MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 270

Episode Date: February 23, 2015

Featuring Mirko Cro Cop, Mark Hunt, Roy Nelson, Paul Daley, Liam McGeary in studio, Mike Winkeljohn, and Andy Foster. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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On this Monday, February 23, 2015. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani. Inside our New York City studio, a fun Monday show planned for all of you, almost like a post-fight show, if you will, because last night around 12 or so hours ago, the UFC held an event in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

And what an event it was. A slew of underage. dog winners, of course, capped off by Frank Meir, who had not fought in around a year, pulling off the upset and defeating Bigfoot Silva, turning back the clock and proclaiming that he is back. You know, I said on the M.A. beat, I felt like there was more pressure on Bigfoot Silver going into that fight than Frank Mear. And I honestly believe that.

Where does Bigfoot Silva go from here? He has not looked good in his last few fights. You could talk about the timing of the TRT and all that. You know, he had surgery recently on his pituitary glands. I mean, who knows what the reason for this is. But one thing is for certain, he does not look like the same fighter that he once was. Frank Muir looked fantastic. Switching his stance, finishing him in the first round.

Would have loved to have heard him call out Brock Lesnar, but alas, that did not happen. It was a fun card. It was a card that started. Main card, 8 p.m. Eastern, which I loved on a Sunday night. It was all kinds of fun. And of course, now we turn our attention to UFC 184. but there's so much to discuss, as always, in the world of MMA. So let's get into it because we have a lot going on on this show, my friends.

And we're just days away from a very, very, very busy weekend in the world of MMA once again. At around 355, we're going to take your questions and comments. So hit us up using the hashtag, the MMA hour. Leave us a question or comment in the comment section below. Once again, under the weather, this seems to be a common occurrence around this time of the year. so I apologize if I sound a little off, but hopefully your presence will make me feel better. At around 335, I'm really excited about this.

We are going to have the executive officer of the California State Athletic Commission, one of the very best in the business at what he does. Andy Foster will be stopping by. He has a busy weekend with Invicta on Friday and UFC 184 also on Saturday in the great state of California, in the same city, Los Angeles.

And he's been doing a lot of great things as far as drug testing is concerned, but also to try to educate the fighters and the public about the dangers involved with weight cutting. And we saw another casualty of what is a very dangerous thing right now in the world of MMA. T.J. Waldberger fainting before the weigh-ins on Saturday, unable to compete on Sunday. This is serious stuff. We actually talked about it on the show last week. What's more dangerous? This or PEDs. I want to get Andy Foster's take on it all. So he'll be joining us at around 335.

315, we're going to talk to Paul Daly. He returns to Action. He returns to Bellator. It's been a while this Friday, Mohegan's son. So looking forward to talking to him. Of course, he was supposed to fight Douglas Lima for the belt. Lima pulled out. But always great to talk to Semtex.

255, we're going to talk to Mark Hunt. The KFC King is back. It was announced around this time last week that he'll be facing Stipei Miocch, May 10th in Adelaide, Australia, main event. So looking forward to the return of Mr. Mark Hunt, not only to the cage, but to this show. It has been a while. At 235, we're going to talk to Mike Winklejohn, who of course is the striking coach for the likes of John Jones, but also a man who helped mold Holly Home into the fighter she is today. She is making her UFC debut much anticipated UFC debut. This Saturday, UFC 184. We'll talk to Mike about Home, Jones, and many others. 215. How about this? Mirko Krokop will be stopping by almost a year to the day. of his MMA hour debut last year. It was March 2nd, 2014. He returns. Of course, he's coming back to the UFC April 11th in Krakow, Poland, against Gabriel Gensaga, a rematch of that famous fight from way back

when. So Miracle Crow Cop stopping by, 215. We're going to talk to Liam McGee, who faces Emmanuel Newton for the Bellator Light Heavyweight title this Friday. That should be a lot of fun. Looking forward to having him in studio. Liam McGee in studio in around 25 minutes. But first, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in a man who was very interested in last night's main event. He has a fight coming up as well on March 14th in Dallas, Texas. We're talking about the one and only big country Roy Nelson, who joins us right now from the Sunshine State, Florida. Roy, how are you? I'm pretty good. How are you doing?

I'm doing great. So you're still in Florida, right? Yep, still here. You were there to help Bigfoot Silva train for this fight, and I'm assuming you're going to stay there until your fight. but I got to ask you about last night, Frank Mears stopping him in the first round. What was your reaction to that? It's one of those things. You know, a heavyweight division, you always got to watch because anytime anybody can win. Did you foresee that at all?

Did you think that Frank had that in him? You know, anytime Frank, you know, is back to the wall, and, you know, he always comes out. Like, you know, he has the MMA gods. And how was it linking up with Bigfoot? I'd never heard of you guys training together. Was this a first? Yeah, no, it was the first. The first time, like, we really hung out was when I, we were shooting the Scorpion King for the movie in Romania.

And that's, like, the first time we ever hang out, and we, you know, and it was Bigfoot and Moa Wall because Mo has a fight coming up this Friday, I believe. Yes. So, yeah, so I came out here to, you know, help them too. and, you know, I just kind of worked out. And the Scorpion King 4, which both you and your lovely wife gave me as a gift after UFC 183, it's out, DVDs, Blu-ray, all that stuff, right? All that stuff. All that stuff. What's your role in the movie?

You know, I just, I do my came in, you know, I'm in the beginning. Yeah. And I'm at the end, so that's all that matters. But what's your character? What role do you play? Oh, my character. I'm one of the King's guards. Oh, yeah. Did you like it? Did you have a lot of lines? I think I had probably maybe eight or nine lines, and I think a couple got cut, but for the most part, you know, it was fun.

Who had more lines? That's all that was. It was a fun thing to do. Who had more lines? You were Bigfoot. I wouldn't say probably myself. Great. Now, did you get the acting bug? Like, you want to do more of this stuff? Oh, yeah, no, I definitely got the, like, what got me into martial arts, and the first was, was, like, that, like, B-movie role acting, like getting paid to do martial arts. And then, plus, I got to work with one of the legends, Don Wilson.

Don Wilson. Who's Don Wilson? You don't know who Don the Dragon Wilson is? Oh, yes, yes, yes, of course. I was thinking of the Canadian MMA reporter. I believe there's one named Big Win Don Wilson. I think that's his name. Don the Dragon Wilson, the king of the DVD.

VHS in 1990s. Was this your first movie? No, this is the first big budget movie. Okay, wow. And what's next? Anything else in the hopper for you? There's always things, you know, in the hopper, just, you know, all right now, we just focus on fighting.

Sure. So you have this fight coming up and you're still there in Florida, so you're at ATT, right? Yeah, right now at ATT. Typically, you seem like, you know, you got the country club, you kind of walk to the beat of your own drum. What's it like being a part of a team there? It's definitely, I mean, I've been in the business for 15 plus years,

so it's definitely just different, just the different situations and different type of training. Are you going to keep going back there? Did you like it? Yeah, no, it's definitely different. It's just definitely different. And plus it's a little bit harder to work. down here just for the pure fact of the filming of the Ultimate Fighter.

Oh, so are you a part of that? No, I was asked to be part that I had to, but, you know, I want to focus on me right now. Now, will you have ATT coaches in your corner on March 14th? Oh, I have at least one, yes. Oh, wow. So you're kind of a member of the team now? I'm definitely trying to be the member of the team. I mean, I, you know, I come down to help them, and then now I expect them to help me.

Sure. So who's going to be in your corner? I have lasano macaroons. Uh-huh. DeSantos. That's it? Just one guy? Yeah, just one guy, and then my usual.

Right. Is it possible that the Nelson's will now be moving to Florida? Is it possible? You know what? Probably not. No, why not? Maybe have it. I like Vegas.

Vegas is the fight capital of the world. Right. Plus that has elevation. Oh, yes. That is good. But similar climates, I would think, with the warm weather over there. So you're fighting, you're fighting Alster. And I want to ask you, because I saw you comment on this on Twitter, on social media, which you're great at.

The Texas Commission said that they will not be doing any random out-of-competition testing. Are you disappointed to hear that? You know, it's the typical commission, so it doesn't really matter. What do you mean, the typical commission? Things are changing these days. You saw the press conference last week? Well, what was the government? The one with the UFC.

They said it come July 1st, all the fighters will be subject to random out of competition testing, etc., etc. July 1st? Yes. So we had the way until July? Well, you know, there are some commissions... Exactly. There are some commissions that do it on their own. California is doing it. Nevada's been doing it.

No, exactly. They can just do it anyways. It's not like, and then they don't have to withhold. They can do whatever they want. Like, I mean, they did it to, I think, Ben Rofwell. I think the commission said, you're good. And then they still suspended them. Right.

So you weren't. It's one of those things. Until I see it, I believe it, you know. So you weren't overly excited about that press conference last week? No, because we've seen all those first conferences before. That one seemed a little different, though, now? I wasn't there, so I couldn't tell you. You didn't watch it?

No, it's... You didn't read about it? What, that there's no... We don't like pets? Well, that they were going to do some changes, and, I mean, I think there was some significant stuff. Of course, we don't know who they'll be linking up with, but come July 1st, all fighters subject to random out of competition testing.

I mean, you know, the proof is in the pudding. Like Vada. Like Vada. I already did that. And they've done that. Which fight did you do that for? One of the first people that ever talk about drug testing. Yeah. I think I try to get Shane Carwin and then he retired. And then I try to get Matt Maitreone. And then he did it when I do it because it was, you know, something or something, you know.

Right. I did it myself, so. Why didn't you do it for this fight? Why didn't we do it the first fight? Yeah. Because I thought Texas would, you know, do their end. Do you think that Nevada would be having some of the issues that they're having if they didn't put you in charge? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You were in the running, right? You put your name in the hat. Yeah, no, no, we just go Coke is bad. Can't do Coke in or out of competition. It's illegal. Right. So maybe you would have cleaned things up. Did you ever think about that?

Oh, I know I would have queen things up. Right, so you agree that things would have been different? I definitely agree if I was commissioner would have been different. Are you disappointed? You didn't get that? No, there's always next time. Okay. Well, then, well, I would hope Bob Bennett will stick around for a while, though, no? Yeah, but they only stick around for maybe like five years. Sure. So maybe when you're done fighting?

Exactly. What do you make of Overeem? He had a great performance in his last fight. Do you think he's the old Overeem? He's backed. Do you think he's as dangerous as ever, or do you think he's on the decline? I think Overeign's, you know, Overeign, you know, is, you know, the same guy that, you know, was K-1 champ and strike force and, you know, all that good stuff.

I just think it's just a heavyweight division. We, you know, everybody has a number and anybody can win. On any given night? Pretty much. That's why I like, like, I wouldn't mind fighting all the, all my past losses, you know, just because it's like, oh, that's your number, you know, like, it's like, it's like you might win one, but I guarantee I'm going to win at least 90% of them. Well, in your last fight, you fought Mark Hunt, who will be joining us later in the show. That was a strange sight for us because we're not used to, you know, your fights ending that way.

How long did it take for you to get over that loss? you know it it was it it it's why it i haven't got over it's just one of those things just you know i got caught it was just like during that whole fight i was like i was seeing everything and i was you know doing the whole i was really comfortable in the fight and and then boom you know mark you know mark hits hard and hey you know more power to them and then you know but and we did it again and i feel it would be a different outcome you know that type of it's just one of those things things. You know,

you get caught, you get caught. But when you say... Mark will tell you the same thing. It's just like him fighting Fabricio. Right. I didn't see that fight going the way that it was, and then all of a sudden,

Fabricio comes out. Got caught. He just got caught. But when you say you're still not over it. What do you mean by that? Like, you're taking that feeling into this fight? No, just like,

like, it's just one of those, like, anytime you lose, you're just never over any of the losses. Right. You're just like, dude, Like, okay, like, if we ever fought again, like, I'm going to, I'll make sure I wait. You know, like, it's just one of those things. It's just, you just kind of hold that, like, in the back.

You're like, okay, got you know, this is what I want to do now. It's not like, oh, I have, you know, it will. It's just one of those things that it's, anytime you lose, you're just like, okay, I've got to be better than the last time. But was that, it's not going to be the same way. Was that a particularly hard one to swallow because of the way it ended? No. It was just

it was one of those things just like everything was working going the way that I thought I was going to go and the whole nine yards and then I just got caught. It was just one of those when you're,

you know, you let your guard down and then all of a sudden that's the fight. That's the one thing about the heavyweight division you always got to watch. Like yesterday with Frank Meere and Bigfoot,

did it sting a little more afterwards when you saw that Mark got a title shot as a result of it? Because, you know, maybe that could have been you had you won. Um, yeah, no, that's the, that's, I mean, it was one of those things that's like, oh, man, like, it was like, you're like that close and then it's just, you know, and just like, ah, you were just one fight away and then he used to go back to the drawboard and just do it all over again. Yeah. Do you still feel like you're in that mix?

Yeah, no, I'm always in that mix. That's the, that's the thing about the headway division. You're always, like, you're literally one fight away. And that's why it's so important to, you know, always get that W. and, you know, I'm going forward. How much do you expect to weigh on way and day? That's always a big topic of conversation. I don't know.

What are you at right now? I know. I, I, I, it varies. Like, right now, I think I was after practice, like, 57. Okay, so that's pretty typical for you, right? Yeah, and then, you know, but someday it's 264, so, you know, all depends if I'm thirsty or not. Right.

I saw you at that sushi buffet. You didn't seem too impressed with it, to be honest. Is that accurate? The one in Florida that Bigfoot took you to? Yeah, it wasn't the typical sushi buffet that I thought it because it wasn't like, didn't actually have that many, that much selection. Okay, so it wasn't like in Vegas. Vegas better?

I've never been, oh. Yeah, Vegas always has a better buffet. I've never been overly impressed with the cuisine. in Vegas. It feels very bland to me. But maybe I'm not going to the right places. It all depends on where you go. Yeah, it all depends on where you go.

Yeah. What you're eating. Did you guys expect Frank to come out like that with that stance, Orthodox? Um, you know what? Frank's, you know, fought orthodox before, and he's fought South Pole, uh, for myself. I didn't see that, you know, coming, but then I think he practiced, uh, I think when he, um, You know, when he did open workouts, he fought Orthodox. Oh, really?

That week, you noticed that? Yeah, so it wasn't one of those things that I would be surprised. I mean, but I don't think fighting anybody orthodox to South Falls, you know, any different, especially if you train with a guy that goes South Falls and then you train with guys that always go Orthodox, you know, throughout your whole life. It's like nothing's new. I think it's just one of those things that heavy weights are. It hardens. You get caught, you get caught. I know it just happened, but did you have a chance to talk to him? Do you know how he's doing?

I actually haven't. I text him, and he says he's doing well, and that's, you know, but that's about, you know, what you can get from text. Sure. Do you think he'll be back in time to help you in the final days leading up to Overe him? Because that's, you know, one of the biggest wins of his career. I mean, that one, the Fador one, and I believe off the top of my head his last one. So will he be there for the final day? days of your training camp. You know what? I wouldn't actually ask anybody to do that, especially if you've gotten any type of damage, I would never, that's not me. So you don't want him to come to the gym for the last two weeks? For me personally, I wouldn't want anybody to, you know, do that even though in our sport,

there's a lot of selfish people. Sure. But I wouldn't do that just because it's just, you know, more damage going down, though, you know, going around the wrong road. He doesn't necessarily have to spar with you, but maybe just to be there to talk to you, coach, tips, etc. Oh, yeah, stuff like that, that's fine, you know, going to the gym now way. It's like moral support, but, like, as in, like, you know, training-wise, you know, you know, it's like someone made in a car wreck and going, okay, now dance for me. Do you have concerns about that at this stage with all of that? we hear about with concussions and whatnot,

you know, the, the danger is not today, but what can happen to you in four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years if you don't listen to your body? Or your head?

Yeah, I mean, it's everything. I mean, your old body, I mean, from knees to, you know, where you're like,

oh, until, you know, you got a bad knee, bad elbow, bad shoulder. I mean, talked to like Forrest Griffin about, you know,

putting abuse on your body. Have you started to think about when you want to, you know, walk away from the sport? Yeah, when I don't think I'm competitive anymore. You don't think that's the case, even at 38? Yeah, no, I don't.

That's like asking Mark. That's right. Very good point. All right, any predictions on the Overeign fight? Any predictions? Pain? Chain? No, pain.

Oh, pain-wise? No, that would have been your prediction. I was just trying to help you out. Oh, pain. Now, yeah, no, prediction. I'm always going to the W for myself. Yeah, of course. And by the way, I love that you bring the fans out to those movies.

You tweet about you. You actually take fans to movies with you. You took some fans last week, right, to that Samuel Jackson movie? A couple weeks back, yeah. We were in Florida, so I figure I'd take some Florida fans out. How many fans show up for this? It all depends, like, when we're, like, in L.A. or in Vegas, actually really, like, you know, are usually a packed house.

Like, what's a packed house? Like, over 50? Depending on how much the theater holds, so anywhere from like 200 to like 400 seats. Wow. All on your dime. All on my dime because I'm always trying to help the fans. I love it. I'm trying to give back because they give back to me. Man of the people. Roy, thank you very much for the time.

I'll see you in Dallas. Best of luck to you. I appreciate it. Thanks. All right, there he is. Big Country stopping by. Probably a little bummed about what happened to his new training partner, Bigfoot Silva, last night. Fought Frank Meir, of course, that made sense.

Bigfoot fought over him. That makes sense. But it didn't go his way. Frank Meir with a big win Sunday night in Porto Allegre, Brazil. We're going to be joined by Liam McGee in a matter of moments, but I have some news, courtesy of our friends over at Bellator. Michael Venham Page out of this Friday's fight, injured, sustained an injury. Brennan Ward, Connecticut's own, Brennan Ward getting the call-up to open the show against Curtis Milander.

So that British invasion card taken a couple hits. Of course, James Thompson was supposed to be on the card. One can argue that fight got better with King Moe getting in there. But Michael Venom Page arguably one of the most exciting young prospects in this game out due to an injury. I'm sure more details to come. We're going to be joined in a minute in studio by the man who will be headlining that card. Liam McGeeery, he faces Emmanuel Newton for the Bellator Light Heavyweight title. We have to reconfigure the studio. So while we do that, Luke Rockold was here just a few days ago. In fact, I think he got me sick.

I think Luke Rockold, pay attention to Luke Rockall. I think he's the one who got me sick, and I'm a little annoyed about all that. But anyway, he gave us a great interview. He was in studio. So take a look at that, and we'll be back and improve. Couple minutes with Mr. Liam McGeery. Welcome inside our New York City studio. I'm Ariel Halwani being joined this morning by UFC middleweight contender Luke

Rokold who faces Lyotamachita, April 18th, right across the river from here in Newark, New Jersey. It is UFC on Fox 15, and Luke, it is such a pleasure to have you here. We don't get big-name stars like you in this studio all the time, especially ones from California, looking as tanned as you are. Welcome to Frid New York. Sorry about that, you know. It's been nice along the other side of the country. Yes.

It's been a little bit 75 degrees, beach weather all day, you know, just getting ready for Jersey. You're doing some promoting, and to be quite honest, I was told Liotto would be here as well, but he didn't come on this trip. Also from California, are you a little annoyed that he's not here? Slightly. Yeah, definitely. I got sick, you know, coming out here. And I still manned up, jumped on the plane and did my job.

Liotto got the sniffles and decided to stay in bed. So, you know, I think I should get his prudium money, but, you know, we're working issues out. I'm going to call Uncle Dana and see what's. up. Okay. Now, I want, you know, there's a lot to talk to you about. There's a lot going on in your world, in the world of MMA. Let's come out with the hot stuff first, the most important stuff. How in the world did you let that lady speak to you like that on Millionaire Matchmaker? I mean, the way she dressed you down, the way she made you seem like an eight-year-old boy visiting the principal's office was, to be quite honest, I was embarrassed for you. How did you

let her do that to you? Who was that lady? The chutzpah. Well, the lady kind of stole my heart a little bit. my, my ball sweat smell like flowers. So, I mean, we were already started off on a good foot. Editing changes things. It's not exactly what, you know, it appeared to be, to tell you the truth. She actually, we hugged and I left. Okay. I didn't get kicked off the show, just to state that, right?

So, so basically, and I think the show was a success. I took her bartender. Right. I stole her bartender. I kissed her co-host. She sent my ball sweat smell like flowers. Right. And the gate co-host said you want to have a threesome with me.

I missed that part. Yeah, the part that they save face and it is out, that's the save their own face. You know, the parts you don't see it. You don't see the fact that it aired out that I kissed her other co-host, and then that other, you know. I just watched it yesterday. I wanted to know what the hell you got yourself into.

And I'm wondering, like, was that actually real? Was all that real? You picking the mixologist over the other girls? you know, you telling the girl about what you want in life and all that, or was that pro wrestling one-on-on? Was that all scripted? Well, I mean, some is real, some was not. Reality TV, they encourage you.

I mean, I'm not going to say there's lines, but they encourage you to say certain things and do certain things, and they set up dates and whatnot. So me picking the bartender was pretty authentic. They gave me three girls that were pretty rubbish. I wasn't really happy with. Not your style? Not really my style.

And I was actually, I have a friend of me that was kind of scouting out the scenario in the club at the time before I met the girls. And one girl, he said, there's one girl, I'm not sure if she's part of it. I was like, I was like, well, who is she? Like, who is this girl? So then we figured out she was the bartender, and I kind of pulled Patty aside. And I'm like, I saw her, like, walk by. I'm like, what's up with your bartender? You know, like, can we get her in the mix?

And then she said, if you go out and ask her on a date, like you saw it, then she agrees, then you can potentially have her. So I pulled bartender's side and I handled my business. But you only saw her once, it said at the end of the show. Have you ever seen her again? No, I cut her off. Why? Yeah, I just, she was. I didn't want to leave her on.

I knew she wasn't for me, so I decided to go my own way. Why was it she for you? She just wasn't my particular type, really. Why not? I want to know. You got to act a little bit, you know? Sure, sure. Yeah.

