MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 275

Episode Date: March 30, 2015

Featuring Alexander Gustafsson, Michael Bisping, Chad Mendes, Michael Chiesa, Todd Duffee, Jamie Varner, Tom Lawlor, and Mariann from Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life. On this Monday, March 30th, 2015. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Halwani inside our New York City studio. Pump for today's show. What a weekend it was for combat sports. A really fun weekend, a sneaky fun weekend, if you will. No UFC, of course.

You know, I was looking at my calendar, and I believe between now and... In October, around October, there's like three Saturdays without a UFC event scheduled. It's unbelievable. I think April has won every single Saturday. May, all except for one, Pachial Mayweather. June is insane. July is insane.

It's a crazy stretch coming up. But no UFC on this particular Saturday, last Saturday. It was my wife's birthday. Her champagne birthday, she's not born on the 33rd of March. of course, there is no 33rd of March, but I call it the Champaign birthday because she is Patrick Ewing's number age. That's a big deal. Number 33, that's a really big deal. And people were saying, well, why would you say how old your wife is?

Women don't like that. But you know what? When you're 33, you should be proud of it. The best number out there. I can't wait until I turn 33. I've been dreaming of this my whole life. Hopefully I make it. July.

Send your presence now. So why was it such a fun weekend? Well, Beltor had a great show. a show that was flying under the radar going into it because of course last week the big news was 189 World Tour and of course we'll talk about that on this show the World Tour has been fantastic they just posted a new embedded

where Conne McGregor doesn't necessarily slap Josay Aldo on the back as Dana White said but he did kind of give him the old pinch of the shoulders and that pissed off Josie Aldo it continues to progress tomorrow they'll be in Dublin and this has been the best reality show that I've seen in quite some time amazing stuff great drama great things theater. The world tour is no doubt about it as success, and the tickets would suggest that.

Almost sold out, $7 million gate, all that stuff. So that was the big news, I think, all week. But then Bellator had a great show. Hideo Tokoro versus L.C. Davis, Davis winning, Sand's Teeth. Great performance. The small controversy, I don't think it was, but Joe Warren was complaining in the main event afterwards that he did not tap Marcus Galvow, new Bellator Bantamway champion. So that was a really fun show. Then Saturday, You had a great World Series of Fighting Show, Justin Gaci with a potential fight of the year candidate, as was the Davis fight, by the way. You had Tiago Silva losing to a relatively unknown fighter. You had great performances.

Clifford Starks, former UFC fighter. But then on Sunday. Wow. Sunday. So you remember we talked about WrestleMania last week, and I was kind of on the fence. But I got to tell you, I watched the whole thing. And I watched the whole thing because late last week, I received a text message. from a very good source.

And this is not me saying after the fact I didn't tweet about this. I hate when people do this. I hate it. Oh, I knew about it. I hate it. Nothing bothers me more. But New York Rick can attest to this.

I sent him the text message. And I said, this is the reason why I'm watching because someone told me that you must watch on Sunday, you in particular, because you will hate yourself if you miss what's going to happen. They wouldn't tell me what. But I have the proof. I did guess it was Ronda Rousey.

I guessed it was Ronda Rousey because because WW was tweeting about her, and they don't do anything by coincidence. Why do I hear an echo? Do I hear an echo? Anyway, they don't do anything by coincidence, and I guess it was going to be rousy. I didn't know what would happen. And of course, by now you know, Ronda Rousey showing up at WrestleMania with the Rock, getting involved with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.

Oh, my God, I was, I was mind. I'm still buzzing. It was a great angle. It was executed perfectly. And now will it lead to a match? We don't know. I'm told I don't believe she will be on raw and I think that might be it until next year's WrestleMania

but wow, if there was ever an indication like we were talking about last week that these two worlds are often colliding in that MMA's roots its roots are in pro wrestling this is the indication I think that this TV might be on or something there's something going on here where I'm hearing myself do you guys hear that?

We can fix that in a second Okay, let me run down the show because we have to get to our first guest. We're very excited about this show. 350, we're going to talk about your questions and comments and all that good stuff. There's a lot going on, so please hit us up as usually. We'll also go inside the vault. We've got a fun one. It pertains to one Brock Lesner who lost his title last night.

3.30, we have Marianne from Brooklyn, the infamous whack packer herself. The mother of all whack packers. Marianne from Brooklyn, who's at the UFC 189 World Tour. she will be on the show at 3.30. Marianne from Brooklyn. Are you kidding me? This is the closest I've ever been to Howard Stern. If you don't know who she is, you better read up, you better watch, you better listen. She is an unbelievable personality, and I can't wait to have her on. 310 will talk to Michael Kesa. He returns this Saturday. It's an afternoon show in Fairfax against Mitch Clark. Remember I falsely announced on TV that that was the co-main event. It's not,

but it's still a great fight. 245. We'll talk to Michael Bisping, who's fighting C.B. Dahlowe at UFC 186. 225. We'll talk to Chad Mendez. Or as the Brazilians like to call him, Chaddy Mendez. He's fighting Ricardo Lama in Fairfax this Saturday. Jamie Varno will stop by at 205, recently retired. 145, Todd Duffy, who's been campaigning to fight Frank Meir. He'll stop by at 145. And then 125, we'll talk to Alexander, the Mahler, Gustafson.

But for now, let us go to the Skype machine and welcome in our first guest. This man was at Levi's Stadium yesterday. He witnessed it all. He's our embedded reporter. he, of course, is, I believe, still a UFC fighter, friend of the show, Filthy, Tom Lawler. I'm seeing the sky. Where is he? There he is.

Wow, look at that. I'm making a grand entrance, Ariel. That was unbelievable. It was highly believable. All I think was put my computer up and then let it fall back down. Tom, I digress. It is great to see you. It is great to hear from you.

Where are you right now? I'm here in beautiful Sunnyvale, California, at the Humble Abode. of one Kyle Kingsbury. What? A good friend of mine, yes. Did he go to WrestleMania too? Kyle. No, but he is there drinking his bulletproof coffee.

Give a little wave for the fans at home, Kyle. Hi, Ariel. Kyle, as soon to be father, Kyle, Mazeltov. Yes, thank you. It's going to be a mitzvah. Yes. How far long are we? May 16th is the due date, so we're right around the corner.

All right, well done. Best of luck to you guys. Hell yeah. Back to wrestling. Yes. Okay. Tom, we got a lot to talk about. You were at WrestleMania yesterday. Who are you with? I was there with a friend of my name, Greg, knowing that you would know. I stick to my own when it comes to this sort of thing, Ariel, not fake fans out there who pretend like they watch casual fans. Those are not my kind of people. I was at the event all weekend. Not only was I at WrestleMania, I attended or I was lucky enough to attend a lot of the independent shows that were.

were going on over the weekend as well. So I got a full fix of wrestling from Friday until Sunday. Okay, well, let's talk about the big news as it pertains to us. You know, last week I was ranting as I usually do about the connections between MMA and pro wrestling. And there are some fans who love to have the blinders on. They love to pretend like there's no connection between the two. But last night, at Levi Stadium, we had arguably the face of the UFC, the biggest name in UFC right now, Ronda Rousey coming. Well, you're second. I think you're second last I checked. Rhonda Rousey showed up and she judo throwed through Triple H. She had a little melee with Stephanie McMahon.

There's a potential angle here. It was unbelievable theater. I'm still buzzing. What was the reaction in the stadium? 76,000 people. Did they understand who was there? Was she a big name to them as well? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The crowd was going nuts. Before they even brought Rhonda into the ring, you know, the rock left the ring. Stephanie McMahon was saying that, you know, said to the rock, basically, you know, you wouldn't hit a woman. And as soon as she said that, the crowd, I mean, they had shown Rhonda earlier in the pay-per-view on the screen, and the crowd just started chanting Ronda's name. So you could see the writing on the wall coming up. You know, I'm surprised it's a pretty big, pretty big angle, pretty big crossover between

the UFC and WWE. I was surprised to see it happen, but, you know, it's opening up, opening up new doors. And Ronda is kind of at the point now where she almost transcends what the UFC is doing. So I wasn't surprised to see it. And it's got a lot of great publicity. And I continue to think that'll happen as time goes on with this angle. So I could have seen it, you know, be a sort of a one-shot deal. Just, you know, WrestleMania, there's a celebrity.

But the fact that she didn't tap Stephanie McMahon, the fact that she didn't actually hit her, that they let it kind of linger there. And Stephanie sort of escape leads me to believe that there's a tag match coming in the future. Do you agree? Yeah, I think it'll either be a tag match or we'll get a, you know, kind of a situation with Rock versus Triple H, which they've actually built up.

They built it up on Smackdown months and months ago. But I think we'll got Rock versus Triple H with Stephanie and Rhonda maybe in the corners if we don't get a multiple person tag. But either way, I think it's going to be a big, big draw for the, for the WWE. And you can see they've kind of been moving towards a different business model since they've gone to the network where they're kind of promoting these big, big fights, right? A couple years ago you had Sina versus Lesner, the fight of the summer. Right now you had Lesnar versus Reins being built as a big time fight.

So I think you'll continue to see kind of a shift towards that, at least as far as marketing goes with the WWE. What surprises you more, the fact that WWE would call upon Ronda Rousey? Let's be honest, they've always been a little lukewarm towards MMA. I mean, they've dabbled with Ken Chammrock and these guys in the past, but they're always saying this is not our competition and blah, blah, blah, so that they would dabble into Ronda Rousey, who's hot in our world these days, or the fact that the UFC would allow Ronda to do something like that? Well, obviously, I think it benefits both parties.

I am surprised that the UFC let Ronda do that, but it's really no more dangerous than them letting her do movies or, you know, other things that are outside of the Octagon. You know, pro wrestling is a very dangerous sport, but if you take a look at what she did last night, it was very minimal as far as physical contact. So as far as that goes, I don't see a huge problem. And, you know, it's just going to bring in more viewers.

You know, I mean, they let Rhonda do these expendable movies, and it brings in publicity. And now, you know, it seems like they let her do this big angle at WrestleMania, and it'll bring in more viewers. How do you think she did? It's a business, Ariel, it's a business. I know, I know. How do you think she did? On the mic, her performance. I mean, rated for us.

Go total wrestling geek on us. Well, I'd give her about a seven. What? I would say, yeah, I'd give her a seven. The reason, they didn't have her do a whole lot, and they kept her mic time pretty short. She stuck to just her standard, you know, kind of stare down. Yes. I would like to do a little bit more, to be honest, but I guess we'll get that in the end with the payoff.

I expect her, fully, fully expect her to arm bar Stephanie McMahon. Wow. By the time set and done. Is it true they asked you to be a part of it, but they just couldn't meet your demands? Absolutely not. Okay. That is not. That rumor is not true at all.

If they would have asked me to be there to lick mud off the bottom of the big show shoot during the Battle Royal, I probably would have done it. And no joke here. I mean, you know, I'm a longtime fan, but I don't watch anymore. I got to admit, though, I showed it to my son. I showed the ladder match to my two-year-old, and he was blown away. He couldn't take his eyes off the screen. He had no idea what was going on. I mean, it was like this epiphany for him.

It was an out-of-body experience for him, and his reaction kind of made me want to watch more. more, but I will say this, I watched an entire event for the first time in maybe a decade, and it was a great show. I mean, it's WrestleMania. It's a big deal. It's fun. They pull out all the stops. Rank it for us. Considering everything that happened, I mean, where does this one rank? Yeah, in the grand scheme of things, as far as the show goes, production-wise, from the beginning to the end, and my view is kind of skewed because I was there for the entire show. I saw every little bit of action, and I get to see it, you know, kind of as a whole, without the production value and the commentators.

But I thought the show, as far as a live experience, it flowed perfectly. There was at no point that I feel bored over a five-hour span. And that in-ring action was great. Nothing was bad. Admittedly, I did not watch the Divas too much. And I'm not sure if you're getting that helicopter in the background area. Are they looking for you?

Yeah. The Popo? I'm really expecting Sting to drop from the helicopter with its back. By the way, by the way, let me ask you, Sting was never on the same page with NWO. What was up with that? Well, actually, he was a member of the NWO Wolfpack at one point. I guess. But he was never really in there with Hulk Hogan.

So he would have been more boys with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Or Rick Flair coming out. That would have made a lot more sense. Yeah, I was actually expecting Rick Flair to come out there at the end after HBK came out and teamed up with DX. Now, we actually haven't talked about the results, which is. the most important part of a card. Yes. So you want me to run through it real quick?

Well, I mean, you know, our fans will hate us, but go ahead. Do what you got to do. Well, I can make it pretty quick. I mean, you just had Tyson, Kid and Cizaro retaining the tag team titles. The big show coming out and putting, you know, forth a great performance and winning the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. I see you shaking your head there, area. That's someone else. I'm having a headphone problem here, but we fight through these things.

I'm sorry. I didn't realize you can see me. Go keep going. Keep going. Yes, big show. It's Skype. Ariel, this is your first show, buddy? Come on.

Yes, keep going, yes. I saw you on the real TV talking trash about Christian Laytoner, so don't pretend like this Skype thing's Nudian throwing you off there. Those of you who are MMA fans, you know, kind of one of our own, Daniel Bryan, walked away with the IC title

and a big ladder match. The Ariel was just talking about. The Man of the Hour, Seth Rollins, your new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Yes, did you like that? And so, yeah, I thought it was great. I thought it was a great swerve. Gets the title off of Brock.

Roman Raines comes out, not with the huge backlash that he would have if you would have walked away with the title there. Because I'm sure, as you can see, Ariel, even as a, you know, kind of casual fan. Yes. Brock Lesner up in the buildup to this match was a heel. He was a bad guy. Roman Reins was the good guy. How many people were cheering Roman Raines? No one liked them.

No one liked them. Absolutely no one. Everybody loved Brock. So it was a real touchy situation. They did a great job getting the title on Seth Rollins, keeping Brock and Rain Strong. And also, Seth Rollins lost to Randy Orton earlier in the night, clean in a beautiful match with a great finish into the RKO. It was, Arrow. It was almost reminiscent of Anthony Pettus.

You know, as he springboarded outside of the cage and threw a kick, Seth Rollins springboards off Randy Orton and gets caught in the RKO for the 1, 2, 3. So I thought that was great. Undertaker Bray Wyatt. Undertaker is one of the top MMA stars, probably of our generation, but he needs to hang it up. MMA stars. Yeah, he was able to squeak away with the win here. This is kind of reminiscent of Shogun Dan Henderson to me.

Yes. You know, you're getting an Undertaker a big win. Yeah, you're getting the Undertaker a big win on his way out. But, you know, I thought that match kind of sucked. The divas wrestled. Who cares? Sting versus Triple H. Awesome match.

You were talking about NWO versus DX. your thoughts on that. Well, I got to say, it was unbelievable watching those old guys walk down the rap, and they're like, I'm coming to get you, and they were so old. And then I also loved, I also loved the Bruce Jenner haircut by Sting with a big, big, bald spot in the back. I mean, I'm not trying to hate on the whole situation, but he looked very old. All that being said, I had a fun time watching it.

I won't lie. Yeah, when you were going with the Bruce Jenner haircut, I was expecting something else. I was expecting some other remarks thrown in there. No, no, no, no, no. But it was fun. It was fun. Although I will say, on this show last week, I said that Triple H is solely responsible for me not wanting to be a fan anymore.

And once again, he wins. He pisses me off. He always has to go over. It's annoying. I'm tired of it. I'm actually not tired of it. I don't really partake in it. But once again, I sit down and I devote time.

And who wins again? I can't get rid of this guy. And I know all you marks love him now because he's Mr. Nxte and he saved the day. But let's be honest. He's annoying. You know, on the flip side, Ariel. Who usually wins in a battle between yourself and your boss? I guess.

Yeah, Triple H is the boss. I mean, you can pretty much do whatever he wants. He runs the show. So don't be too surprised by him winning there. Okay. We had John Sina, defeating Rusev. You know, it's always good to see these foreign-born fighters get a shot at a title. And Roussev's been the U.S. champion for a while.

Sure. You know, he kind of followed in the footsteps of some other, you know, foreign greats like Jose Aldo, you know, Fabricio Verdum and holding on to a title for a while. But, you know, John Cena was able to overcome it. And, yeah, we talked a little bit about the main event. Brock Lesnar lost the title. Seth Rollins is your new champion. Are you surprised Brockton is money? I am not surprised Brockery signed.

He would have stood to make a lot of money from the U.S. but at 38 years old and with the health problems that he's had in the past, I think the right decision is to stay with the WWE. So, yeah, so I'm not a surprise at all. Okay, now I have to ask you, this is all well and good, but you haven't fought in almost two years. Are you retired? What's going on over there? No, actually, I'm fine.

I'm just waiting for the call. Why has it been two years since you last fought? I know you're supposed to fight last July. You got injured, right? Yeah, yeah. I've recovered from two knee surgeries over the past couple years, and really that's the only thing that's been holding me back. I'm ready to get in the cage whenever the UFC is ready to have me at this point.

