MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 269

Episode Date: February 16, 2015

Featuring Frankie Edgar & Urijah Faber at same time, Benson Henderson, Robbie Lawler, Josh Barnett, Cris 'Cyborg', Matt Mitrione, and Al Iaquinta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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On this Monday, February 16th, 2015. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani. Inside our New York City studio, a much more jovial episode of the MMA hour coming up this week. You know, last week was an important show, but it felt a little somber. It was a little depressing.

A lot of PED talk. It was the stuff we don't like to talk about. The gross fungus. under the sport that we love so much. Today, I think we'll be in a much better mood. And you know what? I'm in a great mood today because exactly one year ago today, almost exactly at around this time,

my second baby boy, Walter Mack Halwani, was born. So I want to wish him a happy birthday. He's not watching the show right now. But maybe one day he'll go back and watch these crazy shows that I do every Monday. And he'll find out that I love him very much, that he made my life a thousand times better. and happier, and I wish him a very long, happy, and healthy life. Happy birthday, Walter, this show is dedicated to you, my friend.

I love you so much, my son. All right, so kind of weird to call your son my friend, right? He's more than my friend. He's my angel. I love him. Had a great birthday party yesterday, and now I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good about life, and I'm feeling good about our sport, because something happened on Saturday night, my friends,

that I don't want to make into this bigger deal for someone that doesn't quite get it, but let me tell you, one of my favorite moments ever, ever, not just MMA, sports, and I think it had to do with a lot of things going on at the same time, but today we are going to honor that moment

and we're going to talk about a lot of fun things because after we did this show last week, as you know by now, some more bad news, Hector Lombard testing positive. We'll find out more about that this week. This is going to be another weird week because we have the commission hearing,

we have the UFC press conference on Wednesday about PDs, so more fungus will come up, but there's also a lot of good things to discuss. So what is happening on today's show? At around 345, we're going to take your questions and comments. As always, hashtag the MMAR. Leave a question or comment in the comment section below.

At 320, we're going inside the vault, another topical one. So look out for that, 320. 305, we're going to talk to the UFC welterweight champion. Robbie Lawler, he has some interesting news, business news, but good stuff. Interesting stuff. We'll talk to him at 305. How about this? Robbie Lawler, third time in the span of like, what, two months coming on this show?

never been on the show before, all of a sudden, friend of the show. 245, we're going to talk to Chris Cyborg Justino, who, of course, in less than two weeks, faces Charmaine Tweet, Invicta Feverway title fight. Night before Ronda Rousey fights in Los Angeles, same city, same weekend, I love it. Chris Seiborke joins us 245. 225. This is very exciting. 225, one of the great pieces of news that came out last week.

Yariah Faber versus Frankie Edgar happening May 16th in Manila, in the Philippines. The Thrill of Manila 2, East Coast versus West Coast, Tupac versus Biggie, a fight that has been talked about for years. It's finally going down at 145 pounds, five-round main event, Fox Sports 1. Frankie Edgar and Uriah Faber will be joining us at the very same time on this show at 225. I cannot wait for that. And this is not going to be back and forth, trash talking. This is not what this is all about.

This is a great fight that deserves a lot of our attention. 205 will talk to Josh Barnett. I reported last week. He is back, ready to resume his UFC career. So looking forward to talking to the Warmaster himself, 145 old friend of the show, Matt Matrione, will stop by to talk about what's next for him. And at 125, surging lightweight ally Quinta stops by. We didn't get Mao Zedal last week. We got Ayahuinta this week. So that's going down at 125. But first, let us go to the phone lines. And I am so excited to be joined by this guest right off the top. Because even when I was talking to New York, Rick, before the show, I actually started to get a little emotional.

I started to choke up a little bit, talking about what he did on Saturday night. Very special to me, I think very special to a lot of fans. So first, I want to welcome him in and I want to congratulate him on what he accomplished on Saturday. Of course, I'm talking about Benson Henderson, who defeated Brandon Thatch Saturday night. And a fight, a lot of people were not favoring him in. He went out there and he proved that you can't underestimate the heart of a champion. Benson, how are you? And congratulations.

Hey, what's up, Iris. Doing pretty well, man. How you doing? Thank you very much. Congratulations. I appreciate it. So, Benson, I'm going to go out on left field here, and I'm going to kind of break the rules,

and I'm going to thank you. Because on Saturday night, I'm sitting on my couch, I'm falling asleep. It was kind of a lifeless event. There was a lot of bad MMA, to be honest. And there's a lot of bad news going on. There's PED, all this stuff. You know about it.

It's such a lot of negativity. And that fight didn't just remind me why I love MMA, and why I love this sport. It reminded me why we love just the human spirit. Why man can be so interesting and inspiring? What you did, everyone, it felt like everyone was counting you out to the point where they were almost feeling bad for you after that way in picture on Friday. And for you to come back the way you did and submit Brandon Thatch, where it seemed like

your back was against the wall. It just, it makes me emotional just talking about it. And that's why I really wanted to have you on the show. So I need to thank you. I need to thank you for reminding us why we love sports, why we are fans of high-level athletes like yourself and why we were drawn to UFC in the beginning. It was all about David going up against Goliath and that's what Saturday night felt to me. So I don't know if you've been receiving that kind of praise and that kind of feedback since Saturday, but I know

for me and many others that I talked to on Twitter yesterday, that's what that fight represented. And I just wanted to thank you for what you did on Saturday. You are welcome, man. No problem. I haven't been getting a lot of, you know, congratulations of that sort, you know, talking about, you know, what it is. that first drew people to, you know, MMA, to the UFC, what first drew people to sports and them just being a fan of, you know,

the backstories and this guy and that guy, and he's going back to, you know, what originally led people to the fall in love of sport and MMA. So, yeah, I know, thank you. I appreciate it. It means a lot to me. Being one of the guys, I don't think I ever wanted my life,

and envisioned, you know, when I was younger and stuff coming up before the fighter, or did I envision myself as that type of role? I never would do that. So it's cool hearing that. I never saw that for myself while I was growing up and stuff. So it's cool hearing that. Have you ever received this kind of praise adulation after one of your wins?

You've had many big wins, but I don't think one has ever struck a chord with the audience like this one. Has it ever happened to you like this before? I would say, yeah. You know, every time you, you know, on the big stage, and you're the main event and you have a pretty decent performance. You get a lot of stuff. But I think, you know, like what you see compared to what I see, obviously what I see is going to be the same thing.

You know, like I have a lot of supporters, a lot of people who are proud of me and congratulations. So I get that same stuff, you know. Thankfully, when you know what I lose or whether I win after a big win or after, you know, my first fight in the UFC, I get all the same sort of stuff. But, like, from your point of view, like, you see it in other places, other people saying stuff about me and whatnot. But I see the same stuff. But I've always gotten pretty good reactions after my fights.

And I appreciate that. I've always appreciated the reaction I get from the fans and, you know, from my teammates and from my coaches and all that stuff, you know. It means a lot of me. but it's always been, you know, the same as my last fights as for this fight. You know, I took a bit of an informal Twitter poll yesterday, and it didn't feel like the same to me. It feels like people view you in a different light.

You know, you were coming off a two-fight losing streak, and the last fight was somewhat controversial, the decision was. And, you know, even when you were a champion, you had those close calls that sometimes I felt like people didn't maybe appreciate the entire body of work, or they didn't like when you said, you know, if my opponent slips on a banana peel, I'll take that win. Now, the respect that it seems that you have generated from the MMA community seems to have grown immensely. Have you noticed that at all?

I mean, just going on your Twitter, you haven't noticed a difference in the way people view you now, because it seems like there's a big difference, in my opinion. No, I can see, you know, like perhaps with a difference in the reaction after all my fight. um this time the circumstances of this right well in a larger quantity going up on two weeks notice going up away class like all that sort of stuff you know so the reaction i get uh for this fight is definitely positive definitely good i definitely love it but again you know like the reaction the treat they got from my previous fights they were all the same thing congratulations you got from and you're mill you know you're amazing

we're going against guy who was on the longest you know ufc wind streak in the whiteway class He was like 708 and all the time like that. And you beat him up. You did pretty good. You did awesome. You may look easy, blah, blah, blah. Like, I got that reaction against Jim Miller. The same reaction I'm giving me now against Brandon.

That's like, awesome. You look great. You know, you want up O8 class and, you know, two weeks notice and the elevation, no less. And, you know, all that sort of stuff. So I definitely appreciate that. But, you know, after your fights, you generally receive, you know, pretty good compliments, that sort of stuff. So I always say kind of the same thing. Definitely having maybe different type of people, I guess.

Having a broader range of people, like my fan base is my fan base. Maybe perhaps you might be referring to is the broader range of the fan base being a broader range this time. And that could be true. I don't have any studies or polls that I've done to check it out. Was there ever a point last week, maybe at the Wayans, maybe before the fight we thought, I'm biting off a lot here. I mean, this is a tall order here. This is a guy in his hometown.

Big guy, I mean, the size difference was unbelievable. Was there ever a point where you doubted yourself before the fight or doubted your decision to take this fight on such short notice? No, I don't think I ever doubted myself, to be honest. I don't think I ever doubted myself or doubted, you know, I bit off more than I could choose, so to speak. All the fight, we're all pretty confident. We all have that, you know, nagging suspicion in back.

ahead. Oh, man, I hope I do well. I hope I perform well. I hope I get my hand raised. But that's the same sort of, you know, a small little stuff in the back of your head that you try to forget as much as possible. You try to forget that for all your fights. So, you know, I have that

for the first Frankie Edgar fight against Mark Bochek. You know, first time the first time you'll see a 55,000 people. Like, oh, on the go, no. I hope I don't embarrass myself. I hope I know what I'm doing. But, you know, you, as a competitor, you learn to banish those ideas. and focus on the positive and mentally you have to learn how to, you know,

go about preparing yourself and banishing those negative thoughts, that sort of stuff. So I think I do a pretty decent job with that, all my past fights and into the fight as well. I had to do that. I'm going against stats, when a boy class, doing this, doing that, blah, blah. Of course, you have a little small nagging ideas, but for the most part, I was very positive going in. and I knew what I thought that I was in do very well. What was going through your mind in the first two rounds?

The first round was somewhat close. It seemed, though, that the pace was, you know, was very intense. He was aggressive. He was coming at you, and those shots, I mean, he was landing some pretty big shots. Then things started to turn around in the third, and, of course, in the fourth, you finished him. But early on, when you're fighting a guy with that size difference, and is that much bigger than you, you've never dealt with that as a lightweight. What was going through your mind? Were you expecting all of that, or was that somewhat of a surprise to you?

I would say part of the biggest thing was I think it was a second no maybe the first round no I think it was the second round I think I lost the second round but he hit me once with like a jab to my body his coaches did great I actually heard him there you know yelling him to hit me to my body because you know moving around trying to be elusive and stuff he couldn't really land and he got shots to my head because they jab the body jab the body over the body He came me with a jab to my body. It was the first, I think, maybe a cleaner shot. He hit me with all fight. Maybe the only shot he was all fight.

But he, like, jabbed my body. It was like a jab at his. And he sent me flying backwards. I was super good at two or three feet is how it felt to me in my head. I have something to the fight. So I'm interested in how it looks, you know? Yeah. But he jabbed me to my body and sent me flying backwards.

Like, oh, this boy is big and strong. him hit me more. Did you get the sense, though, as the fight went on? I mean, this is a guy who only went past the first round once in his career, and that was in his second pro fight. Did you get the sense that he was tiring and gassing out? It looked that way that he was huffing and puffing and puffing as the fight progressed. Oh, you can definitely tell, I won't say any fight.

You can tell the guys as the rounds go by, and they start breathing a little bit heavier, start taking deeper breaths and that sort of stuff. But you can definitely see it. And then especially for all my opponents, I try to make sure that they breathe as heavy as possible and that they're, I'm wearing them out and I'm getting them tired out and I'm, you know, taking them into those deep waters. And so that was a gameplay. I thought I was trying to do. And I could see the effects for sure after the first round going into the break.

After the second round, going to break, even after the third round, going to break, I can see him getting, you know, taking deeper breaths, deeper breaths. Oh, man. how you look going back, you know, and you stare at the guy, you know, when the referee is going to say, you know, get started at the end to start the round, the next round, you can see them how much more tired they are and that sort of stuff. I did notice he was a little bit more, you know, war down and taking deeper breath, all that sort of stuff. I know you just said that you haven't watched the fight yet on TV, but you recall a turning

point in your mind, a point where you thought, all right, I got this guy on television. and it looked like come the third round, things started to turn in your favor, and all of a sudden people were thinking, holy moly, Benson might actually pull this off. But in your mind, you recall a moment? For me, it was, someone else asked me that. I think my coach asked me like that. I think what it was is when he started to respect my hands a little bit more,

like the shots are laying. Like early on, there was much pop to him, and I'm smaller. So he was a good 25 pounds. I remember to me. So, like, my jab isn't a different. his jab. I don't want to jab him. It was just like, oh, no big deal. Like, it's okay. Of course, the fight,

as he got more tired, my jab did third than his jobs were, like, his job first, when he had to respect my hands a little bit more, because when he, like, I felt like that opened up the take-down. And then because of that, then I was able to take him down and do all that sort of stuff. So for me,

it was when I had to, so I think he did him a couple times and, you know, tried to try to move. And because he respected my hand more. He bit on those faints. He bit on the fake. Then I was able to take him down from there. Again, not to overstay things, but that

take down in the fourth round when you changed levels and got him clean. That was one of my favorites. I mean, that takedown was just such, that looked like a momentum changer. That looked like you took the air out of his body. Do you remember the one I'm talking about? I do. I do, yeah. Beautiful. And that was, again, it was the same thing.

I think I landed a body shot or a hook upstairs and a hook to the body right before then. I was then trying to get him to believe that I was going to, you know, throw hands, them stay in the pocket and throw some more hands and that sort of stuff. And he was about to, you know, throw some more hands. I was like, nope, I'm stuck underneath what I'm going to shoot now because I want to get hit by you. So, yeah, I was able to get that take down.

It was a good clean take down because I think he was going to try to hit me very hard. And I didn't want him to do when I took him down instead. So after the win, after you choked him out, again, you looked at somewhere. and you were saying a couple of things. Were you looking at the media there? No, no, though. I wasn't looking at the media. I think I did look at them once.

The media row you were talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I did look at them once, and they had, like, on their faces. Like, you're yelling at us? Are you talking to us? Yeah, yeah. I said earlier, I'm not really yelling out the media.

It's just more whoever there. I happen to be one of my training partners, Yachtine Meza, Yadi. Yeah, it was his three sons, Gio Meza, Adrian Meza, and Little Nikki. amazing that three boys were able to have them fit front row with my wife

and I don't none of my I don't have kids so none of my I don't have kids so my kids don't get to see that but it's so amazing so awesome to have kids and to have them experience and see you like in all your glory or whatever you know

but see you doing what you do on the big stage so I love I love having the like effort Ines Guder, his daughter, Amaya. We have another training partner, Brian Barbarina, his two boys, Derek and Chale, and then he has a daughter named Tevia. I love, I love seeing all of them. And being able to, you know, just experience that whole, like, father's name.

Yeah. Uncle thing or whatever. So I was telling that the three boys who were sent in Roe. It's all about hard work. I was going to them hard work. I was expressing to them that, hey, this is hard work. This is what your daddy does. This is hard work right here.

Like, you bust your butt, you work hard. This is what you get. So that's why I was yelling at that point in time. It was to them. Okay, okay. So I got to ask you about this. You know, I was going to ask you about it. In middle of the fight, it's very clear that there's a toothpick in your mouth.

What is going on here? How did you get away with this again? I can't confirm or deny that. As clear as day. I will say, though, I'm pretty sure there aren't any regulations. There are not any rules, especially forbidding. is against the rules to have a toothpick in your mouth. It's not a foreign object?

I don't think it's illegal. I don't think it's illegal. I don't think it's against the rules. Isn't it dangerous for you? I mean, you might swallow that thing. It's uncomfortable seeing you fight with that. Do you get that? Do you understand why people feel that way? It's as dangerous for me to have a tooth think of our mouth as it is for me to go against

a 200-pound man who's going to push my face hard or trying to kick me in my face. I think I'm more worried about that, to be honest. I'm more worried about the 200-pound man who's going to beat the crap out of me if I let them. Do you need the toothpick? Like, do you feel like if you don't have it, you can't perform it your best? No, I don't have any superstitions. I won, you know, world title with the toothpick. I defended it without a toothpick.

It just, it all depends. You know, sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't know. It's a bad habit. It is a bad habit. I know I shouldn't do it, but, you know, it's fine. I do it every day in practice. You know, I've done it most of my whole. fight. So, you know, it is what it is.

Have you, have you ever swallowed it? I have once. Oh, man. What? One time, I was, uh, I went home early. I was, uh, I was surprised in my mom. And I, uh, snuck home. I flew home and I surprised her. Um, and as she was coming up the stairs, I, you know, I went boo and I scared her. And she's like, you know, like, afraid.

She's like, oh, I got scared. I started laughing. And then when I was started laughing, I swallowed the toothpake. And then she really got scared there But she was like surprise startled And so I laughed And then when if I started choking Like she got like seriously scared And that maybe laughing even more

Even though I saw her in the food stick So I have one time It was it was bad But I lived I was able to tell her Did you ever hurt yourself while having Like in your mouth while grappling or something Did you ever hurt yourself for your opponent

No The one time that only ever affected me while training was, I've been doing it since I was in high school. The one time it ever happened where it affected me was I was training with my coach, John Crouch. Yeah. And I think this is like the, I don't know, second or third time I ever trained with him. But I've been training at his gym for a while, but actually rolling around with my coach, like six, seven years ago, this was, he had me in rear naked or he had my back head both hooks in. and he was going for the red naked choke.

And I ducked my chin and turned just enough to not give up the choke to the neck. But he had my tooth right in my cheek. And I ended up tapping after like 40 seconds, 30 seconds, some like that. I end up tapping. And he had to go, and he like, oh, was that, the choke wasn't there. But did you feel the neck crank? I was going for the neck crank and sent the choke. I was like, no, I didn't really feel.

feel the choke or the neck crank too much. When I popped my toothpick, my toothbook was all bloody. I was like, my toothpick was stabbed me in my cheek. He had a pretty good laugh. He loves my story now. I do you say. Gosh. Where do you put it, by the way?

Like, where exactly in your mouth you put it? Because I can never actually pull that off. I've tried since seeing you do it. How do you put it in there to where it looks like it doesn't actually, it's not there? How does it, how do you do that? I just tuck it away, whether it's on the side. the tongue and the cheek, I just wear it. Jeez.

That's unbelievable. And then you put it out there to almost rub it in our faces, but you'll never actually confirm that you're doing it. You do realize that you put it out there in the middle of the fight, right? I try it. I'm consciously to play around a bit. Sure. While I'm standing, while I'm fighting.

I don't mean, yeah, I have noticed a few pictures. Yes. I play around a little bit too, but you're in a fight. Benson, you still there? Yeah, I'm here. Okay, sorry, we lost you for a second. Let me ask you a couple questions, and then I'll let you go. You said afterwards, you know, Rory McDonald.

It sounds like a great idea. Dana White said after that, that, you know, he has another fight. What do you think at this point? You had a great UFC debut at Walter Waite. Are you going to stick around at 170 or go back to 155? What are you thinking? Well, I'm thinking just, you know, still playing around with their idea, see where it takes me, you know.

I've got to talk to my wife, but. more. So I talked to John Crouch about it some more. But I knew that, you know, Roar McDonald's did, oh, I thought at the time Romagall didn't have a fight and he needed somebody. So I wasn't really trying to call Roy McDonnell out. I talked to Farahawad he was there after the day. Frost, you know, I was trying to call Roared out. I was saying, you know, if he needs an opponent, I will be, I would be willing to step

up. That's the sort of guy, you know, take on any sort of challenge. I want to challenge myself, that's on and stuff. But I wouldn't like, you know, I want to fight him. I think he's likely, no, it's more of me saying, oh, yeah, he needs an opponent. I'll be, I'd be willing to step up. It would be a big opportunity for me, a good opportunity for him, because of the former, you know, champion, that sort of stuff.

But, yeah, he's more of me about just trying to offer my services if he still need to be. If they have somebody, no big deal. They have somebody. No, cool. But right now, you don't know if your next fight will be at $170 or $155. I don't know. No. I do know it feels good after the fight.

Like this has been a day so far, you know, two days or whatever it was. I am not eating everything in sight. I'm not all, like, fat and bloated and feeling disgusting because I eat until I disgust myself, you know. It feels good to not do that. Like, after the fight, like, I'm not, like, super hungry. I don't want to eat everything. So it does feel that.

That's another bonus. I didn't even think about making what weight for 170 is that afterwards. I'm not going to have a big, big time bloated feeling for a while. I can get right back in the gym, but I can get right back in the gym and train hard without being a fat butt. Yeah, how enjoyable was last week for you that you didn't have to cut weight? Did you sense that? Did that strike you on Friday?

Wow, this is a lot more fun than when I'm making $155. It was amazing. It was amazing. Literally, the whole entire week was amazing. I was able to do the open media workout. Normally, I try and do a good job. very conscious of, you know, doing my best effort, trying to give a good open media workout, that sort of stuff, you know.

But doing the open media workout, I had calories, you know, it's a huge difference. When you have some calories inside you, doing the workout, doing the interviews, all that sort of stuff, but everything's not bleak and grim and you don't hate the world, stupid you have seen, they want me to do this, and I'm tired, I'm sore, and they want me to go here and I got to do this, and oh, like now I'm like, oh, yeah, sure, no problem, okay, let's do it. What else do you need? Anything else? You need this?

You need that? Okay, yeah, sure no problem. So it's a huge difference. The entire week, not having to, you know, starve yourself to get down the weight. And then after you starve yourself, then lose another, you know, 10 pounds water weight on top of that. So it felt great that whole week. Did the hair bother you more in this fight? It seemed like you were fixing it a lot.

No. It was fine? I don't think so. You don't think it'll ever be a problem. No, not really. I think the biggest problem, talking about it, my coach and tomorrow if I said

it influences the judges that's what they think influences like how much if I get hit my hair moves back a lot like the shot didn't land like I don't have any black eyes

I don't have any bloody nose or fat lip or anything you know but because of the hair it looks more dramatic and so like that might score the strike as a landing

big time shot as opposed to what it was which was a gray shot that didn't really land too cleanly or anything like that. So that is something that we have to, you know, take into account, taking the factor and measure the pros and cons of all that sort of stuff. Okay, last question for you. You know, I talked at the beginning what the fight meant for me and I think I speak for a lot of people.