You weren't feeling it. I wasn't feeling it. At what point did you realize you weren't feeling it? Just little parts, you know, I actually had just signed my Bidbing fight, and it was kind of my last hurrah all weekend, and I wouldn't have a good time. Sure. I don't want to go out and find something even a little better for myself and have some

fun to the boys, so it ended up leaving your high and dry, and then... Look at you. And when it ran out to Newport and hung out with my friends and met some cute girls out there. So we had a good time there. I just didn't want to lead her on. I'm not that guy. I'm not a mean guy. I'm going to lead around when something's not really there.

You were a while, man. I had no idea. Yeah. Yeah. So you're not really looking for love, right? That was all BS. Like, you're not looking for a wife or a... I always keep an open mind. Yeah, but it's clear. I mean, you meet someone, you cut her off within hours. It's clear that... Well, she's right. Sure. You could tell right away. Yeah.

You regret doing the show? No. It caused a lot. I mean, why even do this to begin with? It caused a lot of... It seemed like it caused a lot of drama in your life for a brief moment. Yeah, but it makes it interesting, too, at the same time. What's the aftermath? Do you get people who see you as... kind of like the bad boy and they're sending you messages now i feel like you're a dm your your direct messages must be an unbelievable scene over there right i mean the stuff that you must get if you only knew her if i only knew can you give us a taste well let's just say a lot of people message me

that they say one or two things or like the girls like a bad boy right sure sure are you bad i'm not that bad you know i'm just who i am and uh you know reality tv doesn't always portray people the way they should be portrayed. But it doesn't hurt me. It hasn't hurt it. It re-airs like every other day. Yeah. And so there's like 100 re-airs or something

like that. So I get a whole new crop of girls private messaging me and some love on all my social media and then every once in one I get some haters too. But I think the majority of it is positive. And a lot of girls, let's just say they don't say they spit. You know, I mean, I mean, must say. Did that part actually air? Did she bring that up? Because I didn't see that part.

I was fast-as-for- because there was this other lady in the show that I really didn't care about. I mean, there's a lot of plastic surgery involved. That was just a whole other mess. So I kept fast-forning. I think I missed a few parts. I did see when your mic fell. Yeah. And then you touched the other girl. I felt a little uncomfortable there. Were you acting there? Or was that, like, is that really how you interact with females? Because it felt a little weird to me. Well, they chopped that up pretty hard. Okay. Even, even, even like a cop-out statement, though.

All right, back on the MMA hour, you can see the rest of that riveting interview with Luke Rockhold. I know some people don't like the reality TV stuff, but it gets better, trust me. In particular, his comments about one Vitor Bellfort. Also interesting, he said he'd never been blood tested before in his entire MMA career. Anyhow, you can see the rest of it on MMAFighting.com. For now, let us welcome in into the studio for the very first time, the men who will be headlining Bellator 134, this, Friday at the Mohican Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The one and only Liam McGee is here.

Liam, how are you, mate? Hello, I'm good, mate. Thank you. Great to have you on the show. So what about that Michael Venham Page? Another injury. Yo, that's devastating news. Devastating. Yeah, man, I was looking forward to seeing his fight.

The look at my face and when you just said that there was like, what? And so early on in a week as well, that fight week, and you find that news out. You have any idea what happened? I haven't got a clue, man. Not got a clue. I found out when you just said on the show. Wow. You know him?

Yeah, yeah. He's great, right? Yeah, he's a good dude, man. They all are. Yeah, kind of a bummer. It started out perfectly, British invasion. Yeah. And there's only three of you left.

I know, there was five of us, I think. Yeah. James Thompson. Yeah, that's sad, you know, and now MVP. Right. We'll still put on a good show, though. Yes. So you're headlining this show for the belt,

and you're the headlining act of this whole British invasion. And it's happening. You live here. We talked about this last time. Yeah. You're on the show. You like the fact that you don't have to go far, as opposed to this fight card being in England.

it could have been in England. It's a British invasion card. Yeah, it would have been good to be in England. But, no, I mean, it's nice living in New York. I'm both in the Bronx and town in Brooklyn. So I'm here. It's just a train right away. I saw that press conference you guys did when the five Brits were originally on the card. How did the media over there? I mean, are they into this kind of thing? Bell Tour is always trying to get more media publicity. They're growing every month or so, it seems. But how did they react to a card like this? Because it's not often that you have five Brits going up against the world, so to speak. They were really excited.

There was a good turnout for media. Yeah. I think it was about, I don't even know how many of there was there, but there was a good turnout of people. There was a lot of cameras there. A lot of people asking for interviews and things like that. But yeah, it was a very good. It was a good day.

I saw this clip of you on a bus, I believe it was, with your father. Oh, yeah, he turned up as well. This guy is a fascinating fellow. Yeah, man. This seems like a real rugged Brit. You know, he's old school, man. He is old school. Tremendous teeth as well.

It's the first thing my girlfriend said, where's his teeth? Yeah. Unbelievable. What's your real? relationship like with your dad? Oh great. I knocked one of his two felt, a couple of them. Really? Yeah, we were sparring and then... Wait, he's, is he a former fighter? Yeah, he did a bit boxing back in the army. He likes to have a good fight and still now he trains. I feel like he likes a beer or two as well. Yes, yeah, he does, yeah. So you actually

sparred your dad? I always used to spar my dad when I was growing up and things like that, yeah. Wow. I was training in Jersey. He was there and me and him would do a good few rounds. Were you, were you tight with your dad, or did you take out some of your aggression on him? No, no, me and him are boys, you know. Yeah. It's just like my best friend, you know, so we go on really, really well. Will he be at the fight? Yes, he lands tomorrow and morning, I think.

Does he typically come to your fights? No, this would be the first time he's come over for the one. Ever? Yeah, I mean, he came to my first kickboxing fight, and he was at a couple of them in Jersey. But because I've had like six fights over here now, it's a long way for people. He works in the middle of nowhere. You know the Ascension Islands? No.

Africa, and you've got... Brazil here and there's an island in the middle. Okay. He's on there. Slap bang in the middle of the sea. What's he doing there? I think it's like a US air base or something like that he's working on. And what does he do? Still fix a construction worker. Oh really? Yeah. You used to work in construction as well, right? Me and him worked together. Okay, so he brought you along. Yeah, he brought me into the game when I was like 15, 16 and then, well, I just worked with him forever since, really. So when you were 15, 16, did you still dream about, you know, being a fighter? Was this kind of the, the, the means that you had to go through to get to where you really wanted to be.

No, man, I didn't even know about the fight. I just used to work. Really? Yeah. So who planted this crazy idea in your mind? My mate Barry Foster. Okay. Yeah, he sat me down and was putting all these UFC fights on.

And I was like, do you think I could do that? And he was like, yeah. You had no experience? None whatsoever. I didn't start training in 2009, I think, properly. Okay. You know, I'd do a bit in Andover. I was training at one of the gym theirs.

And, but yeah, I mean, I properly started in Jersey, when I went to Channel Islands in 2009. So Barry Foster puts these tapes on, and all of a sudden you're like, ooh, this is interesting, I'd like to do it as well? I just like to fight, and this thing just looked really good. You know, I was entertaining. It was, I liked to box.

I just had to learn how to play jihitsu. Right. And why did he show this to you? Did he think that you had it in you? Yeah, he knew what I was like. He knew that I liked to fight. Really? Yeah, instead of me getting in trouble for it in a weekend,

I'd just go in the gym and fight there. You used to get into a lot of brawls, bar brawls, things like that? Maybe a couple of, yeah. Yeah. Here and now, yeah. Any big ones? Yeah, a few.

Really? Yeah. Any serious stuff went down? A couple times, yeah. What was the impetus? The impetus? Like, why did these fights happen? Or were you just looking for a fight for no reason?

Just drunk and walking down the road, you know? You see a group of lads and they see you, and it's like, the nose goes up and the shoulders go back, the next thing you know, you'll be having a good... How many do you think you got into? Oh, man, I have no idea. Over 100? Geez. There's a few.

Wow. That's some serious street cred. So where's Barry Foster now? He's in Andover. He'll be, he's flying out on Thursday with a couple of my face. The guy who made this happen. Yeah, he's coming out. We was texting about it the other day and I was like, man, I remember that conversation as well.

That's unbelievable. And what did your dad think about it? Because you said he was a fighter, right? Did he know about this? No, he's well made up for it, you know? He's happy that I'm just going this far and I'm just, I'm over in America fighting for a world title now. And I'd never even thought I'd ever be doing this, you know? Sure.

But when when, when, when your dad, found out that you wanted to do this, did he even know what MMA was? It seems like a more of an old school kind of guy. Yeah, I mean, like I said, we used to box. Sure. When I was like, used to do all this thing, I remember we were sparring, and I ended up flipping him upside down and doing like a little spin, right, and he didn't know where he was. He was upside down.

Then he was on his feet. He didn't know which way direction he was facing. And then I was like, this is MMA. I showed him a couple of fights, and he was like, go on, son. Wow. That's awesome. How old is he? He seemed like he was in good shape.

50, 54, I think. 55. And where's your mom in all this? My mom, she lives in, she lives in Kingsland. Okay. What does she make of you being a fighter? You know, she's happy, you know? She's obviously, she worries about me getting hurt, but at least, like I say, I've been

fighting for a little while, so I'm punching her face. These cuts and bruises, they heal up, you know? Right, right. And is she coming to the fight as well? Yeah, she lands on Wednesday, so I've got the whole family coming over. It's a real family affair. Yeah, man. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Yeah, yeah. It's been a while since I said. in him as well. How long? Almost a year now. Oh really? Wow. Apart from my dad when I saw him in London. Of course. Did you know he was going to be there? Yeah, yeah. We arranged. I told him I was coming like literally a day, a couple days beforehand and then he was like, right, he was flying back to Ascension Ireland. Okay. He was stopping off in London to see us. You know, the last time I had you on, we were finding all about Jersey. I never heard of Jersey before. That's right, yeah, yeah. And I was asking, like, if they

kind of get behind you, if you're in the media, now that you're fighting for the belt officially, it's all going down. Has there been an increase? recent interest in you in your story. Yeah, there has. There's, I mean, in the newspaper, I think they've put a print out every week, once a week, the last three weeks. There's a few people flying over from the England, from the island as well. Wow. To cover you? No, well, there's one guy, there's one guy come over, he's covering me, but yeah, there's just a few people coming to watch, you know. I was doing some research on you yesterday, and I came across this young fellow who had put out this Kickstarter page, because he said he wanted to chronicle your role.

road to this title fight. Yeah. What's his name again? John Leo. John Leo. And he put out this video saying it meant the world to him. He needed around like 2,500 pounds to make this happen. That's right, yeah.

Right? And he's known you for quite some time. And then when you came in here, he was there. Yeah. So he made it. Yeah, man, he's over here. That's amazing. He's been here now, like, two and a half weeks, I think, something on that.

How do you know him? Training. You know, he turned up at the gym in Jersey. It takes a few photos. I've done a few photos with him as well. He's the one who set my hands on fire. Ah, yes, that famous pick. That one picture of the air, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that was a cool little thing. So you've known him, and does he usually come to your fights, or he wanted to be at this one because it was for the belt? Yeah, he followed me when I won the ICO title. Okay. Like I say, he's followed me a couple of times when we're back home. He's always been interested in the career. Now when I'm fighting for the world title,

he thought this is his big chance to do a massive project. So I think he's trying to put together, like a video of photos with the narrator. He's interviews all over the place. And he's doing a good job. And he puts up a really good write-up as well. Oh, yeah, yeah. He uses all the words, man.

I can never even think of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was very passionate what he wrote about why he wanted to be here and all that. And I was wondering if he made it. And then I saw him. Yeah, man, he did. Yeah. He looked familiar.

Yeah. Did you contribute to this campaign to get him over here? I hope that. Yeah. Because he even exceeded it. I think he ended up with like 2,900. Yeah, he'd done well. He did well.

That's got to feel good, right? Someone wants to come and follow you. Does he get annoying to have all these people follow you? Yeah, it's starting, you know, I'm concentrating on the fight. Sure. When you know there's some, all you can is click, click, click, click, click, click. It starts to play. I mean, he's a good dude, you know, and I know he's here to do a job.

I'm just, I'm just an asshole sometimes when I come to a fight time. It's like, there's very few people around and I'm just... You're cutting weight soon, right? No, cut weight, man. You don't cut nothing? No, I was just eating a pork sandwiches. Really? How much you weigh right now?

I'm probably around about 2.10. Wow. So the weight cut and the weight will come off. I'll hit pads before. We'll do a bit of training. I'm over there. We're going there tomorrow. Okay.

So I'll do a little bit of training, keep the weight down, and then I'll be good to go. Have you ever thought about 185? No, my leg's too skinny to lose weight. Okay. Wow, that must be amazing. What a great advantage.

I feel like, you know, we'll have the executive officer, the California State Athletic Commission. His name is Andy Foster. He'll be on the show later, and he's been a very big proponent of the fact that weight cut is a serious problem on our sport.

We see people faint. You know, guys are really depleting themselves. Yeah, man, just seeing people on the scales and they're like, man, that guy was almost dying, you know? And then they see him the next day and they're bouncing around. Fair play to him. I couldn't do that, man. I wouldn't want to cut all that weight and try and kill myself just for a fight, you know?

I got to imagine it's a huge advantage for you throughout the week where you don't have to worry about that kind of thing. You could just worry on the actual fight. Because I feel like the fight against the scales is a fight in itself. Exactly. You know that when people start talking about it, they're like, oh yeah, I've got a fight to come in and fight in two weeks. What's your weight at?

Sure. You know, it's like, man, you just didn't even worry about the weight. How do you feel? Do you feel? Do you feel? How do you feel? How do you eat them well? You keep himself hydrated?

Oh, no, no. I've got to cut another 20 odd pounds. I'm like, all right. Well, good luck to you. Yeah. And that's why the tournament probably was great for you because you didn't have to worry about, you know, getting bigger and cutting the way.

You were just always kind of ready, right? Yeah, that's a tournament was tough. It was? Yeah, fighting every month and a half, I think it was. It took a toll? You know what? It was just training. I trained constantly, I think, for six months.

It was just non-stop training. So I was glad of the... After I was finished, I was like, man, I just want to lie down on a beach and just drink and do nothing. Did you do that? I did exactly that. Where'd you go? Jamaica. Okay.

And me and my girlfriend, I love to Ocho Rios. Oh, nice. Yes. I believe we spoke about that as well. Speaking of your girlfriend, you know, Daniel Cormier, a colleague of mine at Fox, he was telling me, he was like, I saw him recently and he said Liam is going to the Knicks game Right? He's going to watch the Knicks game

I was like how is he sitting courtside And he's like your girlfriend is Lala's best friend Yes yeah Carmelo Anthony's girlfriend's best friend My wife Exactly yes How'd you get into that circle She trains at church street

Right I've seen Carmelo train there Yeah Carmelo train there as well And Po trains there Her name is Po Johnson Yes Yeah reality superstar Yes. How do you feel about that? I just like, hey, you know, whether she's her job, this is her job.

Sure. This is my job, you know? So it is, I mean, it's good. So she was training one day and you just met her and the rest of the history? I walked into the gym. It was like the first day I walked in. She's there on a running machine and I just, I would have concentrated on my fighting first. Sure.

And then straight after the fight, I was like, right, where is she? Yeah, yeah. I made a little B-line for her. But you knew. It was love at first sight. Yeah, man. How long have you been together? there?

Almost a year now. Wow. And does she go to your fights? Yes, she's been to every single one of them, by the first one. Okay. Because we didn't really know each other there. Right, right, right. And you like having her around at the gym because she trains at the gym?

Do you like that or is it a bit of a distraction? No, man. She works hard. She's training hard. I train hard. Watching her push as hard as she does, eggs me on to push hard, you know, so and vice versa. So it's a good thing. Does she want to be a fighter?

No, no, no. She's a face for her. That's what pretty face is. Right, right, right. Is she like a model or something? Or is she just her friend? Like, what was her plan? I've never actually seen the show.

She's a singer-songwriter. She does a reality TV show. Right. Yeah. That's great. Have you ever been on the show? No, no, no. You don't want to be?

No, I mean, we'll see what happens, you know? Yeah. Have you ever hung out with the Anthony's? Yeah, we're friends with them, you know, a few times. Look at you. You rolling in big circles here in New York. I know, I didn't realize what was going on. You know, I just go with the flow.

Sure. Did you even know who these people were? At first, no, I didn't. You're not even impressed by the whole thing. When I first met her, she followed me on Instagram, and I kind of looked. I was, oh, that's that girl from the gym. And I looked. She had like, 250,000 followers.

I was like, who is this girl? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then I started asking a few questions, and then I got told, and it was like, well, not bad, not bad. Yeah, and how do you feel about basketball? Like, how do you like it going to the game, the garden? I'm actually getting into basketball now. I like the sport, you know?

Before, I never really paid much attention to it. Because England, we don't, never really played that much basketball. basketball, you know? Right. But now I'm over here. It's, you've got this sport, the basketball, and the American football as well. So I just like the... You have the perfect body for basketball.

Oh, man. I look the part every time I get to here, the ball leaves my hands. It goes all over the place, so I don't even bother. You have no idea what you're doing? No, man, and just too many elbows and... But in a former life, you'd be perfect with those long arms, long legs. Maybe if I go see Carmelo's... Have you ever played with him?

No, no, no. No. No. No. That would be kind of crazy for both of you. There'd be no point, you know? Sure. Yeah.

But how did you enjoy going to the game? Was that your first game? I saw it on your Instagram. You went to the Christmas game. I was like, no, my first game was actually, I went with D.C. Oh, really? When he was in Phoenix, yeah, the Phoenix Suns. Oh, that's right.

When he was doing all the... When he was doing his things, yeah, we were there. But yeah, we went to... We went to Madison Square Garden for Christmas Day. It was a nice present. My brother was over as well. Okay. So, yeah, it was nice.

It was a good day. So how did you link up with Daniel Cormier to help him prepare for John Jones? You? You had a man there. So Daniel text me and said, can I have Liam's number? Yeah. And then you just said, I'm in? Because I kind of stepped away from it at that point.

I was in Jamaica. Okay. I got the text message just as I was a plane, and I was like, I couldn't text when I was back over there. Okay. And then, I mean, obviously, I know who D.C. is and he's fighting John Jones. I was like, yeah, man, of course I'm going to help him. I'll try my best to help him out, you know, as much as I can. So, yeah, that's that.

You never met him before? Never met him, no. Never knew him. No, never knew him. and I just knew him through what he did. Was a part of you almost humble, the honor, that of all people he's coming to you? I mean, he's fighting for a UFC title. It was a huge fight.

Man, it was a great honor to be asked him, you know. It was a good feeling. What was it like, though, to go there? Because you're coming in as almost a hired gun, this camp, you know, a AKA, there's a lot of history about a lot of big names. Was it intimidating at all? Yeah, it was. You know, I mean, these are big names guys.

You've just got big pitchers all the way around the gym, and these guys are, like, I'm still news of this game. Sure. I'm 9-0. I've only been over here a couple of years, you know. So to get invited to these people and to train with them, it was just came Velasquez wandering around the gym. You know, Luke Rockhold and DC himself, you know,

it was a great, great feeling. And it was like, well, sometimes a little bit like intimidation, you know? Right, right. Was it surreal at first? Very surreal, yeah. So how long did it take for you to get over that? Because then you're one of the guys at some point. Yeah, I mean, it took a few days to find my feet, you know?

And then it kind of just settled in, you know? Did it teach you? I mean, you have great training here, no doubt, but maybe when you go somewhere else and you go into that sort of grind of, you know, AKA and they've been doing it for so long, did it teach you anything? You know, maybe I'm doing this differently or this is what it really is like preparing for a big fight because this is your first really big fight. He's been there before Olympics and all that stuff.

Yeah. Was it at all eye-opening for you to be, you know, a part of that whole system? Yes, it definitely was, you know. Excuse me. After, like I said, I just come back from Jamaica, so I was like all soft. Sure. So to come to jump into the middle of a training camp was intense as that.

It was a complete eye-opener, you know, three sessions a day. What they did, the cardio class, the sparring. And it was just like, this is how proper MMA photos trained, you know. So when I came back and I was like, I took a couple of things back with them, you know. And my training camp here has just been just as intense, you know. And I see how he was preparing for his fight against John Jones. And the boy worked hard, you know, I'm, gosh. that he lost, you know.

Yeah, what was that like watching it? It was sad, you know, because I know how much he put in there, and I know how hard he worked for it. So I was gutted for him, you know. But, I mean, he's bounced back, you know, so he's fighting Ryan Bader soon, so he can go on and push on and beat the crap out of him and move on one step closer to get another shot at him, you know?

You still keep in touch? I've sent a couple of text messages, which has been so busy, you know, training. I've been down in the dungeons in Church Street and Henzos for the last, ever since I got back. I don't really speak to too many people. The social media side of things, I'll flick on and Facebook, I'm off again, you know. I just want to train.

Sure. I don't want to, the outside world can do what they want to do. I know what I'm doing. I remember seeing you in Phoenix and DC was on the treadmill and he was watching the John Jones Glover fight over and over and over again. Yep. I mean, for me, I was blown away. I saw, there was a moment, because he's kind of like a fun-loving, jovial guy, there was a moment where you see him switch where he gets super serious and intense.

Yeah. What was that like for you to be around that? It was good to see, I love to say again, to see that one of the best fighters in the world to how he trains, how his mind focused, see how he is with his family, see how he is with everybody else. It was nice to just to see how they, that side of people live, you know, and it's like, it was good to see, you know, the focus, the determination, knowing what he wants and the drive that he had to do it, you know, and also trying to make time, have to do it.

You know, and also trying to make time, making time for everyone else. Right. King Moe was also there. Yes, yeah. Was that weird for you? Because you might fight the guy soon, right? I mean, there's a chance of that. When he first walked in, I was like, uh...

