MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 273

Episode Date: March 16, 2015

Featuring Rafael dos Anjos, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tyron Woodley, Kurt Angle, Phoenix Jones, Reza Madadi, and Dave Meltzer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Ariel Hawani. Inside our New York City studio, I am back from wonderful Dallas. I got to tell you, I grew up a Buffalo Bills fan. I love the Bills. And I hated the city of Dallas. They broke my heart twice. Also, my brothers were huge Cowboys fans. So I hated everything to do with Dallas.

Dallas in particular, plus the Houston Rockets beat my Knicks in the 94 final. So I didn't really love Texas, but I got to say, every time I go to Texas, I really enjoy it. In particular this time, the people are so nice over there. Great fans, they really show up for UFC events, all kinds of MMA events, Strike Force as well. Very knowledgeable fans, fun fans, polite fans. I just like everything about Dallas. Now, I was smiling a little bit when DeMarco Murray left to the Eagles, and then they put them in the front. and showed him on the big screen.

What balls. But other than that, it was a great trip to Dallas, and holy moly, I'm still catching my breath. I still don't even know what to make of what I saw in Dallas on Saturday night. A new era for the UFC on multiple fronts. Of course, by now you know that Hafeel Dosangos, I repeat, Hafeel dosangos, the man who started his UFC career, O and 2,

the man who then went four in four in his first eight fights. Hafeel do Sanjos. Sanjos, who was primed to be just kind of a, you know, a mid-tier, lightweight, win-two, lose one, win-two, lose one. You know, we know those guys. That's what he was going to be. That's what it looked like he was going to be. He beat, he beat up Anthony Pettis for five rounds.

There was no doubt. It was five-nothing. It was a dominant. This wasn't Clay Guida. This was a systematic breakdown of the man that we thought would be the UFC lightweight champion for many years. or at least for many fights. Hafele de Sanchez-Schoos continues to shock the world.

This guy's 9 and 1 in his last 10. He's now defeated Benson Henderson, Nate Diaz. Most recently now, Anthony Pedes. I mean, he's beating a who's who. And a lot of credit goes to the 2014 coach of the year, Hafeel Cordero. Now he has the lightweight champion, the interim heavyweight champion in Fabrizio Verdeum.

Just a shocking result in Dallas. and we'll talk about where he goes from here, and we'll also talk to the man later on in the show. And then in the co-mate event, how about a new star being born? You heard her on the show last week. You'll hear her on the show this week. There's some lentil in my throat.

It's very annoying. Yohanna Janjacheck of Poland is the new strawaway champion. She beat up Carla Sparza. She did it in two rounds. Excuse me. She did it in two rounds. That's great. She did in two rounds.

and she is a star in the making. How about this? There's like something in my throat, and I feel like I'm going to choke. It's probably Christian Leitner doing it to me. How about your boy on 30 for 30, huh? Big debut, thanks to all the people for their nice words. Big mothership debut.

Anyway, back to you Saturday night. Yuanian Jacek is the new strawaway champion. She's a huge star. She looked amazing. She stole the show in Dallas all week long, and it's going to be fun to talk to her. Okay, what are we doing on this show? As always, we're going to go inside the vault.

3.45 or so, we're going to take your questions and comments. There is a lot to discuss. I just look at the post. There's 122 questions already. Or comments. 122 before the show even started. I think that's a record. At 3.30, we're going to talk to the new UFC lightweight champion,

Hafelde Los Angeles. It was such a beautiful moment. He was backstage with his kids. Remember, he said to me on Thursday that he told his kids that he would only bring them to their first fight when he fought for the belt. And he wouldn't let anyone beat him up in front of his kids. He brought him there on Saturday, and he stayed true to his word. And it was so beautiful seeing the kids back there with the wife. They were celebrating that belt. It was a real, it was a real

touching moment. I love that I got to see that. I posted a picture on my Instagram of that. Anyhow, we'll talk to him at 3.30. We'll talk to Yohanna, Yon Jacek at 310. She's still in Dallas, living the dream. Just the third European champion in UFC history, the first. out of Poland. At 2.45, it's true, it's true. We are talking to Kurt Angle. I have a great Kurt Angle story. Kurt and I used to be good buds back in the day. I haven't talked to him in years. I'm really excited to talk to him. I owe a lot to Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle was my first big interview for jerrypark.com. He was very kind to me, so I'm really excited to talk to Kurt, a member of T&A wrestling. 225. We're going to talk to Phoenix Jones. Phoenix Jones, taking everyone

by Storm, a.k. Ben Fodor, the brother of Caros Fodor. Crime slash MMA fighter, just signed with WSOF. Great story. You probably saw it by now on ESPN. 2.05, we're going to talk to Resa Maddadi. Remember him? The Mad Dog? Former UFC fighter was sentenced to jail, allegedly being a part of a bank robbery. Not a bank robbery. He stole some high-priced goods, some purses and whatnot. In Sweden, and he sentenced to jail, just got out, wants to talk about resuming his career and all that stuff. I'm really looking forward to talking to the Mad Dog at around 205. He'll be in Sweden. 145, friend of the show, Tyron Woodley, will stop by. He wants a piece of Johnny Hendrix. We'll talk about his surgery and all that good stuff. And then at 125, we're going to talk to

Chabib Nirmagamado Medov, the man who is undefeated, the man who defeated Hafeldo Sanchez around a year ago, the man who fights Donald Soroni at 187 for a chance to fight for the belt. Always a pleasure to talk to Habib Nirmagamatov. But first, let us go to the Skype machine, and how about this? Look at this new TV that we have. Holy moly, it is gigantic. It is high-end stuff. It is crystal clear.

And the first person who will be testing it out is our very own Dave Meltzer. Dave, how are you? Really good, Ariel. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. By the way, I just mentioned Kurt Angle. He's going to be on the show today.

Do you remember that interview that I'm referring to? Absolutely. Because you're funny because... Yeah, go ahead. Well, I mean, I remember it because that's kind of how I think that you and I got back in contact. Yeah. Because I remember talking to you when you were in college. Yes.

That's our first contact. And then one day somebody said, there's this great interview on this website and it was you. And it was funny just because, like, I remember this guy from college. Yeah. So yeah. You're a big part of that as well because you did like a three-page review of that interview. October of 2007. Kurt had just been arrested for a DUI.

And he gave me his first big exclusive. and you reviewed it in The Observer. I thought I had reached the Mountain Top. My career was all downhill from that point. I was reviewed in The Observer. It was huge. So I always have to thank you for that. And it's going to be fun to talk to him later on the show.

But let's talk about UFC 185. I am having a hard time still 48 hours later of wrapping my head around what we saw on Saturday night. Halfel Dos Sanjos is the new UFC lightweight champion. He beat up Anthony Pettis. Is this shocking to you? Because I'm pretty shocked two days later. Yeah. I mean, the whole show was amazing.

because it was just different from any show in a long time because it's like every, you know, every match with either a finish or a dominant decision, there was like no complaining about the judging and all these things that you expect after a show. And in both championship matches, I mean, I, you know, with the benefit of hindsight, I guess I probably should have given you on a lot bigger of a chance

than I did. But with Dosanjos and Pettis, I mean, I've seen both of them fight for years and years. And no, I didn't expect anything like that. I mean, even if Dos Anjos could have won, I didn't rule that out of a possibility, but not like that. I mean, I thought that, you know, anything can happen in a fight type of win, not a five-round domination. This was the Baradilla-Shaw fight over, you know, in a lot of ways.

You know, there are some fighters who look unbelievable in most their fights. But then they always meet one guy who seems to have their number. You know, I think of Mike Brown, your eye, favor. That's a perfect example of that. You know, they could fight over and over again. and it seemed like Mike Brown was always going to beat Faber. Do you think that's the case here with Dosangos and Pettus, or do you think maybe the eye injury early on screwed him up?

And if they fight again, if they get a rematch, which one would expect one or two more wins for Pettus, he can be right back in there. Do you think he can perform a lot better than that? Because, like I said, that was a wipeout. And, I mean, with the way I saw, on that day, I just don't think that Pettus could have beaten him because there was, I mean, it wasn't like Pettus was that ineffective.

He was landing strikes early, but he couldn't block take. downs and he was just getting he was getting hit over and over again i mean i guess that the i'm sure obviously the eye injury played a part in it but i don't i think that that that fight that that guy was going to get he looked like he was going to steamroll him either way i mean it was again i i sense it was like dillishaw barrow and i guess we'll see in april yeah if dill shaw barrault goes the same way or if dill shaw barra's a different fight is this a is this a really big deal for the ufc business wise because they put a lot of chips on the pettist side of the table right they had weaids they

had rebuck he just signed with monster energy i mean He was doing a lot for them, and he's obviously got a great look, and he's very marketable. And now you have Dosanjos, who's a very great guy. I mean, he seems like a nice family man, but he doesn't have the same kind of buzz and sponsorships and all that. But he is Brazilian, and it wasn't all that long ago that we were saying, you know, Brazilian MMAs in a lot of trouble. All of a sudden, they have three champions, once again in the UFC if you want to count for Doom. How do you feel like this is for the UFC brass? Like, they'll never say it in person, but behind the scenes, do you think they're devastated about this?

I think devastated is too strong of a word, because this stuff is just going to happen. happen in the fight game. I mean, the one thing that I, and I always go back to this one, was when Chuck Liddell fought Rashad Evans. And if Chuck Liddell had beaten Rashad Evans, you know, there was going to be a Chuck Lidel, I think Forrest Griffin Championship match, which would have been like phenomenal at that time. It would have done in huge business. And Rashad Evans won. And I thought, oh, my God, I mean, I was devastated because it's like, I was a fan of wanting to see the company grow in a lot of ways. And I saw Dana afterwards, and it was just like, look, it's the fight game. This is what happens. And it's,

It's like, that's how I view it. It's like, you're going to have some go your way, and you're going to have some not go your way. And Anthony Pettis isn't done one long. You know, look at GSP. I don't, I don't, you know, and that was a devastating loss too. One loss doesn't kill you. It hurts.

It hurts. I mean, Pettis was a more marketable champion. They've been looking for that lightweight champion who could really cross over, which we haven't had since BJ Penn, really. And Pettus looked like he could have been that guy. I don't think he was quite there yet. Dosanos probably won't be that guy. But look, you know, UFC's having a great year right now,

and one championship, you know, going from Pettis, that's not good. Devastating, no. Would you say this is one of the most unexpected champions in UFC history, considering how his career went? I mean, the last one that I could think of is Matt Saren. He got the shot because he won a reality show. But again, when you consider that he lost his first two fights and then was just a 500 fighter for his first eight,

I mean, who saw this coming? I keep saying, like, he, to me, you know, like a Glycant T-bound, a Tiago Tavirus, I am not disrespecting them. But these are guys who are around for 19, 25, fights, you know, these Brazilian language that don't have, you know, a big following here in the States, but they're very reliable. They'll always show up to their fights. You know it's going to be a tough fight.

That's how I viewed Hafelde Los Angeles. I never thought that he would take that next step. And now here he is doing that and then some. To me, he almost kind of feels like the most unexpected champion in UFC history. Is that a crazy statement? It's up there. It's up there. I mean, I guess going through, you know, because I would say more than T.J. Dillishaw,

because I remember when T. Jillishaw came out of the reality show, I did think that he was a guy who could have been a champion. Sarah, yeah, just because GSP was such a monster that nobody thought that GSP could be beat. But yeah, I mean, I would, I would, that's pretty close, yeah. I don't want to call it the biggest upset and all this stuff

because the odds wouldn't suggest that, but just considering his career arc and how he started off, it feels unexpected to me. Now, they said that. Having said that, the Benson-Henderson fight was a real warning, and even a Soroni fight. I mean, it's not like, like with Sarah,

Sarah had never beaten anyone close to the level of GSP. I mean, the way he waxed Benson, when that fight was over, it was like, you know, this is a scary guy. And, you know, he destroyed, you know, he pretty much destroyed Nate Diaz. So, I mean, he had wins over real top guys, and they were, and they were not close wins. So, I mean, he was a very viable number one contender or number two contender or whatever in that thing. I always thought Khabib kind of was number one just because Kibib beat him and Khabib's undefeated. But, you know, he really very legitimately could be said was the number two contender coming in.

It also felt to a degree like, the Saroni fight, people were saying, oh, Seroero. Saroni didn't show up. The Benson fight, oh, it was a flashdown. Like, he wasn't getting the respect that he deserved until the Nate Diaz fight. I think the Nate Diaz fight, the way he broke him down with those like kicks, I think he started to then, you know, really get that respect as a number one contender. You mentioned, Habib, he's coming back against Saroni. What interests you more?

And both of them would be rematches, but the undefeated Nirmagamatov if he wins against Los Santos or Seroon, who's a huge fan favorite now. I mean, it's unbelievable what he's been able to do and almost become this sort of people's champion, him going for the belt for the first time. Soroni's the better one for business, but, uh, Kabib, I mean, the thing is, is like, when you, when you compile a record like he has, and with the win he had over Dosanios, and again, his win over Dosanios was not a close fight.

I mean, he just, he, you know, he didn't beat him the way that Dosanios beat Pettis, but he solidly won the fight. So, I mean, as a fan, I, if I, as far seeing the two top guys, I think that that's the big match in that division right now. You know, I mean, obviously whoever wins is, it should get the next shot, But, Khabib, yeah. Let's talk about the co-main event. I am very much on the Yohana Yom Jacek bandwagon.

I love everything that she is doing. From the way she dresses to the way she speaks, to what she says, her demeanor. And then, of course, above it all, her fighting style. And give credit to Dana White. From the moment she debuted in the UFC, he was all over her. I mean, he really pushed her.

He was tweeting about her, all this stuff. And now she's just the third European champion in UFC history. Of course, the first from Poland. I think that she can be a very big star, especially in Poland, and the timing couldn't be better for her. With them debuting in Poland next month, they're going to roll out the red carpet for her. Are you as high on her as I am? She's got a lot of charm.

Yeah. I mean, you really came across this last week. Yeah, yeah, I think that she's got, again, can it go through like all of Europe and as far as, you know, help the business in Poland? You know, when you have a champion in the country, it certainly helped. the sport in that country. So yeah, I mean, I think it's a positive. The thing with that division, I mean, the thing that it's like, okay, so who are going to be her contenders? And I mean, other than Claudia Adelaia, I mean, I'm having a hard time with contenders in that division. So there's going to, someone's got to start moving up the ranks.

Sure. You have that rematch. It was a somewhat controversial fight. But I think you've got to do Scotland, Joanne Calderwood, if she wins, you put her in Europe. Of course, it's the champion fighting on enemy territory, but that would make the title feel very important with Joanne Calderwood fighting in Scotland with a European champion defending the belt, you know, on home soil, if you will. I think that's the way to go. Well, I mean, what's going to happen is on that April 11th show, you know, whoever's the most impressive of those two fighters, you know, Godella and Calderwood,

I think that when that show was over, we're going to look and go, okay, this is the one that we want to see because she's, those two are, you know, it's great because when you have put two fighters on a situation on the same card and they know that one of them is, you know, you have to, you not only have to win, but you have to win impressively because there's somebody else who may very well win. So I really like that. I mean, it's great for that April 11th show in Krakow because what happens is that you've got, you know, her inner country and you're going to have two fights, both, you know, that are in line and, so to speak, where, you know, the title shot is at stake. Yeah, it really works out great for Sean Shelby in that division.

You know, what did you make of Asparza's demeanor? And I know this has talked about a lot, you know, on the show was highlighted that she gets nervous. But to me, I thought right away of UFC 118 and BJ Penn. She had no emotion. She was not moving. She actually did not move, like not even a muscle on her face moved. It seemed like all the talk, the moment, the first title defense really got to her. And she did not seem like herself from the get-go, even her shots, all that stuff.

Did you think the same? Because when I saw her right away, it felt like the fight was lost. I can't say right away, but boy, like two minutes in, you had this thing in your mind. like there's no way she can win this fight. I mean, it was, I think that it was just the idea that the difference in striking was so huge and she wasn't going to be able to keep taking her down. I mean, even if she got a bunch of takedowns early, just the energy expenditure wasn't going to work in five rounds.

But I just, I think that whatever it was, it's like it clicked in her head like, oh, my God, what do I do? You know, after she'd had, you know, I think Yowana, the whole key is, is just a much better fighter than the women that she fought in that house. And I think it was really clear. Yeah, and her takedown defense was amazing. She had shown that before in other UFC fights, but really highlighted in this fight. I want to ask you about Johnny Hendricks. You know, Dana White didn't seem all that impressed with his performance. Even Johnny himself didn't seem all that impressed with it, but he still says he wants the title next. The timing

doesn't really work out for him, and we know these days it's all about timing when you want to get a title shot. The title will be defended in July, so four months away, and we got Tyron Woodley coming up. He's been very vocal about getting that fight. Of course, they had a bit of a rivalry back in their college days. What would you like to see them do with Hendricks now? I mean, just because of the timing situation, I think it's up to Hendricks because Hendricks is a former

champion. I think you got a great win. I think he deserves a championship match right now. I think that if he wants to sit out and wait for that, fine, if not, I mean, Woodley's the guy. I mean, there's nobody else, and that's a good fight. But it's a risk

in the sense that, you know, anytime going to a fight. I would favor Hendricks over Woodley. I think he's got more tools. But, yeah, it's a risk. Woodley could have a great day, and then you're out of the picture for a championship fight for a while. Hendricks received some criticism for his performance, and I had no problem with it. I think that's the way you beat Matt Brown. What did you make of it? I thought he was really good. Yeah. Because it's like he struck with him when he needed to strike with him. He took him down when he had the opportunity to take him down. I mean, it was like he didn't finish him, but, I mean, You know, Matt, Robbie Lawler didn't finish Matt Brown either.

Matt Brown's a tough guy. And, I mean, when you're into a tough guy and there's a championship, you know, fight at stake, I mean, you go to your strengths, and his big advantage was the wrestling. And the thing is, it wasn't just like weak takedowns. These were great takedowns. I'm a fan of wrestling. So, I mean, it was like, I like, I like that fight a lot. I was surprised people were going like, oh, the fight wasn't that good.

And it's like, it wasn't the war of maybe the Hendricks and Lawler fights, but I thought it was a very entertaining fight. I was never bored for a second in it. Something interesting happened after the Overeem Nelson fight. Dana White glowing about Roy Nelson, who he's had a very rocky relationship with over the years. But he went out of his way to give him props at the press conference, even on Twitter yesterday saying he spoke to him,

saying he's not human, all this stuff. And I found out to be interesting because he was somewhat critical of Overeem and saying that he thought he should try to finish him later on in the fight. And I'm wondering, how can you be so blown away by Nelson absorbing all those shots and not give credit to the guy who was dishing out the punishment. I was blown away by Ream. I think he's the one we should be talking about. He seemed more relaxed, quick on his feet than usual. I thought that was a coming out party, if you will, for Overeign. The Overeign we've been waiting

for. Yeah, I mean, the key is they didn't get tired and he fought at a pretty decent pace. I mean, when I was looking at this fight going in, I expected a lot of what happened to take place early, but I just figured at some point Roy was going to catch him in a three-round fight, and Overeign would get tired. Right. Those were the two things. So I thought, like, I actually thought it was pretty good chance that, you know, that Roy Nelson would win, even watching that first round because it's like, okay, you know, he's

going to, at some point he's going to catch him, and at some point Overeign was going to get tired. But Overeign was a much smarter fighter than he's ever been in UFC. I mean, even like in his pride days when he was killing everyone, he was just coming out and killing everyone. I mean, this was, he paced it well, he had his strengths on Nelson. was anyone but Nelson, he's finishing that guy and probably late first round, early second. So, and again, okay, Mark Hunt did finish Roy Nelson, but Roy Nelson is very difficult to finish. So, I mean, I can't fault anything about Overeem's performance. It was his best performance in

UFC, really. I mean, I guess you could say the Lesnar won because it was so one-sided, but since the Lesnar fight anyway. Yeah, and I'm not trying to take anything away from Nelson. He certainly absorbed a lot of shots, and he showed a lot of heart. But to me, the big story coming out of that fight was Ream and really showing the effects of training with Jackson Winkle John now in Albuquerque. He seems like a much more polished fighter. And I was waiting for that moment, like you said, it came very late in the fight, but credit to Overeem, he was able to weather that storm. Now, I want to ask you also about Henry Sehudo. A lot of people excited about him. The guy speaking Spanish at the press conference, Dana White, very excited about him as well and saying he's all but

booked for Mexico City. How far away do you think he is from a title shop? Because let's be honest, that division needs someone like Henry Sehudo. Yeah, I would say if he goes, you know, in Mexico City against somebody like maybe Formiga, but, you know, a top guy, you know,

that's available in Wednesday. I could see him getting the shot, you know, the next shot right after that, just because, again, Demetrius Johnson has beaten everyone in the division. You know, you could go, I suppose, Dodson, but really, Sehudo would feel more fresh than Dodson. Sure. So

And I think he's more marketable on a worldwide basis with the gold medal and everything. So I would say one win. And, you know, I mean, I hate the idea of like two wins in the way class and you get a title shot. But if he can look like this, you know, and again, we don't know what happens, what happens against a tougher guy. I mean, a lot of guys look, you know, just spectacular on the way up. And then they hit a level and all of a sudden they're not spectacular. But if he can do one more fight like this against a top five guy, I would say, yeah.

because the one thing with him, because of the wrestling, and just because of the overall athleticism, he does feel, and nobody else does in that division, he does feel like a guy who maybe can beat Johnson. And the rest of those guys I look at and just go, I don't think any of them can beat Johnson. So I'm more excited about his prospects to get a shot than anybody else in the division.