And I think you're being very humble, by the way, saying it's kind of like the Jim Miller. It comes at a very much needed time in our sport, I think, for many fans. But for you, you know, after what happened against Dosangos, after what happened against Seroni, does this one mean a little more for your confidence for the way you view the sport, the way you view your career, you know, to go in there and sort of defy the odds? I know you weren't the biggest underdog of all time, but, you know, it just seemed like there was a big hill for you to climb and you did so when a lot of people were counting you out.

For you, have you been rejuvenated, reinvigorated? What does this mean went for you other than just another W? I wish I could, you know, give you the answer you want to know. I wish I could really could. I wish I could even lie to you and say, yeah, man, it's awesome. It does this. I can't lie to you, Ariel. It is just another win.

Of course, the way the final fight ended, you know, with the referee stepping in when he did, it is what it is. So it's a loss. You got to talk about to that with the judges deciding to score the fight in favor of Soroni. It is what it is. You got to get out of the loss. But, yeah, for sure, the way those ended, left the very sour taste of my mouth. And then getting this W, it's awesome.

It's nice because you're two lost in a row, which I don't think it's ever happened to me before. I don't know. But, yeah, it is good to win, but, man, it's just enough W. It really is. It's just another W. Wow. I'm thankful for it. I'm happy about it.

I know, every W. Every time you win, especially in the UFC, it's a huge deal. It's huge. It's gigantic. So, man, I wish I could say it was more special. I wish I could say this or that. You know, it does give me more confidence for sure about going to 170. I am as confident as any, you know, fire on the planet.

But as far as going to 170, that is a bigger deal, you know. And then Brandon being a bigger 70-pounder walking into cage, you know, 195, 197, whatever it was, he walked in the cage at. That does give me confidence for sure that I can go in there. I can take the shots from the welter weights and I'm not going to be broken. and if I can take a big, you know, straight right from somebody, I can take it just fine. So that is comforting to know that, you know.

Well, again, thank you, Benson. Thank you for reminding us why we love sports, why we're drawn to all this stuff. Thank you for at least inspiring me on Saturday. That was beautiful stuff. Congratulations on the win. Thank you so much for taking the time. I know you're probably tired of talking to me and the media at this point

because you've had so many fights in a row here, but I really appreciate the time and we'll talk to you soon. All the best to you. Yeah, all the best there. Thank you, everybody. All right, there he is. Benson Henderson. Humble as always, but tremendous stuff.

Wow. What a performance on Saturday night. One that I will never forget, I can assure you of that. We'll talk about that more on the show. I'm pretty sure of it. But for now, let us move along and welcome in our next guest. Remember last week we wanted to have Jorge Mazvedal on, but he had a cell phone issue, and we couldn't lock him down.

First time in a while that a guest has alluded us. So I thought, you know what, this week, let's go for his opponent. And I'm told his opponent on April 4th is joining us right now via the magic sky. There he is, Long Island Zone. Rage and Al Ayakwinta, a huge fan of the MMA hour, by the way. Al, how are you? I'm doing good, man, doing good. Great to have you on the show, and I'm happy you showed up.

Your opponent last week, I know you were tuning in. He was nowhere to be found. What did you make of that? I don't know, man. I don't know. Maybe he had something to do. Maybe he was training. I hope maybe he was training.

It would have been a good idea, you know? How's life after beating Joe Lozahn? It's the same as before life beating Joe Lozahn pretty much. Really? Nothing? Nothing's changed? No, that's good, man. I'm just back in the gym. I got right back in the gym. I got a fight the next day. Right. So, you know, I was still still at the after party pretty much when I figured out I was going to fight again. So I got, came right back home and started training. It was good.

Okay, so let's talk about that Saturday night. UFC 183. What was your reaction when you realized you weren't getting that $50,000 bonus? I was just sitting there and I was like, wow, man, I thought I was, I was, we were all joking TJ and Dillishaw and all the, all the alpha male guys were in the back and they were, they were busting my balls. Oh, what are you going to do with the money? What are you going to do with the money?

I was like, don't say anything yet because I didn't win it. And they were like, oh, you definitely got it. What are you doing? What are you doing? So they kind of like amp me up. And then when I didn't get it, I was like, shit, man. But it is what it is, you know. I'll do it again.

I'm going to just keep doing it. Eventually, we'll get it. I saw this video blog that you put out with your friend about you going to the Naga tournament in Philadelphia. And you said that you were sitting there and you weren't even getting any questions. Like you had just defeated. Where's the love? Why do you feel like people are overlooking you? There is the love.

I don't know. I don't know what it is. but I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, man. You appreciate me, right, Ariel? I do. I appreciate everything about you. But why do you feel like people are overlooking you, including your employers? I don't know, man. Are you jaded right now? Are you upset?

Am I upset? Yeah. No, not really. I just knocked out Joel's own. How could I be upset? It's nice to get recognized sometimes, though, no? This is true. This is true. But, yeah, I don't know. I think the people that really, really matter to me,

they, you know, my teammates and my family, they realize how much work I put in. And, you know, hearing congratulations from them means more than anything, you know. You did have a nice performance, though, at the press conference. I felt like it was a coming out party. You were talking about Mexico and the signoritas.

I mean, it really felt like you were more comfortable than usual. I was hammered, bro. Was that big cup? Was there something in there that wasn't, you know, your typical water post-fight drink? Yeah. What was in there? Yeah, we had a little vodka soda in there. Oh, yeah.

That was a big cup. That was a big cup. Well, that was, yeah, that was, there was 25-minute fight that Nick Diaz fight. Yeah. So that, you know, it was a little time to kill. I had to, the bar closed. They closed the bar. Okay.

So I don't know how freaking, Connor McGreg gets like a $75 million glass of freaking, whatever the hell he gets. I had to sneak in the back and steal some vodka. Back where? Where did you go? I don't know. There was like a room in the back. It was like a bar all the way in the back.

Yeah. And I guess it was closed because there was no one in there. You broke in? I had to. I snuck in there. I greased the guy at the bartender. Yeah. You know, I was like, come on, man, one more.

And then so he made me a bunch of them. Okay. And I don't know. He must have thought I was like freaking Anderson Silver or something because he put him on a plate and then he carried him he was carrying him and i had like a but i felt like i had a butler it's pretty cool man how much did you pay him i was just drinking one drinking two i need my 20 bucks i think that's it more for all that i don't know he said he said it was uh no i said do i got to pay for these what's the deal he goes no no it's all good uh so i tip it was like a tip more of a tip

tip than anything sure sure that's better than a 50 g's bonus in my opinion yeah it was pretty you know what see things are all right i went on my twitter after the the press conference and you sent me a couple tweets do you remember that? Oh man Yeah that wasn't good That was bad

What happened there? What happened there? Tell us what happened I think I Mistaked my Snapchat For my Instagram And That was must have happened

And then the videos got on there But What were you doing? What's that? What were you doing in the videos? I was back in that hotel, man You were pissed No, I wasn't pissed

You were celebrating You were celebrating? Yeah, more celebrating, yeah. Why wreck something when you're celebrating? What's the best time to wreck something? I guess. You know? I mean...

I just won. Go crazy, you know? What'd you do? What'd you do to the room? A refrigerator got thrown. There was like a cart, got tipped over. All these things were accidents, Ariel. What about the TV?

No, the TV was fine. Oh, it was fine. Okay, I thought I saw it. Yeah, TV was fine. And did you get in trouble for this? it's kind of like a game you find out you'll see and they'll send you a bill or they don't send you a bill and they didn't you know did they not yet not yet not yet usually like uh give it a month or two wait a second you've done this before oh no never so how do you know yeah okay um so you're crossing

your fingers what's that i'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't send me a bill are you worried no not really okay what else did you do that night to celebrate No, I got I was put on I was put on house arrest Oh, by who? They told me I wasn't allowed to leave Who's they?

My coaches They found out about the tweets Oh yeah They made sure that They Nix that right away Get it off I said shit man

I didn't even know I posted that My bad You sent it to me You know you tagged me in the thing Yeah Yeah you know That's a problem Whatever man

You're going crazy. Yeah, yeah. Who's with you in those videos? Your buddies? Who was with me? Yeah. One of my teammates and this girl from Vegas. Okay.

And, you know, the UFC, they're famous for giving guys, you know, these bonuses. Did they at least make it up to you for not, you know, getting the fight night bonus? Usually they'll send something, you know, like a month after. Okay, so time hasn't passed. You're still waiting. That should come. Hopefully that'll come right as the time when they. send me the bill for the hotel room.

Perfect. And then we could just kind of like call it even. So then as you mentioned, you get this fight on Monday night. That's when it was announced. So you went on Saturday. You get the fight on Monday. And this is a fascinating thing for me because the UFC on Espanol, Twitter, announces the fight. My amigos, you know?

They say at Gamebred Fighter, which is Jorge Mazvedal, is going to fight Alejandro de UFC. not at Al-Aa Quinta. So I click on this Alejandro Twitter feed, and I realize it's a ally Quinta account in Spanish. Not many followers, by the way, but I could tell some pretty funny stuff I have a very

I guess elementary understanding of Spanish. This is in fact your Spanish Twitter feed, right? That's it, man. It's my Spanish it's my people, my ombris in Mexico. They got to know about Alejandro. When did you start this?

The Twitter? Yeah. A couple months ago, probably. And why Spanish? Why are you trying to cater? You don't have any Spanish blood in you, right? No, no Spanish blood. But I'm going to take you back to 2007, I think it was. I was an amateur.

Okay, take me back. I went to, I was fighting in like the regional amateur promotions in New Jersey. Mm-hmm. and a guy, Ed Sue, he was one of the promoters. He was like the the promoter at the time in New Jersey for the amateurs. See, he was, I don't know, how they found this fight in Mexico in Monterey, Mexico. Okay. So he was like, you want to go, I was like maybe 18, 18, 17, I don't even know.

It's 18 years old, let's say. Okay. So I was like, all right, let's do it. When I hopped on a plane, went down to Monterey, Mexico, got first round, knockout. Everybody in the place. Alejandro, Alihani,

it was crazy, man. They loved me. They were sending me coronas on tap. Corona's on tap. Wow. Crazy. Okay.

All in Mexico. So, you know, I had a good time. And now they're going back to Mexico. And I think it's, you know, the fans want me back.

They need Alejandro back back in Mexico. So your plan is to get this fight, you know, over and done with win this fight and then fight on that June card in Mexico? I don't know about fighting June in Mexico.

I mean, that'd be cool. Hopefully everything works out good. That'd be nice. Or they have two shows in Mexico. Or just get a vacation out of it. Who knows? Go down to watch the fight. Oh, a guest fighter.

Do a little guest fighter thing. That'd be cool, you know. So how is your Spanish? I know you have a tutor. I mean, can you tell us a few things? Can you say a few things in Spanish? I can't say anything in Spanish. Not yet, man.

That's BS. I saw a video of you. on a website where you're speaking all in Spanish. You're talking about your fans in Monterey, all that time. I saw a whole video about it. Yeah, yeah. So you're lying.

What do you mean? I saw a video of you speaking in pretty good... Oh, me a liar, Ariel? Why are you so shy with your Spanish? I'm not shy. It's going to come out, man. All right. It's going to come out.

No, see. That will take... Alejandro will make them all humble. Don't worry about it. I saw also via that Twitter feed that you asked Invictus star Alexa Grasso to be your Valentine. Did she ever reply?

Dude, she didn't even answer me. What is this shit? Alejandro get no love. You zeroed in on her and she wouldn't even reply to you. That's kind of, I mean, that's heartbreaking. You know, it's, it is what it is,

man. I tried. Every good, what are those guys? The guys that hold the, uh... The Matador's. The Matador. I'm trying to be a Matador, you know? Matador can't go without a Valentine. Down in Mexico? Did you get one?

Did you get one? Did you get one? Yeah, I had a Valentine? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Ray Longo is my Valentine. We were doing pads at freaking 8 o'clock at night on Valentine's. Really? You weren't even watching the fights?

I got home, I DV Artem and I watched the rest of them, yeah, and fell asleep during them. Why Saturday night doing some padwork with Ray? I mean, he has a family, too. He has a wife. Why are you doing that on a Saturday night? Valentine's Day night. Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night. That's what we do.

We're in the gym, man. I don't know. Wow. When everyone else is relaxing, we're training. So no break. No break after the Lowe's on win. I mean, I wouldn't call it a break, but definitely different training for the, you know, two weeks. Got to kind of heal your body, get your mind in a different place.

And then, like, you know, four or five weeks before the fight really start getting back. to the hard training, like fight camp training, I guess you'd call it. So you went to that Naga tournament in Philly. Did you notice a difference in the way people received you? Like, did you feel like you were a big star now? You just won on the Anderson-Silvanik-Diaz card against Joe Lozahn. It was a very dominant, impressive win. Did you feel like, wow, things have changed for me here,

at least the way people received me? Yeah, no, for sure. Everyone saw the fight, and everyone was giving me, you know, good compliments, and they were encouraging me, you know, for the future. So it was good. It's, uh, that's kind of the reason I like going to those tournaments. Everyone's really there for the same thing. Everyone's, uh, you know, just trying to get better.

So it's, it's cool. You meet some really cool people. How'd you do? Oh, I did it right. I did it right. I did, uh, I did, um, I did the no-gee. I did a right in no-gee. And, uh, I went two and one.

The one guy I lost two, I was winning. And he called me in a submission. I tap kind of quick just because I don't want to, no injuries or nothing. So I could have been something I could have fought out of. But, you know, I said, no, tap quick. And in the ghee, I got freaking hammered, bro. Hammered. This guy I went against, he was pretty good.

He's got, I don't do the ghee. I never, I worry. Maybe I can count on two hands the amount of times I've won the ghee. Okay. But I just threw it on, hop in there. It was fun, you know. but I would have been more fun if I whipped him but he freaking whooped me

but uh you know it was fun it was good why do why do the ghee at all uh well you go you drive all the way there sure it's like all day thing

and you gotta pay a hundred bucks might as well do it right right right right that's a good point and it's not like it's not like your your your confidence is down or anything right no yeah no It was, you know, probably just a workout for me.

Really, I was like not, I wasn't really, obviously you want to win, but I'm not, I wasn't like getting nervous before it. I was just there having a good time, hop in, getting some working with some guys that, you know, I could have stayed here and went to the gym here and enrolled with the guys at Sarah's. But you kind of get used to the guys after a while, and it's good to mix it up, you know, switch it up, go and go and feel new bodies, you know, you. You got to get guys that you don't know how they move and you got to adjust real quick. So it's similar to a, similar to a fight, you know.

It's the closest thing you can do to fighting, I think. Let me ask you about something Mazvedal told MMAJunkey.com recently, okay? He said, quote, he's taking a couple steps up and I'm taking a few steps back. The kid's talented and all, but I've got no business fighting this guy, you know? People are making a big deal because he beat Joe Lozahn. Welcome to the club, man. I kicked that dude's ass eight years ago. He's not too happy about this matchup.

What's your response to that? Yeah, I wouldn't be happy if I was him too. He was going to fight Ben Henderson, right? That's pretty cool. I'm stepping in for Ben Henderson. That's freaking awesome, huh? Look at you. Right?

It's good. What were we saying? Well, you know, it seems like he's kind of upset about this fight. He feels like he's not, you know, getting someone that's on his level. Yeah, I mean, that's the way it works. He had a good fight, and, you know, Ben had, he got pulled to another fight. I don't know. I've knocked out three, I beat the piss out of, you know, guys that I fought the whole time.

So I think, I don't think anybody, obviously there's always going to be step up. I think I can fight anybody, and it's going to be a good fight. I think I could beat anybody. I really do. So, you know, I don't have the big name that he's looking for, but I think I'm just as tough as a fight, you know. So it's probably not too, it's probably not a great fight for him. He's right, yeah, we all right, you know.

He's on the money. Do you feel like he's disrespecting you looking past you, or are you bothered by these comments? No, not really. I'm just doing me, man. He can say what he wants. He can do what he wants, but I'm just going to train hard and, you know, just go.

in there and do what I've been doing. That's it. Who do you think they'll favor more, the Latino crowd, you know, because he is of Latino descent. You who is really trying to cater to them and connect with them or him? I don't know, man.

I'm not really thinking about that. I'm just having fun, man. You know? Well, you're really coming out of your shell. I must say, I mean, it's a totally different guy here. Same guy, Ariel. We're just, I don't know. Maybe you're seeing it more. I don't know. maybe you're seeing it more. I don't know.

I think you're, this is a different, this is, you're, you're allowing us to enter your world more. You're, you're showing us more of you. Same guy, maybe.

It's scary. You guys are gonna fucking run. Are there more layers? I'm the, I don't even know, man. You know what? I can't even say, I can't tell you,

because people, I get, I don't even know. I get kicked out of the UFC. I get kicked out of the UFC so quick. Why? What do you do that we don't know about? about? I don't know. Nothing. I just go off a little bit. I don't know. That's what it is.

Well, just remember, you got a good thing going here. Don't, don't look. That's what Ray said. That's what Longo said to me. He said, stay on the straight and narrow. We're doing good. Yeah. Look at Chris Wyman, right? Guys, the man, huh? Is he an inspiration? Is he a role model for you? Oh, absolutely. 100%. Okay. 100%. He's, uh, he's one of the hardest working. He's, he's, he's one of the hardest working. guys most mentally strong. It's a pleasure being around the people that I'm around, you know? All right. Well, we look forward to seeing your progression

in and out of the cage. Great job with the Twitter feed. I do suggest everyone who is on Twitter, even if they don't understand Spanish, to follow at Alejandro to UFC. Quite frankly, it's more entertaining than your normal Twitter feed, your English one, to be quite honest with you. But I'm looking forward to this fight. It's a great fight. Great opportunity for you. April 4th, Fairfax, Virginia. And the card, by the way, I don't know if you know this. The card is taking place in the the day. Main card starts at 1 p.m. Eastern time. So that's fun,

right? Yeah, it's cool. That was how it was in Australia, so I like that. It'll be good. A little afternoon delight. Afternoon delight. There it is. Thank you, all the best. Good. Ariel. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. There he is. Raging ally, Quinta, stopping by.

Great stuff from him. A huge opportunity for him, a big fight in the lightweight division on April 4th. Okay, let us move along now. And we were talking about good friends of the show. Well, this man, this was the first friend of the show. This was a guy who was a big part of our show way back when he stops by every so often these days, wanted to talk to him about what's next for him. He is on a role. So there's a lot of exciting things I am sure.

Of course, I'm talking about Matt Matrione, who joins us right now via the phone. Matt, how are you? What's how good looking? How are you doing? Great to have you on the show. So there I am on a Thursday afternoon just minding my business. And all of a sudden, Matt Matrione's... Oh, what? You minding your own business? Yes. Let's not get crazier. Let's not get too crazy.

I'm just doing my thing, man. I'm just doing my thing trying to survive. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, my Twitter feed is just in the midst of this storm. And you're, you know, you have a very entertaining Twitter feed. We're just talking about that with Ally Quinta, but you seemed upset. You seem legitimately pissed off. Is that accurate? Well, yeah, I'm bothered by that.

I'm bothered by the fact that, you know, I get a report. I've been waiting for the last two months for this fight to get announced. Like, when I tweeted however long ago, like, I think probably five or six weeks ago, hey, I finally got a fight. You know, I'd have to wait for it to get an ounce. This is the fight I was talking about. Like, I call up and I say, hey, look, or I get a phone call. They say, hey, look, this is this, if I were prepared to offer you, blah, blah, blah.

You know, what do you think about these options? And I said, I love this option right here. I think this is perfect. I'd love to have this fight. Absolutely. And then, you know, five weeks later, I find out that he would still turn him down the fight. Like, come on, guy. And, like, you know, and dude, I'm not saying he's ducking.

I'm not saying that at all because Oloskey's done, you know, had some of the biggest fight in the world. He was getting out on Fador for God's sake until, you know, until you got caught. And, you know, it's just, it's unfortunate. You think that he says that there's too much of a disparity between my ranking and his, but I'm only five spots behind him. And I think we all know in that situation that had I gotten a chance. to fight through. Street wasn't really

better to get back. You know, it was the first time to have a major significant event in his life. And I think I would have put hands on him. I think I would have knocked

through about pretty quickly. And so I'd be ranked right next to him or right behind him if everything had gone the way ahead. So, yeah, I was bothered by that

and I still am. Like, come on, dude. Like, you used to go hard. You used to be a dumb man. Like, when you had a hairy chest and long hair, you were the man. Like, bring that dude back.

Come on. And just to be, clear because I never actually said his name. We're talking about Andre Arlofsky. Currently, he's ranked 7th. You are ranked 12th. You're on a great winning streak as of late. He's coming off a very big win over Bigfoot Silva, but that was a while ago. He had shoulder surgery.

So where do you think stand right now after what transpired on Thursday? You know, I honestly, unfortunately, I don't know. I've talked to Joe Silva. I've been texting and tweeting Dana, left and right. And as far as I understand, there's no change. She wants to fight somebody

ranked higher than me, which I understand. excuse me, because I'm in that same boat. I want to rank somebody who ranked higher than I am, but in that same breath, I'm also surging right now. I'm on three first round knockouts. And, you know, like I said, it should be four.

Well, I guess I doubt I've gotten the Derek Lewis fight had I fought through. But still, like, I feel like I'm not sure about and how old that I can talk out. It would be an exact same boat, you know, and I'd really be ranked higher and it'd be impossible for him, I know. But, you know, it's frustrating.

but I think that I think everything points true to the fact that this would be a hell of a fight he's a legend in this sport I respect the hell out of him and he's done so many things and like I said in a tweet before that Olauski is a prototypical athletic big man

he's got great footwork incredibly fast hands great power he showed against my my friend and partner and teammate Anthony Johnson his chin is back I don't know where it went or whatever else everybody calls him a glass jaw

because he had a bad streak but let me do our lawfully in there I'm fighting with Anthony Johnson, who broke my face. I had to get surgery on him to get it fit. So I know how hard Anthony punches. And Alobsky fought two rounds with a broken jaw. You know what I mean?

