MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 272

Episode Date: March 9, 2015

Featuring Burt Watson, Vitor Belfort, Duke Roufus, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Ryan LaFlare, Elias Theodorou, and Fat Joe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, March 9th, 2015. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Halwani coming at you from our New York City studio. It's great to be back here for another show, another Monday. And we have a fun lineup plan for all of you. A relatively quiet weekend in the world of mixed martial arts. Not much going on. Very big weekend in the world of boxing.

How about that? premier boxing champions on NBC. Taking a little UFC and putting it into the boxing world, did very good. And by the way, just any time you can have Marv Albert calling any kind of combat sport, you can count me in. That was a lot of fun. So I think anytime something exciting happens in the world of boxing, it helps out combat sports in general. I'm not one of these people who believe that there should be a decision to be made,

whether or not you are a boxing guy or MMA guy. I think it's great for everyone. And Saturday night was a great night for the sweet science. This Saturday, though, another big one for the UFC. It's UFC 185. It's in Dallas, Texas. Two titles on the line. Anthony Pettis defending his lightweight title against Hafeld dosangos

and Carlos Sparza defending her strawweight title for the first time against Joanna Yomjecheck, Poland's own, who is a very interesting character, and we will, of course, talk to her later in the show. Great card. was one of those cards where originally I felt like, okay, this is a really fun card on paper. There's no chance it's going to come to fruition.

And now here we are. Knock on wood, five days before, and it's pretty much remained intact. I really like it. Something for everyone. Of course, we'll talk about that. A lot of news, as always. Not a lot of fights this past week,

but a lot of news, as always, in the world of M.A., so we will get to all of that. Let us run down the show for all of you. At around 3.45, we'll take your questions, In comments, people have begun checking in, so let us know what's on your mind. At around 3.30, we're going to be talking to Fat Joe. Yes, that Fat Joe will be joining us. Fat Joe, what's love got to do and got to do with it, babe?

That fat Joe, it should be about us, it should be about trust. That fat Joe is going to join us. What's the tie-in? Stay tuned. 315, it is inside the vault, and it's a first of its kind. Stay tuned for that inside the vault 315. 245. I don't think in the history of this show I've had more people demand a guest be on the following week's show more so than this man. 245.

Bert Watson, former UFC psych coordinator will join us to talk about his abrupt departure from the organization. So many people were tweeting me, asking me, you must have Bert on, we got him, can't wait to talk to him. And by the way, remember how Uriah Fabor would always bother me about, you know, checking in too many times? Bert Watson confirmed with me three times before this interview. I didn't even have to text him. We booked it. And then he kept confirming all weekend long. What a pleasure.

What a guy amazing to see the reaction to his departure, the outpouring of support, the sentiment. It was really unlike anything I've ever seen in M.MA. So I can't wait to talk to him. The aforementioned Yonah Janjacheck will stop by. at 225, talk about the Asparza fight, her big crack at a UFC title. 205, we're going to talk to Elias Theodoro, who competes at UFC 185. The Canadian is not fighting in Montreal next month. He's fighting against a local guy at 185, so we'll talk to him about that.

205, that's Elias Theodoro. 145, we're talking to Ryan LaFlear, who main events next week's UFC show against Damien Mai. That show has been decimated by a string of injuries. most recently, Ben Saunders. Now, Josh Kostech returning. I know a lot of you want to talk about that. We'll talk to Ryan LaFlair about that show. His return has been a while for him as well.

125, we're going to talk to Duke Rufus, who, of course, his guy, Showtime Petis, is in the main event at 185, and he is very much in the news because CM Punk. CM Punk was in that countdown show. They showed him just, it was a very subtle. They didn't even identify him. He was just on the mat, chilling, then working.

Showed him like two or three times. So Duke Ruf was very much in the news. He also has Sergio Pettus on the card this weekend as well. I like how they always team up the brothers. And it's always great to talk to Duke. In a minute, we're going to be joined at the top of the show by the lion, the king himself, Vitor Belford, who of course is scheduled to face Chris Widman at UFC 187. that is an amazing card, May 23rd in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It's a fight that we have been waiting a long time for. They were supposed to fight last year and when, when was it? They were fighting May and then in July and then December. And then, of course, February 28th. Wyman got injured a couple times. There were other delays, of course, with the commission. So we're finally, hopefully getting that fight on May 23rd. 187 is one of those cards that I said, I don't even want to talk about because I'm afraid someone is going to jinx it.

The headlining act is John Jones versus Anthony Rumble Johnson, and then you get this title fight as well. Plus, Travis Brown against Andrei-Benzhenavides versus John Maraga, Donald Seroni versus Habibner-Magamagamatoff. It's an amazing card. You know what I was thinking, 185, 186, 187, and 189. So, 185, 16, 17, 1,000, 4 of the next 5 UFC pay-per-views right now have two title fights on them. That's pretty amazing.

188 dozen. That's the Mexico City card. That's the one that is headlined by Verdume versus Kane Velazquez. Two titles are kind of on the line there because it's an unification bout, but that's pretty amazing. Of course, in between there we have cards like Next Weekend's card in, in Brazil, which, like I said, has been just killed by all kinds of injuries and cancellations. Josh Thompson was supposed to be on that card.

Now, Josh Kosteck is on it. Ben Saunders, Eric Silva, was scratch for the Kosteck fight. And a lot of people when that was announced were kind of surprised, including myself. I didn't think Kosteck would come back. But it is the final fight on his contract. And he said he wants to fight it out. He wants to end it. He wants to end on his terms.

just defeated by Jake Ellenberger last weekend. And now here he is coming back. Pretty amazing. I know you guys want to touch on that, so we'll save that discussion for later. For now, though, let us go to the Skype machine. Let us welcome in our first guests of the day. The aforementioned Vitor Belford is here. Look at him.

Always with a tremendous Skype connection. What a pleasure it is to have you on the show, Vitor. How are you? I'm very fantastic. The journey is the reward. Come on, my friend. That is a good saying. like that. And it's very apropos because it has been a long journey for you. Oh, there's another one.

Confidence is a choice. Come on, man. Okay. You got that. You like that one? I like that one. What else you got? Be present to win. Yes, yes. I'm liking this. Did you come up with these yourself? Compare it to what? There's the belt. There it is. The gold. I understand. What do you mean? What do you mean? Yes, yes, yes. I start to begin it up Yes, okay Perfection versus excellence

Hmm, that's an interesting one I wonder who's who Wow, you got that many That's enough, that's enough What do you do with all those? Inspirationerate a long time It has been a long time You've been avoiding me

But I'm glad you're back I like it on a nice wall Thank you I don't know if we have you here Have they ever made a toy of you? I think so Okay, maybe we need to get that one did you come up with those sayings

yeah you know it's like I work with tremendous people and we have our team that we just that's how I train my saying like I have Brian Kane is one of the

psychology in sport and and I come up with things that I need to care myself you know we need to and I do myself things that I create it's all mindset you know I believe it's all mindset. We become who believe we are. And of course, if you don't apply in a daily, basically, you become a hypocrite. And I'm not hypocrite. You know, I think I have to live by what I

preach. And that's what makes people will. Was that a problem for you at one point in your career, the mindset? Like when you were out of the UFC trying to work your way back, when you're kind of going through rough times in your career as a fighter, do you feel like the mental part of the game was getting the best of you? I think all of us. Yeah. You know, just like, just, just if you can, if you can judge yourself, you know, and see how, how many bad things happen here, your worst enemy sometimes is living in your head.

And that's not basically who you are, but it's circumstance, you know. You got to, you just got to take, like I said, you got to take the good and the bad, you know, if you don't take, you know, this is another one. It's good. Good or bad, good or bad. Interesting. You know, you've got to take the good and the bad, and then just leave your life. But what's it like for you?

You know, you're on this journey. You're trying to get that belt. You've been on a very long journey to try to recapture UFC title. And, you know, you get close, and then they say, hold up. There's no fight. You have to wait a little longer. Like mentally, you're someone who is preparing for the battle of your life, and then you have to take your foot off the gas.

How difficult has that been for you? Just how you see time. And that's being the challenge of human race, how they see time, you know. Some people, they see time with like is the worst enemy. They dragging themselves for 90 years, 80 years, 70 years, 60 years. Or, you know, on college, like I talk to my son a lot and they say, son, you know, don't make hard these hours that you have to go. you know, to school and when you go to college and make them pay, make they pay off, you know, be there, you know, think there, you know, just maybe you're not going to like some science,

you're not going to like geography, you're not going to, but it's going to be good for you just to train that you've got to be in the present moment. Like the present moment is the most valuable thing. So I see time in my favor, you know, the more people give me time. the more it's like I became better in what I do. So the way I see time, you know, from my lens, that's what I'm trying to explain to you. From my lens, it's how I see time.

I see time is in my own behalf always. It's good for me. I learn. Life teach me a lesson in a hard way. When I didn't have my sister, I remember, you know, when I look in the eye of my wife and she said, I say, don't hide for me. What's going on?

She said, your sister is missing. From day on, it was like a shock. You know, like I said, what? She was in the work. And when you deal with life, when you face a real challenge and a real problem, a real situation that is life changing. And you learn from it may not be good, you know, but the thing is you got to take it. You cannot escape it. You know, I try to live in another planet.

I try to erase from my mind, but I cannot. And I have to look to my dad and see my dad crying with tears on his eyes, say, where's my little girl, you know? And this is painful. So you've got to understand that things in life, not just for me right now, but for people are living in Syria right now. They are living persecution because they're their own faith. You know, they are there, and all of a sudden,

someone take your daughter and take your son, and they murder him because they're Christian. So time, it's awful sometimes, but you cannot escape from it. You've got to take it. Good or bad, just move on. Very well said. By the way, since you brought it up, where do you think Stan with your sister in her case? Did you ever get any kind of finality there? No. Just like we have the most, like the thing that really, they really know for sure, but they don't have the box. that there, it was a case that somebody took her, and eventually they have to disappear her body.

And that's what they told me, you know, they have to, they have to just, this is what's happened. Nobody would never found because people in Brazil, like, if you don't have a body, you don't have a crime. They usually do that in Brazil a lot, you know, in the favelas. So, you know, but, you know, I believe in God. I trust God and you can hide things, but you cannot hide anything from God. And they never arrested anyone or convicted anyone regarding... They did. They arrest a lot of people. They got the organization there kidnapped in Brazil, that they thought these people are the ones that they did the crime.

But eventually, like, unfortunately, the law in my country, I was working in the favor of who makes bad decisions. Like example, in Brazil, you don't know that, but they have a law. Like, if the guy goes to prison and he doesn't have, you know, the governor pays like a welfare, like a welfare, don't? Like a welfare to his wife. So the guy committed crime. He almost like $1,000 a month. And they pay like a welfare for, because he doesn't have a good situation. And for my mom, nobody give anything for her.

So the people that suffer, you know, they don't have any rights. And that's insane. That's like insane, you know, just to live with that kind of pain is insane. But, you know, it is what it is. We've got to be joyful and we've got to look for a bright future in front of us. Let's go back to your current situation. When we found out that Chris was only going to be out for around two, three months, Obviously, I think anyone would sympathize with you and say, look, just wait.

You've waited this long. Just wait for the fight. And then there was all this talk about interim title fight and whatnot. Can you tell us your side of the story? Because I heard from everyone but you. What was your intention? And what did you want to happen? Because we had heard you asked for Mark Munoz, but you didn't want Machita.

What exactly happened from your point of view? It's simple. You know, when I got the, my office got the news, everybody was in motion, you know? Yeah. And my offer made a, like, my offer made an offer. Say, okay, let's make this happen, you know. Let's find someone. They call my coaches and they say, okay, let's got someone that has stylistic the same.

Victor's been training one year for fighting Chris. And let's help the event to keep going. And they offer Romero, I think. And then from Rumeris, we heard that he was injury. or something. So then they came with a counter-offer, but the coaches, they say, no, no, no, we're not going to take anyone.

We won't vitamin. You know, the injury is not big, so I don't want Vitor to fight. And like I said, I'm a general, but I know how to be a soldier and trust my team, so I trust my coaches. So you squared off with him at the Time is Now press conference. I saw you in L.A.

You were there. You squirt off with him again. This has been talked about for so long this fight. Are you kind of tired of thinking and preparing for Chris Weidman? Are you anxious to get this over with? No. No, I'm anxious. No, I'm enjoying every second.

You know, I have a way of live that helped me a lot. Like, I just live today like this is my last day of my life. So I trying to face the day that I have, you know, the now moment. That's the most important thing, you know, the way I, We know yesterday. I had a tremendous moment of my life yesterday, man. Me and my wife, you know, my son just went to the championship game basketball, DeV. So we are there on that moment.

It was like this energy, man. Oh, my God. It's like it was much more exciting to see a professional NBA player. We are watching these kids, you know, dealing with pressure. You know, let's go. We got to win. We cannot lose. We're going to go to championship.

And me and my wife and my wife say, look, look these kids. they're performing where they don't get paid they're there because they love to be there you know and they're doing their best you know they look and they're

shouting and all the teams fighting back and all the I say man in that moment to watch my son like he he was the MVP of the game you know because the day before

you know I went to bed with him and I talked to him I say son let me teach you life sometimes life you know you expect one thing, but life presents you another thing, present you like a big mountain, okay? So people are afraid of big mountains because you cannot see the sunshine,

you cannot see the sunset. So what do you got to just climb that mountain, but people don't want to climb the mountain. They're too comfortable zone, you know. So when you're there on your core tomorrow, you make sure you enjoy the moment, enjoy the pressure, enjoy the moment. It's like it's your last, that's the only moment.

on your life and he did and he said dad you know what helped me our talk you told me that the only thing I can do in that game is do my best and I promise to do my best and I did and I say you see when you do your best you know things happen positive things happen and you move forward and that's how I that's how I look my situation did he win yes awesome championship you got championship Pada benz. Parabins. Thank you. Did it bother you when Chris tweeted a picture of him outside your gym?

Did you find that to be annoying, disrespectful, anything like that? No, not at all. Just kind of, you know, I'm focused on my journey, bro. Like, I don't like, I don't read people. I don't read things. I don't, I learn. Like me and my wife, we are talking. See, one thing that helped me a lot is like, example, I respect.

I respect a lot your job. And you know that. I respect a lot your job. But I find sometimes what people read about you may not be the true about you. It may maybe be the news, but not the true. So the way to love everybody and understand that everything has a time, you know, we're going to fight, things are going to go away. Years from now, we're going to be talking, Hall of Fame, all that.

So to go to life and be able to love my opponents, fans, critics, everyone, I just don't read it. You know, I just like, I have my wife, she tells me the truth. Nobody better than her. She tells me some truths that hurts, but she tells me with love. And I just like, I'm just focused on my journey. You know, I don't care what people do, whatever. They can jump. They can jump, Jack, they can do whatever.

They can do anything they want. You know, I'm focused. Okay, clear something up for me because I'd read some comments, but I want to hear it from you. Do you feel like you are being treated unfairly by doing more drug tests than him? No, no. What I said is like, you know, that's the thing, you know. Now I think people will know what I want to mean. Yeah.

What I mean is this. The sport's coming for a big change. Yeah. Let's talk about uniform. Yeah. Okay. You see this. This is the people that I have big contract with them.

Yeah. big contract, a lot of money. So now I got to go through them and say, listen, you know, I cannot have you guys inside the cage because they have these guys that they sponsor UFC, this big company, that they're going to, only people are going to be allowed to wear them. And on their mind, they say, okay, but they will pay you what we pay. I say, no, I don't have anything with them. So, so, and we have.

a lot of discussing is right, it's not right. You know, people like it, people not like it. Right. You know, we're talking about, but, you know, I understand that things has to be done today for the future. So as a businessman, I was talking something to be fair. You know, it's a rule. Everybody has to follow the rule. Example, seatbelts.

You know, doesn't matter if you're the president, if you're the son of the president, or if you're rock stars, you have to wear a seatbelt. and if you don't have your seatbelt, get a ticket. So my uniform, somebody going to be in my uniform, are not going to pay me monthly. It's fair? I have a 19-year-old-year-old. 19-year-old.

I don't think it's fair, you know, because some fighters have the privilege. You have a contract with this big organization that comes for my sport, and they have monthly pay. So the same thing I was talking about that, I was talking about this thing that I love. I love to work with the Commission Nevada. They are great people.

And they're going after everybody. And I said, to be fair, something to be fair has to apply to everyone equal. Am I right? Yeah. I get what you're saying. So now you get yourself. What I mean is this. How come my fellow Anthony Johnson, example, he got tests five times.

and the courage champion gets tests only one time. This is fair for you? Is that what happened? No, I'm just saying they will be fair for you. If this happened, that would be fair? That situation, no, but I can understand your situation as well. Yeah, but listen, that's what I mean. For something to be equal, something to be,

that I didn't talk about me, to the sport to be equal, the system to work. If you want the system to work, it doesn't matter if I was caught in my seat, without seatbelt, or I would not sit belt. I don't have the rights to don't wear seatbelt. So I have to wear seatbelt.

So what I mean is like the system to work, nothing again, not with my fight. I didn't talk about a fight. As a businessman, I was talked to the future. So they drug tests everybody. 40% they fell in, in drug tests. 40. So that's a big amount.

So now they come with these new rules. This new rule to work, everybody's guilty until they test it. So you follow what I mean? So if we want to be right, if someone's going to fight for the belt, it doesn't matter if it's Vito Belfour, or if it's Joseph or if it's Ricardo.

It doesn't matter the name to be equal. Everybody has to be treated equal. Doesn't matter. This is a rule. I'm just talking. with what I think is fair. Not about me. Nothing about me.

I can be testing every day. I don't care. But I'm saying, for something to work for the future of our sport, everybody has to be treated the same. So what are you going to do about the sponsor thing? Because those, I mean, I don't know. I don't live in Brazil. I don't know.

I see Sky and I think of Vitor. I see BMG and I think of you. Those brands are synonymous with you. What are you going to do come July? You know, I'm not talking about Vitor Bell for person. But I am. I am talking about Vitor Belfort. But you're talking.

So what I mean is like I go beyond the octagon. Okay. I go beyond the octagon. So example, I have been doing this for years. But I'm saying like when something change, a rule can change, a lot of things, this is not right. This is right. This is not right. But I believe for something to change and a rule to apply to everyone, everybody has to be treated the same.

So I'm not talking about Vitor, you know, a person or fighter. as a business man's how I see the future of our sport. So example, I see, I don't see us like an NBA. We're not like, I don't get paid by Miami Heat by Black Zilans. Sure, sure. So you know what I mean? So what I mean is like we are more, we can compare our sport more as an ATP, like tennis players. Yep, yeah.

They have to have their sponsor because they're the one they pay all the traveling, the expensive, you know. So not everyone can win the championship and makes a lot of money. So a lot of players, they need sponsors to travel around the world. I get paid by UFC when I fight. But monthly, the sponsors who help us to, you know, sometimes we have injuries, sometimes we don't fight. So that's the one they have our image and they can work.

So now comes a new regulation for the good. But I believe it's going to be good in the future. But right now, you know, like, it's like NBA, for example. You know, like, example, these guys, they receive monthly. You know, if they get injury, if they don't play, they start making money. So the question is they still can play with their Nikes or whatever. All the other sponsors they have. They got to wear.

So we need to, I believe we are in the midst of nobody knows what's going to happen. And everybody's like, what's going to happen? What's going to happen? Nobody knows. But I believe that when we implement something, you know, like a regulation, a rule, you know, we have to apply, you know, to everybody equally. That's what I mean, you know, when they're talking about the tests, you know, about the sponsorship, the whole thing. So we don't know the future. I believe UFC it's going to come up with something that will be equal and it's not going to hurt.

hurt us, it's going to help us. But in the beginning of everything, it's like, oh, what's going to be? What is right? What is wrong? In my mind, you know, what I think is right is when we apply, you know, like the same rules in America. Doesn't matter if you're the president, if you're the son of the president, the rules apply to everyone. You understand what I mean? I understand. I think my English is not. No, your English is perfect. Your English is perfect. I understand 100%. I want to ask you one last. Yes. I want to ask you one last Just curious, I didn't hear you talk about this. What's your take on what has happened to Anderson Silva?