So, yeah, I'm not afraid to kind of fast track it. Yeah, I do wish he had a little more time, but those are the cards that we're playing with at 125. Okay, all of that was for play to get to this. This is what I really want to talk to you about. You wrote a great article on MMA Fighting.com last week about Brock Lesnar, the hottest free agent in combat sports. We're around, I guess now two and a half, three weeks away or so

from him becoming an official free agent. Go on the record for us. Where is he going to sign? I mean, logic keeps telling me WWE. And it's the age. If he was 33, I would say UFC, 32, 33. But it's just he's been gone for three years. and the only I mean and I know he said this to people that he feels like he has unfinished business in UFC

but I just think that you know the age is tough you look at wrestlers his age and I mean that you know right when I you know right that that last show with Munoz and Koshik and it's like they were all contemporaries they were all in the NCAA tournament I mean Lesnar in 2000 Koshik was the same year and also in 01 and it's like I look at Munoz and Koshch and it's just like you know they're done and and and and Oh, keep going, keep going. Okay. So, yeah, so that's my, my feeling is it's probably going to be WWE.

It's just, especially with the kind of schedule he has, but the question is, will WWE offer him that same kind of Cush contract? And that may be the problem, because there is a problem, and I don't know what it is between him and Vince McMahon. I know it wasn't settled as of last Monday. I know that they are not. Brock is not on the show tonight, so Brock's next show will be this coming Monday. and that's his last show before WrestleMania.

There's not a problem. He was on the show last week. He's going to be at WrestleMania. That's all said and done. But his contract expires the day after WrestleMania. And, you know, Dana, I know Dana gets that twinkle in his eye. You know, we just kind of laugh. And it's like, you know, when he's a free agent, you know, we will have that discussion

where I feel, you know, from reading Dana that Dana is very confident. I know we're talking to people in UFC and that go, you know, we really think we're going to get him. So I guess it's a possibility. But with Brock, I always think that all of this is all set up by Brock. I think that the timing is just unbelievable. I mean, you've got Bellator in play, whether he'll actually go there. But he's got three places that he can go. He doesn't really need money and he can make money with any of them.

So it's just a question of at this age, does he want to be in competitive sports? Because if he doesn't do it now, he will never do it. and you do have those last regrets, the punk thing. If he has the mentality of punk, he'll take UFC, but I don't think he does. You know, speaking of punk, he told me that he believes his debut, coupled with Brock Lester's return, would beat the UFC's pay-per-view record. What do you think? I would have to see the lay of the land and what else is on that show

and how much momentum he gathers. And again, I mean, my gut right now would say no, but, you know, so much of UFC is just a depending on, you know, groundswell at the last minute. Sure. And, you know, and punk is great at talking. And, you know, again, how much interest there will be, it will do very well with wrestling fans, though, if you put both of them. If they were both returned on the same show, yeah, that would be a, that would be big with wrestling fans.

It would be curiosity. And if you had a big MMA title fight with a marquee star combined with those with the number two and number three fight with the right main event, yeah, you know, that one could do real well. A little quick thing, do you think it's going to be one of those situations where we'll only know what he's doing at WrestleMania, meaning if he loses the belt, he's gone. If he retains, we know he's staying. If he retains, we know he's staying. I don't think he's retaining, though. Okay.

Regardless. If he loses, I don't think it's a signal of anything. If he retains, though, if he retains, that would shock me. And that would mean, I don't see him retaining unless he's already signed the contract. And do you think there's a chance he doesn't sign before WrestleMania? Like there's a two-month period where we're kind of in limbo? or do you think it gets done either way around that time? I think pretty quickly after that time one way or the other.

Because, again, if he's going to make the move to UFC, the sooner the better, the time's not on his side. So whatever he's going to do, I think it's a decision that's going to be made probably very quickly after WrestleMania. Dave, a pleasure as always. Thank you so much for the time. We'll talk to you soon. Okay, great. Thanks, Ariel. All right, there he is. Dave Meltzer of MMAFighting.com

and, of course, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Let's move along now. We were just talking about him, and now we get to talk to him. talking about the man who is going to face Donald Seroni at UFC 187, May 23rd, a man who lights up my Twitter feed almost every day, and I love it. I'm talking about Habib Nirmagamatov, who's in California right now, I believe. Chabib, are you there? Yes, hi.

How are you? How are you, my friend? Where are you right now? Everything okay. I am on my way to the gym, and I'm in California. You're going to AKA, right? Yes, yes. Yes, every day.

You will be at A.k.a. from now until your fight, correct? Yes. Do you enjoy that, or would you prefer to stay home? No, I enjoy training in A.A. because, you know, every day, two-time training in A.K. And before, I have injured and I know training hard. But now I'm ready 100%. And every day I train him two-time with having a hard. members with a lot of guys in AKA and I enjoy it.

What was it like going back there? Because it had been around a year or so since you had been back, right? Good at you. Yes, yes. Were they happy to see you? I think so. Okay, I need to tell you. Yes, go ahead.

One of the best lives in the world, but why no life? Wait, you're one of the best? Yes. Of course. 100%. You're one of the best or the best? I think number one. Number one.

Well, I have to ask you about Saturday night because you were one of the first people to say, Hafeldo Sanjos is going to, quote, unquote, smash Anthony Pettis. And I've got to be honest with you, I didn't really believe you. I think maybe he can win, but smash? And that's exactly what happened. Why were you so confident? Because I feel Rafael Zosanos, when I fight with him, before fight with me, he smash five winstreet, he smashed warrague guys, smash Cowboys are only two, and after me he has very good winstriks, three winstreet, a cow, Benson Henderson. And when I fight with Rafael Dostanis, I feel he's a very strong guy, but, you know, when I say he smashed Anthony Pettys Vara, people say, hey,

Habib said, trash talk, la-l-la-la, but, you know, I feel this. I feel this because you remember after USC 181, I told you, I won't fight with Anthony Pettys. And you say, and you say, what plan you have with Anthony Pettis? I told you, move forward, push him, take him down, taking down easy, I told you, and give him a hard punch. And you know, I told you about this. Rafael Dosanas make my plan with Anthony Pettish.

And now I think a lot of people understand now. I'm no trash soccer. I say true. So are you suggesting, do you think that Pettis was overrated, that people in the media like myself thought he was better than he really is? No, I think he's no bad fighter, but he's ground. is grappling and wrestling is zero. This is my man, you know.

I think he's maybe top ten, maybe. Maybe. I think a lot of people in Lightwood can beat this guy. I think Michael Johnson, Edson Barbosa, and I, Rafael Dosanios, I think a lot of people can beat him, I think. So you think even if Dosangos fights him again, they have a rematch,

Dosangos wins easy? I think next fight maybe finish him. You remember, I told him he's not a true champion. Sure. And I told you before, I felt Osana Sanez can beat him, I can beat him, and a lot of fighters can beat him. But all the time, Donna White said he's Poundfam Pound King. He's one of the greatest.

His coaches say he's my weather in M.M.A. I think it's a joke, you understand. And now everybody understands who is who. Rafael Dosanos, I am, and Cowboy and Michael Johnson, these guys top five, top four, in lighter division. But now Anthony Peters go to the prelims. The prelims? Wait a second.

You know Pettas beat Sironi, right, and beat him rather quickly. Well, before, yes. Now, maybe no. Oh, okay. Maybe Pettis and Ceyroni, maybe same style, same waiting, you know, ranking. And I don't know. Are you disappointed that you're not the one to beat Anthony Pettis? Did you want that?

You know, I very won this fight, you know. And when you actually gave him Rafael Zanas, I understand. I'm understant, but no more. You know, I'm understanding. Rafael Dosanos Mesh him, and for me, need to fight versus Rafael Dosanis. And no more anti-beds. Now, for me, need forget and ententee. Let me ask you, why did you take the Soroni fight?

Because I think a lot of people would consider you already to be the number one contender, especially now after Dosangos won. But that fight is happening in, you know, around two plus months from now. Why not just have your next fight be for the title? Did you want to have a non-title fight first to get warmed up again because you've been out for so long? Because I think a lot of people wouldn't have, you know, criticized you

if you just waited for the belt. No, you know, now, Raffa Lsana, if I now take this fight, now Raffeldon has a little bit injured his knee. Yeah. Maybe he rocks two months and after he needs three months for preparing. This is five, six months.

You know, I don't want to wait, you know. So if you know how to fight with one, one and a half years, this is no good for you. And, you know, and my father say you need take one fight. My father and I'm all the time speaking with my father. And he said, you need one fight before the title shot because you have a big injury. And I listen to my father.

I listen to my big brother, Ali Abdelaziz, and Rivan. And he said, one fight before the title shot, this is no bad. And Cowboys start only before the title 5 is very good, very good opponent for me. Do you think this is the perfect opponent for you? Like this is the perfect way to get ready for a title shot. Do you not think he'll be a... Go ahead.

Before title shot, it's very good. But Cowboy is, I think, I'm all the time thinking, oh, I'm very comfortable, you know. for a minute for me need focus of this fight but I am I feel

I feel he all the time I smell this guy I feel but I feel a little bit scared

because my wrestling is another level and he all the time say this is no good fight for fans if this is no good fight for fans why you take this fight

I feel he a little bit scared really What makes you say that? I think, you know, his stand-up is no bad. But my pressure, my pressure, you know, my pressure, my spirit. You know her spirit. You know a lot of light of guys smash him.

And I watch his face in second and third round. he like, he, he, he like, you know, I don't know, but I, I, I, I, I, I, I feel 100% to scare. One hundred percent. You know, he did a Q&A on Friday in Dallas, and someone, someone asked him about you. Of course, a lot of people did, but one answer was, was, was very telling. He said, he's really getting under my skin, talking about you. He's doing a good job talking shit on Twitter. and trying to get under me, and it's working.

So I'm stalking that up, and I'm going to come fucking unglued. That's what he said about you. Are you happy that you're getting under his skin? No, I have no effort. This is funny, you know. Cowboy is fake. I don't think so. He's really a cowboy.

I think it's fake. The only time drink, drunk, you know. I don't think so he's really cowboy. You think he's fake cowboy, Fugazi? I am really cowboy. I am mountain guy, you know. I training cars all my life, and I'm racing with the beach. You know, I'm really cowboy. He's no guy. He's a drunk guy. Wait, you're saying you think you're more of a cowboy than cowboy Seroni. Is that what you're saying?

I am Dagestan cowboy, one percent. He's no really cowboy. Are you going to show up to the fight in May wearing a cowboy hat? No, no. I have my headgift, traditional Dagestan cowboy headgis. But are you surprised that you're getting a guy? under his skin because a lot of people talk trashed him, but he admitted it. And sometimes people don't admit this because they don't want to give you that victory. So were you surprised when you heard this? No, you know why he's a little bit nervous? Yeah. Because I say true. I say true because he a little bit nervous. I know it's a trash talk. I say true and he a little bit

nervous. Oh, for many wrestling, for many wrestling partners, but it's okay. After two months, we have a fight and we have this crazy fight. When cage closed, he understands, wow, this guy's crazy. Why I take this fight? Why I take this fight? Because I want to smash this guy. He said, I won't smear this guy, kick his ass. But, okay, 23rd May.

20th of May. Yeah. And, you know, I'm wondering, are you going to keep doing this? Are you going to keep talking to him on Twitter now that he's admitted that it's getting under his skin? Are you going to now even do it, you know, even more so than you were doing it before? I don't know, you know, I do what I want. I do what I want. And I feel I feel I am number one now.

I feel I'm number one, 26 years old. And I'm young. I'm hungry. And, you know, and I do what I want. And when cage clothes, cowboy, you need fly. And you fly 100%. Do you not like Cowboy? Do you have a problem with him personally?

Like, is this a guy that bothers you? No, no, I don't know. I see him maybe two or three times. Never have a problem with him. But he's no good, for example, for kids, for sports. You know, all the time drunk. Oh, I'm a cowboy. A lot of people.

He's all the time drunk after, you know, after fight. And I don't know, but I'm very comfortable. I believe myself. I believe my boxing, I believe my spirit, my wrestling is, you know, and cowboy. And this is good for me. He's all the time drunk. This is bad for him. And I can't wait when cage calls when. I can't wait. So since you're so good of predictions, let's go on the record right now. Two months, before the fight. How will you beat him? Now, I'm ready now maybe 75%.

Now I have eight weeks before fight. I turn hard all the time every day. I'm running, do crossfeed, wrestling, sparring, everything. I do everything. And after seven, eight weeks, I think my weight is good. I am ready 100% and I have very good plan I make a plan with my father

with Howard Mendes with my big brother Ali Abdelaziz and I think after seven, eight weeks I'm ready, 100%. I liked your tweet recently you said, hey someone wake up

Donald Seroni, I just had two workouts before. Where do you come up with this stuff? Who's your teacher? My teacher? Yeah, who's your teacher? Before I have one teacher, D.C., you know, but now he's very expensive for me. And now I change my teacher.

Ali Abelabela is my now teacher. He gave me English practice for free. He said after fight, I take money. Wow. And do you really believe that? Do you think he's taking you lightly, that he's sleeping in? He's not taking this fight seriously? I think I take this fight easy.

But Cowboy is no bad Seven wins streak Sure And you know Seven winsick is no easy But I am for him My style is It's crazy

This is my style for him It's very bad You know Carbo no like When you pressure him When you punch him Full forward No stop

Take him down Carbo no like Cowboy like Only stand kickboxing much You know I am no kickboxing I am a MMA fighter You know

and I think I take this fight easy. Like the Dostanis. Right. I think same fight. Hey, how about... Maybe I want second or third round. I want finishing. Maybe I give him Kimura.

Oh, really? Yes, this is my plan. If Cowboy listen, please, Cowboy need the training difference for Kimura. That's what you're going for. Yes, I want second or something. No, no, I won't give him Kimoda. Any difference. This is no joke.

This is no joke. After fight, we talk about this. We'll do it. I will remember. Hey, how about seeing another European, Ioanna Janjacheck win on Saturday night? It's like all of a sudden Europe, Europe, you can have a lot of, we can have Connor McGregor.

There could be, you know, of course, you, Yohanna, this is big, right? Wow. Johanna is crazy. I was this fight. She has a very big experience from Wai Thai, but she no kick, and she's only boxing. You know, she has very good plan, defense for wrestling and punches face, very relaxation in the cage. You know, she has only second fight in the UFC, and she's very relaxation, and she's very comfortable, you know. She's like a champion. And now she's champion. And I think nobody American girls can beat this girl. I will go. I think this is my mind.

She talks good trash, too. It seemed like she got under Carlos Barza's skin. No, no, I don't think so. She talks, she's trash. You don't think she said, too. Before she said, I take this belt, and after, after five, she tells. But this is no trash talk, you know. And this is, she's, she said.

She said and she do, you know, and she undefeited and understood it. But my point was it proves that maybe if you get in your opponent's mind, like perhaps you're doing with Cowboy, that's half the battle, right? I mean, if you do that, then the fight maybe goes your way, and it's an easier fight than if you weren't doing that. If you say what you think, you need say, you know, if you think you're taking down easy and take this fight, why? Why you know, say, you need say what you think.

And this is MMA. A lot of people here, a lot of UFC fighters. And you need talk. You know, you don't need talk, trash talk. You need talk, what you think, your mind. And what you have in your heart, you know. Everything okay. This is not bad.

This is a lot of people a little bit shy. But you need English if you come. if your English is no good, you need preparing your English, you need to say what you think. I think it's no bad. This is MMI. Sure. Okay, two last...

This is not only sport. This is no only sport. Entertainment, right? Yes, yes. I have two last quick questions for you. The first one is, how are they treating you back home? I mean, do they recognize that you are close to becoming a champion, that you have a big fight, all this stuff?

Do you get a lot of attention, a lot of media, a lot of sponsors? Are they treating you like the star that you are? In the home, now I am a little bit start, maybe. But, you know, a lot of people believe me in a lot of Russian faith. And, you know, believe me. And I think for me, I need to take this belt for Russian MMA. And, you know, if I take this belt, this is very good. for me, for my family, for my friends, for my team, for all Dagestan and Russian people.

And I think this year I take this belt. This is very important for me and for my people, very important. And my last thing is, this is a great card, UFC 187, two title fights, two amazing title fights, Widman, Belfort, and John Jones versus Rumble Johnson. But you have done a great job. Both of you have done a great job of selling this fight. Is it possible that your fight will be more? anticipated than the other two, the big title fights.

Do you think more people are going to look forward to your fight than the two title fights? I think my fight versus Cowboy, this fight is main event, I think. You missed one word, the people's main event, right? Because I think pound-for-pound king, John Jones, is Antonin-Joseon, no have chance. This is my man, and only first round. and Chris Weidman is through champ This is not very interesting

It's very old Ritor Belfar A number one contender fight Cowboy versus Numa Gamera I think is a very interesting fight for a lot of fans because I have a lot of fans in Russia

I know a lot of people watch now my fight and it's a very interesting fight I think my fight versus Cowboys man living By the way, have you ever talked to Fyodor, or have you talked to him recently,

about you kind of being the new generation of the Russian fighter? I talk only one time with Fyodor, and I don't know, we'll see. After this fight, we'll see, you know, but a lot of people believe me, and for a minute take this fight and after take the belt. And, you know, now I am, for a minute, very hard training, believe myself. And for a minute, come back after big surgery, hard training, and focus my this fight versus Cowboys. And after, take this belt, fight versus Ratholus Finners.

All right. Well, Chabib, a pleasure. Yes, yes. All right. Wang what you say? Oh no, I was going to say goodbye, but please say more. Yesterday, yesterday I read he say Ron Ronda Rosie

with Ronsarosey. Grappling much, but I think Ronda Rosie can beat Cowboy because cowboy's wrestling defense is zero. Maybe she'd take him down ten times and he danced. But yesterday I read this. What did you read? Did you read? That I said that? No, no, no. He said, he said, oh, I greatly told him on the whole day.

Ah, okay, okay. You think Rhonda takes him down ten times in a row? I think maybe seven or ten times she took him down and he's done, you know. Because Cowboy no like to take down. He was scared. He knows like to take down. And he need to go kickboxing. But in MMA, in MMA, this is very dangerous for him,

because he has a fight with me, I am a tag down machine, 21 times I have record. And when I have a fight with him, I won new letters, maybe 25, 24. And after a fight, we talk about this. I forget. I will remember. I'm so good, bud. Okay.

Ah, Habib, thank you so much. Salam al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Good luck to you. Okay, thank you so much. There he is. Chabibir Mugamatov. What more can you say about that man?

Proof that if you just learn a little English and are able to mark you yourself, this guy is taking everyone by storm, talks a mean game, and holy moly. I am now incredibly excited. He nailed it. People's main event, UFC 187. and Habib Nirmagamana versus Donald Serrani.

That is going to be a very fun buildup. It has begun already. He's the real cowboy. Oh my gosh. Can't wait to hear Donald's response to that. All right, let's move along. Another man who knows a thing or two about promoting oneself, getting your name, your word out there,

is our guest at this time. Friend of this show, perhaps New York Rick's favorite guest in the history of the M.A. Hour, he has gone on record as saying that. The one and only Tyrone Woodley joins us now in our new Skype machine. Tyron, how are you? I'm doing good. How you guys are doing? I'm doing great. Are we in your new palace? Is this where we're coming to?

We're in the new Woodley Palace. Look at you. And we're in the kitchen right now. Wow. You've made it. You're living large. Almost, almost. Got a couple more things I need to do. Now, I have a lot to talk to you before we get to Saturday. First things first, how's your leg? My leg's doing good. I get this cast off Monday, and I'll be ready to kick some blood pretty soon. Monday. Wow. This one by fast.

How much rehab do you have to do afterwards? It just depends. You know, I got a guy named Jeff Powell. He does something called Russian STEM, but a student machine called the ARPW. So it has ability to basically penetrate almost 500 muscle contractions per second. So this is going to speed up quite quickly for me because I didn't have any ligament damage.

You know, sometimes bone, once that bone's set in his heel, I'll make sure that my foot and my calves, my legs, everything that goes along with it that are up to speed and they're ready to roll. I saw you doing something. You had this like contraption on your leg and you were hitting the heavy bag. I've never seen something like this before. I think you were kind of, you had your knee was on it, but it was holding your stay.

Right? Well, what is that thing? I've never seen that before. Yeah, I want to give them too much props because they already getting a little extra love on the social media. Oh, and they're not paying you? They're not paying you. No, they're not paying me yet. So we got to, we got to hold off when giving their name out.

Okay, fair enough. But it's something that I use. You know, I also have a knee scooter and, you know, I think it's 2015. and I can sit around on my bud and get huge and, you know, miss weight like some of my peers. But what I want to do is I want to make sure that I'm ready to roll. I'm ready to fight. So you got to do extreme things.

So I put this thing on. Basically, it turns my leg into a peg leg. And I can move around. I can use both hands. I can do head motion. I can do pull-ups, push-ups, dips. So I'm going to maintain my strength during this period. My boxing coach and I just set up some times to work out three or four days a week

just to keep my hands rolling. and when this boot comes off, I'm going to be already halfway sprinting. Miss weight like some of my peers. Look at that subtle shot at Kelvin. I thought you guys were cool. We are cool, but last time I checked, I've seen some little interviews out there about him not losing to me and, you know, something about he was surprised.

The UFC wanted him to fight me. I just thought that was kind of a stab to me because I didn't really smash on him or bashed on him. And then, miraculously, we get a new tough coach. So I guess, you know, for me, I just need to do the opposite of what I've been doing, which is fighting top 10 guys, beating them. Then I'll project to that title shot. So do you kind of feel like you regret giving him that money?

No, not at all. I did that because I felt led by God to do that. I thought it was a good thing to do. It wasn't really him I was frustrated with. It was a fact that I felt like the fight wasn't promoted the way it should have been promoted. I feel like the mentions or talks of a number seventh rank guy fighting for a world title and just completely skipping past me. even the initial flyers that were saying,

Kelvin Gasselham versus Tyron Woodley, I think that, you know, I've earned my respect in this game. You know, I'm humble. I don't talk a lot of crap. And even after the fight, I never talked crap. I never talked crap leading up to the fight. I gave him a lot of credit because style-wise, he posed a lot of threats to my style.

And, you know, I gave him his due. And I just think that the fans and I think that the organization needs to, they need to get serious, man, because I'm tired of saying the same people fight for the title over and over again, You know, we need to get some new blood in there. And we will get to that in a second. But did you like the way that whole thing went down, you know, missing the weight and you kind of having to step up there? I mean, did you feel like that was all handled well?

