also, when's your wife do, by the way? She's due any day now. Wow. So anywhere, we're scheduled for the seventh, but it could be, you know, any day. hopefully a little sooner rather than later,

because I've got to be in Colorado with Nick Lenton to 14. I want to get a little more baby time. Yes, absolutely. Well, your life is about to get a thousand times better. Early congratulations to both you and your wife. Thank you so much, Eric. I appreciate it, brother. All right, there he is.

Mike Dolce. Great stuff from him, as always. Busy weekend in Las Vegas. And unfortunately for Kelvin Gasselm and John Linnaker, they missed out on some big opportunities, but hopefully they can get back on track soon rather than later. All right, let us go now to the phone lines. It has been a while.

You know, there was a time where this, guest would come on our show all the time, but it has been a while since we talked to him, so I'm very excited to welcome back Caesar Gracie to the show. Caesar, how are you? I'm great. Thank you. Yeah, it's been a while since we talked to you, and it was good to see you. I didn't actually talk to you, but I know you were obviously in the mix in Vegas because Nick was fighting, so there's a lot to get to with you. I'll ask you right off the top. Nick said afterwards that he thought he won the fight. Do you think he did enough to win that fight? you know, I really haven't seen the fight, like, except for being there.

I thought Nick was kind of the aggressor and everything. If the other guy scored more points, then he scored more points. I don't, you know what I mean? Hopefully we have competent people watching it. And I think, I think they did great. I don't know who won the fight or something like that. I think Nick did, you know, he did really well. He showed he could deal with the kicking game, how much better he's got at that.

with the checking the kicks and the, you know, throwing kicks himself and kind of getting in tune with all that because I know that he's had problems with that in the past, him and his brother, and I think he learned a lot for this particular fight, and I think he did well. You know, a lot of people weren't giving him, you know, a big chance going into this fight. They were sort of dismissing him because of the size advantage.

He had not fought in quite some time. Did he, I know he lost, but did he do better than you thought he would? Yeah, fair up, guys. I didn't know how he was going to do because you look at a guy like Anderson Silva, and I studied this fights, obviously. The nightmare scenario is a Chris Levin type of fight where he comes out. He just kind of starches you, throw him good punches, and, you know, getting his combinations together, and then you never, from the get-go, you're not in a fight.

So that's the nightmare scenario for it. The other one where he kind of just gradually takes over and beats the hell out of you, which Franklin and so forth. Yeah. But we kind of focused on some other things, some fights where he had problems with other types of strikers. And the thing is, the game plan, I mean, obviously we had, we prepared for the fight and everything,

but Nick really came up with that awkward game plan of his. What do you mean by awkward game plan? Well, he was just, you know, we're in the back room, and Nick goes, I'm thinking about doing this. And he put his elbow up. up and he walked to the left side with his just his elbow up. And it goes his up, and then he broke it down. Look, this is Anderson's options if I walk this way with my elbow up.

He can try to punch me this way. He can try to do this, and I'm going to counter by doing this and doing this. You know, Nick does some crazy stuff, but he really is a brilliant fight guy, and he came up with a really interesting standing game plan. On the ground, you know, we obviously wanted it there because I thought Nick would take over on the ground, but Anderson didn't want any part of that, so pretty much I figured it'd be mostly stand-up. He mentioned afterwards that he had an arm issue.

Did he do that, that new stance with the elbow out, because of the arm issue? And what did you think when he suggested that backstage? I thought it was a good idea. I mean, we were gone over. It wasn't just me. I'm not a stand-up guy, stand-up coach, whatever. But Schilling was in there with us, obviously,

and he thought it was a good idea. So it just kind of made sense. You know, Nick comes up with some crazy stuff, and he just figures people's psychology, and he goes, okay, this is what's going to work against this guy. This is going to nullify his game if I do this. And a lot of times it's off the beaten track. It's very unconventional, if you will.

But Anderson is expecting a certain type of fighter to come out, and he's prepared for Nick to fight a certain way. And so Nick came out and fought a complete, different way, and I think Nick had a lot of success with that. As far as the arm issue, yeah, his arm is hurt. I mean, I don't think he's making an excuse. Everyone's not 100% when they come into a fight.

You have issues. But it was locking up, and, you know, he had to make some changes and go from there. Was there a chance of him pulling out of the fight? Was it that serious? No. No. Not at this fight.

No, not this one. This fight you don't pull out of it. It's too big of a, you know, It's not just a financial thing. It's kind of a big fight, you know. You know, as I said to Gilbert earlier in the show, I thought the first round was so incredibly entertaining because it was surreal seeing them in the cage together.

And then he was doing stuff that we've never seen anyone do to Anderson with, you know, the trash talking and lying down and turning his back and all that. Was that part of his game plan as well? Was he trying to mess with Anderson's head? Oh, for sure. Because Anderson will do that to you. Yeah. The thing is you guys do it first to him.

you know, you know, backing up into the cage and goading someone to come in. Well, Nick, the laying down thing, you're not going to see Anderson do that, but Nick can do it because of the jiu-jitsu skills. The guy, he's phenomenal. So, yeah, he's just kind of trying to get all that out there right away. So, you know, he's kind of flipping the script or whatever they call it on Anderson. And definitely part of his plan. Were you surprised Anderson didn't take the bait?

I know, to be honestly, I mean, Nick on the ground, it's not even a, he's very weird, he's unconventional, jiu-jitsu kind of guy, and people that you can't really train for Nick on the ground because no one really does that kind of a game. So I think Anderson had a game plan and I think he stuck to it. I think his game plan was to stand with Nick, throw good punches, throw kicks, and I don't think he wanted to be on the ground at all. Were you concerned about Nick, you know, missing the flights on Tuesday and Wednesday coming

late. Were you worried that he wasn't into it? What was the reason for that from your perspective? He contacted me that night when he left the airport. He told me his reasonings and everything and why he didn't

get on the plane and what his plan was. He was never thinking of not fighting. And I know Nick, he's always he signs on that contract he's going to fight. He's going to show up to the fight. He's going to do the fight. without, you know, there's just issues. You've got people and you've got problems and, you know, there's a camera crew there.

And Nick wasn't prepared for that. He was really trying to just get into fight mode and rest and everything. And he didn't want to answer a bunch of questions. He didn't want to, like, have a spectacle of it at that point. Yes. He was trying to mentally get himself cured in. And he didn't know about it. He didn't know about the camera crew there.

Right. So they totally caught him off guard. He wasn't ready for it. And he was uncomfortable, and he wouldn't be able to rest. So he said, hey, I'm catching a different plane. And then he left. That's what happened. So that was the reason why he left?

Yes. But there is some, I mean, it definitely raised the interest in the fight, right? I mean, the buzz magnified after he did that. So it was kind of brilliant. Would you agree? Unintentionally brilliant. Yeah. It definitely a lot of people start talking about it.

some kind of national news and everything, but that is not the reason that did it. It literally, you know, he does things, I guess, for his own, like he said, his safety and well-being, and at the time, for his well-being, he didn't want to get on a flight. I wanted to ask him this question after the flight, but we ran out of time. He was talking about a certain coach that couldn't be with him

due to a miscommunication issue, and it seemed like it was Richard Perez, his longtime boxing coach, who has been in his corner so many times before, and wasn't there. Was that the person he was talking about? And can you shed any light as to why he wasn't there? Without, I mean, a little bit.

It was Richard Perez, and Richard Perez has a long relationship with a team. He's part of our team, and he's Nick's boxing coach. He's in a phenomenal job and everything. And maybe there was some miscommunication. I think there were people that were supposed to be handling certain things that were around Mick at the time. and for whatever reason, I don't know if he didn't want Richard there,

or I don't, you know, there was some kind of miscommunication with that. And I'd spoken to Rich about it. And I was kind of, you know, not happy that he wasn't going to be going to the show. But, you know, he's a great coach, and I'm sure he'll be working with these guys in the future. And what's your status with Nick now? Because you no longer manage him, right? Right. But you're still, are you still his head coach?

Is that accurate? that's that's what he said that's what yeah I'm this I've been his coach since he was 16 and uh you know it's kind of hard to to replace that right but were you with him the entire training camp I was with him part of the training camp at the end mostly you know not the entire training camp the people that were there are people that I've gotten there people that I've set up Joe shilling I brought him up um he's been with our camp ever since. We've got phenomenal jih Tjitsu guys like Kron and everything. We've got a just a bunch of good stand-up guys that have been brought into our camp

that kind of hung out with Nick and he worked out with. Last few weeks, he kind of asked me to come in and, you know, take over. So I was more than happy to do that. It just felt really good to be there with him. And, yeah, so without going, it's, you know, it is what it is. I'd like talk about the fight. I mean, I don't know. No, I'm just curious because you're a big part of his team,

so I'm just wondering why you weren't with him for the entire camp. The entire camp. Let's just say, I'll put it to you this one. I think every fighter or manager or anything in the world kind of knows what I'm talking about, that when there's a big fight and there's money involved and there's a lot of cameras and there's a lot of fame, everybody and their

brother is going to come into a camp or try to get into a camp or try to get in someone's ear and it's going to be problematic. It's not just obviously MMA but it's any big sport when there's a lot of fame and a lot of people

you know building you up and everything and you're going to get people that haven't been around for 10 years and they're going to be shown up and they're going to try to divide and conquer and that's kind of I think what happened with me I think it's kind of what happened with Richard Perez

and anybody else that is close with Mick Diaz is going to get people try to, you have to divide and talk. You've got to push the coaches away, and so you can be a coach. So you can be the guy doing something, is what I think happens. That's my personal opinion. And, you know, it's ruined a lot of people, but that's going to happen. You just have to work through it. What did you make of Anderson in the fight?

It had been a while since he competed. He had his arms up. He had his hands up the entire fight. We've never seen him like that. before. How would you assess his performance? I'm a big fan of this, number one. I like him as a person. I forgot to speak with him. And as far as his performance goes, I don't think he was really, he fought a fight that

he wasn't expecting that from Nick, I don't think. I mean, I think they looked at it. Okay, this is a perfect opponent to come back. He's a lot smaller than you. And he's going to fight this certain way. We're going to train for it. Look how we trained for. coach that was with the guy that, what's the same, the Brazilian guy, DeSahos that beat, uh, Luis Dorian. I think, yeah, I think, yeah, exactly. So that kind of, they kind of almost probably thought about it the same way, you know,

but they have to deal with Anderson, which is means he's going to have, he's not going to be doing takedowns. Right. It's the only difference. And they had a similar game plan maybe on the feet. And then Nick came out and, you know, just kind of completely changed everything that you would expect him to do, except for. maybe the taunting or something.

And I think it threw him off. So I don't think you, you know, he's getting a lot of criticism, Anderson is. Yeah. But it's not about Anderson so much, it's more about Nick's performance. Look, he was fighting. And I think he, he, afterwards in his thing, he said, hey, this is the first guy I thought that does everything well. Right.

That's what he said up there in a cage. He's like, this guy kicks hard. People don't think he punches. Anderson. He said, Nick punches hard. And I think Nick came out right away. and landed some shots, they got their respect of Anderson-Silva, and Anderson had to respect him the whole fight.