Man, you know very well. It is what it is, you know? Who am I? You know, like we see cycling, we see a tracking field. We see baseball. These things everywhere. And I believe I'm not here to, I believe in what it is. It's like what it is, you know, who am I to.

throw or judge anybody no we all i think we all make mistakes and and i believe that that in the point of like i believe in in the people that are doing this and and they're like nevada ufc that's the system so it is what it is it's sad but you know it's all good all right vitor thank you for the time great to catch up with you we have run out of time i like i like your office man that that's your house? Well, no, I wish it was my house. It looks a lot nicer than my house. This is my studio. So when your wife is going to let you come here? I know. I know your wife is giving me a... He cannot travel. I'm going to, I'm going to say, Jerry. I want him to come here, see my daily, be with me, train with me. I will do that. I promise you, before it's all said and done, I will come. It's just this week, I'm going to Dallas.

He's those hard to... Yes, yes, please. Curious question. Do you train martial arts? area? Currently right now, no I don't. I have in the past, but right now I do not. How you became like the passion of MMA? Oh, I loved MMA from the first time I ever saw the UFC. UFC one was I was at my, I was at my grandparents' house. I was 11 years old. I'm 12 now, but I was 11 when I saw the first UFC. I always love fighting. And when I went to school to be a journalist, I said, all right, everyone's going to be the NFL, NBA, NHL journalist. I want to be MMA. So in 2001, in 2001 I had my own

MMA radio show and I said to my parents in 10 years this sport is going to be mainstream and I want to be one of those guys and now here I am doing what I

You thought you're crazy no no they supported me no one supported me more than my parents They said go out and do your thing What about your friends in school Also supported me They said you're going to be the man

I came from a small Jewish school in Montreal None of this ever happened to someone Who comes from there And look at me now I'm talking to Vitor Belford Living the Dream Abraham

Abraham. Yes. Jacob. Jacob. My middle name. My middle name. He was the guy. He was the guy.

He was first wrestling map. Remember the wrestling they had with God? Yes. Come on, man. You got it. Vitor, thank you so much. A pleasure, as always. We'll talk to you before the fight as well.

Thank you. And get here. Tell you why to come. I'm coming. I'm coming. Wait for me. Okay. Bye.

There he is. Vitor Belfort stopping by. Great stuff, as always, from him. Well, that was fun. It's always good to hear from Vitor. Such a positive guy. Say what you will about him. He is very unique. He's very positive. And he always has some good advice. I love that story about his son. How about that? A little David Belfort.

Sometimes I wish we could go an hour with these guys, especially someone like him, who is so loquacious. But alas, we ran out of time. We have a lot to get to on this show. In a minute, we're going to be joined by Duke Rufus, who is coming at us from the great city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, his home base, Rufus Sport, on fire as of late. And they have the champion of the lightweight division competing once again this Saturday, defending his title against Hafeldo Sanjos, coming off an amazing performance at UFC 181 against Gilbert Melendez. First man to ever submit Gilbert Melendez.

Just signed a deal with Wheaties, Reebok. I think there was another big one. Pettis is all over the place, killing it. And if you haven't seen the countdown show, I thought this one was good. They did a great job of spotlighting the challengers, which is what it's all about. I mean, I think we know a lot about Pettus, Asparza, to a lesser degree, but it's all about building up the challengers. So people are interested in the fights. I thought they did a great job doing that for this particular countdown show.

Now let's go to the phones and welcome in our next guest. Duke Rufus joining us right now. Duke, how are you? I'm great. I just got my haircut at the ASD. a barbershop, trying to look crispy like Anthony, trying to look sharp like Anthony Pettis. Wait a second.

If you're going to fight sharp, you better look sharp. Did you get the little Mohawk thing that he has there? He looks tremendous. No, no, I got that little gentleman part going on, a little bit more, a little elder statesman for the showtime look. I like it. You know, I got to say the new Duke Rufus is amazing. I mean, how many pounds have you lost?

I've lost about 25. I'm about nine pounds away from my prime fight weight back in the day. Wow. How did you do it? You know what? It happened when I went out at Joe Rogan show. He got me into the eye product. I was up at Joe's house and he showed me a chicken coop and he was talking about a lot of the cool things he's been doing.

Joe and I are almost the same age. And I just got a shot in the arm from my buddy Joe. and, you know, I got this beautiful two-year-old daughter and wonderful wife at home. I want to be healthy. I just turned 45. I put another 45 years on this model, and stay on this wonderful. So I'm trying to do it through health. So was there a point where you thought that you were getting unhealthy,

you were worried about your weight, your health, et cetera? Yeah, for sure, for sure. I mean, it's so easy to get in bad habits. And as well, it was just not feeling better. I was eating the wrong types of food. Right now, I just really focus on clean living, clean eating, and, you know, just enjoying life. I'm trying to fit in.

I want to do the world in jihitsu this year for my belt rank and age. I'm a blue belt and jih Tzu. But it's just been so hard. We're getting so busy with our training schedule. But at the end of the day, it's just about feeling good. and, you know, the better you feel, the better you perform, the better life is. When's that jiu-jitsu tournament? The World, I think, is in June.

The Pan Ams is coming up in a few weeks. I just can squeeze it in. But, yeah, I've done a few tournaments. I really enjoy training Gigi Jiu-Jitsu. I did a little judo when I was younger, but not a lot. But I enjoy doing it because it's such a polar opposite of what I've done, and it's something I can do at my age. and still compete and have a good time.

So let's talk about Anthony here because this is a rare thing for us. I mean, getting to see him in action four months after his last fight, I'm used to waiting. It feels like a year between fights for him. So this is a real treat. What about for you? Because he didn't have a long layoff here. So I'm guessing as his coach, his mentor all that stuff,

to have him get right back in there has been amazing for you, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's how Anthony made his bones in this business. If you look at it, you go back, look down his record. and WC. He fought five times within 13 months coming up to the Ben Henderson fight. And that was a tough layoff for him when he, we had to sit out just waiting for the title and what was going to happen when he fought Clay. So, I mean, he loves to do this all the time.

What I like about it, he's kind of like a student right now who doesn't leave school. He doesn't have to cram for tests. He doesn't have to catch up. He's always in striking distance of being in shape not only physically, but mental. emotionally, he's ready to fight all the time. I'm so proud of him. He's really evolved as a man, not that he was a bad person. He's become, as being a really close friend in his life,

I love everything he's doing with his life right now. The person he's becoming and what he's doing, and as well as an athlete, I mean, the guy, he's working on so many new things. It's really cool. This can be brought in a lot of boxers. He's just, we're blessed to have some good boxers here that we've known for years and we're friends with. His really good friend,

Luis Kubo Arias, is fighting in Puerto Rico Saturday. They're both playing on the same day. He's 8 and O's a pro and he's multi-level national champion. And as well, Luis, Felicia, and just won the U.S. championship for Puerto Rico, as well, lives in Milwaukee.

He's a five-time national champion. These are the type of guy, Nancy's barring with and doing quite well with, and they're all just blown away how good Anthony's boxing is. So it's funny. that because that was going to be my next question. You know, now that he has the big sponsors, Wheaties and Reebok, and he's the champion, he's active, he's been on the ultimate

fighter, he's a lot more popular than, you know, the Anthony Pettis we knew in W.C. or beforehand. Has he changed at all? I mean, at his core, is this the same Anthony that walked through the door? Is he a better man now? How would you describe him today as opposed to when you first met him? You hit the nail on the head. He's a better man. That's what I'm so proud of. I was just in the barbershop talking about this, but makes Anthony Pettus special. Most people, when they're doing great, and you make a suggestion, hey, let's try this. They try that. What do you mean?

I'm awesome. I'm perfect. I'm great. Anthony Bettis knows he's great, but it's not perfect. And what I like about it, he's constantly picking up new tools, new pieces, new philosophies. So he keeps me on my toes. I'm making myself better to make him better, and it keeps us all hungry. And it keeps it fun.

I mean, we have a little pound time having fun getting it done. Um, you know, it's very academic. We're constantly evolving our skills as athletes and staff and as our team. And I think as humans, we all want to grow and growing fun. Okay, so let's shoot straight here. Halfeldo Sanjos. In terms of the competition Anthony Pettis has had thus far in his ZUFA career, WC, UFC, where do you put him? What kind of threat is he to Anthony's title? Uh, very. He's a strong threat.

I'm a huge fan and friend of his mentor and coach, Raphael Cordero. I know that our coach is going to have a great game plan. The kid, I shouldn't say kid to the man, he's got a huge heart. He's indominal spirit. You know, he comes from a tough life, and he's got a family he's fighting for, too. That being said, I really like what he's going to do if he does it. We haven't had a lot of guys who wanted to stand with Anthony,

except for really Donald Peroni. You know, Anthony caught Joe early, Joe Vows on early. But, you know, Donald, and that's what we're going to see, someone who will stand and fight with Anthony Pettis. And that's my favorite fight, because that's where you really get to see Anthony Pettish showcase this kill. If D'Othandjo stands with him, we're going to have a barn burner of a fight,

and Anthony's going to come out on top. Do you think there's a chance D'Ossangos reverts to the old RDA, and takes this fight to the ground, shows off his jiu-jitsu, because I think a lot of people would agree, despite the fact that he has improved immensely as a striker, that that might be maybe where he's best at. I mean, I'm not saying that Showtime isn't, you know, a tremendous ground player,

but when you compare striking, I would think in the back of my mind, maybe it's best for RDA to take this fight to the ground. Oh, for sure. I mean, we're aware of his jihitsu, but the thing is the key thing is the wrestling. Yeah. You're a good friend in mine, Ben Ascran.

He's done a great game plan, and him and his past. We have Ben's brother who also helps coach Maxwell and then one of their college teammates is part of the Ashton Brothers Wrestling Academy, Josh Wagner. We have three collegiate wrestlers regularly coaching and training with Anthony. So the thing is, I just don't think that Dosanjo's wrestling

is going to be able to be better than, say, Gilbert who Anthony was able to fend him off in the first round and then you saw what happened. Sure. And again, I think Los Andros was awesome. It's just how I say Anthony Pettus is, just on a different level than all these great fighters. By the way, when you first worked with Ben and met him,

was the plan always to make him a wrestling coach, or did that kind of evolve? That totally evolved. I mean, Ben is a unique guy that he can do both very well. He just had 47 kids who wrestle at his academy, go to the state championships in Wisconsin. Wow. Yeah, that's what a,

good coach him and his team or coaches are. They're very scientific academic wrestling coaches. And I think that's what you need for a lot of the MMA guys because if they didn't grow up wrestling, they've got to reconstruct wrestling for a lot of these high-level athletes

that have a catch-up plan to almost hack the system to get better at wrestling quicker than a normal wrestler. I see what he says about his career. But, you know, as his coach, as someone who's worked with him now for several years, would it kind of kill you inside if he never gets a shot at the UFC? Yeah, for sure.

I mean, I'm confident that it's all going to work out in the end. I just think the company that Zouple is, back in the day, I remember one of my first guys who worked with the UFC in the heyday was the rise was 05 with Stefan Bonner. And, you know, the UFC blew up then. They didn't need to bring the pride guys over, but Dana and Lorenzo and Frank they felt the need to and for the greater good of the sport

they did it and I just see as 70 170 shakes out you're going to see Ben Aspen coming over I mean it'll happen it's just it's all timing I mean Dana was quoted saying there'd never be women fighting sure and now Ronda Rossi is one of our biggest draws and you know again life's about never saying never

and sometimes when we say never, we didn't mean it. So the cool thing about enemy, it's changing so fast. And what was not going to happen yesterday will be the possibility today and going to happen tomorrow. I want to ask you two questions about another one of your fighters competing on Saturday, Sergio Pettis, who of course is the brother of Anthony Pettis, a two-parter. Do you find that it benefits either one of them when they fight on the same card? They've done this a couple times now.

And are you in favor of his move down to flyway? I think a lot of people, including myself, thought he should have gone there from the beginning. So I'm wondering what you think. I'll answer the first one right away. Yeah, these guys are brothers who've been through some horrific experiences in life. Not only are their brothers, they're best friends. They're the best training partners. So they draw a lot of strength from one another.

training camps with those two guys are the easiest training camps I do because they're just they're really having fun we don't have a lot of stressful moments when we get to Dallas as the party starts already not that we don't focus and train but they're just very positive people and both of them beady off of each other and it's really cool it's really reminiscent honestly like how I grew up with my brother and we fought on a lot of shows coming up together my older brother would be Anthony, this is the icon of the sport. I'm like Sergio coming up under his wing,

and those are memories that are priceless to me. So beyond, you know, winning and legacy, it's the memories that they'll share his brothers for the rest of their life. And then him going to fly weight, I'm really happy about it. I think he just had to make the life changes of, you know, I'm going to say a certain weight,

do this, a certain amount of, you know, just taking care of yourself, round. Not that he was becoming this terrible bad ass, but you know, he's kind of big for fly weight, but he's making it work. And, you know, he's not stressed out about the weight cut. He's doing great,

very disciplined with his nutrition. I just think he can be a peripheral contender as flyweight and do some big things in that division. You are a legend in Milwaukee, very well respected in combat sports, not just MMA, of course, but kickboxing as well.

I'm wondering, and I spoke to you briefly about this when I saw you last. How difficult was all that that was going on, all that drama, you know, with Rose and Pat and some others for you, and I think you handled it perfectly. You didn't, you know, make a big stink. You did a couple interviews and then you kind of let it go. But, you know, some people were slinging a lot of mud your way. How difficult of a time was that for you?

Well, I mean, they have their feelings, and I'm not going to change it, you know, when I see, you know, the funny thing is a guy like they read Japer. I'm a technical advisor and partner at this company Combat Corner. I ran into him a few weeks after it at the company that actually he gets his gear and we've sponsored him. And he didn't say a word to me. You know, so the neat thing, you know, I didn't say a word to him because, you know, what's there to say? You feel the way you do. I'm sorry you feel that way.

You know, I mean, you can't change people's opinions. all I can say is I wish them well and, you know, I hope things get better for them, you know. And, you know, everyone, you know, what can you do? I'm going to sit there and argue on the Internet or argue with people. Arguing doesn't solve anything. Doing things that are positive and you focus on accomplishing things, those are the best things you can do. You know, I wish that people that didn't fight get along.

But that's life. if everyone has their own opinions and people handle it different ways. Has that storm passed? Do you still have to deal with any of that stuff locally? I don't know. I mean, I just don't, I'm not like a ignore, but at the same time, I focus on my family every day, trying to be a positive individual and trying to be the best I can be for my students,

my teammates. And I got to say, like, being a father is just, it said the crazy. The easiest change in my life, the things that might upset me in the past don't anymore. I mean, I'm 45 years old. I don't know how long I'm going to live. So I'm going to cherish this week with the Pettus guys. I'm going to cherish the week with the USC staff and the fun I have of you guys there. I'm like, for me, everything in life right now is a countdown.

Honestly, I've been doing through some bad things. I didn't think I've lived to be this old. So this is, I'm all on bonus time, right? now and I'm enjoying every moment I can. That's amazing to hear. You know, that stuff happened and then very quickly it all went away because you won the CM Punk sweepstakes. And what I loved about it was you never openly campaigned for it.

You didn't do any interviews saying, come on down. I mean, you know, a lot of it might have been, you know, where you are located and the proximity to where he currently lives. But, you know, this was a very big decision for a very big name coming to our sport. And he wanted to be with Rufus Sport. when you first heard about this that he was interested in going over there, what was your initial reaction?

Because it was very split in our sport. Some people said, including Ben, like, hey, well, wait a second. This guy's getting a UFC shot. And other people were like, hey, come on down. We'd love to have you. What did Duke Rufus think?

Well, I've been friends. Remember, we sat together with Punk when we watched Ben's fight. Yeah. When I became, I've been friends with with Punk since then. We've always kept in contact. We were at a couple of UFCs in Las Vegas.

I've known about this whole thing for a while. I've just been tight-lipped until he made the announcement. So I've known about his whole aspiration of doing this. I mean, here's the thing. If the UFC offered me a contract and they think they could monetize Duke Bufus, I would be there in a New York second. Not a minute, a second. So, I mean, I was on the Jason Ellis show.

I called in because I listened to the show, and everyone was negative about it. I said, oh, our Ellis, if you want to be in the UFC, make a deal. If it's, you know, part of fighting is marquee value. Unfortunately, other sports are about being the best. The neat thing about fighting, it's about how many bucks can you put in a seat and marquee value. That being said, I will not let Punk go out there and make a mockery of himself for our sport. I love this sport. He's putting serious work in.

He's putting serious training in. And what I love about him is attitude. He's so hungry. and you know what, he doesn't exactly treat it like a pre-Madana, and he's running towards the fire instead of running away from it. So we're two months in, right? I believe he started the first week of January, assess his talent and how he's doing this far. Two months in, what's it like working with CM Punk?

Well, again, he puts his work in. He shows up every day. He mopped the mass with the newer people every day in the practice. he has a great attitude. He didn't become successful in WWE by accident because he was a worker and he was a value to the organization, not only in the front as a face, but who he is. People get behind people that are easy to work with,

and he's so easy to work with. It's awesome. That being said, he came in with great jiu-jitsu. The natural thing he's good at, which makes me happy striking. He's a natural striker. when he did his scrimmage last week, he was pretty comfortable in the fire. He didn't freak out.

He didn't have panic. That's what I'm looking for for new fighters. It's not necessarily skills. You can teach skill. You can't teach will. Are they going to run and break in a fight, or are they going to get in there and survive the fire? And that's what I was impressed with. So I think in time, all the skills are going to advance.

But if you have the mindset and the will, will, you're going to do great. Now, that being said, I don't know if you can be a champion or contender, but a lot of guys in the UFC aren't champions or contenders, but they're popular. They bring fans. They've been in the organization for years, guys like Clay Guida, guys like Gilson Tebow. They've been in the organization, Cole Miller. They've been there a while, and everyone wants to be the champion, but that's the cool thing about the USC. It's so hard to be the champion. That's what makes it special. But if you do contribute, to the organization,

you're always going to have a job and fight to the USC. You know, even a guy like Donald Seroni is the closest to the belt. I think he's ever been. But he's, you know,

we've always loved Donald Serroney because that's Donald Seroni. We're going to have the, you know, you're going to have a show when Serroney shows up. How far away do you think he is? We're two months in,

so I know he got some time, but do you think in 2015 he will fight? I like a year, honestly. Uh-huh. Because I want him to be the best product for him. for the organization and to the industry.

I mean, I want him to go out there and put on a great fight and do great things. You know, because, again, I think just the value, his fans are amazing. I'd like if any of his fans are listening, you guys are so nice and so supportive. It's amazing. I just think that his fans, if Brock comes back, his fans are just going to elevate our sport to a whole new level. I mean, MMA's big, but we can always get bigger. And, you know, I'm a firm believer of high tide, raises all ships. I remember when Alan Belcher started in the U.S.C. at two and two.

Now the minimum date and eight, you know, it doesn't seem like a drastic change. But when Alan was fighting, there weren't as many weight classes, and there weren't 550-so fighters. So what I like about the high tide is helping a lot of people chase their dreams. and I'm a firm believer the big names can help all names in our industry, which I believe doesn't help in boxing. Last question for you, and then we'll let you go, and thank you so much for the time.

I love asking, you know, the top coaches this before their star pupils fight. Call it for us. How does Anthony Pettis win on Saturday? Knockout. This is going to be a fight that's going to be one on the feet, And I got to tell you, Anthony, when he ran off that five-fights streak in the WC and had some amazing performances, pettists that's fighting often is the most dangerous pettus you'll face.

Yeah. I mean, you don't want to let this kids start fighting him too often if you're the other contenders. Me, he said the other day, I can do this four times a year easy. That's how easy the training camps are for him. Not because he's lazy because he is like the Mayweather of our sport, hard work, dedicated. He is the guy who, hey, let's do one more round. Hey, let's do another session on Saturday. He's the one who's asking me to schedule more as opposed to me telling him to schedule more.

And that's why he's going to win. And, I mean, I saw him one day against top-level boxers, four 14 rounds in a row like it was nothing. Wow. 14 rounds. Yeah, he's on a different show. shape, level. A lot of people don't realize how strong Anthony is, so they actually get in there with him. Actually, I'll put a picture out later. He trains with the same facility as JJ Watts.

Yeah. He is scientifically building his body stronger. Every fight with some of the best strength and conditioning in sports today. And that's what I love about Anthony. Dots every eye, crosses every He is so disciplined on his pursuit to be the greatest of all time. And all of his coaches, that's what we love about him. He just, he wants more from our colleagues. And that's fun. The desire, the passion, it's contagious.