You know, from Kelvin, I just told him that I wasn't frustrated with him. I just didn't like that on top of the frustration I had leading up to the fight, which I kept quiet about. I just went to my training camp. I had, you know, a good camp, and I came in and I prepared to do my thing. And then I get there and I'm ready to make weight. And then they told me 30 minutes before we walked out there. So if the way is at 4 o'clock, I learned about the weight issue at 3.30. Then after the way in, I felt like, you know, I felt like it was kind of draining down on me.

I'm like, I'm made weight. You know, so it is what it is. You know, I feel like sometimes those distractions come in training camp and they come before the fight. But if you've had a great camp and everything has been so fun, you enjoying it, your weight's great. It made sense to me that the distraction would have came at that point through that way and just trying to take my focus off the fight. So I sit down there and deal my thing, got the win.

And, you know, I think that's the sixth or seventh top ten guy I've beaten so far. And by the way, going back to the surgery for a second, you posted this hilarious video of you immediately after the surgery. That's the most pain you've ever felt in your life? In my life. Why was it so painful? It was so painful because my doctor's a sports doc. I got referred to him by the St.

Louis Rams. So they sent me to the best guy they had, you know, access to. This guy said, because I'm an athlete, and because I'm a fighter, and a lot of my fighting is done barefoot with my feet, he didn't want to give me what they call a nerve block. And if you've ever had surgery, a nerve block is your best friend. Oh. Ever, ever, ever. He didn't give me a nerve block because he didn't want me to have any nerve damage. So when he did that, I felt everything. Oh, no. If you hit a bump, I felt like I got surgery again, you know. If I didn't get a nerve, on the side. So for the first 48 hours, he said, you're not going to like me very much. You want to beat me up. But in the long call, I just didn't want anything. So he's been,

he's been extremely conservative on my rehab. He wants me to come back. He's a fan of MMA. He wants to see me wearing that belt. Wow, that is crazy. Okay, let's talk about Saturday. You have been very vocal about wanting to fight the winner of Hendricks Brown. Of course, Hendricks is now the winner. And you were all over Twitter. You're calling out, but I was surprised about something. Someone specifically asked Dana White about this at the press conference saying, did Tyrone Woodley hit you up after that fight asking for the fight? And we know that you've done this before. You did it with the Condor fight.

And he said no. I was surprised. I thought you would have gone straight to his phone. Why didn't you do that? Well, unfortunately, I have my phone for Skype right now. I would turn the phone towards you and I would show you the messages that Dana White received after the fight. You know, he didn't tell a lot. I sent it to him the next morning because I didn't want to bug him.

I know it was a long night. But usually it's just Dana. But this time, Joe got him. message. Lorenzo got a message. Danny got a message. I'm tired of this, man. It's to the point where I don't want to sound like I'm whining and complaining. But why do we have a ranking system? When you have a number five welterweight whose fault back-to-back, number one contender fights, it has never beaten the top-10 ever. He beat Eric Silva and he beat Jordan Mien, which are tough guys. I'm taking nothing from those guys. But they're not top ten. They're not Terik Safining, Paul Daly, Koshchek, Kahl as Condent. They're not Dung Young Kim who's beat Matt Brown. They're not Kelvin Gasolam, who they said will fight for a world tide if he beat me. At some point, you've got to realize that we're getting tired of these rematches, tired of these trilogies. You know, Johnny Hendress has fought GSP.

It was a close fight. When I was there, I thought he won. When I rewatch it, I thought GSB won. He followed Robbie and two close fights. I think that we need some new blood. We got these guys like myself and other fighters who are doing what they're supposed to do. How does the number five rank fighter? fight the number one guy and I don't fight the number one guy. I felt like I felt like Matt Brown should have been fighting Carlos Condon. I should have been fighting

I should have been fighting Johnny Hendricks and maybe Gasolum and Tiago can fight or something. You know what I mean? They can shuffle the deck a little bit differently and what they've done is I think we've gotten a little greedy with the matchups and it's throwing everybody off sync. So now you got these guys fighting in March and then you got robbing and Roy fighting in July. Yeah. Technically they didn't fight. in the world's higher to fight. They didn't even fight a five-round fight. So therefore, they should be ready to fight around July. They shouldn't wait seven, eight months. That's four months away. So they're supposed to wait four months, and then the champion's supposed to turn around

and fight in two or three months. It's going to be eight months before the opportunity to fight the one. And what if somebody get injured? What if somebody get hurt? What if it's a draw? So in the meantime, I think Johnny should fight me. We got unfinished business from the Big 12 days.

I think it's a great style matchup. Two wrestlers with heavy power, you know, beating a lot of top 10 guys. And I think that when he made his stake to get to the title, he did the same thing where he did. They beat all these guys, and they deserved the title, but they didn't get it. He finally got his opportunity, okay? Now it's guys like me who's had some bumps along the road, but I've always came back like elastic.

You saw me lose the freaking Jay Shields, and I bounced back and I knock out freaking, you know, I knock out Kashek. I lose to Roy McDonnell. Two months later, I'll start notice. I knock out of Dunyon, Kim. Let's be for real. Let's get this thing going. Okay, so what do you think?

Did you get any responses? Did you get any feedback from this idea of yours? No, I haven't, but I got the feedback from the fans, and I know they're getting it, because unless you just turns your notifications off, the social media world has been booming talking about this fight. I think it makes sense. You know, I might even see Johnny this weekend at the NCAA tournament. Oh.

And I'm going to say, hey, Johnny. We can be cool before. We can be cool immediately after. We need to get this fight on, man. It's what the fans want to see. It's great for the wrestling community, which is pretty much 75% of the top fighters are wrestlers. So I think this fight makes a lot of sense.

What did you think of his performance on Saturday? I thought he did what he had to do to win. I was more impressed with Matt Brown, to be honest. I thought Matt Brown on his feet, man, he looked phenomenal. He was laying on some nasty elbows. He was pressuring. even, you know, I think he just got out class with the wrestling. And even when he got up finally got away, he was right back on Johnny.

And I think Johnny weathered the storm. I think in another round or two, you know, if he wouldn't have been able to take him down, he might have been in some trouble. But he did what he needed to do. I'm not a fan of these guys. Let's get this clear. I don't, like, call fighters out. I'm saying this is factual.

It should happen because we got two top guys that are at a certain point in that career. Think about Robbie Lawler. He lost to Johnny within the last 90s. seconds. What did he have to do to get another title shot? He had to fight Jack Ellenberger. He had to fight Matt Brown. He didn't get an immediate shot. He had the two fights in between. So why should Johnny, who's been in the title fight, probably the last three fights of his, last three or four fights, why should he get immediate shot after one win over a top five guy who's never been the top ten opponent? Let's be real. You got to walk through a guy like me to get

that title shot. What do you think about doing the fight on July 11th, the same night as the Walterway title fight. I mentioned that during the time is now, big pressure that the UFC had, when they announced that Robbie was going to fight that day when it was doing that big drug drug, PD deal, I text then to that day and I said, I don't know if my foot is going to be ready, but we need to shuffle the deck. I need that fight against Johnny Hendricks, is not hating a Matt Brown, but let's be real. Just because you can last in a five-round fight, you can last in a fight against a guy.

Lasting don't mean S-H-I. You have to beat somebody. You can't just last and compete. Anybody can compete. You know, that kid Chris was in there fighting DJ, you know, jumped in that fight, and he was trying to compete. Does that mean you throw him up in the rankings because he competed? No, you got to win.

You got to beat. So I didn't get any reply back then. I didn't get any reply back yesterday. Where's the love? Where's the love? So I don't know. But I know how the game works. I know it's times that the UFC needs me to do something. They need me to take this fight.

They need me to come on through. So I think my approach on those times might differ a little tap bit. You're saying that that's why they're not responding to you because you didn't step up in the past? No, I always step up in the past. Now, I didn't step up when they wanted me to fight Hector, which made no sense to me. But I've stepped up on short notice against Dunga Kim. You know, I had fought. They called me like three days after my fight and I took that fight.

I think guys like Soroni are great for the sport, but they're not the standard. You know, they're not the line. Everybody, you know, I think Benson is doing the same thing. Now, I'll fight anybody anytime. Why do you think Donald Seroni, as good as he is, as big of draws he is, has never, ever even fought for a world title? Not that he's tried and lost. He's got so many performance bonuses, so many fighting in the night, so many fights, wins and losses in the UFC. he has never fought for a world title.

Why do you think that is? You tell me. Because he's not making good choices on fights. You know, at the end of the day, I'm a subcontract worker. You asked me, hey, you want to fight this guy? I should be able to say, hey, this guy makes more sense for me. Nobody in our division is a weak opponent.

One through 15, I would even stretch it out to the 20 of the World War Division are guys that are just need the chance, just need the opportunity. If you shuffle the debt, we can have a tough. top, new top 10 every week if we match up different fights. So I think he hasn't fought for a world title, not because of what he's not able to do or who he's beating, is because he's willing to take fights

that doesn't make sense for his career. If I beat this guy, where does this put me? If I beat this guy is going to project me into the number one contingent ship spot. No, I just want to fight this guy because, you know, I want to show that I'm tough. And I don't think that's wise. I think you got to

know that you tough just because you are and you got to take fights because it takes you the next level. And I think this fight against Khabib, is that fight. These are the fights he's needed. This is a fight that's going to put him in a position. You know, he lost the Pettis. If he beat Khabi, I think he'll be fighting Dosayno's. I think he'll be getting that fight.

But if he took more fights like this, to be in better spot. By the way, so would you be ready for July 11th? Do you think you would be? I think so. You know, I mean, I'm going to push it. I mean, like I said, I'm going to push it as hard as I can. Right now, you've got to do the math. if I get out of this baby in a week

that puts us at what? March, 18th, whatever that is? March 19th, March, April, May, June, July. That's four months. I'll be ready. Let's do it. Okay. Hey, I got to ask you about this before I let you go,

and you've made a great case, and I'm on board with this idea for the record. How are things back home? Because once again, Ferguson, near and dear to your heart, I mean, what's going on here now? It's all over the news. Yeah, you know, I thought it was settled down a little bit, but I guess not.

Actually, the officer that got shot in the face, he graduated with my wife. Oh, man. It was the same high school. Yeah, so it gets too close, man. You know, I was just in Ferguson. The other day getting my haircut and the day before, somebody got shot in the face. So I think hopefully it gets better before it gets worse. I thought we had some progress.

I thought we had some steps forward in the right direction. But, you know, I don't watch the news as much as I should now. just because I don't want to come home. I'm all happy. If you look at my Instagram, I just put up the most ridiculous video that everybody should die laughing at. So I'm in good spirits, man.

I've been reading a lot of books on, you know, how to be a better businessman and life after MMA. Just everything is so positive. It's the first time I've been injured, and I've taken this time to really take a look at my circle, take a look at my situation, and think about, you know, my 10-year projection and where I want to be and how do I get to be,

not just the champion, not just a person who's fighting for a title shot as everybody hears somebody say and repeats, but being the best in your weight class in the world consistently and to rein over that division for as long as you can and finish on top. So that's what I've been focusing on. And I think watching the news, man, sometimes because it's like, that's my street. Like, I lived on that street. So it's like really depressing the watch. What's the mood like, though, when you go get a hair kind of stuff? I mean, what are people doing and saying and acting like?

my barbershop's pretty gangster though so it's like they didn't get they didn't get any like they were standing outside they said not this building to my left not this building to the right definitely not us because if you set them on fire we might catch fire every i'm talking about 12 to 13 buildings completely burned to the ground like completely burned to the ground and they they haven't been touched they've never stopped operating business they've never boarded up their windows and they've been in the community for 20 years. So when I go is love, I just go in there, get my hair cut, and talk about MMA, crack

jokes on each other, and I dip out. All right, well, our best obviously to the city of Ferguson. Hopefully, as you said, it gets better before it gets worse. Very disturbing stuff, and that it's all starting again, hopefully not, but that it was back in the news last week is very disheartening.

You've done a great job of selling us, my friend, so kudos. I hope you get the fight. And most importantly, I hope they respond to you. I mean, really. Yeah, I hope they respond. Number one, and if I don't get the fight, like offer me a fight that makes sense. Don't just put some young buck killer in front of me and think I'm supposed to just want to take that fight. I was that young buck killer.

I was the one that was trying to knock somebody off. You know, I think I've earned the respect that I should be able to fight somebody that if I beat this guy, I should be in line for a title. If he beats me, he should be in line for a title. If the person is nowhere near of a title right now, I shouldn't be fighting him. And it's only a few guys that make sense. Well said. Get well soon. good luck my man thanks as always great stuff all right thank you brother appreciate it there he is tyron

woodley tremendous stuff as always very well spoken and knows exactly what he wants and we like those kind of people go out there tell us what you want get or done great stuff that would make a lot of sense july 11th international fight week you got the two title fights you got the welterweight title on the line a potential number i mean that could be a number one contender fight what else makes sense, right? Hendricks versus Woodley. Throwback. That'd be fun. All right, in a minute, we're going to be joined by a man that a lot of people are very excited to hear from. Reza Madadi. Remember him? UFC. When two and one in the UFC, a lot of people thought he could go, he should have gone three and oh. Remember he had that controversial split decision loss to

Christiana Marcelo, defeated Michael Johnson, and how good does that one look now? submitted him via Darce Choke, but that was in April of 2013. That was his last fight. In May of 2013, he was arrested for burglary. The papers in Sweden reported that Medadian an accomplice broke into a designer handbag store and stole a bunch of goods. He was sentenced, and that sentence is complete, and now he is a free man, and I would imagine, ready to to resume his once-promising MMA career. I'm very curious to talk to him. I believe we are connecting with him in just a matter of seconds.

We'll talk to him. He is in Sweden. Of course, a member of that great team, the All-Stars team that Alexander Gustafin is the face of, but they got a lot of great fighters over there now. Of course, Jimmy Manuel has recently joined them and a whole bunch of others, and we do have him right now. We'll go back to the Skype machine. We'll go to Sweden and welcome in.

Reza Madadi. he is. How are you, my friend? How are you, guys? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. And we have my good friend Thomas here as well. Oh, perfect. Hi, Thomas. I cannot see you, but hi, anyway. No, I'm saying hello to that man over there. Next to you. Okay, the man over here. Yes, Thomas. Thomas. Thomas. How are you? So thank you so much for joining us, Reza. It is great to have you on the show, and a lot of people are very excited to hear from you. So we haven't seen you in a long time. I was just going through a bit of your history. When did you get released from prison?

Last week, brother, first of all, I want to thank you to having me in your show. It's a great honor for me to be in your show. And hey, to hi, I say hello to everybody, watch your show. And yes, they released me last week. It's good to be back to All-Star and Star Train. How long were you in prison for? I get near to two years, one and, nine months, yeah.

But I was behind the bars, 40 months. And what was the, what day were you released? Last week. Do you remember? Monday or Tuesday. What was it like when you were a free man?

You know, I became a father exactly before I get to the jail. And yeah, it was a hard time because I had a kid and I became father. It was difficult to leave my kid. yeah, go to the jail.

And, you know, I was convicted for in, it was, the circumstance that was not convicted, you know. It was, they didn't find any DNA, any, they couldn't prove against me. But, you know, anyway, brother, this is behind me and in my past. And I just, looking forward, I won, the only purpose I have in my life, is get back to UFC and, yeah, show the fans, show the UFC, show the world. And I'm a different person. I want to start my new life.

Like I told you, I became a father. I have a good team behind me, all stars. And, yeah, this cannot be wrong. Let me ask you a quick favor. I believe, is your computer volume on? Can you turn it off? Because I'm hearing some feedback when you speak. I'm hearing your answer again.

Is your computer speakers on? Yeah, guys, can you turn off the computer? Or maybe just turn off the video player for this show, because I think the show page is up, and I'm hearing the feedback from that. So they'll do that in a second. I just want to ask you also, was that your first child that you had? Yes, it was. Your first child, and were you able to see your child while you were in jail,

or was this the first time when you got out? Now, I couldn't see my child, and they came and visited me in my... wife. She was wonderful. She came every week and I visited her and my kids. But it was hard anyway. How did you pass the time? I train every day. I went to the school and was a good kid. So I did my time, training and just study. That's it. Were you able to watch UFC? I don't want to watch the UFC because it makes me feel very bad, especially when I saw Michael Johnson's fight. Sure, that's what my next question was.

Yeah, it was very, very hard time. It was like a really bad punishment for me to see. Don't get me wrong. I'm so happy for him. He's a great fighter. And I hope he can get the ball. built. But you know, it's so hard to see the guys, not even, not just Mr. Michael Johnson, all other fighters to see them compete, fighting. And I was like, I mean, I was behind the

bars. So it was hard time. Even when, even when the UFC was in Stockholm and your friend was in the main event and said you, you didn't watch any of that. No, I, I, it was, It was, I don't want to see that. Yeah, it was very hard time. So I just heard what's happening. And I know Alex want to come back. So, yeah, that's life. Did people recognize you and say, oh, of course I've watched you.

Like, how were you treated there? You were a celebrity in Sweden? Yes, I am. And people, they was very nice against me there. And, yeah, they like me. I trained with a couple of guys there. They helped me a lot to train. so don't waste the time.

No one messed with the mad dog over there, right? Yeah, no, no, no. People are good with me to me. Okay, so I have to ask you this because you sort of plan, I want to clear it up. Are you saying that you had nothing to do with this, that you were falsely accused? Brother, I want to tell you clearly.

Yeah. They arrest me outside of, some garage one over after that shit happened. Yeah. And they didn't find anything on me in my car, in my home, any DNA, nothing. And yes, it wasn't drugs. It was some smashing grab, middle of Stockholm. And yes.

So where were you that night? Like how could you go to jail then if you had nothing to do? with it? We was in some other city outside of Stockholm. Sorry, I bleeding in my nose. We had the sparring, box, sparring. I still bleeding.

Yeah. Sorry. Back to work. Whoa. That's a lot of blood. Who punched you? Of course. Yeah. Some crazy guy. Okay. So, I had my car outside that garage and I want to pick up my car because

we want to go to Russia. me and some clubs, some guys from my club, and my All-Star gym. And, yeah, they arrest me outside of a garage because the garage was involved in smashing grab. Yeah. And I never taught I'm going to go to jail, but no, I'm here. And anyway, that is my past.

Sure. So I don't want to think about it. I just want to move forward, do some good job for the kids in the bad neighborhoods, get back with the UFC, and just be a good father, good father. Did you or your team try to explain this to the UFC? I mean, on the one hand, you can understand

they needed to cut ties, but did anyone try to explain that you were innocent? You know, that's what you claim and that you deserve to still be a member of the UFC? And of course I understand U.S. They got my contract is normal. But I hope they can give me one other chance, one more opportunity to get back. And I think my manager and stuff, they talk to UFC.

Yeah. Actually, I want to ask them because I didn't think about it, your question. I want to ask them if they talk to UFC or not. You can ask them right now if you want. Yeah, wait a minute. Wait, wait, sorry. Oh, you're going to ask them right now. Okay.

We are... That's up and plan for 40 to walk. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, they spoke to UFC and they have a plan, so let's see if plans work out. Are you saying that you only want to fight in UFC? Would you be willing to go somewhere else to build your record back up to show that you're a good Samaritan? Or is it UFC or a bus for you?

No, of course, my purpose is to go back to UFC, because I deserve to be there. I mean, don't misunderstand me. I'm a great fighter. I did a good fight when I was in UFC, and my last fight was a victory. They didn't cut me because I lose my fight. And I love to fight.

I love to be there in the cage, inside the octagon. So if I cannot get back to UFC, of course, it's other organizations. but the purpose is UFC. The only U.S. Right. And what was it like when you went back to the gym for the first time last week?

How did your friends, your teammates receive you? It was great. Everybody was so happy and hugs me, give me kisses and not that kind of kisses. Sure, no, no. I mean, emotional. It must have been emotional, right? Yeah, of course.

And everybody said the Miss Mad Dog because I'm the only crazy guy here in the club. I make fun. stuff, joking. Yeah. Do you think people say you give us inspiration and you're... So it was nice to be back in my second's home, All-Star Gym. You know, there was a time, you know, Swedish MMA is booming.

But, you know, lately there have been some bumps in the road, right? Some losses. Do you think that they missed you? Like, are you kind of the, not the captain, but the guy who helps keep everyone's spirits up and maybe they missed you? And this is a reason why there have been some strong. struggles lately? Do you think that? I don't think so. The guys they had a little bit unlucky, but you can ask themselves,

Alexander, everybody else, they say exactly the same. I'm not the captain. I'm just, I try to be the good role model, good friends for everybody, because I say good friends, they push up, they try to get up each other, you know, push each other forward to be good fighter, train harder, and I'm that kind of the guy here in the gym. I try to push everybody to the good way to train harder and train hard, fight hard. I mean, you understand what I mean. So now I'm back and let's see what's happening. You know, one of my favorite Mad Dog stories is you helped save a man and their baby, right,

when they fell in the water? Yes, that's true. It's a beautiful story. And you deserve a lot of credit for that. Are you worried, you know, and clearly that shows that, you know, you have a good heart, you're a good person. Are you worried that people will continue to bring up this allegation in your time in jail and not remember you for the good things that you've done?

You know, brother, actually I don't care because I'm a God who is really believed to God. And I say, I mean, I did that. It was, I mean, it was short for me. It was, of course I need to jump in the water and save their father and the children. And after some people, they want to take a picture of me to send to some newspaper. I said, no, no, no, no, never. I did it because I want to save life. I don't want a publicity or be in the newspaper and stuff.

And the people, the fans who meet me, they always going to remember me because I always try to be humble, to be a nice guy, to help my friends, clubmate, everybody. And, of course, that's a dark part of my life. Yeah. And some people going always talk about it. You know, we have a lot of keyboard warriors. And you do some things bad, people are always going to talk about it. But you do 100 good stuff, people never talk about it.

But still, for me, it doesn't matter. For me, the most important is to be the good person and just do good stuff. And this is my past, like I told you. By the way, I was looking at your Twitter, and you were tweeting like in January and part of that. How were you tweeting if you were in jail? My Twitter account was the friend of mine. Ah. Yes, Instagram and Twitter, everything.