Do you think we'll see Nick fight again? Yeah, no, definitely. Another thing, too, about that fight, I just wanted to mention with that. You know, I mean, as far as, like, weight and everything like that, someone was asking me, Nick came into that fight at 190. He literally only gained five pounds from the way in. So that's how brilliant his performance was. He had to fight a guy that was, I guarantee well over 200 pounds.

And a guy that's fought these big guys, Chilsaun, and goes down the line and is able to deal with big guys. And Nick was a much smaller opponent when it came in there. And I kind of just, you know, I was going to be evident. I had to talk with him. I said, hey, man, remember back the day when you started this stuff and you're fighting and who the legends were and everything? And they never don't let that affect you, the weight thing, you know? and I think that's the mindset and the warrior mindset that Nick walked in there with. You asked me about him fighting.

Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, you know, let's face it, he's a fighter and he's going to fight. It's going to happen. And based on his performance, you know, he obviously hung in there, and a lot of people, you know, he thinks he thought he won the fight, but would you rather see him go down at 170 now to resume his career? Like, this was a fun fight and all, but do you think he's better served fighting at 170? I think a guy like him is better served doing big fights no matter where they're at. Okay.

Seriously, no matter where the fight is, even if he had to go down a lighter weight than even 170, I mean, he's going to, he wants big fights. That's what motivates them. I think that's what the Vedas guys did was they didn't look so much at weight classes, but they looked for the big fights that motivate them. And I don't want to see Nick go out there and fight some guy he never heard of. 170 or some up-income or it's like you don't even have that he's already passed all that that he deserves their respect of having big fights so it'd be great to get him personally you know

the best case scenario would have without a doubt would have been for him to gotten a nod you know went beaten Anderson Silva and then we'd be seeing nick Loller 2 and I think that would be a fan favorite I think that would be incredible that fight the build up to that would be so huge you know now not with Nick losing a decision that fight probably isn't going to be on the table. And, you know, I haven't spoken to Nick or who he wants to fight or anything like that. We haven't even gotten there.

But that's just my personal opinion. I would have loved to seeing something huge like that. If you have it your way, though, considering what did in fact happen on Saturday, is there anything that comes to mind what you would like to see for him next? Really, I haven't thought about it. Maybe, and I don't want to, you know,

I can only give you my opinion as a thing. because I'm not trying to set up a fight, but, you know, there's different avenues, you know, who wouldn't want to see, like, a Vittra Belford or something like that, fight Nick, or who wouldn't want to see Nick maybe beat a 170-pounder and then fight Loller, if that's what they have to happen, you know? There's different scenarios, I think, would be kind of fun. Okay, and just before I go, I just want to ask you, what is the state of your working relationship with Nate?

Because you weren't in his corner, right, in Phoenix. Will you be working with him in the future? Yeah, for sure. You know, like I said, there was just a lot of issues when people, you know, that kind of get involved in everything. Yeah. The relationship with Nate is just very good. We hung out a lot. And we haven't even gotten there.

I don't even know when Erez-Nate wants to fight soon or anything like that. He's got nothing on the table that I'm aware of. I don't know what, you know, we haven't even discussed it. So it's kind of a tough question for me. Okay. Why do you think after all these years that they are still, you know, top five most popular guys? in the UFC. People love the Diaz brothers. Why do you think that they still resonate with

the people the way they do? That's a, I appreciate you brought that question at Burrow, because I think the fans, you know, and I've said this over the years and people weren't really listening, and now they are, is that you have to have a fighter that wants to fight and not is not looking

on just, they're going to go in there and they're going to give heart and soul, win or lose, and it's kind of like what happened back in the day with pride where you want exciting fighters, and nothing against like a Carlos Conner or something like that, but there's a reason he doesn't have these big fights, you know, because with Dia, if he had that opportunity, it was supposed to be a dog fight, and then he kind of tried out point him. I'm just letting people know that sometimes you can win a battle, but you're going to lose a war. A war in your fighting career.

If you're going to fight a certain way, there's going to be repercussions because the fans want to see in this sport, you know, the warriors come out and just, you know, go up, go down, win, win, lose. that they're going to leave everything. They're going to try hard. And that's why I think they're so popular. Last question for you, because I said at the top, it's been a while since we've talked to you. And I follow you on Twitter, and I see you kind of pop in and out from time to time.

But what's your take on MMA these days? A lot more shows. You know, there's Belator coming up, UFC doing their things. But what's your take on the way the sport is going now? It's good and it's bad because there's a lot of money in it. I think it's good for the sport because these guys are starting to get paid what they should be, you know, getting closer to that. I think it's luring professional athletes like, you know, John Bones, Jones, people like that instead of playing football, maybe they do MMA and they're gifted athletic individuals.

And maybe they look at this as a viable option for an athletic career as opposed to a different sport. So that's the good part. I think also there's more the matches we want to see are happening. Also, there's a lot of watering down for sure because there's so many shows. I'm sure you've seen that. You're at them. And there's just a lot of fights that I don't care about. And I think other people don't care about.

And that's why these other guys, their household names, Sanders and Silva Diaz, you know, you go down the line. They're needle movers, if you will, like Dana said. Yes. Very well said. Caesar, great to talk to you again. I'm sorry things didn't go your way on Saturday, but it was good to see you back there with Nick, and I wish you the best of luck as always.

Thanks for the time today. Right on. Thank you guys. Take care. All right, there he is. Caesar Gracie stopping by in the trenches with his longtime student fighter, Nick Diaz, didn't go their way on Saturday. But as I said, it was good to see them back together then on Fight Week and on Fight Night as well.

All right, one more guest to go, and I'm happy. that we're ending on this note. This man has been by Anderson-Silva's side for a very long time, and in fact, after he broke his leg in the most gruesome way possible at UFC 168, he was literally by his side. And we'll talk about that and a whole lot more,

but I'm sure he was very emotional on Saturday night, seeing Anderson return and also seeing him win. Of course, I'm talking about his longtime friend and manager Ed Sauras, who joins us right now on the phone. Ed, how are you? I'm great, man. How are you guys? I'm great.

Thank you very much for the... time. Congratulations. We saw Anderson react in the most authentic way possible. I thought he broke down in tears. You weren't on camera at that moment. What was your reaction when the fight was over and they announced that he had won? I mean, man, I was, I was ecstatic. You know, watching, you know, when you're sitting there watching live, I mean, I definitely thought Anderson was ahead, but, you know, it's just, you're so emotionally invested in the fight. I was just, I'm a horrible judge when I'm emotionally invested in a fight. You know what I mean? I'm, I'm, I'm just like, I just don't know.

I have doubts. I don't know if I'm being biased. You know what I mean? But, you know, every time he goes to the judges, I, you know, I was always like, man, you know, once they announced, you know, 50, 45, 50, I was like a gift, you know, he won this fight. Did you have a feeling that he would react that way, that he would break down like that? No. I didn't know how he'd react.

You know, Anderson doesn't break down. I haven't seen him break down. like that in public very often. And, but it, you know, it was nice to just see him, you know, let his feelings go and really just break down. You know, I mean, there was a lot of, you know, only he knows how much pressure he had on him. He did go into something like that to think about that 13 months ago,

actually 13 months and three days ago, you know, it's a big, It's a big deal. He walked into the same arena where that accident happened and fought somebody. I mean, it was, you know, only he knows what he had to go through to get back there. Yeah, the arena part wasn't talked about that much going into it, but that's the most amazing thing. I mean, him coming back is tremendous, but to do it in the same place, it must have been kind of freaky just being back there for him.

What was his mindset? Like, like, on Fight Night, were you sensing? Because, you know, I will admit, watching him go to the cage, he wasn't doing a lot of dancing. He was doing a lot of breathing. I never seen him fight with his hands up like that for 25 minutes. It felt like he was, you know, he just wanted to get through it, and he was a little more tense than usual. Is that accurate?

Yeah, I think after he told me, he said that he did a lot of thinking about what got him and what started how he started his career. And I think he was thinking a lot about those sorts of things. So I do think he fought, you know, he fought the whole time with his guard up. Like, he should be doing the whole time. Sure. So I just think he was. was a little bit cautious and you just wanted to get through this and get some lean time in there

and get that victory and that's what he did and you know watching the fight there i can tell you i didn't enjoy it as much as i did when i watched it last night at my house and i got home um and i enjoyed the fight you know i mean at the moment when you're emotionally invested in the fight like like i am just you know and my friend and you know my it's just it it's sometimes it's not they're saying it as you may think. How would you assess his performance? Was that the old Anderson, or was that an Anderson who's almost 40 and hasn't fought in 13 months?

I think his performance is very well. I thought he had to perform very well considering everything. I mean, he went out there. He fought well, and Nick Diaz is not an easy. He got to finish. I think the last time he was finished when he was 19 years old. And he came back and beat that guy a few times since. I mean, fights have been stopped because of cuts before.

But as far as Nick Diaz being someone to finish, he hasn't been finished other than those times. So I think Nick was a tough guy to finish. Nick was a game opponent. And I think Anderson just wanted to, you know, get the rest off and go out there and perform. I thought he thought he, you know, he definitely won the fight hands down. And I think he won, you know, 50 to 45 or 49, 46. Neither one of those, I don't think, go wrong. You know, I mean, depending on how you looked at it.

I do think Nick could have potentially won one round, but I think the judging was pretty right on. Knowing Anderson like you do, were you surprised that when Nick was doing what he did in the first round, the trash talk, the antics, lying down, turning his back on him, were you surprised Anderson didn't try to one up him? because we've seen things of that nature from Anderson, and he was, you know, he was stoke-old.

He had no reaction. He just kept doing what he was doing. He kept fighting. He didn't try to go tip for tat. Were you surprised that that didn't get him off his game? No, I wasn't surprised. I knew that he went in with a very focused, you know, his mind was very focused on going in there

and putting on a performance and winning. So, no, that didn't surprise me. It would have surprised me if Anderson would have fell under that. Wow. Okay. Well, that's interesting. It was surreal watching that all in full. What were you thinking when Nick was doing that?

I was thinking, man, Nick Diaz has got some balls. I was thinking Nick Diaz got some balls. And, you know, my George, my business partner, you know, sent me the picture of him laying down. And the crazy thing is that when he was laying down, bro, for that split second he was laying down, Nick Diaz looked completely relaxed. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Like, he was just like just filling.

At the beach. It was like at the beach Yeah, just telling at the beach I mean that goes to show you that you know, Nick Diaz is a hell of a showman and a hell of a fighter and he's one tough guy, man. I have a world of respect for him.

I think he's a great guy. You know, I don't think that Nick meant to do that stuff. I think those are just the kind of things Nick needs to do to fire himself up in a fight because he wasn't disrespectful to Anderson and really during that fight. I didn't really look at that as disrespectful.

I think it's just different people have different ways of motivating themselves and that. And I believe that's just the way Nick needs to get motivated to get in there and scrap. Were you concerned at all that he might not show up after he missed those flights Tuesday, Wednesday? No, I wasn't concerned. No. I wasn't concerned. You know, Nick Diaz could do what he wants, but one thing you can always count on from Nick Diaz is he's always going to show up to fight and he always puts on a great fight. So, you know, I wasn't worried about Nick Diaz not showing up at all.