It genuinely feels like a treat when we get to watch him fight. It is so exciting. It's so much fun to watch him fight. I can't wait for it this weekend. Best of luck to you and the team on Saturday in Dallas, Duke. It's always a pleasure to have you on the show. I thank you for the time. Thank you. Have a great day. Great show, as always.

There he is. Duke Rufus. Trainer to the Stars. Got a lot going on there in Milwaukee. Always appreciate his time. A lot of positivity so far on the show. I like it very much. Let's keep that going. Let's welcome in our next guest. He joins us right now from, I believe, Florida.

In less than two weeks, he'll be fighting Damien Maya in Brazil. Big opportunity for him. He is headlining the show. We're talking about Ryan Laflair, who joins us right now on the phone. Ryan, are you there? I'm here. What's going on, Ariel? Great to have you on the show, Ryan. You are in Florida, right? I am.

So you did this entire camp at the Blacksillians, correct? Yeah, I was in New York, you know, for like a week when I got the news, but I've been in Florida for the past nine weeks or so. Is that a unique thing? Do you usually do your entire camps there lately? Well, my last fight with John Howard, I did my whole camp here. and I've been coming down here since I've been in the UFC, even before I was in the UFC, but I was only coming for two weeks of a club or, you know, three weeks here,

and then, you know, I'd split it up between here and New York. I just think I get, you know, more of a solid camp in when I come, you know, when I do it all in one place, and, you know, it was the best I ever felt, so I think I made the right decision. Are you going to move to Florida? I don't know if I can move down here. I have, you know, my home is New York.

I have a gym there, my family's down there. I love it down here. But, you know, if I start getting paid some big-time bucks, and then, you know, I've definitely seriously considered it. But I don't make enough money yet to be able to move everybody down here and live off of my UFC salary. Your journey has been a very interesting one, because it started out pretty normal, of course.

You are undefeated, 11 and 0. And then you had that big break between 2010 and 2013, injuries and whatnot and strike force, all that stuff. And then 2013, you were incredibly active. You won four fights that year. 2014 start off well and then another injury and now you have been off for almost a year, 11 months. How frustrating was that? Because you were on a roll again. It seemed like those injuries were behind you. And then as you are really building a lot of momentum in the UFC, you have to take another long break.

How frustrating was that for you? Yeah, it's extremely frustrating. I'm like, I'm almost used to it by now. And what you guys don't know is even I know I had four fights in 2014. I actually had a shoulder surgery. It was a minor shoulder surgery. They just scraped out the clavicle. I had some arthritis, and my AC joint was swelling up a little bit. So I had a surgery in the middle, and so I had four fights in 2013. So I'm used to taking the little breaks, but, you know, I never lose my momentum. I always stay focused, and somehow I find a way to, you know, find these injuries as a positive thing and come back stronger.

I remember way back when you were looking for a fight, you were about to be cleared. You told me you wanted Maya. Why was that the guy that came to mind? Well, Damien Myers, he's the only top 10 guy who didn't have a fight book. And I think my style matches up really well against his. And I want to be in the top 10. I want to be the best in the world. And, you know, Damien Myers is in the way.

You know, he's where I want to be. So get him out of the way. And then I'll ask for somebody else. Do you think he is as good today as he was a couple years ago when he was really on a role? Yeah, I mean, I think if anything, he's better, you know, he's getting better striking. His wrestling and jihisos is obviously world-class. You know, the M.MA is a strange sport. You know, you don't really lose a step, especially with, you know, his style.

You know, he's never known to be the fastest of the most athletic guy to fight. So his style, you know, they don't really make a difference. So I think he's just dangerous as he was. How do you feel about going to Brazil to fight him? I don't matter to me, you know, a lot of times. that, you know, I think my ADD kicks in a positive way with this. You know, all that stuff, all that stuff, you know, it's hard to pay attention to all that stuff at once. So, you know, as long as I'm focused on fighting Damiena, not the crowd, I didn't, you know, no difference with my end.

How bad's your ADD? It's pretty bad. I mean, I never actually had to get, got tested, you know, but, you know, it's something everybody always clowns on me about because I'm always, you know, wandering off. And, you know, I think I channel it in a positive way. And when, you know, when it comes down to fighting, you know, I get the job done. So does that help or hurt you on a long flight? I go crazy on a long flight. I try to watch a million movies.

And I try to sleep. I don't know what I try to do. But that's my only, that's the only thing I can't stand about flying overseas. Abu Dhabi was like a 14-hour flight or something like that. I was going crazy. Especially when you can't eat and there's nothing to do. You started... You got to get it done.

You started your career... To go and win. Absolutely. And you started your career very close to home, a bunch of fights in Atlantic City. But since then, the UFC is making you fly as far as possible from your home. Stockholm, Guyana, Brazil, Sacramento, which is very far from New York, obviously, and then Abu Dhabi. Now, here we are again in Brazil. Can you get an East Coast fight, or do you like these sort of going enemy territory type of situations?

No, I like fighting. close to home, but I mean, I'm not, you know, I don't really, it's not my say. I'd rather have the fights that I like that's going to help me move up higher and, you know, and fight wherever than, you know, then let them pick the fight and me pick the location. You know, if I had the chance to pick one or the other, I'll take, I'll take the fight over the location. Well, maybe, you know, you know, as soon as it gets legalized in New York, you know, you know, I'm getting on that. You, is that, is that a dream of yours to fight at the garden? Oh, 100%. 100%. I, you know, I think I hold the Ring of Combat record for selling the most

ticket to, you know, Lou Neglia told me I had the rain combat record for some of the most tickets to his events. Wow. And that's about a three-hour drive from Long Island's Jersey. So I can just imagine how it's going to be over in, uh, it's going to be in Madison Square Gardens. Of course, it's a dream of mine. Now, is this because you're a good ticket seller, or is it because you're very popular

guy? I mean, are you going out there and doing the work? How did this happen? Um, you know, and I, I think it's a combination of both. I'm a hustler. I'm an entrepreneur. I own a gym. I'm always trying to find a way to make a buck.

You know, obviously, I don't make enough money fighting. But at the same time, you know, you build a lot of fans. You know, Long Island, you know, it's a largely populated place, but it's a small place. Everybody knows each other. You know, me, Wyman, Alecinta, John Valante, Bermuda, because, you know, we all know each other. We all know each other so long.

So it's like, there's a loop, and you get in the loop, and everybody wants to come to see us win. And regardless, they want to see me win or lose, They want to come to AEC and find an excuse to get away and root for or against me. So I love this story. When I first interviewed you, first time, was in Sacramento after the Court McGee win. And you mentioned to me that you used to work for CompuStrike. And at a Strike Force event, back in the day, you handed out some scorecards,

the same event that I was at. What event was that? Do you remember? I couldn't tell you. It was probably in San Jose, right? said? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it was Strike Force, so, you know, back in the day, a lot of them were in ten of that. I've been to every, because I was, I was the main guy. I was at every single strike force event doing the punch count. So I was at every single, you know, I was in

Chicago, all the ones in San Jose. There was one in Florida. I was pretty much everywhere, so I couldn't really pinpoint that exact one. Okay, so when did you start working for CompuStrike? I was their first I was his first guy doing M&A with them Wow how did that happen? I went to high school with my With Nick Kenobio Bob Canobio the owner of copy box His son And he's a good friend of mine

We wrestled together in high school And we stayed close through the years Then they started making the transition to MMA They were trying to get in with the UFC And they called me over They didn't even want me to work They just called me over the keeps there guy how do, you know, the rules of M&A and, you know, how to score.

And I was helping them out, like, you know, with the programming and everything, is like how to score, you know, take down, what's considered a take down, what's considered a hard punch, was considered control, you know, all that kind of stuff. So I sat down for a couple days, and I didn't ask me, I didn't charge him or anything. I was just helping those guys out. And, you know, he asked me if I wanted a job because they started getting a swamp. They picked up affliction. They picked up everything, but.

the UFC. Right. Sometimes they had two events in the night. So I took the job. I didn't have any kids yet and not, you know,

traveling pretty much once a month at least for a fight. So you were at pretty big shows. It wasn't the UFC, but you were at big shows. What was that like for you? Because you're there as a fight,

because this was, you were still building your career, right? You were working your way. Yeah, I'm still fighting. I was, uh, you know, I was like probably one and all,

uh, professionally when I, uh, when I started the job. And then, you know, obviously I was a champion. I was talking to Boss Rudin and Kenny Rice all the time. They were following my career. They actually came to the range of combat and did, you know,

and did some commentating at the Ring of Combat. So it was like it was pretty unusual. Was that almost a blessing for you? Because you got to see these big shows up close and personal. You were young in your career. Let's you have big eyes and allows you to dream. This is possible. I'm close.

Maybe not, you know, record-wise. but you were close to the big time there. Did that motivate you? Was it almost like a learning experience? Not so much to do the CompuStrike stuff, but to just go out there and get these trips to these shows when if you were just a young fighter, you know, working his way up the ranks, you wouldn't have had that opportunity.

Right, yeah, absolutely. Like, when I just remember when I first started the job, you know, I looked up to everybody and they were like, man, like that, I want to be like that guy one day. And, like, you know, it was almost like, you know, so far away. And then as I started my career started building and people started talking,

when you go into the U.S.C., and then I started doing the show with me, and like, man, I should be on this, I should be doing this. So it was weird how it's kind of developed. You know, one moment you don't, you know, you think you're so far away, and then, like, literally overnight,

you're like, wait, why aren't I there? I should be fighting with these guys. You know, I watch those kids sometimes score those fights. I don't know what they do for CompuStrike, but I've seen fight metric. They use these remote controls, and I find it incredibly difficult. There's so much going on in the MMA,

show. I don't even know if they're getting it all. I mean, when you're there on the ground floor, how difficult was it to know what to score and to teach people what to look out for? Yeah, it was definitely extremely difficult. I mean, once you get used to it, like, you're, it's just like, you know,

anybody's doing it, like a stenographer, you're not looking at what you're doing. Your fingers have a memory and know exactly where everything is. So you're just watching the fight, your eyes are glued on the fight. And I would have one guy, and I would have a colleague working the other guy. So, you know, figure I would have Fadour and my colleague, it would have Verduim.

And I would only have to concentrate on what Fadour is doing. Okay. My eyes are glued on Fador and then whatever's happening. So you're not getting, like, I'd think you're getting about 90% of, like, the strikes landed and strikes, you know, missing because it's hard to tell without. And supposedly you have a big TV screen there, too, so. When's the last time you did that? A while ago. Before, I think I might have had a, my daughter was probably less than a year old.

And then, you know, for me to go away, you know, the pay wasn't there totally for me to leave the three days, my family. And I was training to become a USC fighter. So, for me to leave everybody for three days, I just didn't pay. So you retired? Yeah, retired. And I still talk to them, and they still come, you know, I'll help them out whatever I can. But, you know, I can't be traveling with them anymore. You know, as I said at the beginning of the show, this card has really been hit hard with injuries.

Yeah, it's crazy. You know, even your fight. I mean, you weren't originally the main event, and then you got bumped up after a Faber and a Sunsau got canceled. And just recently, we had Ben Saunders and a whole bunch of other people. What do you say to those who say, oh, this is, this is too weak, this is not worth my time. What do you say to those people? Yeah, I don't know why it's going to be, they think it's going to be a weak card. Usually these cards they say are going to be weak, or usually the, this.

best one. I think it's a highly competitive card. You got, you know, me and Damien, no one really knows me yet, so why wouldn't they want to watch and see, you know, see what them, see what I'm about, you know? They know what Damien's, you know, they know what Ryan Flare's got. Obviously, they made me a main event. You know, the UFC believes

in me. So, you know, give them a shot. And then plus we got Gilbert, Gilbert Dorino. You know, you know, world champion jihisitia. I don't know why when they wouldn't want to see a hit then. So, I don't know. You know, it's kind of one of those wait and see. You know, if you don't watch it, and you're missing out.

How do you feel about going five rounds, potentially? Oh, I'm excited about it. I train. You can ask anybody that I train, but I'm the hardest working guy in the gym. I'm there before practice and amphithe practice working. If I trained any harder, my body would be shot. You know, there's nothing I can do more than what I'm already doing. So I'm prepared for five rounds, 100%.

You know people love a finish, and you've had a few decisions in a road. Do you feel like you need that to get on people's radars? I do, but I'm not going to beat my... so above if I don't get to finish. You know what I mean? I'm fighting Damien Meyer. You know, he's this guy for the belt. He's one of the best guys in the world.

You know, of course I'd like to finish, but, you know, I know it's going to be an exciting fight, so I don't have to be like, oh, I just want an exciting. But I know it's pretty exciting. So regardless of how I win, you know, it's going to be exciting. And by the way, when do you go out there? Because, you know, some people say it's almost a science when you're going out to Brazil.

You've done it once before. You have to have enough time to get acclimated and see what's around you, grocery store. When do you plan on going out there? I'm leaving at the same time. Me and during your mostly Monday night. You know, I have, I've tried to leave, like, in Abu Dhabia, I left a couple days early, and it didn't make different.

I couldn't get acclimated either way. It's only a three-hour time difference. I have some Brazilians with me to help me get in the food and stuff. I don't think it's, I don't think it's, you know, some people sweat over that stuff too much and not too big of my concern. Are you doing anything for the, The Ultimate Fighters show, ATT Blacksilians? I tried to help out as much as possible.

It was really difficult because they were training. They'd have to close the whole gym down for their training sessions, and I have my own training session going on. So, I mean, I can't, you know, for me to train four times a day. It didn't make sense. I went down a couple times, do what I could to help them. But as I got closer to my fight, you know, I had to worry about my training camp instead of trying to get a TV time, you know.

Was it an inconvenience? Did they close the gym down? Yeah, it was definitely an inconvenience. And not so much as far as cameras being everywhere, but we were trained. We had to move our training session an hour up, which is fine. I don't mind coming. At 11 o'clock on the dot, we had to be out of the gym.

We only had one hour exactly to train in our training practices. And then when we come back at night, there was a huge cage, obviously, for the show. So the whole gym got cramped. and, you know, if I had to do my conditioning work out and stuff, people everywhere, it was a little bit of an inconvenience, definitely. All right, well, that's a bummer to hear. But I'm looking forward to having you back. Yeah, I still had a good training camp, so it didn't affect too much.

By the way, your corner, is it all black zillions, or some of the guys from New York coming as well? Normally I have Keith Trimblecom. Yeah. But Andre Harrison is, he's fighting the same weekend in somewhere in the Midwest, somewhere. So he's not coming, but Greg Keepers Squally, my partner at Long Island M&A, he's coming. And then I have Henry Hooft and Greg Jones, the wrestling coach. And I'll probably have one more black zillion there.

I haven't really figured out, maybe Vitor or Caesar Ferreira come and be my fourth guy. Not a bad quartet. Ryan, thank you for the time. Good luck. It's great to have you back. I'm looking forward to this fight very much. To the nicest guys in the business going at it. I loved it at the Alley event.

trash talk, all respect. You need some of that sometimes. Yeah, I've nothing personal against them, but I'm still going to beat them up, you know? I look forward to it. Good luck to you on March 21st. Thanks, Ariel. I'll talk to you soon. There he is. Ryan LaFlair stopping by. 11 and 0. I know that card has been hit, but there are still some intriguing matchups. Trying to stick with this positivity theme. Tony Martin coming off a great win in his last fight. I was there.

UFC 163, a Camara win. I believe it was a Camara. Yeah, it was. in Brazil. Shana Bazelor, Manna Nunes, that's a fun fight. Important fight for Bazelor. Gilbert Burns has been on a role. LaFlair mentioned him. Undefeated.

Not only in his career, but in the UFC, obviously, as well. 2-0. Nice arm bar win at 163. And always great to see Andre Touchy-Feely in action. He's on the card as well. So, you know, there's no Josh Thompson, and I think a lot of people who were hoping Benson Henderson would step in because he said he wanted to on Twitter, but these things happen.

These things happen in MMA. That's next weekend. This week, of course, it's UFC 185, as we have been discussing. All Show Long, one of the intriguing fights on that card, pits Texas' own Roger Narvaez, who, of course, is from Corpus Christi, Texas. He's one in the UFC. He's coming off a split decision win over Luke Barnat.

And he's fighting Canada's own Elias Theodoru. That is on the Fox Sports One prelims, another Canadian on the card as well, Sam Stout, in an important fight against Ross Pearson. But back to Elias. I wanted to have him on the show for quite some time. So let's go to the phone lines and welcome in the Spartan. Elias, are you there? Yes, I am.

Thank you for having me. It is a pleasure. I was looking forward to seeing your wonderful hair on my Skype machine. What happened? I do not know. I guess technology kind of messed that up for us today. Oh, that's unfortunate. Next time.

Thank you for the time. Yes. You know, I was surprised when they booked you on this card because, you know, they like to load up those Canadian cards with the Canadian talent, and you had a great showcase on the Ultimate Fighter. You last fought in Canada. Were you surprised as well? Yes or no.

It was just one of those things where they offered me the fight, and I took it. I thought it was a great opportunity to take that Canadian pride and bring it somewhere else. So I get to the kick button someone else's down. Yeah, now you get to be the spoiler, the enemy on enemy territory, all that stuff. Do you enjoy that? That's kind of fun. Sometimes it's more fun to be the heel, if you will, than the baby face. No, I love it.

I love it. One little stat, I've finished every single time I've been the away guy. So I'm really excited to basically keep that going. For me, I love the booze because, like, in my mind, I'm just like, I tell myself just before the fight, I was a little smile that they don't know what's about to happen. So you're in Canada right now, right? No, I'm actually in Texas. It came a little earlier because, yeah, because America doesn't accept Canadian,

or Texas doesn't accept Canadian medicals because it's foreign. What? I had to do all the medicals here. Yeah, that's what it is. It's like some kind of crazy alien country in their opinion? Pretty much. America. Is that an inconvenience to have to go?

When did you have to come out? No, just a couple days earlier. I came out yesterday last night. And, no, the facility that they have us in, like the hotel is amazing. Like, it's true Texas form. Everything's bigger in Texas. Like, I have pictures of it. Like, even the lobby is just ridiculous.

It was 10-4. But this camp, and correct me from wrong, this is what I read, you spent it at Team Nogera, right? In Brazil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How did you end up there? This would be my second time. This would be actually my second time in Team Nogera.

My coach, Sergio Kunia, who's from Shoot-O-Box, has been tight with the Nogueras for about eight years now. I've been with them for many camps, and he basically invited us down there, and they welcomed, they welcomed me with open arms, and it was an amazing thing. And so how did they sort of adapt to your stuff? I mean, you're a Canadian guy, you've got the looks, the hair, all that stuff. Did you feel like you fit in right away, or did you have to kind of go through some lumps and get the hazing and all that? I mean, what's it like when an outsider is coming to such a respected team?

Oh, yeah, you know, I got most of the lumps and bumps the first time I went out. Yeah, that was when I think the pro team was like somewhere up in the 200, 300 pro fighters. Wow. Now it's much more manageable 50 pro fighters. And honestly, at this point, it kind of came full circle in the sense that I'm the ultimate fighter winner. And basically, there's less ego there, basically trimming out some of the fat and that was there. And honestly, it was an amazing experience coming this time around because I could see them both in Ogaris kind of getting excited in training. Because I think, what, 70, 80 fights between them, they're very much prized fights.

and the idea to see them being excited on my camp and becoming more mixed martial arts, mixed martial artists again, and just enjoying the craft that they were doing and just what they were teaching me was honestly amazing. So you kind of feel like they gave you more respect this time around? Yeah, and not only more respect, just like almost, dare I say, looking at a pier.

And the crazy thing was walking into that gym every single day when I looked in the walls and there were pride, pride championship trophies from when I was in high school. So they've been champions longer than I've been in the sport, even in training. So it's a surreal moment and it's kind of just the perfect example of where I kind of in in life in the sense that I'm at this training point. I'm at this fighting point and I'm still pinching myself. I'm loving every second of it. All your camps, will they be there from now? on? Not there specifically, definitely going back there at some point, but me and my coach,

one of my coaches, Lockland, we're very into the nomadic idea of training in the sense that no gym, no coach, no training partner has a monopoly on talent and whatnot. So if they're willing to open their doors to us, we're willing to train. And for me specifically, I love kind of just leaving the distractions at home and just kind of removing myself and then bringing that momentum back. So no particular places for the next camp, but I'm looking forward to, like, training an endless amounts of places if they want me there. But is it not important to have at least one guy from home with you who could then take

what you're learning there and put it into the game plan? If you're there alone, it might be hard to do that on your own, right? Oh, no, that's totally true. I go with my coaches. I go with my coach, Lachman-Jang, and I'll go with, my coach Sergio O'Connor, we're much more of the mobile ones in regards to my coaches. And I still do have two really great home gyms back in Toronto, both with Tapo Burlington and then Grants'MMA. But with that being said, I'm a huge believer that knowledge is power.