Just to keep you in the news, just to keep you apart of the conversation. Exactly, yes. But you didn't have access to the Internet when you're there? No, no, no, no, no, brother. Wow. What are the accommodations? Do they treat you well, or was it rough? The prison is prison.

It doesn't matter which part of the world you are. But honestly, they treat me very well. Okay. Because I try to always be humble, to be a nice guy, even which situation I am. So now they treat me well. It was hard to be far away from my kid, gym training

something I really love fighting but now it's okay brother I'm back and I don't even think about it by the way I can sense and I know that you are a spiritual person was there ever a time when you felt like

that that's all you had like you know when you're alone there and you're thinking about your career and your family and everything was that was that what kept you going how did you not sort of break down because I can imagine people would break down when when when you're in there all by yourself, right? It was a really good, funny question

because, brother, I'm telling you, the life is very funny. It can't change over one second, one minute. I mean, we drove with a limousine one day, me, Alexander Gustafson, went to the summit club to hit the little bit pads, get paid for that.

And all the sponsor, I was a famous guy here in Sweden, and day after I was in the some jail. They took me, they drove me with a police car and my life was changed. They cut my UFC contract. I lose my job. I couldn't see my wife when she was pregnant.

I lose money. Everything. I lose everything over one night. Exactly everything I've been up in 34, 35 years. And what makes me to get stronger, you are, you know how strong. you are when the only choice you have is to be strong, you know, and I didn't have any other choice. I don't want to give up. I don't want to just give up like this. I work hard so hard in 34,

35 years to be, I mean to be a UFC fighter and I lose it everything over one night. But actually was a lot of the keyboard warrior haters, they make me this sad. Okay, guys. you don't believe me. When nobody believes me, I'm going to believe myself. And I want to get back, and I want to show everybody nothing is over.

How much time do you think you need to get back to the shape that you were in? How many more months or weeks do you need to be back in that UFC shape that you were in before going to jail? Brother, I promise you give me to the beginning of summer and I'm back in my shape. I mean, I swear to God.

But if you're going to give me fight, if two weeks are going to jump in and fight. But back in my real shape, I need the beginning of summer. Okay. And do you have any regrets? I mean, you say that you had nothing to do with this, but, you know, sometimes wrong place, wrong time or the wrong friends, et cetera. Do you have any regrets? Brother, I don't regret anything in my life because everything I done to make me this person I am today. Don't make me wrong.

but I'm the totally different guy now today because I had it two years of real hell. Up and down, up and down, up and down. And, you know, I appreciate my life. The other way, I appreciate my friends, my family, my job, my career, my club. So, no, I don't regret anything. But every day, every second, every minute, every hour,

I try to be a better person, to be a better guy. I mean, the guy in my position shouldn't be in that position to get caught, convicted, and to get jailed. You know what I mean? Sure. I shouldn't be in the wrong place, is what I'm telling you. So I tried, like I told you, for every day, for every minute, I try to be a better guy. Better human, yes. Two last quick things.

Were you the only one that went to jail, or did someone else or other people go as well? Were you the only one that they convicted? No, I was the only one. Wow, the only one. Yeah. Yeah. Are you going to fight back?

Are you going to do anything? Like, can you say that you were wrongfully convicted? Are you going to try to, I don't know if you can do anything about this, or are you letting it go? No, I tried. I tried, I tried many times, but it's so difficult to, do some things. It was hard for me.

My lawyer told me it's going to be hard. So I had a little keys. The most important for me was I don't want to lose more of my kids because it's growing up and I don't want to be behind the bar. So I just let everything go.

I understand. And you understand. understand what I mean. It said, let me do my time, and I want to come out, have it behind me. That's it. Last thing, do you have a message to the UFC? If they're watching anyone there to give you another chance, anything you want to say to them, perhaps a good opportunity to speak to them here. Yeah, I know. I really begging to all the guys, all the Dana White, everybody listened to give me just one shot, one opportunity to get back. So I can show me. Yeah, do my best because the UFC I belong to.

Good luck to you, Reza. Thank you so much for the time. Congratulations on the birth of your child. And welcome back. It was great to talk to you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And thanks for having me.

And Tumas, my manager, he wanted to talk to you if he's possible. Yes. Yes, I love him. All of me. Let's speak to him. And I say hello to everybody and listen to you. Say, okay, guys. Bye-bye. Thank you so much, Mad Dog.

There he is. And here is my good friend Thomas. How are you? Good, Ariel. you. I'm great. Listen, I've been listening to Reza. He's trying to play a little bit humble, but, you know, I'm here in the gym every day. We have eight, nine UFC fighters here. The guy is in amazing shape, and that's the reason we're really pushing for him to get back there.

The last person he defeated was Michael Johnson. He's shape. You can't believe he's been away for two years. Yeah. And, you know, I just wanted to get back there to show the world, you know what we are seeing here every day. He's here, he's pushing everyone else, he's making everyone else better fighter. So, you know, we're doing everything. We're in touch with the UFC and trying to plan for him to get back there. Are you confident it will happen?

You know, the UFC always wants the best fighters in the world. Yeah. Reza is one of the best fighters in the world. He's training harder than anyone else. And, you know, I believe we can get him back there. You know, he just needs to get back in training. we need to do a few steps but whatever he's done in his past

he's a free man now and everybody should have the right for the second chance well said all right thank you very much Thomas I appreciate the time good luck to you guys and keep us posted on your progress definitely okay all the best to you thank you there he is all right great stuff here you know it's it's an interesting story you know he says that you know there have been a lot of second chances

and you know the the works speaks for itself. Your last fight is against Michael Johnson, a win over Michael Johnson, who is doing so well now, so close to really cracking that top three, top four, called out Benson Henderson in his last fight. So paid his debt to society. He's locked up. Wasn't there for his kid's birth. Says he's innocent. All the best to him. One of the true characters. Definitely a character, Mad Dog is, in the sport. And we appreciate him coming on and talking about what was probably not the happiest time of his life. All right, in a minute, we are going to be joined by a man who is very interesting, who has been all over the news

as of late, not just MMA news, but he has been all over the mainstream sports news, not even mainstream sports, just normal, interesting news, random news. I'm talking about about Phoenix Jones. Phoenix Jones is the alias of a man named Ben Fodor. You may recall that last name I said at the top of the show, Carlos Fodor, former strike force fighter. This is a guy who, well, I can't wait to talk to him, but he really came to the forefront. He's been doing this for quite some time, but he really came to the forefront last week when ESPN Sports Center aired an amazing 10-minute feature on him. He is the leader of the Rain City superhero movement. Phoenix Jones is his persona, if you will,

and he patrols the streets of Seattle, Washington, to essentially fight crime, clean up the streets. We have a lot to talk to him about. Let's bring him in here. You don't need to hear me talk about it. I want to hear from him. Let's go to line one. Phoenix Jones, aka Ben Fodor, is on the line.

Phoenix, are you there? Yes, sir. How's doing? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. Should I call you Ben or should I call you Phoenix? Man, you can call me whatever you want to. I don't care.

This is Ariel O'WaWanning, man. You can do what you want. All right. Well, I'm going to call you Phoenix. I think that's a really cool name. I want to work backwards here. You know, that story came out on ESPN, and I mean, I can't even imagine what's happened to you since.

And, of course, we know that you signed with World Series of Fighting, but how has your life changed in the last week since that aired? When that aired, I had $117 to my name at that point, and hadn't been paid yet, and was thinking about possibly quitting MMA. Wow. And now, yeah, and now I'm doing all right. So how are you even making money?

How, like, what were you doing? Well, I work with autistic kids for a living, and that's what I was doing, and I just couldn't put in enough hours to maintain being the champ because I was also the local Washington State champ here for the SFL America and then for another Washington title. So I couldn't maintain training enough time. And I was thinking I got to either work or fight and I can't seem to make money fighting.

Okay, so this airs. Did you know that this was coming? I mean, obviously you worked with them on it, but did you know like it was happening that weekend? No, I had no idea. Like we worked out such a long time ago and then it got cut and then it got brought back. And I didn't think it was going to air. It was originally like for like a 30,

30 thing, and then all of a sudden, with like, I got this email, and they're like, hey, you're on TV in like two hours. Oh. So you weren't pinning your hopes and dreams and aspirations on that story. That was kind of in the back of your mind. Yeah, no, I had nothing going on. Actually, I kind of figured the story was dead. And then what did you think when you saw it?

How did you think they did? You know, I thought they did a really good job of actually chronicling it in the right order. A lot of people know that I'm out there and I fight crime. Not a lot of people know about the MMA and know about how hard I really strive to actually help people. Like how much I follow the law and how long I've been on the street. I've been out for like five years. People don't realize it's not something I did quickly. It took a long time, you know?

And how did they even find you? I mean, like, why did they do this now? I think, I'm pretty sure one of the producers was up in Seattle and happened to actually catch me in the street fight and was like, yeah, we've got to figure out who this guy is. Wow. He said, I kept getting emails before like, hey, were you the guy who was in the street fight at this date at this time?

And I was like, I don't know. I assume. But I'm there's a lot of street fight. Wait, so he saw you with his own eyes or saw a video of you? No, it started with his own eyes. It was up there shooting something. Okay. And literally, yeah, it was literally, I looked out, saw a street fight, and never got a chance

to give me an interview or a card or anything, and I just kind of took off. Do you think if that story doesn't run at this, point, you know, March 16, 2015, are you done with MMA? Do you think that saved your career? I definitely think it saved my career, man. I don't know if I'm done with him a make, I had a fight scheduled for April 25th. But after that fight, if I hadn't, you know, I was going to talk to the league and say, look, I need to make X amount of dollars to survive. And if I can't do that, I got to, I got to go to work. My kids come first, you know? Sure. And let's start from the beginning. So as the story goes, you're out walking,

with your son, you notice that your car window is broken, your son falls, and is gushing blood, right? And in that moment, you decide that you need to do something about this, because you couldn't tell him with 100% certainty that he was going to be safe the next time you guys go out. Is that accurate? It's pretty close. I mean, basically, we went to a water park, and we were coming back to our car from the water park. And it wasn't just that my car had been broken into, is that a lot of cars had been broken into. And my son was, you know, he's He was asking, it was my son and his cousin,

and they were asking questions about why people take other people things and how, you know, what we're going to do to stop it. And, you know, am I like the Ninja Turtles? And when it got to the conversation of what I was going to do, I couldn't tell I'm going to do nothing. You know, what am I going to tell my kid, oh, you know, I'm going to let somebody hurt you and break into our car and take our thing if I'm not going to do anything about it?

I just felt like that was, I don't know, negligence of parents. So, I mean, a lot of, we face these things as parents all the time. What do you do next? Like, how do you go from that to where you are now? Well, you know, now that we're past the statute of limitations, I can be totally honest with all what I did. I got super pissed. And I went and I checked out some public traffic camps because our city has, all the traffic cams are publicly accessible. I watched like 70 hours of videotape and finally figured out who it was who broke into my car and the other cars in the surrounding area.

Then me and the buddy went back to that parking lot and hid there on the weekend around the same time our car got broken. into until we were able to confront the guy. We beat him up, took all of his clothes, left him naked in the woods, and bought a bunch of cheeseburgers with his money, and gave him to the homeless people. Wow. And now you're just dressed as a normal human being here. You didn't have the costume

and all that. Oh, no, not at that point. At that point, I had, like, a ski app. I bought it, like, R.E.I. For, like, snowboarding, and that was shirtless. That was worth the gene. It was totally not. We didn't really think we'd catch it, I think we were just doing something because we were mad. I think when he showed up. We were just like what we do.

The same guy. Yeah, it was definitely the same guy. Was he acting alone? You know, I don't know. I think it was in the car because he came from a blind corner and he came up to the car and threw the rock through the window to break another car. We started going through the car. We rolled up on him and then a car just peeled out.

So I imagine he was working with somebody else. But, you know, they were never on video. I never saw them. So I kind of considered it even. Now, what year is this? This is, man, summer 2010, because I got caught breaking in. A guy doing a grand theft auto stealing a car from somebody in 2011, and that was the first time I got caught, and the police put out the, you know,

trying to do this guy is and put posters all over the city. And that was January 7, 2011. So it was the summer before that when we caught this guy. Okay, wait a minute. We'll get to that in a second. Are you fighting at this point summer of 2010? Have you trained at all in MMA? Oh, yeah, man.

I had a long. I went 25 and 2 as an amateur with five titles. I've been fighting for forever. I mean, I got my first black belt to 13. I've been fighting for a long time. Now, why such a long amateur career? I mean, sometimes in MMA, you see guys that don't even have an amateur career. Why'd you stay amateur so long?

You know, it was one of those things where I didn't really ever think I was going to go pro. I was really happy, you know, with my, I was really happy with my thing. I like fighting. I never really thought I was going to go anywhere, I make money. doing it, you know, at the time, I just wanted to fight. So I kept fighting and I kept winning, and eventually it got ridiculous because the guys I was fighting were, like, make it to the UFC. So I started getting kind of mad.

I was like, everybody's making all this money, and I'm not. And then I went to work and kind of backed off and would just decide my title every couple of months, you know? So do you regret that? Because, like you said, I mean, as an amateur, you can't make money. Do you regret sticking around as an amateur so long? Yeah, I definitely, I definitely think that I should have gone pro earlier. But it gives me, it gives me. The fighter I am now is so much better than the fighter I was then, and I have so many experiences

that maybe it'll help me in the future. I can't really judge it. If I look at it just in a square box, I go, dang, I missed an opportunity. Because, I mean, I thought Cody McKenzie from the fighter. I thought, like, everyone from Sikh Jitsu, that whole, like, Spokane camps that's all over all over the O-C now. I mean, I thought so many guys that were just as good then, you know? Okay, so you take down this guy summer of 2010, you beat him up, you buy the cheeseburgers, all that. Then what's the next step? Well, the next time is it's over. So we go home, me and the camera guy, we go home,

we're like, this was crazy. We never should do this again. We're going to go to jail like this. It's stupid. Right? Right. So we had a break dancing crew, and we're out of the break dancing battle. And we went outside, and while we're outside, this guy comes,

one of our friends comes to someone up to us, and he's bleeding from his head. And we're like, man, what happened? And he goes, that dude over there hit me in the head with a stick. Wow. And while he's standing there, the dude is literally standing there holding the stick, just kind of looking at this dude, and we're thinking, what's going to happen next? And he kind of charges forward. So as he charges forward, we sort of, like, you know, walk towards him and he turns around

just walking the other way. So I run to my car to grab my cell phone because the break-damp he did. You never break the end with a cell phone, I don't go flying into the crowd, right? Sure, sure, sure, of course. So I run to the car to grab my cell phone. And right when I get to it, I open up the glove box and I see the mask from the night that we we stopped that other dude beat him up with the cheesers because it's only been a couple months later, you know?

And I was like, I'm about to do something real stupid. I ditched this shirt again, took the mask on and went out with this guy, and we got in the street fight, ended up beating him up, and I caught him, and the cop showed up, and I found out there's a law in Washington State that as long as you're not being suspected of a crime, and there's a witness, like somebody else who wants to be a witness, you don't have to give your name. So they asked me my name. I said Phoenix Jones, they took it down, and that was kind of the beginning.

Where'd that name come from? Excuse me to my son's middle name. Okay. And Jones is the most common last name in America the year I was born. So it was pretty easy for me to think of it. It was like, I do it a common person now, and originally I did it for my son. I kind of just put them together. So they just let you go.

They had nothing that they can do. Well, there's nothing. I didn't break the law. I'm allowed to defend people. And as long as it's a witness, yeah, they just basically let me go. It was kind of crazy. Okay, then what's the next step? Well, after that, then I was like, I'm sold.

I'm a superhero. Oh, let me want. Two days later in the newspaper, the paper shows up at my mom's house. Along goes, do you see this crazy guy? There's a picture of me and a cop, and I'm in a, what we call it, a skin tight, like, training underarmor shirt. I've got my ski mask on, and it's a superhero defend people outside nightclub. And I'm like, yeah, that's it.

I'm a superhero. Wow. That is unbelievable. Now, were you a superhero fan growing up? You're the kind of guy that, like, dreamt of being Superman and all that stuff? Not really. So here's the thing. I'm a comic book fan, right?

Yeah. I think that's part of this. I think, you know, for anyone, there's a logic gap when you're like, yeah, so someone broke into my car. And then obviously, I went out and bought a boy pursuit and fought crime. No, it doesn't work like that. Like, it was something in me that was going to fight crime, I think, that I always wanted to. But I never had a reason or a purpose. And it sort of took off in a way.

way where it was less crazy. My friends were on board. If my friends had been like, man, your suit would stop it. This would have never happened. Okay, so then you see yourself, you're looking good, you got the scheme ass, under armor, you say you're sold your superhero. Then what's the next step? Well, at that point I was like, I need to be a better, more recognizable outfit.

Like, now people know I'm out there. So, like, you know, I've got to figure this out. So I went to Walmart and bought like an all-black, like, under-armor suit, all-blue, under-armor suit, like a tape, a fedore. and all this, like, awesome stuff. And within, like, 48 hours of walking around the hood, I got stabbed. What? Really? Yeah.

You're just walking in, you're just walking wearing that outfit, and someone comes and stabs you. Totally. I'm walking down the street, right? And this guy comes down to the corner, and he starts, like, asking if I want to buy a crack or something, I can't remember what it was. And I was like, no, I don't. But I'm like, but I'll take that from you. And I was like, no, you won't.

And while I'm looking at him, some dude comes up behind me and just shank me. Where? Where do you hit you? Lower right side. Just stuck me right in the lower right. Now, were you in a bad area? Oh, yeah. Seattle's got like four bad areas that are all like four blocks.

Okay. Which is why I'm so good at being a superhero because I can just walk these four blocks for hours and I'll find all the crime I need. Yeah, and basically, you know, I took off running and I thought to myself, I ought to figure out what to do. And then from that point on, you know, it was all about acquiring better gear.

So the next like six months, when we went out and fought crime, it was me and a buddy, and we wore the same stuff, but we got better gear. We went and got Bulletproof v. Then we got B3O, reflective armor, and then we got this rubber Batman suit off Craigslist. I don't think we cut the ears off of it and, like, molded it down, so it didn't look like a fat suit. And it just got more and more and more crazy.

So what do you do? You call up your buddy and you're like, what are you doing tonight? Let's go fight crime? Or did you treat this as a job? You know, we couldn't really do it that way because his wife wasn't super down. Okay. You know, she didn't really like it. So we joined a bowling league because I'm also a bowling champion, so it's not weird

for me to bowl. Okay. So we joined a bowling league, and then instead of going on the Saturday bowling league, we went out and fought crime. So it was like every Saturday instead of bowling, we were out fighting crime. Wow. Okay, so now you have the whole lot. By the way, how do you get a Batman suit that looks like a legit, that looks like one

of them from the movies? Like, how did you get such a great Batman suit? Well, the Batman suit you see now, the one we have. have now is actually legitimate Phoenix Jones. The original one didn't look as cool. And how you get it is you go online, right? And you go to like eBay or in California, in type of where the California studios are, you know, down there in 818 area code. And you can get like old props, like old used props. We end up getting it from a wax store. Then we cut the years off and had it and had it literally sand it down and then plugged it with like a, what do you call it, like,

rubber cement glue and some paper machet and just made it happen. How much it cost you? The first it was like, maybe like $1,300. And now the second one? Eventually, the one I have now is like $10,000. Wow, how'd you for that? Credit card. And then a credit card, a $3,000 loan for my mom.

Okay, so now... Which I paid back. Sure. So now at the height of all of this, as you're walking around and fighting crime... Are you going every single night? Like once the cat is out of the bag and, you know, your buddy's wife, she has to figure out what you guys are doing. I'm assuming it at some point, are you going every single night? Is this really your full-time job?

And by the way, what are your hours? Like, when do you come out and when do you go home? Okay, so we used to have a rule. We didn't go home until we stopped a crime. You had to stop at least one. At least one. So we go out at like, you know, 9.30. And sometimes we come home at like 6 in the morning.

So sometimes we come over like 11. It depends whenever we stop a crime, we'd come home. Okay. Because the area is really small. So once you're like announced that you're there, you can't just keep walking in a circle because the dudes buddies are going to show up and beat you up. So there's a whole science behind this, and you're only patrolling Seattle, right? We did like Seattle and surrounding areas. And then we narrowed it down to like four areas that really, really suck and are like really kind of like crime ridden.

And we went out to those areas. And then it's starting to become a really big deal to the point where you were arrested and you had to, you had to reveal yourself, correct? Yeah, the police arrested me, and I'm in the courthouse, right? And the district attorney, they're like, the judge goes, you don't have enough to charge him. He's like, there's no faith in the video, you can't tell who it is, he didn't really break the law, like, you can't charge him, you're not going to win. And the DA goes, well, we'll do what every superhero hates, we'll release your identity. Oh. And I was thought of myself, I'm like, oh, man.

And then as I'm getting ready to leave the courtroom, one of my good friend, Peter Tangan, who, he's a Hollywood movie producer. We met him halfway through the first year we were fighting crime because he couldn't believe it was really He wanted to fly me down to take photos with me Right He's there because he's a good friend of mine at that point He goes man, this is your Iron Man moment I'm like, what do you mean?

He goes, you need to go up there and rip your mask off and like Iron Man up Yeah And I was like I can't I can't do that And we went out and we did it It was like literally like a movie We were on every single newspaper in Seattle On every news channel it was crazy So you do that and then, I mean, how does your life change from there?

Yeah, from there, man, I got a movie deal to go shoot a reality TV show. Okay. So they gave us this like money up front to shoot the reality show and they started following us around in like two weeks into shooting this reality show. They come and they're like, yeah, you know, this is pretty dangerous. We just want you to like reenact a fighting crime. And I'm like, no, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I'm not going to fake fight crime. Like, if you shut down a street to Seattle

and put me fake fight crime, my life is over. Right. Like, no. Right? So then they bailed on the show, and they made me, like, not do any TV for, like, one year, which kind of killed a lot of the buzz. Yeah.