So it's a hell of a fight, dude. We're both athletic. We're both strikers. We've both got every bit of a fan base that wants us through that fight. And to me, it seems like a great fight. Oh, I was saying before, I'm ranked 12th, but I'm streaking, right? I'm on three-first-round knockout streak. So even if you do beat me, you're going to,

go up in rankings because I'm pretty damn hot right now. Right. And the other thing is, I mean, if you look at who's between you and him, I like this match up a lot. Actually, for both of you, to be honest, Overeem has a fight in a month, so that's kind of out the window because he's busy. He already fought Rothwell.

You know, he already fought Roy Nelson, who's also fighting Overeem, and he just beat Antonio Silva, and that's it. So when you kind of consider it like that, I feel like you're almost closer than what you really are, if you get what I'm saying. I totally agree. I totally agree. And, you know, like, I don't think too, man. Like, I've already, people have texted me,

hey, once you fight this one guy, the Russian guy, right? Why don't you fight the Russian guy, blah, blah, blah. Why are you being such a prima donna? I already fought somebody that wasn't ranked. Derek Lewis called me out by name, and instead of, you know, huff and a pop and why I would have been true, and I want somebody this and that, I took that fight, knowing it was a lose-lose situation.

I wasn't going to go up in rankings, and it was a big risk because it was unknown with a great amount of, power and he picks people up, he plans on the ground and malls them. I finish that fight without getting touched. You know, like, I paid my dues. I deserve a fight that's in the top ten, and I think Orlovsky deserves, you know,

a big name and a big risk, and I'm that guy. I've got a big enough name to carry that fight, so does Elovsky, and it's going to be a hell of an experience. And the fans are going to be happy for it. So you said you spoke to Joe Silva, you've texted Tweenad Dana White. Was this all after this stuff came to light on Thursday, and have they given you an update?

Like, have they said, sit tight, we're going to try to figure this out, or you know, we're going to have to go in a different direction. He just doesn't want the fight. I haven't, I have not gotten either one of those. The roadblock is he wants to fight somebody ranked higher

and so do you. Yes, you're right. Like, Arlowski got to the position that he's in because number four, Bigfoot Silver, took that fight with number 14, Andre Arlowski, and Al-Lovsky won. So Al-Lovsky got moved to number seven from number 14. Now, he won't, when he's number seven, he won't fight number 12s.

That's crazy. That's nuts to me. And on top of that, I already, like I said, I already took a fight with Derek Lewis, a two fights in the USC, unknown, big, huge risk with mad power. And he's intimidating as I held to look at, right? So I already took that fight. So now, you put your stones on the line, right? You tweet, you say, as long as the UFC says so, anytime, anywhere.

My ass, guys, the UFC's offered you a handful of times. You said no to that fight, significantly. over a two-month period. So anytime anywhere, that's a cop-out. Say yes. When Joseph will call you today, say, okay, you know what, I'll finally take it. There's been sweating me and persisting me so much.

And he might go in there and whoop my ass and make me eat my words. And if he does, I'll eat all the humble pie I can take. And by the way, I may be... But I don't see that happening. A little bias here. Anyone who uses House Taste My Pee to bait an opponent, I mean, that's gold in my book. Hey, first of all, thank you very much.

And I was actually really, I was really proud of that. And I bet a lot of people didn't know you were talking about, right? Well, you know, I've actually had a lot of people, a guy I grapple with him, Carlos Soto here in Perthew. He's, you know, whatever Brownbell Black Belt under Andre Galvall. And he had no clue what I was talking about. I actually had to send him the link. You know, like, Andre Alasked him, so we had a question on YouTube, you know.

Like, it was great. I'll take my big D.C. I mean, actually, and Al-Laski actually favored it. Somebody said, you know, why waste time on Olaubsts deal and knock them out in the first round? And I gave a four-part answer to that. I said, number one, like, Ola-Lovsky's a legend. Number two, he's a pro-tipical athletic big man. Number three is something I can't remember.

And number four was he said, quote, how taste my picture? You know, like, I mean, Olauoski favored that tree. Oh, really? Wow. I know he likes it. He sold those T-shirts, too. At first, they hated it. They got so mad at me for asking him the question,

and then they went and sold the T-shirts on his website. Well, dude, it's one of the best quotes in MMA history. It's fantastic, dude. I think that I think a lot of people get the thing quicked it up that I don't, I don't respect Alasky to them coming after him. That's completely opposite, man. I respect Arlowski so much that I'm coming after him. Like, the dude is a legend in the sport.

Like I said, was getting out on Fadoor and so he made a silly mistake. You know, like, it's just, it's the way things work sometimes. But it has nothing to do with me disrespecting him or not or not valuing his abilities at all. none whatsoever. I'm just saying, look, dude, go hard like you used to. Accept the fight. Let's do this. You beat me. I'm not saying to validate your position, but it will definitely move you up in the ranks, even though I'm ranked lower than you, because I'm such a hot commodity right now. It'll come after you, and you'll get rewarded for it.

Is another potential issue, the time frame, because I'm assuming you want to get back in there and build on this momentum. You last fought in December, he's still somewhat recovering out, although I think he's pretty close, but, you know, they have this show in Chicago. maybe he's going to wait for that. He's a huge draw on Chicago. I mean, do you want to fight sooner rather than later as well? Oh, so there's a problem here. I'm 36-year-old, right?

Yeah. I can't wait around all the time. A Rolling Stone gathers no moss, right? Well, I'm too-am-old to be gathering to gather in moth anyway. So let me get in there. Let me work. Let me stay, you know, as young and spry and as irresponsible and immature as I am with my body. Let me keep rolling.

And I think I think that's... the fans appreciate that perspective. Like, but the bad part is, like, there's only 11 guys in the world going tired of me right now, right? I guess 12 because they go to number one in the champion. So those fights have to work out, and then, like, the time frame has to be able to work out. But, you know, I want to stay active, man.

Hell, after I be Kanaka, I was practicing three days later, you know, like, I, I, it's just the way it works, man. I just want to work, just want to work, want to work, want to put on damn good shows. When I retire out of USC, I want, when I, when I, when I, And when I'm done, I want people back, damn. I may hate his guts and couldn't stand his voice, but that dude always brought it. Whether he wins or loses, he always does it big.

Football MMA, have you ever felt this confident in your athletic ability? I'm probably one of the most arrogant people that I've ever met when it comes down to my athletic ability. Okay. Yes, I always have. But as far as me being a fighter, a complete fighter, I feel that I am better than I've ever been in my life, and I am not afraid to tell the world pretty obviously. But I feel dangerous.

I feel like, I feel that my, you know, it's embarrassing to say because I had such a poor showing in the Brennan, but my grappling is pretty freaking good. I feel like I feel like surprised all the time, and they say, wow, you know, I had no clue your grappling is that good. Same things with my wall take down, in the sense, and my wrestling and my scrambling abilities. So, you know, it's just a matter of time.

and this is a fight I think with a hell of a show. Plus, you have to remember something, too. I'm re-negotiating after this next fight. So this is a huge risk for me. Like, for me to take on a fighter, like Arloskey, if I lose that fight, I lose probably 50 Gs or more a fight. You know, like, that's a huge risk. I'm not trying to play it safe.

I could go in and fight a no-name guy that I just won this fight and won four knockouts or four state victories. What hell does that do? I can't rein my head down on the pillow and sleep well at night, knowing that. I'm trying to trust myself and I'm trying to push it. I think that means to be respected, and I deserve this fight. So you have one fight left on your contract? I have two fights.

They don't let you get off contract. So we'll renegotiate after this next fight. Okay, fair enough. Hey, by the way, speaking of the football stuff, I mean, you've been in those locker rooms before. You know about there's a PED problem in MMA right now that's coming to light. Is it a bigger issue in the NFL as far as you're concerned or an MMA? Okay, so I haven't really put, I don't have not put my...

mind to this too much lately. So they're going to kind of catch me thinking on the fly here. I think that there's an issue with performance-enhancing drugs on any level, whether that is professional chess or professional sports. It doesn't matter. So I think that there's always going to be a line that's going to be drawn, and there's always going to be somebody to figure out some way to step over that line and not get caught or to take as much of a chance as possible.

And I think it's difficult because MMA right now is getting a pretty, in my opinion, my perspective, a pretty ugly black eye, right? Like a lot of large names that are getting caught up for this and that and the other. First of all, I think the fact that people care so much about weed is a shame. But, you know, if we consider a form of an anthing drug, I mean, you might as well consider caffeine in a form of a foreign hamping drug and so people can't drink coffee anymore either. And that's kind of ridiculous to me.

As far as like performance-wise and everything else, yeah, I think there's an issue, but I don't know, I don't know if it's bigger in football or more prevalent in football or an MMA, but I will tell you this much. I think that instead of running gear, like instead of taking steroids or growth or whatever else, I think the problem is that people don't train intelligently. And I think that's one of the biggest things.

I proudly say that I will take a fight at any given time, right? I was only one of everything out of my life with Daniel Cormier, right? I'll tell you why I turned down Cormier. I think I've told you this before in private A.H., but at that time, I was out from injury, right? I just lost a fight to Czech Congo. I was out on injury or whatever else.

I was out for a while. I had no money. It was pretty broke. Then they called up with the opportunity to fight, Daniel Cormier. Well, at that time, I had a bigger name than Cormier. I had to leave UFC, go to Strike Force, fight a guy who just won the tournament,

but there's no title of it. take and there was no extra money. So I had a huge risk, huge, huge risk to come out for the last fight of Strike Force. It made no sense. So I put in that fight down, and I said, you know, probably, you know, because there's a better wrestle with them. I'm not ready yet, which is true at the point, but there were also a few underlying situations there. It wasn't just because I was intimidated because it didn't make business sense. It just wasn't the right decision. I thought on blast by it, right? Which I was not sure, whatever, you know, you do what you got to do as a promoter. but as far as it goes, I always say anytime, anywhere, I will take a fight.

As long as you guys can get me into the country, or whatever, I'm down for the cause. And that means I'm obviously not running stairways because I couldn't say that and be willing to get called to the carpet anytime. So I think that my training methods are better, are smarter. I don't put on 16-ounce clubs anymore. I don't spot hard. I don't put on headgear. I don't beat my brain up and beat my body up like that. I listen to myself, and my body says, hey, dude, you've just had too damn much today.

Only then I take day off, I go swimming, and I do something else instead. I recover. And, you know, with the sport of MMA, there's so many sports you had to prepare for, right? Freestyle wrestling, Greco wrestling, scrambling, mat wrestling, grappling. You have to worry about your looks. There's so much more, so much extra pressure. And with grappling, you're going to do probably seven to ten, five-minute, three-to-five-minute rounds per grapple session with different people, and everybody knows that you've got to see, so everybody's going to go hard on you.

So all your grappling sessions are killer. You know, when you get caught in something, you're not going to tap because you're going through something. You're going to try to work your way out of it. And you get a sore shoulder or whatever else, and you go box the next day and you have to do this. And all of a sudden, your body's beat the hell. So, in my opinion, you listen to your body more. You don't just train through it. We're not stupid like that.

We don't just run through also no reason. So you get your body to the point where it can handle what you put it through. And you don't need excess supplementation to do so. You know, and if you're talking like, oh, well, you know, Bob tastes 200 grams of protein today. Well, Bob can do that because Bob's not going to get popped for 200 grams of protein. He may have some kidney stones you have to deal with, but he's not going to get pot for protein intake. So I think that there might be a problem with PEDs, but I think it's because the sport hasn't evolved enough to realize that kicking each other's ass or kicking your own ass every single day, day and day out with limited rest of recovery is ridiculous. And on top of that, I think,

this is probably going to wrestle with some feathers here, but I think that strength and conditioning is a major trouble with MMA. Because I think everybody works so hard on the match, right? Like, you don't go on the mat and half ass it. You don't do that. Because if you do, you're going to get hurt because that guy you're going against is going to try to bust his ass no matter what's happening. And you're getting ready for something else.

So you go on the match and you fight hard every time. It doesn't matter what the situation is. But then you go and do strength of conditioning and you're lifting on a beat up body. you're doing the robes, you know, it's other madness and this and this and this, and your body gets worn down and you never get a chance to recover. And too many people say, like, I've been approached by all these derelicts and fools that say, oh, I can make you, I can all make you puke in one round.

Go to hell, guy. I don't need anybody running me into the ground so much that I puke. That's not the answer. All that does is just ruin your neurological system and, you know, everything else. They just runs you to the ground. It's fools. and I think that so many people think, oh, he works me so hard,

that means they're getting better. And I think it's quite the contrary. So I just don't think that training has caught up to the mentality of, you know, bigger, stronger, faster. I think that everybody tries to run themselves through walls just to just to make they're supposed to listen to the body more. Well, we got a hell of a soapbox there,

and that was that okay? Did you hear, it was great? Did you hear Brendan Shops say on his podcast, there's just no reason everyone shouldn't take steroids, he was saying, like, give me one good reason. It seems like even if you take the risk, look at the money you'll make. You know, a lot of good things will happen to before you even possibly get caught.

Can you see that? I mean, I hate to think that people think that way, but, you know, it seems to be a reality, right? I'm friends of Bernardino, right? And so I'm going to try to support on the matter what, but I don't think he's far off. And that's a hell of a radical statement to make, right? Like, especially Brendan to come out and say that publicly, like, that's madness. but I don't think he's that far off. There should be, and if I do for some reason, if I ever get popped or anything,

whether I put in my body or whatever the hell is going on, that's my responsibility. I put it in my body, and it's my fault. I screwed that up, so I deserve the punishment for it. So I think there needs to be something that's pretty significant about it. And GSP is correct that that is going into a fight with a weapon. Dude, you are, you're geared up, you're artificially enhanced, and you are going to cause damage to somebody doing something. Whether that's a hill hook that you wouldn't have done the finish,

but you had enough extra squeeze because you're able to do all these extra reps or whatever else, you know, or he had some enhanced strength. But you got to remember something, too, like Luke Rockwell had a hell of a position on some stuff that, you know, the steroids didn't beat me. This I believe what he said, or I'm paraphrasing, but the steroids didn't beat me, but the extra time in the gym and the extra reps that he was allowed to do were what allowed him to do X, Y, and Z, right?

And so that's a hell of a position to take, because it's highly accurate, in my opinion. You're talking about the rest of recovery that PEDs allow, right? And that's the biggest problem. It's not like all this artificial manufactured strength. It's the fact you're able to get all these extra reps out of what you're doing. And I think as a response of that, that's a very insightful comment.

I don't know if people will pick that up or not. Yeah, and I don't want to just take one little quote, out of context, I do suggest people check out his podcast, The Fighting on the Kid last week when he spoke about it, and he also didn't say that he takes steroids, he was just kind of playing devil's advocate here. It's a fascinating discussion, so I suggest everyone check it out.

Last thing before I let you go, Matt, and I appreciate the honesty, as always. Is there a plan B here? I mean, what are you doing? You're just sitting back, or do you have another guy on your mind that you're going to go after? Because, like you said, you don't want to sit around and wait. Right, well, you know, obviously, Olavski is so

first of all, he's a damned good looking So when I say that, you can go ahead and take that the context if you want. He's so sexy. It's a sexy fight. It's a sexy name across the board. You know, it's what I want. I want to fight a loss. I want to push myself.

I want to be tested. He's number seven in the world for reason. You know, like, the dude comes out there and puts on a show and is capable of beating anybody in the world on any given day. And I feel on the exact same way. And we're both primarily strikers. A lot of you've got a hell of a game, a ground game, you know, per Asombo. and I've got a game that I've worked so much on that

if I've got to show it and not completely pissed on my leg with it, I think it would be impressed. But, you know, I want that fight. So is there a plan B? Yeah, Plan B is a Firelovsky. So it's C, B, and F. I might, if I get all the way to Jay, I'll say, you know what, I'd like to fight somebody in the top ten.

Okay. But if I can't get somebody in the top ten, then I'll just sit and show and try jokes and maybe look at being a TV personality, taking over a show called MMA hour. their host. Oh, yeah. You can come here anytime.

I'd love to have you in studio one of these days. You need to come here. You help build this show. So you always have a spot right next to me on this show. For now, good luck getting the fight, Matt. I appreciate the effort. I appreciate the honesty and the takes, as always, and hopefully you get it sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the time. Appreciate it, ma'am. All right, there he is. Matt Mitreone. As we said, surging heavyweight, looking to get a big fight against Andre Arlofski. Let us stick with the heavyweight division now and talk about a man who's back in the news.

We haven't seen him fight since December of 2013. You haven't seen him inside the octagon since then, but you've seen him on this show several times. Well, now he says, according to his manager, super manager, Leland Labar, he says that he's ready to resume his UFC career. Let us find out for ourselves. Let us welcome in Mr. Josh Barnett via the magic of Skype. Josh, how are you?

I am well. We have not seen you fight for a long time, but people have seen you on this show many of times. And I feel like at this point, they're like, all right, we now see Josh on this show more than we actually see him fight. It's like the fourth time since your last fight you've been on. Is it in fact true that you are ready to resume your UFC career? I am. I am.

And I'm kind of like that relative you just can't seem to get rid of. I just keep creeping around your set, popping out here, popping out there. I'm just always hanging around, you know, just seeing what you got in the first. So let's have an honest discussion here. Why did you take this break? Come on. You ask a lot of me. No, no, I just want to know, like, why the break? I mean, you came on and sometimes you were a bit vague, but like, now that you're back, now that you're ready to resume and go on this run and get back to where you were, why did you take this break? I was just so much stuff going on. I mean, movie stuff that I've been working on, um, training my other fighter. that I've been working with.

So Victor Henry was just over in Japan. He's fought there twice, actually, since last year, winning both fights in the main events for a company called Grand Slam, beating Hideo Tokoro by knockout and submitting Masakatsu-O-Wera by Nibar in the third round. And so with that, he's now managed to get himself a contract into Pancras. And we're going to go see if we can't take him all the way to the top and bring another member into the royal family here. Also, Colleen Schneider's fighting in Invicta 11 against Irina Aldana on the 27th.

She also won the Fila grappling world championships. She went to Hungary to do that. She won the SFL America's title, as if Victor Henry, and she's going to be fighting in Pancras as well on May. and I've got a lot of stuff going on that way. And then also, like I said, the movie, the television stuff with the New Japan Pro Wrestling work that Mar and all are doing on Access TV. They just came at us. They want to order more episodes because it's doing so fantastically well.

And there's been a lot of things out there just keeping me real busy. But when it comes to fighting, stuff, I have to put a lot of that stuff on hold, not necessarily the working. with the athletes, but everything else that I'm working with in the entertainment industry. And entertainment has a real hard time trying to understand the fact of, hey, you know, actually, if I don't give my best performance on camera, that's, you know, the editor can do this or that. If I don't get my best performance in the cage, somebody punches my nose halfway off my face. So, yeah, you're just going to have to take it back seat. Plus, they like to be a bit sporadic about things.

Oh, no, no, no, we're going to go in May. No, it's May, it's Oh, it's going to get pushed to, oh, that doesn't work, man. You got to keep a hard schedule, but they don't. So once I go into fighting, I just have to tell everybody no. And honestly, I don't like to

see any doors closed potentially because of availability. And, you know, I still got a lot of fight left in me, but I'm not trying to be a person that's really only one dimensional. So you're obviously busy. A lot of six dimensions. Right, of course. You're busy, things are going well. Why even

come back at this point? Why did you feel like, all right, now's the time? I felt like, well, for one, I felt like I needed to get an on-air live interview in person with Ariel again and mess with him when there's no real opportunity to do anything else but to just sit there and have to roll with the punches. I feel like you've been having it really easy recently. with these fighter clods, you know, not pushing your button and messing with you. Okay, okay. I appreciate that. There's that.

Also, I think the UFC needs a real injection of some excitement in the heavyweight division. And I bring that not only with word, but with action. So they just need more metal, man. Place isn't very metal. What's your take on the division right now? I mean, since you last fought, Kay Velasca says, yes. the fight. He fought October of 2013. It seems like we're still in this

state of his holding pattern for a reason we're doing the interim champion, but to be quite honest, not much has changed in the division since you last fought. So what's your take on it? I think somebody should shake it up. That person should be me.

Get a hold of it. Throw a little piece of chicken in the little bag to the deal. It's the oven for a little bit. have a little bit of rice errone on the stove you know basically the bachelor's grand feast I don't do does anybody even remember what shaken bake is anymore I think of course I love shaking bake yeah but uh you know and it's not Kane's fault I mean I don't think he's making a choice hey I'm not going to fight you just he gets hurt man the guy trains very hard and and and he's had some

bad luck. So I don't doubt that he'd be out there defending his title, given an opportunity, but he's not 100%. So there it sits. But as far as what's going on up at the top, you know, that's the way it is. When one guy's got the belt, things happen a lot slower. But down underneath, hell, anything can happen at any moment. And so that's where I come in. So let's break some news here. When are you returning and against two? I don't have anything locked in yet. Okay. I know you love vagaries, but that's just, unfortunately, the UFC is, I mean, they're planning a bazillion events every month.

So it's just going to have to take a bit of time until they have an opponent for me and they have a set date. But we are in talks. We are in constant connection. I sent them a little box of chocolates the other day. Okay. And they sent me a little gift certificate for a manny petting down the street. which was very nice of them.

But they'll let me know as soon as we can get something going. Do you have a time frame in mind? Do you have an opponent in mine? This year and somebody willing to fight me. No one in particular. You haven't mapped it out. You seem like the map out kind of guy. I don't map anything out.

I just go, okay, who wants to get in the cage? Oh, okay, he thinks he's a badass. Let's go kick the shit out of him. That's basically my... I can't really make a fight happen. I cannot do that. I cannot force somebody to get out there. I cannot force their manager to agree to it.

I cannot force the UFC to agree to it. And I cannot force them to sign a contract. Well, I probably could. That's a lot of effort. That's like fighting twice there. But, you know, or I guess I should take a smarter route of it and just go, hey, does this rags smell like chloroform? Oh, I guess it does. And sign a form.

But either way, I can't force it. that kind of stuff to happen. All I can do is put myself out there, be willing, be ready and able. And, you know, if the UFC goes, okay, well, we're going to match you up with Joe Schmo or Shecky Goldstein, then they will. Yes. I could be anybody. Sure. This is an international sport aerial.

It's true. Shecky Goldstein sounds like the name of what my character would be called in our little pro wrestling fantasy. Sounds like a perfect name for him. You know, you're... It does not. We would not fight, though.