I love just running around and absorbing and just learning. Were you at Nogarra's when the whole Anderson-Silva thing happened? Yeah, I do. I was. What was that like? I don't know exactly what I'm allowed to really say, but all I was, it was Say whatever you want, my friend, go nuts. No, it's just like, it was one of the situations when the Nogaharas themselves were being asked to basically fill in the shoes, too.

Oh, wow. It was right after a, yeah, it was right after a day, a night of training because the Nogahas, if anyone doesn't know about their training schedule, it's basically up in the air always. So there were many three days because of the idea that. that, let's say Little Nog, who I was training with the most in the sense that he is a Southbaugh. So, just like my opponent. And he would come in, like, at 10.30 after I already finished a session. Like, I thought we were training boxing.

And we'd be there until, like, 1 o'clock. And basically that happened one night. And they were all told that they were both told that they were going to be filling in the shoes for, what's it called? The ultimate fighter. And then they just jumped on a plane and disappeared. But the vibe, I mean, Anderson is Anderson, I don't have to tell you, I mean, what was the vibe there like? Was it almost like a funeral? I would imagine that.

Yeah, it was a huge, I guess, 180 in the sense that I was also there at a very popular local bar with hundreds of people, because it's an open thing, hundreds, if not many hundreds of people watching the fights. and there was a sense of just pride that he was back. Anderson, for many years, was holding the flag of Brazil, and he was when he was fighting Nick Diaz. And then just a couple of days later, that high became a complete 180. It was just there wasn't much talking, but everyone was acknowledging just the weird feeling that it was. You know, when you first came onto the scene in the UFC through the Ultimate Fighter,

I think a lot of people had you pegged as the, you know, as the Canadian looker, if you will. You know, the looks, the hair, all that stuff. But I kind of feel like Alan Joban has replaced you as the model fighter, if you know what I'm saying. How do you feel about that? Well, he may be the prettiest one else. I've been told him the rugged one. So, you know what, I can grow a beard, and one day when he grows up, he might be able to, too, too.

Wow. Them fighting words. I'm kidding. I'm half kidding. Half kidding. But, I mean, you've got to admit, that is a good-looking. man, right? No, it's a gorgeous man. No, no shame being mentioned the same names as him.

But, hey, I do much model and all that jazz, too. You don't advertise it as much, perhaps. Pardon? Maybe you don't advertise it as much. Yeah, maybe not. I guess my 10 Harlan Quinn book novel speak for themselves. Now, I've read this about you a lot, the Harlequin book models. What does this mean, Harlequin?

I've never read one of these. This is one of these romance novels? Yeah, yeah. Basically, the same kind of stuff Fabio was in a, one might say on Fabio 2.0 with punching and kicking. Sure. And just with that, it's basically the funny thing is, my mom's very proud because she, like,

she shares them with all the people at work and stuff like that, but I will never let her read them. Some of them are, they're smart novels, but novels. and she is a lady, have great merit, so she doesn't read those things. So they just ask you to show up for the cover. You have nothing else to do. You don't help write them, anything like that. No, no, I'm just the, they tend to like my backside.

So most of mine is facing my butt facing forward and looking at the cameras. Nice. What can I say I squat? Yeah. And are you alone on these covers, or do you have a partner? one of my favorite ones it depends it depends one of my favorite ones i was a pirate who steals a queen from a king and shows her the seven seas wow i'm i'm assuming that was a metaphor for seven inches okay interesting but but is there a girl with you or are you always alone on these covers

oh no no no no girls girls that's what i mean like i i had a queen or whatever you want gotcha gotcha and then another one there's a series where it was three girls or whatever like that and basically I was a love interest of all three and they all know about it. And sometimes reality comes, sometimes mixes with fiction. Sure. And do you still do these or have you taken a break now that you're a UFC fighter? Honestly, it fits in the schedule. I'm a professional fighter first and foremost.

And this is kind of just one of those things that put my hands in many different cookie jars because, again, it is a sport that I damn and I'm a very proud martial artist. But it's also entertainment. And it's not how many people want to, it's not only necessarily how good you are, it's how many people want to see you. And this is my way, especially in Canada, my face is on commercials all over the place here and there, and TV shows, I do stunt work, I have acted as well. Again, it's just another way to put my face out there and kind of the outside brand recognition.

Ronda Rousey is one of those people that obviously has had the biggest success in regards to just who she is. and in many ways I'm trying to do the same thing, but baby stuff. So one of these covers, how long does this take to shoot it? Well, I get paid by the hour, so I'm very excited when they go longer. So there's usually five, six hours. Wow, five, six hours for one photo. Yeah. And what's the hourly rate, if you don't mind me asking?

We're broached into a thousand, if done right. Wow. That's amazing. What a gig. Yeah, no complaints. and there's usually some snacks and a beautiful lady to join me for the day. Look at you, what a life.

Speaking of snacks, I saw that you tweeted 20 more pounds to go. Is that normal for you? Yeah, no, I'm a big boy. Basically, I stepped off the plane just under 2.30 for this fight. And when I came back from Brazil, right, Madagie, which would be January 16th, and I'm just chipping away. My coach Lachlan, he's honestly

an amazing, not only coaching mixed martial arts, but he has a pharmaceutical background, he just understands everything in regards to the body and specifically my body. And although they're big cuts for most, it's relatively easy. I would be lying to say if it wasn't

if it was a picnic, but I'm going to save for the picnic and tacos after I beat Roger. Are you sticking around after the fight? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. stay in a couple of days. My parents, like, I have about 20, 30 people coming down to watch the fights,

friends, family, and all that jazz. And my mom's already found one of those, like, all you, like, giant, like, 52-ounce steaks. Oh, yeah. I'm just basically going to put an egg on it and have a breakfast of champions. You're going to put an egg on your steak? I've never heard of such a thing. Well, it's my attempt to make it a breakfast of champions.

But the important thing is I'm going to be, I wouldn't be doing one of those 52-ounce steak challenges, like the day after my fight. you really are going to do that. Oh, yeah. Have you ever done it before? No, but I'm willing to try or do it and die trying. I don't know. Do you like thinking about those things as you're cutting weight?

Is that the light at the end of the tunnel? Oh, yeah, it's definitely the light of the tunnel. And that's the whole, the way I'm basically able to kind of keep peace with myself when I do it. I've done this now for the better part of 13 times, including the tough houses. And I know the lights at the end of the tunnel. and I know the feelings and the sensations and basically the pros and the cons of everything and I've been here before

and I'm so excited to do it all over again. The heart part's cutting weight and then it's eating and smashing. Let me ask you this before I let you go and I appreciate the time. You know, I've been as a Canadian, I don't know if you know this, I'm a Canadian as well. Oh, yeah.

I've been very down on the Canadian MMA scene. I feel like it has been somewhat stagnant. Not just the fighters and the talent, but the promotions. It doesn't feel like it. it is where it once was, and maybe the UFC hasn't been coming back, and maybe it's GSP leaving. Of course, we have Rory fighting for the belt

later on this year, but it just doesn't feel like it was at the place it was a couple of years ago. Am I off here, or do you see what I'm saying, and why am I going to be wrong soon? I think you're right in many ways, and I think it's for different reasons.

I don't think it's stagnant in the sense that there's not talent, but in just in the sense of maybe the, just the situation in general. You have like you said, the vortex of GFC leaving. He was the biggest headliner of all time, and especially Canada. And then you have the fact that certain promotions have come and gone.

Yeah. And basically certain regulations in regards to places like Ontario where it might be a little harder to actually get everything put together, and then only bigger organizations like BFC can pull it off, to be completely honest. And there's also just the variations of other fighters, other than TriStar, there aren't too many gyms that people think that they can flock to in regards to just that next step. And obviously Trisar is one of those places.

So, I mean, within Canada. And I think maybe some people leave and go to different parts of the world, and especially the States. So I think there's a great talent. And I'm positive and optimistic to the future in regards to all the talent, because we saw plenty of great fighters come out of the ultimate fighter tough challenges that I was a part of. And my friends are great fighters. And I'm really excited to go cheer them on in Montreal in just a month. How do you feel about Narvaezz?

Is he on your level? I'm confident in the sense that he's a dangerous dude in regards to he has some tools that he's going to want to use. But I think there's a lot of full aspect to it that I think he just won't be able to handle. And if you dig into his record, you can see some of the mistakes that's one that he has done that I think many boxers do in their career in the sense that they don't fight the top talent or in regards to just small increments in their challenges every single time. I think the first five or six of his fights are against people that barely have a winning record and maybe even blown up middle of Walter weights. and then when he does finally get into the UFC where the UFC talent, he gave up in the second round. He gave up.

He was in a position that he should have dominated in the sense that he was on the ground. He's a black belt and jihitsu, but instead he crumbled. And I think his last fight, although it was over a very tough Luke Barnett, it was more Luke screwing the pooch. Luke was trying to be too fancy,

and he's the one that lost. Roger didn't win. And trying to play Sugar Ray with a guy that likes the kick doesn't end well sometimes, and Luke found out that the hard way. Screwing the pooch? I don't know if I ever heard of that. What does that mean, screwing the pooch?

I don't know. I think I heard it somewhere. Don't call me on that. Screwing the poach. It's a great line. I don't know if I've ever heard it, but it's great. Well, then you can call me on that. Can I use it?

Okay, I'm going to use that. I'm going to mention on the way-in show. You said that Luke was screwing the pooch. Screwed the pooch. Screwed the pooch. Screwed the pooch. Screwing the pooch. It all sounds like beastiality to me, but yes.

Or a good time, depending on where you're at. Sure, well, I guess. Elias, great to have you on the show, man, and good luck to you. Keep representing Canada very well, and I'm looking forward to the fight very much. All the best. Thanks, well.

It means the world to me, and a true honor to be on your show. Thank you very much. There he is. Elias, Theodoro, he fights on the... Excuse me, I said Fox Sports One. I believe it's FX prelums. FX prelums.

this Saturday, UFC 185. Co-main event, of course, is a big one. Looking forward to this. And I thought, other than the John Jones Anthony Johnson prank, they stole the show at the welcome to the show press conference in L.A. last weekend. Carla Sparza and our next guest,

who joins us via the phone, number one contender in the UFC strawweight division, Poland's own, Yohanna Janjacheck. Yohanna, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Hello. Thank you for joining us. So how did I do? How did I do pronouncing your name? Did I get it? Yeah, it was good. It was good. Not bad. Not bad. Not great. Can you say it for us? Yon Jzechuk.

Yon Jacechek. Yeah, almost good. Not bad, right? I mean, let's be honest. Yeah, it's good. We've heard some... I'm going to teach you a few words. Okay. But I've heard some pretty bad versions. I'd like to give them. myself a nice grade. I think that was an A. What do you think? A for effort. What? I did a good job. Let's just leave it at that. Yeah, you did. You did. All right. Thank you for joining us. You're in Las Vegas now, right? Yeah, I am. I am finishing my training camp.

Where did you go in Vegas to train? To Robert Dreisler's gym, because I came to US with my head coach. I had two head coaches in Poland. One is more teaching striking. The other is more jiu-jitsu, so I came with the jiu-jitsu trainer. They both are complete, like, trainers, you know. But we came to Robert because Robert is a mentor of my trainer. Oh, okay.

I was really enjoying. And I know that you met with the meet. Some good sparring sessions as well. Yeah, and you met with the media on Friday in Las Vegas, what has this experience been like for you? Because your first two UFC fights, I mean, you were lower on the car, there wasn't a lot of attention. Now you're meeting with the media, you're doing press conferences. Do you like this kind of thing?

Yeah, I feel good, you know, like I'm acting normally, like always, you know, like every day. I got to see. I'm not those kind of person who is like afraid to be in a radio or TV, you know. You're great. You're great in front of the camera. I'm always the same, you know. You did a great job in Los Angeles. I love, I love when you do the stare-down, and you kneel down and you look up at your opponent.

And I've seen you do this a couple times now. Why do you do that? Because I had some, yeah, it's because of some Suriname girl. I fought her in Suriname, and that's why. That's why. She said that I'm a little. girl she gonna beat me and this and that so I and she was kind of short you know and then I went on the weighing I went down look at into her eyes because she didn't want to look at into my eyes

and I bring her eyes into mine and it's stayed like this you know it's great it's intense how long have you been doing that that they cannot play with me you know yeah yeah how long have you been doing that for five years four five wow and uh when you were looking into Carla's eyes in Los Angeles, what did you see? Like, you know, that she's a champion, and she can be a little bit afraid, but, you know, it's going to be pretty tough fight for us.

And, yeah, but I'm ready for it, you know. I'm ready for the battle, and I want to win all war, you know. I liked what you did when you kind of, you waved her off. Like, you put up the number one, you waved her off. I mean, do you have respect for her as a champion? Do you think she is on your level as a fight? Of course I have, like I always have to every opponent, but, you know, I showed to her that I'm the number one. And she did it.

She showed a finger because I did it, you know. She wasn't like, you know, honest with us, you know. I just wave, you know, bullshit, you know. You did it because I did it, you know. And she just showed to everyone that she's afraid of me, you know. Because she was copying you. I still feel respect to her. I expect that it's going to be a tough fight.

Everything can happen. But, you know, I do not going to give up. She didn't fight polish, you know. She's never fought someone like you, you're saying. Yeah. Now, I watched the Countdown show yesterday, and I saw something that was very fascinating. You have a clock on your wall

with all your opponents that you fought, including her? Is that accurate? Yeah. I've got it from my friend. What's that? I've got it from my friend. She's a graphic designer, you know. And she gave it to me.

It's very intense to look at this thing because you always have to look at your opponents coming up or past. Why do you do this? Why do you feel like this is a good thing for you to do as you prepare for your fights? Like she gave it to me because she knows me for a long time and she knows that I'm training hard, you know. Even if we pay like my family is paying for this, you know. know what I mean that I'm working so hard, I'm focused on my training, my diet, and the other things. Everything is about fighting and preparing, you know.

So my family, my boyfriend, my sisters and friends, friends, they are with me and they know how hard I'm working, you know, for fights, you know. So she did it for me to support me, and she knows already that I'm going to win. Do you get tired of looking at them on your wall, those people? No, no. Your family and friends, your boyfriend, all these people, will they be attending the event in Dallas? No, they're going to watch it in Poland. Oh, wow.

What's the time difference? What time is it there now? Yeah, like, now yesterday we changed the time in Las Vegas. Yeah. Like eight hours. Oh, wow. So they're going to have to stay up late to watch you, or maybe wake up early. It's going to be like 6 o'clock in the morning or even 7, you know.

Oh, that's not bad. They can party all night and then do some after party after my win, you know. And what's the buzz like in Poland? Because this is a very rare thing in sports to have a Polish athlete compete for a world championship. Have they been treating you with a lot of attention, a lot of media, a lot of when you walk on the street? What's it like over there? No, it's not like this.

You know, we've got the biggest European Federation in Poland and they are in Open TV. They have some superstars, also female fighters. It's more about them, you know, but I do not care. I choose the F.C and I want to be the best. I want to fight in a... I wanted to fight and I'm here, want to fight just for the best federation in the world. And that's all. And I choose the sport side, not the...

media side, you know. But I hope after I win my belt in UFC, I'm going to be more famous in Poland, but I do not care about, you know, because I'm going to still do my things, you know, just keep on training and winning in the US, you know, because I'm

really enjoying US and I'm happy to be here, and I hope I'm going to fight here more often, you know. You're a multiple time Muay champion. Did you get more attention when you were competing in Muay as opposed to MMA? No, I think MMA is big everywhere, you know, and we've got so many fighters in Poland and so many shows, like almost every week, a few shows.

So it's huge, you know. So it's more about MMA than striking competitions, you know. Are you a little disappointed? The UFC is making its Poland debut in April next month, almost exactly in a month. And this would have been a great fight for that card. think. Are you disappointed you're not on that card? No, I'm not. But I'm happy that UFC is coming to Poland. But, yeah, I expect that I'm going to fight in US for a title, you know.

It's a big deal for UFC, for Carla, for UFC fans. So I'm happy to be here and be part of it, you know, but, yeah, like I said, I'm happy that UFC is coming to Poland. People are going to know more about. the real fighters, you know, the best fighters in the world. And, yeah, I hope I'm going to fight on UFC Fight Night in Poland, maybe in the future, and I'm going to keep my fingers twist for Jan Blachovich, because he's amazing, he's a friend of mine, and I'm happy for him that he's going to have a common event fight.

You will be treated like a hero. If you come back and are brought to that event, I'm sure he'll be there with the belt, right? I mean, what a reception. You'll get a ton of attention then. That'll be pretty cool. Yeah, it would be nice, but like I said, the most important thing is that I must give everything what I have in a fight,

and then I will be happy when my family is going to be happy, you know, and that's all. Of course, it's about fans as well, but, you know, I'm going to pay more attention for things, which I'm going to do bad and good in a fight, you know. Yeah. To fix it and better. You know, Carla won the Ultimate Fighter.

That's how she became champion. You weren't on that show. Are you happy you weren't on that show? Because, you know, there's a lot that goes into it. And look at you now. You're fighting for the belt. It all worked out. It was a big platform and there was a big spotlight on the straw weights.

But you just proved that you didn't have to go through the show to get this opportunity. So are you happy? You didn't have to do it. Yeah. I'm happy. I did some choices on the beginning of last year, 2014, and I think I did well, you know, and I'm here, and I'm going to fight for a title.

But I'm happy with it that I wasn't in an ultimate. Did you watch the show? No, I didn't have time, really. I just watched the final fight because I was in Phoenix that time. So it was the day before my fight with Claudia. So I watch it. You fought Claudia, you beat her in Phoenix,

and I want to ask you about the end of the fight. It was clear to me that she hit you after the bell. We saw that with Paul Daly. He got fired. Claudia didn't. A bit of a different circumstance, but still it was pretty clear. Did that bother you?

Did you think that something should have happened? No, no, I do not care about. I've got like, like, emotions, you know, that's why. She wanted to win. I want to, I wanted to win, and it's good that she stay with us, and I do not complain, I do not going to complain about, you know, because we both give everything what we hurt, you know,

and that was good, you know. It was high-level fight. You could see everything, like good striking, good wrestling and grappling. It was nice, and, you know, she gave me her hand I didn't grab her hand because I know she

after she punched me she thought fuck I could be like fight it you know but you know I do not care about yeah I forgot about

you're over it yeah okay when do you go to Dallas on Wednesday on Wednesday today I'm gonna have some training in the evening time because my fight is gonna be

pretty late, so tomorrow we're going to leave to Dallas, yeah. And are you the kind of fighter that studies your opponent? Are you the kind of fighter that watches a lot of tape on your opponent? No, I do not. My trainers does, but I mean not. Yeah, I watch her fight once, but that's all, you know. I do not going to sit and think about her.

I have my own game plan. Of course, everything is going to change in the octagon. but, you know, we're going to play my game and I will try to keep on doing my things, you know. But, of course, we did some game plan, yeah, that's all. And your game, obviously, you want to keep it standing. That's no secret, right? Yeah, yeah, but my wrestling and grappling is better than before, you know.

I thought you were going to say your wrestling and grappling is better than hers. I wouldn't be surprised if you said something like that because you're so confident. I'm not going to say that because I know she's like a great athlete, you know, so I do not have big mouth. And yeah, we're going to, I can, if I'm going to win, I can, I can say this after the fight, you know. Sure. But not now. I don't know.

I can expect what's going to happen, but you never know, you know. Do you think that if you win the belt, it will be one of the greatest moments in Polish sports history? Yeah. Yeah. For me, it's like, you know, like, it's same like similar to win the gold Olympic medal, you know. Yeah. What's in your mind? In your mind, what's the biggest moment in Polish sports history right now?