Or when they can fit it in your wrestling touring schedule. Yeah, my wrestling touring schedule is picking up. You know, we talked a little bit about some of the independent shows earlier on in the week. Yeah, I did make an appearance at the Ring of Honor show with my boys, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish on Friday. So, you know, hopefully I get a chance to do that some more. And I'd also like to thank Gabe Sapolsky with the World Wrestling Network. I went to their show on Saturday and saw some amazing, amazing independent action.

So, yeah, my traveling schedule for pro wrestling is pretty high. Last time I spoke to you, I believe the UFC wasn't too keen on you doing this indie stuff. Where do we stand now? Well, that's a good question. But based on what I saw with Ronda Rousey last night, That's true. It opens the door for you. It's bad trouble, yeah. I think I'm on the low end of caring at this point because, you know, they're letting her do that stuff and then they're going to tell me that I can't stand ringside.

You know, it'll be disappointing. Let me ask you this. What do you have more of a passion for these days? Because clearly you're a huge fan. You're not just a W.W.Fand you love all of it. You love the Indies and all that. I see you pop up on other podcasts. Do you have more of a passion for pro wrestling or MMA?

As far as just, you know, being a part of it. of it taking it all in sitting down you have two three you know spare hours what do you prefer to you know indulge in well you know we're you were talking earlier ariel saying there's a big connection between the two of them and to me realistically at this point they're essentially the same thing um i trace the roots of m m m and this sport a lot of it back to the japanese style and uh the early japanese promotions with shudo and pancreas and uh you know to those guys that's it's all pro wrestling so So to me, as a short answer and as a cop-out, that's the same answer I'm going to use.

To me, it's all just pro wrestling. Whether it's pro-wrestling, whether it's mixed martial arts. It's all the same thing to me, Ariel. Does it shock you that there are still some people who believe there's no connection between the two? Or people who get upset when we try to make this connection, or not even try to make it bring light to the connection, because I think that it's the only difference. The only difference between MMA and pro-wrestling is that MMA is real.

And what I mean by that is it's unscripted. And I know that might sound like a big deal, but that's really the only difference. All the rest of the same, everything, everything you look at, including, you know, the way the promotion is set up, it's all the exact same. And even another connection just came up. Tapout is now, you know, a W.W brand or like that's their new uniform or whatever the hell you want to call it. Tapout. The most synonymous brand with M.M.A. is now lined up with pro wrestling and not MMA. Yeah. Not only that, but if you take a look back at the Rio de Janeiro card a few weeks ago, we had a big time.

ref screw job. So now you've got an evil ref going back to the case of Dave and Earl Hebner from the 80s. So, you know, there's huge connections between all of it. And for those of you that don't know what Ariel is talking about in the past, you know, mixed martial arts was born out of a lot of pro wrestling, you know, whether we're talking throughout the mid-century 1900s in Brazil, where you had pro wrestlers coming from Japan and battling out with the local Brazilians and getting, you know, No Holds Barred going there, whether we're talking about what was going on in England with the catch wrestlers and also the catch wrestling scene in Japan in the 1980s that brought us Shudo, Pancras, rings. If you take a look at all of that,

it's all intertwined throughout history and, you know, it's going to continue to be that way throughout history. It's all the same thing. We're all one, Ariel, as Gankic Sudo would proclaim. Very well said. Now, are you going to Raw tonight? I believe it's at the S. P Center. No, I will not be at Raw tonight. I'll be on the plane. What's wrong with you?

Yeah. How much time do I have? Well, if you want me to run through the laundry list of problems I have, you're going to need to... The Raw after WrestleMania,

isn't that the most fun Raw of the year? Well, a lot of it, it's hard to get tickets because a lot of these guys from the UK come over and break the bank. Damn Brits.

And buy up all the tickets. So that's actually a harder ticket to come by than the WrestleMania tickets are. So I decided to stay away, stay away for this raw. But, you know, there's plenty more in the future. I'll be there next year in Dallas when we break. We, not just die. When we as fans break the all-time attendance record,

hopefully we can get close to 100,000 people in there. So it'll be awesome. For Ronda Rousey's debut. Yeah. Hopefully. Yeah, maybe she'll be sporting her entire. I wonder if Reebok and Tapout will be able to work out a deal. By the way, Sunnyvale looks like a wonderful place.

I hear the birds chirping. It's sunny. I mean, Kyle Kingsbury is living the life over there. Yeah, yeah, he is. I'll show you again. He's just sitting here bronzing, drinking some bulletproof coffee. He hasn't moved. This is wonderful.

Living the dream. So let's lay it out for the people, because a lot of people ask me where you've been. When do you want to return and against who? Let's call someone out here. Hand. Ed Herman. Yeah. You want to add Herman.

minute. Hey, hey, you know what? Brendan Shaw wants to go down to 205, right? I'll fight him at 205. Oh, how about that? I'm about 225 right now. He's got, yeah, why not?

I got nothing else going on. Okay, there it is. I like that. That's a great idea. By the way, my good friends, how about this? My good friends at Fight Metric have just informed me

that Tom Lawler, that is you, is one of four modern-era fighters to earn both a knockout and a submission in under a minute each. Did you know that? Yeah, I was there. Yeah, who are the other three?

Oh, that? Oh, you're going to ask who the other three are and not count a submission under a minute. Yeah. Okay, let's say Joe Lowe's on. Correct. Okay. I don't know.

Well, we got one. Yes, Andreelowski. Well, hey, I'm still guessing here. I was going to say, if we're playing baseball, I just hit it out of the park because I'm batting 500%. Andrei Lovsky, I'll just say, I don't know. Leandro Silva.

Come on, man. We were just talking about her all show long. This whole interview was about it. Oh, Ronald Rossi. Come on. There he is. Filthy Tom Lawler. Hey, tremendous stuff.

I think you have a future in reporting. You really broke it all down for us. Hey, thanks a lot. I think you're lying, but hey, I'll take the compliment and thank you. It's good to hear from you. It's good to see Kyle Kingsbury, Bronze as always, and enjoy Sunnyvale, your last few hours there. And thanks for stopping by. Keep us posted on your return. We're all out of time. Yeah, no, no. Thank you very much, Ariel. Thanks a lot. Thanks for cutting me off.

I'll see you later. There he is. Filthy Tom Lola reporting live from Sunnyvale, California, on what transpired last night at the Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Ronda Rousey, showing up at WrestleMania. How about that? All right, let's move along, guys. We were supposed to have this man on our show last week, but unfortunately he was under the weather, so very excited that he is on the show right now. I'm talking about one of the very best fighters in the UFC, in particular, the UFC's light heavyweight division, the Mahler himself, Alexander Gustafson joins us. Alex, how are you?

I'm good, thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us. It's a busy day for you over there, right? Are you moving right now? Yeah, you know, I've been moving the whole weekend, basically. So I'm just, you know, I'm not about to finish everything now. It's great. It's a big pain in the ass, isn't it, to move, right? Oh, it is, it is.

It just fuck everything up. But I'm good, I'm good. Hopefully it's in a nice, beautiful... Is it in Stockholm, the new house? Or apartment? Yes. Yes, I have an apartment in the East Stockholm City. I got to tell you, I went to Stockholm.

Obviously, I was there in January. I was blown away. I want to move there. I was so taken aback by the people. They were so nice. What an amazing place. Now I know why you Swedish people are so proud. of your country. It was wonderful. I really enjoyed it.

Appreciate that. Yeah, it's very nice in the summers, particular. So you have to come in the summers. I will do that. So I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, is this your first interviews since that fight against Anthony Johnson? Yeah, more or less. It's the first interview. Why, you know, that was, wow, it was almost more than two months ago. Why have you remain quiet since then? Well, you know, I went to the vacation for three. weeks. I've been around. I've been, I've just been doing my thing. I've been with my family, my friends, and it's been a rough time. But, you know, I'm back, and it's time to, it's time to face

everything. And, you know, I haven't even watched a fight yet. You plan on ever watching the fight? Yeah, I will. I will break it down, and I'll watch it with my team. and see what went wrong there and everything. But, you know, I'm good. I'm back in training, and I'm motivated again, and I'm feeling great. Do you feel like you are over the fight? Is it out of your system, or will that only happen once you fight again?

Well, it's there a little bit, but, you know, I'm working eight. I work with every day, and, you know, I just hate losing. I just, you know, I can't stand it. And, you know, I can lose any fight, but just that fight in my hometown was just, you know, it was just a tough, like, a right hand to the gym. So I really need to work with myself and everything, but I'm feeling fine now, and I'm back in training, and I'm motivated, so I'm good. Looking back, I mean, did you feel like maybe there was too much pressure on you?

It was too much, you know, at the handle with being in Sweden and all that stuff, the title shot? Or was it just, you know, it wasn't your night? any kind of idea as to why it happened like that? Because it was shocking to witness, especially in person. Yeah, no, I felt great. I felt great on the whole camp. I was in a great shape, and I just felt great.

And I was really excited for the fight. I came out there, and I just did a mistake. And Anthony, he saw that mistake, and he took advantage of it. That's basically it. You know, I didn't feel in a particular pressure. I didn't feel anything like that. I just felt fine. I was really excited for the fight,

but, you know, he ended how it ended, and that's it. When you say a mistake, what, in your opinion, was the mistake? No, I did a sloppy technique, and, you know, I didn't protect my chin.

I didn't keep my chin down, my hands up, and Anthony, he saw that, and he did everything right, basically. And then, you know, you handled it, with such class afterwards, which was, you know, no surprise to those that, uh, that I've been covering you and watching you for a long time. But him in particular, him going over to you

and telling you to, you know, to stand up and lifting your arm. Were you surprised with how he dealt with the win, especially in enemy territory like that? Well, you know, like Anthony, he's a great guy and, uh, he's also a winner and, uh, and, you know, he just, you know, I just have a lot of respect for him and, uh, you know, and, uh, you know, it was just, It's a very emotional, emotional moment right there, and so everything just, you know, just happened, you know. The fact that the fight took place so late, you know, essentially it was in the middle of the morning. Did that bother you at all? No, you know, it's the first time I ever did it.

Well, you know, and it was tough. It was tough, but it doesn't, it's not an excuse, nothing. You know, I felt great, great. I stayed on the Pacific Times And, you know, we just planned everything perfect So I just did a mistake in the fight, basically You know, one of the things I wanted to ask you about for some time After the the fight, we had Rashad Evans, who of course is a teammate of Anthony Johnson

And he said, you know, he liked you very much He thought you were a great fighter, but he believed that you kind of bought your own hype a little bit too much That you were sort of walking around like you were the champion Because you fought John Jones so closely Do you believe there's anything to that? No, not at all. You know, I'm a hard worker. I work every day.

I train, I train hard. And I believe that, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever, like, comes with everything, I deserve because I work in hard for it. I don't think I'm the world champion. I don't, I don't believe. I don't, I'm trying to stay, like, I try to be a very grounded person. I listen to family and friends I try to stay around with good people so not at all

okay and I certainly believe you when you say that so there's a lot of people now that are asking me this and I'm sure you've heard about it I guess there's a rumor floating around from a Swedish outlet that you're fighting Glover Tashara in Berlin June 20th is this true? No I don't know

you know like I'm still waiting for an opponent and I don't and I can't confirm that because I don't know anything basically. So I'm still waiting from an opponent and the date, so I'm excited to see what's happening. Do you have a preference when you return against two? Is there anything that comes to my... Like, if you had it your way, the perfect scenarios, is there anything that comes to mind? Well, you know, I'm fighting whoever.

I just want to fight. That's what motorists in training to compete. and I hope to compete in the summer and then one more time in the winter, so I got three fights at least this year. You know, I've been fighting too, like, too less, I think. Yeah, I need more fight, and that's what I hope to get.

And you're healthy, right? You don't have to, you know, be out for a long time this time, right? No, I'm healthy, I'm fine. I'm training and I'm staying active, So I'm just waiting for a call. Let's just say it was Glover, because I think that fight makes a lot of sense. Are you in favor of that fight? Yeah, absolutely.

Gnobrys is a great opponent. He's a tough fighter, and I think he'll be an excited fight. We're both a strikers, and it could be a, you know, it's a great fight to see. I still think that you're maybe one win, maybe max two wins away from, you know, getting a rematch against John if he's still the champion, of course. And then there's obviously the Rumble fight if he becomes champion. Do you have a preference? Would you prefer that John wins in May so that he remains champions

so you could get another crack at him? And also, do you believe that that's the case that you're still very much in the mix? Well, you know, that's the fight people want to see. People want to see me in John's fight again. That's not a secret, but, you know, I'm in that position right now that, you know, for me, I don't even think about,

you know, however it becomes the champion is the champion. And I just take one fight at a time and I really hope I can fight for the belt again. Do you think, now that you fought both of them, who do you think wins that fight between Rumble and John Jones in May? Well, it's a tough call. I think Jones will win the fight because he has more leverage and he has a little bit more, he mix things up, you know, as everyone else. So I think he will win the fight. But with that side, Rumble is a great fighter and a great.

person and he's happy-handed so you know everything can happen in a fight you know you have to keep your chin down and keep your hands up basically so it's a I'm very excited for that fight and and the big question going into that fight is who hits harder and and if rumble can rock John again you've been there with both would you say that rumble hits harder than John Jones oh he hits harder than Jones yeah rumble when he connects you fielded so You know, that's what, you know, Jones has to be careful of. His power and his explosive. And when he comes through the pressure, it has really good pressure.

It's very dangerous in the night anyway. Yeah, of course. You know, there was that whole thing with him trying to get you to fight him. Does a party wish you never accepted the fight? You didn't have to take the fight. You were the number one contender. Do you regret doing that? No, not at all.

I need to fight, and that's what I do. So, you know, I don't regret anything. You know, I just, you know, I learned something from this, and I'm just working to be a better fighter. What's the biggest lesson you learned from it? You know, I learned that, you know, sometimes it's enough. So, you know, stay focused and, you know, keep your chin down and your hands up, basically. So, you know, even if you're tall and you have a good reach and your length and everything, it doesn't matter. to keep the chin down and your hands up, basically.

And for that camp, I know you spent a lot of time in San Diego to get away from the hoopla of Sweden. Will you not do that for this upcoming fight? Whenever you fight again, will you stay closer to home? Well, I'll probably stop my camp at home, but let's see what happens. I need to sit down with my team and talk about it. Is there any update on your friend Reza Madati?

We had him on the show a couple weeks ago. He was trying to get back in the UFC. Have you heard anything about that? I have no idea. I just know that he trains like an animal. He's ready. He's ready to fight tomorrow, if that's the case. You know, he's a beast. And what do the people say to you when you're in Stockholm?

Like, are you getting support from them when you're walking around? I know you're very popular there. What have they been saying to you since the fight? You know, I've just been, I just had, like, I just had, like, post and comments. People are, you know, giving me so much love from, you know, here. And, you know, they're very loyal to me. And that's something that motivates me even more. And it's just great to hear, you know, because when you're down, it's great to have science backing you up.

And that's what you're doing here. So would you say, would it be accurate two months later now to say the dark cloud is going away, and now you're just focused on the next fight. Whenever that booking comes, you're out of the funk of the fight. You've sort of mourned it. And now you're moving forward. You're looking forward to just getting back in there and erasing that memory. Is that accurate?

That's 100% accurate. I'm ready. I'm working hard, and I'm just excited to fight again. All right. Well, Alex, looking forward to your return whenever it is. You're sure you don't want to break any news for us. Anything at all? Nothing? You don't want to tell us anything? I don't have anything for you guys. I'm sorry. No, no, it's okay. You broke enough news. You're moving, and that's a big deal. That's very important. So good luck with the new place. And thank you for the time, and I'm happy to hear that you're feeling better. I know your manager, Thomas told me you're feeling a little sick last week. So thank you very much.

next fight. Always appreciate the time. Always great to talk to you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. All right. There he is. Alexander Gustafson. There are reports. I believe it was, was it camora.s.e. I apologize for not having it, and someone let me know. Hmm. Someone was reporting it. And I'm not surprised. I know I have someone here from MMA Crazy, Lee MMA Crazy, who said that that Dana told the reporters in London,

they're there for the UFC 189 World Tour, he told the reporters in London that that fight's happening. The outlet that someone sent me the link to should have had already is a credible outlet. Dana told them that it was happening, I guess, according to this guy, Liam and I'm crazy.

You know, that's welcome to my life, especially when I'm working on UFC tonight, The UFC does a great job of controlling the message, so to speak, and they don't like for fighters to break news. So the timing of this, probably awkward for Alex, but I appreciate him coming on, giving us the interview and whatnot. They always tell the fighters, let us break the news, let us break the news. That's why I always appreciate the people who talk to me sort of anonymous and all that.

That's just the game that we play. You know, some people, and maybe I'm going a little too inside baseball here, the difference between covering the UFC, let's say doing it for Fox and being an NFL reporter for Foxes, when you're an NFL reporter for Fox, you have 30 GMs, 30 coaches, a whole bunch of players that you're dealing with here. You essentially have one GM, one coach, if you get what I'm saying. So it's a little different. Not that, you know, I'm not complaining. It just makes the job a little trickier.