You know, before we brought you on to the show, I talked about you literally being by Anderson's side after UFC 168. You were sleeping right next to him when he was, you know, right out of surgery, right? Yes, I was. I was. I pretty much led out of the hospital. You know, he went into the hospital. When he went into surgery, I went back to the hotel. Right when he got out of surgery, he called me.

and I was going to go there the next morning, but I could tell he was kind of like, you know, you're not going to come until the morning, and then I said, no, I'll come right now. And I went over there, and there was a little recliner in the, uh,

in his hospital room. And that's where I slept for the next three days by his side pretty much. It was just you two in the room. As a matter of fact, just us too. Wow. And then, you know, visitors would come in and once for a while.

And I remember there, there was one part, one night, the first night, he had the, the pain medicine. you know, where he could punch, he could press the button once every, like, nine minutes or something for the pain medicine to go into his system. And what would happen is he'd fall asleep.

And when he'd fall asleep, he wouldn't be pressing the pain medicine. And then he'd wake up because he was in so much pain. And then he'd have to press it again. And the second night, you know, so he slept the whole night. And I literally was up the whole night every 15 minutes pressing the button for him so he could sleep through the night. Wow, man, that gives me goosebumps. That's like, you know, stuff that you see with a husband and wife or, you know, a couple. I mean, for you to, I know you've been with him and been through so much with him.

Did you think about that experience? You know, last week in Vegas, how far you guys have come and how it looked like at one time his career might be over? Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, we've worked together for a long time and we're more like family. than we are like, you know, client and him, you know, manager sort of a situation. We're more like family. So I'm like a brother to him. I almost feel like a big brother to him. We fight, we argue.

There's times where we don't get along, but at the end of the day, I love the guy, and he's part of my family, and I believe he feels the same way about us. Honestly, when you were sitting there with him and he had just come out of surgery, did you really think he would fight again? To be honest with you, those weren't even things that went to. through my mind if he would ever fight again. You know, I just wanted to make sure he was okay. He was the one that kept saying, when can I go train again?

You know, before he even went into surgery, he looked at the doctor and said, so after you do the surgery, when do you think I can train again? I mean, this is like literally an hour and a half after his leg broke. He's in the hospital. And the doctor saying, okay, we're going to go into surgery. And he's like, okay, well, after the surgery, how long until I can train? So it's like those thoughts of if you'll ever fight again never really went through my mind. Okay, so then let me ask you the question everyone wants to know the answer to.

And this was very interesting because I posted this picture on my Instagram and I said, is this the last time we ever see Anderson Silva fight? And then I'm just looking at the comments briefly. And there's Ed Sauras popping in in the comments section. It says, definitely not. That he will be back. Let's just give him some time. So you think 100% Anderson Silva will fight again?

Yes, I do think Anderson's a little fight again. I just think people just need to let him enjoy the moment right now. I mean, what he overcame in these past 13 months and him being able to go out there on the stage like that and perform the way he did. You know, speaking with my business partner, George, he told me to him that was one of the greatest shows he's ever seen. I mean, Nick Diaz going and laying down,

Nick Diaz is doing what he was doing, not only doing that, but doing that to Anderson, Silver, I mean, if you to lay down in a mixed martial hearts fight in the UFC, you got to have balls. You got to have balls. You bet against Anderson Silva?

Dude, you're an asshole, man. I mean, you, that guy, that guy's got balls. And you backed it up, man. He went out there, go to toe with him. So, you know, I got nothing but respect for Nick Diaz. And as far as Anderson Silva coming back, yes, Anderson will

be back, but I think right now, the most important thing is just to let him And, you know, just enjoy the moment and let him just embrace him overcoming everything he overcame in this past year and being able to put on the performance that he did. So why was he saying, you know, his kids and everything? Like, why does he not want to say it? But yet, you're so confident that he will come back? Well, I just believe that he will.

I'm so confident. I just think that he will. I mean, out of respect to his kids and I respect him, he has to talk to his family. I mean, and it's not that I'm so, I'm just saying you're asking my opinion. My opinion is, yes, I believe he'll be back, you know, and I just think right now he just needs some time to just enjoy the moment. You know, he went through a pretty heavy 13 months. Dana White said before the fight that if he wins, he'll get a title shot.

Would you like to see that happen? Do you think that he did enough to earn a title shot? And do you want to even see him if it is Chris Wyman as champion, see him fight again against Chris for a third time? You know what? I don't think, I don't think, well, especially the way the middleweight title thing, he is the number one contender. He's been the number one contender. And, you know, I guess whatever the UFC decides is what will happen. But I just don't think when you look at the timeline, you know, depending on when they're planning on Anderson coming back to fight, I just don't think it's going to work out for him to fight. fight for the title next. So I'm sure that they'll put the, you know, I definitely, you know, a top 10

contender up there for him to fight that, you know, in a perfect world, I mean, you know, we'd love to do another super fight to do a GSP fight would be awesome. Oh, yeah, I see now and they see I say that the only fight I want to see Anderson, that's the fight. They don't have belts attached. We've been talking about it for so long. I feel like this is the time. The time is now, as the UFC has been saying, to make that fight. I think, I think that GSP fight would be an incredible

fight and I definitely think that that would be the fight. If I could be the ultimate matchmaker and say which fight would I like to see, I'd like to see GSP versus Anderson Silva. I think that they're both towards the tail end of their career. They're two of the greatest

that have ever stepped foot in the octagon and that neither one of them have a title right now. So this would pretty much be the super fight that I mean that this would be the biggest fight I think of UFC history. be bigger than USC 100 if George St. Pierre and Anderson's over five. What do you think the chances of that happening are?

No, I have no idea what the chances are. I mean, that's a question for Dana, and maybe that's a question. You've got to ask George St. Pierre. Yeah. I definitely, I know that Anderson has all the respect in the world for George and Pierre, but I know that that's a fight that, you know, from a fan's perspective and from a business perspective, I think it's a fight that makes sense for everyone involved.

I know that Anderson and George would make it kind of money, and so with the UFC, it's just a win-win for everyone. Everyone would make a lot of money, and there'd be a lot of hype on that. Will you pitch it to the UFC? I don't think I need to pitch it to the UFC, man. I'm sure the U.S. would probably want that just as much as not worse than us. You know what I mean?

I think that if the U.S. could put that fight together, they would try to put that fight together. together, man. Do you think we see Anderson fight in 2015? Yeah, I do. Okay. I do think, I do think you're going to see, but you know, right now Anderson, they're already starting to film the Tough Brazil

today. You know, so he's got a pretty tight schedule, so he's going to be filming tough until probably the first week of March. And then he'll take some time off and and see what's next. you know, I definitely could see him

fighting again in the second half of this year. A couple more things than I'll let you go, and thank you very much for the time. Can you clear the air on the Machita story? Dana White said on Saturday that they offered Machita fight against Vitor Belford at UFC 184 in just a couple of weeks' time in Los Angeles. Machita said yes. Belfort said no. Is that your understanding?

That's my understanding. That is what happened. Dana called me and asked if Leota would be interested in that. Viotto would be interested in fighting Vitor Belfort on February 28th. And I said, I believe so, but let me just check with him real quick. I called Viotto, and before I could even finish the question, he basically said, yes, send me the bout agreement. And I called Dana back and told him, and he said, great, now I got to clear it with Vitor.

And then about 15 minutes later, Dana called me pretty pissed off, saying that, you know, Vitor didn't want to fight him and didn't want to accept. kept the fight and he said that he basically said he didn't want to fight him because he's been training for, you know, for, he wasn't preparing for a southpaw and he wouldn't have enough time to prepare for a south paw. And then about 20 minutes later, I text in and said, we'll tell, and I said, we'll tell Vitor that Leota will start every round with his left foot forward. Wow. And what do he say? Dana just put LOL.

So it's not happening. And it came from Leoto. I mean, he, uh, wow. He, you know, I mean, Leoto wanted that fight. Leota really wanted to fight an opportunity for him to fight for the interim title. Yeah. And then also to be able to face Vitor Belford. It was, uh, everything that, uh, Leota wanted.

They have a bit of a history, right? No, I wouldn't say they have a history as far as, and there's no negative or a bad blood. But when, when, when, when, when, When Vitor, when Liero didn't take that fight, I believe it was against John Jones, the short-notice fight, the UFC 152. He was on his way to Brazil for the grand opening of his academy, and when he didn't accept the fight in three weeks before that fight, Vitor did say something about, there's something in the anthem. Yeah, what is it that the anthem is? Yeah, yeah, there's a part of the anthem that says the son of Brazil doesn't run away from the fight.

Right. And basically, Vitor kind of put that out there, almost insinuating that Lioto was running from the fight. So that bummed out Lioto. So, you know, in a roundabout way, Lioto now is kind of feeling, well, what happened to the son of this country? He's running from this fight. Wow. So right now it's not happening, and it's just back to the Rockhold fight in April for Liotto, right? Yeah, from what we know, that's what it is, and that's exactly what's happening.

Okay, and last thing before I let you go, this weekend, quiet weekend in MMA, except for RFA. RFA 23, right? The stage is yours. RFA 23 in Orange County, yeah, a busy few weeks for me, man. I'm still not, I still not recovered from this past week. But yeah, we've got to fight Friday night. We'll be live on access, and it's going to be in Orange County. Well, why should people watch it? Give us the sell.

Put the promoter hat on. Well, I think people should watch RFA because that's where the best talent, the best future stars are being made right now. And we've got a pretty action-packed card. We've got our main event. We got Joe Murphy versus Terrienne Ware, who's, that's going to be for like a number one contender bout in the 135 pound division. We got Joe Henley fighting Gabriel Checo as the co-main event,

and we just got a pretty action-packed card. And, you know, that's one thing about our cards is there's always a lot of action and a lot of great fights. Is that like winning the lottery when you get a card on a weekend where there's nothing else, no Belletor, no UFC, no World's, there's literally, as far as televised MMA, unless I'm forgetting something, but I don't think I am. all eyes are on you. That's very rare these days.

Yeah, it is rare. And, you know, I don't know if it's necessarily like getting the lottery. It's just, you know, it's great, though. It's great that we can have that stage and people can get the opportunity to watch, you know. Friday night, like I said, you know, you always, you don't have access TV, which is unfortunate because I'd really like to, I'd really like to, you to watch or at that. least be able to make it to one of our events sometimes. I promise you before my days are done, I will be there.

But yes, if you can put in a good word with Mark Cuban to get us access TV in the New York area, that would be great, because I'm missing out and I want to watch. I see the highlights. I can say that I don't think it's up to Mark Cuban. I think that you need to put in a good word to your cable provider and tell us they need to get access TV. I will do that. And I recommend everyone else in New York who is watching or listening, does that as well. And I'm very happy for you guys.

What a scene it was in Las Vegas. I know it was emotional for everyone. It was very cool seeing everyone, except for you and your partner, George, wearing those outfits. Very intimidating, by the way, I thought, those outfits on Thursday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wasn't...