Did you know? No, I didn't know, no, I didn't know, you know. The trap? Yeah, no. But, I mean, as I'm finding out, you know, everyone, he was doing his thing. I was doing my thing, you know, so we didn't really train together, you know. So he's, and he's a good dude. Yeah, he was a real nice guy, you know?

I never really met him. I'd just see him on TV before. And I was like, oh, right, yeah, this is King Mo. But then when I spoke to him, he's a real guy. He's a real nice guy, he's a real nice game, right? Yes, he is, very smart, yeah. So, no, it was nice to meet him, a pleasure to meet him, you know? Did you get any sort of, did you keep your eye on him?

Like, oh, if I fight him, tendencies, things like that? I was too busy getting punched in the face. Sure, sure. He beat you up? Oh, man, he took it to me, yeah. Yeah, it was good, yeah. You train with Brian Stan, too? Yes, man, he's a real nice guy.

Yeah, yeah. What was that like? great in the sport, you know? And getting the chance to roll with him was good. So let's talk Emmanuel Newton. This is a very awkward fellow, right, as far as his fighting style is concerned. Would you describe, I mean, would you say that?

He's unorthodox, yeah. Unorthodox. How do you prepare for someone like that? Are you one of those guys who really focuses on your opponent or do you kind of do your own thing? I know, I know what he does, you know. What does he do? What do you expect from him?

Spin a back fist. Yeah. Yeah. Do you practice that? I've worked a few things with my coaches, you know. I'm aware of what's going on, you know, but I'm also aware of what I'm going to do. Okay.

And that's more so important. I'm not going to be worried about him doing what he's, if I spend half my time worrying about what he's doing in the fight, then I kind of forget what I'm doing, you know? Sure, sure. Are you pressed by him, though? I'm impressed. Like, he's kind of one of these guys who,

I think a lot of people thought King Mo would beat him, you know, the first time they fought, and then he comes out and then he beats him again. I don't know if a lot of people thought he'd be a champion. And, you know, he's coming out, and he's putting on some pretty good performances. What do you make of them? Yeah, man, you can't take anything away from the dudes.

He's a tough guy. You know, he's a champion. He's a champion for a reason. And I think a lot of people underestimate him, you know, and that's one thing I'm not going to do. I'm not going to underestimate him, you know, because I know he can grind. He can take a punch, you know. He's a tough dude. He can also kind of bait you into a bit of a dull fight, right?

Yeah. Are you worried about that? No, man. Like I say, man, I fought my fight. Sure. You know. Is there some bad blood there? No.

I saw on the countdown show. You guys were going back and forth and it was like going on and on and I was like, is this manufactured or what? No, the guy in the crowd was egging me on for something. I had like a 30-second blip of where I didn't even know where I was and I was just like shouting out a load of words. And I didn't know there was a couple of things that popped out there. But yeah, I mean, it's a fight, you know.

I like to amplify up this. Sure. We're going to go straight afterwards. I'll be straight over there, shake his hands and be like. No animosity or anything. None of them. Did you see the countdown show? Oh, you know what?

Yes, it was one after the show. Dude, I could get to sleep after that. Why? I was so pumped up. Oh, it got you going. Yeah, man, I was like, I can't wait for the phone. I wish it was now, man. I was like...

That's where I saw your dad. Yes, that's what I showed him. But it just felt like they were going back and forth with you guys. And maybe, you know, that sells fights, of course. But I wasn't sure if that was actually, like, there was an actual issue there or this is just part of them. Because you said something about, you know, finishing him in. And he said something and you're like, well, if he thinks that, then he's in for a rude awakening. He just kept going back and forth.

You know what I'm talking about? Yes, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, they told me that he said this and he told me he said that. That's why I was, I think he said, uh... What do you say? He said something in particular. I don't, I don't belong in there or so. I don't deserve a shot.

The title or something, I was like, fuck you, man, you know? I've just fought my ass off, like, ran through the tournament. I was like, fucking right, deserve a shot of you, you know? And that's when I was like, wharting down the microphone. Do you feel like you get respect from the inmate community, only, or if you get that belt, will you get that respect? Like, how do you feel like people, view you now, Liam McGeery?

I have no idea, man. You don't care? I mean, people have their own opinions, you know, and I can't force somebody to like me. I am who I am, and I do what I do. So, if I make friends along the way, then happy days, you know, if I don't, then, well, I'm sorry. How do you feel about Belltor these days?

King Moe said recently that he feels like a lot more people respect you guys now, like just the way they view post Bjorn Rebony, and of course he had issues with Bjorn Rebony, but do you view a difference at all in the way people view the organization and the fighters in particular? No, I agree. I agree with Moe there.

Because as soon as Scott Coe could take over, the shows that he's put on and the things he's doing and the plans he has for Bellator is definitely, it's definitely on the up. And people are noticing this, you know, they're noticing the big shows, the T-A-L-Tis and Stefan Bonner fight. He's got good plans for a Bellator, yeah. Have you ever met with him face-to-face? Yeah, a few times, yeah. Yeah?

Yeah, he's good. What are those conversations like? Well, we just talk business, you know. He's a good dude, you know. I see him in San Jose. Okay. You go, hey, Liam, I was turning around. And there he is.

I was like, whoa, what are you doing here, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's cool. What do you think of them signing guys like Kimbo and things like that? You know, kind of turning back the clock to bait the people in to watch the fights. Of course, you get the rub as well, because if they're coming to watch Kimbo and you're on the card, people will find out. So what do you think of that? You're okay?

It's going to work, you know? So, I mean, if I get the chance to fight these greats, then, I'm excited. Yeah, yeah. I'd like to say, man, he's got good plans, good things. And yeah, man, it's going to be very, very good, yeah. Okay, so how about this? Earlier we were talking about your time in San Jose with the great Daniel Cormier. We have a surprise for you.

Someone wanted to wish you luck. He's on the phone right now. Are you there? I'm here, man. I'm here. You got my man Lee Mack on the phone. There he is. DC.

Liam? How you doing, buddy? I was calling him, man, because I wanted to wish you luck and tell you that all the Hard work has been done. You've done more than most guys can imagine, and you deserve to be the champion. I am so happy, and I cannot wait for you to be crowned. The new Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion.

Thank you, man. It means a lot. Thanks very much, D.C. So what do you know about, and thank you for calling in, what do you know about Emmanuel Newton? Anything? I know you guys didn't train for Emmanuel, but is there any words of wisdom you want to impart on Mr. McGeery?

This guy just needs to go out and do what he's known for doing, man. And that's when. McGarry didn't stop 10 guys in the first round by accident. This dudes is as good as they come. He's very opportunistic, and Liam's a fantastic fighter. Emmanuel Newton's tricky, but you know what, man, Liam's prepared for it. He's trained with the absolute best in terms of everybody in the gym. He's worked on his wrestling, all the areas that he needed to attack he did.

and I believe this is only another step in the journey that Liam's going to be taken for a long time. This isn't going to be as hard as people think is going to be. Liam's going to wipe this dude out. Wow. Strong words from D.C. That means a lot, man. Thanks, D.C. And I'm not saying it, I truly believe it, Ariel.

This dude Liam McGarry is a real deal. I like it. What was it like training with him? We were just talking all about you, but what was it like from your perspective? Tough. You know, he was long and Kick, kicks hard and long,

but more than anything, he was very surprised at how hard he punched. Liam McGarry is, that dude's got some big power, man, big power for a long, skinny dude.

He walks to the gym and he smile in, he's got that funky little haircut. I tried to cut it off. You know, I tried to cut off that mohawk. He's got that funky haircut. He's got a little different voice, you know,

the accent's a little different, but they're in front of Liam and the dude starts to bring it right away. You know, he told me this one story. about him and Rashad Evans training, and he said the moment they started going, Rashad shot on him, he was like, holy crack. For a moment, he was like, this is Rashad Evans actually taking the shot on me,

like, or a guy that actually, someone I looked up to, you know. Yeah. It's easy to kind of get enamored with these guys that are in the UFC and the guy that at the top of the sport. And, you know, Liam said, you know, I'll train with Daniel. You know, these guys getting ready to fight for the world championships. And I don't know how long that lasted with me, but the moment he got a chance, he punched me right in the face.

And I was like, William McGarry is the real deal. When did you train with Rashad? When he was in New York, right? Yeah, in New Jersey. Okay. So maybe, maybe last year. Okay. Beginning the last year, I think.

That's quite a little rolydex you're developing. D.C., Rashad. It's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's great. This is nice, D.C., I like this. This gives me a nice, warm feeling inside. You calling to say good like.

Listen, man, and it was all my, you know, Liam, just know that this wasn't easy to get done. I beg how I want you to come on the show because, listen, I don't. get, I don't get invited here very much. So I just wanted to wish you luck, Liam. I'm not trying to stay on the phone. This is your interview, bro. You deserve it. Go and become the champion that you are, Liam.

Thank you, man. Thank you, brother. Take it easy, mate. There he is. Classy stuff. Bye-bye. Great guy. You worked at an electronic store recently?

An electronic store? Were you in New York? Were you working at an electronic store? Or maybe it was back home? Oh, that was back home. Back home. What were you doing there? Delivering TVs.

Delivering TVs. Yeah, the guy I was working with was always trying to to show me how to install this and then sort of man i'm not interested in that man no give me a tv i'll pick the tv up and move this physical stuff yeah man i saw a lot i like to do you know it's amazing and that wasn't too long ago right around like three years ago uh yeah it would have been it was just before i came over here so like three years ago yeah amazing look at you now did that i only did that for six six months to a year but i mean in three years a lot can happen to a person now you're main eventing on spike fighting for the belt yeah it's pretty amazing it really is yeah

Have you stopped to smell the roses or you're not allowing yourself to do that? No. No, I'm just, I'm just going through. All right. If I first started doing that and I start getting, start coming to a world that I don't really want to go to yet, you know? Sure. Just keep concentrating. I'm one fight away.

Then I can go home to my friends and family. Right. Are you going to do that? Is that the plan? Yeah, I have to sort of a visa rat, so I'll go. Oh, okay. But, yeah, just one fight away. But you're not planning on leaving the New York City area.

This is your home. Yeah, man. I'm going to come back straight back. Cool. Prediction? For this fight? Yeah. I'm a knock him out, man.

Yeah? Yeah. Quick? You're known to have quick finishes. A fight lasts as long as it needs to. Okay. But it's up to you. You dictate that.

Yep. All right. Well, I wish you the best, my friend. A lot of fun having you in studio. A big fight coming up for Mr. McGiri. This Friday, it's on Spike TV. It's the British invasion card. Yes, a few Brits have fallen off, but still, you got Liam McGarry.

You have Paul Semtex Daily who will be joining us, and you have some big names. King Moe versus Czech Congo. as well. You want to throw something out there? Yes, I do. Yeah. My sponsors. Go ahead. Is that right? Sponsor away. Right. I want to thank, obviously, Future Legend, Gamma Labs, Cryolife, Enniskin Dynamic Fasner, Draftops, as a watchers.

What was the last one? As Ad Watchers. All right. Look at you. Yeah. You making good money for this fight? Is this the end of the tournament deal, or is it a new deal? This is the end of the contract. I get to play around with it after they'll win this. Okay. That's good. So there's a lot at stake.

There is a lot of state, yeah. Okay. So now it's, I just focus, my way. Focus. All right, well, we'll let you do that. Best of luck to you. Thank you very much for the time. Great having you in studio.

I know how busy you are. There he is, Liam McGiri. You know, I talked about Paul Daly. As we go inside the vault here and reconfigure the studio once again, let's go inside the vault, and let's go back to 2010, May 8, 2010. Josh Kostech had just defeated Paul Daly in what became his last ever UFC fight. It's kind of an interesting interview because, of course,

it was a controversy at the end. But Josh Kostek notices in the middle of the interview that Shogogov who it just became the UFC light heavyweight champion. A very strange turn of events. I thought it would be a fun one to look back at on this week because, of course, Paul Daly back in action, also Josh Kosteck back in action on Saturday, UFC 184. And if we need a little more time, we'll hear from Emmanuel Newton on the back end of this,

a little countdown piece that Bell Tor put together. Thank you very much to Liam. We'll be back in a second right here on the M.M.A. hour. Ariel Hawani post-fight at UFC 113 with Josh Koshek, who defeated Paul Daly tonight. And first off, Josh, congratulations on a very big victory. I hate to take away from the victory, but obviously the end was a little ugly. In your opinion, what exactly happened out there? You know, I was talking to him in his ear just a little bit, let him know that some of the things that he said on the countdown show weren't very polite. And he didn't take too kindly of it.

So, you know, he started eye-gouging me. And, you know, first off, the guy's a blatant cheater. You know, he had, you know, oil all over him. So you know what? I just stuck to the game plan. The game plan was to be conservative, get the victory any way I could, take them down, wrestle, you know, go back to the old school a little bit. And, you know, I had a lot of riding on this fight. And, you know, I played it conservative and had to get the victory. So you felt as though he was oiled up? Thank you. Yeah, you know, I think, you know, I could smell it from the beginning. So, you know, no big deal. You know, I knew what I had to do and let's go out and get the victory, you know.

But I was telling the guys earlier, this was a big test for me, you know, to get here for this fight. You know, lots of things went wrong in training, you know, not making any excuses, but, you know, it was the toughest training camp in my life, a lot of personal issues. God, I thank God that, just want to thank God that, you know, that. being on my side and you know he he got me here and got me through this do you want to talk about a little more what went wrong no just you know personal issues and you know it's uh that that's the extent that i can go go go go with so but i made it here and uh you know guess what uh this is this fight's in

the past now and now i'm focused on uh you know becoming a better fighter so i can go out and and perform and beat george saint pierre do you think the ufc should cut him for what he did well you know that's not in my opinion you know uh paul daly is a good fighter He's a tough fighter, one-dimensional, but he's a very tough opponent, and I think he'll be back to fight another day. Obviously, your takedowns and your wrestling were a big factor in terms of why you won the fight. A lot of people are questioning, will you stand with him? It seems as though you were able to execute your game plan perfectly, right? Yeah, exactly.

You know, look at George St. Pierre, what he did to Hardy, you know? I watched that fight 25, 30 times, you know. Just, you know, George, good wrestler, and, you know, I wanted to show my wrestling tonight. and I want to thank Zinken Entertainment, Bob Cook, you know, all the guys at AK. You know, I had a Shogun one? Sounds like you just did. Holy shit. Wow, I called that too.

Our locker room's undefeated. How about that? Geez, wow. But, you know, I just, you know, yeah, man, I don't even know. I'm speechless, you know. I just have to ask about the knee. A lot of people are booing you. They said that, you know, you embellished.

Did he, in fact, hit you in the head with his knee? Yeah, absolutely, you know. Hit me with something while I was down, so I don't know if it was knee fist or what, but I got hit pretty hard and, you know, I could have quit and I got up and kept fighting. Next up, the ultimate fighter and George St. Pierre. Are you ready for this? Yeah, this is going to be great, you know, this is a dream come true. And, you know, like I said, I was very conservative of this fight and I apologized to my fans,

you know, but I had to get the victory, you know. I've had a crazy career, ups and downs, wins and loss. and you know just a lot of stuff and here I am you know 13 wins in the UFC who would ever figure a guy from the ultimate fighter would would would be in this position and you know it's it's it's a it's God's blessing that I'm here and I'm super excited well congratulations on the victory Josh and congrats on the Penn's winning tonight yeah the ping did they win they did win two one yeah I don't think you knew that when you were talking to them right that no so they're up three to three to two

they're up three to two game five game six on Monday oh there we go you got some extra going around Montreal tonight after that comment. I think I'll be wearing a hoodie and a toboggan tonight and yeah I'm gonna have security or else I'm not going out. All right thanks Josh. Thank you. When you make connection to your intervening to make connection to the universe. There's nothing you can't do if you really want to do it. If you're really supposed to do it. Yes, everybody can connect the universe.

It's very, very possible and it's happening now. The reason why I have to keep it my windstreet going so strong is because of the universe. You know, because I understand. I understand how I'm connected. And I understand, you know, how to make things happen for myself with the thoughts of my mind and the words in my mouth and paying attention to the things going on around me. And people say, you're crazy.

Well, yeah, I'm crazy, but I'm world champion. The reason why I'm going to stay a world champion, the reason why I'm on this fight-win streak and doing so well is because I'm connected properly. Come on, Mr. Newton. All right, back on the MMA hour. That was a little bit of the Emmanuel Newton countdown video from Bellator. And I want to mention that they did a great job with that one. Also, the countdown video for Katzangano is

amazing. Really emotional stuff. Some heavy duty stuff, of course, about her long road to this title fight. A very interesting, fun action-pack weekend coming up in the world of MMA with Belator and Invicta on Friday and then UFC 184. The Emmanuel Newton one is really powerful stuff on his his parents, he lost his parents at a young age and just, you know, why he is the way he is. And then the Katzengano stuff, go out of your way to watch both of those. Thank you very much to Manuel when, excuse me, to Liam. Thank you very much to him for coming in studio. And you saw also the Inside the Vault clip, Josh Koshchek, talking about the Paul

Daly fight after the controversy that led to Paul Daly leaving the UFC and finding out in the middle of the interview that Shogun Huah had just knocked out Leonor Machita in Montreal. UFC 113, May 8th, 2010. And Josh Kosteck is back in action this weekend as well against Jake Ellenberger. So in a minute, in a few minutes, we're going to be joined by Miracle Crow Cop on the phone. Hopefully he calls in. But we got some time.

So I wanted to welcome in Mr. New York, Rick, earlier than usual. Hello. By the way, hello. The website appears to be good now, right? Yeah. Great. M.A fighting is back. Back, baby.

I was thinking of you last night because of all these underdogs winning. No, only good things usually, except for when you don't reply to my text. It's very, very frustrating. New York Creek is one of these people who gets your text but doesn't confirm receipt of said text. Just say, cool, okay, got it.

Sounds good. Word. Whatever you kids say. Can we work on that? We'll see. So I was thinking of you with all these underdogs. What was the final number? 10 underdogs won last night.

10 underdogs won out of 11 fights? 11 fights on the card. It was the most underdogs ever. This is a record. It set the record. The last record was, I think the fight night number was U.S.C. Fight Night 38, Shogun v. Henderson. And that one had nine because one was on its way to being, I think, an upset, and then it was a draw.

Yes, Santos and Norman Park. It seemed like Santos was probably going to take that one. Or, you know, that was one of those close ones that could have gone either way. Park lost a point. But that might have been another one. That could have potentially been another upset. But that one ended up as his draw. So that one only had nine true upsets.

I'm seeing a story here from Darren Ravelle. Yeah. He said that sports books lost approximately a million dollars because of all these upsets. Well, yeah, I mean, this. In that article at ESPN.com, he's talking to somebody from Bovada, who's talking about that they took a bath on this one. Now, this is, go ahead. What happened is, you know, a lot of people who are playing low stakes who are betting small numbers, all of a sudden, you know, they were messing around and got themselves a nice payday. This is what I was wondering.

Were these legitimate upsets or is this a sign of the odds makers? And I'm not trying to put them down. I don't know the answer to this. I'm not trying to be an A-Hole or anything. Do the odds makers not quite know how to set the lines for MMA fights just yet? Are we still seeing in it? No? No, because if that were the case, they would have lost a lot more than a million dollars.

If that were the case, people would have been betting on a lot of these underdogs straight up and making quite a bit of money. What we saw here was a lot of people who, like, as the article mentions, a lot of people who put together very cheap parlayes on a bunch of underdogs just as a, hey, let me see what happens. And that scenario happened. It wasn't a case where somebody was clearly an underdog when they shouldn't have been, and then they slammed them. You may be able to pick out a few examples on that because, you know, everybody's going to have a different level of, they're going to cap the fight at a different number.

But I don't think that there was anything here that indicates that MMA, odds makers are slipping or anything like that. Okay, and who is the biggest, the biggest underdog? The biggest underdog was Frankie Signs. Oh, yes. He beat Alcantara. Unfortunately, my boy, Yuri took a... That's your boy? That's one of your boys?

Oh, that's one of my boys. I love him. Really? He's a fit... I mean, it's crazy. He either goes out and, you know, destroys Rex Shop, he finishes in the first round, or he just looks lackluster. Yeah, he's so up and down. It's a shame. What did you think of the line in the, well, Big Four was like a minus 220, right? Well, by the time it closed, the money was coming in on Frank Mear. Oh, really? Was he the favorite?

No. He's one of the underdogs. There was only one favorite on the card, and it was Batman George, who won. Yeah. But it climbed closer. The number I'm seeing here is at five dimes, he closed at about plus 145 and Silva minus 155. So it wasn't quite two to one. Why do you think that is? I think Frank Mear was a decent bet there. Yeah.

Silva didn't look great at weigh-ins. He looked significantly less muscular than he has in the past. It looked a little soft in the middle. And Frank Mears, you know, it's very fair to point out that he hasn't won in a long time, but it's also very fair to point out that the people he's lost against are the killers of the heavyweight division. Killers. The best of the best. JDS, Cormier,

Alster Overeim. Give me the other one. Give me the other one. Who's the fourth? Josh Barnett. Barnett? I don't want to make excuses, but a bit of a quick finish, right?

I think it was the right one. Yeah, I had no problem with that finish. JDS as champion, beat him up. And then the other two were decisions. One sided, no doubt. But that's why I felt like there was more pressure on Bigfoot going in, because he had been knocked out. I mean, he was losing bad, right?