So if there's a fight to be announced, if they're planning on making a big deal, the fighter doesn't want to step on his employer's toes, his promoter's toes. So he's going to let them do it. But that's a fight that had been talked about, rumored, especially with D.C. being booked against Ryan Bader. There's really no other fight. And Rashad still being on the sidelines, there's really no other fight that makes sense out there.

And especially when you consider that Germany card that doesn't have a main event, it makes all the sense of the world. And now, yeah, it was Camoroddice. Thank you to Jonas that was saying that he is booked against Glover Tshare in Berlin. That card is June 20th. and I believe it's a fight pass card. So back to Fight Pass for Alexander Gustafsson. Fight Pass has been relatively quiet this year,

as far as events are concerned, but they're back next week, April 11th. That's the Poland card. So in a minute, we're going to be joined by Todd Duffy. And as I mentioned, Todd Duffy has been trying to get a fight with Frank Mier and Brock Lester last week, resigning with WWE, opened the door for him because there's really no other guy that makes a whole lot of sense for Frank Mir now. Duffy giving us all kind of problems. How surreal was that?

You know, they said on, they said afterwards that they had no idea what Brock was going to announce, but it was still very surreal to see him there, this, this, this, this, this behemoth of a man, sitting with Michelle Beatle, who I thought was the perfect person to conduct the interview. This was last Tuesday. And him announcing that, you know, he's closed the door on his UFC career that, you know, he thought about it. It was tough. He was in training. But the end of the day, as a father, as a husband, he thought it was right to go back

to WWE to do that on SportsCenter, on that platform. And whether or not he was a great actor, who knows, whether or not that was all scripted, who knows. But it seemed like this was a tough decision for him that he was agonizing over it. Brock did a tremendous job. This is a guy who doesn't really have to talk all that much in his current job as, well, now former WWE champion. It was great theater.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. And then he later told the Associated Press that when he called the UFC, I believe it was Lorenzo Furtita, to tell him that he was taking the WWE deal. They tried at the 11th hour to get him to reconsider. And again, another example of the lines being blurred. The UFC tried to sign the WWE Heavyweight Champion, the current WWE Heavyweight Champion, the man who has not fought in three years.

They tried their best and offered him a whole lot. lot. So Brock Leicester now closing the door officially on his UFC career. Frank Mear was in the corner with his fingers crossed that he would get a third crack at Brock Lesnar because that was without a doubt the biggest fight that he could get. And now he has left without a dance partner. Enter Todd Duffy. There he is. Did Todd Duffy bring back up? What's going on here? Oh, I figured all the foreign guys get a translator. might as well bringing my own personal mouthpiece bliseach boman i'm kind of done talking man i've talked on the trash i want to talk so wow he's not really a trash talk kind of guy he's kind of

too nice of a guy when there's not a bell saying knock this guy's head off so that's kind of what i'm here for obviously frank wants to fight professional wrestlers that have mouthpieces talking for them because so now we have another beast that's going to decimate frank mayor and i'm going to do the talking for him how are you all good to see again so so just just to be clear you are the advocate for one Todd Duffy, is that accurate? If you're going, if I have Aero Hawani endorsing me as the advocate, who am I to argue? That's 100% correct, yes, sir. Well, we have an update on this situation, guys, because I know Todd that you have been,

by the way, are you not going to say anything, Todd? Is that how are you going to conduct this? Am I going to have to go through? What's the same? I'm going to fight. I'm here to fight. Okay, okay. Well, we have an update. New York, Rick, do you have that update for us? Are you ready to do this? I'm indeed. Okay, so my good friend,

Heidi Fang, who is a reporter out of Las Vegas, host a show. Let me just get this clip right here. Yes, she hosts a show called The Fight Corner in Las Vegas. And Frank Mear was on her show today, and apparently he was talking about you. Have you heard about this? Excuse me, sir. You have not heard about this? No. He has not.

Okay, so we're going to play... I may or may not be up to date, Ariel, but go ahead and fill my client in for it. Yes. So we're going to play this clip of Frank Mear speaking about Todd Duffy. the client of one. What was your name again? Blake Bowman. Blake Bowman. Okay, well, I thought you had a stage name.

Blake Bowman. Of course, we know Blake Bowman of the Ultimate Fighter Fame, ATT, and all that. Good to see you against her. I think that was you in a previous life. Anyhow, New York, Rick, can you play us the clip of Mr. Meir speaking about Mr. Duffy here? I mean, I think Todd did a good job of, you know, getting his name out there. I mean, obviously,

career-wise, he's only fought one guy that anybody would probably know who it is, and that's an Alistair, who knocked him out in 19 seconds. The other fight that was of some note was the Russo fight. He did great in that fight. In fact, that actually helped him train for it and been one of the guys around, you know, with Mike Whitehead cornered him. You know, and Russo even broke Russo's arm, which

Russo's a tough guy, I guess he came back and was able to knock him out cold, though, knocked Todd out. And that was disappointing. And so, I mean, Todd, you know, I understand what he's doing. I have no ill will. He's a young guy that, you know, he's been in the UFC for a little while. You know, out of the UFC, in the UFC, he's, he wants a name for himself.

And so, you know, his fights themselves hasn't garnered him that much recognition. So I guess he figures if he talks a little bit on the Twitter and gets things going, that'll help. And it did. I called up the UFC and said, hey, you know, if you have nobody else for him to fight and if that's what you guys want, I'm open. I've never turned down a fight from anybody. All right, guys.

So there's a lot to digest there. And I've got to be honest to you, that's the first time I've heard this because Heidi, again, of the fight corner out in Las Vegas, she just provided me with this. breaking news audio. He took a couple of subtle shots there. I'm not going to lie, but the big picture is he apparently has accepted the fight. So are you guys surprised by this? A little bit, but I'm very happy about it because even though we may say what we say based entirely in truth, nobody's ever said, oh, Frank Meir, that should be a boring fight. Let's skip that one. The guy comes, Frank Mears' game plan has never involved the word decision as far

as I'm aware in his career. So in a sport where people try their hard. to not lose two out of three rounds and then hold their hands up like they just won something. Dana White's throwing $50 grand in the air saying, please somebody wait me up at Cade's side. Frank Mears has been finishing people for a long time. Todd Duffy, not quite as long, but the exact same thing. And he's saying, if you don't have anybody else for me to fight,

I tried to fight this pro wrestler, and then Nogara, who I didn't want to fight 10 years ago, but now I want to fight them twice, you know, we don't need somebody better. You need to fight somebody better. It would be my argument. you walk around picking and choosing who you fight, that makes you a bully.

And I think that Todd is the alpha bully. There is mutual respect. Nobody here disrespects what frame you can do in a cage. That, you know, now we're going to say, I help him train for that fight. We're friends. But that's cool because Todd here never back down to, from a fight either. So we're looking forward to,

go ahead and get that. And Todd doesn't need to talk his mouth a little bit to get attention. You know, Todd Duffy. Look at the size of his hands. Would you mind? But wait, but let's be clear. I mean, Todd did have to speak a little. lot to get his attention. This isn't a fight that was on anyone's radar. I mean, he's,

I mean, you know, with all due respect, he's not ranked right now. Who's number 11? Who's number 11? The gatekeeper? The gatekeeper's number 11? That's fine. Well, but he's been talking. He's been begging the people that you beg for a fight, and it just hasn't happened. He's been saying to Dana White, please give me somebody that can last more than a couple minutes with me. Yeah, the Russo fight withstanding, nobody could really go more than a couple minutes with Todd. I'm not saying that Frank can or can't. Probably not, but he's a legitimate guy who is a tough fight for anybody over 204 pounds in the world, and Todd has all the tools to go ahead and let him spend more time with his family. Is Todd annoyed right now? I mean, you know,

he's been talking a lot and it seemed to get him nowhere. I would think you'd be a little happier that Frank has finally accepted his challenge. I'm annoyed. He's annoyed at everything, not just with Frank, but also with that, that he had to talk to get it, that he has to talk to even get recognized. He has to, he has to talk constantly whenever he's hyped, he's hyped, and then there's just, and then the hype train just goes away. It's like, all the man wants to do is fight, he's begging, let me do this again, let me do this again, let me do this again, and he's just kind of, this, it's falling on death fear. So we should, I guess we should, we should thank Frank Mears. Is that what he wants, that he acknowledged Todd Duffy?

He won't be thanking us if the fight goes down, but, but, you know, we, we, we, we should, we are happy to see it. On Todd's behalf, I'm relieved. I'm very excited for this. What do you say? I believe Todd is almost 10 years younger than Frank, give or take a year or two. What do you say to people who say that Todd is just looking to, you know, get into a fight with an older guy?

He views Frank as maybe on the way down and this is his chance to capitalize off of his name, that he should be fighting someone his own age, his own ranking, things of that nature. Well, what's the response? I mean, if you're fighting somebody that's your own rank or lower or that's your own age or lower, then that makes you a bully. Like I said earlier, Todd's an alpha bully. Todd will bully his way all the way to Kane or whoever they have wearing a belt that's pretend to be the number one contender because Kane's the champ. Make no mistake about that.

But anybody else in between, he'll bully his way through all of them. And that's what he's trying to do. But people have said Frank Mears been on the way down more than once, and then he broke somebody's arm and knocked somebody unconscious. Frank Mears not, he's not out to pasture yet by any means. He's still a dangerous, ask how many heavyweights want to fight Frank Mere. I'll leave it at that. That's their first choice. He is coming off a win over Bigfoot Silva.

Do you have any idea if the now mute Todd Duffy was impressed by that victory? No. Todd says, hmm. So, okay, is Todd frustrated that it's taking him this long to get a fight? It's been a while since he last fought. It seems like it's always a struggle to get him back in the cage. And yeah, and that's the whole point. He followed a fractured kneecap.

He's back. He's 100%. His fractured kneecap fight was way short in this interview. And that's why I'm here because I'm here to talk the way that Todd fights, but for a little bit longer. Okay. And are you also represent, like, would you be the one to call Joe Silva and talk about this fight? Or does he have another manager as well? Sure.

You're the guy. So have you had any discussions with the UFC about this fight? Are they interested in the fight? Yes, they are. Oh, they are? So it was Todd. So it's Frank. So I think that one plus one equals four.

Wow. So we got something going on here. Yeah. I'm still a little bit surprised about Todd's demeanor. It still feels like he's very mad about something, annoyed about something. It's not you, we promise. Okay. He's honored to be here today.

You see the man's shirt? Yes. Where'd you get that made? It was made for him. Oh, really? By who? Yeah. By who?

This tribe of mull. It's a long story. It involves a lot of kung fu and talk. It's nothing interesting for the M.M.A. folks. What about Frank also saying, you know, the 19 seconds over him and stuff? I mean, he's taking a couple shots. It feels to me like maybe he doesn't have all that much respect for your skills. Maybe that's me interpreting, but it didn't feel like he views you on his level.

What's your response to that? No, we've trained to go. He knows. When did you train together? Yes, go ahead. That's Todd's, Ancher. They train together that they know. but i would say that officially you're talking about todd taking a short notice fight

he was not healthy and all excuses aside alice robering had just had had just won the k1 grand pre he was he was for all intents and purposes the most celebrated striker in the world at that point time he was putting people to sleep with big gloves on who do nothing but kickboxing um i don't anybody that said that a knockout lost alice or oberin is discrediting i don't think that i would want to hear what else they have to say okay and and plus that was a while ago at this point, right? Even the Russo... It was a couple years ago. Boomba A. Yeah, yeah. So any

idea when this fight might happen? Oh, yeah, hopefully over the summer. Get it done wherever. Are you going to be showing up to all his interviews at this point? Because this is a whole new thing. Would you like that if I did, Eric? I don't know. This is just, you know, it's a different way of conducting interviews.

It's better this way. Because all Todd wants to do is eat, fight, and then eat some more. So somebody has to talk while he's busy with his massive caloric intake to maintain this great god physique. He doesn't talk anymore. His days of talking are over? He's just a chewer now. Okay. He just chews calories.

And no one likes to talk while they chew. It's very rude. It's very rude to talk while their mouth is full. You're Canadian. You understand etiquette. Most certainly you understand etiquette. It's just drilled into you in lower school or whatever you guys call it. But yeah, he eats, he sleeps, and he knocks people's teeth out.

By the way, I feel like I'm getting two for the price of one here. Are you still fighting Blake these days? What's going on with you? I haven't followed a while, but thank you very much for asking. I'm just kind of training jujitsu right now. Okay. And I'm managing my friend Todd here. Wow.

Taking care of that. Helping out some of the newer guys at a, uh, it's crazy at a place like American top team. If I can be serious for a moment, stop being Todd Duffy's advocate, a place like American top team. I thought you were being serious the whole time. Well, I was, but not about 18T. Okay.

I mean, there's 15, there's 15-year-olds here that were every bit as good as the guys that were fighting on the low pro level whenever I was starting out. So it was crazy to watch how it happened. So I try to help out any way that I can with anybody that needs help. I'd like to fight against. And now you guys have a champion. Finally. We do.

Robbie Lawler successfully defended his title again. He did. Well, did he? Did. When? Yeah, successfully, well, let's see, after he beat Johnny the first time, they defended it against who, Ellenberger, they defended it against Brown. and they defended it against Hendricks again.

That's right. That's a good point. He was busy fighting top five guys while Johnny Hendrish was begging some doctor to clear him to actually leave the house again. Wow. Wow.

Blake coming out with the bombs. No, Robbie Lawler comes with the bombs. I'm just stating the obvious. Todd, are we going to hear your voice at all? I mean, I feel like I'm getting cheated a bit here. I mean, this is great talking to Blake, and I think he's doing a fantastic. I don't talk about life with you.

I'm not here to talk about fighting. I fight. about it. I understand. I understand you watched WrestleMania. Did you watch WrestleMania? Did you watch WrestleMania? Yeah, yeah. I watched WrestleMania. What'd you think of Ronnerousie? I was a cool shirt on. I saw you Twitter. I was surprised. She's got pretty good judo technique that girl. Yeah. Where did that?

I felt she did there. There was no arm bar. Did you think that, well, that's the point. I think they're building to something. but did you think that she did a good job? Sure. I thought she did great. If you're with The Rock, how can you do a bad job? Yeah. Sure.

I felt like the Rock lost a little lock, and I heard how somebody else say in the room, he lost a little oomph in his delivery. It wasn't the same to me. I'm not going to lie. Like, he's still the Rock. Don't misinterpret, but it just didn't seem the same. I'm probably worried that Ron was going to hurt somebody.

Maybe so. Maybe he was a little concerned about Ron. Have you done any pro wrestling, Todd? No. Okay. I thought that over and, fight was, but it wasn't. I guess not.

No. Out, speaking of subtle digs. Well, no, I just, you know, there's always these rumors going on. So this is exciting. Are you excited? Can come on now. Who's ever heard of that? It's exciting, right? This is a big deal. You didn't expect this?

What, for the fight to be on? That's correct. We did not expect that. Hey, New York, do we have that other clip that we were originally going to play? Is that ready or no? We do. Let's play that other one, because I liked it as well. If we have it, I'd love to hear it. This is Frank Muir talking about Todd Duffy last week. We'll get your thoughts on this and then we'll say goodbye.

We got it? Go ahead. Obviously, I want to fight a guy who's in the top five. Well, why would I want to do that? Well, because a win there boosts my career forward. Fighting somebody who's unranked, who's, you know, Todd's a good fighter to fight him with no upside. I mean, look at it this way. I was a three-to-one underdog against Bigfoot, up until about. the open workout and then it dropped slightly some more money came in on me but after the win

people are still saying well the guy this that and all these excuses i'm like he was ranked eighth could you imagine me fighting Todd Duffy submitting him real quick they're like yeah that guy who's he ever fought like what's he ever done uh I'm going to get zero credit and you know anytime we walk in the octagon there's always a risk so I want to make sure that there's more upside than anything so would I take a fight with Todd Duffy I've taken a fight with anybody but to uh to face somebody who is a behind me is not something I relish. I don't think any fighter does, and we have to do it, but we'd rather fight somebody that we know

that's ahead of us, that we have something to gain. It's kind of like Highlander. I want to fight the guy as take the head of the guy as more, you know, stronger than I am so that I could, you know, take his power. So there you have it. And then all of a sudden, what a difference a few days makes? I mean, it didn't seem like he was into it, but something has changed.

It seems like he wasn't into getting knocked out. That's what I heard in that. Wow. And I'll submit him, I'll submit, real quick. My response to that, very similar to speaking of our good defendant, Ariel Hulani, was the whole issue with the man whose name can never be mentioned again, Paul Daly and Nick Diaz. And the fact that, yeah, you're going to sit there real quick, that's the only way

that you're going to win the fight. What does Paul Daly and Nick Diaz have to do about this with any of this? Paul Daly said he was going to knock Nick Diaz out. Nick Diaz's responses, of course, that's the only way he can win is with an early knockout. It's like a fluke. Yeah, this is the exact opposite. He can take him down, which you can't take Todd down,

but that's beside the point. He can get him on the ground somehow and submit them real quick or else he's wasting his time in there. He's just going to be a punching back. And correct me if I'm wrong here. You're looking for summer. I saw you tweet something to Frank actually this morning. Would you say June 27th?