And then they, you know, they let me keep the money advance, which was nice. So I got to pay my mom back and, like, make my suit even and things like that. Okay. But, yeah, then I had one year of just fighting crime kind of under the radar, where I wasn't really allowed to do any media because I was contracted.

by these people who wanted me to fake fight crime. And are you still doing your normal job at the same time? Still my normal job at the same time. I never quit doing that. I worked with kids all the time. They didn't have a problem with this? At one point they did, they fired me. The state fired me and said I shouldn't work around children.

And then I went and I had to take a mental eval test to prove I wasn't crazy. But I passed with a high aptitude. So I kind of got my job back. And throughout this time, you still have that because in the ESPN, you know, short story, whatever you want to call it. Your coach says that, you know, you could have been to UFC and all this stuff, but you put your career on hold. When do you go back to you to MMA training?

You know, I put it on hold in maybe 2011. No, no, no, no, no. 2013. I think it was like September 2013. I got a call from a league that went under. And they're like, hey, we're going to be the next biggest league in Seattle. We'll give you, you know, we'll give you like money to come fight. and they wanted to give me like a thousand bucks like 500 and 500 or something right and I was like no I'm like I wouldn't do it I'm like the only way I would do it is like I have a car payment I'm like my car and to fix my suit is like 3,300 3,400 so if you do that I'll do it and they said no way their main event canceled they called me up a month ahead of time and they're like yo if you can do it we'll give you $3,400 bucks so at that point I said oh I'm in okay and that kicks things off but by the way I mean you know now that people know

who you are, is your life ever in danger? I mean, you're, because you're, because you're, getting involved in these things that necessarily don't have anything to do with you. Do you have, like, gangs coming after you, or, like, I don't know what the scene is over there, but everyone knows who you are. It's, it's not like you're the synonymous superheroes, and you have a family. So how do you deal with that? Well, now my gear's a lot better, plus I'm pretty incognito, you know? Like, when I roll around the hood, I don't, like, walk around in my suit, like, like, I'm walking around like a trench coat

with my soup up and then when I bust up I bust the crime then by the time I fix the crime I'm out of the hood okay like I said you stop a crime

and you leave but people they know who you like they can call you up they can look you up in the phone book no no actually you know

open air contest everyone listen and if you can figure out my address and it's not 5226 university way it's not the comic book store okay

if you can figure out my address man I'll give you a free t-shirt oh my lord so are you still doing this Are you still going out every night? Yeah, I went out last night. How many people you catch?

Man, last night was terrible. We didn't catch anybody. We walked around, I took a whole bunch of selfies outside a club, basically. Like, there's a bunch of happy people to see me, and, like, there's what I take photos. But, by the way, isn't that a good thing that you didn't catch anyone? That means the streets are safe? Not exactly. I mean, it's like, it means there's some of crime somewhere, and I wasn't in the right place.

Oh. What's the biggest crime you stop? There's always a crime. What's the biggest one? you stop? Wow. It depends how you look at it. The government will say the biggest crime I stopped is I stopped the Homeland Act of

Terrorism, which I think is an overstatement, but that's what it's listed as, so I'm going to keep it. Sure. These guys bought little pipe bombs and trying to throw me into the federal building, and we got into a big fight with them outside, and they had to go away, and it was all this stuff, and eventually they got in trouble, so. That's unbelievable. Okay, so now that you're going out, I'm sure people are stopping you, like we were saying

to the selfies. Is that getting annoying? Would you rather people didn't know who you were? I would always rather fight crime than think selfies, yeah. Okay. But at the same time, it's the awareness factor. Like, I can't tell you how many people come up to me and they're like, hey, I would have never thought to fight crime,

but I saw something that happened, and I knew who you were, and I did this. So it's sort of an awareness thing. Now that the ESPN thing came out and you posted that picture of all those contracts and everything, why did you pick WSOF? They didn't want me to stop me in Phoenix Jones. The other ones did? Other contracts had a lot of clauses about what I could and could not do. Okay.

And it didn't exactly say stop being Phoenix Jones, but it did sort of say that. It is like, you know, eight weeks before a fight, you can't engage in risky or, like, mischievous behavior that they wouldn't limit. And, like, other contracts basically said, like, they have the rights for the Phoenix Jones name. We're going to, like, make dolls and action figures and stuff. If I wanted to do that, I would have done it when Sabon came to me years ago. Sure. So you signed with them and you're debuting in April at Mohegan Sun, April 10th. Who are you fighting?

You know, I just found out who I'm fighting today. And in the email it said, do not say who I'm fighting. Oh, that's no fun. I know, right? Do you know the guys? Do you know the guy? Is he a big name? He's not a big name to me. I did watch him fight on the World Series.

I'm not going to say this number, but I did see him fight. Okay. And you're fighting at 170? I am. I'm fighting at 170. I want to move down weight, I think. I really was sitting there and looking at the roster. And I really want to fight at 55. At my amateur career, I did when I was really training at the beginning, I did 55. And then I went to 170 because it was easier to make weight, not train. So, and when you go to, like, let's say you go to New York or, you know, Mohegan Sun. I am going to New York on the 26th. On the 26th of March? Yeah, I'm going up there to go fight some crime and golf with a couple of guys and start a new team up there. Well, that was what I was going to ask.

Can you bring your costume with you and come here and do it, or are you only, I guess not? I wondered if you were only kind of tied to the Seattle area. Oh, no, I've got teams everywhere. I got a team in the UK. I got a team in Dubai. One in Georgia. And it looks like we're going to start New York. Oh, my Lord.

All right. Well, this has been fascinating stuff. And you're not stopping anytime soon, right? You're going to keep going, even up to the fight, all that. I try to give myself like a 10-day gap before the fight. Okay. And then after the fight, I'm going to be literally right near New Jersey. So I'm going to New Jersey to fight crime.

It's going to be awesome. Will you come out wearing the suit to the fight? You know, I haven't decided. It's pretty hard to get off because there's like three layers. There's the fire underproof and the bulletproofing, then the D-3-0 and then the weighted armor. So since I just got the signing bonus, I'm calling over and getting a new suit made that is one zip-up. So if the new suit's made in time, I think. I might.

Amazing. I love it. And I love the hair, by the way. The hair is brilliant. Keep doing what you're doing, man. I'm going to bring it back. Yeah, this is great stuff. I love every second of it.

It's tremendous. I showed it to my wife yesterday that story. I mean, it's just, it caters to everyone. It's a fascinating story. I can't wait for your debut in WSOF. World Series. Are you going? I don't know if I'm going to be around there.

It's not that far from where I live, but man, you might get me all. It's like a two and a half hour drive. Man, if you go, I'll get you a ticket. Okay. Although you got one anyway. get a credential to cover it. But let me know when you come to New York, all right? All right, deal.

I'll give you a call when I'm in New York, because we should get together. I don't know if you want to come to cry with me, but I'm going out and doing some crazy stuff. Yeah, yeah, I could do it. I have a good mask. By the way, I screwed up. It's at Foxwoods, not Mohegan's Sun. My mistake. Still the same area, like five minutes away from each other.

But I have a cool luchador mask. My nose sticks out. They call me El Nauriz. It's great. Oh, my God. Get I'm ready. I'm so ready right now. All right, man.

Well, best of luck to you. Thank you so much for the time, and keep doing what you're doing. Keep cleaning up the streets. You stay classy. Make good choices. All right. Thank you very much. There he is.

Phoenix Jones, a.k. Ben Fodor, tremendous stuff, cleaning up the streets. I love every second of it. All right, let's move along now. Let's welcome in our next guest. This man is a former Olympic gold medalist. He's one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. And on Friday, on Destination America, at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 Central, he will be competing against Bobby Lashley for the very first time. TNA Impact. I'm talking about the one and only

the Hall of Fame or the legend. Kurt Angle making his MMA hour debut. Kurt, are you there? Hey, how you doing, man? Kurt, it has been a while. Do you remember me? Yeah. Yeah. I'm really happy with the success you've had. I'm very happy for you. I'm brave. Well, we have to take a little trip down memory lane here, Kurt. I mean, because I owe a lot to you. You were my first big interview back in October of 2007, you're the one that helped really get my name out there. You were tremendously kind to me, and I can't thank you enough. And, you know, we worked a little bit together behind the scenes at TNA. You even tried to get me a job working there before I became a journalist. Yeah. This is a great pleasure for me to have you on the show to be able to thank you publicly

because you were really great to me, and I've always remembered it. Hey, no, thank you, man. I'm always kind of out of this, but you did that all on your own, and I'm real proud of you, everyone. Thank you very much, Kurt. So let's talk about this. Your first, time. I was shocked when I was told this is your first match against Bobby Lashley? Is that true? Never before? We never touched. Never got in a ring.

Never practiced technique. Nothing. This was just cold as cold gets. And I was, you know, it's obviously Friday, but this Friday, but Bobby is a beast. I'm really impressed by his ability and, you know, being able to wrestle him on Friday for the World Heavyweight title, I think it's going to a five-star. I know how good he is and I know how good I still am and I really think that together

we're going to be able to put on a five-star performance. It's interesting you say you know how good you still are. Do you still have the same passion and love for pro wrestling as you did when you started? I mean, you've been around for, you know, what is it, almost 20 years now. It's amazing. Do you still feel the same about it? Yeah, you know, I'm older, a little wiser. You know, my body, you know, doesn't prepare us quickly. You know, I've had to reduce a part-time schedule and I don't care with that. As long as I'm doing what I love to do and doing it part-time, I can put on those five stars, but I couldn't go full-time and go every night the way I used to.

It just, it doesn't work for me now. I'm 46. I hate to say it, but I'm getting old. The old man can still go, but not as many times for the year. When you say part-time, what does that mean? How many nights? 40 days a year. Okay.

That's the contract I signed with it. impact. They were very gracious to me. You know, they gave me everything I wanted it more. And that's why I stayed. They were very loyal. And, you know, I can't do enough to repay them. And all I can do is what I do best in the ring.

And you recently resigned, right? I think you were a free agent around December or so. Is that accurate? Yes, we signed December. It's January until January 1st next year. signed a one-year deal. Oh, and what do you think? Do you think you'll stick around, or is that it for you after that year?

You know, I've been debating. I think it's time for me to hang it up. If I do go one more year, that will be it. You know, if you told me two years ago, I would have said seven more years. But, no, where I am now, you know, I'm okay with going out the way I'm doing it. And, you know, I've had a great career. I've had a great career in WLEA and great career in A

I can honestly say I've had a better career in TNA and there are a lot of WLEC fans that haven't seen that and that does suck but for the TNA fans they've seen Cardangelo as best Does that bother you that maybe your best years weren't seen by the most amount of people possible? You know what? It did it first but that's okay

I mean you know I have my time in DOLU. and I look back at the matches I've had and they were incredible. I mean, I don't know if I could have done better. I just had better matches. I wouldn't say better matches, more better matches in TNA than I did in W.L.B. So, you know, with AJ Stout, Samoa Joe Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Bobby Rude, you know, Bobby Lashley, obviously this Friday, but there are just so many guys there that, you know, if I wouldn't have went to TNA,

I might have regret to not left some of the guys that I was able to there. And so I feel good about my career, and I feel both good about going out with TNA. If I decided to go to the LW next year, that that will be my last year. But right now, I'm happy where I am. And, you know, for, you know, for MMA fans, we know TNA because it was linked to Bellator for a long time on Spike TV. Of course, now you're on Destination America. can you explain to us what happened there? Why did TNA not stick with Spike?

Because it seemed like the ratings were pretty good, all things considered for Spike. Why did they have to move? You know, this is unofficial. This is my opinion, but I think it had a lot to do with promotion. We had a hard time with getting a lot of promotion from Spike. It seemed like we were promoting more for their other shows than they were promoting for us. I think it had to do a little bit with money, the contract agreement, and the TNA might have wanted more, and I think they did deserve more. I really don't know for sure what went on, but I know that Destination America has given us an incredible platform, and I know it's a young network, but, you know, we're on their network all the time, and it's just so much, it's better exposure, and they're promoting us, and they're advertising us, just not just on Destinian.

America, but there are other networks under the Discovery Channel. It's just overall, it's better for TNA. I think that we made the right decision. I'm very happy with Destination America. You know, Kurt, I remember way back when, when we used to talk, you told me that you were considering going to the IFL, right? They were talking to you. They wanted you bad, right?

Yeah, I, you know what? I've had meetings with them all. IFL, MMA, World Series of fighting, probably at XC, twice with the UFC. It's just, you know, whether it was the money or the timing, it just wasn't right. You know, I consider going up until I was probably 42. I couldn't even think about doing it now, you know, unfortunately, but I don't regret it.

I stuck with who was loyal with me. I mean, when I met with Dana White, he wanted me to quit wrestling entirely. And I respected that decision. Dan is right. But I just signed with TNA. And, you know, it was like, it was basically, I signed that week with TNA,

met with Dana White the same week. He told me I needed to quit. And I couldn't go back and tell Dixie Carter, listen, I'm going to back out. You know, it was just, so, you know, and the second time I met with Dana, you know, we talked and we had a great, great conversation.

I took the physical, and it's just, you know, he wanted me to be on the, a real fighter with Kimbo. Yeah. And, and he was great.

He was willing to pay me a good bit of money to be on that show. Obviously, the other fighters were going to be on for no money. But he wanted me ready

in four and a half weeks, and it just wasn't, it wasn't in the cards, you know. Unfortunately, I think there would have been great TV, but,

you know, he was born this time, to a six-fight deal after the show. But he wanted me on the show. So it just wasn't going to happen in four and a half weeks. Did he ever present a fight to you? Like, was there ever a fight on the table that was brought to your attention? The first time, yeah, which I thought was, you know, considering my health at the time

when I did that stint with Dan Puter and WV, and I could do five push-ups. My neck was so bad. and, you know, he caught me with an arm bar, and, you know, I took him down, and he was cranking pretty hard, you know, thank goodness he pinned himself, but, you know, it was a wrestling match. It wasn't really an MMA match, an MMA fight, so, but the thing is, he had me, you know, and Dana wanted to go with that. Oh. And I thought, wow, not that I would say Daniel Pudor's an easy fight, but for me, I don't think it would have been a problem. that was good. I was good with that.

But unfortunately, and it was big money. Unfortunately, I just signed with TNA, Sweet Age Prize. And you have no regrets. In the back of your mind, you don't think, wow, I wish I would have done this bucket list type of thing. I believe I would have been just as good at MMA as I work pro wrestling, but I don't regret it. I can't go back and change everything.

I can tell you this. If the money were there in MN.A. when I came out of the Olympics, I would have went the MMA route, but it wasn't there. It wasn't there until I was four years into my WLO career. And I was already invested in it, and I loved it.

I loved pro wrestling. So, you know, unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be for me to be an MMA, but I don't regret going the pro wrestling route. I love this. And, of course, the follow-up question is C.M. Punk. He's doing what a lot of, you know, people in your position might have done,

maybe a few years ago, if you were a little bit younger, he's throwing it all, you know, not throwing it all away, but he's saying goodbye to WWE, and he's jumping into a sport that he doesn't have experience. At least you were, you know, an Olympic medalist. I mean, you've wrestled your entire life. He doesn't have that background. How do you think he's going to do?

You know, talking to personal friends of Champunk, I think he'll do okay. I know he's been training. He's been training for a while, not just when he quit WWV, but he was doing it for a while beforehand. I think he's got a solid base. You know, personally, if I were the promoter,

and I would not give him a ringer. I wouldn't give him a guy that's going to kill him. You know, I'd give him someone that would, you know, be a good competition for him. But I don't know what I don't know what Dana White has for him. You know, obviously nobody knows who he's going to fight. But I don't think he's going to be one of the best. I think he'd go in there and be competitive.

And I hope he is. You know, the kid's talented. He's, you know, I don't know how great he is at Jiu-Jitsu and M.A. But, you know, he's got a talent. And I think he's really good. I think he'd be a great commentator in the future if they decide to go that way. He's really good on that stick. And I think he is knowledgeable enough in MMA that he knows what he's talking about.

So we'll see what happens with his fight. I hope he does well. And after that, I think the best thing for him is to, you know, do some commentating announcing. Didn't World Series of Fighting try to hire you as a commentator? Yeah, we're still working on it. I've been talking to Sean quite a bit. Back before. I've just been so busy with things I'm doing right now with movies.

And I have another project that I'm allowed to talk about. I invested a lot of time in. But, you know, Sean has been great. you know, he wants to to fly me in the New York once a month and do the show and, you know, the show that is on TV and I consider it.

I just need to find the right time to do it. So we were going back and forth about it. By the way, were you surprised that UFC signed Punk and not some small organization? Like some people were upset about that kind of thing. What do you think? You mean that punk went to UFC? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Bellator. Right. If I were punk, they're all good. I mean, I like low series of fighting. I like Bellator. But, you know, the UFC right now is the king pen.

It's, you know, I think anybody that wants to make a mark, I don't want to say that because the other companies are great, too. It's just USC's number one right now, so I can understand why punk went that route. But I think that he might have more longevity in the other. companies. And I'm dying to ask you this. What do you think Brock Lesnar is going to do? Do you think he's going to go back?

Man, Brock, I think he's going to fight again. I just don't know when. I think he still has more left in the tank. I don't think that I believe everybody knows he was not 100% his last few fights. Brock was having a hard time.

And he went back to pro-lesson because he could take care of himself there. But if he's healthy and that, I think you'd still do some damage. Brock's a beast. He's a great athlete. I have a lot of respect for him. So I think he's going to fight again.

I just don't know if he's going to do it when his contract ends this time or if he's going to sign him with that I'll be for another year. I don't know. So back to Lashley, he dabbles in both right now. What do you think? Is he a better wrestler or M.MA fighter? Oh, gosh. That's tough.

I think if Bobby focused on one and not both, I think he'd be 10 times better. at either. Bobby is really, really good as a pro wrestler. I know he does some damages in an MMA fighter, but if he focused on one, I think that

he could be the best at either one of them. He is really, he's another, he's a Brock Vester. He's a beast. He's powerful. He's explosive. I haven't, I had a wrestler with this much athletic ability at his shot since Brock.

I don't think I ever will. Wow. Bobby is a, yeah, he's a mammoth. You know, you're going to see on Friday, when we go, I can guarantee he's going to throw me around. He's a strong, powerful guy. And, you know, he can take anybody down at well. He's an animal. And I compare him to Brock Lesner.

You know, I'm still shocked that you've never wrestled him before, and that's amazing to me. Before it's all said and done, is there one guy that you need to get in the ring with that you haven't? You know, I dabble with MVP a little bit, but not enough. You know, he's a guy that I've wanted to go with, and I'm glad he's in Impact Wrestling. Bobby Lashy was the guy. You know, I really wanted to go with him. I never did before. I think he's been underrated as a pro wrestler all these years, so I'm happy I'm going to be able to face him on Friday.

But, you know, like I said before, I, you know, I wrestled all those great glasses in WW, Triple-H, R, Undertaker, Austin, you know, Sean Michaels. The list goes on up there. Eddie Guerrero, Chris Van Watt. You know, in TNA, I wrestled some great ones, too. And I'm glad. And there are more. There are more guys that are coming through.

There are young guys like Sean Ricker. I'd love to have a program with, you know, geez. Right now my brain is described that I can tell you that there are a lot of great guys there that I want to rush before. for EC3, another one. Great talent, great on the microphone. He's going to be a lot of fun to work with. So I'll be able to wrestle these guys before I retire.

And if I decide to stay one more year, I'll stay one more year. If I decided to go back to WWE for one last stint, that's a possibility. But, you know, we'll see what happens next year. Last question for you, because we have run out of time. Did you see the movie Foxcatcher? And what did you think of it? I know, obviously, you have a history with the principal characters. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, yeah, I thought. It was emotional. Yeah. For me, you know, Dave was everything to me. So, you know, I was there for eight years. And, you know, unfortunately, I wasn't there the day that Dave died. I was supposed to come back the next day. So I actually called Dave and left him a message right around the time he was killed.

Wow. I was telling him I was coming in the next day. So, yeah, they did it. a great job. Wow, the characters, they portrayed everybody exactly the way they were. It was really eerie. But it was hard for me to watch. I put it off for a good four or five months.

I didn't want to see it, but I was going to be interviewed about it, so I watched it. I really did not want to watch a movie. Destination America this Friday, 9 Eastern, 8th Central, the great Kurt Angle, going up against Bobby Lashy for the very first time, T&A Impact. How about that? History will be made. I suggest everyone checks it out. And I got to say, this warms my heart greatly, Kurt. Again, thank you so much. You were so kind. People won't even know how kind you were to me back in the day. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's so great to hear from you. I hope everyone, your family's doing well, and I wish you the best. Whatever you decide after this year and beyond, I wish you the best. And you always have a friend here. Thank you, Harry. You take care. All right. All right. All the best, the Kurt Angle. How about that? The former Olympic gold medalist, still kicking it, mid-40s. check them out Destination America this Friday. All right, let's go to our

next guest. Let's go to the Skype Machine. I am so excited. She has taken the MMA world by storm. She is the new UFC Strawway Champion. She is still in Dallas holding it down and she is joining us via the Skype Machine. There she is. The one and only Yawanna Champion. You said we can call Yohana

champion after you won the belt. You have won the belt. There you are with the belt. Yonah, how are you? Yeah, I'm good. Thank you so much. Yeah, now you can call me Joanna Champion. This is amazing. You're just sitting in a car with your belt? Is that what you have been doing for the last two days?

Yeah, we're busy. I'm leaving tomorrow to Poland. And I just want to meet some friends in Dallas, some shopping. We will go to talk, say hello to them. And yeah, that's all. So what have the last two days been like for you? Is this still kind of feel like a dream? Have you woken up?

What's it like? You have the UFC belt? I feel like I still sleeping, you know. Like, I still cannot believe. Like, every day I'm more happy. Like, it's coming into me, but, yeah, it's good, you know. I'm happy. What was that moment like when you woke up on Sunday morning with the belt next to you in your room?