Well. And it's easy to say now that, like, oh, Arlofski, but like, no one was giving Arloffsky. Arlofsky a shot. Like, no one thought much of Arlofsky going into that fight. And then to get knocked out again, I kind of feel like this might be it for Bigfoot. Yeah. I mean, when he gets, when he loses, he loses in dramatic fashion. And then think about all the punishment he took in the Mark Hunt fight. It's, I mean, there's only so long you can do this, you know, as a fighter, but as a heavyweight, it's even a little more. There's a lot more on the line there. You know, the bigger guys

throwing those punches is a lot to handle. And he's been in some, some bad ones. Kane Velasquez, you know, opening him up on the ground a few times. Oh, yeah. It might be... The bloodbath. It might be time. That was one of the weirdest rematches in UFC history, him getting a title fight a year after that blood fight, bloodbath, dominant loss. I didn't like that one. And then pretty much the same thing happened all over again when Kane was a winner. more of an indication of the shallow heavyweight division,

but that's really what happened. So it's been a while. And even in the Overeign fight, the last win, I mean, he was getting kind of tagged at the beginning of that fight as well. I can almost guarantee you that he will continue to fight. I'm not saying this is the end for Bigfoot. That's just the nature of the heavyweight division.

If he hung it up, what's the problem with that, though? Yeah, you know what I liked? I like Brian Stan insinuating. And by the way, I thought Stan and Bisping were a great duo yesterday on the pre-posts, all that. but I like Brian Stan insiduating that it might be time for Frank Muir to hang it up like what more is there for you to prove? I well I don't see that one happening.

No, especially now. It's like the drug. But you know, it's actually a very good point. Like you came back, you did it on your terms, you won, you're a multiple time champion. Like what more? Other than the third Brock fight, which, you know, he may have lost a chance to really campaign for that in the Octagon, what's the point? Did you see the Grant Land back?

basketball hour. I did not. They had Kobe Bryant on. Yes, I heard about that. And they asked him, you know, when is it time? And his answer was, he compared it to shooting half-court shots. You hit one, and you go, maybe I can hit another one of these. You hit the second?

Yeah. And you go, maybe I can hit another one of these. Then you maybe missed 10, 15, 20 in a row. But then you hit that one again. And you think, maybe I can hit another one of these. and he said that cycle just continues. And he's in the fortunate position that he doesn't have to retire. He's done so much in the sport.

Nobody's going to force him to retire. He's going out on his terms. He's going to choose when he retires. And I feel like this is a very common situation in MMA where Frank Mir has been at the top of the sport. And he feels he can get back there. And if he starts getting that, you know, that forward momentum back toward it, he's going to think, what if I got one more in me? and then he just will continue.

And I don't think that's uncommon for a lot of the highest level athletes. But here's the big difference between Kobe and Meir. Kobe's made a hell of a lot more money than Meir. That's a good point. So it's nice for us to sit here and be like, whoa, what else is there for you to do? Make money. Make money, yeah. Right?

And he's still a headliner. Frank Mears still draws as far as his name. I mean, that's Brock. Brock, Mear three, what do you think? Does that get over a million? I don't know the economy anymore. Yeah, it is a weird time. I can't predict it.

If Jones, Cormier, and it had the brawl, but it got around $800,000, I think that could do. With the right kind of co-main event, I think it could do a million. May, I guess. The return of Brock by itself could almost do a million. I would think so, but I don't know. I don't know.

WWE is that's popular also, as it was when he debuted, so maybe that goes into play as well. Yeah, I mean. Man, a million seems like a... A unicorn. Yeah, it seems impossible these days. Let me ask you, are you monitoring that phone line? Come on.

Okay. You don't like this whole like, oh, if you pay... Oh, my God, don't... Please don't get me started. Explain to me why you don't like this. This really fires you up. It's the single stupidest thing in the world. Explain what I'm talking about.

You're talking about saying, if you had bet $100 on only those 10 underdogs... Yes. You would have made, and I actually have it here, based on the closing lines at five dimes, you would have made $34,761,445, and I think 85 cents or something like that. Okay. The whole idea of picking that correctly as a parlay is ridiculous and silly and makes no sense. You would never, risking even one cent on that.

is not something you would do except for in hindsight. It's a useless activity. But what's wrong with saying if you made a parlor on all these underdogs, you would have won this much? But what's the utility of that? What are you saying there? I don't know. If you correctly picked 10 MMA fights in a row.

Yes. And not only did you pick 10 MMA fights correctly in a row, you picked all guys who coming into that fight were less likely, based on the betting odds, to win the fight. Yes. And they all did it. And now you're a millionaire. This bothers you?

It bothers me because it doesn't, it, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, nobody an exercise that makes any sense in hindsight. Nobody, nobody, nobody's going in. It's a fun thing to look back on. Now, if you come on, so the show, if you come on a show, if you write on a blog, if you tweet, hey, I'm picking these 10 underdogs and I'm parlaying them and I know they're going to win. Please. I, I, I, I will recant this. I will bow before your feet, and I will proclaim you the master of the universe. But in hindsight, it's just a useless activity. It means nothing.

Even seven, eight underdogs, six underdogs, it's silliness. It makes no sense. It has no application in real life because nobody is betting with actual capping of odds saying, I think that these six underdogs will win, or at least exceed the expected value. And I'm combining them together and betting on them. Because you would bet on them individually. It doesn't make sense. The parlaying that many fights just in general, even if it was favorites, is silliness to talk about.

All right. It drives me nuts. Tweet Darren Nevel this. Yeah, he's the number one offender. He always does this. If you had bet on these six different combinations of things happening, then you would have, you know, you would have turned $10 into $100 million and you would have been set for life. If somebody can find me one person who's ever done these long parlays of things and actually successfully made any money on it, please, please tweet that to me.

Okay. Go call Mirko. My buddy? Just call them up? MCC. All right, let me go get them. All right. Montreal Design on Twitter saying,

If Rick thinks that gamblers don't bet on underdogs, he's silly. maybe not all fights on a car, but three, four happens all the time. I think that's what he's saying. I don't think anyone is betting nine guys in a row like that. More to my Frank Meir point, or Brian Stan's Frank Mear point, Michael Carroll from FightMetric telling me that if Frank Meir walked away today, he would finish with the most wins and most finishes in heavyweight history. Now again, what more is there for you to do other than more paydays?

And you want to get more pay days? You're not that old, by the way. You've been around for a while. I believe he's, what, what, 34? You're not that old. So it's easy for us to say goodbye, or to tell you to say goodbye. But what do you do?

Yeah, Frank Mears is 35. Not that old. I'm almost 35. Imagine someone told me to retire now? What the hell would I do? Of course, I wasn't being punched in the head for the last 14 years, but still, you have to take that into account.

A lot of these guys in those early days, 2001, 2000, 2000, they weren't making a lot of money. So you almost can't even count those days. But for now, Frank Mir is back. I could almost guarantee you that he will fight again. I could almost guarantee that Bigfoot Silva will fight again. Not because they told me, but that's just what history has shown.

Some other nice performances last night, of course, Michael Johnson with a very nice win, he continues to impress, continues to improve, and I love the fact that he called out Benson Henderson. Again, last week on the show, I said, I like Benson Henderson better at 170 because it's a fresh scenario for him it's an opportunity to make a title run

which he wouldn't have at 155 as long as Anthony Pedis is champion and for that matter I guess to a degree Hafeldo Sanjos because remember RDA knocked him out but you could get a rematch there with Pettis it's a little different because he's lost twice to him

so 170 you have all these good feelings about him being the underdog the David versus the Goliath. I like him better at 170 for now. It feels like all that will be for not if you just go right back down to 155. But I can understand if you don't want to fight against those bigger guys as well. Anyhow, Michael Johnson called him out.

I liked it. I suggested ally Quinta versus Jorge Mazvedal. A lot of people didn't like that. People said that, oh, Barbosa was ranked higher. I mean, have you looked... You know, I haven't really looked at the rankings in a while as far as who makes up these rankings. and I know I'm kind of hard on them, but we do use them.

So I will admit to that. It's just the easiest way to kind of try to fall in line with what the UFC is thinking or doing and what they're promoting. Holy moly. Have you looked at the people? First of all, the list has been whittled down as far as the voters. And it's not, I mean, a lot of these people I've never even heard of. I'm not even talking about, oh, this guy's not a real journalist or this is a site, you know,

that I don't really respect. I've actually never even heard of them. Never seen them. Never seen them out of an event. Never heard of them. And they're dictating this. They're going to be the ones dictating the pay come July for the Reebok deal. It doesn't sound like the biggest issue now. There are a lot more serious things going on with PDs and with weight cutting and all sorts of things, injuries. But that's going to be a pretty, that's going to be a scrutinized piece of work come July. when a guy gets bumped for another guy who just fought or got booked or for God knows why, when a guy gets bumped and then starts losing money as a result, remember last week on this show, who do we have on? Someone was complaining about his rank. No, it was Luke Rockhold in studio. He was saying, how is he ranked below Jacqueray? He beat Jacer. Now, he did lose to Vitor Belfort since that fight, and I believe Jacqueray is undefeated, but still, that has to come into play, right? I was looking at that list. what the heck is going on here? This is very strange. Hopefully that gets cleaned up.

They mentioned that the Reebok thing that they wanted to clean that up. I don't know how. To me, it kind of feels like you just go to a few sites, you take their rankings, you pull them together. The problem is most of these sites don't do top 15. And I can understand why you want the top 15. I'm cool with that. You want to have number 12, 13, 40. You know, it's just it's always nice to have that number next to the guy, but something needs to be done. Other big performances last night. smile in Sam Alvey. Smile and. It's very weird that spelling. It's smile and Sam Alvey. Creepie's smile. The guy lined with like four punches in the fight and he knocks out Sezer Muchanch. In his corner, his wife, who I think was on, what was she on like America's

Next Top Model and his jiu jitsu coach? It looks like he just came out of the pool, wet t-shirt, board shorts, flip-flops. That was some kind of performance. Very impressive. Literally landed. I think he literally landed four punches. Literally. I'm not even making that up. It was a fun card overall. It breezed by, and if it was a fight-pass card, it would have went even quicker. But I enjoyed it. Adriona Martins, defeating Rustam Chabilav. I think that was a pretty big upset for most people. Also, Santiago Ponziadnebio. That was a fun fight against Sean Strickland. And how about Marion Renault?

The 37-year-old mother of a 12-year-old who is still a physical education teacher in California who was told that she is too old two years ago to be on the ultimate fighter. Now, 2-0 in the last two months in the UFC submitting Jessica Andrudge via triangle choke.

Very mature, very, very smart. You know, Andrade was so focused. she was so intense at the beginning of that fight. It was too much. The look on her face was too much. It can't be that intense before your fight, my opinion. Rino seemed calm. She wasn't putting that kind of pressure on herself. She went out there and she submitted Androgyna, a mid-fifty-four. That was really impressive. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Marion Rennon, a name to look out for in the women's 135-pound division. And things are picking up for the women now with the fight card this weekend, first time ever UFC main event and co-main event

headlined by the ladies. Other ones worth mentioning Matt Dwyer, Colon his own, Toshito MMA, knocking out Patolino via Superman Punch. I believe it was Russell Peters on this very show who said that the Superman Punch does not work as far as a knockout, as far as knocking guys out. And he did it yesterday.

First round, very impressive. Got a bonus for that. Matt Dwyer. Same school as same gym as Roy McDonald used to be a part of back in the day. And of course last week you heard that Roy McDonald is going to get that title shot. Justice has been served.

Very smart move to announce that at the same time as that press conference. And overall, I thought that press conference was a very good step for the UFC. It was a very big deal for the UFC. It was the right thing to do. It was the time was now to steal that that catchphrase that I love using. And I think that the devil will be in the details,

who they partner up with, when, how involved they'll be. And then the commissions, you know, they said that they'd help out with a commission testing. A lot of these commissions don't have the funds to just do fight night urine testing for the entire card, let alone random drug testing. I mean, look at a commission like Texas. You know, California and Nevada, as we'll talk to Andy Foster about later on in the show, they have, you know, the benefit of all these shows coming in and giving them a lot of money, and that then goes into a pool of the budget

that they use to drug test these guys. Well, if you're going to Maine, if you're going to, you know, Louisiana, if you're going to Illinois, these state commissions don't have a lot of money. So I believe there's going to be, I mean, Lorenzo Furtado, when I asked him about this, when I asked him how much he's expecting to pay,

He said he wouldn't quite know, and, you know, I believe him on that because it's going to take a couple of years for them to get into a groove and really be able to set a budget here. But that's, that's, I think that's going to be pretty expensive to do all that random out of competition testing all over the world. You have fighters now all over the place. You have 585 fighters on your roster. You're, you're traveling, you're doing, you know, the expenses of just getting to them to take the test. and then the expenses afterwards to, you know, actually test the samples, blood and urine. I was talking, I mentioned this, I believe I mentioned it on the beat. I was talking to one commissioner who told me that it cost him around 500 to do a urine test, $500, $500, and a blood test is $1,800.

He said, sometimes I just can't afford the blood test. That's $1,800. That's not that much. You know, in the grand scheme of things, if we're trying to clean up the sport, 1800 for a fight card here or there isn't that much, but I can understand why you can't afford it because you don't have any money. You can't make up the money.

These commissions, we think, have a lot of money. They really don't. But, you know, I like for the most part everything that they said two to four year ban, that would be, you know, that would be quite the scare for a lot of guys. So we'll see what happens. For now, let us go to the phone lines

and welcome in our next guy. I'm very excited to have them on almost exactly a year since his MMA hour debut, I'm talking about the legendary Mirko Krocop. Mirko, are you there? Hey, hi, I'm here. Great to have you on the show, Mirko,

and welcome back to the UFC. Can you explain to us how this all came about? How did you link up with the UFC? Because I think a lot of people weren't expecting this to happen at this point in your career. Well, it was my wish, and after my last fight in Japan

for the new year era. I decided to do a few more fights, you know, and some rematches I really want to do. And I called Lorenzo Fertica, and we made a deal, and that's it. So you actually called them up. You got the ball rolling. Excuse me what? You're the one who called Lorenzo first.

They didn't call you first. You're the one that started the discussion. Doesn't matter. The most important thing is that I'm fighting on April 11 against Gonzaga. it was my it was it was it was the fight

that I will never forget and I just want to do rematch with him and I can't say I will beat him you know but I will die trying I will die trying

and that's how I feel and I feel good right now and there are a few more things I really want to do and definitely part in the government

Muzaga is one of them and I signed I signed a three five deal and that's it You said three fight or two fight? Two fight.

Three. I couldn't hear you. The connection's a little off. Yeah, Croatia is far. Yeah, it is far. This is a fight that everyone remembers. I mean, it's replayed over and over again. Of all your fights, and, you know, you've had some big wins, you've had some losses.

Is this the one that bothers you the most? Is this the loss that really bugs you till this day? Yeah, I think definitely, that's my worst loss, you know, and I just, you know, I was excited. And the UFC suggested Gonzaga as a first opponent. Yeah, yeah, was that your idea as well, or was that their idea? No, I didn't say that I won't particularly... But I said I want to do a few rematches, you know, but...

Everybody knows who's on the list, you know, people are other UFC contracts. But they picked up the first one. Sure. You know, the timing of the whole deal was very... very interesting because just a couple of days before they announced that you were back, Scott Coker was saying that he was talking to you. Did that come into play at all? Like, was that almost good for you once they found out that Coker was talking to you?

Did that maybe, you know, get a negotiation going? You were able to use them as leverage? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think he has nothing to do with my discussion with Scott Coker. Scott Cookechle was a guest in Japan, and I met him in the hotel. We have a nice talk, he's a very nice person, and I know him for it since my five days, and he said it.

They're interested. Bellator is interested, you know, but at the end of the day, you know, I signed with UFC, and that's it. Did it ever get serious with them, or not really, with Scott Coker? Listen, it doesn't matter right now. It doesn't matter now. The most important thing is that I'm fighting soon, and I'm training hard, and, you know, who cares? At the end of the day, who cares?

Is it serious or not? Fair enough. You know, your last fight against... You sound like, like, like, police officer, you know? Like, you're in investigating. I ask a lot of questions, yes. People get annoyed. I know.

I'm sorry about that. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm Joe. And that's cool. You know, I don't know if you remember last year that you were on this show, you were singing. We had you on for an hour. It was one of the greatest interviews of my entire career. Do you remember that? Do you remember me?

Yeah, of course. I remember you. Okay, great. I just wanted to make sure. Let's move along. You know, you had that win over Satoshi Ishi on December 31st, and it was classic Crow Cop. It was vintage Crow Cop with the big head kick knockout. Did that make you feel like, okay, I could still do this. I'm back. You know, some people are saying maybe it's time for me to retire. That was like we could have been watching a fight from 2004.

Did you feel the same way? I felt really good, you know, and I managed to recover my body completely, you know. but I mentioned that many times, you know, I feel really embarrassed to talk to talk about it anymore, but I had eight surgery all together since my first fight in UFC. And of course, every surgery, you know, take you away three, four months away from training, and of course my brother was suffering. But last, let's say, six, seven months, I recover completely for all kinds of injuries. I had problems recently, what, year and a half, almost two years, I have probably discussed hernia,

and I managed to fix it also, you know, and I really feel, I really feel great, and I really feel like, like I'm in 2000, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, you know, when I won Grand Prix, and I feel really good, you know. I have a new team around me. I'm training with a smile on my face, and this is, this is, this is a, this is a very good, you know, I'm a new team. is what I want to do. And that's, that's it. No big, no big mystery, no big philosophy. That's my job. I like to do it. And UFC gave me an opportunity to do some rematches that I would like to do before I finally, I went to do definitely retirement. But, you know, I can't promise. Nobody can. Nobody can. This is MMA. One punch can turn, turn the fight. But I will

definitely die trying. And one thing is for sure. I will die trying. And, you know, I will die trying. And I will be definitely in 100% ready, and I will be in a top shape. And under that, some circumstances, I'm not afraid of anyone. I respect everybody, you know, they're all great fighters, you know. UFC has the best heavyweight in the world. And UFC is only one global organization, you know, and everybody wants to compete in UFC. And definitely, top fighters are in the UFC. And I will do my best.

That's it, you know. I have no pressure, you know, and even if I fail, which I don't think I will, but even if I fail, I knew one day I tried. Yeah. I tried, you know, and that's how I work. That's how I function. That's how I think. And that's me, you know. You don't want any regrets.

That's my life philosophy. And that's all. But most important things, I really feel, I really feel great. And I really train harder than ever, you know, and you saw my last, my new year. Yeah. Junior performance, you know, I really felt great, you know. Even if she was 13 years younger than I, you know, he's Olympic gold Olympic winner, you know, and what, eight, nine,

the fight winning streak. But I knock him out, you know. And I was ready. I knew it is going to happen. Then when I'm ready, when I'm healthy, and then I believe in myself. And then everybody should be concerned. Do you think that this UFC run now, the beginning of this new run in the UFC will be your final stretch of your career? Like you don't want to fight anywhere else at this point?

No, no, no, no. This will definitely will be my final run, definitely. When I, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, if UFC, it will be the end of my career. Definitely, definitely, definitely. What about in kickboxing? I'm 40, listen, I'm 40, I'm 40 years old, but I feel really good, you know, I'm training all my life. I'm training it. 365 days a year

and training every day. If there is a day off, I'm doing easy, easy jogging, just stretching, you know, I'm taking maximum care what I'm eating, what I'm drinking about taking an afternoon nap every day,

you know, and I'm in the bed at 10 o'clock in the evening and I sleep at least eight, sometimes nine hours, you know, and I feel good, you know, I'm taking care of my body, you know, and under that circumstances, maybe it sounds pathetic, but

in that circumstances years are just the numbers, you know. There are many many, many people, many sportsmen who are talking about sport. They are there at 30, 28, 29,

they don't, they don't live like professionals, they drink, they go out, they are smoking, you know, they are destroying their body. My body is in excellent shape, you know, unfortunately I had I had a bad luck with injuries you know and what to say my last fight in the UFC 10 days 10 days with the before the fight the last sparring unbelievable last sparring last round of the last sparring for that preparation

Pet Berry came to help me I was fighting with help me help me now I can't remember name the belly so I took or Ron Elson, you know and on the last round of the last firing I threw a hook

and my biceps and ligament was broken unbelievable, unbelievable and nobody I'm telling you now nobody under that circumstance

wouldn't take the fight everybody would cancel a fight but I couldn't you know I was waiting six months for that fight you know and I just wanted to fight

and I knew that I had to go for the surgery definitely and then it means that I'm out for the next six to eight maybe nine months and they just wanted to take my chance it was stupid decision of course because you cannot fight with a with a with a fighter like Roy Nelson with one

arm you know but definitely you know I was I had a dead luck now I'm completely now rehabilitated and I'm completely healthy and I feel good and I'm believe me I'm training with a smile on my face after after a long time you know especially I had I had problem with discus hernia and so many pain pain in the back you know when I was throwing a kicks, wrestling, you know, and change what was torture for me, you know, but I was just used to train under death circumstances, but now I feel really good, and more or less that's it.

When was the last time you saw that fight against Gabriel Gonzaga, the first one? When I saw it? Yeah, when's the last time? I don't know, a few days ago. Two days ago? It was, no, I, since I have a Facebook account, on my iPhone, so on my wall, they're coming, all kinds of videos, you know. I just, I just opened a video.

It was from somebody put it from one, one, I don't know, is it shared a goal? I don't know. So they just, they just put it, some, some of my friends put it so, all I saw it. I saw it before. Does it make you sick? It was a, it was a shocking sight to see. Does it make you sick when you see it, the knockout and the way you fell? No, no, no, no.

No? No, no, it's okay. I can watch it about a problem. No problem, wow. And have you been watching him? Like, you know what he's been doing as of late? Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. I already studied all his fights after, after, after, after we fought. And no big surprises. There will be no big surprises. I know exactly what he's going to do and what he's doing. Do you ever think of... Things will be different, this time, you know?

Do you ever think about how your career might be a little different? I mean, you probably would have gotten a title shot had you won that fight against Randy Couture. That would have been a big fight. Do you think about those things? No, I don't think. It's life, you know. Life can turn either way, you know. So I don't think too much.

What's the use of thinking? This could be like this. Could be, but it didn't. So I don't want to waste time thinking about things. What could be, you know? Sure, sure. How popular are you in Poland? This is the UFC's debut in Krakow.