Let me see this tweet that you had here. You actually continue to tweet him. In fact, you tweeted on March 28th that you need to reorganize your sock drawer, which was, I think, one of your better tweets. Here we go. What are you doing this summer at the Frank Mir? You got plans for these dates yet? June 20th, June 27th, June 11th.

I'm free. I'll block them off. So anything in particular, any date in particular there, or you'll take any of those? We'll take any of those. The 27th is whenever Conner is going to get exposed like a pedophile of preschool. Connor's the 11th. We need to get our date straight here. Conner's the 11th?

Yeah. And after that, there's no declared main events for the UFCs after that, correct? Well, no, Conner is July 11th, but what Todd tweeted was June 20th, June 27th, or July 11th. Oh, there's no main events for those two either. Right, right. Although I think we just announced earlier that Alexander Gustafson is going to fight Glover to Cher on June 20th, according to our friends in the UK. So how about that? I didn't know that, but that's a good fight, too.

That is a good fight. All right. Well, I think we accomplished a lot here. I think that this was fruitful. and I wish you the best getting the fight. I'm happy that I could relay this news to you. Courtesy of our friends over at the Fight Corner, Heidi Fang. She provided this audio for us, the old audio and the new audio,

so I think you owe her some kind of gratitude. Maybe you'll tweet her or something like that at Heidi Fang, and good luck getting the fight. Thank you. Hope you're there whenever it happens. Yes, I plan on being there. There they are. Blake Bowman and his client, Todd Duffy, trying to get the fight. That was a unique one.

Never done one like that before. So good luck to him. In fact, my friends, while we get ready for our next interview, my friends at M.A. Crazy have now sent me the audio of Dana White talking about this fight. This is an interview that just happened today in London. Let's hear it. Here for MMA Crazy. We're here with Dana White.

Conference for London for the World Tour has just ended. How has the last week or two been for you? It's been awesome. It's been a great experience. You know, it's been fascinating to watch these two do what they do this whole time. The mind games and the, you know, it's, it's. It's been fascinating. I'm glad I did it.

Has there been a moment that has really stuck out for you, like your highlight so far? So many though. Rio was amazing. New York was crazy. Boston is always awesome. Toronto was, I mean, the amount of people that showed up in Toronto with the mall was insane. It's all been different. It's all been cool.

I'm going to see more tours like this. Obviously this is probably what the biggest event you have had so far? Yes. This is the biggest tour we've ever done and yeah, I can see us doing more of these in the future. Of course they haven't yet touched. Are you maybe scared that tomorrow, obviously Connor in front of his hometown in Ireland, are you afraid that there might be a little bit of a scuffle? There's no doubt that the crowds get it a little crazier and make it a little crazier. Today was really nice and today was a good change of pace I like today.

I don't know, we'll see. Are you going to be streaming it live like you were with Rio tomorrow? We will. It'll be streaming live. Everybody can watch all over the world tomorrow. Brilliant. And Rhonda Rousey, obviously you mentioned earlier in the press conference. Did you know that she was going to make that appearance on WrestleMania?

I did. And would you say she is the biggest UFC fighters so far? She's our biggest star. Absolutely. She's the biggest star than a company ever. And Conner McGregor, obviously, he said that he may obviously go up to. to light weight if he did. What kind of differences do you think that would make?

Well, obviously, if you move up a weight class, it definitely affects your punching power. Every weight class should go up. So we'll see. We'll see how it plays out. And also in terms of the divisions as well, how do you think they would change? Obviously, he's shown a lot of light onto the featherweight division. How would it change?

Oh, yeah. You mean how would it change the featherweight division? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. We'll see how this thing plays out with him. Moving a little bit off Obviously, we're in London. When are we going to next see a UFC fight in London? I think we're going to be here. I don't think we'll be here this year.

It will be next year. Next year. Okay. And also, there's been a rumor about Gustafsson facing Glover to Shira. Can you shed any light on that? It's true. It's true?

So you confirmed that it is true. I am confirming it is true. And that will be for Berlin? Yes. Yeah, so main event for Berlin? Yes. Brilliant. So you've heard that first here.

go. MMA crazy getting the scoop. So I could have just played that last clip there, but Alexander Gustafin, unless he didn't know about the news, and that's possible. Fair enough. So there you have it. June 20th in Berlin. Alexander Gustafsson fighting. It's a shame that our Gustafsson interview wasn't happening in five minutes,

but you got the point. He spoke about him. He's not turning down a fight. He's ready to get back in there. And that is an important fight. That is an interesting fight. Two heavy hitters, two guys who like to strike. I like it. I mean, it's the only fight that really made sense after DC got booked against Bader. So we'll see if it happens. And good luck to Todd Duffy in getting that fight.

It seems like Frank Meir is coming around. How about it? All right, let's move along now. Back in December in Phoenix, UFC on Fox 13, one of Phoenix's own or Arizona's own, I should say, Jamie Varner retired after a disappointing outcome. but I thought he went out on a high note. It was a very classy exit, and it was the end of career,

a very fine career, former WC lightweight champion. We have not heard from him for the last three or so months from now, so I wanted to check in with Jamie Varner to see how retired life is. So here he is joining us via the magic of Skype, the one and only. Jamie Varner, Jamie, how are you?

Oh, I'm doing very well, Ariel. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. So let's ask that question right off the top. What's retirement like at 30 years old? Oh, man, it's different. I can't say I enjoy it because there's still a lot of fight left in this dog.

But, you know, I'm making do with what I got. I'm coaching and trying to work with the UFC on helping future fighters and young fighters with budging their finances and dealing with social media. So I'm doing some things to still kind of stay in the scene in the fight game, but not able to compete anymore, unfortunately. So what do you mean by that? I mean, are you working in an official capacity with the UFC? Or are you just working with guys of, you know, of your own that are in the Arizona area?

What do you mean by that role? Well, I've applied for a position as like an athlete development advisor with the UFC. I've had two interviews. They flew me out there. I had another interview in person with some of the bigwigs there at ZUFA. And they're bringing me out in June for like an actual live tryout to talk to some of these young fighters at like a rookie symposium and depending on how I do kind of depends on what capacity I'll be work with them right now I'm on board to at least do this one symposium and if I do

well I mean it could be a something that is a monthly like I mean a like a full time type job or could just be a few times a year I go out and talk to fighters kind of tell my story and the ups and downs of my career and how they can avoid some of those those downs wow that is interesting Have you wanted to do this for a while? How did you come up with this idea? Well, I made, I was fortunate enough that even like when I had my exit from the WEC and they didn't carry me over to the UFC, I was really good with my money. I came from a finance background at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and ended up going back to school at Arizona State University finish up my bachelor's in finance. And I've always just been good at my mind.

So I was able to pretty much lose my job with the UFC and able to go back to school and support myself. So I've always been good with budgeting my finances. And there's a lot of fighters that aren't, that aren't as, like, knowledgeable. And they almost get used to those kind of big paydays. And they rely on them as opposed to me. I always plan for the absolute worst, which I think is what you should do in life in general anyways. Like, you can't count on getting a knockout bonus or fight a nightbonds. You can't spend the money before you have it.

And a lot of these fighters do. So I've been working with some guys, and I approach the UFC about doing this. in an official capacity, and they like the idea, but they just want to see what kind of ideas they have. They want to see how I deal with some of the fighters in person. So we'll see how it goes. When you retired that night in Phoenix, excuse me, you did bring up the idea of needing a union. And of course, that would work against the UFC in some ways. Are you off that topic, at least for now? Do you want to work more in conjunction with them? Well, no matter what, the UFC is going to have to negotiate with somebody, whether it's a union,

or whether it's the fighter's manager. I mean, they're always going to have to negotiate with somebody. I just think that there needs to be somebody on the fighter side. Now, whether the UFC decides to have this person under their roof or if it's a separate organization like starting a union, there needs to be somebody out there looking for the fighter's best interest. And I've been in this sport a long time. I started fighting professionally back in 2003, Ariel.

Like, I've seen the sport completely growth to where it is now, and I can only imagine where it's going to go in the next 10 to 12 years. So with these fighters being so silly with their money and not, you know, just not making good decisions, I think having somebody looking out for them and having almost that financial coach, like football players, I mean, it's mandatory for all the rookies to go to a rookie supposives. Same with Major League Baseball and the NBA. They have these things in place for them,

and there's nothing in place for the fighters. unless you have a good agent. Like, I was lucky. I had an awesome agent. Oran Hodak with Keo reps. He always had my best interest in mind. Like, he really helped me out, like, planning for the future. But there's a lot of agents that aren't like that.

I mean, I talk to fighters all the time. Guys hit me up after the interviews after that fight. We're like, oh, man, what do you think? You know, are you going to do this union? You know, how do you feel about managing me and doing this kind of stuff? I'm like, whoa, I just retired. I don't even know about managing. But so I have been working with guys in an unofficial capacity,

like budgeting their money and how to kind of plan for their future. but it's been a work in progress. I hope that the UFC will hire me and I can be the guy that the fighters can relate to. If not, there's going to be something down the road that I would be looking to do to help these young fighters and help even some of the older fighters

prepared for their life after fighting. I think it's a fantastic idea. Your last fight was in December, how many weeks, days, months before that fight did you know that that was going to be it for you? It was actually kind of, it was actually kind of sad how it happened. I actually got hurt in training about nine days before my fight,

my last sparring session, and this is kind of the reason why I even reached out to you, and I've been doing interviews talking about the head trauma. I got hit with an elbow in the back of the head sparring, and I woke up the next morning. I had a really bad headache. I was feeling sick to my stomach. I had a fight in nine days,

and I didn't want the whole, like, the Melvin-Gillard situation, I didn't want that to happen again. I didn't want to get sick before the fight. and have to pull out. So I went to the doctor right away, the doctor ran a bunch of tests. He's like, no, really, I can't, you're not running a fever.

There's nothing I can really see that's wrong with you. You don't really have the characteristics of food poisoning. Yeah, you are sick, but you're not like run a fever and like some of the other things. So he's like, have you gotten hit in the head lately? I'm like, well, dude, I'm a fucking fighter. Of course I got hit in the head. I get in the head all the time. And he's like, well, there's anything bad happened?

I'm like, well, last night I got hit pretty good in the back of the head. And I did get knocked out, but I didn't, it definitely rung my bell. So he sends me to a neurologist. I go get a cat scan and MRI done. Within 24 hours, I get a call from my doctor. And he's like, hey, I need to see you come back in. I'm like, oh, geez, my heart dropped. I thought something there was like seriously wrong.

And I go in there and he's like, based on your cat scan with a white matter and your brain, like he estimated I've had over 30 concussions. Whoa. And I was suffering from a pretty severe concussion then. And he told me I shouldn't fight. He told me one. I shouldn't take that fight. but he told me that I shouldn't fight again

because if these concussions keep happening, I'm more susceptible to early onset, Alzheimer's, dementia, and serious, like, memory issues. And so I knew nine days before my last fight that I was kind of forced into retirement, that I knew, he told me like anything could happen in this fight. I mean, once you get one concussion,

if you're still suffering from a concussion, it's easier to get another one. So even barely hit my head on the map, knocked myself out. Like something I've done a million times, wrestling, training, fighting. I've gotten hit way harder and never gone down. But that one little thing because I was always suffering for my concussion, ultimately is what the reason why I went out and why the career is over.

And to be clear, you would have retired had you knocked them out in a minute and looked fantastic, right? You had to do this. Absolutely. I had to. I told my family, the only people that didn't really know were like my training partners and my friends. I didn't want anybody to kind of get in my head or freak me out. I just, I told my family, my mom, my dad, my brothers and sisters, we have a family

group chat. So I told them what happened. My mom, of course, calls me up crying, worried, doesn't want me to fight. And I'm like, you know, it's my last time. It's here in Arizona. The guy was a very beatable opponent. Like, I'm definitely much more talented than the guy that I fought. And even, like, the past couple of fights, I just haven't been the same.

person getting knocked down the Able fight. I was beating, I was beating the brakes off of Able. I mean, that was a fight that was clearly going my way, got caught with a shot. I mean, in 35 fights, I've only been knocked out one time, and I feel like the shot he hit me with, I've been hit by harder shots by other guys,

and then breaking my ankle in the Kraus fight than this. It was just, it was like, I felt like it was God's way to tell me that, you know, it's done. I'm just going to tarnish my reputation, and I didn't want to go out. I didn't really want to go out the way I did, but I did, at least I was able to go out of my own terms, you know?

So knowing what was at stake here that this was going to be your last time, mentally, you know, what were you like going into that fight? You know, backstage, locker room, walking out there. Were you all there, or do you think that you weren't 100 percent? I know you say that you were dealing with the concussion, but I mean just, you know, mentally, like, you must have been going through a ton of emotions at that time, right? The first, like, few days, like, after the doctor told me and I talked to my parents, it was, I was very emotional.

Yeah, it was a hard time, but I still had a job to do. a lot of media, a lot of press out here in Arizona. There's the first time the UFC's coming to Arizona. I don't know if you remember back in 2008, I'm the reason why UFC rules got sanctioned out here. I went in front of the state legislature to get the bill passed to have the New Jersey State Athletic MMA rules, sanctioned here in Arizona.

It was me against one of the boxing commissioners who's been a commissioner for over 20 years. He was my opposition, you know, trying to keep the, those MMA rules out of here. So they kind of had a foothold on the, on the MMA market out here, and it would keep the big promotions away. So I was the reason why the rules got sanctioned here in Arizona.

So I had to fight no matter what for myself. And backstage, I was just trying to enjoy it, Ariel. To be honest, man, the weight cut was smooth. I saw you, I saw you backstage at the way ends when you're doing all your interviews. I was happy. and I was really just enjoying the process and it was fun. It was a good time.

Obviously, I would have wished the outcome would have been different. I wish I could have thrown down like some of the old school Jamie Barner, the guy that thought Razor Rob or the guy that fought Edson Barbosa, I wish it could have had like, or a guy that fought Donald Soron. At least could have went down in an epic battle.

But things happened the way they did and it sucked, but I really did enjoy the process and it was fun. And the UFC was so good to me. And they let me, like I said, they let me go out of my own terms. I didn't, Joe Silva didn't have to send me a letter in the mail, giving me out my walking papers. I actually got an official, official retirement letter from the UFC,

which I gave to my mom, got it framed. It was really cool. It was a good experience. And I was happy about the way I'd been able to bounce back. Because in 2009, 2008, when I fought Donald's Ronnie, everybody hated me. And then all in 2010, I just kept trying to fight to win the crowd back. And I couldn't, it seems like I couldn't do anything right. So I get fired. I'm gone for about a year and a half. I come back in 2012, and I beat a couple guys. I take some fights on short notice. And then I was completely able to change the public's perception of me. And that's something I can really hold my head high about.

Yeah, you 100% did that. I want to ask you about that stuff in a second. But most importantly, you said you may have suffered around 30 concussions in your career. Are you worried about the future? What are they telling you about, you know, how you'll be in 10, 15, 20 years? it's I'm honestly, Ariel, I'm really, I'm nervous. I'm scared because my faculty still aren't 100% there. It's weird things. Like some things that you think just happen, you kind of take for granted, but I'm noticing more and more that like I can't remember sometimes I brush my teeth in the morning. I'll be in the shower and I'm like, God, did I wash my hair? Like I can't remember if I did some of these things.

I'll look at my lufa to see if there's soap on the lupa to make sure that I wash my body. Like there are things like that that happen more and more frequently. I'll be having conversations with people and completely like lose track of what we are talking about. Or like I won't be able to say like certain words. Like words that I know that like I just can't like properly articulate myself sometimes. It's not all the time. And it's progressively gotten better. I've been seeing a cognitive therapist like every week since the fight for the most part.

I mean, you know, except for when I'm traveling. But I see a cognitive therapist, even more from three to four times a month. just helping me with just doing like memory drills and I'm doing I'm doing lots of reading and just other things to kind of build up my brain but what my neurologist told me is every time if you think of your your head is a forest your brain is a forest every time you get a concussion or you get knocked out trees in that forest get knocked down and these are these trees don't grow back so it's not like when you break your hand or you tear a ligament it'll heal itself your brain doesn't quite heal itself like that and I started training with guys like Ryan Bader, C.B. Dollyway, Aaron Simpson, Jesse Forbes, Steve Steinbeis, Ray Steinbeis, a lot of these big-time guys back in 2006 to 2010, 2011, these were my sparring partners. And I even had Carlos Condit for a year. These are bigger guys, stronger guys that are hit hard. And those were my sparring partners for like the first, I don't know, four years, three years of my ZUFA career. and we would spar three days a week, hard sparring. It wasn't like these guys would go 80% with me or 60%. We would go hard.

We always would try to finish each other because the best way to get in shape for a fly or to get ready for the fight is to get into a fight. You're sparring, your train should always be harder than a fight. And at least that's what my coach told me. And then when I went to the doctor and he told me about the trees and how you don't necessarily need to get knocked out

to have a concussion. Like every time you go home you have a headache for a couple days, that was a concussion. You know, you'd wake up sick or you feel sick, you know, from after a hard night of sparring. Those are all concussions. And I had no idea.