Yeah, I would have paid good money to see you and George wear those outfits, by the way. But I understand why you didn't. Very happy. Congratulations to you... It didn't fit right. Yeah, exactly. Congratulations.

see you and the team, and I look forward to what's next for Anderson. Hey, thanks a lot, and good luck this Friday at RFA 23. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, there he is, Ed Soros, stopping by. RFA 23, by the way, is this Friday, and it's on Access TV. It's in Costa Mesa, California. I believe the main card kicks off at 10 p.m. Eastern Time. All right, that does it for our interviews.

We still have some time. we did start a little late, but all of that is forgotten. No technical difficulty since we actually officially started the second version of today's show. So I'm very happy about that unless I miss something, but I don't think I missed anything. Let's regroup. Let's go inside the vault. We didn't show an inside the vault last week because we ran out of time. This week we have a little more time. So let us go inside the vault.

And since we're talking about Anderson Silva, let us go back to May, I think it was May 26th, May 26th, It was Media Day in Las Vegas. UFC 114 fight week. Anderson Silva was there to see his good friend Antonio Hoseerio Noggera. Prepare for a fight against Jason Brill's. Remember that fight somewhat controversial? Littlenog won the fight, but a lot of people thought Jason Brill's who took the fight on short notice should have won. It was a fun fight.

Interesting card headline by Rashad Evans versus Quentin Jackson. I spoke to Anderson at that media day. We were just what? a month and change removed from UFC 112, Bizarre show, Damien Maya fight. And if you compare also, you know, Anderson Silva, that UFC 112 to the Anderson Silva, who we saw in the Post-Fite press conference, humble, you know, down to earth, emotional, talking about his family, is a totally different guy, and it was great to see on Saturday. But remember back then in 2010, he was public enemy number one.

Everyone was pissed at him because of what he did against Damien and also the fights against Talas Laitis and Patrick Cote. So this was the first time we've seen him. since. Chale Sunnan was lurking. That fight was going to happen and then Anderson was trying to kind of regroup and get back on people's good side. So we spoke to him

at the media day and we even danced with him at the end of the interview. Very memorable stuff. Anderson was in rare form that day so I thought it would be fun to look back at that interview. Fight Week, UFC 114, May of 2010. Here's my interview with Anderson Silva inside the vault.

Ariel Hawani in Las Vegas, Nevada with the UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva who's turning the tables on me here but you're holding the mic very high Anderson it's almost like up my nose how are you Anderson I'm fine I'm fine let's do this thing here for the fight my friend uh... Rogerio I'm happy I'm so happy I do sense that you are very happy you're you're signing autographs you just have a huge smile on your face why are you so happy? Hey the people is love UFC is my house I love the people, I love my fans. You like interacting with the fans?

Yeah, I love it. Do you feel as though this is something that you need to do more of, especially after what happened in your last fight and some of the comments that you received from the fans? Not by the mal-intended, it's because they're mercees my attention. Just for this, but not by the mal-entened. I think what happened in the fight is a thing that happens. Yeah, you know, I'm not here interming with the fans

because of the misunderstood fight that I had last time. It's just simply because they deserve it. They're here. You know, their fans, they pay for the pay-per-view, and sometimes the fans don't understand exactly what's going on inside the Octagon. Unfortunately, they're used to seeing a knockout, and sometimes they can think that you can knock them out whenever you please, but it just doesn't work that way.

You have a strategy. This is a sport. It's a dangerous sport, and you've got to make sure to go in there and protect yourself. My strategy was done. I fought all the way to the end and completed my strategy, but sometimes, you know, the fans I understand, they pay to see a knockout, they pay to see a big finish, but sometimes it doesn't happen.

So that said, do you feel as though there are misconceptions about you in the MMA community? Do people not know the real Anderson Silva? Ah, with certain. With certain. I'm a person super tranquil. I adore all those my fans. The contrary to that many people think that I'm not so humble, I'm very humble. I think I didn't get to here today for them being my fans and me tratling with this carring

that they're not being used. So, it's a lot. He says, you know, I do think a lot of fans have misunderstood me. You know, I said, you know, I've worked my butt off to get here. I'm a very humble person, even though some people didn't think I haven't been humble, but I wouldn't have gotten to where I've gotten if I wasn't humble. So, you know, I just work hard every day and just trying to do the best that I can. And, you know, that's what we'll see.

I'm always here to get better, so. What is your relationship like with Dana White these days? How about your relation with Dana White? I hope that's good I don't see him I'm going to see him now I don't see him

even but I hope it's good it's good not patron what is he says well I hope it's good I haven't seen him

I'm gonna see him over the next couple days and that's when he said it's all good right Dana we're good well then can you tell us

what he said to you after UFC 112 because I don't know about you but being next to my boss with him looking that mad at me I would feel uncomfortable and I would almost be afraid

to talk to him so what did he say to you and how did you respond when he said what he had to say. After the press conference there in Abu Dhab, what he said with you

there was a lot in the quarter? Because he said, if I was with my chef on the side of me with that kind of a highva, I would be worried

in what he would say what he said. Anderson, I love you. I'm sure he did. Okay, just a couple more questions before I let you go. Good answer.

Chale Sunnan, your next opponent in August in Oakland, he has said a lot of things about you. saying these things for a long time. He's called you a fraud. He's attacked your character and your credibility. Have you taken any of the things that he's said to heart? Has it bothered you? He said, he said that he said many of the things that he's talking about. He said many

things that. He said about you as a person, with your credibility, that you're false, that is that is that? That's affecting you? No. Nothing. Nothing. Well, he says he's going to be the man that he's, he's, he's, he's going to be the man that he's, He's going to figure you out. He's the one that's going to bring the fight to you and beat you.

Do you feel as though he brings anything to the table? Is he a true test to you? He said he's talking that he's the guy who will discover how to save this kebra-the-cabre-cabre that you are, and that he will save the solution to gain of you. It's fine. It's okay. No problem. You will solve this problem in August.

Is there anything you want to say to him, though, because he addresses you a lot, and you never really respond to him. So is there anything you'd like to say to him with a month and a half away from the fight now? You love him. I love it. Guy talked, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But going inside the ring in Octagon is different. Will you go into that fight with a different mindset to sort of prove all your doubters wrong?

No, I don't have to prove anything. I think the most fans know how I am. I, as a lotator, no, I don't have nothing to prove anything for Shailson, or any, for any, for any, for any, for any, for any other other,

I think the people, some, you know, every fighter is going to have, you know, he's getting his opportunity now to step up and, you know, fulfill a dream of his, and, you know,

there's a lot of fighters out there that are frustrated fighters that say a lot of things that aren't, are untrue, they just try to hype the fight. But he's going to have his opportunity on August 7th, and, you know,

A lot of people talk. We'll see what happens. Okay, final question. Who is tougher? This man? Or this man? Let me check. It's the Anderson Silva toy. You ready? You ready? Go. This guy is...

This is the man. And finally, I've always appreciated your dance moves. Can we see it? I mean, I've seen the Michael Jackson homage. You've done it before. You've danced in the Octagon. Can we see you dance just for a couple seconds here? Look at all these fans. want to see Anderson Silva dance. They want to see you dance, Anderson Silva. Give him a little Michael Jackson. Billy Jean is... You dance together me? Sure. There you go.

Thank you. There he is. Anderson Silva, the UFC middleweight champion. There he goes. Classic stuff. How many people can say they dance with the greatest of all time? That was memorable, and it was great to see Anderson back. It was a surreal thing seeing him back 13 months later in the same arena and seeing him at the post-fight press conference was really cool as well. Alone, very reflective, very humble speaking about his family. He has come a long way. And my friends, I have been at a lot of tense Anderson Silva press conferences, Abu Dhabi, Montreal. I mean, those are just a couple. And this was completely different. It was great for him. And let's see. I vote for the GSP fight and that's the only fight.

I don't really care to see him fight in any kind of fight. If that doesn't happen, I think he he's done enough, what's the point? And I also want to see Nick Diaz. I think Nick did a lot better than most people thought. In fact, let's ask our own New York Rick what he thought, because last week, Eric, you said, I mean, you kind of implied that it was going to be a very one-sided fight. And it was, if you look at the scorecards, 50 to 45, 49, 46, that's one-sided, but it didn't feel as one-sided as those scorecards would suggest.

Would you agree with that? Did he do better than you thought he would? Um, I suppose. I suppose, yes. You know what? That's not giving him enough credit. He did do better than I thought he would, but I think it was more indicative of Anderson Silva not looking the same way Anderson Silva always looks and Nick Diaz not looking the same way Nick Diaz always looks.

Anderson was not as aggressive in the openings that Diaz was opening for him. He wasn't capitalizing on them as we are typically using. to seeing him do and Diaz wasn't as forward charging as he usually is now don't get me wrong certainly he was the aggressor in terms of controlling the the movement in the cage and and where the fight took place uh on the feet where he was he was the one pressing the action forward but he he's typically throwing more combos and and much more aggressive with his boxing uh than he was in that fight so I'd say it was surprising from both of them. DS probably did better than I would have thought he would have done,

but it still wasn't a competitive fight, in my opinion. I said that the first round was one of the most entertaining first rounds that I've ever seen. I loved it. You implied before. It was so much fun. Now, you used the word best. Best.

I'll go with best. I loved it. I had a huge smile on my face. I loved every second of it. Entertaining? Sure. best? No. You didn't love that? I mean, did you really expect Nick to do that?

No one did. No, I didn't expect Nick to do that. And then for him to pull that stuff off. And it was actually, I mean, you look at the action. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't the daily Diaz, but it wasn't stall. Yes, it wasn't daily Diaz. That's, that's end of, full stop. Period. No, but this was something else. When you, when you consider the fact that we never really thought those two would be in a cage together, when you consider the fact that Nick essentially retired, you consider the fact that Nick essentially retired, you consider the, you consider the, fact that Anderson had injured his leg like that. And then Nick comes out with that kind of stuff, oh, man. I could have watched that round a hundred times. Just give me that first round for five, you know, rounds, if you know what I'm saying, 25 minutes, and I'd be the happiest guy. I love that. That was so much fun. How do you not appreciate that? It was entertaining, but I, you know,

that wasn't really. He does have, and we didn't need that first round to confirm that Nick Diaz has huge balls, but holy moly. The guy has huge balls. Yeah. And credit to Anderson as well, right? Credit to Anderson for not playing into it, not taking the bait. That was equally as impressive, in my opinion. Yeah, he was not sucked in by

the antics. Do you want to see both fight again? Oh, of course. Anderson, I'm kind of on the same page with you. I'd like to see. I don't necessarily want him to compete in the same way that, you know, somebody else in the division is just competing to climb their rankings and get the belt. But I would have no problem seeing Anderson compete again against, you know,

George St. Pierre or a similar high-profile fight. To me, it's George robust. Do you disagree? No, I'd be okay with seeing him in a few other fights. But that's the one I want to see the most. And then Nick, I'd watch Nick versus anybody because he'll make it entertaining against anybody. It doesn't matter who. I really felt for Nick when he said, I'm tired of being a loser. And he's, you know, he's fought really tough guys. Anderson, George. Carlos' last three fights, I definitely think he can hang with the best, especially if he gets sort of his training camp in order. Like, just, you know, I think he needs to maybe take a step back just to regain his confidence a little bit. But I'm just saying, like, Nick versus

Tarrick Safedine, let's say, a guy like that. Perfect, right? That's the other thing. This was a fight at 185. Right. Let's see Nick at 170. Right. And back to 170 against, like, a Matt Brown, Safedine, Maya kind of guy. Sign me up. We need Nick Diaz. We need more of Nick Diaz. Like, the UFC needs Nick Diaz. What he's, he's, what he's. What he's, he's, he did this past week, and I know it was unintentional, but what he did to elevate that fight, I mean, let's be honest, I felt burnt out. I felt the fans felt burnt out. You know, like Monday, Tuesday, we weren't treating Nick Diaz versus Anderson Silva like it was Nick Diaz versus Anderson Silva. Like when it was announced, remember when it was announced? People were losing

their minds. But after, you know, three fights in January, three very big fights, big cards, a lot of attention on them, this coming at the end, Super Bowl week, it just felt like it was kind of here. and it needed to be here. It was at a six or seven and it needed to be at a 10 because it was such a big deal. And then him not showing up was promotional brilliance.