What's the most famous moment? That Johanna is going to be a UFC war champion, you know. Okay. Yawanna champion, that's going to be your new name. Yeah. All right. I have T-shirt. I bought the T-shirt already.

did. Like a champion, so that's all, yeah. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to it. You've done a great job promoting the fight, and I think a lot of people are very excited, and I think a lot of European fans especially are very excited about this. I hope we're going to give good fight with Carla, and that's all, yeah, what I can say. Okay, best of luck to you. The champion's fight. Yeah, best of luck to you. Can't wait for the fight, and thank you very much for the time. Thank you so much. Take care, bye. All right, there she is. Yawanna champion. Her new name comes Saturday, in her opinion. Poland's own. That's a lot of fun. Yana, Jan Jacek, great stuff from her. Love her, love her vibe, love her

personality, her intensity. That's going to be a lot of fun this Saturday, co-main event, UFC 185. All right, let us move along now. And as I mentioned at the top of the show, I don't recall ever in the history of the show, almost six years, ever being asked so many times in the span of two, three days for a particular guest to be on this show. When the news came out, Tuesday, morning when it was officially announced, I was flooded with requests to have our next guest on, and thankfully, I had to bug him a little bit, but thankfully he obliged. I cannot wait to talk to him. Of course, I'm talking about the one and only, the incomparable, Bert Watson, who joins us right now on the phone. Bert, how are you? Oh, I'm trying to make it, baby. How about yourself?

I'm doing great. It is so great to hear your voice, and thank you so much for the time. I really appreciate it. Well, I appreciate you ask me, and you didn't have to bug me or chase me, but I'm doing I appreciate you asking me, baby. A lot of people want to hear from you. I know that you know this. So let's get right into it. You announced it on Tuesday. You officially announced it.

There were some rumors a couple days before, but you are no longer working with the UFC. Why is that? Well, you know, let me first of all say to you, and you've always been right at it, baby. I mean, let's go. Let's go get that. Let's not beat around the bush.

I got to honestly say that I am totally, totally, overwhelmed by the response of the media, the fans, what has become my fans, which I'm blown away by, you know, I am totally overwhelmed by everybody's response to what has gone on over the last two years, you know, or what's going on over the last two weeks, I really meant to say, you know, first of all, you know, I think the Fighters Only magazine, they give me a lifetime achievement award, which now, you know, is probably the most memorable award I've ever gotten. And, you know, a couple of weeks later, I'm no longer with the UFC,

which I will say was my decision. It was your decision to leave. Yes, it was. Why did you do that? Why did you make that decision? Well, you know, it's a thing where, where I've been on a walk to the ring and to the cage over the past 30 years, baby. I know how to get in there. I know how to get out, and I've always walked to walk to put guys in and out of there.

And I feel really good about what I do and how I do it, you know, and very confident. Do you want to say cocky, you know, I'm confident to a point that, you know, If somebody steps to me with the question of my integrity or question of my work ethics or what I did or what I didn't do wrong, you know, I think they should be right. If you step to me, you're going to be right because I'm going to come back at you if I feel I'm right. That's just the person that I am and that's just my personality. But did something happen in particular at UFC 184 or was this a buildup of things? It was not a buildup of things. It's like, you know, there are two things in life that you follow.

There's a plan and a decision. You know, a plan is something you think about and you have to prepare for and you can change it. A decision, a decision of things that are made at a spur of the moment, you know, and a decision is something that's made that you can't change. If it happens and it comes to you, you can't change. You know, I didn't plan not to be with the UFC sitting here now with that show in Dallas. didn't plan that. But something happened, you know, the night

of the way in, someone approached me with something that they thought was not done properly, and totally, I didn't understand it. It totally was unprovoked. And when I was approached with

it, you know, did I handle it properly? And my response, properly, could I have thought about it and cooler heads could have prevails, probably. But you know what? I sleep every night, baby.

I am very proud of what I do and the work that I produce. I'm very proud of my relationship with the fighters and their camps. You know, I got a family. I got a wife. I got a mom. I got kids, grandkids, siblings. My grandkids now are all over the Internet. They're all over, you know, Twitter and MySpace and just,

just about everything. You know, and all of my years, my family's been very proud of the accomplishments I've made, and they've become affected by my accomplishments and my decisions. I'm proud of my work during my era with Joe Frazier. I'm very, very proud of my work during my 14-year era with the UFC, and my family and everybody around me has become affected. Taking that to my extended family,

being all the fighters in their camps. You know, when this happened, I knew it was a decision that I made. And I didn't plan to sit on, you know, on the radio or in media and talk about it or had anything bad to say. But as I said, my family is close to me. My extended family, being the fighters in the camps, I started reading things and hearing things that, you know, there was blamed being thrown in that direction, which was unfair.

I've never had a problem with a fighter in camps. I had one verbal confrontation with a guy maybe nine or ten years ago, and we addressed it right then and there. And that was the end of it. And I've never had one set. But when I started hearing on social media and other media outlets that, you know, fighters were being thrown in the mix, and that's because no one said anything, and they didn't hear anything for me.

Yeah. So with that response, then I decided to respond. So can you shed light? Because this will continue until you actually tell us what happened. And it's not like I'm trying to, you know, get the dirt, so to speak. But I keep being asked, well, what exactly happened? Because even now, I mean, let's be honest, you're kind of beating around the bush, right? What happened to lead to your decision, as you put it?

You're not beating around the bush, Paul. You're being you and you're doing just what you're supposed to do. do. You know, there was a situation where one of the fighters that didn't make weight was sent back to the weigh-in area, where I

was waiting. And I waited for the fighter for about an hour. And finally, when I got the fighter back and put him on the scale, I was satisfied because he made weight. Now, keep in mind that the arena was 10 minutes away

from the hotel. So, So as normal as I normally do, you know, I have my guys and someone take the fighter in the camp back to the hotel. Well, somewhere between me making sure that that fighter made weight and getting back to the hotel, there was somehow, and I really don't know, that supposedly the fighter didn't have a way back to the hotel, which still I can't tell you because I don't know. Well, I would say maybe an hour later, someone approached me to address that, and they approached me about it wrongly. Because I knew, number one, that I had just seen the fighter. He had just made weight. And, you know, ultimately, we were close enough to make sure that everyone got back from the arena.

So I was kind of caught off guard with that. I was approached and it was not in a proper manner. At least I didn't think I was approached in a proper manner. And I was questioned about my work, about the way I handled things. And that's the way I felt. And quite honestly, I didn't appreciate it. I didn't approve of it. And I knew, number one, that the fighter was safe.

He was not in any type of detriment. and I knew that it was a done deal. And that's what happened, baby. Was this by a colleague, a Zufa employee, or was this by a camp member or something like that? Well, for me to react the way I did, it had to be someone of authority or someone of a position to listen or to even approach me with such a thing. And I'll say right now I'll go on record. I've never had a problem with Dana White, Lorenzo, Fratertina Marcellini, as far as I,

I know with the remaining members of the ZUFA staff, you know, everybody, we all worked together as a team. Everybody did what they had to do at a very high level, at a very fast level. Everyone knows how many fights we did. You know, so the process was put in place for me, first and foremost for me is the health and safety of the fighters. And I lived, eight, breathe, and I slept that. And I did that.

the way I knew how in the way that I saw it worked. So when that was questioned, and again, it had to be someone of authority. And I'm not going to mention the name because that person still has to work. That person has a family and still have to go on. And this thing has taken a life that's bigger than me and him. So I'm not going to do that. But at the same time, I will say to you, I stand on my convictions when I say, my work speaks for itself, my commitment to the fighters, my commitment to the camps,

my commitment to what I know or what I feel should be done, my commitment to my family, all those things I think I've done. And the only support right now I want or I hope to get is to keep, the fans that I've seen or I've heard within the past a couple of weeks to keep the support of the fighters to know that I am a person you know what I can mess with you I'm not going to let anybody else mess with me.

My legacy, baby, is something I've worked on for 66 years and I worked on it hard and it became very easy because I live right so it wasn't a hard thing for me to do. I didn't question myself. I didn't have time to question myself. I didn't question the people and the things that were going on around me

because things were moving so fast, just like I said to you, I'm overwhelmed with the response I've gotten right now to the response from the situation that has gone on because I was moving so fast, I didn't have time to realize how many people I had touched or how many people that were being touched by things that I do and everything that's being done around me. And I'm going to get to that in a bit,

but I just want to get a few more details out of the way. If memory serves me correct, only one fighter missed weight. So was it Mark Munoz? Mark made what, yes. He was a fighter that... Who had to come back and re-went. Huh? He's the one that had to come back is what I meant.

That's correct. Yeah. That's correct. And he came back and he made it. Have you cleared the air? And I started hearing rumors, you know, that, oh, it was a blow up with Mike Munoz. I heard that it was a blow up with Rhonda Rousey, not Ronda herself, but Ronda's camp. Yeah.

And a couple of others, when I started hearing that, Ariel, I said, you know what? I need to address that because these guys, you know, I lived for these guys. I loved for those guys for 14 years. So, you know, when I see them being disturbed about something, then I, I figured I needed to put some kind of a lid on top of it because I don't want them to be blamed for something they had nothing to do with. So it was the Mark Bunoz situation only, nothing else happened, no Ronda, no nothing else. It was just that situation someone approached you. You didn't like the way they approached you.

You felt disrespected. You were upset, and that's what led to it all. Is that accurate? Yes, sir, it is. Now... It had absolutely nothing to do with anyone else, any other fighter, any other. other camp members, you know, I don't, I made it a habit that during my work, you know, it wasn't a secret.

People knew that I drank Ramonier and I have a little shot of Hinegan every now and then, but I made it, I made it my business to handle my business and conduct my business professionally and in a sense of responsibility for the fighters in the camps. I made sure they got to where they were supposed to be. They got back, and when they got back, Bird Watson was done. I was in bed. I was gone because I know I had to move the next day. And I did.

And that's the way I lived my life, and that's the way I live my life now, baby. I'm not ashamed, nor am I regretful with the way that I handled my job and my position and my loyalty to. those fighters, those camps, the UFC, and anybody else that expected loyalty for me. Did you ever have any kind of issue with Mark that someone might think, oh, you're singling him out, that's why you did this, etc., etc.? Was there any kind of issue? And have you cleared the air with him now so that he does, I saw him tweet about you

and it was all very positive. Have you at least cleared the air with him before you left or after the fact? I spoke to Mark after the fact. Because, as I said, when I started to read, I've gotten into social media, man. Yeah. You know, the last year, I was having a good time. And I'm still having a good time with social media. Sure.

And when I saw that, and, you know, I communicate personally with a lot of the fighters. Yeah. You know, after a fight, you know, one of my first phone calls, how you doing, baby? If he went to the hospital, that's definitely a first phone call. You know, if I knew there was any type of injury, or someone got knocked out or was very disappointed, you know, after a fight, my first phone call. Or I made sure I stayed around to see him leave.

So I contacted Mark, who I could tell from his text because I know that kid. You know, I know that he takes everything to heart. And I know that, you know, it's his life. And he reached out to me in a text, and I called him. called him back. Just to let him know that, you know, I have no poems with you, baby, and that's exactly the way I said it. We've talked and we've communicated, and I let him know, and he let me know, apologetically,

which was no reason for him to apologize. Because this was done afterwards, and, you know, the word that had got now was a word that I had no idea of. By the way, out of curiosity, how did he get back to the hotel? He got my understanding is that I left a couple of vans with fighter relations guys to bring the guys back to the hotel. And I know that a couple of his camps had bags in the van that brought him there. So that van that brought him there, I personally sent them back to get him from

from the way inside. And then he just went back. So do you have any idea, I mean, now that the dust has settled, do you have any idea why there was this confrontation of sorts? Like, what was the big issue? Why would it lead to that? I mean, I know people work and it gets tense, whatever. But was that, can you see why this, I mean,

can you put yourself in the other person who you were talking to his shoes and understand why they approached you the way they did, or was it completely uncalled for, in your opinion? I don't say that it was uncalled for, calls for because, you know, it's like anything. When you, when a story starts with things are being said, by the time it gets from the first person to the 10th person, it's something different. So I don't know.

And I know, and I know it's, that's very, I've had guys that would come downstairs to leave for a fight or something and decide he had to go to bathroom and he'd go back upstairs and I'd fill the vehicle and put somebody else in, and this fighter would come downstairs. He'd be upset. Right. But he left. So how that happened or how it got or escalated to a point that I got a phone call and somebody spoke that way to me, I don't know.

But I will say that, you know, the distance that we had between the hotel and the site, and honestly, if it was half an hour. I probably would not have walked out of the arena after he made weight, you know, even though leaving him there with the commission and everybody else, you know. So how it escalated and got to that point? I don't know. So you left Friday night, right? You didn't stick around for the event.

I didn't go to the event, but no, I didn't leave until, when did I leave? Sunday. Oh, wow. So you still... No, there was bad weather. Okay, okay. Even that night, flights were booked out and delayed. And, you know, I had a flight scheduled for early Sunday morning.

Was it Sunday morning? I had a flight schedule for that Sunday morning. But then, you know what? Sunday morning, all the flights got canceled. Right. So I ended up staying in L.A. until Monday at 625. What was that like for you? Being in L.A., the event just a few blocks away.

and you weren't there. I mean, you know, I can't imagine what that was like. Well, being that that was the first time, I mean, it was, it was kind of surreal. Yeah. You know? And I was a little reeling from the events of how it unfold and what had happened, you know.

But I also realized, again, when you make decisions decisions are things that are made either at the spur of the moment sometimes out of desperation or sometimes on a whim you know you back up and you realize decisions

or maybe you could have made another decision or cooler heads could have prevailed but you know it's a it was a done situation it was done and that was the first time that I ever been that close to an event and not attended. So after your argument of sorts, you told your superior, said, I'm done, that's it.

Did anyone try to convince you, you know, cooler heads prevail? I mean, you're such an integral part, and you're part of the fabric of the UFC. I mean, again, we'll get to the reaction in a second, but did anyone try to convince you to think twice here? You have been there for 14 years. Why let one incident end all of that? No, no one, well, let me rephrase that. Yes, there were a couple of people that I've worked with

or people that just kind of knew that next day or knew that day that I wasn't going to be there for the event that weren't happy or didn't understand or a little sad, but I'll say this, the person that I had the disagreement with, it was him and I. and quite honestly you know I said what I said I felt I was

was inappropriately approached and I reacted and I honestly didn't feel or know it probably would not have been a real comfortable situation that night for me to be there so where'd you go

I went to the hotel okay and you just stayed there I stayed I stayed actually I was trying to get out and I was hoping that maybe my flight that I was supposed to get the next day at six. Well, the next day, I'm sorry, at 11, I could have gotten that night. So I actually went to the airport and the flights were all canceled. So I stayed out at the airport.

So, oh, you actually stayed at the airport, but then you went back, right? Because you had to leave a couple of days later. That's correct. Yeah. But, you know, you mentioned Dana, Donna, Lorenzo. You didn't have a conversation with any of them? I had a conversation with Donna the next morning where, because that person called her and told her of what happened between the two of us and what I said to him.

And she approached me. And, you know, honestly, this business goes on. Yeah. This business is prepared in any business. You know, when you lose a cog in the wheel, you go on. And, you know, over the past eight or nine years we've been in transition or seven years in transition, moving around from different place to place. And a lot of fighter relations guys were put in place. And I've been teaching and working with them because there would have been time that I wouldn't have been able to make an event if it's on the same day or the day after on different parts of the world.

So, you know, the team was prepared to run if that happened. It wasn't prepared for that specifically, but they were good enough to go on. And it would have gone on. It goes on. Stuff goes on. It continues. It goes on. And I know that.

As we sit here around, you know, nine or so days later, do you do not regret it at all? Do you not feel like, you know what, maybe I should have just taken a breath, moved on, I loved my job, it was a big part of who I was, it was great, it was fun, all that stuff. You know, maybe I shouldn't have taken it so personally. Do you not regret your decision to leave at all? You can't take it personally. You can't. I can't afford to take it personally. You know, when I take things personally, I become ineffective. When I take things personally in that way, it really, really is.

hinders the decision-making process. And that's probably what happened the other night. Okay. Taking it real personal. Yeah. You know, so no. And I can't afford to. Like I said, I've got families.

I've got grandkids relying on me. I mean, so many other parts of me that have to keep moving that I have to keep moving. Could cooler heads have prevailed? probably my life has been so evolved in the UFC over the last 14 years and I've got so much UFC around

me if I sat now and regretted and moaned and kind of tried to hatch it over within myself I'd be one sick puppy baby and I can't afford to do that because you know

honestly my mind and my skills have only gotten better over the years they've only gotten better because I only knew one way to do it does my body get tired yes hell yeah

that happens you know when you work a lot and you work hard that happens but you know I can't I've got too many other personal things going on in my life right now to say, you know what, I'm going to go in a room and soak because I think I made the wrong decision.

That's not happening. Because there was more than one person in that situation. Yeah. I'm not going to take the brunt of it. I'm not going to take all of the weight on myself to think, well, maybe I made the wrong decision. Let me try to rectify that. Have you talked to that person?

No. and I don't have a plan to. Okay. No, not at all. And it's a done situation, you know, and you respect the process. You respect the system, you know, and sometimes before it, you make certain decisions, respect the creator of the system. You know, there's a reason why a person or a mother would leave,

her cubs in a cave she's got to go find some food baby but she comes back if you go in there and you see them

cubs in there by their self you know what she's either out getting food hunting for the kill or she's dead

but she didn't just lead them cubs just to be leaving them right doesn't that make sense to you yeah it does especially

when uh comparing it to this situation. So. And that was an accident. I didn't really be to compare it like that. But, you know, no, no, no. I got to, I have to mentally go on and continue with my life, life as it is for me. You know, I'm not a young man.

So, you know, if I were 35 or 40 years old, and have to say, oh, what am I going to do now? I can't say that, baby. I have to go on and I have to continue. Rather, rather, I do it in a venue, in an arena where I do it from my house on the phone. I still got to do it. I still have to continue. You mentioned your age.

I still have to go on. You're 66, right? Yes, sir. Do you think this decision is easier because, I mean, it's amazing. When I see at all these events, you know, you'd be one of the constant. Almost going to every single one now the UFC is doing around 48 all over the world. It's amazing. Sometimes you wouldn't go home for five or so weeks.

Do you think this decision is easier because maybe, you know, physically you hit a wall? That's a lot of travel for anyone, 66 or 36. Do you feel like now with the increased schedule that maybe you kind of had enough? No, no. I, if I had a new. I would have had enough. I mean, there were stretches there, baby, when I did eight shows in 10 weeks. Seriously, I mean, that may be, I may be stretching that number a little.

I know I've done six straight, and I conditioned myself. I conditioned, I lived right. When I was hungry, I ate. When I was tired, I slept. When I needed a drink, I did that. but I rested. The worst part for me was coming home and leaving home.

Yeah. But when I was on the road, I was good. No, so, I won't say none of that played into it. But physically, if I was to say to you,

anything I could put my hand on that probably could have said, you know what? That would be me saying, And, you know, I think I need two weeks now instead of one. But other than that, no, I love what I do, baby. I love it and I love to try to master what I do and how I do it and my loyalty. Now, am I a little flip-lipped sometimes?

Yes. Am I a little flip with the words that might come out of my mouth? Do I choose them carefully? Not all the time. No. But, you know, when you live right or you're not having to have to, you can get yourself out of the truth quick than you can't lie. Really easy. So I've never been really one concerned or worried or worried about the amount of travel.

I didn't think about because what you think about you bring about. I didn't think about the traveling and the running around. I was committed to getting the job done. I was committed to working and getting paid. Sure. I was committed to that. Do you think you're done doing this? Or, you know, if someone in boxing, you know, you have a great history in boxing, another anime promotion,

do you still want to work in combat sports? Do you still want to do this job, or are you done? I don't want to do it at that level, at the pace that I was doing and not realizing as I was going through it. do I still want to? Right now, I want to take a little rest. Okay. I want to get my family situated. I want to get my personal stuff in order.

And personal being, my family, plain and simple. Because they go as I go. You know, I can do what I do from a phone. I'm a teacher. I'm always going to want to teach people and teach young men and young women how to survive by yourself how to make things happen,

how to coordinate things, how to commit yourself, how to be on time, you know, the consequences of being late, how important it is that you don't mess up your name and your credit. My grandson was in his first year at Yale And that's the first thing I stamped on him. Don't ever say I mess up your name and your credit. And he looked at me.

Now he can see. You know, Bert, the reaction to the news, like I said earlier, was unimaginable. It was amazing looking at that tweet and then the responses to the tweet. Wow. Mind-blowing, right? I mean, I've never seen something like that. And I'm wondering, did you have any idea you were that like? Did you have any idea you touched so many people?