And you woke up and you saw it. What was that like? Like, is it real? So, yeah, like, I'm happy. I don't know even what to say. I cannot show it. I'm more happy inside than outside, you know. But I cannot wait when I will be in Poland and going to share my happiness with everyone.

Yeah. What's awaiting you back in Poland? Like, are they going to throw a parade for you? What are you expecting? I don't know. But I've got some message and phone call from my second head coach. and he said that everyone is crazy about me. The media are going to wait at the airport,

and they're going to arrange some press conference in my city because media go crazy, you know. So, yeah. Right now, do you think you're the best athlete of Poland, the best athlete coming out of Poland? What do you think? I don't know. They don't know about me that much,

but now they know more. But, no, we've got better athletes in Poland, probably. Well, you're very humble, and I think you're definitely in that conversation. You know, Dana White told me before the fight that his two favorite fighters were fighting on Saturday night. Anthony Pettis and you, you were up there. He says he loves watching you fight, and he says he has been a big fan of yours ever since you came to the UFC, and it's true. He's been talking about you glowingly. Did he say anything to you after the fight?

Did you have a moment with him? Did you speak to him in private? And if so, what did you say to him? And what did he say to you? Yeah, he invite me to his room, quest room, and he said that it was amazing and he's happy for me. And he said after the press conference that he's big fan of me. Yeah. And he's going to be in Krakow and we're going to enjoy the show together.

Oh, wow, that is fun. And Krakow is going to be amazing, right? It's going to be like a big party for you. The timing couldn't be better. Yeah, like I've got some. so many messages, emails and messages that everyone wants to meet me in Krakow, they want to see the bird, they want to see me, hug me, and just, you know, give five-five. Have you watched the fight?

No. You have not? I did watch just TKO, you know, the last part of the fight. How can you do, is there any reason why you didn't watch it or you don't want to watch it? I didn't have time. Like, I'm going to watch it at home with my boyfriend, my family. Honestly, did you really think it would go that way? I mean, that was such a dominant performance you stuffed, I think, all but one takedown.

In the back of your mind, you were very confident, but did you think it would be like that? Yeah, I'm going to be like this, you know, because I am hard worker and now I'm going to prepare even more harder than before for the next fight. So, yeah, it's me, you know. I like to work hard. Some people, including myself, thought that maybe you got in her head, that you got under her skin with the way you were facing off, with what you were saying, all that stuff,

and you seem so confident and relaxed walking to the cage, and she seemed the opposite. She seemed very stiff, somewhat nervous. That's the way it looked, at least to me. Did you think that, you know, even before the fight, even before you saw her in the cage, Did you think that you had succeeded in getting in her head and throwing her off her game? I think I break her, you know, what I mean?

Yeah. Like, she didn't know what to expect, you know. Maybe she told that I am crazy, but I'm really nice, you know, but not in the cage. Is it true that you gave her an expired cookie on Friday? That's what Joe Rogan said. No. He said it was old. It's like we bought this cookie at 7-Eleven the day before.

Oh, really? Okay, so you weren't trying to get her sick? No, he didn't. That's what he said, I don't know. And she even joked about that. Did you say anything to her after the fight? Yeah, that I like her, and she's still a good fighter, and that I hope we're going to meet each other in the future, that's all.

Now, I've got to ask you about your style. I'm so impressed with your style. You were wearing Air Jordans afterwards. I saw on your Instagram, you're writing about LeBron James shoes. And then the best one of them all was Thursday at the Media Day. You were wearing overalls, but down, I mean, are you really into hip-hop or something? Because it seemed like you were like one of those B-boys. You know what I mean?

No, I'm not. I like, you know, I'm like me sporty, you know. I like sporty style. And today I've got some rebuk from UFC. Oh, nice. Yeah, something different, not really kicks, but still. Like, you know, I like good jeans, good kicks, and it's me, you know. What are your favorite kicks?

What's your ultimate pair? Now that you have all this money, what are you going to buy? Jordans are the best. But when I will be back to Poland, I will have the classic Cortez Forest Gump edition. So it's nice, you know. Spring is coming. summer so good kicks for summertime. My favorite is Nike SBs. Do you like SBs? Yes, yes. Yeah, you have any? No, I don't have, but I like. Okay. You have to come to a store.

But my social media manager is like really sneakerhead with his girlfriend. You could meet him. He will walk with us to the Octagon. He's amazing. You should talk to him. I would love to. You have to come to a store here in New York City, it's called Flight Club. They have amazing, really unique shoes. You would love it. All kinds of, like, the most unique ones, you can't get them in any kind of store. I mean, I mean.

Okay, and what about this outfit that you were wearing on Thursday, the overalls, but down? Is that a look that's popular in Poland? No, I just, like I said, I like good jeans, you know, and like, I just want to wear it and I did it, you know. I'm not, like, a typical girl, you know.

I'm not going to wear dress because they want it, you know. They want me to do. Like, I must feel comfortable, you know. That's all. Of course, I like to wear high heels and dress, but it's for a special ceremony, you know. Sure. I loved it. I'm not knocking it.

I thought it was amazing. Like I'm original, you know. Now you are talking about me and the other people, but they're not talking about the Carla because she were like, Beep, that's all. Okay, you've said enough there. Honestly, though, a year ago this time, you weren't even in the UFC, you weren't really on the radar. I know you weren't fighting in the weight class, but is all of this happening a little fast for you?

Did you think this time, you know, you'd be champion? Like, after the fight with Lima, I say that I want to have like two, three more fights before I will get a title shot. But yeah, I had really tough fight with the... Claudia Gadela, she's like one of the best. So I think it was a good decision to get the title shot with Carla, and it was a good time, you know. You could see it. Speaking of Claudia Gedelia, she's fighting in Poland

against Ashling Daly and also Joanne Calderwood is fighting. What do you think? What do you think they're going to do next with you? Who do you think they're going to match you up with? Like, one of them could be my future opponent. but I don't know who, so we're going to see. Even Dana, I don't know. Doesn't know.

Is there someone that you think makes the most sense? I think Claudia or Jojo. Either one. And what about this idea of you fighting Jojo in Scotland? How do you feel about that? I think it's like too short, but I don't know. I don't know. I can do this, you know?

I can fight even next month, you know. I just want to take a few days off and I can be back, you know. No injuries in this fight, right? No, not at all. Just through Brazil and that's all. But let's say it is, Joanne, let's just say, I'm just throwing out the idea. Would you be okay with fighting her in her home country? I mean, that's Scotland.

You're not, you know, that would be an advantage for her. Would you be okay with that? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. I'm going to be the same, you know. But I like to fight in the U.S. And there are a lot of people when they become popular, from outside of the US, then you see them move to a US camp.

They go to one of the big popular camps. Are you going to stay in Poland? Yeah, I'm going to stay in Poland, but I will see. Maybe I will come to US because in US, there's a lot of good fighters, female fighters, lots of different sparring partners. So it's good. Any camp in particular that you're interested in?

Like, no, no. Okay, and by the way, what was it like getting a tweet from Ronda Rousey? She gave you a great compliment on Twitter. What was that like? Yeah, I like it so much. I expect to meet her in Dallas, but I didn't. So I hope I'm going to meet her in the future because she's amazing, you know, and I'm happy. What was the greatest compliment or moment that happened as a result of you becoming champion?

And did something happen that just that has stuck out something with your family, with your boyfriend, I don't know, anything that sticks out is an amazing thing that happened in the last two days to you? I don't know. I still like, you know, I can even cry about my baby. But it's really, you know, because I did my job and that's all. And they are happy for me because they could see how heavy was the way, you know, for this one. Did this feel better than your six Muay titles? Yeah, it is.

Combined, right? DFC is the biggest, and like I said, I'm really happy to be part of it. And, yeah, it's like the biggest dream. Congratulations. It's an amazing story. Thank you so much. I am so happy for you. Enjoy the belt.

Like I said, I think you're a star. A star was born on Saturday. The fans love you. Media loves talking about you. You deserve everything. Congratulations on an amazing performance, blown away by your performance. Enjoy your last few hours in Dallas and your your homecoming in Poland. And I very much look forward to your next fight.

And thank you so much for coming on the show. I know you're very busy now, but thank you. All right. Keep it up. Thank you very much. And thank you to her management team, Sucker Punch, for hooking us up. Tiago and Brian, very nice to them, you know, after someone wins the belt, it is a world win. And we appreciate that very much.

So thank you very much to the team. And wow, how about that? Joanna Champion, she called it. She was confident. She was unique. She was an original. And she is now just the third European champion in UFC history, the first, of course, from Poland.

New Yorkerick and I like to talk via Gmail chat during the show. He tells me who's next. and he said, he said, we have the champ, but we just had a champ. So I wasn't sure if it was now we were talking about Yohanna or our next guest, but he's talking about our next guest. So on Saturday night, it was historic. It was the first time since UFC 92 that two titles changed hands. I believe the first time since UFC 46, that two undisputed titles changed hands. Of course, Yuan of China champion, Yom Jacek of Poland, now the new strawweight champion, and then the big one.

The shocker to many people, Hafeld Dosangos is the new UFC lightweight champion. I remember way back when he was on this show, right when this fight was announced, very confident, said he saw holes in Anthony Pettis' game. He called it, and he made it happen on Saturday night. He's the new 155-pound champion, and he joins us right now via the phone. Hafeel, how are you? I'm good, I'm really good now. Wow. Thanks for having it.

Oh, thank you so much. Congratulations again. So I'll ask you the same question that I just asked, Yohanna. The last two days, what have they been like for you as champion? Yeah, man, today for me was like a common day. You know, I woke up early, took my kids to the school. Wow. And so right now, I'm at the start with, having some coffee, you know, with some friends.

Normal day, man. When you took your kids to school, did the other parents say, hey, I saw you on TV, you're the new champion. What has it been like? Yeah, that was really good. I went to buy some lunch for here, and the principal recognized me. that was such amazing experience

I meet a lot of people who watched the fight and so there was good, like, of congratulations. Really good, man. Really good. That was done. Yeah, does it still feel

a little surreal to you that you're the champion after all these years? Yeah, man. Well, finally, like I've been saying on my interviews, I've been working hard for, like, for long years. And finally, man, I got my chance and got my belt. And now I'm just time to enjoy, you know, it's because of my injuries.

And, you know, I've got my family, man. You know, I haven't enjoyed my family before for so long. And now I want to spend time with them. What was it like traveling with the belt? It's a very heavy belt, you know, and going through security, the plane and all that. What was that like? Yeah, man. I hurt my arm, you know.

I brought a couple feet. Yeah. No, it was my first five-round-fights fight. And it's tough, you know, it's tough in the body, you know. And, man, my arm was fired and they had it, but, man, I could have, like, go, you know. I have a cat my daughter out there went home. So what an amazing moment I was able to witness after the fight. Your wife was there, your two boys were there, and you told me on Thursday that, you know,

you'd only take your kids if you fought for the belt and you wouldn't let anyone beat you up in front of your kids. And I thought that was just a beautiful thing to say. And it came true, you were the champion. To be able to celebrate that and enjoy that moment with them, what was that like for you? Because just watching the smiles on your wife's face and your kids' face, it was priceless. Yeah, it was like, like I said, it's priceless, you know. Like being a few champion and have my kids in the york, my wife, you know, they, holding the belt, man, there was such

like a movie, man, you know. So great, so blessed, you know, to be on this position. Even, like, before the fight, no, just to be fighting for the belt, to be in that position, I was already happy, you know. And then I stepped into that fight, happy, you know, just had no pressure at all.

And God bless no more time, man. What did your kids say anything to you? Like, did they have a moment where they said how proud of you they were? or something, something with your kids. Anything happen? See, man. My young one, he doesn't stop to say, like, about the belt.

He wants to be adults at a time. And he wants to carry the belt at the time, you know. He loved cameras. He's going to be on the camera all the time. And my old one, man, he, man, he's friend at the school. All her kids was crazy, you know, like, about my performance. And just happened, man. you know, and like,

like, mission like accomplishment. Yeah, and, and where is the belt now, by the way? The belt now is,

is that my car, is my trunk, you know? Oh. And everywhere I go, people want to speed. And I, I,

I, like, I, like, show this for, like, some friends, you know, and it's on my trunk. They follow me

wherever, wherever I go. You told me that Fabrice Rueum came back. You were there at the gym when he came back with the belt and he showed it and that inspired you. Have you done the same yet? Have you gone back to the gym with your belt?

Yeah, I just got a call. I got some problem with my phone and I can buy to the store to fix it. And so I couldn't have a time to go there, you know? But they just finished training

out at King. And I had plans to go there to bring the belt to my friends so they can see, you know, because I got a lot of inspiration on Fabriz's a belt for me. Yeah. When I hold it, and I want to do the same for the other people, but I couldn't go to things today, but I'm going to try, I'm going to try to go by Wednesday on the next train. Have you watched the fight?

Yeah, and I watched the fight yesterday. It was a great fight, you know. I feel good. strategies, you know. I hit him hard. And there was, there was a flame, man. It was exactly what I was that you really thought it would go like that. You didn't think it would be a closer fight because that was 5-0 for you.

Yeah, man. Like I said, man, I got on that fight like really confident, you know, really confident that the best thing is going to happen for me, you know, and I train it hard. I train it hard. I train it hard for that day. and I knew I got a when I went to that fight so I think I was gonna hit hard

and all walking forward for depression and so I did man everything works perfect Was there a moment in the fight where you were like okay I got this guy where your confidence really grew

a punch that you landed you know a take down something that you thought okay this is this is mine yeah man like I was saying in the interview everybody has a plan before that punch.

Yeah. And then I think the first punch I land, it fell. I think the punch, the punch, changed the fight. And once I hit the first kickdown on the end of the first round, they got it. And then I tell, man, now I got two big weapons here.

I feel like once a hit hitting hard, he forgot about the takedown. And then now I have, like, because my plane wasn't like going straight for the takedown. Now, my plan was straight punch, you know. He took the fight to Sandy. And once I saw that open, saw the takedown. And I say, man, now I have one more apple.

Then I started using this through the last round. Could you tell that his eye was messed up, that it was bothering him? Yeah, I was on my corner between rounds. And I look at the other side. I felt he kind of, kind of uncomfortable with that eye. And I said that that's the key, you know, I got to keep putting pressure. But Anthony is a great champion. He, he's so, you know, he changed games a couple of times during the fight.

You know, he started going to my right side. And he changed my game a little bit. But I'm glad I could, I do my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, I started well. I hit the other six downs. I just, man, I don't know.

Now, your manager, Ali Abdel Aziz, told us afterwards that you had injured your knee and we spoke about this afterwards. Two days later, after fighting with the injured MCL,

how does it feel now? Yeah, I woke up just, like, around 3 a end, last night to go to the resting, and my knee was,

like, kind of, I couldn't walk, man. I don't know what's going on. And I need to do MRI to make sure, you know. My knee is, like, kind of sore. And my foot, too, I think because I teach me a lot,

it to be gelbo, and my foot's kind of small. But I think I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. I need to do an MRI and make sure. My body's okay. When is that? When are you going to go to the doctor? Yeah, as soon as possible, I just spoke to my manager with Ali,

and he's doing his work at my doctor appointment. So I'm looking to go today, like, so as possible. And did it bother you at all in the fight, or because of the adrenaline and the moment, were you not thinking about it? No, didn't bother me at all. But I was just afraid to kick with my right leg. and I didn't kick.

I think I kicked a couple times, but like I like to do my switch body kicks in my strong leg, but I couldn't do it. You know, my friend was saved my leg as much as I can. You know, it wasn't all that long ago. You weren't even in the UFC video game. Remember that? You had to tweet.

Now you're the UFC champion, and of course, Anthony had a lot of great sponsors and a lot of love. Do you think you'll get respect now? Do you think you'll be, you know, in the forefront and getting all these great sponsors and attention like he was? Yeah. It's not my intention. I'll get his sponsor, no.

I'm just, man, hard work, you know. I want to work hard. I think now the thing's going to start happening for me. And finally, I think I got the respect that I deserve. But I think this is just to begin, you know. I got the belt. I'm going to keep this belt. a long time.

And I think it's just a big game, man. It's just a big game. Do you have a preference who you fight next? Because you fought both guys, Chabib and Donald Taroni and Dana White said that the winner of that fight is going to fight you. Do you have a preference? Actually not, you know. I, I, man, I still have got a lot against Kabib.

I want to get it clear. and but Kabib has a tough fight Sharon is a tough opponent I don't know how he's going to be

like come back from a bad injury to fight against him but we'll see man you know we'll see and if it's Sharon it's okay

I'll fight ahead I don't have any preference and I'll be ready man for anyone of them you wouldn't prefer to fight the guy that you lost to

I mean he's been saying you know work on your wrestling and all that stuff wouldn't you want to you you already beat sir on you isn't the chabib fight more interesting yeah i think so i think i would just say you know because i lost for here i would like to get it clear and you know now it's another time you know everything changed yeah you know like it they change a little bit and so the next fight will be a different fight when would you like to return yeah i have a for the

11 months, I fought five times, and I had six camps because I had one fight cancel, I guess, Houston Cardo loved two weeks before the fight. So I had six camps in 11 months. My body spread a bit up. And like I said, I never had any knee injuries before my whole life. And like for the last months, I would start feeling like kind of different injuries on my body. But I just want to have some time with my family. I don't want to think about fight right now.

I just need to spend some time with day. I know I haven't given an attention that they deserve for like a year or so. Now I just want to enjoy them. Okay, last thing for you. My friend and colleague, Guillermo Cruz, told me this, and I want to ask you

if it's true. Is it true that you're wife asked for Rizio Verduem, Hufel, Cordero, and Babelu, and the whole team to record a video message for you, congratulating you on the win, and then they showed it to you after the fight. Like, they congratulated you before the fight, and then they showed it after. Is that

accurate? Yes, yes, and then we invite my wife, made me a surprise. Yes, they want to go home. She brought over all my friends, Babalou, Viradu couldn't come, because he's a Russian. But she brought over all my friends,

My house was like with 40 people or so. A lot of guys there. And then she put a video, a testimonial video. Everybody congratulation me. She did everything like before the fight, you know. Wow. That was amazing, yeah. Did you get emotional?

Yeah, man. Pretty much. I have my friends there, you know. Feel there people like saying for me, believing me. And like they was saying on the video, you know, you're not only at the same time. when you got a champion in life. That was like amazing for me.

Wow. Well, congratulations again, Hafeel. It's an amazing story. Enjoy the belt. Enjoy your time with your family. And it's interesting, right? Not that long ago, they were saying Brazilian MMA not doing so well in the UFC.

And now all of a sudden there are three champions from Brazil. So it's not doing too bad. Yeah, just good. I'm happy for that. Thank you, Hafeel. Congratulations. Padaabence once again. And really appreciate you coming on.

I know you're very busy. so it means a lot to us that you would come on the show for a few minutes. Sure. Thank you for having me. Ariel. Good camera, buddy. Okay, all the best. The Hafeel dosangos, the new UFC lightweight champion, an unbelievable win.

A virtuoso performance. A lot of people picked against them. A lot of people thought, you know, what was it? What was it? Five to one? What was he? What was he in York, Rick? Five to one?

Six to one? He was something. It was big. a huge upset and a changing of the guard in the UFC's lightweight division. How about that? Congratulations, Sim. And a very entertaining card on Saturday night, top to bottom. The prelims were a lot of fun, some great finishes there.

And I had no problem with the main card, Henry Sohudo, with a fine performance he needed to take that next step to the title. No problem with Johnny Hendricks at all. But that was the fight he needed as well over him. dancing around like a flyweight, and then, of course, Joanna, Janchech, and Haffa dosangios, the new UFC champions in their respective divisions. Wow. A night to remember in Dallas. On that note, let us go inside the vault now, and let's stick with the RDA theme. Back at UFC 132, when he was not on our radar for title contention or anything of that nature,

Halfeldo Sanjos fought a man by the name of George Soderopoulos. Remember that? U.S.C. 132. That was the card. That was July 4th weekend. That was the card that was headlined by Dominic Cruz versus Uriah Faber. It was the Bud Light Lime card where they were all wearing green. It was green on the octagon and all that stuff.

And Hafelde de Sanjos was making that turn to title contention. We didn't know at the time. But he was, in hindsight, making that turn. He was coming off a loss to Clay Gwita, but this was a gigantic win for him, a gigantic opportunity. He fought George Sutteropoulos, and if you recall,

he knocked him out in just 59 seconds, a brutal knockout. And this was big. I believe, looking quickly at his record, it was his first knockout win. July 2nd, 2011. After that, he actually lost the Glycintibau via split decision, but then he would not lose again

until he met Habibn-Ramagamato, last April and he hasn't lost since. Officially now he's won nine of his last 10. But back in July of 2011, to me, looking back, that felt like the turning point. When he started to really show signs of being the striker that he has become, showing the power that he possesses and getting our attention. So I wanted to look back at that moment, July 2nd, 2011, UFC 132, Las Vegas. Nevada. And note, you just heard him speaking pretty darn good English. Back then, he couldn't speak English. We had a translator. He was speaking in Portuguese. That's not the greatest interview of all time, but it's fun to look back at that around four years or so ago when,

like I said, RDA was not on our radar. Now here he is the UFC lightweight champion. We go inside the vault to UFC 132, July 2nd, 2011, our post-fight interview with Rafael dos Santos. Ariel Halwani post-fight at UFC 132 alongside Rafael Dos Anios who knocked out George Sadroppos tonight and Rafael Pada Benz congratulations on a huge win for you your first true knockout of your MMA career. How are you feeling, my friend? I feel really happy. I worked a lot on my stand-up, on my striking in Thailand and in Singapore.

So I think that it paid off. I was very confident in this round and the first round and I felt going in that I had the heavier hands in the fight. And it was just very lucky to get that knockout in the first round. Can you talk about why you went to Thailand in Singapore to work on your strike game? Did you feel as though this was something that you needed to do in order to improve your overall game? It's very good, we have various champions mondayas of boxing, too. And I took there, after my last lute, I went there with my family. I spent three months that evolved M.M.M. in Singapore, I was there with my family,

so it was great to be able to relax and also try. I've trained, worked a lot on my Muay Thai, my boxing, got really confident with my stand-up skills, and it really paid off in the fight. Was that the first time that you had done something like that, traveled to the Far East to practice your striking primarily? Well, no, I've been there three years, I've been over there in Singapore, three times already, but this time I spent three months, so I really got a lot of training in. evolving Rio, but it's all one team. Evolved Singapore, great guys, and it really, really pays off to go over there and work on my stand-up.