I mean, I felt, I thought, like, I was in a perpetual state of just constant migraines. And I knew it was from sparring, but I thought I was okay. I thought it was normal. And that's what we have to do to be fighters. You know, this is part of, like, the cross that we bear is having headaches and being beat up because we're fighters.

but, you know, hindsight being 2020, man, if I could take it all back, I would spar maybe once a week and only about six weeks before a fight just so I could preserve some of my faculties. Well, let me take it a step further. Hindsight being 2020, would you not become a fighter? No, no, I definitely would. I definitely would have become a fighter.

Like, this is what I was born to do, Ariel. This was a chosen path for me. I wrestled in college because I wanted to be like Matt Hughes and Jens Pover. Those were the guys that I idolized and emulated when I was coming up. These are guys that wrestled in college and became world champions, became some of the best fighters in the history of fighting. And I went to college to become a better fighter. And luckily, I went to Lockheaven University of Pennsylvania

where they had a wrestling team and a boxing team. So everything I have done my whole life has kind of forged me to go down this career path, to become this fire, to become a world champion, to fight it and compete at the highest level, and I would not take it back. I wouldn't. I mean, you ask a race car driver, you know, if they get into a bad accident,

would they choose a different career path? Would they not race cars? No, they would still want to race cars. This is what I love, it's my passion. And I think that's why I still want to be a part of the UFC in some capacity because I worked my whole life to do this. This is all I know, like fighting, competing, the life of a fighter,

or life inside the ring and outside the ring. I've always lived a good life. You don't hear about me going and getting in bar fights. I've never once gotten in trouble. You don't hear about DUIs or domestic violence. I've never been that guy. I've always lived a good lifestyle. I've always been a guy that people can look up to.

At least I feel like I have been. So I want to stay a part of the company, but no, I would never take back what I've done. And this is the life that I lived and I love it. And I have no regrets. I remember sitting in an empty, arena with you. I believe it was around 2009 or so. I think we were at the palms. Maybe it was the hard rock and you were about to do a photo shoot. You were the WEC lightweight champion, but you were out

for a while dealing with injuries. And as you mentioned, I mean, you were, you were a marked man. People didn't like you. For whatever reason, people felt like, you know, you rubbed them the wrong way. And it is true. You know, after you coming back to Edse and Barbosa, Abel Trujillo, fight, all that stuff, you really, you were able to bring people around. But, you know, now that your career is over and you can look back, I mean, I guess those were fun times. You were a champion. You were involved. You were involved in some big fights, some big feuds. When you look back at it all, what was the most fun of your career? Like when you say, all right, the highlight, the apex of it all, what was it?

Man, it's so hard. I think there's two that come to mind. Okay. And it was the Razor Rob fight. Yeah. Because I used to look up to Razor Rob. And me and him are actually still buddies to this day. We're still in contact.

We're still buddies. I looked up to Rob. I used to watch his fights in Gladiator Challenge. and King of the Cage. And I had all those DVDs back in the day. And I grew up emulating this guy. And, like, I realized in this guy. He was part of the team punishment back when Tito and Tiki and all those guys were the monsters out there in Huntington Beach.

And I had to fight a guy that I looked up to, a guy that I thought was a legend in my eyes. And I was 23 years old at the time. And so fighting Rob and beating Rob was one of the coolest and most amazing times of my life. and that whole experience. And I still think about it gives me chills, even thinking about that feeling that all that hard work and train, all the sacrifice I made to win that fight and to go into that fight as prepared.

And how I had to change a game plan. I mean, Rob was a striker. I was a college wrestler. I was a former All-American. Like, it was a striker versus grappler. So my game plan was to take Rob down and try and choke him out and finish him on the ground. I had 11 submissions under my bell up to that point.

So I thought, I mean, I was going to make it 12. and when the game plan changed because I had such a hard time taking him down or like keeping him down the game plan had to completely change I remember going back to my corner after the first round and I just put my forehead on Trevor Lally's forehead and I'm like dude I don't know what to do he's like we just got to box him we got to box him stop taking him down you're a good boxer just keep your hands up and just box him and the game plan completely changed and I started finding a home from my right hand my punches were landing and I felt like I was like in a video game like I wasn't even thinking you're just thinking you're out there just everything was just flowing so that was really cool then obviously the next best

moment that i can think of was the edson barbosa fight yeah because i was a four to one underdog and i knew i wanted to get back in the ufc i was fighting in all those regional shows i knew i wanted to get back in the ufc i'd had two two knockouts in a row in less than like two minutes um and i was thinking like if i was going to go back to the ufc and and i was working with mike constantino and Oran Hodak and they're like, you're most likely if you're going to get back, it's going to be a short-notice fight. You know, it'll be last minute. So you always got to be ready. Keep your weight down.

I'm like, okay. So I kept, I was keeping my weight down. I was always trained. I was training with Ben Henderson over at the lab and all those guys. I was training, Arizona Combat Sports with Trevor or John Maraga, all those guys as well. So I was constantly in the gym, just training, training, got the call. But the one guy I was telling my friends about and everybody about that I didn't want to fight. That last minute call was Edson Barbosa.

He was like the one guy I didn't want to have to. fight if I got that last minute call. And it's so funny because that just happened to be the guy that I got the last minute call for it was Edson Barbosa. And when I told my friends, I'm like, hey, so UFC called, they're going to give me a shot again. Guess who they want me to fight?

And my buddy's like, please tell me it's not Edson Barbosa. I'm like, yep, it's Edson Barbosa. So going into that fight, yeah, it was crazy. And my mom, my mom was like, before that fight was kind of freaked out about him. I'm like, you know what, mom, this is a dream of mine.

I want to be here no matter what happens, no matter what happens in this fight, just know that I want to be here. I love what I do, and this is a goal and opportunity for me. And I was able to kind of put her heart at ease, at mine at ease, and I went out there, and, you know, you saw what happened. I was able to land that right hand, stuck to the game plan.

It worked out, and I walked away the winner, and I stayed out in Vegas for another week for the ultimate fighter, helping out Jeremy Larson. And that was seriously probably one of the great, greatest moments of my life as well it was it was just amazing well it's amazing how much you accomplish before 30 that's you know very few people can do that it's it's amazing that you are 30 i mean i feel like you've been around for so long and i do believe that you have a lot of great wisdom to impart on these young fighters so i really hope that you know whatever you're trying to get uh as far as

working with the ufc does come to fruition keep us posted on that jamie uh we do have to run but i really appreciate your honesty in talking about some of the issues that you dealt with and and I hope you can speak about it more because I think that a lot of fighters now are starting to recognize that maybe they don't have to go so hard and put themselves in positions that might impact them in 20 or so years. So I really appreciate you coming out and talking about this stuff and I wish you the best luck and please keep us posted and stay in touch as well. We'll do, Ariel. And I really appreciate you giving this opportunity in this forum to kind of tell my story. Thank you so much. All right. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. Jamie Varner,

the former W.C. Lightway Champion stopping by really interesting and all. honest stuff from him. We appreciate that very much. All right, let's move along. As I said, I've talked about this a bunch over the last few days. A lot of talk has been about UFC 189 because the world tour is going on, but do not sleep on what is transpiring this Saturday afternoon in Fairfax, Virginia. It's that rare North American afternoon card. Main card on Fox Sports 1 kicks off at 1 p.m. Eastern time. And it's a great card with a lot of big names and a lot of interesting fights, and the main event is a real fun one for fight fans, especially fans of the featherweight division, which of course is very much in the news these days. It's Ricardo Lamas against Chad

Mendez, and we have Chad on the phone right now. Chad, how are you? Good man. How are you doing? Thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure, as always. Thank you for coming on. So this is exciting. Do you kind of feel like I really love this card? But unfortunately, you know, with all the attention on the world tour, do you kind of feel like it's flying a bit under the radar here? Um, possibly, yeah, but I mean, honestly, that's never anything I focus too much on. I mean, I know what I need to do and I focus on my camp in my life. So, you know, my job is to make way to get in there and fight.

So, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, you know, publicity and stuff going on about that, but my job is to fight. So I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, and I'm excited to get in there and perform for everybody. How do you feel about the early start, especially because you're a West Coast guy, that's going to be, I mean, by the time you fight, I'm guessing it'll be like 2.30 or so p.m. Eastern, so that'll be 11.30. How do you feel about that? You know, I don't really mind it too much. I mean, we, I train every day through, you know, my entire camp, you know, about 9.30 to 10 o'clock in the morning every day. So that's something up my body's used to. I'm used to getting up and working out. So I really don't mind it. I saw actually pretty early like that in Australia one of the times. And it was awesome to be able to get in, fight. and have, you know, the rest of the day to kind of relax and just chill with friends and family

they're visiting. So I'm actually totally okay with it. I recall after Ricardo's last fight, I mean, like moments later, when he defeated Dennis Bermudez in Mexico, you went on social media, you were out there, you were saying you wanted this fight. Why did you want it so badly? Yeah, this is a fight actually I've been trying to get for a while now. Wow. You know, I've called him out a few times on social media and, you know, tried to hear it to happen. through you to see and just, you know, things weren't lining up right.

So, you know, in my opinion, you know, I've been watching Ricardo fight for a long time. You know, Danny fought him at 65. You know, I helped me prepare for that fight for that whole camp. And, you know, this is a guy that I knew, you know, it looked pretty small. 55, so there was a good chance he's probably going to come down eventually. And if he did, he's going to be, you know, a top guy. He's a tough guy. You know, he did, and he was.

So, you know, this is a guy that I've been watching for a long time, you know, and in my opinion, he's, you know, one of the top five in the division. You know, coming off a loss, you know, for the title, I wanted to stay relevant. You know, I'm not trying to go back and start fighting guys at the top 15, you know, top 10. I want guys that are, you know, right back up in there. And, you know, Ricardo was one of those guys.

He had a big win over David's Brutis. And, you know, in my opinion, to be the best, you got to beat the best. And, you know, he's one of the best. So I called him out and we made it happen. So I'm fun, man. I've been wanting this fight for a while. So it's amazing to hear Dana White speak about your fight against Aldo. He always is glowing about it.

And I heard him say this past week that he reached out to both you and Aldo. I think it was either via text, but correct me if I'm wrong, just saying how honored he was to be there and just telling you how much he loved the fight. Can you tell us about that? How did he reach out to you? And what did he say? Yeah, he actually gave me a call. I think it was a couple days after I got back from Brazil.

and he's actually listening to my walkout song. He heard on the radio and called me. He's like, dude, listen to this. And, you know, he's like, this shit pumps me up so much. And, you know, so he was just like, dude, I can't stop thinking about that fight. I was a badass fight. He's like, you know, I still get the chills about it and stuff. And I think a lot coming from the Boston rain, you know.

And I left my heart and fall out there in that octagon. So to get, you know, the praise and recognition, even though I ain't to win. And I'm making it so good. Did it take a bit of the sting away from the fight, especially because it was just a few days later? No, definitely not. I mean, there's nothing about that fight. You know, I'm down to myself about, you know.

I've said it in passing me, like, it sucks. I didn't get the win, but, you know, I trained so hard for that fight. I left everything that I have in that octagon. You know, I have no regret. You know, there were some mistakes that I made and all those capitalized on it, and that's why he won the fight. But, you know, in my mind, I think a few small things change, you know, and I win it.

So, you know, like I said, I'm not down to myself too much. You know, I've seen the mistakes, worked on them, hopefully fixed them for good, and just, you know, got that much better from it. So we're moving forward and now we're, you know, fight Ricardo Lama, hopefully getting a big win there and hopefully getting my back in line for that title are pretty damn close to it. So, we'll see. But by the way, have you been able to watch the fight?

Are you okay? I mean, I think that's a great attitude to have towards it, but I'm wondering, do you watch it in preparation for this fight? I actually watched it right when I got back from Brazil we got back from the airport I got home and went straight in my bed

I ordered a large pizza and just laid there eating the pizza and watched the fight so you know I've watched it and I've watched a lot of clips from it and like I said seeing the mistakes that I made watched those and figured out

you know what needed to happen and what needed to change and you know I'm definitely not bummed watch it I mean and it was a damn good fight. I guess you don't really even notice it when you're out there, but you know, I was just pushing redlining the whole time. So, you know, there's a lot of stuff

you don't really feel or see until you get back and watch the fight. So it's still a fun fight. You know, I get a lot of people still call me and text me like, dude, I just watched your fight again. I still can't believe how often that fight was. So it needs a lot, man. By the way, how did you feel about the end of the first? I mean, he did connect on a pretty big punch very much after the bell or the horn sounded. Do you hold any resentment there? Do you feel like that, you know, it was just too loud? I mean, the referee, you know, I believe it was Herb Dean who said that, you know,

he just couldn't hear it. Everyone caged side said they couldn't hear it. But what do you make of it all? I don't hold any resentment at all, man. I mean, you're in the zone. We're both in this, like, you know. And I'm, you know, 100% guarantee he wasn't like, oh, there's the bell, whop, lap, you know.

It was just both of us in the moment throwing, and, you know, it was loud as hell. But, I mean, those two punches did mess me up pretty good, especially that last right hand. I mean, that rung my belt pretty good. And I think, you know, that's one of the small things that, you know, it doesn't happen in that fight. And I feel like I have a, you know, huge chance to win that, you know. They rung my bell really good. I mean, every time I get tapped after that, whether it was a hard fall hit or not, you know,

or pretty much ring my bell through the fight. So, you know, a big punch like that in the beginning of the fight can change the whole thing. You know, I felt like earlier, you know, later, later that way. in the fight, there was a couple rounds that I was winning. You know, I'd be putting a good combination together on him, and, you know, he'd throw something and just tap me, and I'd, you know, have to lean down and touch the mat because my legs would about give out, you know, you don't get rock like that in the first, and those little things don't happen, so, you know, I can't guarantee anything as far as that, but like I said,

I think that's one of the small things that they go differently in the fights in my favor, so, oh, no, I'm still pretty proud of it, man. You know, and again, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I kind of feel like there's a mutual respect now between you and Aldo. You feel the same way? You know, afterwards was complimentary. Nothing really controversial after the fight from either of you. It seems like through these two, you know, great battles,

both of you have grown to somewhat like each other. I mean, I feel like you have no choice. You know, you get in there and you go to war with another human being, and for pretty much a half hour straight, you know, you have no choice but to grow respect for each other. you know, I know he left his heart and fallen in the same as I did. So, yeah, man, there's definitely a mutual respect. You know, he was, you know, very apologetic about him in the touch talk after the fight.

And that was too. And, you know, it is what it is. You know, we're there to self-fights where, you know, it wasn't all just hype. There was some, you know, this light going on there. But, you know, I think all that was splashed when we got in there and, you know, took each other, rather than either of us have ever been in a fight. You know, that was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life and just enjoyed getting out there and doing that.

So, yeah, I mean, there's definitely a new respect there. I know you're getting ready for your fight, but I'm wondering since it's your division and your link to both these guys, have you been watching this 189 World Tour stuff? Have you been watching any of it? I've been seeing stuff just on the social media. I mean, I haven't been watching embedded a whole lot. I mean, I'm pretty focused on my stuff, but, yeah, I've been seeing a little bit of it. I'm wondering if you're hoping Connor wins, because I feel like if he wins, you've got the, actually someone called us about you last week on the show and said, you know, what would be next for you if you want?

I feel like because of your issues and what he said about you and all this stuff, there's a fight right there for the taking. I mean, it's right there. Do you feel the same way? I mean, I think so, yeah. If he wins, which I highly doubt is going to happen. But if for whatever reason he were to win, you know, yeah, I think I win this fight against Ricardo is definitely a great possibility. I'm in there getting the beat the crap out of that dude next. So, yeah, I mean, I just don't see him beating

all though, honestly. So does that mean you'll actually be rooting for Connor McGregor on July 11th? No, here's my situation. I kind of sat back and looked at the whole thing. I feel like I'm sitting pretty no matter what happens. I mean, although the only guy that's beat me, he's beat me twice now,

you know, it sucks that that's happened. You know, there's a lot of guys that don't ever ever get to fight a guy three times. got the loose doing twice. But, you know, I feel like because that last fight was so close, there's a lot of fans in the U.S.C. that would want to make that happen again. So, you know, I beat Ricardo.

Aldo wins. You know, hopefully I get to get back in there and, you know, trying to vinge that loss, those two losses. And then for whatever reason, Connor wins, you know, then I get to get in there and beat the crap out of him for the belt. So I feel like either way, I'm sitting pretty. I'm actually excited about this fight. I'm going to just sit back at the stand and watch.

By the way, in your talks with Dana, did you lay out that scenario? Did you say, look, you love this fight so much? It was close. I know I lost to him twice, and you don't often get a third crack when your own two gets a guy, but do I have a chance here? Because some might say that you're kind of in this weird spot as long, you know, Benson-Henerson's been in that spot, your teammate Jose Benavides. It's tough to get that third crack.