No. We are the breakable super team. You're 37, 40 pro fights under your belt. Do you still feel the same about the sport, or are you feeling like... That way to have on record, yeah. So do you still feel the same about the sport? Or do you feel like, okay, this is my final run. This is one last year for me.

Where are you at mentally? Mentally? I don't know. I guess I'm a pretty happy, fun I don't know, everything's still pretty much the same for me. I'm not a child trying to

prove to the world how tough I am. I don't know how tough I am. I'm ready to take on any title fight anywhere in the world. I can dethrone any champion that exists on this earth by far. But I just want to get out there and do the most of what I got left.

I don't know what that is. I don't look at things his last runs and I don't speak in finalities because I'll know it when it gets there. But until then, there's no point to try and come up with some date and then try to meet that goal. I'm not trying to meet the goal of being done with fighting. By the way, you always seem to come at us from the same spot. Right now it seems like you're in some kind of pantry. Where exactly are you? an undisclosed location

somewhere in Eastern Europe Oh, okay I want to ask you about this Victor Henry fellow Your manager, Leland doesn't stop talking about him Says he's the best 135 in the world Which is a bit of a crazy statement I mean T.J. Dillishaw has He is a crazy guy

Why are you guys so high on this guy? And why isn't he in the UFC? He's not even one, I believe. What's that? I said he's our dealer for one. Oh, okay. Hi, hi, he's high. I don't know if Mitrion got enough jokes for you,

so I at least had to go with, you know, I don't know, some old vaudeville and take my wife, please. Right, right, right. He, we're high on him because the kid is talented. He is ferocious and vicious in the ring. I nicknamed him the mongoose, la Mangostab. Because he's very devilishly clever and funny. I always call him a little rapscallion.

He's climbing crap. He's running around. He's always got, he's just full of energy and just very quick with it and just getting into stuff. But when it comes time to get to business, he's like a mongoose. Have you ever seen a mongoose fight a cobra? Those things are killers. They're vicious.

They're mean as shit. And that is exactly who Victor is. and he's been with me for quite some time, and I've watched him grow a lot, and I've seen champion-level aspects out of him. Even if his, when his fight acumen wasn't as good as it is to this point, mentally and in the ring and intent, he had a championship-level quality to him.

And so he's just being. and two highly-touted Japanese champions back-to-back. In fact, both of them had more victories than he had fights altogether. Wow. So a name to remember, Victor Henry, he's next fighting in pancreas in May, as you said. By the way, something just came to me here.

You know, there are these strong rumors that around March, April, Brock Lesnar is going to be a free agent. I know you spoke about him in the past. In the back of your mind, are you praying to the MMA gods? I mean, I don't know if they'd throw him in there with you right off the bat,

but you never know. two wrestlers. I mean, that, that would be big business right there, Barnett versus Lesnar? That would be huge business. It would be a great match to make happen, but no one could, I could never make that. I could never force the issue, but I could always, I've always put my, my voice out there in terms of wanting that fight. But then again, at this point, I think it just sounds like I'm joining the chorus, of all the MMA heavyweights that have all, it's kind of the same thing as CM Punk, and that these guys are all out there running their mouths

saying how they want to go beat up punk or beat up Lesnar because they think it's an easy payday, because they think they see some lack of ability in their MMA game because of them not being fighters for pretty much their whole life, that they're going to go out there and get all that glory and get all the notoriety to go beat up this guy. They see it as an easy shot, which is, I don't know, and in some ways it's kind of cowardly, actually.

But for me, I just, I think of it as the business side of things. Not the business as in, oh, I'm going to make so much money, but business as in that is, you know, two pro wrestlers, the styles. Yeah. seeing the two of us go at it is because people will find interest in it and the fight will be interesting itself not just in hey i'm some guy who's going to try and go bully some other guy who's got less experience and then act like i'm king king shit of turd mountain okay true or false all the guys guy i'm a punk man yeah yeah yeah we sure okay dude you've got like 30 fights and you want like three

different titles and other little organizations and i don't you know fight the guy with zero fights. Oh, look at how fucking bad ass you are. True or false? CM Punk wins his UFC debut. I have no idea. What do you think? I hope so. You're pulling for you. Look, man, I've trained with him a little bit. I should say I've trained him a little, tiny bit. Oh, yeah, no, I don't know that. I'm sure. Rufus is doing a, yeah, I mean, it's nothing. I doubt it to the level that you'll even see any of it in the cage when he makes his debut. But I'm sure that they're doing a great job with him up at Rufusport, and I'm sure he's training very hard. I know he trained very hard to become the wrestler that he is.

So he's probably putting that effort right into his flight training. And I really hope for the best of him. Nothing to do but to watch him get out there and go for it and lock up with somebody and see who comes up on top. So you have no problem with the UFC signing him, of course? no i am of the i'm of the ilk that does not really believe this is that much of a sport and more of uh you know an event oh wow that's interesting that i think that will ruffle a lot of the purest feathers well why do you feel that way uh that's a long conversation but i would say that at the end of the

day one has to take into account that if we don't have people's butts in the seats. We don't have people watching the events and we don't have anything. This isn't the kind of thing where we've got city money and we've got tax exemption on it and all this. We don't have any of that kind of stuff. This isn't that kind of a business. This is far more akin to the business of professional wrestling in terms of the model of how you make money and it's somewhat similar to boxing, not entirely, but it has some crossover in the way that they make their money, but it's just a different whole thing. It's not like the NFL.

It's not like MLV. It's not the same kind of deal. We don't make money the same way. We do, but we don't. And we don't get the kind of breaks that they do as well. So you have to make it so that people are interested to show up and watch. There's a lot of sporting aspect to what we do. But in the end, hey, sometimes we got to go out there and get the fights that people want to see.

Because in the end of the day, if people aren't tuning in to what they want to see, they're not going to tune in at all, and then none of us are going to have a job. Very well said. We will end on that point because I think it segues perfectly into our next guest. Josh, welcome back. It's great to have you back in the minute. I look forward to your return. I wish the best to not only you, but your guy, Victor, and also Colleen next week at

Invicta in Los Angeles. Hopefully I'll see you out there. All the best and appreciate the time as always. All right, man. Take care. All right, there he is. Josh Barnett stopping by. Good to have him back in the mix in the heavyweight division.

All right, as I said, his final answer there was a perfect segue for our next guest. And I say, guess, plural, because we have two coming up right now. Last week, it was officially announced and reported on UFC tonight that one of the most talked about debated fights in MMA history that up until this point was never a possibility is going to be a reality on May 16th in Manila of all places. Some are calling it the thrill in Manila too. Some are calling it East versus West. Our version of Biggie versus Tupac, whatever it is, it's a tremendous fight. It's a five-round main event in the featherweight division. It's former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar going up against former WEC featherweight champion,

in Uriah Faber. I don't know if I've ever been more excited about a fight when it was now. It's just like the initial reaction that I had to finding out that this fight was actually going to happen on May 16. So I said, we need to have both these guys on at the same time.

And thankfully, they both said yes. So let me welcome in both Frankie Edgar and Uriah Faber right now. Frankie, are you there? I'm here. Yariah, are you there? Yeah, what's cracking? Ariel. How are you, brother?

Oh, man, this is so exciting. Just having you both on the show. just speaks volumes to how great of individuals you both are. So thank you so much for coming on and appreciate the time. I'm very excited about this. Uri, I want to start with you.

Your manager, Mike Roberts, told me that this was the toughest fight that he's ever had to put together. And this is a guy who manages the likes of Anthony Pettis, Joseph Benavides, Chad Mendez, Chal Sondon, the list goes on and on. Why, in your opinion,

was it so hard to put on this fight? You know what? I think both Frankie and I are looking to do big fights and, you know, they've given other options. So I don't know for him why it was difficult. I mean, we talked about different fight locations and different dates. And before we, you know, we talked about different weight classes even.

I know that Dana had tried to top Frankie to go down to 135s when they tried to make this fight with the ultimate fighter show. And, I mean, stand next to the guy. I can tell he's a little bigger than I am, and I feel like I'm going to die every time I make 135. So I don't think that was an offer. He didn't want to go down. At the time, I was, I was willing to go up to 145s, but they, you know, who was it?

BJ, BJ Penn to go, to go on my place. So I don't know, man. I don't know why it was difficult for him, but it's just something that has been talked about a lot and not happened. So, Frankie, why now? Why is this the right time to make this fight? You know, I think like Gerard was saying, you know, I think it was always up the year, but I think it was the weight class.

It was the issue. And now that I think you're right, he just, you know, agreed to fight at 45 or he was willing to come up, it kind of all worked out. Timings right. I mean, we were both in similar spots, you know. We're both at the top of our division, top of our division for the longest time, you know. And, you know, we're kind of pretty well-known guys at the lighter waist. I don't know if there's many more well-known guys than us other than probably BJ Aldo and McGregor now.

but it kind of makes sense. So, Uriah, are you disappointed in some sense that it's taking place at 145 and not the division you currently fight at 135? Oh, heck no. It's so hard for me to make 135, man. And I, you know, this is a fight. I've said it before. I think Frankie's one of the best fighters of all times. He's beat guys that have been pound-for-pound rankings for years multiple times, like guys like BJ Penn.

and, you know, I don't want to go and have a fight and put him in a place where, you know, there's a question of whether or not he's having his best performance because he's making weight. I don't know. You said, Frank, do you think you can make one 35? Can I make $35? I mean, you know, I think I might be able to make.

I don't know how my performance would be. You know, I think me and your eye probably weigh the same. So what's the point of us, you know, cutting 10 extra pounds to fight each other and put it back on anyway, you know? Yeah, I hit up, I don't know. know how much you walk around at, but I've, you know, I cut from about 158 to make 35, and

like I said, it was a, it's a hard time, I remember thinking last I'm like, how many times did I do this without really permanently messing up my body? So I'll go back down to 35, but I want to have a couple of super fights. In my opinion, you know, I've been an entire career where I haven't had an opportunity

to have a big-name fights unfortunately, you know, if you look at guys like the heavyweight division, at 205 to 85, there's guys who've been around in pride and dream and, you know, all these organizations being televised for years and years and years. And the smaller guys, it hasn't been as long in the history. So having a big name like Frankie and me being in the position and have the ability to go up and challenge myself and have a fight like this is exciting for me, man.

That's why I fight. Frankie, this may sound like a crazy statement, but I am more as a fan. I'm more excited about this fight than you getting a title shot next because we haven't seen the fight. It's a fight that's been talked about and dreamed about for so long. Is it possible that this excites you more than fighting Aldo again?

Is that possible? You know, I mean, just because of the notion of if you're in favor, I mean, when I first came into the UFC, he was huge of the man, you know what I mean? He was a guy everyone was trying to dig. And, you know, for me to be able to, you know, finally be across from the octagon,

it's definitely exciting. So how do you feel about this fight, Your Eye? What does this one mean for you? Like, when's the last time a fight like this tickled your fancy? Man, it's been a long time, probably not since Jen's Culver. And Jen's Colour was a guy that, you know,

it was the first world champion for the UFC and had a win over BJ Penn. And so when I looked up to for a long time, man, I got so excited for that fight. And so I would say this was in the same boat. Wow. It's funny because I remember, I don't know if Frankie remembers the first time we met, but it was in the locker room at the Mandalay Bay at the spa down there. and he was about to fight Tyson Griffin.

And I think that's probably the first time I met him, I said, oh, you're fighting Tyson Griffin. He said, oh, yeah, you fought him right. And I said, oh, yeah, he's got a lot of power if he can play in his feet, but he's not real upper body, is it real strong? And we just talked for like a second. And then we didn't really talk much after that for years. So, I mean, that was the first time I met him was his first fight.

And I remember that, and I was been a fan ever since that fight, because that was the first time we saw Frankie get in there and throw down. So now I'm just excited to have this fight. I like the East Coast, West Coast rivalry we got going. As far as a fan base, I mean, there can be a more polar opposite in the U.S. Yeah, and you come out to Tupac and he comes out to Biggie usually, and it's, as you said, it's great for East and West. But Frankie, I got to ask, you know, not hating on the Philippines,

but why is this fight taking place in the Philippines? Would you have preferred it to take place in, say, Jersey or California somewhere in the United States? Yeah, I'm not going to be asked. I would have much rather have it in the States, you know, especially the fact that it is east and west. You know, I consider myself and guys some good old American boys, you know, it would have been nice to do it on our soil. But, you know, I get what the U.S. he's coming from, too.

It's a new market in the Philippines. You know, they're very big, big fight fans. You know, we're little guys. You know, I think they can relate to us. So, you know, it kind of makes sense to put that flight over there for them as well. How do you feel about the Philippines, Your Honor? You know, I think fighting in California, or I was sad maybe fighting in Jersey, that was the original talk of this fight.

Vegas, the fight cap of the world, that would be awesome. But Manila has a history of fighting, man. And I actually went down there to the Philippines and met the people and talked about a huge fan base over there, man. They love mixed martial arts, and they're so appreciative. It's funny the way they use the word idol. Idol to them is like, hey, I'm a big fan. They say, I know you're my idol and stuff like that.

It's pretty funny. I didn't realize everybody in the Philippines speaks English for the most part also. So I feel like it's going to be a great event. The UFC always does a good job of building up these fights, and I'm just ready to put on my part and go down. So some are calling this the Thrilla in Manila, too, of course the original thrill in Manila, one of the most famous rivalries

in the history of sport. Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, their third fight in 1975 took place in Manila. They had a tremendous rivalry, but there was a lot of bad blood there. Frankie, how would you describe the state of your relationship with your eye? I know you're not best buds,

but, like, you don't seem like the type both of you that has animosity, I don't expect you to come here and trash talk and whatnot, but is this the kind of guy in your mind, like, I cannot lose to your eye of favor? Like, how do you view this man? Yeah, I mean, I definitely hold him in high regard.

You know, obviously, like I said, when I first came in, he was a man. I do remember that conversation we had my first flight in the UFC in the Mandloy Bay Lock Room, and I remember talking to my buddy saying, you know, you're in my favorite. He was the champion in WC. You know, he was always, you know, commercials and TV. And I was actually pretty cool. So, you know, for him to be a classy guy from the get-go, you know, I still hold him in that regard. But, yeah, of course, the competitor, and he doesn't want to lose to him.

You know, I kind of feel like at the lighter weights, you know, who's the most popular guys? You know, in the most more recent years, than I would say it's me and Uriah. So, you know, I want to be able to take that home with me. But, you know, I know you're going to bring it and, you know, I am as well. Do you like that comparison to the thrill and Manila, Youraya? I mean, that doesn't matter to me. I think, you know, I'm going to do in everything in my power to win that fight, and I would expect nothing less, frankly.

I mean, you know, thrill and vanilla, that's fine. I think recent MMA fans probably don't remember that fight as much. I think the promoters do, of course, because that was such a monumental fight in boxing history. But the M.A fan, the casual M.A. fan, is going to know it as, you know, favor and edger, which is cool with me, man. I like the stigma. I mean, what it really comes down to is you're going to have two guys that are really trying to beat the crap out of each other, man. And that's what's going to happen. And I'm trading accordingly, and I assume he is as well.

So that's what I'm looking forward to, an epic battle, and I plan on winning, man, of course. Frankie, I know you really wanted that title shot before any of this was really on the table. How disappointed were you when you got the word that it wasn't going to you next? You know, I kind of set myself up for that. You know, I kind of expected it.

Not about to get it, to be honest with you. So, you know, when I found out, it was kind of just more of a confirmation type thing. But, you know, a great win over your eye is only going to get me to where I want big. Do you think the UFC is making a mistake by giving it to Connor? Yeah, listen, this is a business.

And let them make their money off Connor, man. You know, a lot of people are going to sit there to watch that guy fight. He's done a great job for him and winning a fight he had to win to be able to fight for this title. So, you know, no mistake. You know, I feel as long as I keep doing the things I'm doing, I'm going to get to where I want to be. And, Yariah, is this the beginning of your run, once again at 145. Are you done at 135 now?

I'm not done anywhere. You know, I've been in a sport like 12 years. This is not my 12th year, I think. And I have a real hard time turned down great opportunities, hence the reason I'm fighting Frankie now in Manila. I did, you know, I had a weird conversation with Dana White where he called me after, you know, after they already said I was fighting. a soon sound and said what if i was to tell you that we want you to fight tj and uh in april instead of a soon cell and i was like ah man it's just that puts me in a hard spot and i think i'd rather just keep my fight with a soon south like the first time i've ever turned down a fight so being up one 45 and uh and being in you know i'm fighting the number one contender a lot of people you know

a lot of people thought frankie uh was with neck and neck with aldo and he's been doing what it takes to be there. So I went over Frankie. That puts me right there, and I'm not shying away from any fights. I feel like right now it's time for me to superfights. And there's big fights out there for me. I think Frankie's won. I think Conner's won.

I think Cruz's one. And, you know, we'll see who else pops up in the mix. Frankie, is it true you were also recently offered a fight against T.J. Dillshaw? It was kind of in the air. You know, I didn't really talk to anybody. Maybe Ali did. but it was more of like

before the McGregor and fever fights, so I said, I don't mind making any decision until after that fight anyway because, you know, obviously I thought it was going to come down to me and McGregor, and you never know what happened in a fight, so I kind of wanted to wait until after that fight, but it seemed like they made up their mind and had a, they already

booked Barow versus TJ before that fight even happened. Are you still interested in making a run at 135 to potentially be a three-division champion? Of course, you're 155, you've got to get 1-45, you're in the mix right now, but Is that something you're still striving for? It's definitely the back of my mind.

You know, again, you know, you just talk about your eyes. How we're saying it's tough to make 35, and I'm sure it'll be tough for me as well. But, you know, first and foremost, you know, I've got to win the sight of your eye and hopefully get my net. My title shed at 45. But, you know, that 35,

just the whole word I'm looking for, but the whole mystique of being on the whole three belts is definitely intriguing. Yeah, the legacy of it all. that it would bring to the table. You know, you're right. One of the things I really love about this fight is that, again, it comes, you know,

I was talking to Benson about this earlier in the show. Like, we need some good news. We need things to be excited about these days in MMA, because there has been a string of bad news. And I love that it's a fight that people have been dreaming about, and it kind of comes out of nowhere and we finally get it. I also love that, at least in my mind, it celebrates two clean athletes,

because I think a lot of people would be shocked if either of you were, you know, cheaters, to put it, to put it frankly. Do you like that idea to have to have, Have you thought of that? I mean, this is a guy that, you know, that has a great reputation. He's never done anything wrong, and you can say the exact same thing about you. I like that it celebrates that. Yeah, I think, you know, I can say, well, I can speak for myself only on this front,

but I've never done any PEDs nor what I think of ever doing it. You know, I'm 35 years old. Two days before this fight, I'll be turning 36. This will be my 40th fight in the sport, and I've never touched a drug or even thought about it, and I've given most people the benefit of the doubt. recently now I'm like skeptical about everyone so I can speak for myself and say I'm representing the sport

the way I think it should be and that's clean how do you feel about the PED problem in MMA Frankie? You know I think it's unfortunate I kind of got a little different take I'm just like you know I'm not one to take them I'm definitely been clean myself but

I say take them you want to let them take them I don't care I think I'll beat them anyway Wow you know I mean I'm kind of saying that in the air I mean, you know, it would be a better sport if it's clean, obviously. I mean, it doesn't seem like it's happening, though. So, you know, if the statistics are true, I probably float someone on TVs already. And, you know, I'm still here.

I'm still doing okay. So I think those PEDs ain't going to help you in sports. And shit. Wow. Very well said. By the way, guys, we have, you know, there's a picture floating around. A fan took it. This guy, Joe Daddy 85 on Twitter. I'll show it right here.

You guys actually squared off way back when, I believe it was International Fight Week a couple of years. ago in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas fight shop. There's the pick right there. It's on the front page of our website right now. You're squaring off and it's so much fun. This kind of helped fuel the fight in many ways. Uriah, do you recall this stare-down?

And what did you see in this man's eyes? Just a nice guy, man, who's a badass, really. But, yeah, it was good. It was good for me. I go back and look at that picture and kind of see. He's got a couple inches on me, his arm looks a little big.

It's bigger. I think I was about 154 in that picture, maybe 155. How much you weigh in that picture, Frankie? Man, that was right after a flight of 4 to 45. Maybe right on the 60 there. Yeah, so, yeah, I look at that picture and try to, hey, I'm looking for every advantage. So I saw another picture where he's got his, he's doing a stare-down. So I've been analyzing to see where we've met him.

match up sizewise. Oh. I've hit, the heaviest I've ever hit is 163, and I was bloated, I felt like crap. So I'm trying to gain some weight now, but it's not my main concern.

I'm just going to get there and fight. Frankie, do you do the same? Have you been analyzing that picture as well? Yeah, I checked it out. You know, it's kind of all fun when we took it, you know. But, yeah, you know, I did. You're right. It's probably going to be the first guy that I am bigger than

that I fought in my career, you know? it'll be a little different being the bigger guy. But again, I'm not that much bigger. You know, he says he walks around 58. I'm probably 160 right now myself. Are we going to see shenanigans at you guys? I'll start with you, Frankie. I mean, are we going to see press conferences,

brawls and things like that? That's what some love to see when there's a true rivalry, a superfight, all that stuff. You think we'll see any of that, a la Frazier and Ali? I mean, you know, you know, I am. You know, I kind of keep it simple. You know, again, I got no bad blow your eye.

He seems like a classy guy himself. So, you know, I'm sure it will keep a professional. You guarantee that the fight's going to be entertaining. You know, you don't need all that talks for it to have the entertaining fight. Yariah, you have any surprises for us leading up to the fight? Yeah, unfortunately, no surprises here. Yeah, you don't seem like that type. Both of you, and I think that's what's fun about the fight.

So let me ask you this final question, and I'll let you guys go. And thanks again, this has been a lot of fun for me, and I know the viewers as well. Uri, I'll start with you. How do you beat Frankie Edgar? I think, you know, you won't know to be right in front of the guy, but I'm going to be counting on a small speed advantage, and I know that he's got great wrestling for MMA,

and mine's pretty good. I've also got great submissions for MMA, and his is pretty good. So, you know, it's an interesting matchup, man. Power, we'll see how that matches up. We'll see how size matches up. We'll see who's going to do what game plan, but I'm planning on being ahead on every part of the fight,

you know, whether it's punching first and not getting hit or capitalizing off the takedowns, I'm just ready to scrap. Frankie, how do you beat this man? You know, again, we're both, like you said, you kind of give us the stats here, and we're pretty evenly matched. So it's got to be me. I just show up like I do every fight. And as long as I fight to the best of my ability and let everything fly, I'll get that W.