I mean, you know along the way, I mean, people speak very highly, you got the awards. But did you know it was on that level? No, sir. Honestly. I mean, not because I never had a problem. We never had to react to anything real negative. So, you know, when we did events and fighters are running around all over the place and you guys are looking for them.

or whatever. I don't chase those fighters down because I know where that comfort level is. You know, I embrace them to make sure that they still continue to get what, because they still had to cut weight, they still had to do what they had to do to take that walk with me to that octagon. But, and the same thing for the camps. But did I know I had touched so many people, I swear to you, I had no idea.

and if anything caught me off guard was the response that I've gotten and the phone calls I'm getting, you know, and the first day, honestly, I didn't answer the phone. Yeah. I didn't because I knew my head wasn't there and I also did not want to react in the wrong way or the wrong manner. Now, you know, a couple of days, I'm okay. And you know something? I can honestly tell you sometimes when you're upset and you say things, you probably don't remember some of the things you said.

But you scratch your head and you know you're saying something wrong or somebody or somebody saying something wrong to you. And I'll tell you this. What I do in my world, somebody had to step in my world for me to touch them. Not vice versa, because I don't step outside in my world. I will never take you a microphone and try to interview somebody. Because I can't do that. That's not my world.

Or try to put up lights and rigs. I know how to do that. But, you know, no, it's not my world. Bird, I want to add to that earlier, before we went on the air, I called up a few UFC luminaries, let's call them that. And I wanted to hear their thoughts about you, and I wanted them to perhaps send you some well-wishes. And we put those clips together,

and I want to play it for you right now, okay? You're going to get me mushy, oh man. No, let's hear it. Here are a few very familiar names and voices from around the UFC wishing Bert Watson well. Here we go. Hello, Bert, Mr. Watson, this is David the Crowle-Wazzo. I just want to wish you a happy retirement, you know.

I wish you all the best. You're the man. You made the UFC experience for, for me. for all the fodders. You made it so safe and amazing. So you're the man. I wish you all the best. And keep in touch with him, man.

Peace. Hey, Bert, Brian, Stan. My career would not have been the same without you. The WDC to the UFC, you made every single fight I had special. Any little thing I could have ever needed, you provided. And most importantly, after my biggest wins, you were there to keep me level-headed. And after my biggest losses, you were there to pick me. back up and and I cannot give you enough appreciation for everything you've done for me and

for all my peers in fighting. I wish you the best of luck in retirement. I hope you enjoy those beautiful grandchildren years and I hope to stay in touch. Please call me if you ever need anything and I'm definitely going to be reaching out to you just to hear that voice and still find out if you're rolling, brother. Take care. Bye. Hey, Bert.

It's Matt Mitreone. Hey, man. I'm so sad to see you go. It's really one of the things that I look forward to most is being around you and hearing your voice and you know all my rituals and routines and everything else you're the only person i've ever fought uh with the guidance of and uh it's going to be really rough to see you go man uh i wish the best and i hope that um i get to be around you at some point in time again buddy hey bert what's going on man in bc uh daniel cornea i just want to tell you good luck in the future

know that from the guy that starts the fight night to the bull in the main event we'll all miss you We've all made that walk And having you a part of it It's been so special But for me it's not what's happening Inside of this arena Before I step up to the octagon I'm going to miss the conversations

I'm going to miss talking about smoking Joe Frazier And just building a relationship That I feel you and I have built over the years Good luck, Bert We're going to miss you and hope to see you soon Hey Bert This is CM Punk And selfishly I'm sad to see you go

I wish I could have spent more time independently and in a large group of people. You are always somebody who lit up the room. I'm going to miss you. Even the limited time I've been backstage with you, I certainly hope whoever replaces you has the musical taste and is fun to be around. I'm going to miss you, buddy. It's Tim Kennedy, and it's been an honor and privilege having an opportunity to work with you. Your reputation, you know, led the way. when I got there.

I only got to work with you for a year and a half, and it was such an honor. It was an experience every time I got to fight hearing your voice, resonate down the hall. You're going to be mixed. Anywhere that you go, you're going to be successful, and I can't wait to see where that is, and hopefully our paths will cross again.

I just wish you well. Hey, what's going on? I'm Bert. This is Chris Wyden, your best friend. I just want to let you know, man. I really appreciate everything you've done for us as fighters. You know, forget about, you know, coming out with different stories that I've experienced with you

because there's too many to bring up. But the way you would make each one of us feel when we come in, you know, for the first time we're checking our way, you make each one of us feel special. And I know it goes to every other UFC fighter. We all felt we were so respected from you. So it's respected by you and more than anybody else. So really appreciate everything that's done for us.

And I hope you get to enjoy. chairman. Hey, Bird, your old buddy, Matt, Sarah. Hey, man, listen, things are never going to be the same without you there. I already miss you. I love the events and seeing you

getting greeted with a hug. And you're just a great dude, man. You're always there for me, and not only me when I was fighting, but for my guys. And I really appreciate it, and I hope you stay in touch. All my best. Hey, Bert, this is Kenny Flore. I just want to thank you for everything you've done

for the UFC and for being a great friend and for being a guy who was there for every single one of my fights and making me feel like I was the only dude fighting on the card and that really is real every single time. I was there, you were there to greet me and make me feel good and make me feel comfortable,

you know, weighing in and the whole process and always a true gentleman to myself and my camp. And I just want to thank you for, you know, the many years of service that you've done, you know, for me and my camp, and, you know, you will be greatly missed for sure. You're a great friend, and, you know, thank you for always making me feel special for every single one of my fights. Hey, Bert, it's Big Luke here, and I just wanted to say thank you so much for everything you've done for all the fighters across the years you've been with a company.

And making me feel special every single time I turn up at Fight Week and turning such a troublesome and hard time of cutting weight into a joyful one. And, you know, I wish you all the best. and I hope you look after yourself from going forward and your family. Hey, Bert, this is Sarah Kaufman. You know, everyone's going to miss you so much. I can't thank you enough for everything that you've done for me and every fighter out there.

You know, you're an integral part of what I've known the UFC to be, even with Strike Force, always being positive, being ready, the enthusiasm you show to each and every fighter is unparalleled. No one will be able to match that. I will miss having you telling me to get going, telling me we're rolling. I mean, there's an incredible person all around, and I'm going to thank you for the support that you've given to me and everyone else.

Hey, Bert. Ian McCall here. Just want to say thank you for all your years of service and making the year of C what it is and making our lives as fighters that much better and easier. You've always been a light at the end of the tunnel of this sport, and we thank you for it. Love you, man. What do you think, Bert? That's pretty amazing, right?

Yeah, man, that's, that's, I don't know what to say. I really don't know what to say. But, you know, it's, that's like I got caught off guard with that Lifetime Achievement Award. I, you know, I was a little speechless. I mean, more so now, and that's the toughest part. And it was because of them and for them that I'm sitting here now talking to you, you know, and I know that someone may take some of these things and put the wrong twist on it,

but you know what? I'm talking to you from my heart, and I'm coming to you like I do everybody else, baby, on a real, on a real tip. And I don't regret anything I've done to this point. I think what's most amazing about it is that fighters are a fraternity, and I can never be a part of that. They'll never allow me to be a part of it.

I don't want to be a part of it. I can't be a part of it. I haven't done and been through what they have been through. But you are a part of that fraternity. They included you. They don't feel the same without you. They feel like you are a part of the show. It is a part of one's checklist.

When they make it to the big dance, they have to hear your voice. And I've heard people say that they get paralyzed with fear. It's an amazing moment to hear that voice, call them out to battle. And from what I heard from a lot of, of people is that it'll never be the same because they won't hear that that that that checklist will not be there anymore to be checked off and for them to include you as part of that fraternity seems at least to me like the ultimate compliment for fighters these alpha males and females to do that

for someone who didn't fight who didn't share the cage with it's it's a pretty it's a pretty amazing thing it's a mind-blowing thing and uh anyhow we could have we could have talked to all 500 fighters on the roster but i just wanted to give you you know a taste of that and and and let you know that you are beloved, you are missed, and it won't be the same without you. And even for someone like me, you were always very nice from day one, shaking my hand, saying hello, asking me how I was, even when you're very busy. And I can see you're looking kind of past me. You always went out of your way.

And that means a lot. You always made everyone feel very special, and that means the world to everyone. So thank you for that. You know, what has happened was not the faith of what I would have wanted as an end of my 14-year career. Right. But, you know, it's like I'm a hoodwrap with an education. In the streets, if you beat me once, you're going to always have in your head that you can beat me again.

If you beat me down and I let you and I come back, you know what? You're going to beat me till I leave. Because you got in your head, I can beat you. And that's just the way life is. I don't ever want to stop teaching. I don't ever want to stop touching. And I don't ever want people to stop warning me to teach them and stop touching them. I don't ever want that.

And as much as I can stay with these fans, with all the people that have shown me all of this love and support, you know, I'm, believe me, I am not going to just drop off the face of the earth. at all. That's not going to happen. And if I do, you're going to hear me on the way down because I'll be rolling right. Okay, last question. If this is the end, if you're not a part of the UFC anymore, who knows what can happen in the future, you know, crazy things have happened. What's one memory that sticks out? Is there one moment, one time, one memory, something, one interaction that is your favorite? Probably what you gave me just now. Oh, come on. I don't believe that. I can't I honestly I can't sit and think of

what has been my favorite moment because I've had 14 years of it and I'm not just putting a skirt on it you know I really I will say this to you I've had situations where guys

have walked and told me saying that I look at them and I'm like now what the heck am I supposed to do with that information Okay, and I had to keep it in my head Until they did it themselves And sometimes I walked around with that for a month Or two months

Now, I'm sure you can put a lot of that together That happened to me three times That they walked away from me and said, And I'm like, ooh Now what do I do with that? And I had to keep it But, you know Other than that,

what you gave me just now because that's the first time I've ever had all of them in one group like that and those were some pretty key people you just spoke to I can't answer that that's the only way I can answer that

fair enough I'm getting a few people on Twitter asking me if they can get one more we're rolling if we get one more I don't think this is the end but can we get one more well I'll tell you what

oh thanks for that segue if anybody goes to Burt Watson for real.com. I'm going to stay on that. When you turn that on, that's the first thing you hear is we rolling. When you go to Burt Watson for real.com, that's the first thing you hear. And you know what?

That was my night, my fight. You better get it right. And I'll tell you one more time, baby. It's time to go to work. It's time to go to work. And you know what that means when it's time to go to work? we roll it all night long amazing

thank you bert a pleasure as always I know this isn't the last time but thank you so much for coming on the show the pleasure is mine and I'm gonna come back at you when I need you absolutely anytime thank you sir

there he is Bert Watson everyone how about that you felt it in his voice right there with the re-rolling wow that was intense but we wish him the best and I'll say it again

from the first time I was ever backstage, if you have ever been backstage, you know that he keeps that train moving along at an unbelievable pace. And when a fighter is about to walk out, when you see him on TV for the first time, and the look on their face, they are going to battle. The one who gets that, who turns them into what you see, who turns that switch on is Burr Watson. It is not the same. Ask any fighter. When it's someone else doing it, if he doesn't do it, it's not the same. He turns that on.

He makes them turn from the regular guy into the fighter, and they wait for that. It's almost like a Pavlov thing. Fighters have told me the toughest men and women in the world have told me that they have become paralyzed with fear. It's a jarring moment, but it's a part of the moment. It's a part of what they strive for. It's a part of what they dream of.

And to be backstage and witness that time and again is something that I am very grateful for and always grateful that he was always so very nice. There are some people who just walk by you who don't say anything. They don't like you. Your media, you kind of annoy him. Bert Watson, no matter where we were, hotel, backstage, no matter what, always treated everyone with the utmost respect, huge smile, baby, all that stuff, great handshake,

just an amazing personality, part of the fabric of the UFC. And of course, as he said, the UFC goes on. It's a huge organization. It's a promotion he has groomed a lot of people. I know some of them well. I have no doubt that they could step up to the plate and keep this train moving along, but a big part of it is not a part of it anymore. And I think for a lot of fighters, that's sad, but these things happen all the time in the real world,

and the show must go on. And I think the first one who would recognize that is Bert Watson. When he made that decision, I think he recognized that. So we thank him. We wish him well. And I noticed some fighters mentioning the R word, retirement. I'm not so sure Bert Watson is retiring just yet. I feel like he has a few other things up his sleeve.

We'll see. For now, we wish him the best and hope he enjoys his time off. And thank you so much to those fighters who took some time out of their day, some on the West Coast. I bothered them to do it, but that came together great. And thanks to New York Rick for putting it all together. That was a lot of fun to do, and I'm so happy that he appreciated it and enjoyed it. Thanks a lot to them. That's again, another example.

could you call up 15 NBA players randomly and ask them to do something like that? You can't. MMA fighters are one of a kind. They are truly the best people that I've ever been around. Amazing human beings. Thoughtful, down to earth. You could see how much, I mean, you know, would NFL players treat someone in birth's position with the same kind of respect, love, admiration that these fighters do? Just my opinion, I don't think they do. I don't think they would. I mean, fighters are the best. And that's what I love

more than anything about this sport. Not the punches to the face and all that stuff. Not the kicks, not the violence. Those people are amazing to be around. It is a privilege. All right, we got one more interview. A lot of people ask me, Fat Joe, Fat Joe, yes, Fat Joe,

who I grew up listening to is going to be joining us in a matter of moments, just waiting for the word from Mr. New York Creek. Why is Fat Joe on the show? There is an event called House of MMA, excuse me, House of Fame MMA, presents USA versus Cuba. Nations Collide.

It's a World Cup-style country versus country format. Ten fights on the pro card. It's taking place at the Bank United Center in Miami, Florida, this Friday, March 13th. Live stream of the entire event is airing on Go Fight Live, GFL.tv, beginning at 8 p.m. And during the intermission of said event, Fat Joe,

The Don Cartagena himself will be performing around five to six of his greatest hits. Also, American Idol, season 14 contestant Kelly Kime will perform a couple of songs as well. This will stream live on Go Fight Live. And by the way, last week we had Roy Jones who competed on GFL. He won. So how about that? Y'all must have forgot. And speaking of Mr. Fat Joe himself, he is joining us on the phone. Mr. Joe, how are you? Hello.

What's up, y'all? How are you, my friend? What an honor it is to have you on the show. So we were just running down what you'll be doing on Friday, March 13th, House of Fame, MMA. You're going to be performing at an MMA event. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, it should be pretty cool, you know? Now, have you ever performed at any kind of combat sporting event?

Yeah, you know, I'm actually the first rap, not combat, but boxing to ever walk a rapper in the ring, so you can blame me for that. Oh, who was that? It was me and big pun We walked Billis Trinidad in the ring When he faced Delaware Wow

What a match that was That was amazing match And the craziest week We was I remember going to see Don King And he's looking at me like He didn't even know who I was And I was like

Listen You don't understand We got to walk him in the ring He was like But nobody nobody no rappers nobody brings the boxes

in the ring he was like we got Ricky Martin singing the National anthem I was like no no no no that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about

us walking them in the ring and driving everybody crazy and just killing it and uh this day you could blame that day you could blame us yeah now we get Justin Bieber

we get Bieber walking forward now you're actually get beat. I think Beaver really, he really is scared back, he how are. I don't know. I don't know about that, but Mayweather seems to like him for some reason. I love Justin Beaver. You do? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Justin Bieber is a very challenging young man. You got respect for Beaver? I would never have imagined that. He loved Justin Beaver, though. On another level, like, he's, like, really challenging. Now, are you a big fight fan?

Yes, I am. What's your favorite form of fighting? Are you a boxing guy and MMA guy? You know, there's a big rivalry sometimes. I think it's ridiculous. I know, I know. What do you think? I know, but, I mean, you know, I'm just a fan of athletes

who put their bodies on the line and their discipline. You know, it's an amazing thing to me, you know? So what I was wondering was, you know, when you're competing, or excuse me, when you're performing in front of a, you know, a rowdy, you know, fight crowd. It's a different vibe than when you're at a concert, right? I mean, you have to attack this a little differently, right? You don't want to lose that crowd, and they might be a little bloodthirsty.

Who knows? I mean, it's not like they're coming to pay to watch you solely. You have to kind of bring them to you. Is that not accurate? Yeah, I mean, but, you know, rap, I'm sure most athletes to tell you that before they have a championship fight or Super Bowl or whatever you call, they listen in the rap music to get them in the gone. Sure.

So, you know, I listen to, whenever I go to have a street fight, you know, I'll listen to some rap music. I'll listen to some Noriega or something, you know, to get me hype, you know. N-O-R-E, right? N-O-R-E, baby. You know, I'll be, what, what, what, what, what, what, what. Oh, yeah, this is great. I feel like I'm in high school all over again. This is unbelievable.

Now, you have been in street fights, Joe? You've actually been in. Absolutely. You know, I'm from the Bronx. Yeah, the boogie down. Survival order to finish, bro. You know that. When was the last time?

When was the last time you were in a street fight? Bad, they've been a couple of years. They've been a couple of years because, you know, they start suing me, so I can't do it no more. So after a while, people would bait me into fights, but it would be like a gimmick to sue me. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, you're opposed to that, Joe. Come on.

And then, you know, once I do something, you know, I'll be getting sued. You know? So I got wise to the giving. Now, is it accurate to still call you fat jokes? I've seen some pictures of you recently. You're more like Skinny Joe. How much you weigh now? Yeah.

You know, Fat Joe's trying to stay alive, you know? I got kids. You know, it's different now, you know? How much you weighing these days? Oh, about 275, 270 on the regular. And at your biggest, what were you? At my biggest, maybe like around 480, 490. Wow.

How'd you do it? How'd you lose all that weight? Well, exercising a lot and watching my carbs, you know? You don't eat any carbs. I read that about you. No pasta, no bread, no rice, none of that. Yeah. Well, I can't say I don't eat any, but I try my best to stay away from it.

Right. Like today, I just ate lunch. I ate a nice fish. With some vegetables and salad. That's nice. You live in Miami, right? Yeah, I live in Miami. So, you know, same.

You know, that's the type of thing. I try to, you know, I try to stay on fish these days because fish is great for you. But the other day, I almost choked to death on a fish bone. You know? Who prepared that for you? I mean, my wife did, but it's this fish called red mullet. Okay. And it's so taste.

but they're littering and they got a lot of bones. So I choked on it and I tried to get it out like 20 times and I couldn't get it up. My face was red. I was really like, oh, man, for one second I said, no way. I'm not going out by a fishbone. No, that would be crazy. Hey, let me ask you this. Last week on the show, we had a guy by the name of Roy Jones Jr. on the program.

You know Roy, right? Roy Jones, chance. Now, back in the day, you said even Roy Jones had to live. lean back, right? Yeah, he had to lean back. Now that caused a whole big controversy. He approached you. He wanted to fight you, right?

No, he came to beat me up. He came to beat you up. How did you... Swear to God, though. What happened? On the record, he had just lost his first fight. Right. And they knocked him through the rope.

So I said on a remix or something on New York, I said, even Roy Jones was forced to lean back. So he didn't think of his hip-hop. So he showed up at one of my shows, and I was like backstage, and he got like nine guys with him, nine, ten guys with him. And he was like, yo, what's tough? But you got to remember, I'm a pretty tough guy, but this is Roy Jones champion of the world.

So he comes up to me, and I'm in like a blind spot. Let's tell him the blind spot. I had maybe 100 guys with me, but for that moment, I was in a blind spot. I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like,

you're worried is only hip hop. He was like, what you mean? It's only hip hop. What do you mean? What's up with this song? What's the up? I was like,

yo, Roy, only hip. I'm grabbing his wrist. Whoa. Like, preventing him from swinging on me. Right?

And, uh, those story short, uh, you know, I convinced him that it was just hip hop, and we should leave it at that. So crisis averted.

He never swung at you, no punches were thrown. No, no punches. No, you know, Roy Jones, probably with him, yeah, Roy Jones, man. You know,

he's champion as well, top of his shake, top of his climb, you know, he was, you know, that was Roy Jones, man. Now,

do you ever watch the UFC, MMA, any kind of mixed martial arts? Are you fan of this stuff? Yeah, I do, I do watch it. I wouldn't say that I'm the number one

all-time, number one fan in the universe, but I watch the big fight, like Silver and all these guys. Yeah. And, you know, so, you know, whenever there's a big hype around it, I watch it. I'm, you know, I usually, I'm a workaholic.