Now, was it unintentional? Was it intentional? I think Caesar, I mean, he did do, I don't know if you saw the scrum on Thursday. He did the old Dr. Evil thing. Yeah.

Who knows? But whatever it is, it was brilliant. And he deserves more of a bonus than he was going to get for just doing that. The, the, The MMA world needs Nick D.S.

They do. And the other thing I wanted to say about that before we move on, I feel uncomfortable and it really bothers me, especially when that was happening on Wednesday and Tuesday when he was kind of MIA a little bit. I mean, we need to recognize the fact. I don't think he's doing it on purpose per se, but, you know, if you just look at Nick and have watched him enough,

clearly he has some kind of social anxiety, I don't think he should be the butt of our jokes. You know, this is a real thing. And even last week in Canada, it was very much in the news. It's a real thing. I think we need to lay off the guy a little bit. And even if, you know, someone like me, media,

like I think we just need to recognize that this is a guy who was born to fight. That's what he does. And I know it's part of his job. But there's some anxiety involved there. And it's not a joke. It's really not a joke. You know, when someone checks into a flight, goes through security, has his bags go on the plane and go to his destination and then leaves.

That's a real thing. You know, that that's something that should not be joked about. and I wish people would lay off a little bit when making those one-liners and zingers on social media and whatnot. But I definitely want to see him fight. I think that would be great. I know people have questions and comments.

There's a lot I want to get to that I wanted to get to at the beginning of the show, but let's see if people touched on them, and if not, I'll quickly touch on them at the end. All right. First question. We answered this a little bit. Would you like to see Anderson Silva fight again,

or do you think he should retire on a win if he was to fight again, who do you think makes sense for him? Seems like the timing would be perfect for the GSP fight, but if GSP wasn't to return, then who would be a good opponent? To me, it's GSP or bust? If GSP doesn't come back, I'm cool with him walking away. That's it. Nobody else.

That's it. I don't really care about anybody else. I don't care. I mean, clearly he can fight. I mean, the guy that is not a bum, but what's the point at this point? I gotcha. It was a great way to come back, 40 years old, family man, leave it at that. Was Anderson versus Diaz round one the most entertaining round ever?

Ha ha. Who I like this guy? Taskmaster X. It's up there. Ever? I don't know. That's getting a little crazy. Well, don't back off now.

Don't back off now. Take it. I didn't say it was... Run with it. Look, I loved it. Everything about it. I had the pleasure of watching that first round. Everything about it?

Everything. The fighting part of it? Everything. Every single thing of it. I had the pleasure of watching that with the uber talented Will Fox. You know, will, right? Yep, photographer for Greg Jackson's camp down there. Well, not

really. He actually works for the UFC. He's evolved. And he does a lot of the great behind-the-scenes stuff for them. Anyway, we were watching in the arena, and that was the only fight I watched in the arena because I was backstage. And I just, I loved every second of it. And it was like seeing

the best way I could describe it, a real-life video game. You know, UFC undisputed come to life. It was so much fun. Nick lying down, and actually, I must apologize to Mark Romundi, I think he did twerk. The buttocks went in and out. I mean, I think that's officially a twerk.

So it was amazing. And there was some action. It was great. I loved it. Loved it. And just coming up with his hands up, awesome. Give me more. I disagree.

Next question. Who do you want to see Nick face next? I would love to see him against Condit. It would be an awesome rematch. And if he wins, he could fight the winner of Lawler versus Hendricks, assuming Hendricks wins against Brown. Wouldn't it be great to see Lawler versus D.S. two and this time for the title, and wouldn't it be even greater, if McDonald wins against Lombard,

and he's still not getting the shot because of the bigger draw this time is Nick Diaz. Well, that wouldn't be so great. Yeah, I don't like that part. That's kind of a dick comment. I think Rory deserves it right now. That being said, sure, Condit. I love that. Lawler.

I don't know about Lawler. He's a champion. So? Well, he's lost three in a row. Let's get him back on track. He's a prize fighter. No, no, no. Rory deserves it.

Let's not pretend that UFC title shots are granted. That doesn't mean we have to take part in it. I mean, we have to endorse it. I think it would be a competitive fight. Sure. I wouldn't count. But there has to be. I think the days of giving people title shots coming off, losses should be over.

So, you know. I hope so. Matt Brown. If he beats Hendricks, awesome. If he doesn't get the title shot. Because I think Roy should get the title shot. Condit, awesome. Safadeen, awesome.

Damien, Maya, awesome. Give me any of those guys. Dung Young Kim, just let him get back on track. I don't know if those are the kind of guys that are going to, quote, unquote, get his juices flowing. Exactly. That's for all my fans out there. But you get what I'm saying.

He should still be fighting. Yeah, but is he going to want to take those fights? Yeah, that's the thing. That's the thing. Our next question, Al Ayakinta. Yes. Is Al finally going to start getting some respect in the lightweight division? Who would be a sensible matchup going forward?

Does he get a top 15 guy? A top 10 guy? I would love to see Eddie Al. Alvarez versus Al, that fight would be awesome. Tremendous performance. He called it. Ray Longo called it. They were very confident. They thought they'd beat him up. Joe Lozahn on the feet, and they did. Fight went on too long, but at least they did stop it when they did.

Credit to Joe Lozong for not complaining about the stoppage. That is a very impressive performance, and that's two in a row and three finishes in a row. But the last two in particular, Ross Pearson and Joe Lozahn, super impressive. Now, where does you go from here? I mean, it was brought up, Masvedal. you know, he's not in the top 15. He should be now, I think. Mazvedal is without an opponent.

It's East Coast fight, Virginia. Mazvedal was supposed to fight. Benson, do that one. That's the one. It's a great fight. Yeah. Save for, you know, diving into a submission against Mitch Clark, he would have been on a seven-fight winning streak

because he was pretty much beating Mitch Clark pretty easily. That could be the turning point, right? That could be what brought him to this level. They screwed up. I think he just messed up and I think he was already kind of showing the signs that he was at this level.

It's finally time. Let's give him a rank guy. I think he's earned it. The time is now. No. No. I will not participate in that. Carmelo Anthony said the time is now yesterday

in an interview. It's catching on everywhere, like wildfire. How about what's next for Joe Lozon? This person likes a fight with Nate Diaz. I think this has the potential to be a really fun fight, both like to stand and trade and both are wizards on the ground. Both are also coming off losses.

What do you guys think about a potential matchup? I love it. It's fun. It actually makes a lot of sense, too. Nate Diaz is ranked 14, which I think is, I think, yeah, I think that's wrong. But it's because he dropped because he was inactive and taken off. I love it. Sign me up.

That's great. Fun fight. Yeah. Jordan, me in. By the way, I'd like to see Joe take a break after that kind of damage in a fight, but at some point, yeah. This person was really impressed by Jordan Mian up until the kick. What do you guys think is the ceiling for him, top 10, top five championship potential? And who do you like to see him fight going forward?

They suggest Gastilum, Don Young Kim, Rick Story, those all sound like good matchups. Well, definitely not Gasolum because he's going to 185 now. Definitely top 10. He was on the cusp of that. It's so unfortunate because he looked so good. That would be a huge win for him. I think he just got cocky, honestly. Where did that rolling thunder come from?

What was that? Yeah, that part was a little, you know, weird and out of character. He got kicked right after, like the second later. But, you know, it was one round. Let's not, you know, turn this into a situation where, you know, Tiago pulled out the miracle upset. It wasn't anything like that. He dropped, Tiago dropped a round, and in the second round, he got him.

Um, that that's not to say that Jordanian didn't look good in the fight up until that point, but it was one round. And he did, but he did look, he did look good. I think he's worthy of, you know, uh, high level competition. And I think he's proven that his striking is among the best. But I think there's this tendency to think because he's young that he's not, that he hasn't reached his potential. I think, you know, at a certain point, the, the number of fights matters.

And I think this, I think this matters in when we're talking about people on the, the tail end of their career. you know, and people who start their careers late, the accumulation of fights, the accumulation of damage is what dictates your career. And Jordan's been in there quite a bit. I don't think he has this unlimited potential that some people think he has because he's 25 years old. Having said that, I think where he's at at 25 years old is pretty damn impressive. And I think he's ready to face top-level competition.

So I'd like to see, I'm okay with any of these. If Gasolam was still in the division, I'd like that fight. I like Stung Gunn. I like Rick Story. I think there's a lot of matchups out there for him because he hasn't faced all these guys, and Walter waits so deep. So I'd like to see him in pretty much any highly ranked fight. And I think he looked great on Saturday night up until that point.

I do think that he got a little cocky, and he shouldn't have, obviously. He did look amazing in the first round. And, you know, just... By the way, was he wearing mesh shorts? It looked like it. Look like he was just wearing amazing basketball shorts But I did see I did see

Pictures of him On Fight Week Doing the photo shoots And he was wearing those same shorts So it wasn't like a Cody McKenzie thing Oh boy There was the logo of his school

You know and all that In Lethbridge Alberta Canada So yeah I mean You're 100% right 39 fights now At some point You know

The proof is in the pudding I still think he could go a little further Maybe evolve a little bit more but yeah, you bring up a great point. You know, the name that came to mine, I don't know if I love the Rick Story Fight because he is coming off of a great win. They're right next to each other.

They're both coming off disappointing losses. Jordanian against Gunner Nelson. Ooh. I think that could be interesting. That would be interesting style matchup. I like that. So, let's see. Yeah, that's a great one.

Flyweight title picture. Linnaker is now being forced up to 135. Should Demetrius Johnson wait for the matchup with Dodson or take on a first. fresh contender like Horaguchi. I don't like the fact that Horaguchi says he doesn't want the title shot. You never want anyone in there who doesn't want a fight. But that being said, I would love to see DJ get in there sooner rather than later.

Of course, if for family reasons he doesn't want to fight, then that's his prerogative. The fight I really wanted to see next was the McCall fight because I think that he would have brought out the best in him and there was some history there. Dodson coming off a pretty big injury. I'd like to see him get one in before the. title fight to get back in the mix. So Horo Gucci's the only guy. There's no one else.

You wanted to see McCall versus Johnson more than Leniker versus Johnson. Yes. Why? We saw it twice. Well, the first time he was, in my opinion, if he didn't show boat, he could have finished that fight.