And can we just confirm from both of you? Frankie, you'll come out to Big E, Uri.S. you'll come out to Tupac. We're not screwing this up, right? Yeah, man, Biggie all day. Come on. You're from Brooklyn. You're living in Brooklyn now. I do. I know, but I have no favorites in this. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy it. I tried to change my song one time. Dana wouldn't let it happen, so I'm definitely Tupac. Yeah. I doubt at this point he's going to let you change it as well. It's too perfect.

Again, guys, cannot wait for it. May 16th in Manila. Some are calling it the Thrill in Manil to call it whatever you want. One of the most fun fights that UFC has ever put on, and it airs live and free, by the way, which is pretty awesome on Fox Sports 1 on May 16th. It is a five-round featherweight main event. Yariah Faber versus Frankie Edgar. You cannot beat that.

Frankie, Uriah, thank you so much for the time and best of luck to you guys. And you could say whatever you want to each other right now if you have any parting shots before the next time you meet. Hey, good luck and training. I see May 16th. All right. I'll see you soon.

All right, great stuff there. That was a lot of fun. And again, you know, when I announced that, when I promoted that those guys would be on at the same time, people are like, well, you were you expecting McGregor, Cole Miller? No, I'm not. And that's what's so much fun about this matchup. Sometimes you need that stuff.

Sometimes that stuff fuels the fight. D.C. Jones, Cole, you know me. I love that stuff more than anyone. But then when you have two guys who legitimately excited, you, the thought of them fighting each other excites you and they have nothing bad to say about each other just because they're amazing fighters with tremendous resumes and legacies and they're actually going to be fighting. They were in different weight classes. You know, I saw someone said, these are the kind of fights that you should put on more, Edgar against Faber. Well, the beauty

of this fight is that they can't put it on all the time. It's special. If they did put it on all the time, it wouldn't feel that way. This is a fight that has been discussed for many years when they are both champions. It is great. And I'm so happy the UFC has finally put it together. Way more exciting than a title fight for both guys, in my opinion next. May 16th cannot come soon enough. Exactly two, no, three months from today.

How about that? Okay, let's move along. Let's go to our next guest in around 11 days from now in Los Angeles. It's going to be a very busy weekend and kicking things off in L.A. on Friday, February 27th, will be Invicta. Of course, the following night will be UFC 184. The main event for Invicta that night will be the return of Chris Cyborg,

defending her Invicta Featherway title against Charmaine tweet. Really wanted to talk to Chris Cyborg about this fight and the weekend and everything it represents. So pleasure to have her on the show right now. Chris, how are you? Hi. Good.

Thank you. I'm very exciting for this weekend. Yes. It's actually next weekend, but I'm equally as excited. And thank you for the time. What was your reaction when you were told, hey, I'm going to be fighting in the same city

and same weekend as Ronda Rousey? This is no coincidence. What was your reaction? You know, I'm living in California, and I have a lot of friends here, and a lot of people part in my family. And I'm excited, because in a day before,

Rosa, I think everybody wanted to watch the post me in the horror fight because I think everyone has a lot of, everybody wants me and her fight, and they think very, very smart and exciting fight being one day before her. So UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertita told ESPN.com recently that he's interested in signing you. Is this the beginning of finally seeing you fight Ronda Rousey? Is that why they made this fight on the same weekend in the same city as Ronda's fight?

No, I think me and the UFC have the same goal, you know. I would like to fight Ronda Rousey. And of course, now we try finding the way for making this fight happen. And I think very, very excited to be semi-week. Very important for women's every night. Nice week in her. Yeah. Will you go to Ronda's fight on Saturday night?

I don't know. Maybe. You're not sure yet. No sure. Yeah. Okay. Now I'm focused. I'm fucked for my fight.

You know, I've talked for chairman to eat. I think after that. I can think about all the things. but I think my first box now is my next fight. Right. Just to clear something up, you know, because there were some rumors that you actually did sign with the UFC. Who's your contract with?

Invicta or Zufa? I signed with Invicta. Okay. But they were together, but I signed in my weight class. And I did a nice big deal with Invicta, but we have seen you together. Okay.

And recently, there was some talk of you going down to 135. You then got injured and you abandoned those plans. Are you still interested in going down to 135? No, now I feel 100%. And before I come from injury, and now I have one that coach, support me, George. And I'm very excited. I think the same focus, I keep trying work.

I think I won't make this fight happen. and I try my best, you know, and I try. I will try, and it's very exciting, and I keep my same fault, you know. I'm more 45-cham, but if you can make it to try, why not? So you think it's possible, though, because at one point you said you didn't think it's possible. Do you actually think you can make the weight? You know, I believe nothing possible enough, I don't know, but I try nice now, and before two, but before I had an injury.

And I try, you know, if you know, happen in 135, man, we can make 145, you know, or make one, I don't know. But I'm excited for this fight, you know. I try my best for this fight to happen for all my fans and for me and my family. Why did you decide that your next fight will not be at 135? Because you were supposed to fight.

They had announced it and all that, and then you got injured and now you're coming back at 145. Why aren't you coming back at 135? No, because I had injury and I cannot train before. Same and train because my injury and my ankle make a little problem about this. And, you know, I'm happy my weight class, you know, for a lot of 135 just for making big event, big fight. Everybody wants to watch, you know. And I think the fans enjoy this fight and I try my best.

I will try. So in July, we haven't seen you fight in MMA since July of 2013, and it has been a while, but you've had some Muay Thai fights. You fought in September of 2013, and then you fought last March, and you lost that fight. You regret taking the fight, because it has been so long. I mean, you haven't tasted defeat in a very long time. Your first pro fight in MMA, you regret taking the fight. You know, my career, I always had about this, you know, almost two years, I know, fight.

and the fight again. And all the time happens, you know, for me, normal because, man, I train every day hard. And it doesn't matter, I stay one year and no fighting, two years, no fighting. Because I train every day, I train every day, every day to sparring and like a fight. And, you know, at my last fight,

Shurina Bar is a great fight. You know, I grow a lot about this fight. She's very tough growth. And I like compete, you know. Doesn't matter. MMA, you kick to wrestling, white tie. I like compete. I like compete. I think when you

compete, you learn more. And for sure, I want to grow up my game, MMA game. And that's it. Your opponent on February 27th, Charmaine Tweet, is 6 and 4. She's won her last 2 in a row, but she's 6 and 4.

She hasn't had as many fights as you and obviously not the same record. Do you feel like she's on your level? You know, I think, I mean, I never choose opponent. I always fight, you know, Inzica, I have somebody from fight, I'll be ready. And I respect all

my opponents, and I do my best. You know, if she's the one to fight me, I will fight her, you know, I don't, you know, I never suspect nobody. I'll be dead. I'll be ready. I keep training hard. And I hope to me she's training hard too,

so you can make sure big show for all my fans. So since it has been so long since you had an MMA fight, how How are you feeling, you know, less than two weeks before it? Are you so excited, more excited than usual, anxious? Describe your emotions now that we're just a few days away, finally, since your return, for your return. You know, now, you know, I think it's a big opportunity for me again, and I'm very excited to face my belt, 1.45 in Dica.

And, you know, Victor opened the door for me after everything happens in my life. And I feel, I felt very blessed the fight this weekend to speak from, motion for women's MAA. And I feel ready. I feel ready. I'm exciting. I was trying my best. I'm a case.

And when you lose, it's consequent, but always I drive my the bed. The California State Athletic Commission told us recently that you had to undergo a random test and you have to do these tests in order to get licensed. Are you okay with that?

Do you think that's fair? Yeah, I let it do the test. You know, I don't have any problem about this. I went to pass to four. I did a surprise test. And I don't have a problem about this, you know. This is for me, man. It's my work.

And, you know, everybody makes mistakes. I make one time, you know, and I'm ready for, you know, for, you know, for finish this. And keep me, keep me growing my, my, my, my fight, you know. I think it's done. I know I did this day. But now, man, now I don't have any problem in any time, anywhere. You know, I was watching the UFC this weekend. and they're promoting your fight.

You're on the website now because you're on Fight Pass and all that stuff. It's a little surreal, given everything that we've been through with you and the UFC for so long. How would you describe your relationship with them now? Your team, your management team, and yourself with the UFC?

No, I think everything happened, you know, it's business. And before me and I've seen, I have a pretty relationship about contracts, about to have my weight class. But nothing about personal. but just about business. And now, now, you know, WFSI giving me an opportunity for keeping you at Invicta

and help me grow my name. And I think, you know, I think the guys want to make to fight me around the road and pick you to the promotion. And I think it works. You know, works. I'm very blessed to. And thankful for WFSI.

Help me promote my name and Invicta. You know, there's a lot of talk in boxing that Manny Pachial will finally fight Floyd Mayweather, when you see that potentially coming to fruition, those two finally agreeing on a fight, does that give you hope that your fight will happen with Rhonda? Because, of course, I'm not

going to say it's going to generate the same. I mean, that's the biggest fight in maybe in the history of boxing, combat sports, period. But you two have been on very far ends of the table. Do you feel like this can motivate you guys to come closer together? You know, of course, for having to fight, both have agreed. You know, both who had a fight.

And, man, all the time, I say it's just a problem about the waistclash, you know. If you make my waistclash, this fight can happen to more, you know. And I think this fight will happen, you know. I think how fun it was watching if you want to make this fight and I'm aware of this fight. And, you know, I'm a fox for my next fight now. Should I meet with it, it's my fault now. Do you think, though, the fight will happen this year? What does your gut tell you?

Do you think it happens finally in 2015? I don't know. I don't know. I just have to train you, Eddie. Do you think Ronda Rousey beats Katsingano the next night? I hope it's a great fight. And man, I kick Kitzengano. I could athlete, too.

You know, hours I follow her, Korea. And, man, she's very strong woman. And I know, I want to watch, you know. I think, man, is really good hands. And, you know, he deserved the win. win. But you're not sure if she wins 100%? You're not 100% confident she wins.

Who? Ronda. I don't know. I think for me anyway, or Ronda Rouse, for me, I want to fight Ronda Rouse anyway. You know, it doesn't match you to lose the win. You know, throughout all this time,

a lot of people ask her about you and a lot of people ask you about her. Has she ever said anything that truly offended you, that bothered you you know, she's talked about your past, she said that you should be charged, you know, with negligent murder,

all this stuff. I mean, has anything ever been said by her that truly bothered you that you felt she crossed the line? You know, I don't care, you know,

I know, everybody know me, you know, I like fighting side case. I never found stress with nobody, you know, I think in her style,

I think she's like talking and she's used, you know, my mistake. for you should grow up and it doesn't bother me. I think if inside the case you can't fix everything. You know, I don't have to speak anything. I think inside case you can pick everything.

Do you get a lot of people coming up to you on the street? I want to see you fight Rhonda. Like, is that all that people talk to you about like I'm doing right now? Yeah, of course. Everybody wants to watch the big show and big event. I think, man, I think it's big. Ronald Zee and me can make you great a few. I think everybody was to watch.

Would you be disappointed if... Sorry. Okay. I was going to say, would you be disappointed if it doesn't happen because you could probably make a lot of money from this fight? Like, for your career, would it be a major disappointment if you can't get the biggest fight of your career? You know, in my career, man, I never think I lost fight, you know?

I never think just about money. You know, you said, just talk about money, I don't know completely other sports like to do. to wrestle, so make money, my time, and I'm like, and I'm a computer that I love, you know, and the money for me, it's consequence, you know, to scurme after.

But for me, I love fight. I like to go inside cage, and make what God blessed me, giving me a opportunity for due. How has it been working with George Lockhart? He was on our show last week, talking about you. What's it been like for you? Well, I'm,

George, I start to work together, and he, man, and I, and it's teaching me a lot of things about nutrition and about my food. I think now we're right away. And I'm excited. I know every day we work on, about to lose weight. And I think it's this big deal, it's changed everything.

Are you sticking with MMA now, or are you still interested in doing other forms of combat sports? I would be in my contract now with Invicta. to fight, you know, ever five months. And I hope, I hopefully have fights ever, ever month. You know, I love MMA, but I cannot say a long time, no compete. You know, I like compete. And I keep motivated for me. And what I think this year, I will keep just MMA because in my contract,

I, especially in the big, I have to make sure I will fight for, I think, three times for a year or four times for this year. Oh, wow. So you want to come right back after this fight. Yeah. Okay. Final thing, what's the prediction? We always expect destruction when Chris Seiburg fights.

Your fights are like a tornado, like a Tasmanian devil. How do you see the fight playing out on February 27th? No, it's the same cyborg. Everybody knows me. You know, I try no color at the time. You know, I try to make exciting fight. And everybody knows shoot the box style. and, you know, I try my defense.

I try no calls, and everybody would be an aggressive thing. He'd see me 27 in the February in Los Angeles. All right, looking forward to it. Best of luck to you, Chris. Thank you so much for the time. We'll see you out in Los Angeles. Welcome. Thank you all my shares.

And see you next week. All right, there she is. The Invicta FC featherweight champion, Chris Cyborg, defense her title against Charming Tweet, February 27th. in Los Angeles, the night before UFC 184, if you're in L.A. to go watch the UFC and you're looking for something to do on Friday night, you get to watch a great Invicta card and you get to watch one of the greatest female fighters of all time in the main event. Pretty awesome that they're doing it. It's a no-brainer. I've been praising the move for the last

few weeks, and hopefully it all comes to fruition, and both fights go off, and we get a great weekend for women's MMA. Great stuff from Chris. Appreciate her time. Let us move along. Let's go to our last guest of the day. Very excited to have him back on the show. I was joking earlier that we went years without ever having Robbie Loller on the show,

and now we've had him, I think, three times in the last two months. Truly a media darling now. We're talking about the UFC Welfthaway champion. Ruthless Robbie Lala. Robbie, how are you? Pretty good. How you doing? I'm doing great.

How about that? Three times in the last two, three months. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, not paying attention. I guess it is. You like us. You really like us. Yeah, I mean, it's part of the job.

Part of what I do, right? Yes. Well, you have some good news today. I was just informed that you have signed a multi-year deal with Adidas Combat Sports. Now, this is not the deal that you had before. This is a much, much bigger deal. Can you explain to us why? Yeah, I'm happy to be with Adidas.

It's awesome. Really, I'm going to be meeting with Adidas later on. this week, and I'm going to get everything out through Twitter and Instagram. I'll be up in New York finalizing. It's done. It's just we're going to meet up and take care of business and do something up there. But it's going to be a two-year deal, and it'll be awesome. This is a little snippet from a press release I was just given.

It said the last year, Adidas Combat Sports engaged both Robbie Loller and Luke Rockhold, who also signed a similar deal in a traditional sponsorship agreement. Due to their strong commitment, superb representation, and a resulting spike in sales, Adidas nullified the initial agreement in favor of a long-term athlete partnership deal that was reached today. Today, Monday. So you're saying, you know, a couple of days away, kind of same difference. That's a big deal. I mean, Adidas, did you ever think that you would get a, I mean, this is not, you know,

the old days of just the MMA brand. This is one of the most iconic brands in the world. Did you ever think that it would reach that point for you? Yeah, I had no idea. that when I started this sport 15 years ago that I would be getting sponsored by Adidas, one of the biggest companies in the world

as far as shoes and apparel. I mean, it's just amazing. And of May has been very good to me. Is this all part of, you know, being a champion? Have you noticed better, bigger things happening to you since you won the belt in December? Oh, I mean, obviously, we've been working with Adidas for a while,

ironing some things out. I think just the way I've performed the last year has definitely been huge for my sponsorships and whatnot. But I don't really pay much attention to that. I have Dave Martin does that and Randalleman does that. I don't really pay much

attention to that. They get the deals done and kind of put them on my plate and I'm happy to have those guys working for me. Now for those that may not understand, what does this mean because, you know, you signed this big deal, but there's this Reebok sponsorship thing, the uniform thing, going into effect in July. So will you not be able to wear?

I'm assuming not, but can you clear it up the gear in the cage? This is just for outside of the cage stuff. Yeah, this is just for outside the cage. Reebok has that deal with the UFC. Or Reebok has a deal with the UFC. Adidas owns Reebok. So I'll just be paid accordingly through Reebok and UFC. for a fight week in the cage.

So it doesn't really affect me too much except for in the cage. Since they own Reebok, Adidas owns, is there a chance that you may get, you know, a buy and be one of the few that could wear Adidas in the cage? Is that possible? I would think not, but anything's possible. Anything is possible. But as far as the deal they have in place,

I'm pretty sure that Reebok is taken over inside the cage and weak them to fight. Do you feel like if that deal wasn't in place, you maybe could have gotten a bigger deal from Adidas? I don't know. I don't really, I mean, just, it is what it is. We'll just leave it at that. You know, I saw you at the World MMA Awards. You received the honor of Fighter of the Year.

I'm just wondering right off the bat. What was a bigger honor? That or being named the MMA Hour's Fighter of the Year? Oh, I mean, they're both huge. Okay, okay. I like that that. But is the victory lap over? I mean, I feel like you're the kind of guy who doesn't, you appreciate it,

but like you kind of want to stop celebrating the last one and move on. Is that kind of accurate? Yeah, that's how I am. I mean, as soon as like three weeks away from the fight, I was like, all right, once in the next one, let's start training for the next fight. Let's try to get better. Let's work on things. I've been doing this for a long time, and I know better than to sit back and be two of

impressed by what I've accomplished. It's all about getting back to work and staying hungry and training with the guys at American Top Team. That's what's going to keep me at the top. How soon did the UFC try to get you back in the cage? How soon did they? Yeah. They asked me if I could fight and my coach didn't really like it just because of the hard work

I put in the year before. It was like four fights and like nine months. It was just too much. I needed a rest. and right after I turned that fight down, or that date down, it was kind of like, man, my body is tired. So it was good. My coaches look out for me, and I'll be ready whenever the UFC needs me.

Was the date Montreal, April 25th, or was it sooner or later? No, I mean, I'm always, the UFC's always calling to see if I'm ready to fight, and we won't really mention dates and whatnot. Okay, well, where do you think stand now? Because, you know, Rory is looking for a fight. He was supposed to fight Hector Lombard. He was promised a title shot. Then they gave it to Johnny Hendricks,

and then Hendricks fought is going to fight Matt Brown. I mean, in your regard, where do you think Stan right now? Do you have any idea who the number one contender is? No, I have no idea. I figure the USC is going to get a hold of me in the next couple weeks and put something together. So, really, I've just been training and taking care of some things and spending some time with my family.

It's been a pretty laid-back last couple weeks for me where I could just hang out with my family and train hard. So it's been awesome. So I'm hoping the U.S. you'll call me within the next two weeks and give me a date, and I'll be ready. You're not getting fat, are you? Oh, no, I don't get fat. I'm always on a diet just training. Do you think Rory deserves the shot next? Do I think who?

Rory McDonald deserves the next shot because it's a point. opponent, Hector Lombard, is now out. Johnny has a fight. Considering what he's done, do you think he deserves that next shot? I mean, I'm indifferent. I don't really care. Whoever the UFC puts in front of me, I'll be ready to go. My coaches will get me ready for the fight.

So it's not about deserves. It's about who the UFC's going to put in there, and that's who I'll get ready for. Since you beat him at UFC 167, would you prefer fighting a guy you haven't fought? No, it doesn't matter. of the top guys, the top guys at the UFC are going to be ready to be a few of choose. I'll be ready for either Johnny or Rory or whoever they put in front of me.

Do you have a specific month you'd like to fight in? I'm looking towards July now. I was thinking May, but who knows? Who knows? But I'm thinking it's going to be July, but I don't know. There was a report out of Quebec that said that you and Rory was going to happen in July. Have you heard anything about that? I have not, but I'm hoping to find something out within the next two weeks or so. So I have not heard anything. Maybe international?

I think the bosses are busy running shows. That is true. There are a lot of shows. Would you have any problem, if it is Roy, would you have a problem fighting him in Canada? No, I don't have any problem traveling and fighting other places. Okay, fair enough. All right, so we wait and see now. Now you're just waiting by the phone to get the word, right?

Yep, I'm just waiting and training and hanging out with my family. Okay, and I understand you said you're going to be in New York. You are signing some autographs this week, right? It's at East Coast MMA Fight Shop Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m. Eastern. Is that correct? Yeah, I will be out there. Great. Will you be bringing the belt?

No, I don't bring that thing around. Why not? I don't know. It's heavy, and I don't really, I mean, I'm pretty low-key. That's just kind of, I mean, it's not. So my idea is bring my belt around everywhere. Your old friend Tim Sylvia used to party with that thing. You remember that?

Yeah, I do remember that. But that's it. Everyone's different. Everyone does stuff a little. How many times have you taken the belt out of your house? Do you even know where the belt is right now? Yeah, it's in my closet. It's in your closet.

It's not even out there for the people to see who come to your house? No. Everyone who comes to my house knows me and they know what I accomplished. I don't know. put me out and about. I don't really have anything quite oriented out in my house.

Everything's in closets and tucked away. Wow. You don't have like a mantle for it? Are you going to put it somewhere at some point? You just haven't found a place or that's where it belongs in your opinion? No, I mean, it's an awesome, something awesome that I've accomplished, but I don't feel like I need to see it every day.

Interesting. When I'm at home, when I'm at home, I'm a dad. Right. and a husband, I don't feel like that's something I want at this point in time up and around my house. I respect that. Congratulations on the Adidas deal, and good luck in your next fight whenever it is. I'm sure I'll talk to you beforehand, but best of luck to you. Thanks for the time, Robbie.