So, you know what I'm saying? Whenever I got time off, I'm usually working. So, you know, But whenever I get time off and it's a big fight, I catch it. You know, I mean, I'm facing these guys got to go through. You know what I'm saying? It's vacation, what they put their body to. I hear in Miami, I meet a lot of Brazilian champions.

Yeah. And I see them train a lot here, too. Actually, my wife's makeup artist, our husband is a champion. He's Brazilian guys out of, like, West Palm or something like that. And they're amazing. These guys are like, you know, these guys, they get, man. They, you know, they're in great shape. You know, these guys don't like to smile much.

No, they don't smile. Yeah, yeah, they're all biz, but they're good people. These guys don't even smile. They don't even smile. They can be, somebody could be setting it up, Sad Joe meeting the champion. And, you know, he's excited to meet Sad Joe, but he doesn't care. He still don't smile. But, you know, a guy has to be.

to meet me. I meet the guy, and he's still looking at me, like, he wants to fight me. So let me ask you... Go ahead, sorry. He's got a pound-foot-pound of stuff that's athlete in the world. Oh, yeah, for sure. Let me ask you... There's no way around it.

This event is USA versus Cuba. Now, you have ties. Part of your family's from Cuba, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm half Cuban. Right? I have Puerto Rican. How do you feel about this?

Cuba versus USA. Who are you rooting for? I mean, man, listen, man. You know, I'm from the USA. Okay. All right. You know, I said, you know, you're talking to a guy born and bred, missed the USA. But, you know, but I wouldn't necessarily call it, you know,

USA against Cuba, even though that's what it is. But I'm more like, you know, I'm buying to the athletes, the story, you know, who's an underdog, you know, you know, whenever, you know, what's so important now is like how you learn the life story of these guys and all the obstacles they have to overcome.

Yeah. Not just physically, like just, you know, some of these guys, you know, got families and they're struggling, they work in two jobs and that they, you know, at the same time, they're training to be a champion of the world.

Like, you know, I buy into that. You know, that's my type of thing. You know, the Rocky store. You know in real life rocking. That's what I'm into. If you could pick one person in the hip-hop game to get into an MMA fight with, lock the door, get into that cage, go to work.

Who would it be? Who do you want to go toe-to-to-to-to-with? Oh, man, I don't really have any enemies at this moment. We made up with all the enemies. Actually, five years ago, it would be me in 57. Yeah. But, you know, no more enemies, man. So I can't even, I couldn't even tell you.

I guess it would be like tacky out. Mayweather it would be like the biggest, the biggest purse, baby. Whoever got the biggest I think that would be a nice little $10 million fight bad Joe and one of the other, you know, leading

gangster rappers. Well, that's what I'm trying to set up here, but you're being too nice. We need to call someone out, though. Who are you going to call out? First of all, let me explain to you. I'm not scared of nobody. Oh, yeah. In the world, forget rapper, anybody. You could bring somebody

you'll be the craziest guy I'm not scared of them but you know what I'm saying like I said whoever you set it up whoever want to get the most money for it because you know this is a winner-take-all this is a $10 million

fight aka the end of your rap career whoever gets knocked out Are you going to watch the Pacquiao Mayweather fight? Absolutely Who do you got? I'm trying to go to that fight too You're trying to get the hookup

You know I'm glad the fight is going down and I'm glad the fight is going down. I don't count Pachy out out because he's so many blows. And he's so, he's such an athlete. But, you know, at this point, as hard as it is to say to any fan out there because, you know, all the fans got like a love-hate relationship with Mayweather because, you know, he taught someone clap, but then he goes in the ring

and backed it up. Sure. But, I mean, I can't go against Mayweather for nothing right now. Like, I just can't. Like, I mean, the guy, the guy doesn't drink. The guy works out all the time. The guy is about his business. He talks all that as part of his show.

But at the end of the day, he is so much of a professional. And he proves it to us time and time again. I forget, uh, the last guy. guy, I bet against Mayweather. I think it was Corralis. Corralis? Corales?

West and peace? Remember Diego Corralis? Yeah, yeah, of course. If they... Go ahead. I'm sitting in the crowd where the guy was like, hey, man, yo, this guy's going to win.

I was hype for Caralice's other fight. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they was like, yo, man, what do you want to do? I said, oh, man, I'm about 20,000. One second later, after I bet. He got knocked through the world. I was like, man, you know what, I can't bet on these fights no more, bro. And that was a long time ago.

Yeah, that was a long time ago. I'm not much of a gambling, you know? I work too hard for mine, you know? Yeah, I feel you. Hey, let me ask you a couple more things, and then I'll let you go, and thank you for the time. It's kind of funny that we have you on the show today. You know, we don't always talk to, you know, hip-hop stars of your caliber on this kind of show. some might say that the greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th.

Would you agree with that? Notorious B.I.G. Today is the anniversary of his death. Do you agree with that statement? Well, if I agree with that, I would say yes, I agree with that, but it's a lot of hip-hop rappers. You know, Biggie Smalls, he probably is the greatest of all time, but, you know, it's hard to say one.

You know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's hard, but. But, yeah, if I would have to choose one, it would have to be big. Did you ever meet him? That's my brother. That was my brother. I took the Biggie Smalls every day. Wow.

In fact, at the time when Biggie first started, I used to promote parties in the Bronx. I gave him his first hip-hop show ever. His first hip-hop show, I booked him as a young promoter. Wow. For his first show in the Bronx at the fever. In fact, on my Instagram, my Instagram is Fad Joe at Fad Joe. Yeah. Today I'm going to post the flyer.

Wow. Of the first hip-hop show Biggie ever had. Did you think he would turn into the legend that he has become? Nah, man, you wouldn't think, but I'll tell you one thing. Never. Fat Joe has done some really, really great songs, and he has done some songs that suck. And I can say that for every artist. Sure.

But you could never say that for Biggie. Biggie was just great every single time he recorded anything. He was amazing. Every single rap he ever spit out of his mouth was incredible. Well said. What's your favorite song? What's your favorite Fat Joe song? My favorite Fat Joe song is the one you talked about earlier with Roy Jones is New York.

New York with me, Jaro, and Jadikis, because it put such a sense of pride of being from New York. You know, it was nothing like it. When we shot that video, thousands and thousands of people came out to the street. It was amazing. It was nothing like it. That's actually my favorite song I ever recorded. Wow. Okay.

Last thing. Speaking of New York, I mean, I know, I think I've seen. you had games before. I'm a huge Knicks fan. What is what is going on? What is going on at the garden? It's embarrassing, right? I mean, how does this happen in the Big Apple?

How can the Knicks be so bad? I think we're playing to lose, man. It's kind, I mean, this is New York. We don't play to lose, right? I think that's what's going on for the first time in the history of mankind. I mean, I don't know what you, you know, I mean, what do you want me to do? You know what I'm saying? Do you watch those games?

It's depressing. I can't actually watch them no more. This year right here is the first year. Even bad years that we've had in the past, I would rush home and root. You know, we had a bunch of games in the past, but we would lose by one, but we would compete. Sure.

And I would still watch the game every day. This is the first season that I can't even enjoy basketball, man. Yeah. I can't enjoy it. You know, but I'm optimistic, you know, we got rid of all the money. Mello will come back in great shape, you know, so that, you know, we ain't got to pay them all that money. Sure. You know, we cleared the cap.

We got a bunch of guys with 10-day salaries on the team. So I'm optimistic, man. Phil Jackson to pull some strings to me, you know. Marcusole, you know. Oh, yeah. You know, I'm, you know, I'm into Kevin Durant coming here in two years. It's not happening. I'm not, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Like, how do you know? Why would he come here? Who the hell wants to go through all this? It's a mess. No, no, no, no, no. This is New York City.

It's the best city in the planet Earth. Well, you left me. New York. Why'd you leave New York? I'm still here fighting. I left for the weather. Yeah. You see, right now I have shorts on and slippers. Yeah. While I'm doing this interview with you, I'm looking at a palm tree.

Some young ladies are diving in the pool as we speak. A dolphin might appear, a dolphin might appear out the window if I look carefully. And just last month, I was in New York for three. three weeks and every day was like the coldest day in 60 years. Yeah. The coldest day in 100 years. The coldest day, nah, I'm good.

I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. I guess I would say the quality of life. Sure. Do you have any freestyle? Can you give us something before we go? I mean, I have a very famous slogan I say nowadays. It's called, save it for the show.

Save it for the show. All right. Fair enough. So the show is... All right, buddy. Yeah, of course. Friday night. Friday night.

It's going down. At the Bank United Center in Miami, House of Fame MMA presents USA versus Cuba. Nations Collide. And performing during the intermission is the one and only Fat Joe. How about that? Yes. Yes, indeed.

Make sure you come out of you in the South Florida area. Come out Friday. Bank United. Center is going down March 13th USA versus Cuba. Man, we're going to have a great time. Keep doing you, Fat Joe. Thanks for all the memories. Thank you so much, my brother.

Much love. Thank you. Much love. My man is cool, man. Well, that was pretty amazing. Fat Joe. What are you guys doing back there? Are you leaning back?

Let's see. Come on. New York's own. New York, Rick, lean back. Yeah. Lean back. Lean back. Lean back. Lean back. Lean back. Lean back. House of Fame MMA presents USA versus Cuba. Nations collide. That is March 13th this Friday. World Cup style. Country versus country. Streaming on Go Fight Live. GFL.tv beginning at 8 p.m. Fat Joe performing during the intermission. Kelly Kime. Do we know Kelly Kime? Have you heard of Kelly Kime? Anyone?

Nope. Nope. There will be a simulcast of said event on GFL.TV. How about this? How about this? Hector Lombard will be calling the fights in Spanish with Rodolfo Roman, and Charles Rosa will be calling the fights in English with Jay Adams. That is, UFC's own Charles Rosa.

Interesting little tidbit about this event. The promotion applied for visas for 10 fighters from Cuba in November and is hoping to have three or four make it here. Lean back. Lean back. But they still haven't gotten confirmation. Oh, there's a little moment here in the song. What's going on?

Lean back. Lean back. Cubans cannot fight as professionals, so they would have to fight as amateurs. They would face the American amateurs that the promotion has on standby. A small donation will be made. to the Yabasta, excuse me, to Yabasta,

which helps abuse women in the Latino community and the Wounded Warrior Project. Thank you very much to GFL for hooking that up. The great Mike Aframwitz on the scene, two weeks in a row for Afram, Roy Jones, and now Fat Joe. How about that?

That was a lot of fun. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to go inside the vault. And for the first time in this show's history, my friends, we are going inside the vault. on a moment that happened on this show, but a whole different arrows. The AOL era was way back in the day. In fact, it was May of 2010.

I will turn off the music when I want to turn off the music. Don't you dare tell me to turn off, Fat Joe. Lean back. Lean back. Lean back. Lean back. I actually gave you the wrong date. It's going to say March, I think, on the screen, but it's May 17, 2010. Alastair Overeign was in studio after his win over Brett Rogers'

Strike Force. He is fighting this weekend against Roy Nelson. I wanted to look back at one of the most memorable moments in the history of this show. The birthday party for Alastair Overim, the birthday king. Way back when, inside the vault, here it is, May 17, 2010.

Joe, bring it out, do your thing. Here's a surprise. He is the champion. So we brought him a, we brought him a balloon Alster, we brought you this. Because you are the king. I brought you one of these. For your birthday, this is for you? You have to wear it.

I have to wear it because I bought it for you, Alster. You got to put it on. I'll be offended if you don't. You can let it go. Let it go in the sky. It's okay. There it is. It's his birthday. How old? 30 years old? 30 years. Good by 20 and hello 40. And look at this. The champ.

For you? Oh shit. There he is. You have to put it around your neck. Yeah, but with the headphones down and then and then put this. I mean you... There you go. What's my hair? Damn it. There you go. The champion, Alistair Overim. Oh yeah, yeah, I have one other thing for you Alistair. Yeah, you can put them under like that. Yeah, that's how the cool people wear it. Here, here, here, for you Alistair. One second. Because it's your birthday. 30 years old. I'm sure you're a little homesick because you're away from your family, right? Yeah.

You know this? Hey, that's Dutch. Dutch. Hey. What are they saying? Aure. Apple's birthday. This is great.

So this is really Dutch. Yeah, this is nuts. Incredible. So did that make you feel good? That actually does. That helped you. In your birthday, I know you're a little homesick, right? They'll probably start in a couple days.

Yeah. I like, you know, I like it in New York. That was a good vibe. Yeah, yeah. But I miss, of course, obviously, my family, right. My brother was, was that with the fight. You can take it up. Let's do this a little bit different.

Yeah. It's hard to take you seriously. The king. Let's get back to the phone lines before we go here, and I's all the tears. has come down my face from laughing. Carrie in Chicago, joining the birthday boy, Alastair Oveream on the

M.MA hour. What's up, Carrie? Hi, happy birthday, Alistair. Thanks, man. Thanks. All right, this is this is Carrie, calling from Chicago. A little disappointed you beat our hometown kid and Writ Rogers, but I'm also a big fan of yours. It was great

to see you come over to the States and fight. Many casual fans hadn't seen you fight live before. Yeah. All right, what's the question? I want to ask you about, what were your thoughts about the late Dutch Finam, Gensi Vretti? Vradi. Do you have any thoughts about him? Who is that?

Who? Gensi Vredi. He was a young Dutch synom kickboxer. Surnum kickbacher. Oh, Jinti Vreder? Yes. Okay, yeah, yeah. What do you think he would have been as an M&A fighter?

Well, he was a kickboxer. Right. believe a really talented one. I never met him actually, but I'm sure I would meet him eventually, because you know, Holland is small. Everybody basically knows each other, but I didn't, I had to meet him. I knew

it was a big stir when he died. Unexpectedly to... I just... Seeing you, the... You don't have to hold out to the balloon. Hey, listen, I like this, right. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay, so...

So, yeah, back to the... Back to the topic. Right. Yeah, so it was a very unexpected, unfortunately, when he died. He died of a heart attack. There was something, he had some heart anomaly or something. But he was really talented. He became world champion in Las Vegas, I believe, 2008 or something, 2007-208.

He was 21-in-1. He had 20 knockouts. He beat Shane Der Rosario in a kickboxing match. I saw him fight once, and I was actually impressed. And you know when I hear that people speak about him, everybody was positive. He really, apparently really was a nice guy, you know, good heart of that guy. All right, my friend. Thank you very much for the call.

I know there are some other people waiting to talk to you, Alster. But unfortunately, no more time on the show. What? No more time. That's it. That's it. But if you want to take this, you can take it. Show your, tell your friends back home that we treat you well in America.

Laine, friends, they're behandling me good. Wow. Give me a prediction. Netherlands World Cup, are they going to win? Finally, they've never won the cup. We're going to beat America, though. Uh-oh. Easy.

Don't say that here. You know that orange. I know. I saw it. I look that you're representing. You know what the good thing is? When I look at our soccer game, my fighting game is a little bit similar, you know? They put a lot of pressure.

They're attacking left and right and straight. Well, I hope I have a better defense. Oh, really? They hardly ever win on a... That's their whole overall. Penalties, you know. I hardly went on decision. That's true.

They always try to go for the knockout. You know Marco Van Basten? Not personally. But you know of him. Yeah, of course. Yeah. He's a big deal, right? I thought it was just me.

Well, he's a coach. Right, but he used to be a player, right? Yeah. See, I know my stuff. But I'm Canadian. You like Canadians? Yeah. They're good people.

Cool. All right. You're French? Canadian. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nice. Thank you very much, my friend. The champion. and Alastair Overeem joining us on the MMA hour here in New York City of an amazing performance against Brett Rogers and hopefully we'll get to see him against Fiat. I'm trying to be serious. I'm trying not to laugh. But I love that you're embracing this, Alistair.

It's very nice. First man, you have to have fun in your life. Yes. And my life wasn't that, well, it was fun the last 11 weeks. I shouldn't be too dramatic about it. But I worked hard. You know, so now it's a relaxed time. We're going to do that.

We're going to take, enjoy it. Check him out. He'll be back defending that belt for a strike force. very soon. Thanks to Spencer Pratt. Thanks to King Casey. Thanks to Alster Overeem. Thanks for having me. And follow me on www.Dareem. Peace. So there you have it. Wow. How about that lineup?

Spencer Pratt, King Casey, and Alster Overim. A lot of fun to go back and look at the old studio, the AOL days. Josh? I missed that guy. I wonder what he's up to. I loved how Alster was just holding onto that balloon the whole time. He loved that balloon. He was like a little kid who had just received a birthday balloon.

He was a great guest, and he is back in action. This Saturday, UFC 185, he has a very important fight against Roy Nelson coming off a big win over Stefan Strouve. I want to see him going a bit of a run here. It's been start, stop, start, stop in the UFC. Let's see how he does against Big Roy. That's one of the many interesting fights on the card, and perhaps some of you will ask about it as we go into your questions and comments

around 20 minutes left in the program. What do we got, Mr. New York, Rick? What do we got? Are you leaning back? Are you still leaning back or have you calmed down? I lean too far back. Yeah. How about Fat Joe in a rare human moment telling whoever was next to them that I was a pretty cool guy?

Yeah. Did you see that? They were a pleasure to deal with, to be honest. They were. Yeah. Wow. How about that? That was great.

Shout out to Fat Joe. Shout out to New York. Joe cracks a done. Okay. We are short on time, so let's get through this. First question from the website. Why not compare Cyborg to Tyson? Ariel with Cyborg's Tyson-like physique and devastating chaos power combined with her fighting style in my opinion she makes for a better comparison to Iron Mike than Rhonda. I haven't heard anyone bring these points up when the Rhonda Tyson debate gets discussed. She likes to keep it standing beating people to a bloody pulp with her fists and very few make it pass one to two rounds with her. Do you agree or disagree? Do we still not understand what we're talking about here? Is this a joke? Really? Who's buying pay-per-views to watch Cyborg fight?

No one. She fights on UFC Fight Pass. She fights on local shows. What? What did her pay-per-view with Marluse Kuhn do? That's not the point. The point is, once again, that people are buying pay-per-views

to watch Ronda Rousey beat her opponent in seconds. Seconds. Now, sure, that's part of Cyborg's bill. A lot of people can say that. But for Ronda Rousey to do what she's doing and no one to walk away upset, That's the point. That is a la Mike Tyson.

That's what I'm trying to say. It's not her personality. It's not her physique. It's not that she knocks out. In fact, I like the fact that she's not a knockout artist. It shows the evolution of combat sports. How do we still not understand what we're talking about here? It has nothing to do with everything that was just mentioned. Completely missing the point.

Next. Our next question, Kosteck versus Silva. What are your thoughts on Kosteck's quick turnaround facing Eric Silva at Ultimate Fight Night 62? Would you have liked to see him take more time off? and how do you see this matchup going? Yeah, I don't love it. I was surprised, and I saw, look, he told me right before that fight, you can go to the interview, he said, I have two fights left.

Now, this is before the Ellenberger fight. He said, I have two fights left, and I'm going to finish that contract, win or lose at UFC 184. So I'm not surprised that he's getting one more. UFC wants to honor that. That's fine. He's done enough. But I'm surprised he's coming back this quickly. And I saw a lot of people say, look, Josh Kostag, he has a lot of money.

If he really has all that much money, why is he so quick? to end this contract. Why is he so quick to get another payday? Why is he so quick to put his body through this again? It seems to me like he's trying to get it over with. What's the point? Don't you want to do a whole other training? And now I guess you're in shape.

You know, you feel like you might beat this guy. Okay, fine, but it is very perplexing to me. Someone of his caliber who's had his career shouldn't be returning this quickly, in my opinion. And quite frankly, I mean, I don't

want to see him fight again. I just don't. I don't understand this one. I'd say this, though, like, let's say you had a bad performance, right? You want to get in there quicker sooner rather than later. You want to get in there. But I'm not getting beat up. And I haven't taken the kind of damage that he has taken over the last few years. Well, I mean, let's be honest, he didn't take that much damage in this fight. It wasn't like he got brutally knocked out. He got choked out. Yeah. This wasn't some kind of thing where Jake Ellenberger was putting on a clinic and Josh Koshchek got starched. I don't think he took that much damage in this fight. And if it's, It's me.