McCall. Right. He had his back and started messing around. And then it should have gone to a fourth round. So who knows what would have happened there. So I kind of view that one as a wash. And then the second fight, you know, it was dominant, but because of what happened in the first, I'd rather see a third fight there.

I think he has a better chance of beating Demetrius than Linnaker does. I think Demetrius is a lot quicker than Linnaker and would just, I mean, obviously, Linneker has great punching power and he's a solid boxer. I see Demetri's beating him. And I love the fact that there's someone there who will talk some smack with Demetrius and elevate him a little bit because he keeps fighting these faceless supporters. opponents that are doing nothing for him. And even though he may not want to admit it, he needs that.

He needs that in his career. For the same reason, we talked about, you know, with Aldo and McGregor and Chale, and he needs that. And McCall is that guy for him right now. Dotson could be that guy, but I'd like to see Dotson get one fight in and then have that fight. I think Dotson's for sure that guy. Well, I think McCall's a better trash talker.

McCall's a better trash talk than Dotson. Both fights are cool with me. To be honest, I don't think, you know, any amount of trash talk is really going to bring that division. to the forefront. It's just the case. If Connor McGregor was 1.125, it doesn't matter. Trash talk is trash talk, in my opinion.

Yeah, but none of those guys are Connor McGregor. But what I'm saying is... And Connor McGregor is a 145 or knocking people out. No, if Connor McGregor was doing the exact same thing at Flyweight, people would feel differently about the Flyweight division. It's just that no one has been doing it. No one has been trying to elevate that division. I just don't think that there are guys like that.

Connor McGregor is... But you get what I'm saying, I'm saying it has nothing to do with the weight, which I think a lot of people are... It does have to do with the weight. It does have to do with the weight. 145 is a very, very different division, and there is knockout power, and there are... There's not a delineation where, oh, 135 is the cutoff of exciting fights and 145. But 145 is an exciting division.

You still see knockouts. People like fighters that size. 125 just isn't drawing with people. and, you know, if there was a guy like Connor McGregor who was at 125 knocking everybody out and talking all that smack, then certainly people would be paying more attention. But there isn't that guy, and I don't think there can be that guy at that weight, and especially not against a guy like Demetrius who's able to control the flow of a fight so spectacularly. It's not going to likely end in a knockout against Demetrius because of the way he just controls action.

Now, Dodson is going to have the best chance to do that. But I just think that in that weight class, it's going to be very tough for somebody to come along like a Connor McGregor, even if they had the potential, which I don't think that, you know, Connor McGregor is a one of a kind. It's just different. It's two full weight classes above. Yeah, but again, I respectfully disagree. I get what you're saying. But what I'm saying is if there was a guy with his abilities. on the mic and in the cage,

I don't think that people would be saying what they say about the fights. There isn't that guy. I agree, there isn't that guy. But I'm just saying, you know, a magical world, if Connor just happened to weigh 125, I do think people would get excited about it. And let's not forget, Linneker, you know, since, when was it? 2013, it's been like almost two years.

His last few fights, Gashimov, round two, TKO. Jose Maria, round two, TKO. Well, this is right. I'm surprised. This is why I asked you why you'd rather see McCall. I'd rather see Linneker 100 times out of 100. That's fair. But my point of bringing that up, and also, you had a couple other finishes is I think you can't finish. Look what Demetrius did to Benavides, what he did against Moraga.

Yeah, there can be finishes, but overall. It's just not involved. The way class is 2000 and, you know, it's 155 in 2002. It just, it's not, there isn't the talent pool, you know. Yeah, that's fair. But I'd rather see Linneker versus Demetrius. I wish we could see it. I'm, you know, the McCall thing is great, and I just don't think there's that much beef there.

I think they can play it up, and it'll, you know, it'll get more heated, come, you know, as the fight draws near. But I just think I'd rather, I would have, now that it's not an option anymore, I would have rather seen Lindekerer versus Demetrius. And then above that, under any circumstances, whether it's, you know, the first fight back from injury, the fifth fight back from injury, I'd rather see Dodson versus Demetrius. Yeah, I mean, if Linneker. won and he did and made weight, I would be, you know, very much okay with that fight. Sucks that he has to go up, stupid.

With both Linneker and Gasolam, only being offered bantam weight and middleweight fights respectively, who fits the bill for this weekend's weight missers? They propose Mitch Gagnon versus John Lineker and Tim Boch versus Kelvin Gasolam for somewhere in that packed April schedule. I don't know. I hate the idea of both of the guys at higher weight classes.

I wish that, you know, I don't know, they could somehow figure it out, go back with Dolce and C. Because, you know, say what you will about Doche and you know, some people don't like him because, you know, he's a great promoter. But the work speaks for itself. He's never had a guy miss weight. I wish we could see one last chance. And maybe that's selfish of me, but both guys should be at that weight class. I mean, what I was told about Lineker was he just stopped in the middle of the day. He just said, I'll forfeit the person.

That's it. I'll deal with the consequences. See, then you have to go up. It's just unacceptable. You cannot do that. It's totally unacceptable. It just, I hate the idea of them fighting it as a fan because I feel like we won't see their potential, especially Gasselm. Here's why I hate the idea of them moving up.

Because I think they're probably going to miss that way, too. It's possible. Look at Rumble. I think that this is a self-control thing. This is not an issue of the number. The number is not magical. If they were properly prepared and planned for that number, they would have done it. Dolce is undefeated.

He gets his guys on weight. He always does. You know, it would look close with Johnny Hendricks at one time, but the guys will make weight if Dolce gets, if Dolce is involved. And this thing is, is, Linneker himself continues to say, it's a mental thing. Yeah, it is a mental thing. He doesn't have the self-control to make 125.

And I think that by moving that number 10 pounds higher, all that does is allow him a new number. number to not respect and, you know, not make weight for. Now, that's the number I'm shooting for, and I'm going to miss that by five pounds. So I don't love it because I don't think that they're going to necessarily benefit from moving up in weight and necessarily even be more inclined to make weight, to be honest. Same thing happened with Rumble. Yeah, the proper thing to do here is to make sure they make weight for the divisions that is best suited for their bodies and, you know, where they'll be competitive size-wise. But, you know, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

There's monetary reasons for that not to happen. There's, you know, there's all kinds of things for that. But it just feels bad and it's super unprofessional. And the whole idea of weight cutting for the sport is, you know, something that needs to be addressed. Yeah, Gasselm fighting felt a little weird after being hospitalized and all that. Certainly. I mean. Does anyone talk about Woodley?

I think yes. Okay, okay. Yep, here, right here. Yeah. Very interesting perspective. Tyrone Woodley got more than another big win on Saturday night. He got a huge PR boost for fighting Kelvin Gasolam who weighed 10 pounds more than he did on Way and Day and for declining his 30% cut of Kelvin's purse.

While I think there's no doubt that he's a class act and he's serious about finally getting his shot at the Walter Weight Belt, surely it's a no-brainer to accept a fight against the guy who had badly missed weight to the point of mid-cut hospitalization. Surely there's no one weaker than someone who has pushed their body to the brink and had to be put on an IV drip to regain normal body function. Am I missing something? That's a weird perspective. I respect it, but here's the bottom line. That contract said, welterweight fight, 170 pounds,

limit 171. Tar and Willie doesn't know what's going on behind the scenes with Gaslim. I mean, we may know, and who knows, you know, as Mike Dolce said, smoke and mirrors, he doesn't know what's going on. All he knows is that Kelvin Gasol weighed in at 180 and was there standing in front of him. You know, he doesn't know if he's playing possum,

whatever it is. So if I'm him, I'm super pissed. That's not even 172. It's 180. That's a big difference. That's closer to middleweight than it is welterweight. So if I were him, I mean, I would have been super pissed. And the fact that he didn't take his money, I mean, man, what more can you say about the guy?

An amazing role model in Ferguson, what he's done in that community. Every time he comes on the show so well-spoken, he gets it, he understands it. And then to say, you know what, I don't want this kid's money. I mean, Woodley is a family man. is another kid coming along, he could have taken that money and ran with it. 99.9% of fighters out there could and should take the money. That's part of the game. For him to say no is an unbelievable thing, and he should be commended for that alone. He didn't have to take that fight. He shouldn't be pressured to take that fight.

That was very much, you know, that was very much his call. And he made the call that he made, and good for him. He won the fight. He deserved to win that fight, in my opinion. But I don't understand the perspective of saying, you know, he's fighting a guy who's on, you know, the brink of, you know, collapsing and all this stuff, he doesn't know what's going on. All he knows is that a guy weighed in at 180, his contract said 171. So he's well within his rights to question that and even walk away. If we're going to start taking fights at any weight class, 20%, 30% doesn't matter, then what the hell is the point of having weight classes? This game is two, and if Gaslam wins in two years, in one year, no one

will remember that. They'll just say Taran Woodley on a two-fight losing streak, and they'll use that against him, and we've seen that happen. So he did everything the right way, and he should question that, and I would have had nothing bad to say about him if he said no. Yeah. Here's what it comes down to. Not only did Kelvin miss badly for this one, and Badly is an understatement, but he's missed before. So this says, well, am I fighting a middleweight or am I fighting a welterweight? and Tyrone Woodley justifiably should be concerned about fighting a middleweight. He's in the welterweight division.

If he's fighting somebody who continues to not be able to make welterweight, then it's a reasonable expectation that he should be compensated for fighting essentially somebody who is a middleweight. He's not able to make the welterweight limit. So he should be commended for... You know what? I even feel bad saying he should be commended. he shouldn't be put in a situation where he has to fight somebody like this

who's missed by 10 pounds to be honest so so saying he should be commended i mean he should be i'm just happy i'm happy that he was able to get the victory over somebody who just didn't respect him and didn't respect the scale yeah who knows i mean i don't want to pour it on too much but yeah who knows what gasham was really going through i spoke to him very briefly after the fight i don't even know if that interview aired on saturday but yeah.

And then for giving him the money? Yeah, it gives him something. It's unbelievable. Do you think the athletic commission's punishment for missing weight are harsh enough or do they need to be stricter to encourage fighters to make weight? What do you think of the USC's decision to make both Lindner and Gasol and move up a weight class? Is it a reasonable punishment for fighters who repeatedly miss weight? Also, are you surprised Kelvin was clear to compete on Saturday, given the details that have surfaced regarding him passing out during the cut?

Again, the details are a little iffy, but I think the UFC's making. the right call. What's the point of having Lindekir fight at 125, killing off contenders if you can't trust them in a title fight? There's no point because the worst thing you could do is promote a title fight and he misses the weight or doesn't even make it to the fight. You have to give him that punishment and that's going up there and fighting guys who are, you know, in a different way, class who may be bigger than you. You want to come in bigger? Okay, now you're going to fight guys who are now bigger than you. I mean, what else can you do other than cutting them? And I don't think it's smart to cut them in this day and age because of the competition.

They're very good fighters. So I agree with the move. And it probably should, especially with Linneker, it probably should have been done before. Who does it benefit, though? Does it benefit the UFC to have a guy who's clearly a 125er at 135 getting smoked? I don't know. I mean, is he clearly a 125er? He hardly ever makes it.