But because he loved that second fight so much, did you actually ask him this question? I haven't. No, it's not something that we've talked about. Why not? And one of the main reasons why I got guys in front of me. I get a beat for it. Sure, sure, sure. When that's, you know, when that time comes, that's definitely something I'll talk about.

But, you know, I can't look past anybody. You know, that's when you start getting beat. So right now I'm focused on Ricardo. You know, he's a tough dude. I'm going to get out there and, you know, do my best to finish this guy. And, you know, if that happens, then I'm going to sit down with Dana. We're going to talk about it and make some magic happen, hopefully. By the way, you know me, you know, I like the drama.

I like the hype and all that stuff. I kind of felt I felt a little bad when before your fight, just days before your fight, you're already in Brazil, and you're on that show on BT Sport, and they have Connor kind of hijacked the interview and take shots at you,

and I don't even know if you were ready for that, and you can't see him, because you're on this sort of satellite thing. I mean, did you feel that that wasn't the right time to do that sort of thing when you're, you know, three days before a title fight? Yeah, I guarantee. I mean, that's 100% what I was thinking. I mean, I thought that whole thing was pretty,

much bullshit. I don't know who the hell set that up if it was the UFC or if it was those assholes over there. But, I mean, that was pretty much bullshit. They didn't tell me he was going to get on there. I'm sitting there in Brazil with the quality of the interview sucks is breaking up. I can't really hear what the hell is going on over there. I can't see anything. Yeah, I mean, it was just, I'm like two days before I'm supposed to fight for the title. Yeah, I thought the whole thing was bullshit, you know, and I don't know who set it up. I'd like to find out. I'd like to stomp somebody, but yeah, it was stupid, man. I couldn't believe they did that. Did you voice your, I mean, did you talk to anyone there? I know you were getting ready, but

again, I did feel, it blew up, it brought a lot of attention, but I kind of feel like you got to know your time and place when it comes to these things. Yeah, I agree. And, you know, I feel, you know, it just sucked on my part. I couldn't hear what the hell was going on in the crowd with people a lot of over there. I couldn't hear any of the people talking to me. You know, I could just kind of hear Connor coming in and out talking shit, you know, so obviously I can't get anything across, but he's probably sitting over there all jolly

with a stupid mustache. You know, it was just kind of a stupid situation. That would be something I'd like to do face for face by at least just staring across him in the octagon so that he can run his mask and then I can whip his ass after. Wow. I think we just sold the fight right then and there. uh... there's there's there's obviously a lot of bad blood but of course next is ricardo lamas

what do you think do you think this will be more on the feet or on the ground this fight i can't really quite i love the fight i'm fascinated by the fight but i'm having a hard time envisioning where it's going to go or maybe all over the place what do you think yeah i i you know i've kind of thought about it as well i can't really pinpoint where the hell this his fight's going to go either i mean i've prepared for you know the wrestling obviously he's a wrestler i'm a wrestler yeah um you know so

That's always the obvious, but, you know, obviously my stand-up is something I work on a ton and, you know, in that last fight showed major improvements in it. So, you know, as that being said, and he's done the same thing. You know, we saw him drop for me to the jab and finished with the provision. So, you know, the stand-up is something he's always been working too. So, yeah, I can see the wrestling kind of canceling and each other out and just being a stand-up fight. But, you know, all in all, he's good everywhere. you know, he's not, you know, really lacking in any one part.

And I don't feel like I am either, so, you know, I could expect this fight to pretty much go anywhere. By the way, will Bang Ludwig be in your corner for this fight, or are you going with Catman or someone else? I'm doing Catman, and I've been working with a new boxing coach in this last camp still. What's his name? He's going to be in a two, Joey. Just Joey? He's a guy that's worked with Danny. He was in the corner of his last fight, too, so he's going to be a game of a two.

So he's the guy that's been working with us here at Team Alpha. What's that? Hello? Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Oh, shit, my phone's. Sorry, my phone's cut now. No, we hear you perfect. What's his last name or is he like Madonna?

He's just Joey. Yeah, he's just Joey. Okay, fair enough. Is this your first time having Ketman in your corner? It is, yeah. How's that going? I mean, not having him in your corner, but just training the whole time with him. Yeah, I mean, Camman's,

He's a great guy. I love Camden here. He messes well as the team. So, you know, this will be the first time having it in the corner. I've been to other fights where he's cornered guys and kind of just seen how he's, you know, how he asked and how he, you know, coaches and stuff. And I like the way it's all ran. So, you know, I wanted him in my corner of this fight. So I will see. So did you spend any time with Bang? No, I didn't spend any time with Bang this fight. Okay. And by the way, have you, have you been around TJ? Just curious, how's he doing? doing. We got some unfortunate news last week about him. Yeah, I haven't seen him since he left. I don't know if he's even back yet.

I texted him once the news broke, and he said, yeah, they're, you know, it's broken, and then he just got to take some time off of a little heel. But I don't know if he's back inside. I haven't seen him here. Okay. I'm leaving tomorrow, so, yeah, I don't know. Tomorrow to beautiful Fairfax. You were there. You were there around, Ricardo. No fireworks there when you guys were doing all that media, right? Pretty respectful? Yeah, no.

Yeah, he's a respectful guy. He's a guy that I respect as well. So, no, no trash talking, I guess. But that doesn't mean we're not going to put on a great fight. Well, I'm looking forward to it. This Saturday on Fox Sports 1, Chad Mendes versus Ricardo Lamas, a great card, a lot of great stories,

a lot of great names on the card, and its headline by that very important featherweight fight. Always a pleasure, Chad. Best of luck to you on Saturday. We'll be watching. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. All right. There he is.

Chad Mendez. as I mentioned, it is a real nice card there, and it has somewhat flown under the radar, but, you know, it's a fight night card, and of course you have to expect them to really want to pump up 189, and it has worked, and it has been a home run, in my opinion. By the way, I'm being told by Team Mendez that the name of that Joey, in case you are wondering, is Joey Rodriguez, so we want to give him credit. Joey Rodriguez working with Chad Mendez. But Llamas versus Mendez, you got Alejandro Ayahuinta versus Jorge Mazvedo.

which is a fascinating fight, a fun fight. They've been going back and forth a little bit. Michael Kiesa, who will be talking to later in the show against Mitch Clark, Canada's own Mitch Clark. And how about the return of Giuliana Pena? She has not competed since November 30th, 2013, since she won the ultimate fighter. She's going up against Malana Dutieva.

The return of Clay Guida, he's been out for quite some time against Robbie Peralta, and then a fun fight at 155, Dustin Porre, moving back up to lightweight, going up against Diego Fahara. And that's just the main card. Prelims also on Fox Sports 1, which kicks off at 11 a.m. Eastern time. Liz Karmouche versus Lauren Murphy, the former Invicta 135-pound champion. Gray Maynard returning, it's been a while since we saw him, against Alexander Yakovlev,

Ron Stallings, remember him? The choir boy, I believe his name is? he fought that fight against Uriah Hall in Boston, short notice. So he's also on the card as well. It is a fun card. It's this Saturday. If you're celebrating Passover as I will be, or Easter on Sunday, you have something fun to do on Saturday afternoon.

All right, that's this Saturday. We just spoke to Chad Mendes about T.J. Dillshaw. He was supposed to headline UFC 186. In my hometown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, unfortunately, news came out. Middle of last week that T.J. injured his ribs. same injury that Chris Wyman sustained. So that fight is now off.

The new main event, Demetrius Johnson versus Kioji Horaguchi for the UFC Flyway title. And, you know, a lot of fans, a little disappointed about this. So I wanted to call upon one of the very big names on this card, longtime friend of the show,

man who will do anything to be on the show. He texts me all the time. He's always begging to come on, and sometimes I need to say, look, enough is enough. But now it is appropriate to have him on. He is fighting on this card in Montreal. He's fighting CB Dahlwey.

He is the count Michael Bissing. Michael, are you there? Yes, fortunately I am. I have been texting you all week, as you know. I've been waiting by the phone all morning. Never mind my final April 25 in Montreal. This is the real main event being on your show, Ariel. I am so excited.

Well, you're too kind, Michael. I expect nothing less. Thank you for the kind words. In all honesty, what are you hearing? How do you feel about this situation? As you know, there are some fans who are saying, you know, the cart may be a little thin for paper, that, you know, maybe Rampage won't be on the car?

What will we do then? I feel like we need to turn our attention to you. Michael Bispink to almost save this thing. Yeah, well, absolutely. I always deliver a fantastic fight, so, you know, it's more than worse, you know, whatever they try to the best view these days. Whatever I fire, I try and bring it,

and hopefully April 25th will be no different. C.B.O.A. is a very game opponent. I know he's looking to rebound after his last fight and be considered as a top contender. As I'm high to it, as all the making sure, a great fight, but make no mistake. I will be winning that fight. Regarding the situation,

yes, it's a shame. You know, but T.J. Dillishov, you know, he broke a rib or fresh in a rip. That's a very, very serious injury. You can't fight with that. So I wish him a speed of recovery. But fear not, I will still be on that card. Come, heaven or hell, I will be on that card,

and I will be destroying TB Delaware, so don't miss it. I can't help but notice that, and in Craig McElroy, I feel like you've been a little quiet this time around. I mean, the build-up, you've kind of let your train and the work you've done in the gym, do the talking, it's not quite the rock hold situation where, you know,

you were out front and center doing a ton of interviews, any particular reason for that? No, no, not really. I mean, listen, contrary to popular beliefs, I'm not really a guy that goes out and looks for fugues.

You know, I'm not looking to disrespect all my opponents and things like that. I speak my mind. And, you know, we don't get along and, you know,

it's not necessarily on my Christmas card list. Then I'll say that. I've never met C.B. Holloway. So I have no problem with the guy. So I'm not going to manufacture some hate, manufacture some storyline that doesn't exist. I'm going to like the fight

do the talk, and the caliber of the matchup, sell the fight. You know, it's a fantastic matchup, C.B. stylistically, is a good opponent for me. You've got great wrestling. You've got knockout power. I myself, I always deliver. You know, I've always looked at the knockout stoppage on the feet. So, you know, and on top of that, I lost my last fight. So, you know, I've got a lot of proof. TB Delaware, as I said, is a good opponent, but my biggest opponent in this fight is myself.

You know, I've got to fight my inner demons. I've got to show the world I'm still one of the best. And if I go out there, fight the best of my ability, I will do just that. That's a very interesting statement, fight my inner demons. What do you mean by that? What kind of demons exist inside you? Well, I mean, for some reason,

I mean, I've fought so long in the UFC now. I've been a part of their roster for 10 years. But not all the time do I perform to the best of my ability. the last fight against the blockhole I wouldn't say that was one of those fights I actually think I won the first round we clashed heads you know he headbored me

I think would be a more accurate description and you know it split my eye wide open there was blood pouring into my eye and after that you know all I can see was a lot of red was going right into my eyes so you know he called me with a headkick whilst I was trying to wipe blood out my eye it's one of those things that's how it goes

in the fight game so well done for him you know but that was just unfortunate, you know, circumstances. This fight, you know, I've got to prove to the world that I'm still one of the best, and I'm as good as I think I am, I'm as good as my coaches think I am, and I've got to take what I do in the gym, I'm going to bring that to the oxygen on fight night. So do you feel like he headbutted you on purpose? I don't know if he had butted me on purpose.

I mean, he lowered his level because he was a taller man, you know, and he dropped his head into it. Call it what you will. He lowered his level, and, you know, I came running into me with him. with his head, I'm assuming he was looking for a take-down. Which I said, I'm not saying it was, you know, I don't know. Listen, all I know is I was standing there, he ran into me with his head on purpose, by accident, that's what happened.

No secret that there was an issue there between you two. How difficult was that to stomach? In your entire career, was that the loss maybe that bothered you the most because of that rivalry that you had? No, no, no. Of course, listen, I mean, of course, I'm a competitor. I want to win each and every fire that I'm a part of. but when it's said and done,

and the referee stops the fight, you have to congratulate your opponent, and you take it like a man, you know, so, as I say, it was unfortunate we crashed heads, but, you know, I continue to fight, I'm a warrior, you know, I mean, Chris Wyman pulled out with a bad rib,

Tj. Dillishaw pulled out with a bad rib. I've been getting treatment on the bad grip for the last two weeks. They thought of ever pulling out of the fight, ever crossed my mind. Not once, not once. I don't pull out of five, and I don't push out with somebody headbuts me.

That's just the way I am. For good or bad, rightly or wrongly, you know, that's just the way I am. What about your issue with Luke? Is it over now? Are you done with it? With what, sorry?

Well, you know, the rivalry with Luke. Is it over? Have you moved on? Yeah, you know, I mean, listen, you know, it's not something... You know, I don't sit there. I think far from it, you know, he's out of my mindset. Of course, I would love a rematch one day. But as of right now, you know, he's fighting Machida.

He's closer to the belt than I am. You know, I dropped down a little bit. I'm Doleway. Right now, all I think is about CB Delaware. Blue Rock Hawk can go off and make a fool life and shop for a millionaire matchmaker all he wants. It doesn't resonate with me. I don't think about those things. I love it.

Did you watch that? What did you think of that? That is not. Come on. I don't watch shows like that, let alone participate in them. That is true. That is true. And so right now, because you talked about the eye being cut open and stuff, how is the eye?

I mean, do you feel like aesthetically it might not look the same? but as far as physically and how it functions, does it hamper you at all in your fights? Oh, no, no, not one little bit. I would look to blame that. I would look to use that as an excuse, but unfortunately, that's not the case. You know, we clashed heads.

I'm not saying it was on purpose. Yeah, yeah. You know, it is what it is. You know, in the middle of a fight, you know, things happened. We clashed head. Blood was pitch. It was immediately above my eye. There was about eight, nine stitches in it.

And it was pissing blood into me out. And every time I blink, all I could see was like a smear of red. You know, so it was kind of driving me crazy, distracted, but whatever. Yeah, no, the eye's fine. You know, I'm performing, and of course, all fighters say this.

They're in the best shape, this and that. But I really feel like I've improved as a fighter. I came in from training the other day, and I sat down, you know, at the island in the kitchen, having a drink, and my wife said to me, she said, how's training? You know, and I shook my head, and I said, it's great.

And she said, why are you shaking your head? I said, well, I'm just pissed off. She said, why? She said, I said, if I had this training situation five years ago, I'd be well championed by now, you know, and I know for the fact. So my training situation is the best thing to ever be. I'm learning things, I'm training hard, I've got great training partners, I've been pushed, and that hasn't always been the case, you know.

And when I've, for a long, long time, it was just, don't get me wrong, I had good coaches, but I wasn't part of a team. I didn't have any training partners, things like that. Now, everything's in place of learning more on the best version of myself that I've ever been. And, of course, I've got to prove that on April 25th. So would it be safe to say you have no plans of going back to England? You like it over there in Orange County? Oh, listen, I mean, I was just recently back in England, but I love to play.

I'm an Englishman. What can I say? And I always miss it. I always yearn to go back. I miss the culture. I've missed my friends and family. I miss the sense of humor. But that aside, I have a great life going on out here, you know, in Charlotte.

My children are very, very happy. They're settled in. I've got three kids. It's not fair to them to, you know, keep moving them back and forth. Hold them away from their lives once and away from their friends and schools and things like that. It's not fair to keep doing it to them. So as of right now, we're very happy. I've got a lot of good things going on professionally, personally, in the cage and out of the cage.

So, listen, I still own property in the UK. I get back there as much as possible and, you know, I do miss the place, but I'm happy here. Did you ever think, you know, GSP very famously said, I'm not coming back unless the sport gets cleaned up, and you've been a guy that I think a lot of fans would say on the wrong side of, you know, PD use, if you know what I'm saying? You fought a lot of guys who have used testosterone.

At the time, maybe legal, but, you know, it just seems like maybe you were fighting upstream. Did you ever think that, you know what? Why am I doing this? If the sport isn't clean, then maybe, you know, I shouldn't put it. my body through is, did you ever consider walking away when you really realize that there might be an issue in the sport? You know, obviously, the benefit of hindsight

is a great thing. And, you know, I respect GSP for what he said that. I really do. And looking back now, now I'm a little wider, a little more mature. I certainly understand what he was saying. And now also, understanding how life the problem was. I think I was a little naive

in really understanding how much of a problem it was. You know, certainly the whole TRT thing, you know, people said at the time they needed T RT and they couldn't fight Well the majority of those guys now aren't on TRT and they still fight So it was just a blatant cheat You know and looking back yeah of course there's a little bit of sour grapes There's a little bit of what if and this and that

But ultimately it's like I said before I fall with injuries You know I get head bird I can't see I'll carry on I'm a fighter you know and even though I knew they were on testosterone Even though I knew there was a good possibility that they would take of steroids I still chose to fight them, you know, and I live with those decisions and I stand by them, and I don't regret a single thing. Have you started to think about the next step? I mean, in your mind, do you want to fight until 40?