Yep, thank you very much. All right, there he is. Robbie Lawler. So both Robbie Lawler and Luke Rockhold signing new long-term deals with Adidas Combat Sports. This was the release that was just sent to me moments ago. Robbie Lawler and Luke Rockhold today signed Landmark Head to Toe Deals with Adidas Combat Sports, the Combat Sports Division for training equipment,

clothing for boxing, mixed martial arts, Jiu-Jitsu, judo, karate, taekwondo, period. Loller and Rockhold are the first athletes in history to join Adidas Combat Sports in a major long-term athlete partnership. A little more. Adidas Combat Sports, two-star athletes, Lawlin Rockhold will wear the iconic three stripes from head to toe. Lawler and Rockhold also will use Adidas gear in their daily training regimen, including MMA competition gloves, MMA sparring gloves, heavy bags, focus mitts, training pads, wraps, and gear bags. Something that I found was very interesting about this. I read it

quickly, where is it, where is it, where is it? Once again, just as an FYI, if you are in the New York area, Laller and Rockhold will be at the East Coast MMA fight shop on Orchard Street in Lower Manhattan, Lorry's side from 6 to 7 p.m. Eastern time this Thursday. So how about that? Signing some autographs, the champ, and one of the top contenders in the middleweight division. I read something interesting here about, this is from Scott Viscomi, the managing director of Adidas Combat Sports USA, Robbie and Luke's tremendous professionalism and dedication to Adidas Combat Sports. Over the last year, resulted in a tremendous

jump in our quarter for 2014 sales. We're already a year ahead of our revenue goals. Robbie and Luke engage in the promotion of Adidas like they do in their own training. They have been a force in establishing Adidas in the combat sports market so quickly we are pleased to have this deal in place as a result of the true team effort between ACSUSA, and Chris McGuire and his marketing team, et cetera. So that's interesting, resulted in a spike. How about that? A few years ago, if I would have told you Adidas, Reebok,

you know, Nike to a degree, they're kind of getting out of it now, Under Armour, a lot of big names. A lot of big names. It has evolved. The sport has from a media perspective, from a fighting perspective, from a business perspective as well. Being on Fox, all that stuff. This is just another example.

That would be interesting if the Reebok deal wasn't in place. I can understand why he didn't. want to touch that what it would have meant for fighters like Luke and Robbie, but it no doubt gives them a little more credibility, I think, in the sports business world being affiliated with those three stripes. So congratulations to them and appreciate Mr. Lawler for his time. Appreciate his time today. Thank you for stopping by. Okay. That does it for today's interviews. You know, earlier in the show, we were talking to Chris Seiborg, excuse me, about that Ronda Rousey fight, talking all about it.

She is fighting Charmaine Tweet, but let's be honest, the fight we want to see is her versus Ronda Rousey. And our good friends at Roots of Fight hooked us up with an amazing piece of footage, footage that has never been seen until today. Stuff that will blow you away, my opinion. When I saw it before this show, one of the good people at Roots of Fight hooked us up with this, I was, I was blown away, I was riveted. And it's not on paper. It's not something that wow, like if I tell you what it is, it's not going to blow you away in that sense. But if you just watch it,

it's a fascinating piece of footage. And it relates to Ronda Rousey. It also relates to the man standing next to Benson on our desk right here, the prodig, B.J. Penn. Mr. New York, Rick, tell the people before we actually show them this piece of footage, what the heck we're about to see? So this was never before seen footage of Rhonda and BJ. Ronda Rousey, BJ Penn. Yep.

Yeah. From the Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy, the Mendez brothers gym out in California. They had a grappling session in May of 2013, and we have some footage from it that has never been seen before. So a little less than two years ago, Ronda Rousey, May of 2013

was the champion in the UFC she had just fought, just made her UFC debut BJ Penn, still BJ Penn obviously tail end of his career but it's an amazing, it's a beautiful piece of footage Absolutely And Rootte Fight has it and they've hooked us up with it

Never before seen. Exclusive for the show Exclusive for the MMHA For the MMHAB hour breaking piece of footage Sort of. So let's show this thing Can we show it to the people? Let's roll it out. Okay, cool. We go full screen with this.

Full screen. I love this footage. This is fun stuff. Okay, here it goes. This is them in the... What's the name of this location again, you said? The art of jiu-jitsu. Ronda wearing the blue ghee.

BJ and the white gey. Shaking hands. Look at this. Look at this. There's something about it. You could tell they're taking it seriously, in particular, Ronda. Right?

What a clean gym, too. It is very nice. All white. I've seen these pictures before. And now look at them go. And now you're seeing the footage. And now we're seeing the footage. Can you do play by play for us?

Can you do a little jiu-jitsu play-by-play? I don't know if I'm technical enough on that. Yes. They're in the ghee, of course. Look at this. Look how serious Ronda is taking this right now, by the way. I have a feeling that she takes every session like this super seriously. Do you think she's going at a 10?

Like, is she going out of 10 right now? That, I don't know. But, I mean, she's definitely given in her best effort here. Do you think BJ's going at a 10? No. Look at that. No? Side control?

I don't know. You don't think BJ's... I think BJ is a pretty prideful guy. Yeah, I mean, only he could tell you if he's going out of 10. Do you know what these circumstances were here? Like, why were they actually in the same gym at the same time doing this? Why were they rolling? Do you have any idea?

I'm not sure what the reason for the gathering is, but you can see the Mendez brothers there. You can see Ronde and BJ. Yeah, I don't think many people were invited to this. Hence, the reason why we're the only ones who are seeing this. footage for the first time. Yeah, I think this was captured on cell phone. The owner of Ruta Fight Jesse Katz was the one who captured it, right?

I don't know if this is cell phone. This is a little too good to be cell phone. Well, you know, these days, you can get HD. I love Ronda's intensity. She's so intense. Yeah, it's so intense. I kind of want her to throw right now. Like, actually throw punches, not throw him.

No, well, let's not do that. But it would be crazy. I mean, what do you think the size difference is right there? It doesn't look like as much as I would have thought. Right? And, I mean, that says, everything about BJ Penn, right? Is Rhonda, my eyes are horrible, but what belt does she have there? Is that black?

Oh, come on. I can't see. Of course it was a black. Okay, I didn't know. That's it. That's it. That's kind of a tease, by the way. It is a tease. In fact, it's a tease for, yes, there's a documentary, a mini documentary coming out Wednesday that is about BJ Penn and his quest for the black belt, which he, you know, he was one of the fastest on record. You know, there's all kinds of things. you know, different people claiming to different speeds, but he got his in under four years, you know, a legendary tale. And there's a mini-doc by Rootsafite that's coming out on Wednesday that that explores that and also explores him being the first non-Brazilian

to win a world championship at the Blackbell level in Jiu-Jitsu back in 2000. And now to accompany that, obviously, you know, Roots of Fight is an apparel company, is a media company. So to accompany that documentary is the apparel line that they're launching to pay tribute to BJ Penn. And that accomplishment, specifically that accomplishment. And? So I'm wearing it.

Okay. I'm rocking it. Yes. Let's see it. You showed this to me earlier. I'm pretty excited about this. Obviously, everybody knows I'm the biggest BJ Penn fan in the world. And can I just say something before you show it?

Yeah. I wish in a way I almost wish you didn't show to me earlier. And look, everyone knows. Well, Rootify. This is not a sponsor. We have no reason. And you know how I feel about MMA apparel. I mean, it's not my style. In fact, I don't even follow Root to Fight on Twitter. Well, you got to correct that. Well, you know, it's just one of those things. But when you showed me that t-shirt, what was my reaction? Well, let's start with the hoodie. Okay, fine, the hoodie, the hoodie. Let's start with the hoodie. Yeah, the hood is great. This is the, this is the prodigy hoodie.

This is like that NBA fashion show that happened on Thursday. Did you see that? I did. And my boy, J.R. Smith won it. How do you feel about that? All of a sudden he's your boy. Yeah, you know. Was that a real rabbit on his neck? I don't know about that. Disgusting. So, Prodigy hoodie.

Yeah, yeah, shows the back. Show's the back. Yeah, this is one of them that's coming out. Lift the hood. It says Mundial's, oh, Mundial Jiu-Jitsu world. Kind of, turn more to the camera there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. That's good. Okay, that's kind of the appetizer.

You got the Ruka logo, the RUCA logo, the RUCA. So that's, it's a collaboration. Sure, sure. A collabo. existing sponsor Ruka and Ruta Fight. And, you know, Mondial's is the term, is the name for the world championships in Jiu-Jitsu. And as I said, in 2000, he became the first non-Brazilian to win it.

After, I think, just weeks before getting his black belt from Petanaris, it was incredible. Okay, yes. I'm getting, oh, I got some breaking news from Jesse Katz right here. What? it is an iPhone. It is an iPhone. I told you. I saw it from his phone.

And he says they were filming that doc that I'm talking about. They brought them in. And she was under 150. He was about 175. Damn. Wow. Now, here's the piece de resistance. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Piaz de resistance, by the way. Oh, come on. It's French word. Give me a break. I'm a, you know, American from New York. Here it goes. Here it goes. Here comes.

Look at that. Look at that shirt. Can you stand back? little bit so we could get the whole thing. Look at that shirt. Look at that piece. That, my friend, is one of the greatest of all time. That is BJ Penn. Go back to, go back to Rick. That is, how old is his, is BJ there? Well, let's see. How old is he now? He's in his mid-30s. What is he, 35 now? He's probably 18, 19. Right? Yeah, it was, it was 15 years ago. So he's roughly In 2020.

Great picture of him from back then. And, you know, him with the gold medal. And then there's a second shirt that's the prodigy shirt, similar to the hoodie. That's the front of the back. That's the back. Okay, there it is. Yeah, yeah. Same as the hoodie.

That shirt is pretty amazing. I mean, I don't know how, I don't know if I could pull off walking around with a fighter on my shirt. He's retired out. That BJ Penn shirt, though? But this is one where you're like kind of actually thinking about it because it just looks so cool. It is a great shirt. Be on the lookout for the, for the. mini-doc because, I mean, it's, you know, it's pretty incredible to hear guys like Big John McCarthy,

to hear guys like Kenny Floreen. So contemporaries, you know, people whose opinion matter in this sport, Bas Routen, Routen, Rousie, the Mendez brothers, they're all talking about, you know, what BJ Penn meant to jujitsu, what BJ Penn meant to fighting in general, how incredible an inspiration he was, you know, for a fan like me, for a fan like me. Why did they ask you? Yeah, right. Like, I'm going to be. Kenny Florian and Big John sitting at a table talking about it. One of these things, not like the other. I mean, you're on the MA beat now.

By the way, speaking of the MAB, why do you show up in a tie for the MA beat? But here it looks like you... Don't you dare question what I'm wearing right now. Well, I know. Because I look fresher than ever. But the hair is slick back on the beat. Here it looks like you kind of just woke up. I mean, what's the difference?

And when are we going to change the Twitter avatar to reflect your current... The hair? The hair situation? Yes. When I get it to what I want... We don't want this right now? This is an intermediary stage. I'm growing at much longer than this.

Really? Mm-hmm. The top. The top. How long are we going? Like, what are we talking? Are we talking like pro wrestler? Like Hulk Hogan style?

No, no. Not like Hulk Hogan stringy. Yeah, yeah. What are we saying? What are we thinking? I'm thinking like Tom Cruise last samurai. Like little ponytail on top. Oh, for real?

Yeah, we'll see where it goes. We'll see where it goes. Can you pull off the ponytail right now? No, not enough hair. Hmm. but that's your that's your goal that's the end goal here

okay but yeah check it out roots of fight you know they make the best stuff yes Wednesday the mini deck is coming out most importantly

good Canadian people there you go good Canadian and people it all goes together and by the way happy happy family day to all my friends in Ontario how about that holiday

people have off today in Ontario because it's family day what is the purpose of this holiday Family Day. You got to spend time with your family. That's great.

I love it. That's a great holiday. That is Canada for you. Here we have President's Day. You went to an American school. What is President's Day? What are we honoring? The President?

Yeah. Well, no, no, no. Not the serving presidents. Past Presidents. We're just respecting them. Yes. Not one in particular. No.

Well, it's a holiday, though, because it's very quiet outside. Right? Not a Vox. That's true. But it did seem a little quieter than usual, so I guess most people have a lot. Not us. What? Are you reading about...

Yeah, I'm reading on Wikipedia. What? Didn't you go to school? Wikipedia. Yeah, no, that's right. Okay. I thought so. All right.

Okay, great stuff there, nice fashion show. Let us go inside the vault now. And, of course, this weekend, we haven't really talked about it, but this weekend, the UFC is back, of course. And you know what I like about this weekend's fight? It's on a Sunday. How about that? It's another Fox Sports One Sunday night event.

And you know what I really like about this weekend's card? The main card starts at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. And I got to tell you, and this is part of the reason why I love that Benson fight so much. These 10 p.m. Fight Night main card starts that are ending at like 1.30. I mean, it's tough. I'd like to see the UFC cater more to the East Coast MMA fan. And in doing so, you're also catering to the European MMA fan. I mean, a fight card ending at around like 1.30 or so.

That is tough, man. It is tough, especially when it starts at what, seven, eight? It's tough. Very tired. Especially with some of those fight. I mean, man. Anyway, we'll talk more about that in a bit.

But this weekend's card, it's a Sunday night card. It's in Porto Aligre, Rio Grande du Sul, in Brazil. Fight past prelims, 5 p.m. Prelim card on Fox Sports 1 kicks off at 6 p.m.

And then the main card kicks off at 8 p.m. It is headlined by Frank Meir versus Antonio Bigfoot Silva. Important fight for both of them in the heavyweight division, of course. They're both coming off losses, some, a few more losses than others. And they aired that promo on Saturday about this fight. And it was interesting, it was like, I can't remember the first comment was about, what was the first guy? I was like, Bigfoot's still going for the title, Frank Meir, something.

And then it was like, Rogan talking about. about breaking arms and stuff. It was, it was, the promos have been on point. That one, not so much in my opinion. But nevertheless, they're back, both of them, Bigfoot coming off the loss to Andrea Olavski, Frank Mear coming off the loss to Alastor Overim, almost a year ago, more than a year ago.

And so I wanted to go inside the vault and look back at Antonio Bigfoot Silva's greatest moment. The highlight of his career thus far, It happened almost exactly four years ago today. In fact, it was February 12, 2011, right across the river, East Rutherford, New Jersey. He defeated Fyodor Emilienenko in the first round of the Strike Force heavyweight Grand Prix. Gave Fyodor his second straight loss, coming off the Ferdum loss, and this was a dominant win, a dismantling, a coming out party for Bigfoot Silva.

Even with the size advantage, a lot of people thought he would. not win that fight, but it was an unbelievable performance, and it was, in fact, the second last show before Strike Force was eventually sold to Zufa. I remember seeing Scott Coker in the hallway. He was acting a little strange that night. He was wearing a trench coat, a suit, and he was just kind of looking at it from afar, almost like a father looking at his kid before he's about to go off to college. All growns up, moving out, saying goodbye. It was a very strange vibe in that arena, but the ratings were tremendous on Showtime. It was the beginning of this great tournament that ended while Strike Force was a part of Zufa, but it started that night in

East Rutherford and the highlight of that night was Fjordor defeating, excuse me, Bigfoot Civil defeating Fjorda. Also kind of funny to look back at that card, Sergei Harytanov knocked out Andreilovsky, and a lot of people thought that was the end and now look at Andreelofsky. So never say never in the sport of MMA. So I wanted to look back at the post-fight interview with Bigfoot Silva moments after his win over Fyodor Emilienenko February 12th 2011 here it is inside the ball. Ariel Hawani post fight at strike force in New Jersey where Antonio Bigfoot Silva just shocked the world and defeated Fyodor Emilienenko via doctor stoppage and

Antonio a lot of people did not think you would actually defeat him. How are you feeling right now? What are the emotions going through your body? Well, it's a emotion very great because this was a fruit of my I'm very, very happy right now. This was the fruit of a lot of hard work with my camp, with all the guys that trained hard with me, and I'm very, very happy. Were you surprised that the doctor stopped the fight between the second and third rounds?

Yes, but when I looked at the other side of the ring, I saw to his eye was very swollen and I would have caused more damage to his eye and hurting him bad. Are you aware whether or not he asked for the fight to be stopped or did the doctor say that it needed to be stopped? Certainly wasn't him. He's fought the best. He's beat the best. And he wouldn't ask to stop. It had to be the doctors.

When you were dominating him in the second round, do you think the ref should have stopped the fight? You were landing some big shots on him. I don't think so because a good fighter has to fight in the good and the bad. And he's an excellent fighter and he knows how to fight in the weather the storm. You said you expected to face the best Fador out there. Do you feel as though you fought the best Fador? Well, I think that,

Yes, Fedor, he, for me, is the best. He came in his maximum. But I also worked very hard. I trained very hard for this fight. And we're back. Look at that. I get the microphone for the first time. After the Inside the Vault.

So that was great. Now let's move on to your questions. We'll start with the website, as always. And maybe I'll just do the rest of the show. I think after my heroic performance on MMA beat, that many of you would enjoy that. How come I don't hear myself? Might have unplugged.

But we hear you, Ariel. I stepped on the plug. You stepped on the plug. So I'm standing. I'm sitting here. I don't hear myself. Bizarre. Unbelievable. So we've been back for a few minutes. We have?

We have. We have been talking to the people? Where have I been? You were somewhere. You couldn't, you know. When the going gets tough, where are you? Yeah. Wait, before we jump into the questions, let me say this.

Yes. I tweeted this yesterday. You had no response for this. Yes. Benson Henderson is the favorite in your basketball match. Okay, let's just talk about Benson for a second. We'll talk all about Benson. No, no, but I have to ask you a few things.

Before we get into the questions. Yeah. I don't know if I express my opinions, my feelings on the moment, and he was kind of poo-pooing in. Yeah, he was not giving you anything back on that. But you know what? That's fine. that's what the athlete, especially the current pro athlete has to do.

You can't, like Robbie was saying, you can't just sit back and smell the roses. I get it. But I just have to take you back to Saturday night sitting there. After all the crap, you know, and I said on this show, like, look, MMA, it's not going anywhere. We still love the sport, blah, blah, blah. But another week of PED talk, Hector Lombard, all this stuff, you know, it's freezing outside. We're watching this card. It feels like it's going on and on.

And let's be honest, not the greatest action. And we're kind of just sitting there. and I'm sitting there and it's like, geez, man, this thing. It was like, what is, this is not the UFC. This is not why I love MMA. This is not why I love sports. It felt like a chore watching that. I think anyone would agree, right?

I devoured it, so I didn't have the same kind of experience. You didn't watch it live? No, I was watching NBA. Oh, well, I mean, even, I think the particularly bad stuff happened after the NBA. I think I started with the Kelly fight. I think that's when I, I think that's when the NBA ended. but, you know, for me it didn't drag. You know, that's a different experience

because you can fast forward through everything with the DVR. But yeah, I mean, I got that sense from Twitter that people were feeling the same way you were. So it's just going on and on and on, and I don't want to pour it on anyone. If you saw the card, you know what I'm talking about. And then this fight comes out of nowhere

and you got the sentiment, I mean, the feeling on Friday after the way-ins happened, you know, everyone was like, poor Benson, the guy's going to get murdered. He's going to get murdered. slaughtered, right? That was the feeling. It was like, whoa, I was getting texts about it. What is this guy thinking? This is a career suicide. He's lost two in a row. This is a bad idea. All this stuff. And then the fight starts. He comes out second. He's as confident as ever.

And the fight starts. And it's an aggressive Brandon Thatch out there. He hasn't missed a beat. And you're almost waiting. You're like, I'm watching it with one eye closed. I'm like, this guy is going to get his ass kicked. This is not a fair fight. There's a huge size advantage. It didn't look as big is Friday, but it still was big. And, you know, he's kind of getting thrown around like we've never seen him get thrown around before. And then come the third round, you're starting to think like, holy moly, this guy might, you know, he gets, gets his back, almost submits him. Credit to Brandon Thatchie gets out. And then, of course, fourth round after that amazing take down. That takedown, I think I rewounded and watched it five times afterward. It was just perfect.

It was, and then he submits him, like, honestly, I really started to get emotional. It reminded me about the beginning of the UFC, David versus Goliath about the human spirit. I loved what he said afterwards. I love the story now about the kids that he just told us on the show. To me, it always felt like Benson Henderson didn't get the respect that he deserved as champion, because he was always getting these close decisions and people didn't think that he was truly worthy of the belt. And even afterwards, I mean, people were kind of indifferent, you know, the religions, stuff, all that. Now Benson Henderson has a special place in everyone's hearts. I haven't seen anyone. There's a few naysairs that are like,

relax, it's not a big deal. We always want to call everything the best. But remember, it's the timing. It's when this fight happened. And isn't it funny that after an amazing January, a somewhat historic January for the UFC, it's this fight card that everyone was kind of overlooking, you know, everyone was kind of down on it. It went through so many changes. It's this fight card, this fight that captures our imagination that reminds us, at least me, why we love the sport so much. And I told a friend of mine who knew what happened, who had already seen the result, this is one of my favorite fights ever because of what it represents. He went and watched and he came back and he was like, man, that wasn't that great. And I understood why he said that.

If you know what happens, it's not that great. But the best fights are those fights, the gust of some Jones fights. When you're sitting there thinking it's a foregone conclusion that something's going to happen and then all of a sudden, before your eyes, things are going completely different. The script has been completely flipped and it's happening slowly, gradually, and then all of a sudden you're seeing this guy dig down deep, like he's never dug down before. He's going to a whole other place. He's hulking up. He's doing all this stuff that you never thought was possible five minutes prior. It's an amazing thing to watch in real time. And I just loved everything about it. I loved what he said afterwards. It was a thing of beauty. And it wasn't

just about MMA, honestly, like you said, to me, before the show, it was about really sports and the human spirit. I implore anyone who hasn't seen the fight, even if you're a casual fan, whatever. You must watch that fight. You must watch that fight. That is, is the beauty of sport of human beings in a nutshell in a 20-minute period. And I don't feel like I'm overstating it. I don't feel like I'm making it out to be a bigger deal than it is. I really truly believe that. I don't feel the exact same way in terms of the implication for what it means for the sport and how important it is, you know, in this time. But in terms of how it made me feel about Benson Henderson.

It kicked me off the fence. For the longest time, I've just been pretty much indifferent to Benson Henderson. I didn't have, you know, good or necessarily bad feelings one way or the other. Super talented fighter, super well-rounded fighter. But there was nothing that sparked me one way or the other to like, dislike, anything like that. But I am completely in camp Benson Henderson after that fight because he brought back the feelings of BJ Penn that made me a fan of BJ Penn.