But he should, okay, but that's his, okay, how about this? The frame of a 125er, the size and the length. of a one 25er. I mean, it's no different than what they did with Henry Sohudo. You know, they told him that he had to go up, he won, and maybe then he comes back down after he proves. Well, this is five, six times for him. Yeah, I know.

There's a difference. But I don't think it benefits the UFC to do it. To be, like, I don't know, I don't know what the solution is. You cut him? Maybe. Maybe you just let him try somewhere else and learn his lesson. You can't let Calvin Gaslam, the guy who won the ultimate fighter go to Bellator.

Yeah. I don't know what the answer is. But Beltor doesn't have a fight-way division. This is not good. anybody. Let's see what happens. Again, a lot of things happen. I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, Gassum hires Dolce, they convinced, let's see what happens.

You know what I mean? But then how much of a punishment was it? You know? Like, I mean, look, he lost. He's no longer, he's no longer undefeated. He didn't get his win money. You know, he was embarrassed. I mean, he had probably a halacious week. You know, he was hospitalized. It's pretty bad, I'd say.

Has Talas latest become a viable contender again? How would this new version fair if he were to fight for that title with Anderson back then and how about now? Man. So this, Talas back then, how would that do? Yeah, Talas, I mean, what an unbelievable

comeback this is. We had him on the show. Aldo Gondon back in the UFC. I don't even know how to explain this. The only thing that I can come up with is that entrance song. Oh, God. I mean, could you come up with any other explanation? That is the best entry song in the business. He's con. he's cool, he's collected.

Honestly, who saw this coming? Nobody. The guy walks away with $100,000 in bonuses. Yeah. Which, by the way, I thought maybe just give him, you know, the fight of the night and give the other one. Maybe Al. Yeah, poor Al-Aquinta. But holy moly, who saw this coming?

Nobody saw this coming. That said, I still don't think this version beats Anderson, especially that Anderson. The current Anderson? No, well, there's two questions here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This talus versus that Anderson. I don't know about that. Yeah, I don't know.

But this talus. He's definitely someone, I mean... I don't know. You might be able to get it done. Look, I'm looking at the rankings now. And, you know, I'm not against... I'm not against Talas versus Tim Kennedy, Gagar Musassi. I'm not against it. That ending, where he went for the arm triangle,

couldn't get it, and then goes to the other side. It was brilliant to watch, especially after getting, you know, some shots in there. I mean, his face was pretty messed up. I mean, we can reasonably expect he's going to be able to do that to Tim Boch. But the thing that's so impressive about... about him is the way he's able to put together a striking, you know, he's super tough, no doubt about that. He's, he's taking some shots in some of these fights.

The way he's able to, you know, utilize his grappling, put people up against the fence, use it to take him down. He's putting together the complete package, and he's looking incredible right now. All I'll say is, look at the old Talish. By the way, they're saying that's how you pronounce his name. I did hear that on the broadcast. Look at the old Talish and listen to the song he walks out to it.

And now look at the new one, listen to the song. That's all I'm saying. Oh, my God, with the song. I'm saying. Look at the proof is in the pudding, my friends. PES. Performance Enhancing song. That's it.

Three Little Birds, Bob Marley. Every fighter should do it. Oh, boy. UFC 184. This is going to be my first live event. It started off stacked, but now has been reduced to a substandard, oh, I'm sorry, reduced to substandard dribble.

Dribble. What are the chances this car to save by Vitor finding a challenger for the interim title? If there are no fights added, I am inclined to get my money back. Oh, stop it. First card, relax. You're going to see Rhonda Rousey against Katzenegano, which, let's be honest. I mean, that's a fine main event.

That's a much better main event than we've had in 2014 alone. Now, I know we were a little spoiled, and we thought it was going to be two tough fights. Great. But it's still Ronda versus Kat, which to me is worth the price of admission. Now, is the rest of the card way worse than it was when it was originally announced? Absolutely, because let's not forget Romero Jacques. also was on that card. But I definitely think it's worth your time,

especially for your first fight. Come on, don't make a stupid decision like that. It has the debut of Holly Home. It has a do-or-die fight for Ellenberger-Coste. You know, I'm not here to sell you on the fight card. But, hey, Jucao Carnaro? I love that guy. He's back.

Kid Yamamoto's back. There's still some stuff to sink your teeth in. Tony Ferguson versus Yancey Mederos is fun. So there's stuff. I mean, is it the best car? No, is it worse? Yes. Is it still very much worth your time and money, in my opinion, yes. And by the way, to touch on the Vitor thing,

look, I bet they, you know, if I say this, they'll announce something in the next hour. But if I were a betting man, considering what has happened, I don't see it happening right now. I don't, unless they don't think they'll have him. Well, Wyman wants it. Vitor wants Wyatman. He says he'll be back.

I mean, it feels like it would be somewhat short-sight. to do that at this point. Okay. So then this is an interesting one. Who should fight Vitor for the interim title? Should there even be an interim title to fight for? Should Wyde Man forfeit the belt holding up the most interesting division as of late? That's ridiculous.

And I'm going to answer the second question only. There shouldn't be an interim title because I think it should be a one-year rule. If you don't have a fight booked or don't fight within a year, then interim or stripped. It's been since July. Relax. And I know he pulled out twice. Absolutely. And, you know, there should be some criticism there. That sucks. December 6th, February 28th, that sucks. But interim, no, stripped. Absolutely not. Let's see what happens April, May. Hopefully he doesn't rush. He gets in there. Maybe Montreal. I think Montreal would be amazing because I think that card could use a guy from New York, a champion. You'll have a lot of people coming from New York, or if not, the All-American Fighting on Memorial Day makes a lot of sense as well. our next question if ronda beats cat singano uh would be just excited i would be

i would be just excited if not more than last time for a rematch between ronda and misha but that's a question a very okay let's just move to the next part or maybe it's would you be just as excited oh yeah would you yeah that's good uh would you be as excited uh for that uh i think think Tate deserves it. She showed just how very tough in Iron Will she is after being blasted in the face with a punch that would have fell to a horse. What do you think? And how would Misha have to adjust her game this time

to have greater success than the last two losses? A lot of credit goes to Misha Tate. She came back from a first round that she clearly lost. I think Glenn Trowbridge had it for Tate because she had that submission at the end. No way. She was knocked down. She lost that. And then she won the second and third with the broken orbital, which is amazing.

Before we go on, she didn't have a submission at the end there. Okay, whatever it was. I'm trying to justify it. I don't even know what it was. Yes. You know what I mean, though? Like, people were acting like that was some kind of submission attempt, but, you know,

there wasn't anything there. So more to my point. She shouldn't won that. Easy, easy. But she did come back and she deserved to win the fight, and it was a super entertaining fight. It reminded me of the Julie Kedzi fight from back in Strike Force. So it was great.

And especially to do that with a broken orbital, fantastic. However, I don't want to see her fight, Miranda Rousey. Two cracks. I think you need some time to let them. that kind of simmer for a little bit. And there are some interesting fights out there for Ronda. Let's see what happens with Holly Home. I still think Holly is probably one or two away, but she is new to the mix. And of course, you have Chris Cyborg. I don't know if this comes up. But again, as I've said on the broadcast and on Twitter, the decision to have Cyborg fight the night before in L.A.

against Charmaine-Tweet, 145 pound belt, is one of these shrewdest moves, not only for Invicta, but in MMA promotion period. I mean, you can. cannot script a better scenario. And we've talked about Invicta piggybacking off of the UFC events any given weekend, any given city. But to do that with Cyborg, of all people, the night before Ronda is a stroke of genius. I don't care if the UFC's, you know, decided that or Vicda's, I don't care who decided that.

It's brilliant. And I'm looking forward to being at my first Invicta covering my first Invicta. I just love the fact that Cyborg is going to be a part of the conversation all week long. Ronda called herself the parade riner. It feels like cyborch is trying to rain on her parade, but this to me feels like the beginning of that fight happening. It's, and because

let's be honest, Invicta and UFC are, you know, they're kind of on the same page. Invicta is on fight pass. I just think it's brilliant, and that car will air on fight pass. It's so, I can't say enough good things about that. So, that all being said, there are fresh matchups out there for Rhonda that I'd like to see her

conquer first before going back to Misha. If she beats Zingano, this is you know, along the same lines. Do you throw home to the wolves and give Harousy, assuming a dominant win over Pennington, or do you do the third Tate fight? So obviously, you say no to that. I prefer home over the Tate fight,

but I think Holmes should have one or two more. And a second question, if D.S. comes back for another fight, that's Nick. Who do you think would be a good matchup? I think Matt Brown would be perfect. Yeah, that's cool. We talked about that earlier. I'd be down.

I like that, too. But Matt has to... Actually, no. If you lose the Hendricks, it makes even more sense. actually it actually is a fight then rankings-wise that I think people would get behind. Let's move to Twitter, but yeah, you know, I'd watch either Diaz fight anybody. Yes. That's just the truth of the situation.

Okay, this is a question. Is there an update on T.J. Grant? I would love to see him back. Cowboy would be a great fight for him. Anything on T.J. Grant? No new news on T.J. last time I spoke to him was around. oh, maybe a month and a half ago. He said that, you know, he missed out on two title shots. He missed out on Halifax.

Those were two very big goals for him that he missed out on. So now he's taking his time. He said he was around like 90. I'll read the text, actually. Exclusive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's not that exclusive because I reported it on UFC tonight at the time. Oh, wow.

Oh, here it is. Okay. So this was on November 19th. He said, All is good, Ariel, feeling real good, just taking some time away, no pressure, just working and being normal, had a lot of pressure on my shoulders to get back. My goal was the title. Then it became about Halifax, which is where he's from.

Now that both of them are out of the question, I'm going to give myself some time to relax for a bit. It's made a big difference. So that's the latest. That was two months ago. So I'll check back in with him this week, and I'll let you know. what do you think of GSP being in the new kickboxer movie along with Jean-Claude Van Dam? Yeah, that's cool.

I like GSP. He's a good guy, and I think that the more he's away, I think the more we appreciate him. Also in that movie. Yes. I believe either, I think Gina Carrano might be in it. Really? I know some glory fighters are in it. I know Joe Schilling, Joe Valtolini are in it.

And I think Batista? Maybe I'm making... No, I think I'm pretty, I think Gina Crono and Batista are also in that as well. So a lot of, you know, names were familiar with in this one. Yeah, so, I mean, again, I want to see him fight Anderson. If not, have a great movie career, both of them. There are obviously a lot more fights that are interesting for a GSP because he left as champion and all, but still,

I think he's accomplished all that, you know, he needs to to cement his legacy. That would just be a fun fight because it was teased for so long. How do you feel about just, uh, the fighters in general being in movies. I mean, most of them aren't great. Let's see what happens with the entourage. Speaking of which, Roy Nelson and his lovely wife came up to me after the fight. They gave me the Scorpion King.

I think it was four, which he's a part of. Also, Eve Torres. Hoise, no. Hois Gracie, Bigfoot Silva's in it. So I got that DVD. I'll check it out. And I wanted to give them a shout out. Roy's fighting Alster Overeem next month.