Is this a very big fight? Do you think a lot of people from Croatia will come to the fight? To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I have no idea how popular I'm in Poland. But definitely some people from Croatia will go there. How many of them? I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. What was the reaction locally when they found that you were back in Croatia? What was the reaction from the media and the people? What did you hear? Well, like always, you know. some people was very excited about it. Some of my friends, some fans, was very excited, you know, very happy.

And of course, there's always people, you know, whatever you do, it's not good, you know. Whatever you do, whatever I do. If I save the world or anyone else, why did he do it, you know, he shouldn't say last year, whatever I do is not good, you know. So there is always people like that. Whoever do anything, you know,

but I'm doing it with him. I'm representing myself. I'm not I'm I don't take anyone's place you know I don't know this is this is individual sport you know and I'm presenting myself I'm not a member of some national team team so I'm taking a place I'm taking a place for some younger fighter who could fight instead of me but no this is I'm fighting for myself of course for Mike I will I will I will I will definitely do my best to promote my country you know, and I'm always fighting under my country's flag, but at the end of the day, it's my choice,

my choice, my decision, you know, and so, but I think I did the right decision, and because I just, I really want to do it, you know, I really want to do it. Recently, correct me if I'm wrong, recently you trained with Stipe Amiotchich, right, who's another Croatian fighter who looks up to you and has spoken very highly of you. wasn't he recently We didn't train yet He's coming He's coming in a two weeks

Yeah He's coming in a two weeks in Croatia So we'll train Have you ever trained with him before? No What do you know about Steepen If you do know anything about him

Are you impressed with him We met this summer He came He came to visit me in my house He's one extraordinary person Really nice A humble guy Yeah

And And And top fight you know, he's really good, you know, and he's young, and definitely big future is in front of him. Yeah, so are you bringing him specifically for this fight, or were you guys planning on training together, you know? Well, I bring him, it was also one of big minus of my career. You know, I was always preparing since Friday's, you know, but I had no option, you know, because I was, I wouldn't say too lazy because there is nothing hard for me.

I really like to train and I'm really professional, but I just can't go outside of Croatia to train. Why? I have two sons. I have a family here, and it would definitely kill me. Many fighters are going, you know, they are moving from the continent to another continent, from the state to the state, you know. Of course, there is a huge benefit to train in a big camp, you know, to have a... opportunity to change sparring partners, but it's just not option for me.

I just can't go out of Croatia. It's stupid, you know, I sound soft, but I just couldn't go. And I was always preparing, I was always managing to have either top jujitsu fighter or top kickboxers, you know. But I never in my life prepare myself for a fight with a coach. complete MMA fighter and the top one, especially top one. And that's the key. You need to sparring is the key.

Sparring is the key. You need to spar with complete MMA fighters. And Steve, it's definitely real exchange. Punches, kick, kicks, he will try to take me down. I will try to take him down, you know, we'll do ground and pound, you know, which is very limited. When you are doing, you know, two minutes in the round, I'm doing a kickboxing, and then I'm doing two minutes on the ground with,

with top jujitsu fighter doesn't matter, but they are not MMA fighters. The kickboxer doesn't know. He doesn't know how to take me down. He doesn't threat me at all. And the jiu-jitsu fighter, he doesn't know how to punch me on the ground, you know. And I need a complete fighter who will know how, who knows how to throw elbows on the ground, who knows how to do ground and pound, you know, and all those things, you know, that's very important in MMFA.

It's very interesting to hear you say that you don't want to go home, and I definitely respect that, or go away from your home to train. Did you ever do that and really dislike it in your entire career? Did you ever leave Croatia? I went a few times, you know. It was maximum, one week, maximum. I can stay in Amsterdam, for example, when I came with even Hippolyt, you know. But it was torture for me.

I had to stay in a hotel, eating some hotel food, you know. there is no, there isn't food that I'm used to, you know. So it was, it was, it was a great thing to train there, but when I compare it to the minus food, stress, being alone there, you know, and I just hate it, you know, I just hate it. That's why I always try to get people, to get people in Croatian, and I manage to get them, but never stop MMA fighter, you know. And I need MMA sparring, not kickboxing mixed with some jiu-jitsu.

No, I need MMA sparring. And M.M.A.Sparing with the top fighters like Stipin'er match, it is a huge advantage for preparation. Are you done kickboxing now? I asked Stipe if he would like to help me and he accepted that's great. Are you done kickboxing now? Is your kickboxing career over? Yeah, no, yeah, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done with kickboxing. MMO.

No more. Not even one more, you're done. That's it. No, I'm done with you. I'm not interested in kickboxing anymore, you know. K-1 doesn't exist anymore, and K-1 doesn't exist anymore. Glory also was in some kind of problems, you know, and kick-boxing in a sport is in a big problems, you know.

It's unfortunate. Yeah, unfortunately. Okay, and final question for you, Mirko. This is a big joy for us. Thank you so much. I know sometimes they say that you don't like talking to the media, but I don't believe that. I actually think you do like talking to the media.

You're very open with your comments. It's great. That's not true. I was always professional. I always did what I was expected to do. But people don't get it, you know. For my last fight in the States, you know, for glory, you know, they don't understand.

They put me one in one, 20 minutes. And, okay, I finish interview. And the same interviews, same 99% of the pressures are the same. Second one, in third one and fifth one, and then the fifth one came with, and I have to repeat, fifth time the same, same answer. I have to give, same answers. I have to give for a fifth time. And it really frustrates me, you know.

And then I really don't like it, you know. But you are the only one today. And this was actually the first interview before this fight. And I respect you a lot as a leading MMA journalist, you know, and there is no problem. There is no problem, you know. But sometimes, you know, especially two days before the fight, when people want to talk to me hours, you know, about some unimportant things to start questioning me since I was a kid, you know. No. Usually I'm

really kind and a normal person. At least I believe so. Yes, and I would agree, and I thank you for those kind words. I want to know, are we going with the right kick or the left kick in this fight? No, I don't want to be arrogant. I don't want to be arrogant. I will do my best to prepare. I'm already right now today in a very, very solid shape,

but for the fight, I have to be in the shape of my life. and I really want that victory more than anything, believe it, more than anything. More than anything. In your entire career, you've never won a victory that wanted a victory more than this one.

Exactly. Wow. This will be... Why so much this one in particular? Because definitely, this was my... I told you before. Yeah.

This was my worst loss, you know, and I really believe that I'm better fighter than Gavreu. I don't want to be big mouth and I respect him. You know, He's a great fighter, and I will do my best. Definitely, he will do his best, and I'm definitely sure that we are going to perform a great,

great show, you know, and the fans will be happy, and, of course, I believe, and I want, of course, to win that fight, and I will do my best, I will do my best to beat him. And it must be inspiring to see kind of the older guys like Josh Barnett and Mark Hunt, who you fight, I mean, guys who were around doing well these days. You know, that's got to inspire you as well, right? And Jaralovsky? I said nothing to do. I'm not inspired, you know, because I'm glad.

I'm glad that my generation, like Hunt, we are same age, you know. I'm glad that he's doing well, you know, and I really am, you know. And it proves that we are not dead, you know, and especially not old, you know. As I said before, if you live the way I live, and if you train the way I train, and if you take care for all kinds of things, I'm taking care. In that case, the years of just the numbers. We actually have Mark on the Skype right now. Is there anything you want to say to him?

Old friend of yours. Yeah, he's an old friend of mine before two times, you know, and my old brothers, you know, say a big hi to him, and I wish him all the best. Mark, did you hear that? Yeah, I heard that. Hey, Merleggia. he said how are you

Mirko I can't I can't hear well you know okay I understand I'm fine I'm fine thank you thank you my son

all right great yeah it is great to have him back Mirko thank you so much for the time best of luck to you on April 11th really looking forward to your return and really appreciate you calling in

it means a lot to us thank you thank you for a time okay there he is the one and only Mirro Krocop Mark what did you think and by the way great to see you Mark and thank you for waking up early

once again for us I don't recognize you. You seem skinnier. Did you lose some way? You seem very sveled. Come on, bro. Maybe it's the facial hair. It's going to be the facial hair right now.

I don't know what it is. You're all clean shaven. Why'd you shave? Oh, because I get too much of a rash on the beard, you know. So I have to freaking, you know, keep shaving them or anything. What's going on with that hair? This is a new hairstyle for you. What do you got there?

High top? Flat top. I just work. I just work up, man. Come on, what are you talking about? But you got it shaved on the sides. I just got up, because he. You didn't get up for us, though, right?

You're always up at this time, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I like it. It's very, it looks like David Tua. You remember David Tua? Oh, yeah.

The man, they're here. Okay. Okay. So let's, we have a lot to talk about, Mark. It's been a while since I spoke to you. They just announced that you're fighting Steepen-Meotchich and Adelaide. Do you like this fight?

Yes, I like anybody. Steve has above me, so it's great. It's good news. Did you ask for that fight? Is that the one you wanted next? Well, someone above me would have been great. So that's perfectly, you know, that's exactly what I was after someone

that was higher than me in the rankings. But, you know, of course, I think I'm number one. Anyways, but No, no, no, paper, but anyway. Right, right, right. Of course, in your mind. That's correct. What was life like after the Verduan fight?

I mean, you went through so much just to get to that fight. What was it like? Did you just need to take a break, let your body relax, your mind relax? It was, you know, I got caught. I made a mistake. I didn't go court.

I was trying to steal freaking cookies out of his job. But, you know, I don't know, court, I made a mistake. And there was the high level, so you can't make these mistakes. I read and correct me from wrong, I read, you've never watched the flight since then. It's been what, like four or five months? You haven't watched it, right?

No, I haven't. Why? Why no interest in watching it? Well, I mean, you know, I just, I didn't really like to watch replays. It depends on, you know. I just, I just didn't watch it, too. Do you plan on never watching it, or do you never watch any of your losses? Well, I do you watch some of the losses, but, you know, it just, it just, it just, you just,

This makes me think, well, you know, should have done this and could have done this, but that's why I don't like watching it because it's a should of what it could have thing, you know? You go back in and get the moment there and it's like, wow, that's where you made the mistake. So that's what happened to, you know, so. My coach's job to go look after this. You know, when I asked you if you were over it mentally, I mean, that weight cut in Mexico, I mean, it was just amazing all that you took the fight on three weeks notice,

You had to cut an immense amount of weight and just what you did to your body. I mean, you must have been pretty exhausted after that fight, right? Yeah, it was pretty exhausting. I mean, it was one of those things. It was my fault. I didn't realize I was going to fight that quickly anyway. But, you know, that's what happens, you know. But I lost the fight.

That's what happened to. Was that one of the hardest things you've ever had to do cutting all that weight in such a short amount of time in your career? that was pretty hectic but um it wasn't actually that that was uh and that was hard but uh you know

I had other issues that was even more draining and that but that was that was pretty hot yeah uh I remember talking to you on that Wednesday I thought you were gonna leave I thought you weren't even going to fight you you didn't seem like you wanted to be there

remember that interview? Yeah well I had issues man I mean shots I had um you know had issues, it just came up, and it wasn't, it wasn't good. It was just, it was just, it was just, it was just, it just changed here. You know, and it wasn't good.

You know, I just, it just, it just, it just moved me down. I was just, I was, I was barking at the time. It was, it was, it wasn't good. Are you able to shed any light on what you were going through? I was just, it was just, it was just, it was just domestic stuff. It wasn't, it had nothing to do with the fight. Okay. It just got me mainstream, it said, it wasn't, it wasn't,

nothing to do with a fight at all. It was only there was other issues. It was personal issues, so, you know. But going into the fight, like, come Saturday a few days later, were you in a better place or was it still weighing on you? I was in a better place. I just had I was in a much better place,

actually, you know, the issues were resolved and you know, and I was in a far better place, yeah. Totally, yeah. So that was just kind of like a little thing that happened during fight week, but you were able to somewhat resolve it so that you can't look to that as an excuse as to what happened on

on fight night right well i can't use anything as a piece man i got caught i go cold stealing trying to steal that of his freaking cookie shot i got caught so i mean i made a mistake and i go caught and i got knocked out and that's what happened so you know i mean like i said i don't mean you know you can say anything excuses for losses but i just got caught i made a mistake what do you mean when you say stealing out of this cookie jar what do you mean by that just the you know well look man I mean no one expected me to want to coming in trying to lose 20 something kilograms and you know going and try to take his spot of me I was trying to do it but it didn't happen you know that's just like a phrase I was just using it but it was amazing to watch because

the first round you were winning I think I have to watch it again but I believe I scored it for you like what was going through your mind in between the first and second round You were like, all right, I could do this. This is going my way, right? Were you starting to build confidence and maybe got too confident in that second round? I mean, I was just doing the normal fight, but, man, I just, you know, I had done my god a bit. I made a mistake, and I got caught basically what happened. So I try to beat him to his punch or kick or whatever he was going to do, and I got caught doing it.

So, you know, that's what happens. It's the high level here. It was not the beginning ranks here. They just officially announced today that he's fighting Kane. Who do you think wins that fight? Well, I mean, yeah. Both of them are top fighters, so, you know, you know, I think, you know, I think maybe Kane wins that one.

Yeah. What did you do after your fight? I think your Instagram is very entertaining, by the way. I enjoy it. I don't understand half the things that are being said on it, but it's a lot of fun to follow. Did you go on vacation or something? He's just like making fun of me.

I love it. No, no, no, I was just, whatever. I didn't even know my own. I think I went home. Yeah. Oh, that's what. I went home to sort of issues that I had. And then I went on holiday.

So, yeah, I went and solving my problems are those. It was weighing down to my mind. Where did you go on holiday? I went to Queensland. With your family? Yeah, which is a state in Australia. I went to my family. Yeah.

What was it like that? I mean, that trip home was really brutal, right? I mean, that's a long, long trip after a fight like that, right? Wasn't it in like 20-something hours? Um, yeah, I stayed in the night because I printed missed a flight or something, so, you know, I stayed in another night in Mexico, and I went from there. your your oldest kid how old is he yeah yeah oh chili

weren't you done in chili yeah I think made me get around the road back do they watch your fights or kids and what do they say to you when you come home from a fight like that oh oh like sudden you know

there's never off I know I was six he was talking about because he came back from school and I said to him how was the day today today son. You guys are I'm going to turn this

chis off, sorry. I feel pretty jacked up. And I say, what do you mean about that again? I feel pretty jacked up like he felt in the big football fight, you're jacked up. I don't know.

Yeah. Is that better? Oh yeah, this is much better. Yeah, sorry. So he felt sad, you mean by jacked up? Is that what he meant? Hey. Well, I don't know.

There he is. How do you feel when you were... Ariel was asking, how do you feel when you like Danny fight? Tell him? Well, he feels occasional. Did he watch it live? Did you watch Daddy Fight a Mexican live?

Yes. Yeah, and how did you feel? He's asking how you felt. Mom was crying. Oh, Mom's crying. Don't worry about that. Oh, my gosh. Do you want to be a fighter yourself?

No. Was that a no? What do you want? He said, no. What do you want to do? I want to be a cup. A cup. A cup?

Oh, he was the rest of me. He said he wanted to be a cookie job. Oh, that's not one. He said he wanted to be a placement. I like that. That's good. Are you okay with that, Mark? You can do whatever he wants.

Like I said, I'll also put on my earlier wants to do, sir. Now, how far is Adelaide from Sydney? I'm not really familiar with geography. Look at those muscles. Wow. It's a couple of hours. It's a couple of hours. Is that a good fight town?

Yes, it's in my backyard. It's a straight time. And I've got only in a four, I know nothing. So now I'm getting in a full camp. It's going to be great. Well, for me anyway. Yeah. What are you hearing about this big fight in Melbourne?

What are you hearing about that? They're saying 55,000 in November? What do you know about that? Spill the beans. I don't know. I just, you know, hopefully I can be on that card and, you know, who knows? I think it's a big arena. It's going to be a great event and be sold out for sure. Is that the plan after this fight you want to be on that one? Well, hopefully I can beat steeper and then move on to getting onto that one, so it would be good.

It would be great. So I started my career in fight. In Melbourne. In Melbourne, yeah. But not in kickboxing, right? In kickboxing, I started, I had my, I started fighting kickboxing in Melbourne. I mean, in the oceanos area, in K-I-1. Wow. I won my first two oceanos.

That would be a great story. What would be your dream scenario? What fight would be a dream scenario for you in Melbourne and your return to Melbourne, this time in the UFC? Well, I started. Come up here. Maybe a world title fight there. I mean, he knows. a number one spot maybe

if I can beat Stepe then maybe against JDS down in Melbourne Oh yeah You know Something something something Or something cool like that would be great Yeah Did you watch

Seepe's fight against JDS? Yeah I did actually That was pretty good fight Yeah The guy can take a punch Oh they're both good fighters They both got on each other right It was a good scrap

Did you watch the Frank Meir Bigfoot fight from last night I actually watched that when I was playing chess or doing something and I said, wasn't it freaking, isn't the fight? Then I went to have a look and then, yeah, I thought of the fight. I was like, yeah, man. Merrick caught Bigfoot, eh? What do you think about that?

It seems like Bigfoot all of a sudden he's getting rocked very early since your fight. Oh, man, don't blame me, man. He beat me up too, man. Hey, don't blame me. What? He was cheating Bigfoot on your fight. He had drugs. Oh, come on.

Even the 60-year-olds know about this, so, man. That's actually my next question. Because, you know, in that fight, the testosterone... He answered the question, no. Do you think that, though? Do you think that plays a factor? No, look, man, I don't know, man. Like I said, me and you take drugs, you still can get knocked out.

But, you know, I don't know, man. I mean, like, it was a harsh cap maybe forever. You know, I mean, I don't know, man. I don't really know what happened. I mean, whatever. Maybe he's mind. I mean, every fighter goes for a bit of a bit of a downspirder, they get hurt, you know, and then they start losing.

But, you know, I think it's up to him to find his way out of that hole. He's hurt. I mean, a lot of fighters, I went through six fights in a row. Sure. I went through six fights in a row and losing. and, you know, I have to find my way out, so maybe it's the same thing for him. Yeah, it's just amazing to see him getting knocked, to get knocked out this early in these fights after the fight he had with you.

By the way, what's your take on this whole... Hey, man, you called me, yeah, I got knocked on the first round on that fight. I got, you know, I got caught dead first. I'm right on that. So, I mean, I think he's in the predicament for now, I'd say, so, I mean, it's up to him where he can climb out of that hole, you know. It's a pretty resilient. God, so.

Did you hear about this press conference they had last week about the PDs and July 1st? There's going to be random at a competition testing. Did you hear about this? And if so, what do you think of it? No, I didn't hear about anything about the peace. You didn't hear about it? You don't watch, you don't read the news. You don't go to MMAfighting.com.

No, look. If I'm more fighting or nothing, I'm looking after these monkeys. Yeah. I didn't do anything else yet. I mean, that's hard for me to try. Watch these guys don't want to keep a hold of in the mail and stuff. They held a big press conference and they said that come July 1st, all 585 fighters on the roster will be subjected to random drug testing year-round.

And everyone in a main event also, so like three weeks, four weeks before the flight, they'll come to you. Did you say 585? Yeah. Wow, the U.C.'s got a huge roster. That's a lot of people, man. 5855. Well, they should be testing 583. What do you mean?

583 fighters instead of 585. Because they don't need to test you? They don't need to test me or Roy? Yes. Well, you never know these days, but I think a lot of people would agree. But do you think this is long overdue? Is this a problem in your opinion? Are you happy to hear that they're cleaning up the sport?

Do you ever have concerns going into your fight about who you're fighting? Like I said, for me before, I got asked this question, I don't have to worry about looking at my shoulder. You know, I mean, I'm just looking straight ahead and training my fight to do my thing. I have to worry about who's coming to get me. You know, I'm a strong guy, cheating guy, so, you know, I just, I don't have to worry about that sort of jazz. Okay. I just worry about my eggs. You see those eggs?

Yeah. Wow, I told you. You're looking sveled. It looks like you lost a lot of weight. Yes, right. You always shout KFCDX. Yeah, what's going? You know, I tried to set it up. It didn't. I don't know what's going.

Stop, man. These frigging gube bags. Hook a brother-up, cousin. What's going on here? Yeah, I know. It's unbelievable. Injected chicken and they want to know. Give me a sponge, these guys. Gallow.

How many times have you had KFC since your fight? Did you just have, like, a big meal after that one? Did you go nuts with the KFC? No. No. It was the big meal that you had to. I have to feed some time, January. It's been good.

I've enjoyed my time off. Here, I'm looking forward to getting back to slinging some leather. Swang and bang, man. I'm looking forward to it's going to be great at late come. I always see you tweet these pictures with you're with a bunch of people at the gym. What is going on? Is it your new gym, or you're always with like a nice group of young people. You're tweeting a picture.

Every time I wake up, I see it. What is this? Well, you know, you didn't have to say all these young people. You know, just because I'm going to always. hold right. My gym is, my gym where I have a small fight gym, and I'm changed it from a fight gym. I move it because I do a lot of zoo now.

So ZU is what I do for conditioning and training. And I've changed my gym into a zoo gym. So it's called Zoo HQ West now. So I'm looking at getting next door and expanding the place to making a zoo facilities when I come home all the time for training. It's great news. It's good for the young kids and all the, there's a lot of my church members, our church friends that come along to training and we train there and zoo together.

There's nothing worse than training by herself. I've been training for 25 years and so, but, you know, it's kind of hard to do it by herself all the time. So, you know, it's good to train with a group of people, you know, good culture, good people and, you know, get some games together by training together and, you know, bleeding in the trenches together, I say that. What's zoo? Can you explain what zoo is? I don't know if I've ever heard of zoo. Well, I was doing about Zed, you a guy named Nathan Halberg created.