Now, granted, I think this is a strange matchup. You know, there's probably better opponents for Eric Silva at this time. Well, actually, actually, the matchup, if it was one in two months, I have no problem because this is a way to elevate Eric Silva. It's a name. I mean, it's a much bigger... Well, you're assuming that he beats Kosteck. Yeah, yeah, but I'd say this is a way to do so.

Like, Kosteck has a bigger name than Ben Saunders, right? Yeah, but what about Benson who jumped at the opportunity? I don't know. I mean, maybe they don't want him to fight a 170. You know, who knows? I don't know. Maybe they already booked it by the time. Yeah.

My point is getting a quick redo when you didn't really take that much damage, it's not necessarily that far off base. If I'm cost check, I'd probably want to get in there sooner rather than later. If I thought that this was still, like, you're saying he's one foot out the door possibly. If that's his scenario, then yes, this doesn't make much sense. But I think if he's trying to make himself viable again as a, you know, I wouldn't say a contender. I don't think he's ever going to fight for the title again, but a guy who's, you know, can hang around in the UFC. why not get back in there sooner rather than later? Selfishly, I just feel like he can't do that.

And I don't like to see those stars fall in hard times. I gotcha. And even if he pulls off a win, I kind of want this to be the end. I gotcha. He's shown us enough to let me feel that way. Our next question, thoughts on Carla Esparza, saying the UFC, oh, I'm sorry, this is one sentence. Thoughts on Carla Esparza saying the UFC needs to promote her title fight more.

I mean, she has a point, but it's a two-way street, right? this is the first I've heard from her since the Ultimate Fighter. I don't know about that. I mean, she was on this show talking about that $1,000 Sunday. That's right. I saw her tweet something today that was, that was, what is it? Here it is. Media headlines focus on things that will make you talk.

I focus on winning fights. Drama is the last thing on my mind. Anyway, so I think she was responding to all of that. I kind of feel like this fight has been promoted enough. I mean, she was on the ultimate fighter. It's a pretty quick turnaround. I think they did a nice job at the welcome to the show event. It's always very weird for me to say that for some reason.

I don't know. I mean, I think it's more about the Page Van Zandt Reebok thing and, you know, Felice and Paige being on the Fox card, but I don't feel like she's been disrespected. I don't know. I feel like this fight has received more attention than some of the other flyweight fights of late, right? I think that's accurate.

So I don't remember. I saw that headline somewhere. I don't remember exactly what was said, the article, where it was said. And if she's not feeling the love, then she has every right to feel that way. But I think she's being treated pretty well. I mean, from what we see, who knows what's going on behind the state? You know, I don't know. It's co-main event on pay-per-view.

They're not putting it on Fight Pass. They're not putting it on free TV like they've done before with the other titles. I think it's getting the love. And I'm looking forward to it, by the way. Yeah, I like it. I like it. That's our two WMMA fighters of the year. Oh, no, wait.

Did you go with Rousey? I went with Rousy. Okay. Did I go with Rousy? Yeah, I went with Rousy. I failed to mention to Yuana that she was yours, so I apologize for that. I mean, of course. Did you tell her?

Did you tell her? No, hey, how are you doing? I just want to let you know. No, I did not. But, yeah, I think it seemed to be a really good fight. New York what? Maybe if we have time, we'll talk about the odds. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

that a little bit. Okay, okay, okay. How close is, uh, birthday, nothing? I was saying, okay, yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, no, no, no, I got you. I wasn't dismissing it. Yes, but then you, you demeaned my position, my, my title, my status, and it made me, it hurt my feelings a little bit. What, the New York? What? Uh, how close is the birthday king, the former birthday king? Because it's not his birthday right now. You always be. Uh, how close is he, uh, to a title shot if he beats Roy Nelson, a possible long-awaited fight with Junior Joe Santos next? So, JDS is, he's recovering from two surgeries.

I believe one was a knee and elbow? Is that positive? Or hand? I know he had two off top of my head. I think Alster doesn't get a title shot right away. I think he gets at least one more, but he's got a name, and he's got a name, and he's in a pretty thin division. So I don't think he's that far off.

I think they won almost give him one, especially, hey, they just announced today that they signed a deal with Fox Sports Netherlands. So now they're going to be, this event isn't live, but the April event in Poland will be live when it kind of makes sense time zone-wise. Anyhow, I feel like that makes a lot of sense or maybe even a Josh Barnett fight in the summer. Everybody in the heavyweight division is one or two away. Yeah. And especially a guy like Overeem who has the look and everybody wants to see him, you know, eventually get that title shot. I mean, everybody in this division, one really clean, nice-looking knockout and you're pretty much on the doorstep.

Yeah, this is a fun one. Joe Duffy. He makes his debut this weekend. He makes his UFC debut this weekend. The last man to beat McGregor, quote unquote, has a lot of expectations coming into the fight. What are your thoughts on the contest? By the way, I love that they said contests because that's what Connor says. You can tell that this is not an American fellow.

Yeah. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited to finally see him. I think this is a great storyline. I think anyone who gets upset that we keep saying the last man, A, you're going to hear a lot of it this week. And B, I think he should run with that. I think it's a perfect title to have.

Why not use that feather in your cap? Why not let people know that you are the last man to beat a very popular and successful fighter right now? I think it's great. Well, the alternative is not knowing anything because who knows anything about Joe Duffy other than that. So, of course, you use it. Yeah, but you use it and you run it into the ground.

Yeah, some people are like stop using it or he gets annoyed. No, no, no, no, no. You got to run with this until you get that rematch because that would be the biggest fight of your career. Even if you don't. Just run with it as long and as far as possible because there's nothing else to know about Joe Duffy at this point. Originally he was supposed to fight Wagner Hosha. Now he's fighting Jake Lindsay. I'm fine with it. I think this is somewhat of a showcase fight for him. His boxing is great. Obviously, he's a former boxer. He left him to go to go to TricStar. So he left Ireland to go train at TricStar for the first time. By all accounts, that was a solid month for him. in Montreal. So I'm very

curious to see how this goes. It's on Fight Pass, by the way. So that is another big name who is coming out of Ireland, and I've heard that he is maybe considering $1.45, and of course they don't fight in the same way class. He's at $155. Conner's at $1.45. That would be

huge. That would be a huge rematch if he continues to win. So let's see what happens. Thus far, as return to MMA has been very successful, and I think it's a very smart signing by the UFC, especially with how popular MMAs in Ireland these days. Sunan versus Babaloo at Metamoros.

The next Metamoros, does this fight get your pulses racing? Give us a fun fight. Both you guys would like to see added to the event. And this person is suggesting Joe Rogan versus Jimmy Smith, the commentator matchup. I do, like I've said this before, I like when Meta Morris taps into the MMA world.

Sure. I think they should do more of that. And it sounds like they are interested in that. I think it appeals to someone like myself and to the hardcores. I mean, Babelieu has a history in that world. These aren't fishes out of water. And I like when they also get guys like Chale or Josh Barnett who are coming with a different kind of grappling.

They're not traditional BJJ players. So I love it. I think it's great. And May 9th, off the top of my head, May 9th, I think is open as far as other big events, but I could be wrong. It's always good when they have the spotlight to themselves. Joe Rogan Jimmy Smith is a lot of fun. amazing. Other ones that come to mind, Hoist Gracie versus Eddie Bravo after what happened last year.

And I think I'm allowed to say this and not have all the White Knights come after me, but I'd still love to see Brian Carraway versus Ronda Rousey. That's fine. Mr. BJJ himself, Luke Thomas, said that was okay on the MAB, so I'm going to say that's okay. Well, that's fine. If he said it. You wouldn't want to see it? No, I'm not saying I wouldn't, but I don't know if that's the...

Getting Rhonda is... Wouldn't you say? I mean, Nick versus BJ. But I'm saying, I don't know if that's the stamp of approval. Like, if Luke Thomas says it's great, then he's... No, that is the stamp. Oh, okay, my mistake. What's yours?

You know, come on. I'd like to see BJ Penn in there. Versus Nick? Versus anybody. Anyone. Who doesn't want to see BJ Pen roll again? Yeah, that would be nice. We just got that teaser from a few years ago with Rhonda and BJ.

Why not? Why not? Let's just see BJ Penn in there. This is our last one from the website. What do you make of Dana all but booking a fight card for the New York area later this year? UFC 194 on December 5th in parentheses. He seems really confident about it finally happening. Are you as confident as he is?

And tell me how you think having fights in New York would really add to the whole UFC experience in future. Who do you think should headline the first card and why? Well, for anyone who doesn't know, MSG, arguably, I mean self-proclaim, but it's arguably one of, if not the world's most famous arena. Of course, times are tough these days for their main tenant, the New York Knickerbockers. But people call it the Mecca.

I mean, it's very famous. It's hosted some of the most famous boxing matches. matches of all time, of course, WWWF sell it out almost every month. The fight of the century. Ali Frazier 1 was there. The list goes on and on. I wouldn't put too much stock into them reserving a date. They've done this before. I saw that interview with Access TV. And the reason they have to do that, especially now, I mean, you got to put your your foot in the door. You have to at least make sure that if this does happen this year, you're ready to make it happen and doing an event around the holidays in New York would make a lot of sense.

That would be a great debut for the UFC. They can't decide in July or June when the calendar is over here in New York, the assembly calendar, all that. They can't decide, oh, now we're going to do it. It'll be booked. I mean, this is MSG. So you have to book early. All signs seem to be that, you know, this is good.

I mean, they're closer than ever because, of course, Sheldon Silver Assembly Speaker is out and he's no longer in power. The new assembly speaker was once a, what's the word, proponent of the bill. He signed off on the bill. Now, let's see what happens. From what I understand, from talking to people, Sheldon Silver still has a lot of power in New York,

just because he's not in the same position. Still very strong in Union State. We know about the story. On and on it goes. They are confident. I saw Mark Ratner last week. He seems to be cautiously optimistic. He's a very cautiously optimistic person,

but they were doing a lot of media. Hopefully this is the year. It's ridiculous that they have. haven't done this by now. And, uh, and, and, and, and let's see. But I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't look at what Dana said or the fact that they've booked date as 100% confirmation that it's going to happen. They've done this before. But this year, I think all would agree they have a better shot than most. Uh, moving on to Twitter. Is Hendricks Brown, the people's mean event on Saturday? Hmm. Should the winner receive a title shot?

That's a great question. I haven't thought about the, uh, the people's own event. Well, first of all, Second part of the question, I mean, the title fight between Roy McDonald and Robbie Lawler is happening in July. That's a long time to wait if you're going to wait for the winner, right? I would think. I mean, but there aren't a lot of other options. Let's see what happens. What kind of a fight it is and all that stuff is at the people's main event? You know, I'm really excited about Carla versus Joanna.

But I don't know if the people agree. I'm going to ask the people. What do you think? It's tough. I mean, it's a choice of three, right? It's Carla, Joanna, it's Johnny Brown or Roy Allister. I'm not sure Roy Alster is there. It's really those two.

For me, I'm more excited in the Straway title fight. There it is. The people's main event has been decided. Okay. I was asking you. I'm okay with any of those. I don't... Wait, wait, wait.

Are you dismissing the concept? The people's main event? Yes, I am dismissing that concept. What the fuck? It's your problem. Who pissed in your cornflakes? I don't know. It doesn't do for you, huh?

They're all great. They're all great. There doesn't need to be one. I see fighters quoting this now. I mean, they are striving, they are working. They don't want to be the main event. They would prefer to be the people's main event. And if you don't believe it, you better recognize.

Ask them. You don't see these interviews popping up all over the place. I'm going to be the people's main event. I'm going to be the people's main event. Well, first off, I decide the people's main event. And I've just decided. And I've just decided. And I don't appreciate you dismissing it.

I think this is something that has really grown on this show in particular. You are a part of said show. I feel like you dismissing it is almost dismissing the show in its entirety. Disagree. Let's move along. This right here could be the people's main event. What, me versus you? Yeah.

I know it's not MMA related, but what were your overall thoughts on PBC on NBC last Saturday? My overall thoughts were that it was very exciting. Very exciting. It felt like a big deal. It felt like a big event. boxing sometimes doesn't feel that way. It was awesome seeing Marv Albert call combat sports, boxing in particular. I thought they had a lot of talent.

They had like 95 reporters on that show. Also cool to see Al Michael's work. I mean, the presentation was fantastic. The main event was a lot of fun. Keith Thurman, he won. The co-main or whatever they called it, the co-headliner, wasn't as exciting. But I thought it was great. And the ratings would suggest that a lot of people were excited.

beat UNC versus Duke in the ratings. And I think the most interesting part about it, the two most interesting parts. First, it was a time-buy. The promotion didn't get paid anything for that show. It was all Al-Haman and his crew paying for it. And if you don't know Al-Haman, like I said on Twitter, I think he's one of the most fascinating people in combat sports.

No one knows what he looks like. No one knows what his voice sounds like. He doesn't do any interviews. He refuses. He's Floyd Mayweather's advisor, and he's a very rich man as a result. He has all these famous guys on. on his roster, and a lot of them are fighting in the coming months.

And now he has time buys with NBC, CBS, and Spike, to do this PBC thing, Premier Boxing Champions. It's a fascinating thing, and it's a big gamble on boxing, and it's trying to get boxing back to where it once was. Now, I think boxing is doing very well with or without this, but this is a chance to get it back, network TV, all that stuff. First show I liked very much. Of course, there were things here and there that I didn't like, but overall, I enjoyed it greatly. And what I liked most about it, it was over at 11. It was over at 11 Eastern, and that exciting. me greatly. So I'm in. Count me in. I'll be watching. There's another one this

Friday on Spike. That's right. I did not catch the one on NBC, but I did DVR it. I intend to watch it. It's fun to just watch the presentation to see how they did it. I mean, it was really nice. They did a great job. It felt big. Marve Albert calling boxing is great. I mean, he's a little older now and all that, but I thought it was a real treat. Did he use his catchphrases? Yes. From downtown. Well, not that one, but yes. Maybe. He didn't really do that, no. I mean, if you've heard Marve Albert, he does, he's on hockey, he's in football, he doesn't really use those in other sports. Saves it for the big show, NBA. That's it. It's a basketball thing. That's it. That's it for the questions, yeah. Okay, okay. We got a minute left. Let's hear it. Germain Derandami, Larissa Pacheco.

Probably going to be a close one. I guess DeRondami, but it could be either way. Well, you got to pick one. Sure, let's go D-Rondami. Wrong. Minus 140 plus 138. Duffy versus Lindsay. Duffy. Big favorite.

Minus 495. Last man to beat Connor McGregor. Yeah. Against plus 444. Sergio Pettis versus Ryan Benoit. Sergio, for sure. Another big one. Minus 450 versus plus 400.

Josh Copeland versus Jared Rochalt. Rochalt, wrestler. Minus 280 versus plus 280 for Rochelle. Benile Darius versus Darren Crookshank. Ooh, that's a good fight. Yeah. I'm going to go Crookshank small, but I like that fight a lot. Crookshank minus 137, Darius plus 130.

Our good friend, Elias Theodoro versus Roger Narvaez. The guy who's on the cover of romance novels for sure. Yeah. Minus 300 for Elias. Roger plus 289. Let me make this big. Why are I squinting on this? Okay, Sam Stout, Ross Pearson.

Oh, I like that one as well. But I'll go Pearson. Sorry, I was just checking something. Yes, you are correct. Pretty big. Minus 325 plus 305. Is that surprised you? Not really.

Stout hasn't looked great lately. Yeah. But, I mean, if nothing else, Stout is a super tough out. So I think that'll be a good fight. I feel like this. Two veterans. I love that one. Could be do or die for stout, right?

Yeah. I mean, but how many times do we say that for everybody? I don't think that often. By the way, it is headlining act on FX. FX, not Fox Sports One. Interesting. Yeah. All right, here we go.

Main card. Henry Sohudo, 125, giving it a go. Yeah, of course. Against Chris Carrioso. Henry, minus 500 Carrioso plus 461. That was the title challenger, right? Crazy. Roy Nelson, Alster Overim.

Hmm, interesting. I mean, it's going to be Overeem, but, I mean, over-ream is the favorite, but, I mean, that fight could hinge on one punch, obviously. Roy Nelson could hit Over-Rim once, and it could be over. But Over-im will be the favorite, for sure. Minus 199 for the Ream plus 185 for Nelson. I loved when he said, goodbye 20, hello, 40.

Matt Brown, Johnny Hendricks. Johnny Hendricks, for sure. Minus 300, Johnny Hendricks, Matt Brown, plus 299. two more, Carlos Sparza versus Yana, Yuanjacheck. Now, I know for a fact that Asparza is the favorite and a slight favorite. Yeah. I think that she should be a bigger favorite, to be honest. Even though Yowna was my WMMA fighter of the year, it was because, it was because Carla's wins didn't qualify.

Ah, well, let's not go into that stupidity. No. That was stupid. It's because her wins didn't qualify. And I think Carla is, her boxing looks so. good. Her wrestling is always on point. You know, she's not flashy, but she is... Are you picking, Yohanna,

for the win? Are you picking? You're not. I'm going on and on about how great Carla looks. Well, I just wanted to know your WMMA fighter of the year. No, Carla is going to win. Is it too close? Is the line too close? I think Carla should be a bigger favorite. Minus 154, Carla, Joanna, plus 150. And last

but not least, showtime back, minus... Well, I mean, when you knew. Yeah, he's the champion. Okay, well, how big? Pettis de Sanjos. That's an interesting one. I'll say close to 2 to 1. Minus 400, Pedes plus 373. I think that is insane.

Really? Really? I think that is insane. I think it's accurate. Really? Yeah. What is, I mean, Dos Andros has looked incredible. Petis is good. Make no mistake about it.

Worth a flyer? Worth a flyer? I might put some money down on that. I think Dos Andros has shown that he's capable on his feet. There's no doubt about that with the number of guys he's knocked out. and in the grappling department, I mean, I think I have to give him the edge there. Now, you know, he's not a prolific takedown artist, but if he can get it to the ground, I don't see him having much trouble.

Pettis is definitely sneaky and active with his submissions, but that's a little, I'm interested in that one. I might put something small down on Huffield there. I expect Pettus to win, but I don't think the line should be that far apart. One of these days, I'll ask you about Roar and McDonald being the favorite over Robbie Loller, but we have run out of time, so we'll save that for another time. We have a lot of time to talk about that fight, but that is pretty interesting. The Challenger, all that often is the favorite over the champion, and that's the case, at least right now, with Roy McDonald and Robbie Loller.

For now, though, we've got to hit my music, because we have run out of time. Well, that was a fun show, only on the MMA hour. Can you hear from Vitor Belfort? We know Vitor is, of course. you hear from Duke Rufus? Can you hear from a guy who is a model on romance novels? Can you hear from Bert Watson? Can you hear from Poland's number one fighter?

Can you hear from Fat Joe? Joey Crack the Dawn himself? Only on this show, my friends. And it has been another pleasure for me. Fun one. UFC 195 coming up and going to Dallas on Wednesday. Last time I was in Dallas, I believe. Last time I was there was for that Strike Force event.

Remember that one? We went to the Dallas Mavericks Parade, and we asked them all about the Strike Force Grand Prix. Daniel Cormier beat Jeff Munson on that card. Alasdra Overeem beat Fabrice O'ReDoom in the main event. Good times. In fact, it was in Dallas where I was sitting next to Sean Shelby, and he took out his phone, and he said to me,

this is going to be the next big star in Women's MMA. And he showed me a picture of Ronda Rousey. They hadn't signed her yet, But there were talks. She was about to fight in Canada, I believe, and then they were going to sign her. And I remember it. We were in Dallas,

and Sean Shelby, matchmaker showed me that picture. Crazy stuff. Anyway, I want to thank Vitor Bell for it. I feel like I got to ask him like three questions, but it was great to have him on the show, as always. Thank you very much to Duke Rufus.

Good luck to him this weekend. Thank you very much to Ryan Laflair. Good luck to him, March 21st, my sister's birthday. Thank you very much to Elias Theodoro. Good luck to him at UFC 185. Thank you very much to Yuanaycheck this weekend as well. Thank you very much to Bert Watson,

the best to him. And thank you very much, you fat Joe. All the fighters who sent us good wishes for Bert. We appreciate it as well. We'll see you next week until they say peace. Sachs Fifth Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or the right outfit. Sax is where you can find everything. From the perfect Chloe bag for your hard-to-shop for a sister to a prodig jacket for a fancy holiday dinner. And if you don't know where to start, sacks.com is customized to your personal style. so you can save time shopping.

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