But they were very nice. They gave me that as a gift. and I don't usually like to take gifts from anyone involved in MMA, but they were very insistent, so I had no choice. I love it. More fighters, more movies. Yeah. I think this is our last one. What would the odds be for Halwani versus Henderson?

Oh. Who is the underdog? And then separately, who is next for Yerai Fabor? Because apparently a Sunsau is. I'll weigh in on that part. Apparently Sunsau's out. I've been doing the show, but it has been reported in multiple places, including on our site, which is unfortunate, but I'm not surprised because he was coming off of a pretty serious ankle injury,

and I thought that they were rushing him, to be honest. But let's see what happens there. It hasn't been officially confirmed because I did ask about that, and it's not 100% from my perspective. But let's see what happens if he is in fact out, Faber, it's got to be Frankie Edgar, New Jersey. The time is now. Frankie doesn't have a fight. Fox, let's do it already. Faber, Edgar, New Jersey, finally.

Come on. Am I wrong? Did Faber not step in in Jersey last time, too? He has fought in Jersey. He fought Eddie Wineland. Oh, you're talking about Henna Brown? Yes. Man, he would be the Jersey guy at this point.

Yeah. I like that. But the time is now. Come on, let's do it. Yes. Now ask for the odds. You're the odds maker. So what do you got?

I won't be offended. Come on. Let's hear it. There's no way. I haven't seen Benson play. Let's see it. I haven't seen Benson play. I can't.

Just throw it out there. What do you think? Based on, you know, this is a pro athlete. If I'm basically on him being a pro athlete and the way he fights, sure, go ahead. He got no shot. No shot. But that's the thing.

That doesn't mean anything. I prefer being the dog. Make it plus 1,000. I prefer that. If I get to set the line on this, that would be awesome. I would love to. Well, let's see if it happens. Maybe he could send you some tapes.

Well, yeah, Benson, if you've got the video footage, send it to me, my man. And I would, no, no, no. Ariel doesn't get to see it. Why can I scout him? No, no, no, no, no. You don't get the tape on him, unless you're sending him tapes. Am I allowed to record our games and then I'll send it over to Benson? I'll play possum. You can't. You can't cheat like that.

I'll do the rope or dope. But I'd love to see Benson play, and then I'll get a line out there. We'll take some action on it. And you said it's going to charity so we could do that. Yes, International Fight Week. Anyone listening? Let's make it happen. I'm tired of this.

It has to happen. That would be a bigger deal than Connor versus Aldo, which, by the way, was announced for July 11th, UFC-189, International Fight Week, main event. Featherweight title, my opinion. Benson Henderson. There it is. Right here. I mean, think about this. We've seen John Jones play basketball. This is it. Benson versus Elwani.

Bang. Kyle Haas. Hollywood Haas. I mean, you're already down one zip right there. Wow. Does he make it? No. I took the charge and then he falls and it hits the rim.

That's the part you don't see in this poster. Took the charge like a boss, like Oak Man. John Jones is the best fighter in the world, and we saw him trying to dunk. And that did not go well. Can we get off the ground. So I don't know. I don't know what to expect from Benson. We'll see. All right. You, you stew on that one. I got it. Benson, send me the tapes. I want to see it. I think the world wants to see it.

And then we'll hype, you know, maybe somebody will cut together a nice hype real for Helwani versus Henderson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get Nick the face. Oh, yeah. We'll get the real pros on it. Okay. We're done? No. Housekeeping. Well, wait. I will get to the housekeeping. First things first. Shout out Patriot Seahawks, 114 million viewers.

Most watch show in the U.S. ever in the history of U.S. television. Most watch. I think that's worth a shoutout. Right? Okay. That got me very excited when I read. Did you watch it? Yes, I did.

But I just wanted to mention that. I think that's an important thing to note on a media show. Next thing. What did you want to say before we go? Congratulations to Mr. Ariralei. Oh, yes. Five time. Five time.

Five time. Where is it? Where is it? Come on. Five time. Where's the music? No, no, no. No.

No. All right. Yes, I wanted to talk. That's not our music. I was going to say that for the very end, but since you bring it up. Well, no. Congratulations are due. Five time.

You know what I was actually just thinking about when we played the Anderson Silva clip? That was from 2010. And I was like, that's the first year. What is that? Oh. This one goes out to all my haters out there. But yeah, that was the first year you want. won it and now it five years later.

Can you dig it? Sucker! Daniel Cormier wanted me to do it. He wanted me to say that, but I said, hell no, I'm not doing that. And now you did it? Well, I did it here. It's a bit of a different setting. Oh, he wanted you to do it at the awards? You wanted me to do it at the awards? Yes.

Oh, you were 100% should have done that. No, no, that's a dick thing. I didn't want to do that. But I will say, thank you very much to everyone who voted for me. I am unbelievably honored. And by the way, I don't take these for granted. Now, I will say, and I've said on this show, that, I feel a bit weird winning a Journalist of the Year award, and I think a lot of people deserve it,

including everyone who works in an NBA fighting. I share with all of them. It was disappointing that they didn't win, or we didn't win the source, media source of the year. But to me, three nominations for a journalist of the year, Meltzer, Luke Thomas, and I share it with all them. Sean, Mark, Dave, Dave, Brian, Esther, Casey,

Luke, Chuck. Who am I missing? Nobody. I got them all. You guys back. back there. Oh, wow. Even though you give me

heart palpitations, I share it with all of you. Everyone comes up and says they love the show, they love all of you. But I don't take it for granted. And I feel, like I said, I feel a little weird,

but it's unbelievable. Five in a row, I can't even fathom that. I don't know what to say about that. So thank you. I don't think it was the best year and I think I could do better. I will do better.

But for now it was fun. Joey Fatone was the man. He was so cool. What a great guy. Jose Canteco, the man as well. And a bigger man than all those guys, the great

Ronnie Turiaf, who I didn't know actually cornered someone in one FC. Did you know that? I did not know that. Yes, he's a big MMA fan. Former New York legend, New York Nick legend, Ronnie Turioff. But one of the best bench guys ever. In terms of the cheering and the celebrations,

pound for pound you know, top ten. Thank you very much, the fighters only into the fans. It was great. I posted my acceptance speech, but it's private. It was just for my family, but I thanked all the fans. I don't want to thank them here.

Wait, wait. What do you mean? It was just for your family. I don't want to post that stuff. Is that weird? I don't know. Should I make it public? I guess I...

So the only people who saw it were your fan... I don't understand. You were accepting it and showing it to only to your family? I don't even understand what the... What's the point of recording it? Yeah, what the mechanic is that were... Oh, on YouTube, you can make something private. No, I get that.

So they gave you a version? No, no. You just showed it to your family? I was with my friend, Andy Mayer, who flew down. and came to the fight with me, and when they announced that I won, he recorded it. And you only showed your family?

Yeah, I don't know. No, that's a little weird to me. Why? Show the whole world. I don't want to, I feel like it's rubbing it in. A lot of people served out of war. Okay, fine, fair enough. Well, actually, my family did vote for me, too.

I hope they did. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. But I'm humbled, and I really appreciate it. I can't say enough. I don't want to spend too much time on it, but thank you so much.

And it strives me to do better and be better and motivates me, so I hope I live up to your standards. One for the thumb? One for the thumb. Hopefully they can get MJ's award. Yes. So that's great.

Yeah, awards. Check them out. Fighters only. They do a great job. Okay. Before we go, Glory. I said that the... Wait, is, what are the...

Oh, you said it to Ed Soros. There are no fights this weekend. Well, it's RFA, but yeah. Yeah, Glory, this Friday. It's going to be incredible. Mike Tyson? I mean, what more do you want? Mike Tyson is commentating the main event.

He's commentating the main event. On Spike TV. Wow. Give us the cell. Why should people watch this? Well, I mean, that's the one minute pitch, the elevator pitch. That's the first one. Who doesn't want to hear what Mike Tyson is about to say on Spike TV, on live TV?

Yes. Heavyweight title fight, Rico Verhoeven versus Errol Zimmerman. That's going to be a banger. There's a bad blood there, right? Yeah, rivalry. This is a trilogy fight. Yes. This is the one.

I know how much you love trilogies. I do. And then outside of that, just Glory has the most knockouts in combat sports. So there's no reason not to watch Glory. I'm convinced, I've been saying it every day on this show. If you watch it, you will like it. Joe Schilling, our friend who... Stitch him up.

Who cornered Mr. Diaz and, you know, got some love from a lot of combat sports directions leading up to this fight. Deservedly so, as the elite kickboxer that he is, faces young Robert Thomas from Canada. your countryman. Really, really talented guy. That should be fun. And then there's the one-night tournament who everybody is. Oh, what weight class?

It's Walterweight. So whoever wins this is fight, no, no, no, no. They don't get the belt. They're fighting Canadian champion, Joseph Valtalini, Bazooka Joe. My man. Your guy.

Yeah. And, you know, the former champion, Nikki Holskin is in it. So, and human highlight real Raymond Daniels. I mean, it's just... Raymond Daniels? It's a stack card. The real deal?

The real deal? I interviewed Raymond Daniels back of the day in his Strike Force debut. I love that guy. Oh, he's in that. That kick? What was that? That was a year ago.

That was, no, it was Chicago. A little over. It was, it was Glory. Yeah, it was Glory in Chicago. No? I want to say Denver. It was actually Denver.

Yes. He landed the two-touch kick. He kicked them once and then spun around and kicked them mid-air. It's just, you have to see it. Glory's incredible. Go watch it. This Friday.

day. Good to see them back. Yeah. It's good to have them back. Spike TV. All right. That does it for us. You can hit my music, Alex. So a late start, but we took up a little more time than usual, because the time is now, my friends. Don't forget it. It's still going on. Next up for the UFC, Benson Henderson, Brandon Thatch. Then it's Frank Meir versus Bigfoot Silva. And then it's Ron Rousey Katzengano.

Unfortunate. Great stuff from Wyden by the way this episode. I like that fire. Oh, my Harlem Heat music. Rearing its ugly head. But again, thank you very much to everyone. That means a lot. And thanks to all who voted for M.AFighting.com as well.

Fortunately, we didn't get it this time, but congratulations to MMAJunky.com on their award, and we'll do better next year. Put the music a little lower. Just a touch, a smidge. All right, I want to thank you. everyone who tuned in. I want to thank everyone who stopped by today. Great show. This is one show that I'll never forget. This was a lot of fun. I felt like everything was flowing.

Really appreciate everyone's time. Thank you very much to Chris Wyman. Get well soon. And looking forward to his return. Thank you very much to Demetri's Johnson. Looking forward to what's next for him. Thank you very much to Gilbert Melendez. He wants Eddie Alvarez in Mexico. Good luck getting it. Thank you very much to Rashad Evans. Get well soon to him. And congrats to him and the team. team on Rumble Johnson. Thank you very much to Benson Henderson, my future opponent. Good luck to him on February 14th. Thank you very much to Mike Dolce. Great stuff as always. Thanks a ton to Caesar Gracie. Good to talk to him again. And finally, thank you very much to Ed Sauras for stopping

by. Congratulations. Anderson Silva. You are back. What is next? We shall see. We'll talk about it all next week. Until that, I say, peace. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform

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