You know, it's all a whole lot of animal movements, you know, using body weight. So, you know, bear crawls, guerrillas. So you put all these combinations of exercises using only body weight and stuff, and you put them into like a training regime, which is pretty amazing stuff. You know, you find it kind of interesting. It's how I lost my weight With that, including my diet You know, it's what I love to do

I don't do much weight's dead much anymore I only do a lot of Zoo stuff So I feel if I can carry my body Later on Easily You know, then I can hold a lot of different positions When I'm fighting So it's a perfect fit for fighting, I feel

Where can people find out about this gym Who live in your area? Is there a website or something? Well, it's a they have a website on Facebook. It's just the opening. It just started. Yeah.

It's called Zoo Z-U-U-U-U-N-O. Okay. But, I mean, you can go on the internet and you'll find all sorts of stuff about Nathan Hallberg and all the guys that actually, you know, started it. And then what they're doing, it's amazing. It's an amazing concept of training. It's really amazing.

I couldn't give it any higher pops. Wow. It helps you. You know, it works every part. You know, every part of your mind, every part of your body. It's just ridiculous now for big guys. Right. Wow.

Well, that's great. Yeah, for everyone, I would imagine. Young people as well, right? Yeah. Mark, it's great to see that you're in a good place. I'm really excited about this fight. I think it's going to be a great fight, and hopefully leads to a big one on that show in Melbourne in November.

I know you love this question, so I'll ask it anyway. what's your prediction on the fight how are you going to win well I'm going to go and knock stepe's lips off hopefully in and ala you know that's my plan this is going to put them away

put them to sleep and and they got a lot of time for training I'm looking forward to that game to camp you know and I'm going to be here I'm a player at a tank ready to battle in adelaide man so it's going to be awesome it's going to be awesome

I look forward to it May 10th in Adelaide Steve Amiotich versus Mark Hunt. It is always great to have you on the show, and I know it's early over there, so once again, I appreciate it very much, Mark. It means a lot to us. Great to see you're in a great place. And I love the new style. The hairstyle is something else. Keep it going. I'm just going ahead of hair, because that's all, but... You're looking good, my friend.

Thanks very much. You're right. I know, I'll talk you later. Thanks, God. I'll be on the shirt. Okay. There he is. The great Mark Hunt stopping by. Always great to have him on. Really appreciate him waking up early. I know he says he doesn't wake up early, but I mean, 6 o'clock in the morning and 6 o'clock in the morning. So I appreciate that very much. Great to have him on and wish him the best against Depe Miochich. May 10th in Adelaide, Australia. Great fight.

Okay, let us move along. Let's welcome in our next guest of the day. As we've been talking about all show long, big weekend coming up in the world of mixed martial arts. Bellator has their show. We had the headlining act, well, one half of it, Liam McGeeery on in studio earlier. He's fighting Emmanuel Newton. and also Paul Daly will be on that card. He was supposed to be fighting for the belt.

Unfortunately, things happened along the way, but he is still fighting on that card. He's fighting a gentleman named Andre Santos, and we have him now on the line from Miami, I believe. Paul, are you there? Yes, I am here. How are you? I'm doing great, Paul. Wow.

We had to go to great lengths to have you on the show today, so I appreciate you coming on. Yes, we did. We did. We had to have a phone shipped from wherever Mike Cogan's at, me out here in Miami, but we've got it. That's amazing. I've never had something like this done before. A phone was actually... You don't have a phone on you? What's going on over there?

Yeah, well, I'd like to disconnect myself from a few people while I'm away, preparing for such a major fight. You know, some people can be a bit annoying when you're such a focus, state of mind. But you, not you, you're obviously on that list. Well, thank you. Who's annoying you? Tell us who's annoying you?

Let's call them out. No, no, no. I can't. names that won't be very British for me to, you know, do that. Okay, fair enough. Why are you in Miami? What's going on over there? Why am I in Miami? Because as I understand, Connecticut and New York, it's like minus 12 and minus whatever.

And, you know, coming from the cold to a cold place is not very encouraging for me. So I thought I'd make a stop over in Miami. I popped into Black Zillions. I'll probably go there again today. I have a few friends over at ATT. I've been in contact with. The weather's great. I'm burning calories and sunshining.

And it's just good for my mental state as well, you know. Yeah. Well, have you ever been there before? Black Zillions and all those places in Florida? Yeah. Yeah? I've never been to Black Zillions, but I've been to Florida, two or three times.

The first place I ever came to when I was starting out in this game. I put on a show back in England. I think I was about 20 years old. I promoted my first kickboxing show in my hometown. And with the profits for that, it was about $4,000. Myself and Dan Hardy, he had got a credit card. We came out here to train for American Top Team. It was my first ever international training experience as a young kid.

Yeah, I've been here. You promoted the show yourself. Yeah, yeah, I promoted the show. I still do. I still promote back home in England. I promoted the first show as 20. Had Andre Winner, the UFC fighting on the card as well.

So, yeah, it was good. Do you like being a promoter? I like making money because the life is expensive and I'm good at promoting. I've got a lot of friends, so yeah, I enjoy promoting. What's the state of British MMA these days? Because, you know, this card very much about the British invasion, although there's only three of you left on the card.

We'll get to that in a second. But in your opinion, like we hear a lot about Ireland. That's a hotbed now. What's going on in England, in your opinion? I don't know. It's kind of difficult. I think everybody is in a rush to get to America, obviously. But I think that is having a negative effect on the UK.

It's a small-slot industry. I think, I've said this before. I'm not sure if it was to you or another reporter, I think that the UK needs to follow, like, what the Polish do with KSW and stuff like that, and sort of keep things in-house, create stars, and then, you know, if they're good enough thing going on to the international scene, onto the bigger promotions, but everyone is in such a hurry. They have, like, seven fights, and they think they're, you know,

world-class material and moving out the country and stuff. So we've really got no scene. We've got one promotion. He's got okay fighters. I know we had cage warriors doing their thing. They seem to have, you know, gone bust, gone bankrupt. They've lost the CEO or whatever. Not really any solid shows that young fighters can, you know, master the craft on.

And I think that's, you know, it's had a real bad effect on UK MMA. So is that maybe where you come in? Do you want to try to fix this, save the MMA scene over there? I would like to, you know, play a part in helping do that for British MMA. but with me being signed to, I think it takes a more hand-on approach. I think I would have to be in England and headlining cards and doing a lot of press and getting people excited about British mixed martial arts again for that to happen. But I'm out in America now, I'm signed back to an American promotion.

I can't fight on these bammers and these cage warriors to get more interest to than, you know, try and ignite something in these young fighters. It's difficult for me to do that now. But yeah, I would love for people to have the opportunity that I had, because obviously a young fighter for me, I had Cade Rage, which was massive. You know, I had Vito Belfour. You had Anderson Silver. You had Ken Shamer, you had Bob Sab, Bob Beanie, you know, big names.

Not all great fighters, but Marillo Ninjas, just huge. It was a big, big thing at Wembley Arena, 10,000 people, and it was a great British promotion, but you don't have that anymore. The fighters nowadays, they don't have that opportunity, so it sucks a little bit for that. Did you try to convince Bellator to have this card in English? Could you imagine what that would have done for the scene if this British invasion car would have taken place over there? It would be huge, and I think that, you know,

I know I'm going to be successful on this card, and I know all the other guys have trained really hard, but I can't speak to them. But I know I'm going to knock this dude out, and if that happens, I would be this quite vocal at trying to get the Bellator promotion over to England. I know something they want to do, From a business aspect, I understand that Viacom has just purchased Channel 5,

which is a British terrestrial TV channel. So it makes a lot sense for them to have a show over in England. Bama used to be broadcast live on Channel 5. So I already have a fan base there from fighting with Bama. So I think, you know, all roads lead to the O2 Arena in London. So you were supposed to fight for the belt and Douglas Lima pulled out. Now you're fighting Andre Santos. What do you know about Andre Santos?

And how disappointed were you when you found out you would not be fighting for the belt? I was very disappointed that I wasn't going to be fighting for the belt, but I kind of got an idea that Lima wasn't going to fight. You know, I see him in San Diego. He's a big guy. You know, I've met him at my last minute at Bell at Ballet Balletthol. You know, we got along.

He's a big guy, but he seemed soft, big and soft. He didn't look like he was in solid shape when I seen him in San Diego. And I know he has a history. history of, you know, having trouble making the weight. And I've seen his training footage online. I've seen how he was looking. He's looking big.

He was looking slow. And then this knee injury, obviously, that he's had previously, is as an excuse for not being able to make the weight in the time given to him and getting out of a beating, basically. Wow. So you don't buy this injury? You think he was running? No, I don't buy. I think he's most definitely running.

He's scared. I mean, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, His title fight was against a small 155 judo guy called Rick Horn. And now his face in Paul Sentex Daily, he, you know, is the man at the division. His face is a guy who went to Glory and knocked out the number three. Glory had kickbox for in 30 seconds. MMA fires have done it before and they've got Pat Barrett. You know, I didn't get Pat Barrett.

I handled business and he got the number one glory kickboxer. he can't take the guy out in three rounds. Yeah, he put on a good display, but I went in there and annihilated him. Now, if you're a striker, your main thing's striking, and you're the bell for champion, and all of a sudden you've got to face this kid from England

with an 80-plus percent knockout ratio, and you've never faced anybody like him before, and you're fat and out of shape, then, of course, you're going to create an excuse. Wow, so you must have been really pissed off when you heard this, or did you say, ah, I expected that. I expected it. I fully expected it,

and I was just happy that I'm fighting. The first thing that I said once I figured out that he wasn't going to be fighting, I need to fight, I have to fight, I've trained. I was really, really focused for the Douglas Lima fight, really focused. I was more disciplined than I've ever been, and obviously it still carries over because I'm still fighting, but he was going to be in a lot of trouble. I was so disciplined.

This was my big opportunity. I've had opportunities before. And I really wasn't going to let this one pass him by. So he's got a lucky escape. We'll fight, and we will fight soon. Did they tell you that if you win this fight, you'll get that shot? They haven't said that, but that's what I expect, being that I was going to fight the guy anyway. But we'll see.

We'll see how we get over his knee injury. I understand he's having another operation. Maybe, you know, I wish him the best, obviously, as an athlete, and I hope he gets over the knee injury, and it comes out well. But then there's a weight issue from various interviews. he says he wants to go to middle weight, the weight's getting too hard. He's not getting any younger, so this is another year where it's happened to go from whatever ridiculous weight he goes up to 210, 220 pounds, down to 170 pounds, you know? Who knows what he's going to do?

Maybe the surgery suggests that he isn't faking, that he really does have an injury. Oh, I have no doubt he has some form of injury, but, you know, I'm a hardened English man. I've never once pulled out of a fight through injury. I'm going to fight regardless. Not even nine. I fought countless times. I won't give it a percentage because I wouldn't be accurate,

but I thought countless time of injuries. I'm a fighter. That's what I do. I can't pull out of a fight. I always go back. I always go back to, you know, the essence of what martial arts is. if I'm, it's self-defense, you know, it's self-defense whether you're on the battlefield or you're on the street. If I'm walking down the street and my girlfriend is attacked, my son is attacked,

am I going to say to this guy, I'm not going to defend my family because I've got a bad name. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not going to happen. I'm a fight. I'm going to protect my family. Obviously, Douglas Leemey hasn't got a fight mentality. Wow. I got to ask you, just this morning we found out, actually a couple hours ago, Michael Venham Page out of the card. Did you hear about this? No.

I did not hear about that. He pulled out. He's not fighting. I did not. What happened? Did he get injured? Maybe I need to speak to him as well. He got injured.

Oh, shit. Mikey. Oh, no. Oh, no. He is not. I'm not going to say anything bad about him. No, tell us your reaction to that, because, I mean, I got to say.

I like Mikey. We had a good time. You know, when we was out at Sunday, me, Mike, Liam McGiri, James Thompson, you know, we had a good time out there watching the shows. And they were like brothers and heard people say it, but we really clicked straight away. So I'm not going to say anything bad about him, but you know how I personally feel about withdrawing from fights. I've never done it. People have different mentalities.

I've never withdrew from a fight. Was that the first time you met him? it was the first time I met him and he's a cool guy obviously we're in the same weight division and he is doing very well so there may be a potential I will f*** him but I don't see that happening

you know one two different paths is he's a young flash upspot and the hardened veteran so I don't see I pass across it but I wish him all the best he's a cool guy he's very talented he's got good head on the shoulder so good luck to him

by the way I'm told he suffered a cut above his eye in training and that forced him out of the fight. Well, that's not his foot. Well, I can't say that. Because I get along with London shoot fighters. Look, I personally, I haven't spored now for maybe 13 days. And my last spot was at a hard spot. And my hard spores are early on in camp.

They're the ones that, if anything, a cut or anything, it's going to happen. It's going to happen then. If you'll get cut so close to a fight, then, you know, you should make a lot. me look at structuring your training a little bit differently. What do you know about Andre Santos? He's a Brazilian. Oh, what happened there? Are we still on?

Yeah, yeah, still here. Yeah, we're on. Yeah, yeah, but my battery, I think my battery's going to die. Oh, my gosh. Where are you right now, by the way? I'm in a Starbucks in Florida somewhere, surrounded by family members and people thinking, what's this guy talking about?

But yeah, I'm just sitting here at a Starbucks, chilling. Okay, well, if the phone dies, it was a good run. We gave it our best shot. Okay. That's right. Okay. So where was we? Well, Andre Santos.

He's Brazilian. Anything else? Yeah, he's a tough guy. One of the coaches I have in camp, we come from France. He's fortunate enough when we got the car change. His friend has actually fought Santos twice for some regional Brazilian show title. So he was pretty clued up on him. And so we did our studies.

We've had a look. It passed fights, recent fights. Look, he's a lot of pelopal fight. You know, he's a tough fight. That's it. It's a tough Brazilian guy. That's a tough, tough Brazilian guys, and they normally get knocked out. So I don't expect anything different to happen.

Okay, let me ask you this one last thing. You know, we knew about you who were having some visa troubles. That's why you couldn't come here. You saw there, Paul? Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. How was it possible that, Coker comes into management, and then all of a sudden you get your visa, almost like, instantaneously.

Why would... You tell me, see? What was going on? You tell me. You tell me. I don't know. Obviously, some people, I think I was... It's like I was dealing with, I don't know, just like spoiled children.

Because I'm a little hard to deal with. I think they just was trying to ice me out. Wow. They're trying to make me do one thing out. I don't want to do it, so they just tried to ice me out of the picture. and there was the one that released the inaccurate information that's still all over the internet that it was a bar fight that caused the trouble

it was this, it was that it was no bar fight if it was a fight, how the hell did I get my visa again so easily? Right. It was, you know, so they did stuff and they was acting real childish, but now Scott Coker, a guy with a solid headless shoulder who's got experience from a martial arts background.

He's dealt with me before. He knows my positives, he knows my negatives, he knows that I can be handled if he just, I'm just a guy who's a bit of opinion and I'm not so easy as these other fights to push in a certain direction. So if you can deal with that, then you can deal with me

and Scott Coco can obviously handle that. What do you mean, Semtex is a tough guy to deal with? I thought you were a walk in the park. Well, if you knew how difficult it was to make this very interview that we're currently in, then, yeah, whatever. I got to admit, at first I was taking it a little person. I was like, well, Paul doesn't want to talk to me.

I thought I offended you. You know I love you. You know I love you. You're my favorite, I'll get it right. You're my favorite Canadian. Oh, Canadian. Media guy. I did call you American last time, but you seem to be offended.

I don't know. No, no. You're Canadian this time. I'll get it right. Yeah, you were kind of giving... We're cut out. No, no, we're still here. You were kind of giving me the runaround,

and then I heard they were shipping you the cell phone. It was an amazing turn of events. But at first I was like, wow, Paul, he got big time on me or something. Never. You're a good, you're a good guy. You're a good guy. I've always got... time for you. And I think that's why you're so proper. Everyone wants to do on your show.

Well, thank you. Now I'm blushing, so I'll let you go, Paul. Enjoy Starbucks. Hey, good luck in this fight. I'm looking forward to your return. It's great to have you back in the mix, and good luck, and then good luck. And by the way, I was just told from an anonymous source that the plan is later on this year to have you fight in England. So how about that? That would be fantastic. I got the news. You come to me for the information. I will hook you up with the news. All right? Good, good. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

Just more pressure now to get this guy out of there quickly and not get myself injured. So we'll handle business on Friday. All right, best of luck to you. Thanks for the time. Thank you very much. Okay. Bye-bye. Well, great stuff from Paul Daly.

It's true. It was a bit of a tall order to get this done. But we had to have Paul Daly on the show before his fight. They literally sent him a phone. From the West Coast to the East Coast. Sent him a phone. Apparently there are no phones available in Florida. They sent him a phone. I have to thank the people of Beltoe for that. They sent him a phone to do this interview. No landline, no Skype. They sent him a phone. That is a first for us. In a minute, we're going to be joined by Coach Mike Winklejohn.

There is so much going on here. It's an endless parade of guests today. I love it. Let's go to him now. on the phones joining us. He has a big weekend coming up. His student, his prodigy, Holly Holm, finally making her UFC debut on Saturday, co-made event against Raquel Pennington. I'm talking to her longtime coach, mentor, Mike Winklejohn right now. Mike, how are you? Oh, you know what? I'm living the dream. How are you, sir? You're living the dream. I'm living the dream talking to you. Both of us living the dream. Well, you like that I do. Wow, okay. This is big for you, right? I mean, when I thought of Holly, Home making her long-awaited

UFC debut, I thought of you. When did you first meet Holly Home? I wouldn't go to a year. It's been, I know how old she is. It's probably been 17 years ago. She walked in my gym just to want to do some conditioning, and who would have thought? She looked over her

shoulder and said, gosh, I want to do some of that sparring stuff. And here we are today. It's unbelievable. So she's kind of lucky, actually, yeah. It's unbelievable. So she was just a teenager, right? Yeah, I think she was 16 years old when she walked in. She was a soccer player in high

school and she was just coming in because she wanted to kind of cross training and do some conditioning stuff. She heard it was fun. And I think she found her thing. Did she have aspirations to become a fighter or she was just doing this for fun? No, it was just for fun. She came in just for fun and fitness. We had some kind of, you know, kind of a kickboxing aerobics type of thing on the side to help

with the funding in the gym, which was a big program. And she just jumped in there. And next time I know she's in class, and I saw her get hit once and come back even harder. So I knew she had the heart. There's no doubt about it. Okay. At one point did you, like, was that the moment where you said this can, this person can actually become a fighter and be a successful

one, one of the best female boxers of all time? Like, you remember the moment where you were like, this is not just, you know, some young lady coming to my gym to work out and get in shape. She can actually be a tremendous prize fighter. You know what? It was her legs back then. She was a soccer player, so she

had the ability to really launch hard kicks, and she was just in our Robes class kicking, and I never really had paid attention until all of a sudden she decided to try our kickboxing classes. She jumped in some kickboxing classes, and when she got hit, I saw that she had that drive, the want to win, and I never thought she'd become the boxer she was, but I always knew she was going to become a great kicker, as we see now with her MMA career. Right.

So have you ever been with anyone for that long, like all the current fighters that you're with, 17 or so years? Nope, she's the longest. There's no doubt. You know, the fighters come and go, and because she started the age, and she's had such a successful career, she's able to carry on, and it's been great. Why has it worked with her, and, you know, like you said, they jump around. We see guys going from all different camps.

You know, why has she stood by you and been with you from the beginning? Well, I don't know if it's just so much stamed by me, It's just what happened is she became very successful at what she did. She grew up here in town, and she had no want to leave. And she went to the top of the game here in town. She has a local promoter that picked her up, Lenny Frescas, and he's guided her correctly. And, you know, she's beating everybody in the world in boxing.

So it's just the right decisions. And like I said, I'm lucky she walked into the gym a long time ago. and she's a driven person, and we're all here as a team better for it. So she's 7-0 as a pro-M-A fighter, two-and-one as a kickboxer, and then in pro-boxing, which is, of course,

where she is most well-known, 33, 2, and 3. Were you in her corner for all of those fights? Yes, sir. You never miss one. I've never missed one of her fights. Wow, that is unbelievable. And what's it like for you now

just days away from her making her UFC debut? Are you like a proud papa? is this kind of surreal for you? What are the emotions? Well, I'd say more like an uncle. But you know what? Yeah, there's no doubt. I am proud.

I am nervous. But I also have a belief in what she can do. She's, you know, she's made a quilt from my kids. She's just, she's real important to my wife and I. And to everybody, actually, Holly's that person that she's always taking care of others. She's very thoughtful. She's a preacher's daughter. She is that person.

She has the other side to her that when you try to hit her, she'll kick you in the head. So were you in favor? I mean, she was doing so well in boxing. Were you in favor of her making the switch to M.MA? Well, I was a little worried about it, but in the back of my mind, I know that she had always been training with all of our fighters. She's always been hanging out in the gym and helping the other ladies and some of the guys trying for the fight. So sometimes she'll be shooting and she wouldn't know what she was doing at first, but she always got better at it.

The next thing you know, she actually became pretty good to stuff. She was just dominating boxing. And then one day she says, I think I want to do that. And she got burned out with boxing because of, you know, she fought everybody. And it was always going to be the next greatest, biggest thing. But every one of her fights, you know, for the past, you know, seven years have been the next big fight. Oh, the next one's going to be the biggest one. And she already climbed that mountain.

And she says, enough enough, enough. I want to go climb another mountain, another challenge. and she'll be the first to do that. So I like the way you guys have brought her along. I mean, slowly you didn't want to rush her into the UFC. Do you feel confident that she is ready for the kind of talent that awaits her in the UFC now? Oh, yeah. I mean, what kind of coach would not be.

I always say it's not. You know, what I've always said is I don't want to get to the UFC just to say that we fought in the UFC. And the person myself, I care less about that. I mean, I have John Jones and everybody else that already fights in the UFC. But with hers, when you get there, we want to win. We want to win it all. So we want to do it right. It's not about the money.