Did you start, you know, you're a family man, you're a husband now, did you start thinking, okay, I need to start planning for the future? Well, listen, you know, it's no surprise. I'm sorry, it's no secret. I'm 36 years old. Yeah. Physically, my body feels better than ever. Of course, it's not as easy as it used to be when I was 21.

You know, I've done this for a long, long time. Obviously, the training camps do take a hard at toll on the body now. You know, I certainly spend a lot more time strapped to ice packs than what I did a few years ago. I sit on the couch now, but ice packs on my ribs, my knees, my wrists, you name it, ice packs everywhere. But that aside, I'm performing better than I have been. Athletically, I still feel good. And I still feel I've got a long time left in this sport. I still truly, passionately enjoy this.

Yeah, of course, the benefits are great. the paychecks are fantastic but also it's my love it's my passion now having said that of course I'm always looking being 36 years old you know potentially at a career

after fighting you know I'd be a fool not to and I'm nobody's fool so you know I am just keeping an eye open on possibilities in that avenues and things I can do after a fight and I'm trying to use my status

as a professional fighter now to you know open some doors but when the task does come that I'm not fighting anymore, you know, that I can go into something else. Well, I got to say, I think you do a fantastic job when you're on television. And in particular, when you work with me, I really feel like I bring the best out on you. There's a certain glow in your eye and you raise your game. Would you say that's accurate?

Oh, absolutely, Ariel. You are everything I aspire to, of course, you know. I mean, you were the guy that got me into the sport. You're the guy that I look up to, you know. Wow. Wow. Yeah, yeah, you're everything to me, Ariel. You know this.

Well, I appreciate it. I mean, but do you enjoy doing the TV stuff? Do you think that might be the next step for you? Pardon, can you just repeat that? I'm going over an area without much... No, it's okay. Do you feel like that might be the next step, that you want to do that full-time

whenever your career is over? Do you really enjoy doing that sort of thing, the TV stuff? Yeah, no, of course. I really, really enjoy the TV stuff. I find that a challenge. Obviously, I love this sport, so I look talking about it. You know, I have a lot of opinions on it. But it's very, very enjoyable.

It doesn't feel like work, you know, and I work with a great set of guys, to yourself included, unfortunately. As much as it pains me to admit, everyone I work with is super cool, and everybody at Fox are a great set of guys. So, they're great to work with. But I've seen myself coaching as well. I'm working on opening some gyms right now. Oh, wow. A lot of meetings. This has been going on for a long, long time, but I'm getting there slowly.

You know, I would like to coach and train fighters when I'm done, as well as, you know, I'm going to fingers in a few parts. let's just say that. Now, would the gyms be in America or back home in England? Well, I'm working on, there's two that I'm working on right now, but I would love to have one in the UK, of course, yes. Wow. That's very interesting. Would that mean you having to go back home?

Well, that would be a good excuse to rack up those air miles over there, yeah. And what about the acting? Didn't you, just film a movie? He hasn't come out yet, right? Yeah, no, yeah, I mean, I'm still tabbling with the acting. You know, it's a hard business, you know. it's not an easy thing to break into. I just don't strike back recently.

That is in, I think it's May or June on Cinemax. Okay. With Sky 1 in the UK. That was a lot of fun. I've got an audition tomorrow, actually. It's funny enough I just found out about this morning. So I'm still picking away at that, you know, but it's not easy. You know, I'm under no false illusions with that.

You know, it's a hard business. And fortunately, you know, I've had a few breaks so far. a few movies and a few TV shows. I've had a lot of fun, and I'd like to build on that, you know? Will it become something that I can make a career out of? I mean, that's a very different thing. You know, a career is one thing.

Getting a few projects here and there, I would call that a career. I would love to build on it. Of course, I feel I have the ability and a natural flair for it. But, you know, one step at a time. Let's not run before we can walk. So wait a second.

You have an audition tomorrow? What's it for? I have no idea. As soon as I get off the phone, I'll check my email, and I'll find out, apparently, it's a good role for me. Wow. But maybe over a bill some time, I can tell you about some of my audition nightmares.

Casting couch nightmares? Pardon? Do you have any casting couch nightmares? Oh, yeah, I've got many. I've got many, many, many, many. What do you mean? Can you give us one? Listen, I'm not a trend at all.

Do you know what I mean? So I've made many a faux part going in there for an audition, you know what I mean? But, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't call us, we'll call you, I think we've said many a time. I'm kidding. They never said that, but there were a few times I've gone in there. I've learned the hardware, the grassroots way. But no one's

tried, you know, when I say casting couch, I mean, they're horror stories in Hollywood of people trying to take advantage of, you know, impressionable actors or actresses, you know, that sort of thing. That hasn't happened to you, right? No, it has not. Okay, okay.

No, yeah, I mean, hopefully tomorrow's my lucky day. Or not, but apparently you're looking for that. But I want to ask you about this because we were talking about the TV and all that. Your son, who a lot of longtime MMA fans may remember from the Dennis Kang fight when he put you in a triangle, has grown up to be quite the jiu-jitsu player, right? And also the secret behind your TV success, Kalim, right? I mean, he does a lot of your research.

Calib, excuse me. Yeah, Kalim, yeah, absolutely. You know, this guy, I mean, fortunately, he takes after his mother. and not me, and he's a very, very smart, bright young man, straight-A student,

on a roll shooter, I'm very, very proud of him, he's awesome, but he has an amazing memory, and he's obsessed with UFC and mixed martial arts

in general now. You know, sometimes I'll go to bed later at the weekend and say 1 a.m. after I finish watching a movie, and I'll see a little glow coming from under his bedroom door

and I open the door. I'm like, what the hell are you doing? And he's watching 5-past on his phone at 1am, you know? So he's a bit of a nerd. So whatever I'm doing,

doing the Fox stuff, you know, Calum Hell of the research. He knows all the stats, he knows everything up the top of his head. And as you said, he loves Jiu-Jitsu. Just recently got a silver medal in the World Jigitsu Championship at Long Beach. So, yeah, he's doing very, very well,

and very proud of him. Honestly, I thought you were going to say that you'd see the glow under his door, you'd open it, and he's watching old episodes of the MMA hour. That's where I thought you were going with that. I thought. Well, well, he'd tell him. tells me he's watching five past, but anyone that was a teenage boy once by the time,

I don't know, maybe he's lying to me anymore, maybe he's watching something else if you get what I'm saying. Well, I wasn't even, again, I thought you were going to say the M.A.R., but, for now, what if, what if he says to you, Dad, I want to fall on your footsteps, I want to be a fighter, what do you say? Well, this is a thing. I mean, he just kind of say that now. You know, I mean, he enjoys it, but as I said, he's a very, very clever guy. so I want him well I don't want him to he wants to I want to

and he will you're going to get himself a great education and he's going to go to a good university or a colleague get a real a real job and not a real job a real education

and a real training in whatever field it may be when that's said and done you know because he's still a young man now he's learning jihitsu stuff that I never learned in his age

you know it's not going to be long before he's showing me thing so you know if he wants to really do it apply himself and after he's finishing his education, he wants to have a little stab at it, then of course I'll fully support him. My parents were very supportive,

my dad in particular, you know, gave up big life when I was a teenager, driving me around the country to martial arts tournaments and to training. So, you know, why wouldn't I do the same thing that my dad did for me? But as I said,

he will go to school, he will go to college, he will do all those things. And if he wants to, you know, I have a go at it, of course, I'll support him. But I don't necessarily want that in his future. future.

Mike, let's end on this, and I appreciate the time, as always. Great to catch up. Let's talk about the fight. Yes, I want to ask you something, though. Next week is the 10-year anniversary of the Tough One finale, Forrest Griffin, Stefan Bonner, and of course, you are a product of that show. You won the third season. A lot of people believe if that fight didn't turn into what it was,

there is no UFC anymore. It would have went away. It would have crumbled. What would Michael Bisping be doing if that fight didn't turn out to be the fight that it became? Well, around that time I was already training to be a boxing world champion. My plan at that time, I was born on an army base, and my plan at that time was to join the army and get on the boxing team. So I got paid, so I've been looking at to my kids while I was being in the army, and I've been trading my boxing, and then when my boxing got to a certain level, come out of the army and turn professional. So I'd probably be a professional boxer about now.

Wow, that's interesting. Do you wish you went into boxing, or are you happy with the path? No, no, see what happened. I was planning on being a boxer. I got my boxing life, I had a few fights, I won those. But given my martial arts background, that I started when I was eight years old, when the UFC really started getting big and I knew there was money to be made, I made the switch to a career in mixed martial arts.

Because it seemed obvious. I done martial arts if it was eight years old. We made sense. All right, so then let's end on the fight. You wanted to talk about CB Dollar. TVWA. Is this the fight that is going to steal the show at UFC 186 and why? Well, 100%. I'm always going out there looking to steal the show, you know, and not because that's something I consciously want to do. It's just the way I fight. I try and bring it each

it every time. The last time I fought a wrestle with Tim Kennedy, since then, I've been training at rain training centers with Martinos, Patrick Cummins, and a bunch of other guys. And I've been training year-round there as well, not just going in for a few weeks beforehand. As I said before, my training situation is the best he's ever been. My Ted van defense is great. It's stellar. He will not be able to take me down. I'm going to systematically take this guy apart.

He's going to be looking for a way out after about two minutes into the fight. I truly believe that. I respect him as an opponent. But, you know, listen, I am turning up the best version of myself that has ever been. As I've got older, I'm training smarter. I'm not over-training. I'm stronger. I'm faster.

The technique's better. And C.B. We'll pay the price on April 25th. So two minutes in, he will look for a way out. That's accurate? Two minutes in, he's going to realize, shit. I went out of the fight. I can't beat this guy.

And by the way, I love the irony of you fighting on a card headline by Flywights. Yeah, well, everybody knows that I'm selling that card. I'm going to O'Connor McGregor. I have to talk shit about the Flywaves because I always seem to do that. But Mighty Mouse is an amazing champion. And, you know, power to pound, one of the... best in the world and they just get better and better. So, yeah, nothing but respect to the flyways.

All right, I like it. Well, Michael, a pleasure as always, as I said. Mike, Montreal welcomes you with open arms. I know you have fond memories. I can't wait to fight in Montreal again. The last time I thought that I was about eight years ago. Yeah. And they were awesome.

They were. They were just amazing. The crowd was fantastic. They gave me a lot of love. So I'm looking forward to get it to Montreal again. The Bell Center is an amazing arena. Montreal is a great city. I saw a way

I'll see you there my friend In fact it was seven years ago The debut of the UFC in Montreal April of 2008 UFC 83 you defeated Charles McCarthy A great performance And we're looking forward to another one Michael Thank you very much for the time

And best of luck to you Charles McCarthy said he was going to break my arm I tie clinched him And I need him repeatedly About 30 times Actually broke his arm So that was a bit of irony for you And yeah

As always Ariel My pleasure Everybody Thanks for the support. Please tune in April 25th. Everyone who sponsors me, thank you so much, my management, pilot, and post management. I'm a wife and kids.

Cheers, guys. All the best. There he is. Michael Bisping. Great to have them on, as always. I know the fans in Montreal may be a little disappointed with what has transpired and the T.J. Dillishaw injury.

But, you know, there are still some names on the card, and Rampage Jackson hopefully will remain on the card, and that will be sorted out. And Michael Bisping is obviously another big name that is on the card as well. And if you're a fan of Canadian MMA, there are certainly some recognizable names and about to be added, according to my sources, Rhonda Marcos of Tough 20 fame against Ashton Daly, who was supposed to fight Claudio Gidella this, excuse me, April 11th, but Clyde got injured. So Patrick Cote against Joe Riggs, Sarah Kaufman, and Lexus Davis

have had some battles in the past, or Dean Haleb, also on the card. And another fun one, John McDessie versus Abel Trujillo. Thomas Almeida, opening the pay-per-view against Eve Jaubuin. That is an interesting fight. Thomas Almeida, not a household name, but he is a pretty young cat in the game, 23 years old. He's 1 and O in the UFC, and he is in his pro career, 18 and O.

So that's always fun. So that's April 25th, but as we have been talking about on this show, April 4th, which is this weekend, is the UFC's next show, UFC on Fox Sports One. It's in Fairfax, Virginia. And one of the intriguing fights

on the main card is Canada's own Mitch Clark against our guest at this time. The one of the only Michael Keza who is sporting a New York Knicks hat. What? Are you a Knicks fan? Yeah. Get out of here. Yeah, I'm dead serious. Love the Knicks. Are you just... I just...

viewing what it got himself a title. It would be a little better. Are you trying to suck up to me right now? Swear to God, I'm not sucking up. I'm a Yankees man. I'm a Jet. Jets fan. I'm a Knicks fan. Why? Not that guy. Pacific Northwest guy. Why are you a fan of these New York teams, the evil empire? My dad was actually born in New York. So I was a Yankees fan. We were both Knicks fans.

You know, I still support the local guys. Sure. You know, I like the Mariners like the Yankees, like the Seahawks, like the Jets. But as far as basketball goes, I'm diehard Knicks. What a depressing time to be a Knicks fan, right? Yeah, it's pretty rough. Definitely rough. I try not to pay attention right now.

I'm like, I'll just focus on my Seahawks. Sure. You know, the Jets acquiring Dorel Revis, I got good things to focus on, you know. So wait a second. When the Knicks played the Sonics or when the Jets played the Seahawks, who are you rooting for? I'm kind of on the fence. I'd like, I mean, if the Jets play the Seahawks, I'm going to pull for the Seahawks. It's pretty cool being, you know, in Washington when the Seahawks went the Super Bowl and make the playoffs and stuff.

It's a great environment. and, you know, if the Seahawks lose to the Jets, there's probably going to be like a high suicide rate around here. Well, let's talk about you. I see the poster in Backview. That's the last time we saw you, that show in Connecticut. It's been a while. It's been since September.

And I know that fight. Why? This is the loser's corner, actually. I have all my posters framed. You're looking at the Losers Corner. That's Seattle. It's a little fight, and you got Loz on the other side. Wow.

Losers Corp. Did you do that on purpose? Yeah. I put them in the corner. where you can't see them. Like, you walk in my house and you see all the other ones in the other spots. Like, right in the open, you got the losers' corner back here. By the way, I've always wondered about these posters that we see you guys sign.

Do you sign them so that the fighters can take them, or do you ask for them, or do you buy them? How do you get your hands on those? Because I see their autograph, right? Yeah, so every event, yeah, like every event you get one autograph poster that's got, like, the authentic sticker. And it'll be like one out of 150 or whatever. And then you get, like, three regular ones that aren't signed. and then they sell them on the website, and I think they give them to, like, sponsors and stuff,

so they have other uses for them. But every time you fight, you get, like, a cardboard tube that's got a sign poster and, like, two or three other unsigned ones. Okay, so why haven't you fought since September? Well, definitely wanted to let the cut heal. That was a, you know, yeah, it was a hefty scar. Didn't want to jump back in the gym and have it reopened. So, you know, I did some therapy type stuff and just got that scar.

healed up nice and uh it was just you know that fight kind of put me in a slump i'd be a liar if uh if i said it didn't you know it's one thing when you lose to mosvidal you get beat fair and square you know i went out on my shield it was a good fight but this fight with joe just kind of it was hard to wrap my head around you know what i mean so it took me a while to get out of my slump and you know i should have fought in march on the ontario event that they canceled but um you know so i got pushed out another month but i mean the time off was good and I mean, my body needed it, and it gave me a lot of time to improve. I'm definitely not.

I mean, I know it's so cliche to say, but I'm not going to look the same this next time out. I know you were disappointed when they called off that fight, but in hindsight, do you think the right call was made? No. I wish the fight was in Las Vegas. You know what I mean? Like, you know, I'm not trying to live in the past and harp on things that really don't matter at this point, but it's like, you know, when Joe sits there and, you know, when Joe sits there and. says like oh yeah the fight should have been stopped it's like uh hello december 28th 2012 i believe you had a hatchet wound on your face that dwarfed mine right and you got three rounds you know

what i mean like why don't i deserve my three rounds so you know what it is what it is it's the past and uh this is a good step forward with me with this fight with mitch um you know it puts me in a weird little trifecta as far as the lightweight rankings go, but I think it's a good step in the right direction. What do you mean by that, a weird little trifecta? I mean, you look at, you know, Al, ranked 15. Yep. Loss to Clark, but just beat Oz on. So I mean, what's going to happen if I beat Clark and, you know, who knows, you know, I hope Al wins. I consider Al a friend. I hope he beats Mossbital. I would love it. But what happens if he loses? You know, what happens when I beat Mid and what, you know, what's that going to do with the rankings?

You know how it is. It's just, it's weird little circle. This guy beat this guy, but also that guy. It's a messy situation, but, you know, all of you very, you know, very talented. Were you surprised, by the way, because I know Clark beating Iaquinta was somewhat of a surprise to a lot of people. Were you surprised that you got the Clark fight because you had a win over Iquint? I know MMA math is a little funky, but did you expect this matchup or did it come out of left field for you? You know, I actually, I had said something at UFC 173.