Originally, I thought the stoppage was early, but then when I saw the replay, it was clear he was out. When he fell to the mat, did you know he was out? I saw that he came very moly, but he didn't know he could not. Yeah, when he felt he looked to be out, it didn't seem like he'd be back in the fight, but the judge didn't stop the fight, so I run. rushed in and the ref stopped it. It has been a long road for you to get to this point. The last time we saw you was at UFC 117, you lost.

You injured your jaw in that fight. What was the recovery like? The jaw injury is not a very pleasant one. No injuries are very pleasant, but that one in particular, what was that like and how is your jaw feeling now? It was a very complicated for me. It's a very difficult, it's a really complicated injury.

The recovery takes time. The surgeries are tough. It's a very complicated injury. but I've got four metal plates in my mouth and a few screws, so I feel stronger than ever, I don't think it will ever break again. Final question, anyone in particular that you want next? I don't know.

I don't know I'm going to choose adversaries. I'm training a duro, and I'm there in an event, and who will be done to choose my opponents, but I'm training hard, and whoever they put it in front of me, I'm good. Thank you. Unbelievable. And four years later, here he is less than four years later. UFC lightweight champion Hafeld dos anjos. What a story. A bit of breaking news here. I am told by sources in Bellator that the new UFC, excuse me, the new Belator light heavyweight champion, Liam McGiri has just signed a multi-year multi-fight contract extension. I asked when his next fight will be. They tell me somewhere between July and September of this year. I believe there have been some flirtations of a McGiri Tito Ortiz

fight, which would be obviously a very big deal. But congratulations to another friend of the show, Liam McGee for signing a new deal with Bellator MMMA. He is, of course, their new light heavyweight champion. He defeated Emmanuel Newton on February 27th. All right, that does it for our interviews this week. And how about that? What a fun show so far, huh? A lot of great characters, a lot of great personalities, two new champions. I mean, this is one. Every week, I get so nervous. How am I going to top this week? And correct me if I'm wrong. Newark, are you there? I'm here.

I spoke to you earlier. You didn't answer me. Yeah. What were you doing? The guys in the back were a little bit asleep. The microphones? No, I said the guys. Okay.

But the guys in the back were... So you were trying to answer me. I was speaking into a microphone that, let's just say, was not sending out audio. What was going on? It was unplugged? No. Just down on the fator. I like the fact that you're actually telling it like it is here, because I feel like usually you'll give me some kind of PC answer.

Or I thought you were just ignoring. me, but you're calling them out. Most of the time, yeah. They were sleeping three hours into the show. They dozed off. Yeah, I'm not going to blame them, though. I mean, who do we throw under the bus here? I mean, I need a name, specific name.

No, no, no, no. We don't do that. Okay, fair enough. Well, let me ask you the first question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was about four and a half, five to one. And you claim, you are saying that you implied last week that he was going to win, which I think is total BS.

No, I didn't say that. Okay. What I said was, I thought Pettis, was more likely going to win, but that the odds were completely off. That he was a legitimate challenger to Pettus's title, and Pettus' deficiencies in takedown defense were clear.

Clay Gwita laid out the game plan. If you crowd him and try and pressure him and take away the space that he needs to operate, he's just not as effective. And Haffaill did a great job of that. Now, certainly he took some of Pettus' best shots and responded in a way that most probably couldn't. But I did think that the odds were off,

that he was a legitimate title threat, and it was worth putting down an underdog bet. Now, that doesn't mean that I think he's, I'm picking him to win, because I could see his odds as still less than 50%, even if I think there's value on the bet. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, it makes sense.

I wonder, though, I mean, I asked this question today, if I'll ask you, the eye, I mean, the eye really seemed to bother him. Do you think they fight again? Do you think this is one of those cases where RDA has his number? We have a question about the I later in the show, which I think makes a good point about it. So let's save that. Okay, I also want to ask you, right now, I'm looking at the page.

You have 304 questions, or at least. Yeah. Now, is this, like, what is going on here? There's a lot of replies today. There's a lot of people fired up about. Who's calling us? Yeah, let's turn that volume. No, answer the phone.

Let's see. Come on, I want to know. There's a lot of, pick it up right now. There's a lot of replies. There's a lot of, um. Why don't you pick it up? up. Hang tight. Just do it. Let's see what happens. Don't be scared. Who is it? MMAR. This is Eric. Yes. Does he sound... Yeah, we can do a question right now.

Right now. Go right now. We haven't taken a question in a while. Does he sound half coherent? I feel like you kind of ignore the phone callers. Let the people weigh in on this. All right. Is Eric not giving us? Sorry, bud. Try and ask it on Twitter. What? Wait. Wait. I want to talk to him. All right. What? What happened? He called him

Raphael dos Santos, so. And that's it. That you get, you get nixed for that one. What if he was nervous? Did it sound like a legit question or no? I didn't, I didn't hear anything past

Raphael dos Santos. That's it. Wow. Holy moly. You get yanked. You know, this brings up a great point, by the way. I was in Dallas this past week,

as you may know. And, man, you have really pissed off the people. How so? me. I can't. And this is another indication of this. I can't tell you how many people were like,

wow, I love your show. I listen every week. I downloaded it, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. But when New York Rick crapped all over the people's

main event, the concept, it's, no, I'm being honest. At least 10 people brought this up to me. See, here you are, spitting in their face. Don't forget where you came from. These are the people that propelled you

into the position that you are today. You were one of those people. Think about the concept here. Think about the concept here of you, you, Ariel Hawani, decreying something as the people's main event. Yes. And was I right? Was I right? Was I right? Giving it that label.

And then giving it forth to the people as something you're presenting them as a gift. Was I right or was I right? The people's main event is something that can be voted on by the feeling of the people. Because they don't even know. People were saying Hendricks and Brown. I know what's right. I've never been wrong with the people's main event. See, that's not how it works. I am the man of the people. No, no, no. And the people. Hey, wait a second. Now I'm going to put you in your place. because before, when you were looking for gifts at Gawker Media, I was the man of the people. I came from Jari Park.

I came from nothing. I've been doing this way longer. I know what the people want. You're one of these. So all of a sudden you're on ESPN. Yeah, that's right. And now you're dictating what the people want? I don't think so.

No, no, no. I've been dictating what the people wanted way before I was on ESPN. The point is, this is not a discussion of whether or not I am right or wrong when I decide what's the people's main event because I've never been wrong. it's you crapping on the idea. Did you see T.J. Grant? Do you see him? People are just throwing it out now.

Like it's ain't no thing. Like this is a real thing. The T.Grant is like, hmm, I've been thinking the people's main event tonight is going to be such and such. I believe he picked Brown Hendricks, which again proves that people should, you know, they should just leave this up to me. But why I bring this up is I think the people are starting to feel like you're above them. No, I am with them. I am the one who is. You just hung up.

You just hung up on someone. I want the Democratic vote for the people's main event. I don't take people's main event orders from Ariel Hawani. You don't tell me what the people's main event is. The people tell you what the people's main event is. If you would have said this last week, then I could, now you're trying to save face. And I think the people can see right through that. You crapped on the whole, the whole existence of this concept.

It's nonsense. Nonsense. Look. Don't let him tell you what the people's main event is. We have a voice. Someone mentioned it on the show today. What? Oh, Habib.

You were saying it's the people's main event. Man, that guy. He is something, isn't he? Unbelievable. That guy is something. Sometimes you wonder when you look at the Twitter is like, is he really writing this? No, I believe it 100%. There's guys you can tell who's not writing their Twitter. He, I mean, he just drops elbows. He just drops elbows. Every time he hops on Twitter. He's amazing. He's the, he's the Dagestan cowboy. This is incredible. He said, Cowboys is a fake cowboy. Yeah. I'm the real cowboy. I mean, he's just, he's gold. Probably, I don't even follow him on Twitter. You don't? Because I know that everybody will retweet it the moment he tweets. So I don't even have to. Let's get into the questions. Okay, fine. Pettus' losses.

Seems like Pettus lost, as Rafael Dosangos put the pressure on him constantly like Clay Gwida did. You would think this would be a place where his camp would have trained him in that. Is that his kryptonite? Do you see him successfully covering off on this flaw moving forward in his next few fights? I think I touched upon this a little bit. I mean, that's clearly where his deficient. should see is at this point. Can we just talk about this new TV that we have here?

I mean, is the MMA hour rolling in the dough or what? Look at that thing. Wow, look at that. It's curved. It's gigantic. It's crystal clear. I hope we don't have to go back to the other one. This is something.

Now, we're keeping this. What is the, what is the, what is the point of having the curved TV? The curvature? Yeah, what does it do? I asked our person in the studio here, Alex, earlier. Okay. Person. And he did not, well, I didn't know. want to say like engineer. He has so many hats. I don't want to pigeonhole him into something.

Sure. But there are, he doesn't know. I don't know. I'm not understanding it. But I'll tell you this. Regardless of that, it looks incredible. Back to the question. Yes. That's clearly his flaw. Yeah, well, I'm not ready to jump off the Pettus Bandw. I really thought that he was going to be a champion for quite some time. I have no problem saying that. And I know this is kind of silly and people say it all the time. I do feel bad for his next opponent. I think that he is going to go on a tear now. And I think maybe one or two wins and we might see a rematch against Dos Santos if he keeps the belt or, you know, Habib or Soroni, whatever. But I'm not ready to say, I really think that I messed him up. I really do. I really do. I think his take down the fence has looked a lot better as of

I mean, his fights haven't been that long. So it's kind of hard to say. I wonder what it has been, but man, he's been working with Ascran and just from the stuff I was hearing. And of course, some of it you have to take with a grain of salt because of who you're getting it from. I'm not ready to write this guy off. I really think he's a very special fighter. I think he deserves everything that he has received. I just think that I really messed him up. Not taking anything away.

I mean, Desandro's did that to his eye. Yes. But that changed the course of the fight. Yeah, he got it. He did this to his eye. Absolutely. This is not, I hate what, like, with Woodley and Condé, where people were like, well, if he didn't injure his knee, no,

Woodley did that to Condit. This isn't a freak thing. Yes, that comes up later. But, I mean, we've heard the same. thing about Anderson Silva, you know, that his take down defense isn't great for many, many years, and Chal Sanin exposed that. But he still seemed to find a way to win fights. And I think Pettis is very much that same kind of fighter, who he's scrappy enough, you know, in scrambles that he can find submissions. And, you know, nobody needs to talk about his striking. We all know how good that is.

He finds ways to win. But in this case, the game plan was too solid and Hafeel has too many tools in the tool bag. And I don't think there was anything flukey about. about this. I don't think anything, you know, he hurt his eye in the first round and that I don't think that would have made much of a difference, to be honest. Now, um, having two eyes more than one is, is beneficial. Um, but Hafeil's game plan was too, was too solid. Uh, and he showed that he can take Pettus's best shot in the first round. So I don't, I don't give any credence to anything about the eye. My friend, uh, Patrick Sheehan, who's smarter than all of you, I believe he is the brother of the, the legend, Sean Sheehan says,

The curvature in the TV is to match the curvature of the human eye and give better viewing from all angles. There it is. Makes sense. Okay, next question. Do you think being on the Wheaties box and being touted as the pound-for-pound next best thing contributed to falling off the cliff performance we saw from Anthony Pettus on Saturday? Sure, it's only one loss, but it's the same loss he suffered to clay. It's not exactly the same loss, but it's the same loss he suffered to clay, and we all blame that on Octagon Jitters.

He's beaten some great fighters, but he really phoned in the performance this time. I think that's a little harsh. Yeah, I mean, again, that's not giving credit to RDA. But do you think he bought into his own hype a little bit? Because remember, the Wheaties thing happened before the Gilbert fight, and he was out for a year and a half. So why would it affect him now? I'll say this.

He didn't, he wasn't dominating the Gilbert fight to start either. I know, but then, I mean, let's not take away what he did in the second round. Submitted him first time. Incredible submission. But I think what we've seen. seen more now is that people can stand with Anthony Pettis on the feet without, you know, I don't think people are scared to stand with Anthony Pettis. And Hafeu dos Angios was the prime example of that.

He traded with him in dangerous territory and came out looking great. And credit to his improved hands, obviously. He's been on a tear. This is what I'll say about this question. Even bringing this up, I feel like we are not giving our DA credit. he beat him up for five rounds. He took him off his game. That was all RDA.

It was more, in my opinion, what RDA did than what Anthony Pettis did not do. All the questions are about Pettus. All of them. It's amazing. Next one. Do you think seeing Sergio getting knocked out like that affected Anthony mentally? They said they thought it was an advantage being on the same car together and going through a training camp together. But seeing your little brother get that done to him must be hard to get out of your mind going into your own fight.

I couldn't agree more. That's the first thing I thought when Sergio went down, when Ryan Benoid had that comeback and finished him, I was like, man, I wonder what Anthony Pettus is thinking right now. He had to just watch his brother in the locker room get finished like that. And on the flip side, of course, if Sergio wins, it's great, but this is very much a reality as well. You know, I asked someone about that in the UFC,

and they said to me that the guys requested to be on the same card, and I kind of feel like there's just too much going. There's too much emotion, especially when they fight so far apart. You know, if it was co-main or main, I mean, maybe you could block it. out, but I don't know. I would rather not. And, you know, I asked Anthony about this in our pre-fight interview, and he said that he wasn't going to corner

Sergio or anything like that, and I can understand, but he was implying that it was time for Sergio to be his own man, to be his own guy, and I feel like this is a big part of it as well. You know, it happened. Again, I feel like we're kind of taking something away from RDA, but if you aren't affected by that,

you're not really human. And by the way, did you notice, Sergio was in his corner. He was pumping him up. He was there for his brother. That was really cool as well. I mean, Sergio wasn't licking his wounds. Just, you know, three hours after getting knocked out, he was back in there supporting his big brother. But gosh, I can't imagine it not messing with you for at least a few minutes. Now, whether or not he was thinking about it in the fight or walking out, who knows, but it couldn't have been a pleasant thing. I mean, possibly, but maybe it's something you can use

as motivation. Like, I can't let that happen. I have to represent. I don't know. But I think both of them are, you know, fine. They'll be back and they'll be strong. And they'll have much better performances next. And as you said, I probably feel bad for the next guy who's going to face either one of them. This is what we were alluding to earlier. I don't like this person. It's more of a statement, but it was a reason to bring this up.

I don't like how injury-causing strikes are always discounted. I was talking with Matt Mosley about this on the other article. Who's Matt Mosley? I have no idea. I like the name drop. People keep saying, well, if Pettus didn't get hit in the eye in the first round, well, he got hit because he didn't defend the strike. strike properly. That's not a fluke. That's a successful strike. To me, it's no different than saying

Sam Stout could have won if he didn't get hit by that knockout punch by Ross Pearson. But he did, so he lost. That's it. Preach. I wasn't sure if we were going to go there, but I want to make sure that that gets mentioned that. Haffaio does Anjos hurt Pettus's eye. And there's nothing else that needs to be said after that. Saying that that was a pivotal point in the fight, sure, but that doesn't take anything away from what the champion did to win the belt. And now, you could use that as some justification for why the next fight will be different, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't wager on it. It's funny.

People, I mean, it depends on who you talk to, but some don't want to give credit where it is due. Some, you know, are making excuses. This one is weird, though, because it wasn't even an injury or something. Like, he was punched in the face. You know, it wasn't even a fluke thing. Yeah. So it's bizarre.

I mean, I think a lot of times more the vision comes into play. If it's strictly a stand-up fight, you can't see punches coming from a certain inside. But by that point, you know, in the later rounds, essentially, Hafeel was taking him down, grinding him up against the cage and, you know, having his way with him. It wasn't much of a, it wasn't much of a stand-up war like the first round was. So I don't know how much of an impact that has. Certainly, as I said, you know, two eyes is always better than one. But I'm not going to really put too much weight into that. I kind of feel like anyone who isn't giving him credit deserves a little.

Oh my God Too much Did you see them rapping in the locker room? So Anthony Pettis Did you see that? Versus Edson Bargosa. I think I've created a thing here. Roy Jones was rapping in the locker room

with Jean Pascahn, Jean Pascal lost. But they were rapping on HBO. I think I saw that on your Twitter. Yeah, yeah. What the heck? He hasn't brought out this song in years and now of a sudden he's rapping in the locker room before the fight?

Maybe he forgot. Well, I think all the haters out there. there for RDA, y'all must have forgot. Keep going. Does not apply to every situation. It does. Now that Pettus has lost, I think this is a perfect opportunity to put them against Edson Barbosa. Sure, you can go to Nadeez route as this beef is there, but stylistically, this fight would create fireworks. If it is a fight that can make Pettis look like a star again and give them some momentum. While on the other hand, if Edson Barbosa beats Pettis, you have a new

contender at lightweight. The best part about it is you're not killing off any contenders as they're both coming off losses. the Nate Dia, if we're going to choose between the two, I go with Nate Diaz. I really want to see Pettus Barboza. Parboosa is fun, too. I mean, I suggested in the post-fight wrap-up with Sean Al-Shadi, the new media

darling. One could say he's the new New York Rick in that sense, that the Michael Johnson fight makes a lot of sense. But also, that is a good fight, yeah. Benson might be coming back down now because now the path is open. For Pettis? Well, yeah, no, for Benson. Oh, Benson

coming back to take the title. Because as long as Pettus was See, I thought you were saying Pettus versus Benson. No, no, no. You're saying Benson coming back to go after the lightweight title. That I understand. You know what I mean? Gotcha. Yeah.

So I'd like to see him at 170 still. I would as well, but I wonder if Benson's thinking like, oh, now the path is open. It's open. You can sell that rematch. And there's a lot of guys there now that Benson hasn't faced near the top. So I like it, yeah. My big question is, how long does Anthony stay out for? You know, like he fought in December.

He wanted to be active this year. Remember he said he wanted to make three, four times. Is that still the case? Who knows? Typically, these five-round, you know, maulings, for lack of a better word, take a bigger toll than people who, you know, get knocked out quickly or suffer some kind of submission or something like that. So I wouldn't be surprised if he takes more time out and you probably should.

Next question. CM Punk suffers from team loss. With the beatdown, Rufus Sport took on Saturday night, Does that take away from the excitement of CM Punk? Also, do you see anything exciting about being able to watch a guy grow from basically nothing? Okay, the first part of the question, I mean, I don't really think it takes anything away. Teams are going to lose all the time. And by the way, by the time he fights, I mean, Anthony and Sergio might have fought like three times.

You know, if he fights. Anthony might be champion again by that time. So, A, no. B, also, do you see anything exciting about being able to watch a guy grow? Yeah, I'm definitely intrigued by it. I mean, of course, everyone knows how I feel about punk and I'm fine with the whole situation. I had a chance to go to like a media gathering with him.

And, you know, he says all the right things. He's very humble. And I've talked to some people. He's been there for two and a half months. And he has come a long way. He had his first sparring session. He sparred since then, but he had his first one not that long ago. And he was very open about, you know, how he did in the fight and all.

I think it's a story that is going to do unbelievably well for the UFC. It's a guy leaving one form of entertainment with essentially no background at all in this new sport. and picking a team and just working his way up. And that's fascinating. I mean, there's a story there for a lot of people about chasing dreams and believing in yourself and all that. So it's not just about seeing him punk fighting. And like I said, I hope they're chronicling every single second of this thing

because how cool would it be before he fights if we get to see day one choosing Rufus sport, the sparring session, him at this fight, all that stuff leading up? I mean, that's just gold right there. So it's going to kill. The idea of him and Brock on the same card was asked by, me, I don't know if it could beat 1.6 million. That's what most people believe UFC 100 did. They'll never say because they don't make those numbers public, but I think it would kill, and I think that they should do that if Brock does come back. Before we move on, it's been a little

negative about Anthony Pettis. I want to say one thing, just quickly, that Anthony Pettis will be the last person to make an excuse for this loss, and that he'll more than likely, you know, come back stronger. After the Clay Guita thing, you know, a lot of guys would have made an excuse. he took me down, he laid on me. You never hear that from Pettis. Yeah. So respect to that guy, and I'm sure, you know, big things are ahead for him again. By the way, speaking of punk.

Yeah. I don't know if you know this, but I made a few cameos on the UFC on FX broadcast on Saturday night. And then I went on my Twitter and all these people were saying like, what's wrong with your eyes? Are you high? Are you not sleeping? What was going on? There was nothing wrong with my eyes. Did you see that too?

I don't know if I was watching that. You weren't watching the prelims? Oh, on the prelims? You came on the prelims? Yeah. I was on twice on the prelims. Jesus. I had two cameos on the prelims.

I don't think I've ever had two cameos. And where were you? What were you doing? I was watching the prelims, but only the fights. What do you do? You fast forward through them? It's live. No, I mean, if I heard, you know,

Joe Rogan's voice, maybe a perk up and look at the fights. Right after Eli's Theodoro, after they announced him as the winner, his post-fight interview. They went straight to me. And what did you do? What was the spot? The first time I was talking about them going to San Diego and them going to... Oh, yes, I did see. I saw when you announced the...

Why are you hating? How am I hating? You just dismissed it. Like, you didn't see it. I forgot it. I mean... I mean, look, if I were at home and you showed up on TV, I would feel pretty excited about it. That would be a different circumstance altogether.

Why? I mean, what favor was I able to call in to make it onto TV? It's nice to know that sometimes, like, you know, your teammates are happy for you when you make an appearance. No? You're like, oh, get this guy off, put in, you know, Joe Schmoe, I don't know, some other person. Anyway, nothing wrong with my eyes. I don't know what everyone's talking about. Well, I saw that bit, and I didn't notice anything wrong with your eyes, but... Okay, so everyone just calm down. I don't do drugs.