It's about the championship. It's about succeeding in what she does. So she feels good the rest of her life. It's attain those goals. Explain to us exactly what happened that led to her having to pull out of this original debut fight against Pennington. This was supposed to take place in December, around November. She had to pull out. And at the time, it seemed like it might be a serious injury, right?

well we're always worried about it but apparently it was very minor back now i hope people well anyway it doesn't matter she uh she she did have like her knee a disc in the neck and and uh um just one of those things the holly will try to shoot on anybody taking down no matter how big he was and uh so she hurt her neck a little bit didn't think much about it but it was hurting it and we just didn't want to do things wrong we'll make sure that uh um it's healed properly and and it has She's had no problem since, and stronger than ever. I heard and correct me from wrong that Greg kind of suffered from the same injury, and that's why he was concerned.

Is that accurate? Yeah, something similar to that, and you never know what you're going to get with it. If it can recur or not. And so far, so good with Holly, she's doing just great. Do you like this matchup for her, Pennington? Is there anything about her that concerns you? Oh, quite a bit. Actually, the girl's very, very strong.

And what I've noticed is she seems to get stronger as the fight goes on. She's kind of a, I just told somebody else, kind of like Nick Diaz, in the sense that she's going. You might think you have her hurt, but she's always dangerous. She's always going to keep going. And if you're overconfir, you're caught with something stupid. And I think that's her biggest strength is she's pretty fearless. She's very strong, and she's a fighter. Is Holly the kind of fighter who gets nervous before her fights?

She's had so many. And I'm wondering, if not or if so, what? What do you expect her to be like on fight night before her UFC debut? She always gets nervous for a fight. In fact, I expect her to be just as nervous for this as any others. Maybe a little bit more because of the co-main event. But with that being said, Holly, I promise everybody will be jumping up and down, burning all kinds of energy.

People think she's crazy because she's so nervous and she'll be bouncing and hop in. People have always asked me, you need to settle her down, so it's just to burn herself out. But one thing you have to figure out about Holly is if you try to actually make her stop those things, that would kill her. And that, she would fall apart. She has to use that energy. That's how she calms herself if she bounces around because she is nervous. And, but like always, she'll use that nervous energy to her benefit in the fight.

When she was supposed to make her debut in December, that was on the Fox Sports One prelims. Now, as you mentioned, co-main event. Did you prefer the original idea because there's less pressure when you're, when you're fighting on the prelims? Oh yeah, I would have preferred that. At first I definitely would have preferred that, but this is where we're at. And Holly made good on it. She's a fighter, and she's a driver, and she's driving, and, you know, she just has that vision, and she believes in herself, and she'll go forward with it.

From a coach's standpoint, of course, I'd like to take a little pressure off her, but this is where we're at can't change it, so we accept it. And like I said, I'll be victorious. And, you know, now that she's co-main event of a Ronda Rousey fight, she's being linked even more to her. Let's say she wins. I know you're expecting that. How far away do you think she is from Ronda? Well, a couple fights.

It just depends. You know, Holly, you know, I think can compete with Ronda in so many parts already. There's a few more things we want to work on. And it always comes down to who can fight their own game in a fight, you know, and impose their will and do what they want to do. not the person to do what they want. So with the right strategy, the right tactics, with a great athlete, we're going to do well. If they say to you, you know, they both win

and there's no one else out there, we want to give her a title shot. What would you say to that? Well, you know, it's not my decision. It's always Holly's decision and Lenny Fretzges, who has become kind of like family to us, her manager, promoter over the years. And as a team, of course,

we have to make that decision. Holly wouldn't turn it down. I know for a fact, Lenny and I would have to turn something like that down how I'd say let's go for it. She's game for everything, no matter how nerve-wracking it is, no matter what's going on. She has never, ever turned down a fight. But if she said to you, what do you

think, would you say, I'd rather you have one or two more fights? Depends on how she performs in this fight and depends on when it is. And if there is any other choices, at the end of the day, it's kind of tough because we work for an organization called the UFC that makes a lot of the rules.

So we have power to turn things down I'm sure, you know, it's some slight way, but it's kind of exciting that they were to ask her for it. I think Holly can beat her in so many ways, and we can lose to her in so many ways. Ron is, there's no reason to believe that Ron is, you know, not the best of the world for a reason at the moment, but Holly will soon be. So I can't say that I would tell Holly no. You think it's inevitable? I think it's inevitable. I think it's, you know, but I'm thinking they can quite, we'd like to get a couple of

fights in between me if I had my choice right now. I want to ask you about something Ronda Rousey's coach, Edmund Tarverdi, and said very recently, he said, quote, Rhonda beats Holly in a boxing match. I don't believe it. I know so. What do you think of that? Great. Well, he's smarter than I am, and that's fantastic that he has that attitude.

So I hope they fight that way. Yeah, no taking it to the ground, right? You know what? Yeah, you know what? you just need to be Holly Boxing. That makes sense to me from the coach's standpoint. So fantastic. Right, right, right.

I'm guessing you don't agree with that statement, right? You know what? Yep. You know what? Here's a whole arsenal of techniques that people will see it's not on display. I don't think there's any other girl out there in the U.C. right now that has the kind of highlight film Holly Holm has. I mean, she kicks him in the head and knocks them out. She kicks him the leg knocks him out.

She kicks in the body, knocks him out. She punched him the body, knocks him out. I don't know who else is doing that. You know, once in a while, people get lucky with it, but she'll calculate it to find the opening and knock people out. So there you go. What Rana's got going for her, and she's great at it, is the girls are like deer with headlights on them,

and they get so scared of they freeze. They have that cognitive freeze, and she takes advantage of it. And if that happens to Holly, she's really hit Holly, too. But if it doesn't, it's a whole different world. I want to ask you about just a couple more things, and then we'll let you go, and I love having you on because you're very much a straight shooter. You're a no-nonsense kind of guy.

What was your take- Unless I actually have a gun in my hand. Yes. Okay. The whole John Jones thing, I mean, you know, testing positive for cocaine and just the way the whole thing was handled. What was your take on all of that? Well, it's disappointing. You know, there's no doubt about it. Disappointed that he would be part-in before a fight. With that being said, I don't think it helped him in the fight.

It probably hurt him in the fight. Sure. because partying, you know, he's taking him away from his focus, and he's not rehabbing the way he should, et cetera. But the neat thing about it is, okay, now it's out there, he did it, we've got to fix it, he's got to overcome it and be better for it. And it's real hard. I mean, I'm kind of like the older uncle that yells at him all the time,

but with that being said, I also believe in John Jones. I believe in his legacy. I believe he's going to make the top. And honestly, he's a young kid with everything thrown to him. And it's a tough situation. Almost every other athlete has been put in that situation in some way is crash and burn. And honestly, I would have thought long ago, if you would ask me five years ago, I thought, gosh, John would fall off a cliff just because of the influences from all these idiots to hang out with him.

I thought he would fall off the cliff, but John has a good balance. He'll stand it. Apparently he's still on the edge of the cliff, but he didn't fall off. So now he's getting back on the path. Does he have a problem, in your opinion? No. No, he hasn't a problem. He's part. He parties. In my opinion, that's why they don't do definitely an addict type of thing at all. I think he just sometimes finds himself hanging out with idiots.

You've been around the fight game for a long time. You know what these quote-unquote idiots can do. Is this a point? Like, I feel like John Jones is currently the greatest fighter of all time. He could be that much greater. Are you worried that he might cut his legacy off short? Sure. I'll definitely worried about it. We've had that conversation. So not only does he hang out with the idiots, but he acts like an idiot sometimes, and he keeps doing it, he will become an idiot himself. Are you worried about that right now, or do you think he has it under control? No, I think he has it under control, and I think he'll see a great fight in May when he comes back.

He's already back to training a little bit, slowly but surely, getting back into it. He's never done that before in the past. Yeah. And, you know, John just, he's a believer. He has a lot of self-confidence. I really enjoy teaching him because it's kind of like a video game. If I ask John to do something, he just does it. And how cool is that? I have like a joystick. You know, and kind of control what he does in the cage.

He listens to all my codes and stuff. So not only am I proud of what we've got him, but I'm looking forward to take him to a higher level. And a lot of people are excited about this Rumble Johnson fight because he's young, he's got that knockout power, etc. where do you put Johnson as far as all the tough guys John Jones has had to fight up until this point? All the same, you know, very dangerous. He's got the power.

He's very explosive. But everybody's always had something that was going to take John Jones out. There was always something. And except for, you know, Gus is in, you know, John's always pretty much just dominated fights. Guston, you know, no excuses. I just, I know why he didn't perform well in that fight. And I think I would love to see that rematch. But I think Johnson is fantastic.

He's very talented. I think he's got some good training partners around him, and I think he'll come prepared. But I don't think John Jones was won any other way, and John will do what he's always done. He'll always find a way to win. Why didn't he perform up to standards in that fight? Which part was that, Dustin?

Yeah, you just said, I know why. Ah, you know, secrets. Secrets. You can't drop us a hint like that and take it away. He took the fight a little lightly. And he was definitely not in his normal condition by any means to push the pace to move out of the way. And those things make differences. That second step to avoid, the second step moving forward to keep the other person off balance is huge.

Those things play out depending on what's going on in due to the conditioning and not having the proper focus for some other reasons I want to talk about. But he wasn't himself for Dustin, unless he said that. But, gosh, I was still stupid saying that because I cannot take anything with him Gusen because he was better that night than I thought. I was overconfident. And O'Grath was overconfident. We all probably were a little bit, and that kicks the fight. Yeah.

And, you know, a rematch would be exciting, but I want to see it. You don't want to see it, or you want to see it? I would love to see it. Oh, I want to see it. Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to see it. Final question for you.

I know you don't work with him now, but how about that Frank Mear? Did you see what he did yesterday? And in particular, his striking. Oh, it's great. You know what? Franks always had the ability to do that. I think he just had to let go a little bit and feel comfortable doing it. I think, you know, Bigfoot didn't put any pressure on him.

Frank, I think got real comfortable with it. And good for Frank. Frank's a fun guy. He's a great character. I love to have him around. I wish we had him around more often, but he does live in Vegas. He doesn't live out here. And Frank is not only a good boxer, he's also a very good kicker.

and he's really unpredictable that I think if Frank Mir gets back in shape, he'll find himself back at the top of that division. Wow. Mike, always a pleasure. Thank you so much, and best of luck to you guys. I know this is a big deal for your team. Everyone, you know, speak so highly of Holly

and this is a long time coming. So best of luck to you guys on Saturday and appreciate the time very much. Thanks for having me, sir. All right, there he is. Mike Winklejohn, one of the very best in the business joining us, his student, just around 16, 17 years old.

Holly home. They first met, and now here they are, about to make their UFC debut, much-anticipated debut. We've been talking about Holly for, it seems like the last couple of years now with the prospects of her finally making her UFC debut, always kind of lingering over the last couple years, and now we're just a few days away from that. Co-main event, a very important weekend,

the history of women's MMA, and all eyes will be on the great state of California. All eyes will be on the great city of Los Angeles, the city of Angels. Invicta on Friday night, and then, of course, UFC 184 at the Staples Center in L.A., and the man who will be overseeing it all is our final guest of the day. Very excited to have this guest on today. There's a lot to talk to him about, so let's get right into it. He's the executive officer of the California State Athletic Commission.

He is Mr. Andy Foster. Andy, how are you? I'm good. Thank you. Great to have you on the show, Andy. This is a very busy weekend for you guys. Two big shows, Friday, Saturday, in the same city. Do you like that kind of action? You like being busy like that, or is that a little too much for your commission?

We do it every weekend. We have two others that you didn't mention that are going on all those. We have four this weekend. Wow, what else is going on? We have a Golden Boy Fox Sports One event out at Fantasy, and we have a club show, West Coast, fighting up in Sacramento. So which ones will use? be at?

I'll be it in VICTA and the UFC. All right, because those, of course, are taking place in the same city, so that would make a lot of sense. There's a lot I want to talk to you about. I want to first start with the UFC's press conference this past Wednesday in Las Vegas, where they talked about at a competition testing come July, helping out the commissions. They haven't announced who they want to work with, but they are going to ramp up their PD testing. You have been at the forefront of this for quite some time, in particular.

since you've moved from Georgia to California. What did you make of what they said? Well, I think there's a lot of great ideas that they came out of the press conference. We've got to wait and see more specifics on who they get, how they unfold it, but certainly I think everyone would agree that those are a lot of good ideas that came out of that. Were they too big? I mean, do you think this can actually be done random? competition testing for 585 fighters across the world?

Do you think that the UFC will actually be able to pull this off? Well, certainly, I think they can. I mean, with any new program, I mean, they'll have to get their logistics in order. But certainly they can. It's going to be expensive, I would think, and I know it's going to be expensive. So I think if they want to do it, they can. I know I'm putting you on the spot, but how much you think that would cost, you know, for a year to do that? Blood and urine testing randomly, around 600 fighters multiple times a year. Do you have any idea?

Yeah, let me just pull out my calculator. My calculator here. I'm going to give you a ballpark. I don't know if this has been said or not, but I would get it. That would be about $2 million, two or three million dollars. for an entire year to cover all those fighters? Maybe 2 million, yeah. Depends on how many times you want to test them, but, you know, that seems about right. Do you have a preference? Go ahead.

Obviously, what you want to test them for. And, of course, I don't know what they're paying and all that. I just know what our contract says and how much it costs and these different types of things. It depends on what you want to test them for. If you add blood to the mix as well, which I assume they do, it certainly increases the cost of the test. Right. Do you have any preference as to which independent organization they team up with?

No. I think I've worked with Usada before. I believe we've worked with Dr. Goodman, Avada before. so they both seem like they're very competent, they're very good. We've talked about this, you know, on the phone before, and I think maybe our opinions differ, but I'd love to hear you talk about it today on the show. Joe Rogan called it an epidemic. I don't know if that's the right word to use, but it certainly is in the ballpark, in my opinion.

How big of a problem do you think are PEDs in MMA these days? I do a lot of testing over here, so like I'm looking at all the results that we get back, and certainly there's a problem. I think we all agree that there's a problem. Do I think that 90% of the fighters or 80% or even 50% of the fighters out there are doing performance-enhancing drugs? I do not. I do not believe that.

My evidence does not support that. I mean, you know, you get a fight card of 24 athletes, and you get one or two that pop, the percentage of that is not that high. You either go to the out-of-competition stuff, and I think the recent study or the recent, just a very small numbers, mind you, but what, 30% or 38% or whatever it was that popped, I mean, that's not, certainly it's a problem,

certainly it's a problem, and I'm not saying it's not a problem, but it's not 90% of the people doing it. And I think the percentage is much lower, I think that the percentage that do take performance-enhancing drugs somewhat increases with level of the competition and with age of the fighter. And I have got, I mean, my evidence supports that. So maybe above 35 in the higher organizations, that's where the real problem lies? Well, I'm not saying it doesn't happen in the club shows also, okay, but I'm just saying that when there's more, when there's,

more on the line, it tends to, you know, people, people tend to take greater risks. Would you agree that the real solution to cleaning up the sport is random out of competition testing? The fight night testing, I mean, it's very easy to beat that, right? I'm not a lab guy, so, and I've never taken a performance and enhanced drug and only have looked at the study. So I don't know, I don't know, Ariel. I don't know if they're easy to beat or not. maybe they are, but I think out of competition testing is good. That way people know that they can't take it during their training or whatever.

So I think that's important. I think increasing the penalties are important because what you want to create is an environment of deterrence and a clean sport. Is it accurate to say that you feel like improper, weight cutting is a bigger issue right now in MMA, and it's an issue that may not be as closely looked at and discussed as the PED issue, people like myself talking about all the time, but in your opinion, the weight cutting issue is a bigger one right now? Well, I think that I don't want, I think we, I don't want to compare apples to oranges.

Okay. We both have a problem in both, in both areas. So you certainly have a performance-enhancing drug problem. C-SAC is drug testing people, and then lots of research. sources to make this happen. But something that's not talked about that I think is done by a lot more people than take performance-enhancing

drugs is the drastic weight cutting that you see, and you see it's just on display at every way in where you see a fighter walk up. They look like they're I mean, they barely can walk, they've cut so much weight,

and the trainer will be there holding a bottle of pediolide or Gatorade. and that's problematic. It's dangerous, and it's not MMA specific. It happens in boxing, and it happens in kickboxing shows that we do, and it's just ingrained in our sport. Everybody's got to make weight. How do we fix this?

Well, I think the first thing that we do is we have to educate the fighters and the camps. I know I didn't know how dangerous this was until I attended an eight, ABC seminar, an association boxing commission seminar in New Orleans several years ago. And I think it was Dr. Walkin from New Jersey talked about this. I believe it was. And how dangerous dehydration was and weight cutting and all this thing. So I got here to California, I started seeing it more and more and more. And it seems like it's gotten worse.

when one of our commissioners, Dr. Lemons, he's a neurosurgeon, he was very close to this topic, and he said, look, this is the dangerous, one of the most dangerous things in combat sports right now is this drastic dehydration, then rapid rehydration. And we did a study here at CSEC where we had one fighter, I believe you wait 171 on Friday, and he was 2-0-1, I believe that's right,

on the very next day. And that's too much. And that's too much. And you see stats like that often for many of the shows that we regulate, and that's too much. How do you feel about same-day weigh-ins? Say, like, all right, 12 hours or so after the Friday weigh-in, if there's a Saturday fight, you can't add more than X percentage of your weight

on that morning of the fight, you know, something like that. I know some states have done this. What do you think of it? Well, you know, it's something that we were looking at, and it's one of the many ideas that we had. I'll tell you, one of the ideas that Greg Durbin and I've talked about, you know, the NCAA does that minimum fighting weight, a caliber test for their athletes, for the wrestlers.

What's that? What is that? So basically, like if you want to compete, you'll have your body fat and your height and weight. They analyze it, and it does this kind of formula that's been developed by people a lot smarter than me, and it will take all these different considerations in, and it will give you the lowest weight that you can safely compete. peat at based on your body composition. So you might play like you might lay 170 right now. You could probably get down to 153 without getting in the dangerous territory for your body.

So therefore, in MMA, your weight class would be 55. That's the lowest you could go. But that's something that we thought about. I mean, we're just talking at this point. The first steps to educate, but that's something that we certainly were looking at, because I think determining what everyone's minimum fighting weight would be would prohibit fighters going down into weight classes that they can't safely maintain. They might make it once, but it's dangerous,

but to continually try to do this is not healthy. One suggestion that has been brought up to me is that in MMA, the weight classes are too far apart. 185, then 205, you know, 170 to 185, 155 to 170. In boxing, there are a lot more weight classes. Do you think that's an issue? Well, I mean, certainly that needs to be looked at. I think when these things were done a while ago,

there won as many mixed martial arts athletes competing. I think the volume might be able to withstand. that now. Certainly the things like the weight classes are a little closer together down at the lower weights. Yeah. But the 185 to 205, that's a pretty good jump, 170 and 185. Again, that's a fairly good jump.

And 55 to 70. But I think the first thing that we should do before we rewrite weight classes is just to educate everyone on exactly what. this dehydration and rapid rehydration can do to your body because you're not going to perform as well by doing this. And it's dangerous. And the first step is education. Then after we educate, at the same time, we're certainly talking about it, both as a commission

in California and I'm talking with other commissions about it, but it's how do we properly address this? Because this is a problem. It's not a talked about problem. We're talking about it today. everybody talks about performance enhancing drugs. And that's certainly a problem also, but this is also a problem. And you are certainly doing your part.

You have put out this memo, which we actually posted over the weekend on MMAfighting.com. Mark Romandy posted it. It's entitled The Dangers of Cutting Weight and Dehydrating. And it's a very easy read. It's not a very long thing, so I don't think anyone should be afraid to read it. In particular, if you're a fighter or a coach, how long have you been doing this? And what's the reception that you've received? You know, what kind of feedback have you received from this memo that you put out?

Well, this memo came when I asked the Association of Rings Subtitions to work on this for me. I met with them. I asked them to meet with me, and they agreed, and I met with the board in Las Vegas at their last conference last year. They got it to me early last week. I put it on the commission's agenda, and the commission voted. on it last Wednesday, and it's going in all of our licensing packets and up on our website. I've also distributed it to other states. Greg Alvarez told me this morning he was going to be putting it in his applications in Texas.

I sent it to David Berlin this morning. I talked to him about it. I sent it to Greg last week. So, yeah, other commissions are starting to get it also, because this is not exactly a CSEC memo. This is done by the ARP. Okay. Association of Riesb Physicians, and this is our thing.

And do you think change is coming, or do you think it's going to get worse before it gets better, like Lorenzo Furtita said about PEDs? No, look, I think educating, I think education is powerful. And once people read this and understand just how dangerous this is, I had no idea until I did the ABC conference and learned about this. I mean, I thought it was probably not healthy, but no idea it was that dangerous. And I think we saw in recent months that it's not only dangerous,

and certainly that's the primary focus, but it's bad for the public because you lose fights. I mean, you could potentially lose five. It's not good for anything. I mean, we lost the Gawoskin title fight. We still got the five, but Mark Antonio Rubio was overweight for his title fight against Golovkin last year. So it's not just an emin-a-eat-e problem.

It's boxing also. Let me ask you a few more things, and then we'll let you go and really appreciate this insight. Have you ever had a situation where you tested someone at a competition weeks before the fight and received the results after the fight?

No. That was bizarre, right? And you know what I'm alluding to, Anderson Silva. Do you have any explanation for that? Any possible, I know you weren't involved. That was Nevada, but do you have any idea why that could happen?

Well, I do. And let me tell you something. Andy, are you still there? That was quite the cliffhanger. Let me tell you something and then gone. We'll call him back. I think he was on a landline. Let's call back Andy.

Interesting to hear him say that. Of course, that was the big talking point. It wasn't so much that Anderson Silva had failed, but why were the results released after the fight? and by now you know that he was temporarily suspended along with Hector Lombard and Nick Diaz, the next hearing, which has not been set yet, will be his disciplinary hearing. That's when we'll find out exactly how long he'll be out for, what the punishment is, and probably hear his side of the story, not just his side of the story, but also Hector Lombard's side of the story,

Nick Diaz's side of the story. Hopefully, we'll get some more insight on that. But very, excuse me, very interesting stuff from, all right, he's there. Are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Okay. That was an amazing, that was an amazing cliffhanger. You were like, let me tell you something, and then you disappeared. Yeah, so here's how I learned how to do the expediting the things, because it's not like it's not just out there common.