Yeah. The guy who would take a fight against guys who, you know, are clearly bigger than him. Now, Brandon Thatch is a big welterweight. There's not going to be that big a discrepancy between him and most of the other guys he faces in that division. But he is a slender guy and he will be outsized at 170. Not in the stark contrast that we saw in this fight because, as I said, Thatch is quite a big boy. But he's going to be outsized and he's got the heart. of a champion, even though he's not the champion currently.

He has that spirit. He has that desire. And I was incredibly impressed. It was on a smaller scale, but I think that win meant more to Benson's career and legacy than any of his title wins. And I think that, you know, just based on my brief interactions with people online yesterday, I think a lot of people would agree. I think a lot of people view him in a different light.

Him choking him out in the fourth round was a perfect ending. but I think even if he had lost and fought as valiantly as he did, I think it would have. But this is way better. Oh, well, he's not on a losing streak. Yeah, yeah, but the story's better. I mean, the win is. It's the perfect ending. But even if he had lost this fight, I think there would have been the recognition that Benson

Henderson is a special kind of guy. And don't get me wrong. No one's going to talk about this in the same breath as Bonner Griffin. Like, this will not change the UFC's fortunes. But for me, just in this moment, on that night, cold February. you know, kind of a whatever card with the result. You know, there were some moments, whatever. It was just something about it.

I was kind of bummed about the dunk competition. I was sick of seeing all these guys freaking miss the dunks. I mean, what the hell is going on? Yeah, Zach Levine's great and all, but that's a whole other discussion for a different day. It was just pissing me off. And that just came at the perfect time. It was great.

It just lifted my spirits. I agree with you, but now enough fawning over your future opponent, because you have to prepare to face this, man. I know, I know. You can't. You can't be rooting for him. And as I said, it did say a lot about the game. I agree with you. It's like, how he deals with adversity and how he deals with a height difference,

it's not looking good for you. Yeah. Benson's the favorite right now. Well, we'll see. You know, hopefully he, uh, let's see what you've got. That's the question. We've seen what Benson can do when he digs deep. Now it's your turn. Well, hopefully he starts buying some of his own hype, you know, like smelling those roses that I'm trying.

That's, I was trying to play possum there. I was like actually trying to build. his ego. Yes, I was trying to get him to start, you know, believing in himself a little bit more and thinking his shit don't sting. Well, let's see. Let's see if it worked. On to the questions. I'm excited about that. International Fight Week. Yes. Let's make it happen. Come on. What are we waiting for? First question. All-time best five round fighters. Did Benson-Henerson confirm to everyone that he is the best five-round fighter in the history of MMA with George St. Pierre? Can you name a top five best five-round fighters? I found this interesting. Okay. A few that come to mind. Five round fighters. Well, George, obviously. Yep. I mean, you have to give it to Anderson Silva. He wants some five-round fights, right?

Absolutely. Okay, okay, okay. There's a few that I... By the way, do you have your five? I don't have my, like, five ranked, but there's some that come to mind immediately. Okay, okay. Jose Aldo?

He wasn't one, but sure. That's one, right? It's got to be one. There's some that come to mind more readily for me. Frankie Edgar? Frankie Edgar, for sure. Josealdo beat Frankie Edgar in a five-round fight. Okay, that's fine, but...

Does Demetrius come to mind? No. I think people think of Demetrius as a five-round fighter, but he finishes a lot these days. I was thinking of one John Jones. Now, he was a finisher, but as a champion... Yeah, you're right. He's one of the guys that comes on hard in the fifth round.

He's one of those guys that is never quitting. And he's not known for stopping power or... Submissions, yes, he's sneaky with those, But most of the time these days, he's just essentially assaulting guys for five rounds. That's the five right there. But what you'll see is that a lot of these guys are the best in the sport. You know, we typically think of the finishers as the guys who are the best. You know, a finish is better than a decision.

But the names we listed, it would be hard to argue that those are not some of the best pound for pound guys right now and ever. Yeah, it's true. I mean, most of the guys who are fighting in five-round fights are either champions, or were champions. You know what I mean? Because the five-round thing is... But I'm talking pound for pound. These guys are not just somebody

who held the belt. These are... But who's a champion who's not in the pound-for-pound discussion? Well, no, but all-time. So, you know, a guy like an Anthony Pettis. He's a finisher. Absolutely finisher.

I wouldn't say he's in that discussion in terms of all-time legacy yet. Certainly, he belongs in that discussion in the current pound-for-pound rankings. But I don't think he's approached that territory where he can be discussed in the all-time rankings. I think he hasn't fought enough, but I get your point. I don't think of him as a guy who's going to go the distance,

and that's a credit to him. Oh, he's one of the best finishers out of him. Right, that's credit to him. But yeah, it's a good discussion for sure. It's just interesting. Anyway, toothpick gate. I have very strong feelings on this. How much of an issue is it that Benson

is able to enter the octagon with a toothpick in his mouth? As cool as it makes him look, I can't help but feel a bit sick when I think about the possible consequences of this. Given the fact that he has been known to do this in the past, should commissions be taking a more active role in ensuring his safety by preventing this? All right, you have strong opinions? Let's hear him. It makes me physically almost ill. I get anxiety with the thought of him having that toothpick in his mouth. And when he brandishes it after the fight, I almost want to get into the fetal position. and because it gives me so much anxiety. So obviously you think that it should be banned?

It doesn't really matter to me competition-wise, but just it evokes that feeling from me. If you feel that strongly about it, you don't want to see it happen to you. Well, I don't want to see anything happen to Benson. I don't honestly think there's much of a concern that something bad is going to happen to anybody else, like it's going to come out and pull somebody in the eye

or anything like that. But I don't want Benson to get hurt with a toothpick in his mouth. and let's say somebody puts on a choke and he goes to sleep, what happens with that toothpick? Which is kind of what he was just talking about. Yeah, and who knows? I mean, you stick it out.

He seems to not really do it consciously. So what if he sticks it out for a second and it pokes someone? It could happen. It could, but I'm not so much worried about that. It more makes me nervous. Like, I couldn't imagine doing that. It seems impossible to me. But then again, I mean, you know,

here's how I feel about it. In the moment you're like, holy shit, this guy is a real, G, as the kid say. Like, this guy is a gangst at what? This guy is doing all this. He's getting punched in the face. Forget if it's, I mean, if it's the most boring, mundane

lack of action fight in the history of fighting. The fact that you're actually entering a cage with a toothpick in your mouth and the fact that you're able to actually, I don't even care if you're in the fight now. I don't know how he does it. Like, are these special toothpicks that can wrap your gums? Or how do you make it stick in there and not stick

out. I don't think I can pull that off, honestly, without being incredibly uncomfortable. I'm sure it's just years of practice. If you watch them put on the Vaseline and check his mouthpiece and all that before the fight after the fact, knowing that there is a toothpick in there, unless they're giving it to him between rounds, which I doubt, it's kind of a mind-blowing thing. It's like you can't find any trace of it whatsoever. It's incredible. So I feel uncomfortable as well. in the moment, I'm like, wow, this is the stuff, you know, fairy tales, legends are made of, myths are made up. But I do think for everyone's benefit, it's probably in their best interest not to let him. We've seen it from him before.

They need to be on the lookout for it. I love the way he just pops it out there. Like, oh, you were impressed with that? How about the fact that I have this in my mouth, pops it out, and then puts it back in? The commission needs to be aware of this. They need to just look for it. Benson, open your mouth. You've got to check for your mouthpiece and we got to check for a toothpick.

I mean, you know, the idea of him being tougher or cooler is there, but I mean, you know, let's say a guy walked in there without a cup. It'd be cool. It'd be like, oh, this guy really doesn't care. He's a bad mofo. But we don't want a guy in there without a cup. It's akin to that for me. You're super tough, but, you know, we just got to curb that. Yeah. I agree. It's like, just say, open your mouth. I hate to poo poo on his parade, but It's just, it's too much. It's too much. Our next question, Benson Henderson and moving up, it seems with all the talks of killing the body

with devastating weight cuts, was helping to bring down the mood in our MMA world. Yes, that too. I didn't even talk about that. And Benson, who have found new life in their new respective division. Liotto, going down to middle weight, has shed him of his non-functioning body fat,

as Mike Dolce would say, and became the shredded ninja that's in caps. So that could be his nickname, shredded ninja who is at the cusp of a title shot. Benson, now going up on short notice, look noticeably healthier with the added weight. He no longer looked drained. Bendo, in my opinion, benefited in the weight boosts, not only in speed, but in chin strength. He was hydrated and fast. All that being said, who are some of the few fighters that you and I both believe

can truly benefit from changing weight classes? Ooh. Hmm. See, the thing is, a lot of them are going to face these size problems, because not everyone is playing by these rules. Not everyone, there are still a lot of people who are going to deplete their bodies and fight to get all the way down. That was another thing, by the way. I mean, there are a few people, I think three, two, is it three or two on Friday, Miss Wade?

Also, he had Nick Lentz pulling out. I mean, it's just a string of bad news, and it's become a lot more commonplace, it seems, these days. And I'm happy that the UFC is, it appears. I saw a post-fight interview with Dana White on Saturday where he said this is unacceptable, and they'll hopefully start cracking the whip on it. Um, who would benefit?

I think this is a hard question because most of the guys are in the right weight class or a weight class that they're at least, you know, pretty good at or competent at. Um, unless you have like a guy like a John Lineker who I don't think would benefit from going up. No, I don't. Gas them too. They're just not doing it the right way. Yeah, they're just not properly cutting. So I don't, it's a hard question because it comes down to guys like that who miss weight. Like Rumble Johnson.

Clearly that was a mistake. him going down to 170. He should have been at a higher weight class. We all thought it was middle weight, but it turned out to be light heavyweight. But I don't think we have examples like that right now. I think there are guys who could be successful, like a Benson Henderson, who's so well-rounded and so tough that at a higher weight class he can still be pretty capable. I think George St. Pierre could be fine at 185 as well. I think... You think so? I think he'd be too small for 185. Yeah, but you'd say that about Benson too. I don't think it's in his best interest.

I mean, there's Brandon Thatch and then there's Chris Wideman. I don't think it would be in his best interest. Excuse me, Chris Wyden. Robbie Lawler or Johnny Hendricks, these guys. I don't think those guys are going to be that much bigger than Benson on come fight night. Now, certainly, as I said before, he will be smaller, but Brandon Thatch

is an extreme case. I don't think Benson's going to be that much smaller than a Robbie Lawler. Especially if, now, let's say he commits himself to 170. Instead of having to gain weight, he's starting at that 170 base instead of the 155 base. This was in two weeks notice. So if he was preparing for fights at 170, I'm sure he'd bulk up a little bit, cut down. And I think he'd be fine at 170.

I think he will be fine at 170. I think this was the balls he won. This was the one where he's a 155er. He's coming up to 170 for a fight with a guy who's huge. This one took some watermelons. But I don't think he's going to be that small at 170 to the point where we're like, oh, my God. He will be the smaller man, but I don't think it'll be that startling. I love to hear him say that it was such a pleasure.

You know, Fight Week was a pleasure. Yeah. So hopefully other people's... I don't see that. I don't see that maintaining because at a certain... Yeah. You know, once you're in that weight class, now you're thinking, okay, let me get bigger, cut down, have an advantage. It's just the same old thing with MMA. Once he's in this weight class, now he's still going to be cutting. I have a feeling.

Although he's not, he's not BJ Penn in the sense that he doesn't, you know, you see him at a fight. He looks pretty much the exact same. Like, he's not a guy. He's always in the gym. He's not getting fat, all that stuff. But I think he'll try and bulk up is what I'm saying. Sure, sure. But, you know.

So anyway, back to the question. I mean, I don't really think. Who are some guys? It's hard for me to think of any. But it would be nice if things changed where guys felt like or females felt like they didn't have to, deplete themselves. and also maybe if there was a rule the next day. First off, from a broadcast perspective,

I'd love to see what these guys weigh in on fight night like they do in boxing. Have you heard a suitable solution? Because I haven't. Well, I kind of like the idea that has been brought up in some states, very few. I believe North Carolina is one of them where there is a limit on how much you can add,

you know, 12 or so hours later. So fight day, fight morning. You have to weigh in and you can't add like 5% more than, what you weigh in. Something like that. I mean, I think that would... I like that best.

Yeah. But, you know, first of all, the same day weigh-in thing where that was the only way in, that's a terrible idea because people are just going to kill themselves on fight day, the same way they're doing it now to make weight. This one where it's a percentage of weigh-in to fight day, I like it, but I have a feeling there's going to be people who are cutting after they weigh in, just doing another weight cut to make sure that they get within the 5% or the 10% whatever it is. I don't think there's ever going to be a way to completely get rid of it, which is unfortunate.

These drastic weight cuts. But hopefully somebody comes up with some solution. This was a topic that we were going to talk about on the MMA beat last week, but we never got to it. I'll throw it out right now. Give me a quick answer. bigger problem in MMA today. PEDs or bad weight cutting? More dangerous is PEDs. Maybe not though, but yes, continue.

More prevalent is weight cutting. Interesting. I actually would have gone the opposite. I would have said more prevalent PD is more dangerous, bad weight cutting. I disagree because PEDs, you know, these guys are able to train harder, make themselves a, you know, a more effective and more potent fighting. machine and then they're going into the cage with somebody who may not have that advantage or maybe does as well but either way then you're just having two souped up rockum sockum robots um it's affecting

your long term health it's affecting your opponent's long term health the p ed's thing is just bad news for everybody's health altogether um the weight cutting thing is to be honest you're only hurting yourself um and sometimes you're not hurting yourself there's people who have gotten weight cut down to a science and do it properly and and are able to balance their diet and balance, you know, how much water they can drain out and do it, do it in a relatively, compared to others, safe manner. And you're only affecting yourself. You're not affecting your opponent by doing this.

Now, there may be arguments to say that PEDs don't really, you know, the idea that now some guy who's juiced up is going to get in the cage and kill the opponent because he's all roided out, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't assume that either. But what I'm saying is that these guys can stay healthy, continue to train, over train, and just hurt themselves. And then also when they step in the cage, they're more potent than they would have been. It's just, it's a bad situation for both guys when when somebody's on PEDs. Whereas weight cutting, I think it's a one-way street.

It's just you hurting yourself or not hurting yourself if you do it in a safer way. But it's more prevalent because everybody cuts. Not everybody uses PEDs, but everybody cuts. You'd be hard, you know, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who doesn't cut any weight for a fight. There are people out there, especially guys and girls who are fighting in a weight class up on short notice or whatever the case may be. But I can't think of a fighter who's not really cutting weight on fight night. All right. It's a good debate.

I mean, it's a depressing debate, but it's an interesting topic. Let us move along. Brandon Thatch, do you think he can still be a top 10 fighter in the Walter Reed Division? And who should he be matched up with next? I'm still a big fan of his style, despite his loss, and think it will make him a better fighter in the long run. Yeah, sure, I'm not going to give up on Brandon Thatch. I actually thought he looked pretty good early on. Remember, he hadn't fought since November of 2013.

He's not used to going into the later rounds. He's only done it before once. I mean, he always finishes his fights in the first round, except for once. so this was pretty new to him. And, you know, I don't know how much stock I'm going to put in the altitude thing because he does train there. But it did seem like he was huffing and puffing. Maybe it was the delay or the time off. Maybe it was just what Benson was doing to him.

I mean, he's a very tough fighter. But absolutely, these are the kind of fights that every fighter experiences. And you often look at these fights as the turning point. How many guys who is, you know, look at a, I mean, every guy is going to lose at some point, and they might lose, you know, as they're climbing, and you say, oh, a lot of people say, oh, that does it for him, and then he comes back and wins five in a row. I mean, look at Max Holloway, what he's doing. And, you know, he lost early on in his UFC career.

In fact, he lost twice early on in his UFC career. Guys will rebound all the time. That's why I love this sport. Another reason why there's not as much stock put into the losses as in Boston. I think that's very true. Just look at some of the best and how many losses they have on the record. So I have no doubt that's a supremely talented fighter, a very dangerous fighter, a very aggressive fighter. I love the way he fights. It's a lot of fun watching him. I have no doubt that he will be back in quote unquote the mix relatively soon. Yeah, I mean, and also I doubt it was the elevation just because, you know, that's his home. but the game plan from Benson was to have Thatch chase him around the cage,

and he was doing a lot of that. It wasn't cutting corners. It wasn't trying to cut off. He was chasing Benson, and Benson was able to circle out once he got to him. So that expends a lot of energy, and he himself said he wish he took a little bit of power off some of the things he was throwing because he was looking for a kill shot, and that might not have necessarily been the best thing to save his cardio. he'll be back.

He'll absolutely be back. I love that it ended with the rear naked choke. Everything about it felt like old school UFC. It's great. The smaller guy getting the big giant down and submitting him and just the way he submitted. I mean, in MMA, in my opinion, you'd be hard pressed to find a more beautiful scene than the rear naked choke. When the figure four body lock is in and the guy's back, I mean, BJ did it so brilliantly all those years. you know, pulver, Joe Stevenson in those fights.

I mean, and the back is stretched out. It's a beautiful thing. Benson does it very well as well. Don't forget the blood lick at the end. Well, that's just on a whole other level. That's the key. It's a fun thing to see unfold in front of your eyes, and it was a great way to end that fight.

Now, this is an important one. What are your thoughts on the impressive streak of Neil Magni? Has he finally done enough to earn a shot at a ranked opponent? Who would make sense for him next? Maybe Alves or Story. I said on Saturday night that I think Rick Story makes a lot of sense. Here's one thing I'll say about Neil Magny. He is on a great streak.

He has won six in a row. And it was nice to see some killer instinct there. It was nice to see a finish, especially a submission in his home state. I believe he is from Colorado. Actually, he's originally from Brooklyn, but he trains with a team in Colorado. So a lot of his wins have come against guys who are on the, the opposite half of the welterweight division, but still, to win six in a row,

I love the fact that the UFC stuck with him. I remember I was there for both of his losses when he lost to Sergio Morais in Rio, at UFC 163, when he lost to Seth Buzinski at the Fight for the Troops show in November of 2013. I was there, and, you know, back then, the UFC was a little trigger-happy, and I love that they stuck with him

and allowed him to build himself up. Kind of like the David Branch situation. You know, Branch lost a couple in a row. They got rid of him. now look at how he's doing. So it's nice to see them stick with a guy and he comes back and he's able to go in a run all that stuff. I wish, I mean, and again, this is something that we talk about all the time. Like, there are some fighters. If they were on this kind of streak, turning things around, you know, tying the record for most wins in a calendar year outside of the tournament era, guys would be on the mic calling for top 10, top five. He just kind of seemed so indifferent to it all. You know, it's hard to get behind him as a fan. You know, you see him on the mic and he's just not really like, And I'm not talking about, like, trash talking, Connerberg-Greger stuff. Just say something, you know, like get something out there. Just get people behind you, you know.

And they give them a lot of opportunities, and I've interviewed him after fights. Great guy. I mean, it seems like a very nice, humble guy. I mean, everything that's right about martial arts. But this is your opportunity, man. You've won six in a row. Let the people know. Don't even say a name.

Say you want, you're ready for the top ten. I want, I'm coming. I paid my dues. I've been in these guys. say something, you know, and it just seems like it's all this sort of, I don't know, humility or indifference. I don't know what it is, but it'd be nice to see him capitalize on that winning streak. And I can understand if the UFC didn't reward people who did that, but they do reward you if you do that. So go out and do it. Someone needs to be telling him that. So that's my only gripe

there, but he's look great. I'd like to see him fight a Rick story. I think a Rick story fight would be the perfect test coming off that great win over Gunner Nelson. We'll really see where he's at. I'm not calling Rick a gatekeeper by any means. But I think that's a very fun fight for him. I think that's the right kind of test. So that would be the one I'm looking at. Fighter of the year, Kennedy, Neil Magny. I mean, he certainly deserves the credit and the attention.

I don't think, you know, he's not beating guys at, you know, the level of Robbie Lawler or, you know, other fighter of the year winners. But that was a great year. I mean, he tied Roger Huerta for the record. I mean, that deserves to be applauded. And he continues to win. But now let's see how he does it. against rank guys. None of those guys were ranked.

You know, that's a big difference. You can't just overlook that. Of course. Tough fighters. You know, tough fighters. He had some nice wins, some nice finishes. You know, the Garcia fight was a close one, but he had some nice wins. But now let's see, you know, now let's see how he does. Speaking of Max Holloway, you mentioned him earlier, we saw Holloway pick up another great win on the weekend and immediately turned his attentions to the pre-agreed match with Cub Swanson. If Max were to win this one, a big if, I know, how far do you think he'd be away from getting a title shot against Aldo or McGregor.

Do you think his chances would improve or reduce, depending on who was champ, considering that McGregor beat him on the way up? Max Hallway is like that classic UFC fighter who takes a fight on short notice just to get into the UFC, just to get his foot in the door. And remember, he fought Dustin Porre in 2012.

He was what? 2012, he was born in 91. That was, what, three years ago? So he was 19 years old? No, 20 years old. 20 years old making his UFC debut. It takes a fight against Dustin Porre on short notice. As a 4-0 youngster, not a lot of people know who he is, he gets submitted.

A great submission, but, I mean, it happened pretty early in the fight. And then he starts to, you know, gain some confidence and momentum. And it was clear that, you know, he wasn't quite ready for that fight. I know he did lose those two fights in the UFC. You know, the Bermuda's fight was close as well, if memory serves me correct. And the Conner fight, you know, has been much talked about. But I love the fact that the more he wins and looks good, hopefully, and this is, I'm going to get back to Max in a second, but that might at the end of the day become Conner's most impressive win to beat him via decision with a torn ACL. I know he went the distance, but still, you know, like we've said before, all of Conner's wins are still in the UFC and still relevant and none more so than Max Holloway right now. I don't know, you know, it's hard to say right now. He's still super young. He's 23 years old, but he is. is great, man. He's a fun fighter to watch. That is a big test, though. That is really big test. By the way, that New Jersey card is great.

We have a question about just that card. Okay, okay, okay. It's a really good card. So I like this matchup. I kind of like the old guard versus the new kid on the block. This is great matchmaking. And, you know, quite frankly, I think Sean Shelby has been really putting on some great fights. You know, I really think he's, there aren't that many matchmakers out there. But it'd be nice. if he got a little more. It seems like people are always quick to just say, Joe Silva, and he deserves a lot of credit too. He has a lot of work on his resume, a lot of great fights, all that stuff. He's got a lot to deal with. But Sean is putting together some great fights, and I love these kind of matchups. So this is a fun one at 145. Here we have somebody questioning the card order.