That's what they were saying it was? They thought you were high? Yeah. No, I can confirm that. Okay, just saying. Habib's trash talk, Cowboy said recently that Habibu's, is really getting under a skin. The last fighter we've seen really get under Donald's skin was Nate Diaz, and that was arguably his worst performance in the U.S.

Is this fight already lost for Cowboy before it begins? No. He continues to allow Habib to talk to get to him. I will say this, though. I saw Cowboy. He's very nice to me these days. I like it a lot. He did say even, you know, outside of the Q&A, this guy, man, really getting under his skin.

I love it. I want to see a motivated cowboy. I want to see a pissed off cowboy. Now, the question about the mental side of the game, that has been brought up, but I feel like Cowboy has turned the corner. Remember, before the big fights, the Diaz fight and some others, even the RDA fight in August, not last year, year before. We always thought that, you know, he couldn't get over that hump. When it was the big fight, he didn't deliver. Same thing in WEC, but that has been thrown out the window with some of these wins.

The Benson win in January, the win over Eddie Alvarez, the win over Miles Jury, co-mate event. I mean, Cowboys is a totally different fighter, and he works with a sports psychiatrist now. So it's going to be interesting because all those guys didn't really get under his skin. You know, Miles, Benson, Eddie, there wasn't a lot of trash talk there. Habib is going at him, and he's going at him pretty hard. And he's calling him a fake cowboy and all this stuff, so it's going to be good. I can't wait. What a great fight.

I just wish it was sooner. Future champion. Who? Donald? Habib. Oh, yes. Come on. day on the show. I know, but I wasn't even talking about him. I was talking about Donald.

Yeah, but you said you can't wait for that fight. Yeah, yeah, I know, but there are two people fighting. Uh, Yawanna champion was Yowna becoming champ the best case scenario for the UFC and the 150 pound, I'm sorry, the 115 pound division moving forward. She's fun and fans seem to have really latched onto her. After the mugging, she put on a spars on Saturday. Do you see anyone being able to take that belt anytime soon? Well, sure. I mean, I think she's very good. Uh, I think she's excellent. She's amazing. I mean, You know, her striking is incredibly impressive. Take-down offense was very impressive as well.

But this is a young division. And in these young divisions, there might be a little more parity, and the belt could change. I mean, we've seen this before in these new weight classes. Now, we've also seen dominant champions like Demetrius Johnson, but nothing surprises me anymore in M.A. Hafeldo Sanjos is the UFC lightweight champion. Have you not heard?

By the way, did you know that on Saturday, the last guy to beat Connor McGregor fought on that card? Did you know that? What's his name? Joseph Duffy. And the cool thing about it is that he's also from Ireland, which I think just makes for a great story. This wasn't talked about at all. I was very surprised about that.

I mean, that's a great selling point. Anyway, back to Yohanna. I think it should be either the Claudia Gedelia. I like the idea that Dave Meltzer brought up. I mean, it's kind of a four-man tournament or four-woman tournament, excuse me, in her home country, in Poland on April 11th. That card, that fight-pass card, all of a sudden got a whole lot more interesting in my opinion. So let's see what happens. If Calderwood wins, I would really love to see that fight in Scotland.

I think that would make the belt feel very important. Two Europeans fighting in Europe for the belt, you know, the debut in Scotland, you can't script it better than that. So we'll see. I think every time we get a new champion, we hear how they're unbeatable, and there's no buddy left to fight them. Yeah. So it's getting a little silly.

And her last fight was pretty close. I mean, let's not act like she's been storming through everybody. Do you agree with Dana that Johnny Hendricks' performance was not impressive? I thought he looked really good and champion-like. Matt Brown is no joke. Matt Brown is no joke. And I don't necessarily agree with Dana. Like I said in the Post-Fight wrap-up as well, I mean, sometimes I feel like our expectations are sky high.

Or actually, I feel like they're almost ludicrous because you have a guy in Johnny Hendricks who is a wrestler. that's where he came from. Of course, he's turned into a guy, you know, he's got power, all that stuff. But when you fight Matt Brown, why would you just stand in a phone booth and trade with him? Why wouldn't you use your wrestling? Why wouldn't you get that win?

Especially when you just lost your belt. I mean, yeah, it would have been great if he would have stood there and they would trade it for three rounds. It was Slug Fest. But why the hell would you do that? The name of the game at the end of the day is to win. And I think the timing might not work out for him. I kind of feel like he'll get another shot,

you know, another fight before he has to fight for the belt before he earns that title shot. I think the Woodley fight makes all the sense in the world, especially if they can make it happen on July 11th. But the criticism, I mean, what are we thinking? I'll say this. Also, outside of starching Campman and Fitch,

he's been a decision machine, Johnny Hendricks. This is not, like, this is a very prototypical Johnny Hendricks fight. Wait a second. Wait a second. The Robbie Lawler fight, the first one was fight of the year. I don't care a decision or not. That was an amazing fight. The second one was pretty darn entertaining as well. So let's not pretend like it was boring

I'm talking about level of entertainment. I'm talking about how he fights. But that's what people want to see. They're like, oh, that was boring. He'd lay and preyed. I mean, when I, I remember I tweeted right after dominant win that when he needed. And I got, that if he thought he could shoot in on on Robbie Lawler and take him down as easily as he did Matt Brown, I can guarantee you he would have. But that's just, that's not realistic. People were more upset with it being quote quote, boring as opposed to it being a decision, because even the Condit fight was arguably fight of the year as well. I don't know about that.

It was a great fight. It was a good fight. You forget. It was a really good fight. It was on the short list. It was top five. I don't know about that. I mean...

It wasn't Matt Brown versus Hendricks, right? People aren't going to hold them the same. No, maybe not, but it was a very similar fight. I mean, if... I don't know if it was very similar. If Hendricks hadn't hurt his hand, I think that's what it was, that third round would have looked exactly like the first. to. It would have been

almost identical fights if he hadn't gotten hurt. Condit came on in the third round because Hendricks had hurt himself and couldn't lock his hands for a takedown. But that fight was going exactly the same way this one was. Johnny Hendricks has a very unique combination of

power and aggressiveness in his wrestling. He'll hang on to that leg until he gets you down. And once he gets you there is where he has a little trouble finishing the fight. but I'd say that this was nothing, like this was too, as expected from Johnny Hendricks.

This is exactly what he needed to do and exactly what people should have been expecting him to do against a guy like Matt Brown who, you know, doesn't do so well stopping takedowns. And Johnny Hendricks utilized it to his advantage the same way he should have. And by the way, I don't know if it aired on the show or if it's even online, but my post-fight interview with Johnny

Hendricks, he was very honest about his performance and saying that, yeah, you know, sometimes maybe he's waiting for them or he needs to pull the trigger, this or that. I mean, he was very honest. I'm not saying it was fight of the year, fight of the night, whatever, but I had no problem with that fight, especially when you consider the fact that he needed to get back to the belt. Again, let's not forget, sometimes you got to do what you got to do to win.

It's a guy with three kids, he's got a family. He just lost the belt. If he would have lost that fight, he would have gone all the way down the rankings. He did what he had to do. He won. He had the perfect game plan. Get off his back. Yeah.

Speaking of good game plans, what's next for the Ream? I personally thought he looked good and fought a great fight and training at Jackson Winklejohn is clearly paying off. Who would you like to see him fight next? P.S. wasn't the body of Roy brutalized. There's only one answer, three letters, JDS, and the story. I like it. I'd love to see that. Has to be it.

And yes, Roy was tenderized like a piece of me. Oh, yeah, Roy. Much respect. The guy's unbelievable. Holy moly, this is a long one. It's about Roy. Is Roy Nelson the best example of wasted potential in the UFC? Roy is a good fighter. He just doesn't seem to care about the lifestyle of being an athlete. He is constantly out of shape, reckless about his health, and his athletic performance.

Win or lose, he never tried to change his style and or improve his skill set. Big Country's game plan is always the same. He's a one-trick pony who's just looking for that big overhand right. And that's a shame since he has some of the best grappling skills in the heavyweight division. And when his opponents play it's safe and avoid his power punches, he just gets frustrated and moans about them running away. away from him. It seems he just lacks the cardio to do anything about it. I was a big fan of Roy, but it gets harder and harder to like him. He acts strange in front of the media and always

thinks he is the smartest guy in the room, but his wasted athletic potential will always be my biggest disappointment about him. Is he the prime example of a good fighter wasting his potential to be great? This person sounds very personally hurt and disappointed. No, but that's what a fan is, right? Yeah. He said he was a big fan. Oh, I've been there many times with BJ Penn. Damn. Whoa. Talk about, I mean, this might be the hardest hit that Roy is taking all week. Well, I think Roy Nelson is who he is. And that sounds like a cop-out, but it's like a lot of these guys these days. You know, they are who they are. And the sport is evolving. And, you know, the athletes are changing. And Roy Nelson is maybe from a different era. Let's not forget, he was criticized on Saturday for hitting some big shots and then trying to go for the takedown.

It wasn't the greatest takedown attempts, but I don't think he was actually relying on the right hand the whole time. I mean, of course, that was the shot that he was looking for, and he got it very late in the fight. But then he was criticized for trying to go for the takedown. I think that was a mistake as well. But I don't think he was not using his wrestling like this individual MMA monster is suggesting.

But look, these are all very fair, these are all very fair criticisms of Mr. Nelson. It's fair to a point. Roy hasn't been that guy in a long time. You know, the guy who took Kimbo down and, you know, put him in the crucifix and elbowed his face. But, by the way, Roy on the ultimate fighter was a different kind of Roy, because he admits this. He was just looking for no damage. He wasn't going to go in there and slug away. Well, that's my point.

Since actually entering the UFC, we've never seen a fight like that from Roy Nelson. So if you've ridden the train this long, just keep on ride until the wheels fall off and watch him throw those fastballs. That's what he's going to do, and that's what he's good. at. I don't know why you would expect him to all of a sudden, you know, turn into, you know, NCAA wrestler and try and take Overheim down. In fact, you know, Overim's wrestling is probably better than Roy's. So just watch him throw the fastballs because overreem was the better fighter than a while. He hits a strike and it's a lot of fun to watch. And by the way, let's not forget, he has lost weight. You know, he was at ATT. I think he's doing what he can do, but, you know,

he is who he is. At some point, at this age, let's not forget quickly. Roy Nelson, how old? I'm going to say he's 37 or 38. I mean, he's getting there. He is 38. He's turning 39 in June. So this is a guy, I mean, he is who he is. He's been doing this for a very long time.

It's hard to just completely change yourself at this point. All right, let's go quickly. Is it fair for Ryan Benoit to receive no punishment at all for kicking Sergio Pettis after their fight? Similarly to Claudia Godelia, an apology after the fight seems to have made the difference between receiving no punishment at all, as opposed to receiving the Paul-Daily treatment.

Is an apology enough in these cases, or does the UFC need to send more of a message to their fighters that these post-fight actions won't be tolerated? Look, I'm going to pass on this one because I can't sit here and justify the release of Paul Daly. So I can't sit here and justify the not-release of Ryan Benoid or Claudio Guadalia. I didn't think Paul should have been released, and I don't think these other two people should have been released.

Well, I think they're different situations. Of course they're different. But the point is, you're making me try to justify one over the other. One should have never happened. They were all very bad. They were all very unsportsmanlike. And there should be some kind of, I mean, if you kick a guy after the fight, you should be fine for that, in my opinion. If you punch someone after a fight, you should be fine.

Should you lose your job? No. You shouldn't lose your job. I think the commission came out and said there will be no punishment as well. I mean, and look, the commission didn't fire or suspend Paul Daley. It was the UFC who did that, so the UFC could do whatever they want. I think unsportsmanlike conduct deserves some kind of penalty, even if it's $100, some kind of penalty.

But you don't deserve to lose your job for any of those. Now, if you take a guy and tombstone them and break his neck, of course. I mean, that's disgusting. But I don't think any of those deserve contract termination. But they do deserve some kind of action because it is unsportsmanlike. It can't just be you apologize and that's it. You get what I'm saying? Sure.

And I think part of this is also the way Sergio Pettis handled it, where he... They both handled it great afterwards. Yeah, he just said, you know what? Well, you do it, you do it. Yeah. Did Duffy miss his chance to bring attention to himself and call out Conner McGregor for a potential huge re-match? The Joseph Duffy thing is a fascinating thing in all seriousness because this is a guy who beat Connor McGregor and is the last man to beat him and then goes out and has a pretty solid boxing career. Comes back to M.MA.

You heard him on this show. Looks amazing and then blows away the competition on Saturday, Jake Lindsay. and he is completely different than all of those SPG guys and all the other Irish guys that have come to the UFC thus far. He's all quiet or humble. He is not taking the bait. He doesn't want to quite go out there and say, I'm the guy. I mean, could you imagine if the roles were reversed?

If Connor was the last guy to beat Joseph Duffy and he was doing what he was doing. Even the media. I mean, I know some of them were kind of joking with me. There was no Irish media there. There were no European media. It feels like the fans and the media from Europe and in particular Irish.

the Irish kind, haven't rallied around him like they did for the others. And I don't know why. Is it because he doesn't live in Ireland? You know, his girlfriend's in London and he went to train at TriStar. I mean, he doesn't kind of own it like they do. Who knows? But this is, this is a huge deal. Keep your eyes on this one, because this could be a massive fight. The reason why is exactly what you laid out right before that is because he's not making noise. And I think it's a little bit of both. I think it's the noise thing, fine, but it's also that he hasn't really claimed it. I I know recently he's calling himself Irish Joe and all that stuff, but think about it. I mean, London, Montreal, he's not there, you know, with the flag and saying, I'm here and come get me and all.

It's, I think they're a very proud nation, and that's my sense of it. But all that being said, he is a tremendous fighter, and he looked great on Saturday night, and I'm really, I hope he can make $145, because I think that would be a huge fight down the line. And if Connor loses, then maybe he goes $1.55, who knows. I'll tell you this, though. If Connor loses, I would like that to be his next. fight. Two championship belts change hands. The next two events where this could be a possibility are UFC 187, excuse me, and UFC 189. In your opinion, which event is more likely for the double? Also, who your picks out of the four? Here are some betting odds for those. So if you pick,

if you bet on Vitor and Johnson as a parlay, you get 12 to 1. If you bet on McDonald and McGregor as a parlay, you get roughly 3.5 to 1. I think if I had to pick one, I'd go with 188. if you want to see the sweep. Well, I think the... If I had to pick one, I don't think there's going to be a sweep. I think McGregor is the most likely... No, I'm sorry. I think McDonald is the most likely to win the belt

out of those four. And then the second is McGregor, right? I mean, yeah, I think Vitor has the least possibility. And I think McGregor... All four, 43 to 1. Well, no, that's not happening. I'm just saying. But, yeah, I would impartly...

any of these, to be honest with you. What else? Now we're moving to Twitter. Hang tight while we do that. We'll make the transition here. Running out of time here, so we will run through these. Great moment, also seeing Dana White's son sitting cage side. How about that?

Imagine hanging with your dad, who just so happens to be Dana White, watching these fights. With Yowanna bringing the belt back to Europe and Connor about to do the same, which Eurofighter is the next champ? Gosh. I don't know. Do you have a crystal ball? I mean, the two obvious ones would be either Connor or Nirmagamadov, right? I think Nirmagamatov is...

Bees Connor to the punch? I mean, I don't know. I really have to... I've gone back and forth a million times in my mind on Aldo McGregor. But I think I know that Habib will be the champ. I don't know if Connor will be the champ, but I know that Habib will be the champ. Wow. Didn't you say the same about D.C.?

No. You didn't say I know? No. I wish. Yeah. No, it's not the same. I mean, the guys at the top are not John Jones. That's just the fact of the matter.

The guys in lightweight, while the division as a whole is incredible, there's not a guy like a John Jones that could stop Habib's wrestling at this point. I mean, look at what he did to the current champion. Yeah. It was a wash. He destroyed him. And the only thing that stopped him so far, his injuries. Now, he had a very close fight with Glacin Tebow, but it was a very raw kind of early

performance for him. Since then, he's just destroyed everybody. Did Henry Sehudo have the walk out of the night and possibly the year? Well, it's early, but it was great. I love that he came out to the NBC Olympic theme. That was amazing. Henry is a star in the making. He's, he's great on the mic. He speaks Spanish. I mean, there's so much going for him. He's got a great story, Olympic gold medalist. That was a great one. By the way, I stumbled upon this, and I forgot to ask her about it, but Yohanas was this Polish rap song, and there's a video for it that someone sent me, and she's in the video, and I wanted to ask her the story. I think the story is, and the name, I'm going to spell it for you, R-E-N-A-G-O-S-C, G-U-T-E-E-K. I don't know what the heck that

means. It's Polish, obviously, but I think the story is that she was bullied, and then she goes to a gym to get the bullies. She stopped some fools out with her Jordans. And it's, yeah, and it's a Polish rap, and she came out to this song. I failed to ask her about it. I will next time. But that was also a great one as well. But Suhudo, much props.

I loved it. This is the song, by the way, if you can hear it. It's a pretty great video, by the way. Next question. How was it behind the scenes with Albert there this past weekend? I mean, I've actually been to fights where he wasn't there because sometimes there were fights, you know, the same place. People were talking about it.

But, you know, as he said, the show goes on. These things happen. And, you know, I don't think anyone was holding their head. He sent that video to Carla and stuff, but the show went on, and I don't know if there were any hitches or anything like that. It will go on, as it always does. What's the hardest name you've ever had to pronounce and the worst you've ever mangled one? What pronunciation help do you get? Wow.

From our good friend Ash. It's been a while since she asked the question, right? She asked one every once in a while. Well, that got picked. Really? This is a good one. Well, Young Jacek is a doozy. It's got to be, right?

When that was up there, there were a couple that come to mind. You know how I have help with it? How I get the help? They send us these, they ask every fighter to say their name in a phone, and then they send us the audio file. So you get to break it down. They'll say like, Yohanna Yongechek. Yohanna Yonjeechek.

And so you just listen to that a thousand times, and you get to learn how to say all the names. And I think that's important. Nothing bothers me more when they mispronounce the names. You've got to get that right. That's respect. name. Does MMA have a Christian Leitner? In reference to Ariel Hawani's appearance

on ESPN's 30 for 30, I hate Christian Leitner. From this studio, did you notice it? Kyle Haas, his picture was up. Yeah, I'm sure. It was blurry because you were in focus in the back, but if you're a fan of the show, I mean, you know that that was the studio. I got to say, what a response to my cameo.

Mostly positive. A few people saying, oh, what are you doing talking about Christian Lainter? Get out of here. Haters. Hater's going to hate it. There's no reason to hate if they saw the picture of you from childhood. Yeah. I mean, if that wasn't something. By any means necessary.

That's what I believed in. Back in the mean streets of Montreal. Is there an MMA version of Christian Lainter? I feel like there is. I feel like there was when Michael Bisbing was hated. Hmm, that's interesting. But you know what? Christian, with all due respect, Christian won two titles.

I think that was part of it. With all due respect. Oof. I'm just saying. There's got to be one. Come on. I think it was Bisbing. You think there's been no champion?

No. Matt Hughes? No, he was kind of beloved. Close enough, though, right? At the time, I don't feel like, I feel like time has been unkind to him, but I feel like at the time, everybody loved Man Hughes. Tim Sylvia? But different. No.

It's different, though, because he even have the looks and all that. Yeah, no, this is... Tito? Tito? Huh. Tito. Polarizing figure? Could be Tito.

Different. Totally different, but maybe that's the one. Tito might be the best one. Yeah. I think Bisping is better, but your point about being a champion is apt and fair. But Tito's not a bad one. Just tweet us some other ones if we're forgetting any. That's it for today.

Okay. Hey, how about my guy, Jason Jones? Hashtag UFC biggest fan on four wheels. He called you out. What do you say? He said, you don't pick his questions. I saw him. Great guy.

Saw him on Friday. And he just said to me New York, Rick, skip my question. What's up with that? Whomp. Ask a better question, bro. Whoa. Can I find it? I can't find it. Can I find it? Oh. Oh, no. Well, I gave him the shout out. Jason Jones, great guy. Jason Ryan Jones on Twitter. Great to see him. As always. All right, we have run out of time. But again, thanks to all the great people that sent me messages about the 30 for 30. And thanks to Rory Karp for putting me in. It was a great film, and I suggest you check it out if you want to see me on the mothership. And I think we'll hear that name Rory in the future. So don't forget it. That's it. You can hit my music. By the way, the UFC is back this Saturday. Didn't have a lot of time to talk about it, but it's that card that has been decimated by

injuries. Ryan LaFlair versus Damien Mayas, the main event. We had Ryan on the show last week. Josh Kostchek versus Eric Silva. And someone asked me, what's the people's main event for Saturday? And yes, I will tell you what the people's main event is. It's our guy, Andre Tucci Fili versus Godfredo Pepe. Stay tuned for that. Touchy is a man of the people. It's a sneaky card. There's some interesting names.

Tony Martin, Gilbert Burns. Jane and Bazler against Amanda Nunes. There's some interest there. So that's this Saturday. Fight past 7 Eastern, FS1, 8 Eastern, all the way to around 1 a.m. or so. Anyhow, that does it for us.

What a show. What a fun show this was. With our new TV and everything, really enjoyed it. I want to thank everyone who tuned in. I want to thank everyone who stopped by. I want to thank Dave Meltzer. Great insight, as always. I want to thank the Dagestani Cowboy himself, Habib Nurmaghamedov.

How about that? Amazing stuff. Good luck to him. I want to thank Tyron Woodley. Good luck getting that fight. Great to have him on as always. Best of luck to Reza Madadi in his quest to get back to the UFC.

Best of luck to Phoenix Jones in his WSOF debut. Foxwoods, not Mohegan. best of luck to Kurt Angle this Friday Destination America, 9 Eastern, first time against Bobby Lashley. Congratulations to Joanna Young, Jacek, Hafeel dos Santos, and thank you so much to them for stopping by. Great stuff. Really enjoyed it.

We're back next week. Same time and place. I love you all. There are two new champions in the UFC. We won't forget it. How about it? Until next week, I say, pay. Sachs Fifth Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way,

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