So I did a show, Kell Brooks and Sean Porter, and Goldman would be out-of-competition testing, and I didn't know how to do it exactly once it got real close to the fight. So I had to call UCLA, and I said, look, I want these, I'm not going to have these results back before the five, and they're not going to, they're not going to box each other if I don't have these results back. So they said, well, look, Andy, if you're going to give us $30 extra per sample, we'll expedite out the sample for you. So I agreed, and they got it back to me, but it's not just something that's just, at least for me in California, It wasn't something that was obvious, and I just think that you just live and learn. I mean, I almost made the same mistake.

$30 is nothing, right? Well, I mean, that's what everybody says, and certainly for that fight it was worth doing it for. But, I mean, it starts to add up when you're on a commission budget. You've got lots and lots of fights to do, you know. What kind of budget do you have for all this stuff, drug testing? This year was $1,426,000. as my overall budget and that handles everything. And then I can move the drug testing budget.

As long as I make the bottom line, because we're specially funded, we don't have a general fund appropriation here in California. We're a special fund. As long as I make my $1,426,000, then we're fine. But that doesn't include the revenue that is brought. Like, if the UFC comes four times in this calendar year, you'll get more money that you can use in that budget, right? that's not the way it works.

You have a general fund appropriation of a million four. We'll just call it a million four. Okay. And I'm projected to bring in, I'll probably bring in a million six this year. So I have a $200,000 surplus. Well, that $200,000 surplus will go into my fund balance, but it doesn't mean that I can spend it that way. It doesn't work that way.

And we have legislation right now that I just submitted a legislative. proposal the commission submitted to the Senate. And one of our proposals is, okay, let's say I drug test Fider X and he pops. Okay, so we've got another proposal to raise the percentage of the fine

way up. So now it becomes, we'll say you get signed 40% and we'll say he made $100,000, then I fine him $40,000, and that $40,000 then can be used for additional drug testing on other people and it doesn't affect my appropriation line item

the overall appropriation. Now, who knows if that'll pass or not, but that's our proposal. Now, California is a very active commission. Say, Georgia, your former commission, what's their budget in a calendar year? Well, what's an approximate number? I'm assuming it's not a million four, right? Oh, no. Oh, no.

It's much smaller. And see, they're generally funded as opposed to, as opposed to especially funded, which means that basically every time they do something, they have to go to the Secretary of State where their commission is based and basically ask for X, Y, or Z. So I don't remember right off the top of my head, but I think their budget's probably somewhere between 150 and 250, something more like that. That's amazing. You've randomly tested Chris Seiborg twice before her fight on Friday. Do you have those results yet? Well, I called UCLA this morning.

I'll have the UCLA test back on Wednesday. Wow. I don't have them yet, but I'll have Wednesday. That is cutting it close. Do you ever get heat from the promoters? Like, hey, I mean, God forbid something happens. There goes your main event. Yeah, but, I mean, we're going to have it on Wednesday,

so we're having two days to spare. You'll definitely have a Wednesday, though. It's not going to be after the fight, right? Yeah. No, it will be before the five. I want to have it Wednesday. Yeah, and that was a condition of licensure. She has to pass this test to get that license, right?

That's correct. That's correct. In and out of competition drugs, like recreational drugs as well, which was the big issue in the John Jones situation. That's correct. Have you ever seen that before where a lab tests a fighter for the wrong things? Like they test them for recreational drugs out of competition when that wasn't supposed to be, you know, tested? No. Wow.

That's interesting. But, I mean, because basically, you basically have to mark the things that you won't tested for. But I would, and I don't know what happened, but I'm totally conjecture, but I would imagine that just in a quick haste to do it, just both boxes were checks as opposed to the one. Right. That's my guess. I didn't ask. I don't know what happened. Sure.

last question for you. I remember I saw you in Sacramento, I believe it was prior to the UFC on Fox event around a year and change ago, and you told me that every judge who would be officiating that event, that UFC event at the sleep train arena, they're calling it now, had at least, incorrectly from wrong, a purple belt in Jiu-Situ? Is that accurate purple belt at the time? Was that the right? That's correct. Yep.

How would, and I thought this was very interesting, how would you describe the state of MMA judging and refereeing. I know that's a very big topic, but right now, are you pleased with the progress, the knowledge, the evolution of the officials from a judges and referee standpoint, or do you think there's more work to be done? Well, certainly there's more work to be done. Anybody would think, I mean, anybody doesn't think that hasn't watched any fights, but it's improving. It's getting there. It's improving. And people, if they don't think it's improved, go back and watch it. five, seven or eight years ago.

It's improving. We're getting there. It's happening. And I think the referee, we got John and Herb and Jaron Vell on this one, and we've got good judges. And, yeah, we're very pleased. I feel like the scoring's getting better. We had a lot of 10-8s come out of Bellator the other day.

They did more than we needed. Certainly our judges are scoring them. I'm very pleased with the direction that the scoring's moving. Okay. Wow. And the same goes for this event, all judges, Purple Belt or above in Jiu-Jitsu? That's correct. Is that for both Invicta and the UFC? Let me see. Just real quick, who I got on Invicta.

I have one FOP belt on Invicta, but she's been judging a while. Okay. But yeah, everybody else is, well, I've got two browns and a purple and a lot. Okay. I mean, not that you get, you know. It doesn't have to just be, of course. But I think that's interesting because sometimes you have these boxing judges who don't know about the ground game. I lied.

One more thing. What's the state of the John Fitch situation? What's the next step here? Well, I mean, he has a right to appeal if he chooses to. We've not received notice that he has appeals. Okay. So right now he'll just take the punishment, which will be nine months? Nine months and $25, $2,500.

Okay. And you won't say what he tested positive for you. That's part of the rules. That's part of the rules. Right. Okay. Well, Andy, I appreciate the time very much, and sorry about having to move you over a couple times there.

I really appreciate your flexibility, very gracious with your time, and looking forward to making our way to the other side of the country this weekend for a couple of big fights. Good luck to you and the team. Thank you very much for the knowledge and keep up the great work. I think you guys are doing great. I was even talking to Mark Ratner earlier in the day and he spoke very highly of you. It's great to see someone who has a history in combat sports doing such great things for such a big commission. So keep it up and looking forward to more great things from your commission. Thank you. I'll see you this weekend. All right. There he is. Andy Foster stopping by executive officer of the California State Athletic

Commission. You look them up. This guy's got a sure dog fight finder. account. Count record. I mean, this guy's fought. He's had a lot of fights. MMA kickboxing, that's the way it should be. Now, they don't all have to be like that, but clearly have an understanding of what goes into all this and want to clean it up and want to make it better. So that does it for our interviews. Ooh, especially on a day where I'm a tad bit under the weather. We have 11 minutes left. I was told last week on a phone call that it is very important that I Do not go over the 430 time. They are cracking the whip on us, New York, Rick.

So this is on you, my friend. How many questions can you sneak into the next 11 minutes? The question is how many you can answer? Well, I mean, sometimes you throw in a couple ones that we've already addressed, you know? We're already wasting time. Are you taking shots? Taking shots over here? We're already wasting time.

Where's the first question? First question's right here. Here we go. UFC Hall of Fame for Frank Mear. Hmm. Yes, of course. That's it? Isn't that an obvious answer?

Well, no. Multiple time champion, beat Brock and then the big rematch. Of course, he lost a rematch, but I mean, this guy made big business. Was a Hall of Famer as far as business is concerned? Won the belt came back? I mean, of course.

For me, I think it's an of course, but, you know, we've differed before. I've thought, you know, Kenny Florian and guys like that are locked. Brock Lesnar, Hall of Famer? Yeah. I don't think we differ that much, to be honest. Antonio Bigfoot Silva He's won three

And they are Fador Travis Brown and Overeem He's had a no contest The draw with Mark Hunt And he's had 5-KO losses In his last nine fights Does his record show that Bigfoot Is one of the must-watch fighters in the UFC

And what's next for him Well wait Must watch What does that mean? Well yes because he's either going to win And those wins were pretty nice Or he's going to get Knocked the F out

or he had the draw with Mark Hunt. I'll say this. I like that Brendan Schaub idea. I'm sure he likes that, too. Who, Brendan? Yeah. Yeah, that's the kind of fight he likes. But, I mean, look, like I said,

I'm not really chomping at the bit to see him fight. He just seems kind of like a shell of his former self. But if he's going to fight, I think that makes a lot of sense, right? For both guys, kind of. Yeah. It's not a bad matchup, fresh. What do you think about this struve Bignog idea? Big Nag, same thing.

Not dying for it. I could do without seeing Big Nog again. Yeah. Sam Alvey, what's next for him? This person wasn't a fan of the call out of Dan Kelly. Why not? Well, because it was, like, that's like calling out somebody who, you know, the performance wasn't that great.

It's an interesting person to call out. I always like it when a guy recognizes his place on the ladder and says, you know, it was like Jake Matthews when he called out Joe Ellenberger. It never happened. But it's like, all right, I'm not going to call it. Champions, that makes so sense? Isn't this what you say about Connor? Maybe aim a little higher.

A little higher? I mean, maybe he doesn't think he's that good. I think he, I think he botched it. You think he botched it? I mean, it's almost kind of fitting that he said Dan Kelly, right? It was a strange. He is a creepy guy. And I say that in the most, you know, complimentary way possible.

The smile is just a little funny. But I like it. I still don't understand the spelling. Smile and Sam Alvey. Yeah, doesn't make sense. I think I like that as well. You need quirky characters like that. I was all for the callout.

Even the person. You're perfectly fine with that. I was totally fine with it. I loved it. I loved everything about it. We're even talking about it right now. Not a fan. Call somebody else out.

Who do you want to see him fight? It doesn't matter. You don't call out the guy who just put on a stinker. I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. Michael Johnson versus Ray Gennel. What do you think about that fight? So I said this on Twitter after the fight.

It was like, no, Barbosa's ranked six. No, you should get someone. higher. I don't know. I mean, I have to have to look at the rankings, but I kind of feel like six was a little too high for Barbosa to begin with. I think that's about right. I think he's in that in that range, but this would definitely be something that would be Johnson giving Al a shot rather than taking a higher shot. Well, first of all, Al has to beat Masvedal. It's not forget about that. Yeah, if he does, I could see this match up, being fair. I don't know if the timing works out, too. I mean, there's so many guys he's been inactive for so long. I feel like he's going to want to get right

back in there, that Iaquinta fight is April 4th. I like the fight, and I think if Iaquinta beats Mazvedal, I think it makes sense. I don't think Iiquita is that far below Michael Johnson. Let's not forget, not too long ago, Michael Johnson was losing two fights in a row here and there. So, I like it. And if Mazvidal wins, I like it too. Okay. Marion Renaud.

Yes. Too old to be a contender. Hell no. I agree. Not in the women's bantamweight division. I mean, Andrage was getting close. I mean, let's look at what we got right now. We got, obviously, Katzangano.

We have Holly Holm who, I agree with Mike Winklejohn. Give her one, two fights. I think, like Sarah McMahon, she's going to be rushed in there. But we'll see what happens. Yeah, Betcha, I was coming off an eye injury, so we don't know when she'll be back. Maybe she's being safe for the next one to fight Rhonda. Cyborg is still out there. I still feel like they want to make that fight happen.

they're not that much after that. She's beaten a lot of these people. Sarah Kaufman, Misha Tate, twice, Sam McMahon, Alexis Davis, if she gets by Katzengano, there isn't a lot going on. Now, am I saying Marion Reno is ready to fight Ronda Rousey? No, I think they should bring her along

a little slower even though she's 37, but it's like what you see in the flyweight division. Guys are going to get titles. Chris Carrioso, Kioji Hoaguchi, these people have title shots before Michael Bisping. You get what I'm saying? Every division is kind of created differently. so I don't think she's that far off.

She's very impressive, though. She's a lot of fun to watch. Katzingano is a huge underdog. Is it me or are people sleeping on Katzangano? I will be betting that she takes the title off Ronda. She's a huge underdog, easy money. Will I be taking this bet? You personally?

Rick, yes. Right now she's plus 700. What do you make of that? I'm not taking the bet. Why? Tough matchup. Tough match up for her. She's a worthy opponent, but she's a notoriously,

she's a notoriously slow starter versus the best starter, and that's a recipe for disaster. Let me give you a prop bet, all right? John Anix says this fight doesn't last 90 seconds, over under. Could be under. As I just said, she is... Well, wait, you got to make the pick. It's not could.

I need the answer. I mean, that's so... It's an arbitrary number, but... But that's a prop bet, right? Isn't that what a prop bet is? Yeah, but 90 seconds is not... There's no delineation there. Like, one round, that makes sense,

because there's a... There's something that happens there. So anything could happen in those 90 seconds. It's very strange. But, I mean, there are half round props and things like that, so I shouldn't be. Does she get it done in under 90 seconds? I don't think so. It's nonsense so, sure.

I don't think so. 90 seconds is a very quick time. I mean, come on. 90 seconds, Katzegano's tough. Okay, but if I said the same thing about Alexis Davis, what would you have said? That's why it's a nonsense number. 90 seconds is just arbitrary. Look at you insulting John Annik.

Well, John Anick didn't make the number. That's what he said. He said, this is my prediction. He said it on TV. Well, no. Then that's not an over-under. Saying I predict she will be finished in under 90 seconds is not over-under. That's saying, I predict she will be...

Yes, but I was asking you, if I set the line at 90 seconds, do you take the over to the under? Undershore. I don't know. I'm not asking your take on this bet. I just want to know if she's going to be under 90 seconds. But I think... Well, no. Then you turned into your taking shot to John Anick.

And then it doesn't matter to me. I think she will win within a round, though. All right. Holly Holm, if she smokes Pennington, does she get a title shot? Or should she get a title shot? I don't, I think it's a little too soon. Now, will she get pushed into a title shot? Depends on the cyborg situation.

I say give the title shot to bet Cohea if she wins, right? I'm down with that. is home one more fight. It's a big jump from Raquel Pennington to Rondarousie. Ellenberger versus Kostchek, who has the most to lose this weekend? Is it a loser leaves town match? Okay. Let me know if you disagree.

I say Jake Ellenberger. Kosteck has been there, done that. It's very much like Bigfoot and Frank Meir. Ellenberger is supposed to be the prime of his career. If he loses this one, I mean, where do you go from here? Well, it could be the opposite. based on that same logic. Absolutely, but I got a pick one.

I got to pick one. I got to pick one. So what is he? Yeah, but look, if Koshchak never came back, no one would be saying, like, what happened to Josh Kachak? I think a lot of people would agree. He's one of the last guys from tough one still fighting.

He's had some, you know, tough losses, pardon the pun, recently. I think a lot of people were kind of moving on, right? Jake Ellenberger was very much in the mix not that long ago. So that's why I think a loss to Kosteck at this point in his career, it would be devastating. What are your thoughts on Demetrius versus Horaguchi being made a few fights after he said he wanted to compete for the title? He didn't want to compete for the title yet.

And then less than a month after that, Dodson is booked. You know, I don't hate it. I hate it because what I don't like is that Horaguchi said he didn't want to tell shot he got one. That makes me think he's not, doesn't believe that he can win the fight. I like the idea of Dotson getting in one more fight, having to win one more time getting that title shot. And also, let's not forget, that month is a very long time,

and he may not have been ready for April, and they needed a second title fight on that card. That Montreal card needed as much muscle as it could get, so is what it is. The state of the flywights. Kane and Verduma re-booked. If Kane has to pull out again, should he be stripped? You know my answer on this.

What do you think? Well, what would the timeline be? Is that over a year? I know the year is your mark. It's been way over a year already. Oh, so yeah. So you're saying strip it. Yeah. First time, PED offenders. Should they receive a two or four-year ban from the sport? Also, if the UFC bans one of their fighters for four years, can that fighter go to another organization or will they be locked to the UFC? Well, so they would be banned by the commission. Yeah, so that's a thing. I mean, it's not, it gets a little murky there with the commissions and when they're self-policing and all that.

but I think what Lorenzo Furtado was saying was that he would almost campaign to have the rules changed. And if California, for example, is banning you for four years, then you're banned for four years everywhere. Everyone agrees with that. I meant to ask Andy Foster about that. We were running out of time, but I wanted to ask his take on it. I liked what Luke Thomas said on the MAB. Go back to that. I mean, that could hurt a lot of guys on the up and up.

Four years a long time. Maybe two makes a little more sense, but four years is a long time. it would be a great deterrent. It would. It would be fantastic. But could you imagine if you're some youngster and you take that and you screw up or you do some kind of mistake? Well, you're willfully cheating. Yes, but what if you don't know? Like, you know, there's a lot of stupid kids out there.

They're 20 years old. You go with the wrong. I'm not making an excuse for anyone. Sure, four years. Get all the cheaters out. Yeah, I'm sure you can appeal it if it was something that you can reasonably explain. Just to say there's a lot of work to be done between now and when this whole thing is Like I said, before Lorenzo Fertita, he stole my line.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. Really quickly, this person on Sunday night bet $25. They won $3,000 on 14 parlay. Meere, Johnson, Alvi, Martins. Amazing. And now this guy, he bet $1. Yes. And made $30,000.

Get out of here. What do you do? I don't see all the names. I only see Matt Dwyer. Yeah, and you also see Renaud at the bottom. Oh, yes. But he must have had, you know, 10. You believe him?

Yeah, he has screenshots. Oh, right there. Canada, yes. Outcome win, right at the top. 29,000. Get out of here. This has to be one of those after-the-fact things. No. First of all, wait, this guy sent it to you last night. He only is 7% on his phone.

No, he sent it to me today. He took a screen grab last night at 11.03 p.m. Hmm. What, what, could you go to his profile very quickly? I'm sorry, I just need to get to the bottom of this. Michael Pritchard lives in. Doesn't even say. Here, he sent another photo.

This one was taken today at 4 o'clock. Yes. The balance. What's up with his battery situation? As you see the balance. It's because they took a bit of cash. 29,000. Why is his last tweet something about Dave Herman from 2012?

What happened to the other? Did he delete his other tweets? Yeah, he disappeared for a little bit. Sketch. He only replies. He doesn't seem to tweet a lot of stuff that's not directed at people. But look, that's at Jordan Breen. That's a reply.

Sketch. Yeah, that is weird, actually, because that should be in tweets and replies. Sketch, bro. Oh, there it is. Weird. Yeah, it's weird that the other ones, that those are showing up. All right. Congratulations.

Did you make any money? I didn't. Crazy, I'm not bending on this card. Okay. Give me one underdog for Saturday night off top of your head. Pennington? I don't know. I haven't really looked at the cards. I mean, just on the fact that she has experience in the UFC and Holly Holme does not. I don't even know the odds. Let me look at them now.

We don't have time. We're out of time. We're three minutes over. You'll update us on Twitter. Pennington's a good one. Plus six. Wait, no, plus 855. No, sorry. Holly Home is mine. 8055. Pennington is 645. Tebow, maybe. I don't know. Tebow, Ferguson. Well, you know how much I like Ferguson, but I'm just doing it quickly. I don't know. I'll have to think about it. I'll do it on Twitter.

Okay. All right, that does it for us. Yes, Invicta, Friday. Shrine Auditorium, UFC Fight Pass. Alex, we are at a time, my friend, so you can hit my music. A fun show, everyone. How about that? In studio guests, Sat a studio guest, phone, Skype, little kids showing up. Can't ask for more than that. Congratulations to Frank Mirr back on track. No one asked me about this, but, man, Brock Lesnar, Frank Mirr 3.

That would be big. If not, how about Matt Mitrione? I like that fight for Meathead. He lost out on the Arlovsky fight, Arlofsky fighting. How about UFC 187? Holy moly, two title fights, Wyden, Jones. That is a great card. please.

I'm going to actually not talk about it between now and May 23rd, so that it actually happens. Anyway, I want to thank everyone who stopped by. I want to thank everyone who tuned in. I want to thank Roy Nelson. Best of luck to him. UFC 185, March 14th, Dallas, Texas. No random testing, but there will be fights.

I want to thank Liam McGee for stopping by in studio, and best of luck to him this Friday against Manuel Newton. Thank you very much to the legendary Miracle Crow Cop. going to die trying Gabriel Gonzaga fight, crack out Poland. Tickets go and sell this week.

Thank you very much to the great team over in the United Kingdom for hooking us up with him. They are amazing to work with. Thank you. Mike Winklejohn, thank you very much to him.

Good luck to Holly Home this weekend. UFC 184, her long-awaited, much-anticipated UFC debut. Great stuff, as always, from Mark Hunt. Good luck to him, 8th against SEPA Miocitch.

Great stuff, as always, from Paul Daly. Good luck to him this Friday. It's Andre Santos. And tremendous stuff from Andy Foster going to L.A. tomorrow night. I'm going to be in studio. UFC tonight on Wednesday. Check it out. We'll see you next week. Same time and place until the NSA. Pes. I'm Nilai Patel, editor-in-chief-verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems.

We've talked a lot about generative AI on the show lately, which is a very big idea that is causing quite a few problems. And one thing we keep hearing about over and over again is that generative AI is causing a lot of problems in schools. There are a lot of people out there, including many of the listeners of the show who email us, We're worried about the obvious problem, students using chat GPT to cheat on assignments. But when our team went and poked at the story, they found that the issues in education with AI go a lot deeper, to the very philosophy of education itself. If this technology becomes more ubiquitous, we'll have courses created by AI, graded by AI,

with submissions from students absolutely generated by AI. So it begs the question, what are we even doing here in higher ed? episode is presented by Salesforce. Sacks 5th Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or the right outfit. Sacks is where you can find everything. From the perfect Chloe bag for your hard-to-shop-for-sister to a prodig jacket for a fancy holiday dinner.

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