Why was Daniel Kelly versus Pat Walsh on the main card? You know, that's not a question for me. I will say this. I do believe, and I welcome anyone to correct me if I'm wrong, I do believe Joe Silva has final say on the bout order. As far as the two matchmakers are concerned, I mean, of course, at the end of the day, if Dana White, Lorenzo Furtita, Frank Fortita, want a certain fight in a certain slot, they have final say.

But as far as, like, you know, these smaller shows, Joe Silva, he's been around there, you know, in the UFC longer. It makes sense. Sometimes it feels like, you know, these flyweight fights, these women's bantaway fights are a little lower than the UFC. the big boy fights. And, you know, how many times have we complained about fight card placement? And it turns out that, you know, the ones that they put on the main card ended up being more entertaining. In this case, that was not the case. Mokovsky Elliott should have been on the main

card. We all thought that going into it. Those feelings were confirmed afterwards. That was very much a main card fight card. A fight, especially on a card like this one, it was important for the flyweight division. And yeah, it was certainly a mistake to put that fight on that card, period. Not even the main card, period. Just making that fight was a mistake. This person asks, they asked last week prior to the Marlon Moray's fight, about the possibility of him coming into the UFC and getting a title shot in the depleted Bantamweight division

after Dillashaw versus Barow 2. He's asking again, what's next for Marais and what did you think of his victory over Josh Hill on Thursday? Did you see this fight? Of course. I don't know, you know, let me ask you a question. Yeah. Is Marlon Marais the classic case of one of these guys who's winning outside of the UFC,

but if you ever got in the UFC would not be as highly regarded as he is right now? It depends on what you mean by highly regarded. I think you would be in the discussion as a top guy. Yes. I don't think he would be a championship level fighter. And I think the same for Justin Gaci. I think those guys are both. You could port them over to the UFC right now, and they would not have a problem.

We had this discussion when the WEC was coming in. Were these guys going to be able to hang? And they've passed with flying colors. WeC has killed it. We had the same discussion when Strike Force guys came in. Can they hang? Can these guys who are coming over from Strike Force hang? They absolutely can hang.

these guys are in the title picture or fighting for the title do I think Marlon Marais and Justin Gaci and some of the other guys at WSOF could come over and compete in the UFC and do reasonably well I do I really do but I don't know if they'd be able to capture the title but would I would it be the most shocking thing in the world? Nope not at all super talented fighter showed his resiliency in this fight it wasn't going his way Do you think he's top 10?

I'd have to look at the rankings. Do you have them in front of you? Or can you pull them up quick? The UFC rankings? Yeah. If he fought in the UFC, and again, you know, I just go to these because these are the ones that are referenced on the broadcast. But the number 10 ranked, I'll give you 10 through five, okay? Because we're not going to say he's top five.

10, Carraway, 9, Eduardo, 8, Alcantara, 7, Mizugaki, 6, Weinlan. He's competing with all those guys. easy. Yeah. If not beating them outright. I'd say so. But then you got T.J. Barrow, Cruz, favor. This is the question. But I don't think it's, I don't think it's something I can answer definitively. I'd have to see those ones.

But I think you could pour him over instantly. Not even a question. He is very talented. And as I was just saying, you know, this was not a fight that was as easy as his previous fights. He faced some adversity and past the flying colors.

I think he's incredible. Yeah, I think a lot of people. people were actually overlooking Josh Hill, a tough guy, undefeated. I know he lost on the ultimate fighter, but officially he was undefeated. A tough guy, you know, he was fighting in Canada, all that stuff. It was a tough fight for Marais. Yeah, you know, I still feel like he's one of those guys where I can't quite say how good he would be in the UFC because he's not fighting UFC-level competition.

Certainly he deserves to be in the UFC. I mean, I think there's no question about that. But how far would he go? I wouldn't put him in the top five. You can take an account of a guy's skills, though. I thought coming from Strike Force, Daniel Kormier, was going to be amazing. I thought Jokery was going to be amazing. Luke Rockhold, these guys.

And you know, you can see that in them in their level of skills and their technique and things like that. It's not all just, you know, looking at the Fight Finder or the Wikipedia and saying, he beat this guy who's not UFC level or didn't beat this guy. There's subjective things that you can take from it other than just what's on the paper. And I think he ticks all the boxes, in my opinion. Yeah, yeah. His UFC caliber is he top five right now, in my opinion? That's tough.

It's tough to answer. But he certainly be in that top six through ten conversation. I know he still has at least one more fight on his World Series of Fighting Contract. And, you know, he's kind of an important player for them because, you know, he's a champion. He's kind of a homegrown star, all that stuff. I wouldn't be shocked if at some point he gets the call from the UFC. And I will say, by the way, again, I know it was kind of a weird card for them, you know, with the Cody McKenzie thing and all that.

I'm disappointed that their next few fight cards aren't on a Thursday. I thought that was perfect for World Series of Fighting. It felt like a lot more people were talking about them and watching, at least in our little bubble. I know they have a couple Friday shows, but the Thursday really felt like it made a lot of sense. So, oh, well. You made a great transition here yourself. What did you think of Cody McKenzie's blatant headbutt? it was blatant.

I don't know. It was weird. That whole fight was kind of weird. The hair pulling, the headbutt. Yeah, not a good scene. I don't know. I don't, it didn't excite me. Like, I know some people were like, ooh, I'd watch that a thousand times.

Cote McKenzie. Like, those are one of those things that, put it this way. Watching that, I had the complete opposite feelings as I did watching the Benson Henderson fight. Fair enough. That's not something, that fight is not a fight where I sit down the unanimay fantasy. Watch this. I'm proud to be covering this. Yeah. You know? I don't know. I think there's something to be said, though, for self-policing. I like the idea that he got his hair pulled and... Oh, I mean, I'm not just, I'm not just pouring this on Cody, by the way. Yeah. The hair pulling, I mean, I kind of felt like it should have been, I don't know, just

erase that. And, and I know some people were, uh, were high on his opponent, McGinnis, I believe. But yeah, by the way, speaking of that, Cody McKenzie ending his retirement very quickly. I read, I believe it was on Sherdog. Very recently, just like a couple of minutes ago. Babelieu, back as well. Oh, wow.

Here it is. What's the deal with that? Babelou Sobral ends retirement, fights Volkan Ozdemir on April 11th, Geneva. I kind of hate to see guys in their retirement, especially when they should be retiring, because, yeah, it was on, um, it was on, uh, on, on, on Sherdog First, because that only leads me, especially on a car, like, it just makes me feel like they needed the money and, uh, you don't want to see that. Okay. Speaking of, okay. No, boy. Was that a second? Depressing, depressing,

we're going down. Yeah, it's weird. Should Frank Mear lose this weekend? Yes. Do you think that would be the end of the road for him. Surely a commentary or analyst's role is the next logical step. I'd say, you know, rather than kind of getting morbid with this question, I think what, what is stopping, you know, Frank Meir from being an analyst? I think he'd be great. He hasn't done it. Yeah, he hasn't really done it lately. Like, he's not in that rotation, you know, it's weird. What's stopping that? I don't know. I think he needs to get in there. I think he needs to get in the rotation. I think I should ask my, my colleagues over at clock. It's weird because, you know, he was doing a great job with the WC gig. And then the whole Brock Lester thing happened in a

apparently he lost it because of that. You'd think that he would pop up on, you know, a broadcast year, a studio show there. Yeah. You know, he's lost four in a row. Look who he's lost to. Dos Santos title fight. Cormier, Barnett, Overeem.

Yeah, there's no cakewalks there. No cakewalks. Bigfoot, not a cakewalk, either. It has been a long layoff. I think a lot of people were wondering if he'd fight again after Overeem. I don't know. I don't want to see Frank Meir. Shelf of his former self. Let's reserve the right to answer this question next Monday.

Well, I think win or lose, let's see Frank do some commentary. Oh, yes. The commentary thing, I thought he was great doing that. Yeah, yeah, he was great. He loved him some Tchaemi Zugakia. Remember that. But he was great. He was great. And yes, I would like to see him in some kind of capacity. I don't know if it's... I think some guys are better in the booth or the clinical booth. There's not an actual booth. As opposed to the studio, Frank strikes me as the kind of guy who would be better at the fight, you know, as an analyst. And by the way, while we're speaking about that, I thought John Anick and Brian Stan, who, yes, I will say I consider friends, colleagues, whatever, had a particularly great night on Saturday. A really great night.

There was one fight. What was the fight? Gosh. The fight with the supposed illegal knee. Darn it. What was the fight? That was before I started. You didn't watch it?

I did watch it eventually, but I was... Did no one ask me about this, I guess? No. Let me just remember. My memories, a lot of it was a haze. I fell asleep four times during that card. Yes. Oh, yes.

The Chas Skelly Jamailer's fight. So, Skelly beats him via TKO, and at the end of the flurry, at the end of the second round, he clearly lands an illegal knee. the referee said that he was about to stop the fight. He was in that motion before the knee landed.

And how do we know that? We don't know that because the referee was interviewed. It was because during the John Annic post-fight interview, Stan went to talk to the commission. And then he reported back to us, or at least the commission went up to him. Some conversation happened, and that's something we very rarely see in MMA broadcast. He does such a great job. We've talked about him before, how he talks to the fight before, and the coaches, all that stuff. but I thought both of them had a great night.

Even in that post-fight interview, Anick was talking about the knee. He brought it up first to Skelly. They weren't hiding it. And, you know, back in the day, some of the controversial stuff would kind of get swept under the rug. I thought they did a great job. They did great job in the main event. You know, I was kind of crapping on the card and some of the action, but they were the bright spot leading up to that main event. I really enjoyed their calls and their conversations and their chemistry.

So much props to those two. Our next question, now that D.C. is facing Bader, who do you think makes sense for Gustafin? Glover-Teshirea. It's pretty easy. That's pretty easy. Yeah, pretty easy. Yeah, that's the fight. Dana said that Rory is already booked for a fight, but declined to say who it was.

Do you think it's going to be Robbie Lawler? I do. I think the time is now. These are the easiest questions we've had all year. I do. It has to be. It has to be. Rory deserves it. He deserved it beforehand.

Unfortunately, what happened with the Hector Lombard situation, but the Silver lining for him is, I think he gets it. And I think before the summer is out, he gets that fight. Or should get the fight. Hopefully, you know, it doesn't get canceled or whatever. But that's the fight. It has to be the fight. Here's that Fox card. Oh, yes. Now I have a feeling you're not going to pick anybody. Well, who wants to hear my picks anymore? You know, every time I make picks, I see the guys at the fight, oh, you didn't pick me, you didn't pick me. Like, why do I need that trouble in my life? I gotcha. But, I mean, look at some of these matchups, right? Yeah, yeah. Why don't you make your page?

Machita Rockle. Okay, let's go from the bottom. OSP Cummins. Who do you got? Cummins, right now maybe? That's a tough one. I need to come back to that one. You're coming back to it on the first fight?

Well, I mean, you know, I'm not going to place my bets now. I'm going to think about it a little more. I want your, boom, initial reaction. My initial reaction is Cummins. Okay, okay. Jim Miller, Paul Felder, which is another one of those like old guard versus New Guard type of fight. Initial, boom. Miller.

Herrick Van Zant. Van Zant, but I think Herrick's going to be better than people are expecting. Holloway Cub. Boom. Cub. Okay. I think it's a little too soon for Holloway, but damn do I love him. When he puts it together, those combinations are incredible.

Obviously, Jacques-Roeira-Ramero. You don't even have to ask that one. Boom. Rockold, Machita. Rockold right now. And this surprises me because I think Machita is incredible. And I was picking Machita over Wyden. I really, really think very highly of Machita,

but Rockhold, the way he's just demolishing everybody on the way to this title shot, I'd be hard-pressed to pick against Luke Rockhold right now. Yeah, it is a nice card. What a card. It is a good card. It's free. I wonder what the, if I had to guess, I know Rockhold, Romero, Van Zann are all on the main card. I'm guessing Cub Hallways also is the fourth fight, right?

That makes sense. Yeah, it has to be, right? Yeah. Prudential Center. I love that back-to-back show week because it's New Jersey, home game for me. Now imagine this if it had Faber Edgar on it. Yeah, that would be awesome. Yeah. It's too bad that's not a take place in New Jersey. Okay, this is the last one from the website. Yes. About Fador. Fadour Emilienenko is going to be a part of Bellator 14's fan festivities, apparently. Did you see this? They tweeted out, you know, a little.

Do you think Scott Coker and Viacom can entice Fador out of retirement. Would it be worth the big money? I imagine Fader would command to bring him back to MMA. I can guarantee you they try to entice him to come out of retirement. I guarantee you the first question was, would you like to come to our fan fest? Not, you know, it's obviously that it was, would you like to fight? No, okay, let's go to the fan fest deal.

Do I think it will happen? No. I think money talks. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who is money. money hungry and will come back solely for the money. And I don't know if it's worth it for Belator. I mean, history has shown that the company that breaks the bank for Fedor, whether it's fair to say this or not, good things haven't happened afterwards. Is it worth it? I mean, will he command a big rating on spike? You'll probably get a spike, pardon the pun, that's for sure. But their heavyweight

division, I mean, it's not that great. I mean, there's no really marquee matchup. Of course, if they signed Brock Lesnar, you get Brock and Fader, okay, things will change. But there's no fight that will be like, whoa, I can't believe we're going to see Fader in this fight. You know what I mean? Which doesn't really make it worth it. Maybe if he drops down to 205, things change a little bit. King Mell comes up, this doesn't really seem all that worth it to me. But, man, to see Fader one more time.

Yeah, I'm not dying for it. I'm not. It was clear that his better days were behind him. And he left on a good note. I'm not dying for it. Shame. Those days are done. Man, we've come a long way from the guy fighting with Dana White in the studio.

Well, I tell you, that clip, very timely these days. But I'm saving that clip for another day. You'll know why. Okay. Our first question from Twitter, Benson Henderson's performance was inspirational, as was his Octagon interview. What's next for Bendo, 155 or 170? Part of me wants to say, let's see Le Sé Le Bonten Roulet, which is let the Good Times roll,

stick around on 170. Part of me wants to say, go back to 155, you're not dealing with the same kind of size advantage. I'll roll the dice. I'll say being at 170 gives him a whole different feel, makes people feel differently about him. Let's keep those good vibrations rolling along. Let's stick around on 170 for a bit.

It was slowly, let's not get in there with the crazy big dogs. It's not necessary right now. Because look, as long as Pettus is the champion anyway, he's not getting a title shot, so why not? If you can do it, do it. It was not too long ago that we were saying the same thing about somebody else in the lightweight division, a legend in the lightweight division. BJ? Yeah.

The whole thing, every fight at 170, it was send this guy back to 155. So let's see how Benson knows. But he was obviously way better at 155. Yeah, the same could be true for Benson. We have to see, but he has to try it. Sure, sure, sure. That's the thing. I want to see Benson give it a shot because I think he's that good.

I think he's that talented. Yeah, yeah. Okay, where does Benson debut in the Walter Way rankings? Do you think he will be ranked? Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. This is from flip the script, Michael Carroll of Phimetric Fame.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, I do not see any DMMA hour hashtag. No. So, wait, what are we taking rogue questions now? Yep. Weird. From Friend of the show, Michael. Where does he debut in the Walter Wright rankings?

Well, let's see. Perhaps it are out. But I don't think they're out. Well, look, Brandon Thatch wasn't ranked, and I think that's pretty fair. I mean, 15 was the Flare, Nelson, Tiago Alves, Rick Story, Jake Ellenberger. I wouldn't rank him yet. No. No.

I facetiously, he said number one. Yes, yes, yes, of course you did. What? Twitter snarker. Nobody has a no, no, no, no, not snark. I'm on the Benson Henderson bandwack. I know, I know. but everyone's a comedian on Twitter, right?

Well, some are better than others. Yes. Our next question, do you think the UFC will announce a new drug testing program on Wednesday at their press conference? Honestly, not a lot of answers to these questions. All I know is that this Wednesday, I was told tentatively at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, but I don't know if that's in stone just yet. There will be a press conference to discuss all of this. Dana White, Lorenzo Fetta, hopefully both will be there.

Las Vegas. That's pretty much all we know right now. I don't know what they're announcing. Hopefully it's something that will really get people excited about some change coming. I mean, it's obviously very much well-needed. The Hector-Lombard news, disappointing. Still, there's that report out there from M.A.junkie.com that they found out that Anderson Silva had failed the second drug test.

And I know there were some idiots online saying that, oh, you know, you feel like you can only, like you can only confirm this and put this out there. and you can't go. Look, journalism 101, dummies, is if someone puts something out there from anonymous sources, you have to go out and try to confirm it. If Dana White tells Eminemay junkie that this is happening, this fight is happening, of course I don't need to confirm it. He told them. But if it's from an anonymous source, my job is to go out there and confirm it and not take everything as gospel. That is bad journalism. That's not me thinking that I have to confirm anything. I don't want to spend too much time on that, but it's just like, are we playing around here?

are we actually this dumb? It doesn't make any sense to me. This is my job to confirm things that are being reported, that are rumored, that are coming from anonymous sources. If it's a press release, if it's from an official, of course there's no need to confirm it. But if it's somewhat vague, there is a need. And I went to the commission. They said we don't have the results. To be quite frank, they were a little annoyed about the whole situation. But hey, these things are going to happen. They said, we'll let you know when we do. No further update from junkie or any other outlet. So let's see what happens. It would be unfortunate.

But again, back to the question, I think that they need to come out with something to show that they care, to show that they view this as a major problem that could truly affect and harm the sport. Let's see what happens. But as far as answers, I don't know any more details about it. Did you just give us the Gus Johnson, these things happen in MMA? Did I? Sounded like it. No, no.

I was saying about journalism. Yeah, no, but you said, you know, these things happen regarding, like, botched tests or, you know, vague, vague responses and things like that. I don't remember saying that, but I was in the zone there for a second. Oh, you certainly were. But it's not like the Gus Johnson thing. You get that, right? No, no, but you said that phrase verbatim.

Oh, okay. Our next question. Our final question. Yes. I guess the question is cooler. I don't know better, you know, take this how you will. Yes. Which is better the, you know, posing the Haddukin thing?

Yes. Or the toothpick. well and is it pronounced hadoken I mean that was fun that's pretty cool goofy yeah that didn't make me feel like

oh this needs to be banned the toothpick thing was like holy moly I can't believe he's doing this with a damn toothpick again doing all that getting punched in the face with a freaking toothpick in his mouth but then I felt like okay something needs to be done here so it's kind of two different things both holy moly moments

both fun moments in the moment but one, I don't feel like anything needs to happen to that. The other one, I feel like for his health and safety, should be banned. You get what I'm saying? I don't know if I can actually say which is better. They're both pretty cool. Yeah, they're both cool, I guess. You just said you wanted to throw up in your mouth when you saw the toothpick.

I didn't quite go that far, but it does make me very uncomfortable. I get physical feelings. That's pretty close. Just on sight of seeing the toothpick because I imagine myself with it, and I imagine swallowing it, and it makes it very... Yes. It's like all prickly in my throat, right?

But that combo he landed after he did the Haduka move, that was flawless. That was incredible. So that was pretty cool. And that's it. That's it for the questions. We've done. We have run out of time.

I wanted to mention one more thing before we go, no mas Melvin Manhoff. I'm not the kind of guy who says you need to retire, but if you're asking me as a fan, I don't want to see him fight anymore. Too many knockouts. That happened on Friday. Elator. It's just, that's making me just as uncomfortable. There are no full odds for the card on Sunday night, but Mir, Bigfoot. What do you got?

Wait, before that, somebody said Dominic Cruz as a great five-round fighter as well. Tremendous. Great call. Beat DJ. Mere, Silva? Silva. Yes. Minus 231 plus 226. Sounds about right. Yeah. Makes sense. Mir is on a tough stretch right now, but you listed the guys. None of those. None of those are even, like, relatively easy fights. Those are all super, super tough fights. So this will be a better gauge of where he's at, because those other guys are all title contenders. A main card is Strickland, Ponsinibio, Alcantara, Sions,

Martin's. Wait, that's it. We only have the main event? Oddswise? That's it. Oh, wow. Martins, Chabilov, Alvi, Fahara, and then Barbosa Michael Johnson, which is a fun one.

That is probably the most interesting fight on the card. That is the people's main event, my friends. I wanted to have Michael Johnson on the show just to talk about his layoff and all that, but they said he wasn't interested in speaking about the past, which my respect, but it would have been nice to just get some clarification why he has been out for so long. I remember they said he was indefinitely suspended, and they came out and said that the suspension was over,

and it was all good after an investigation, but he hadn't talked about it. I wanted to get a little bit of clarification, but hey, you got to respect where they're coming from. It is in the past. They want to move on, focus on the fight, perhaps at some point in the future. That is the card on Sunday.

That is it for our show. Thank you so much for watching. Alex, you can hit my music. So there it is. Another episode of the M.A. Hour in the books. Hey, we're back on Thursday for another episode of the beat. New Yorkerick did a great job in what could be his last ever show. Why?

We'll save that for another day. But how about this? Last ever show on the beat, by the way, not on the show. We'll have another debutante on Thursday. details to come, but we're back. So we'll obviously be talking about the Wednesday press conference deal and whatever craziness happens in MMA between now and then. But for now, it's all good feelings.

Feel a lot better about where we are. That's all it takes. One great performance. As Rudy Tomjanovich, the former head coach of the Houston Rockets, one said, never underestimate the heart of a champion. Benson showed that on Saturday night. to him, and thank you so much to him for joining us. It's so great getting those interviews after the big fights on Saturday night. I really appreciate his time. Thank you to Benson.

Best of luck to him. Thank you to Alejandro Ayiquinta. Al-Aquinta, growing up before our eyes. Great stuff from him. Thank you very much to Matt Matrione. Good luck getting that Andrei Arlowski fight. Thank you very much to Josh Barnett. Welcome back, Josh. We missed you. I think the heavyweight division needs to needs a little war master. Thank you very much to both Frankie Edgar and your eye of favor. Tremendous stuff from them. Really enjoyed that.

Thank you to Chris Seabor. Good luck to her, February 27th. And thank you very much to ruthless Robbie Lawler. Congratulations on the Adidas deal. That's it for us. Back next week, same time and place. Until they say, pay somebody. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them.

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