I had said something after he beat Al. I was like, you know, I could kind of see me and him having to meet at some point. And I haven't really said anything about this because, you know, I'm just waiting for the right time. But I talked to my boss and he had said that Mitch's manager called not once, but twice asking for this fight. So, yeah. So it's one of those things where, you know, I'm not going to take it. fence to it. It made my job easier because I'm, you know, I'm sitting on the fence after this low zone fight. Like, who do I fight? What do I do? This is weird. You know, I lost, but I didn't

get beat. You know what I mean? Like, so it, you know, he made my job easier. I take no offense to it. But, you know, it's one of those things where I got to make him regret that decision. Why do you think he wants to fight you so badly? Um, you know, it's a match up thing. Sometimes you just see somebody and you see something you think you can capitalize on. Um, you know, it's hard to say really um i think that maybe part of that has to do with you know i've been submitted in a dars choke maybe that's his best move maybe uh you know there's been a few fights where i've uh you know some guys have had some close catches on me i know he's primarily submission wrestler um he trains at the lab which has one of the best southpaws in the lightweight division in benson

you know i'm a southpaw maybe he feels like he has some advantage there i don't know there's something there he sees and he wants to capitalize on it so you know cool challenge accepted. By the way, I don't know if you saw this, but I was on Fox Sports 1 on that card in Boston in January, and I reported this fight, and I initially said it was the co-main event, which was a mistake. I was wondering if you were watching that, and I got your hopes up, and if so, I apologize for that. I have a picture on my phone. I can actually pull it up. So you're... I missed... Mitch Clark. No, it's just a picture of you, but it has a little headline in the bottom.

I remember that God, that's one of my biggest blunders I totally messed that one up Yeah, and for that You owe me that little Nix basketball thing On top of the This is actually the Syracuse orange Oh, it is?

I thought it was a, it looked like a Nix thing With the color Yes, the orange and blue But that is my alma mater So I like to represent them But I wanted to personally apologize I already apologize too much You know, I don't know if you get more money

For being in the co-main event Or something like that But that is a pretty big mistake So I felt really bad about it Yeah, main card's main card main card. I'm happy to be where I'm at. So it'll be a good fight either way. How do you feel about the day card? I mean, this is kind of a weird thing, right? Especially for a west coaster. Yeah, it's definitely weird, but, you know, my last fight was on the East Coast,

you know, being in Connecticut. So it's the same time difference. I've been to the East Coast a ton. You know, I have a lot of family over there, obviously, with my dad being born in New York, and uncle living in Florida and stuff. So I adjust the time difference really easy. And as far as the day card goes, I mean, it's, it's nice. We, The thing that I like about it is I like the early weigh-in. We weigh-in at noon. Because I usually make weight the night before weigh-ins. So I hate having to sit around all day feeling like shit.

And then having to get on the scale at 4 o'clock, it totally sucks. So it's going to be nice to just make weight, go to bed, wake up, hit the scale, rehydrate. And then the next day, wake up, fight this dude, and get myself back in the wind column, and then fly home. And I don't hear this often from fighters. You actually make weight the night before? Why is that? You know, just because you never know what could happen, you know, let's say you start to have a rough weight cut. I would rather start my cut the night before weigh-ins.

Just in case, let's say something happens, I'm not sweating. I'm not feeling it. I need to hit the reset button. I would rather have that cushion of knowing like, okay, I can wake up the next day and finish it or start over or whatever. But I think that, you know, sometimes that's why guys miss weight is they're just like they wait to the day of to cut all the weight. you know, I don't want to push it to the wire. I did it at UFC 157, and I was late for the bus for weigh-ins, and the notorious Bert Watson totally tore me a new ass.

So ever since then, I was like, I'm going to start making weight the night before, so I'm never late, and I've always been the first guy to weigh-ins. I've heard that he could be a tough cookie if you cross him, if you're late, if you're not on time or anything like that. Dude, he came down on me. It was like, it was embarrassing, like in front of everything. In front of everyone. Everybody.

I mean, everybody's outside getting ready to get on the buses, and he just ate me alive. Like, I was so embarrassed. Wasn't that your UFC pay-per-view debut? Yes, it was. And I was having a tough weight cut. I struggle. If you remember, I was actually 0.3 over in my shorts. And so I, like, stepped off the scale and was like, hey, get the towel.

I need to drop my trousers. Uncle Dana was like, no, he's fine. I mean, he's 0.3. you know, to we waited on a digital scale. And, you know, I would have made weight either way. I would have took my shorts off. It made 56. But he saved Ariani and Brittany the pleasantry of seeing my skinny ass.

Bare bone. They should be upset about that. I know. Oh, we have company. I didn't realize that. Yeah, I'm with my best friend, Shelby. Oh, okay. Hello, Shelby.

By the way, you mentioned the posters in, in this corner of your house. I saw on Instagram, did you just move into a new house? I just, I haven't moved in yet, but I did. I'm a first-time home buyer. I bought a house off the auction. I've saved all those bonuses and stuff and stacked my chips and I bought a log house on five acres just outside of town out in the woods. Yeah, I saw it. It looked very woodsy. Yeah. So are you going to move there full-time or is that just a side thing? No, that'll be a full-time thing. I'm moving there for sure. I mean, It's something that I've dreamed about since I was a kid.

I've always wanted a log house. I've always wanted to land. And so now I got log house, big garage. You know, I'm going to do the Donald Soroni thing. He's a guy that I admire very much. You know, I admire the Donald Seroni lifestyle, him having the ranch, a gym on his property. You know, I like the way that he chooses to live his life with the extreme sports on top of the extreme career. Yeah.

You know, I try to walk that line and sometimes I stop and ask myself. know, what would Donald do right now? This is what you do. So how far is this from where your gym is? It's probably only an extra, you know, 20 minutes, half hour. So it's not like I'm like way out there, but I mean, you get out to my house and you're, I mean, you're in the woods, you're out there. So it's perfect, man. And it's got a pool, so that kind of a little extra bonus.

Well, well done. And speaking of the gym, Sikjitsu, this is a lot of. is a big weekend for you guys because it's the return also of Juliana Pena. What a Venezuelan Vixen. The Venezuelan Vixen. What a story. You know, she won the ultimate fighter. Of course, that devastating injury, but she is back.

I'm sure you've been around her. What's she like leading up to her big UFC return? Dude, the girl's an animal. Really? I mean, there's no other way to say it. She's, and I'm not just saying it because she's my teammate. You know, I'm not going to sit here and blow smoke and just try and talk a big game. dude, the girl's the real deal.

You know what I mean? I've been in the UFC a few years now. I've been to a lot of gyms. I've trained around a lot of people. And the girl is very professional. Her work ethic is very admirable. It's one of those things when Julie's training for her fights, I'm such a competitive person.

Her and I are both very similar, where we want to keep up with each other like, oh, she's trained four times a day. I need to train four times a day. She's done this. I want to do that too. You know what I mean? So, dude, she's a worker.

She's hungry. She's got the vision. You know what I mean? There's that special X factor. And I hate to bring up Connor McGregor because he's all I ever hear about anymore. But Connor McGregor has the vision. You know what I mean? He visualized himself as a champion and he performs like a champion.

And, you know, Julie's she follows that same beat and path. She's got the eye for it. And I think that before we know it, she'll be fighting for a title. How difficult was that when, you know, it was around a little over a year, when she got injured and it was this freak accident and you know Dana was on social media Twitter and whatnot saying that maybe she should leave and we were wondering like what exactly happened and she was kind of quiet for for the team and I know you guys are a close-knit team how difficult was that for you guys you know it was just hard because

you know number one the well-being of one of our varsity athletes you know was you know she was it a low man she got her knee her leg twisted up in one of the worst injuries we've ever heard of in the sport you know what you mean like we're talking this was a next level injury this wasn't just like a torn ACL I mean you saw the extent of it yeah it was a long list of things that went wrong with her leg and uh you know that was the hardest part was just it was like uh grieving the temporary loss you know what I mean she just came off tough she had she was lined up to fight Jessica and dros which was a great matchup for just poised to start making her run at the title and uh you know this came up so that was the hardest thing you know

what i mean was uh was that and i think that you know it i'm glad that it's behind us and i'm glad that julie's work ethic really got her through her recovery fast i mean that rehab for that injury i can imagine is very painful and that girl really just like bit down on a piece of leather and just like grind her way through it and uh not only did she do her rehab but she did the extra credit you know And that's why she's here competing now, you know, just a little more than a year later when they were saying, like, this is going to be a year and a half, two years before she can even train. You know what I mean? She was in the training full time and less than a year at full capacity. It's remarkable.

Yeah, that's the most unbelievable part. I was talking to Rick Little, your coach, and he was saying that she was ready to go in January, but they wanted to slow down a little bit just to be extra cautious. That's unbelievable. They were saying two years to see her back is really a great story. Let's go on the record. How are you going to beat Mitch Clark Saturday afternoon in Fairfax? I'm just going to beat him just doing my thing. Like I'm not a game plan guy.

You know, I just look to just do what I normally do. Whatever he saw on film, that's what I'm going to do. So if you can stop it, cool. But I really don't see that happening. Like I said, man, I know I just hate sounding like a cookie cutter stereotypical type guy. but, dude, the time I've spent off, I've changed a lot of things. Like, I really don't think this guy knows what he's getting himself into. You know what I mean?

I've been, you know, this is not taking a shot at the lab. I love John Crouch. They have a great team, a bunch of great coaches, awesome people. I've been down there and trained. Awesome environment. But, you know, that's not going to help you. That's not going to, it's not going to Mitch come fight night. I mean, it really isn't.

He should have just stayed home. You know what I mean? Like, it's not. he made a mistake asking for this fight, especially right now coming off the loss of the Luzon fight, this is a bad time to fight me for anybody. So, you know, I've got to make him regret that decision, and this is the year where I want to break out,

you know what I mean? I really want to rattle off three or four fights. I'm looking to stay healthy after this one and roll into another one. So that's my plan. I'm looking to just run right through this guy and move on to the next one, move into the top 15

and get back to where I belong. Love it. That is great, man. It's great to see you back. I'm really looking forward to this fight. In my mind, it was combing event-worthy, and that's why I made that mistake, just for the record. It's a great card, a bunch of great stories, and it'll be great to see the beard and the hair.

The hair is looking a little longer, by the way. Am I? Yeah, it's longer, and, you know, I've got this new thing going. I got tired of the ponytail. Okay. You know, it got annoying, but I got this rat tail. Oh, yeah. We're going to stick with that?

Oh, yeah, for sure. Sure, absolutely. How long are you going to go? Maybe I should just grow it until I win the title. Yes. Do it. You know? Get a sprayed, maybe throw like a bead and a feather with like a dream catcher on there or something.

Yes. Okay. This is a whole other wrinkle to this fight. Or your career now, the evolution of your rat tail. You heard it here first. Absolutely. First it was the beard. Now it was the rat tail.

And this is what's going to happen too is remember a long time ago, May, 23rd, 2012, I believe, we did the interview with Roy Nelson about beard tips. It was wonderful. One of my favorite news is. It was the 25th. It was the 25th of May 2012. So now this rat tail thing is going to become a trend. And then I'm going to give some young, up-and-coming tough winner, some advice on how to groom his rat tail when the ball gets rolling on this rat tail thing becoming a trend.

By the way, I believe it's, I think it might have been 2013. No, it was 2017. Because it was after Tough. Because Tough was 2012. It was. Yeah, it was. Wait, so that's when you fought... Wasn't that when you fought Trinaldo, or am I wrong?

No, you're wrong because I fought Trinaldo... In 2014. Yeah? But we did the Roy Nelson interview, the Memorial Day weekend fight, when Roy Nelson fought Dave. You, okay, that's why I'm getting confused. I was thinking you fought on the card, and that's why... Okay, he fought on the card, and you happened to be backstage.

Because you were just coming off the ultimate fighter, right? Yeah, that was the day after I got released. There you go. There you go. It's all coming back to me. All right, man, well, best of luck to you. Congrats on the new house, by the way. And I'm looking forward to seeing you back in action. It's been a while since you've been on the show, so it was great to have you back on. Yeah, it's good to be back, and thanks for having me on.

And, you know, everybody tune in. April 4th is going to be a really good night for the people up here in the upper left USA. All the best, my friend. Thank you. Thank you, Ariel. There he is. Michael Keesa, tough live winner back in the day. 2012. Always great to hear from him. A lover of facial hair and just all kinds of hair. The man does it right. Rattail, are you kidding me? Tremendous. All right. So that's April 4th. That's Fox Sports 1. And now we transition, my friends, to an interview that I am incredibly excited for. If you are a fan of the king of multimedia, the greatest broadcaster, arguably of all time, but certainly of my generation, the one and only

Howard Stern. If you've listened to this show, if you've listened to interviews that I've done, you know how I feel about Howard Stern, how I hold him in the highest regard possible. I love Howard Stern. I have been listening to him, watching him, studying him for as long as I can remember. And if you know anything about the Howard Stern show, you know that he has the whack pack, which is a very important part of the show, a fun part of the show. And if you know anything about the Howard Stern show, you know that the mother of the whack pack is the infamous, the legendary, the notorious Marianne from Brooklyn. There is only one Marianne from Brooklyn. You know her voice. You may not know what she looks like, but you certainly know her voice. She is a great

part of the show, a very fun part of the show. And I had the honor. I had the pleasure of meeting Marianne from Brooklyn after a few tweets back and forth in person at the UFC 189 World Tour Press Conference in New York City on Thursday of all people to be there. The one and only Marianne from Brooklyn, the inimitable Marianne from Brooklyn was in attendance to watch the Connor McGregor show roll through New York City. It was a huge, huge honor for me. I was very excited about it all. And then I thought, wow, we have to have Marianne from Brooklyn on this show. And guess what? She said yes. So here she is, my friend. My friends, the mother of the whack pack herself, the one and only Marianne from Brooklyn from the Howard Stern Show, is on the MMA hour right here and now. Marianne, are you there?

Absolutely. My God, would it, would it be on your show, notorious MSB? That's my new name. Wow, that voice. I can listen to that voice all day long. What a great pleasure this is for us. This is a lot of fun. I mean, wow. This is the closest I've- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, before we go any further, since you're a big Howard Stern fan, and you're Canadian, but you do live in Brooklyn, the big question is, team Hansi or Team Mary here from Brooklyn. Oh, my gosh, are we going to get into this right now? You had a battle of epic proportions with Hansi, who I'm a fan of. I really enjoy his call, but wow, I am too. You are, because I heard you drop some F-bops on him.

Well, I'm a fan of Hansi, but when somebody calls up and gives false information, I've got to get my MMA going, and I have to tell him, I pay for my $1. serious radio. So that was the beef we had. So it's, you know, it's all good. It happened in the best of family, so it's certainly going to happen in the Wackpack family every now and then. What's the deal with Hansi, by the way? I mean, this, this, he seems to be, you know, skeptical of everyone he thinks that the Illuminati's out there. He thinks that everyone's on the take. I mean, what's, do you think he's playing a party or he's actually? No, I think he's super paranoid. He's really got that vibe in his brain because he's living in his mother's basement and he's smoking too much weed. And he doesn't get a lot of.

get out much far to say, you know, I'm a mother, so I get it. And, you know, but I feel bad. He's got to be a little more trusting and a little more get himself out. And, you know, he's too young to be stuck in that run at home. It's terrible. Also, he has to be. And I was at the UFC. And look at me, an old lady there.

Oh, my God, we're passionate crazy fans. That's why I love them because they're like the Howard fans. Okay. We'll get to that in a second. But one more thing on Hansi, he has to be a little more appreciative, too. I mean, the guy can't even say thank you. Right. Well, that's a big part of it also. And he doesn't know how to, you know, ask for something nicely. If his radio was turned off probably by mistake, because a lot of the WACP has their radio from Sirius, I don't. But, you know, he could ask nicely, but then to throw me in the mix, forget about it. You know, Brooklyn style. I'm going to come out pounding. Have you ever met him in person?

Absolutely. I met him years ago at Sirius. He was very nice. He's like a bit. He's only 20-something years old. So when I met him, he might have been even, 18 and 19, he's a kid to me. I have to treat them like, you know, they're my family because they're very young, some of these people. So, you know, he's like a young to me, you know, teenager and probably even younger because he's home so much. You know, he's not out in the world. So he's a nice kid. He's a nice kid.

I have to be honest. So you take the title of Mother of the Wack Pack to heart. I mean, this is a title that you are proud of. Right. And you feel a duty to actually be a mother to these individuals. Right. You know what? I always took the lost puppy.

I always, you know, like the underdog. It's in my nature. I don't like the superstar. I like the underdog, so it's in my nature. I'm friendly with Jeff the drunk. Hi, Pitt, Eric. Did you hear the show today with High Pit, Eric? No, I didn't.

Tell us what happened. Should I tell you, High Pit Eric was on with Donnie Warburg and Jenny McCarty, and he's going to be on Blue Bloods. He's going to have a part because he's a big fan of the show, and he had a, you know, it's an audition, and he did amazing. Okay, okay. So I lied. I did hear it. I was in a funk. He had, he was wearing the wig, and Donnie Wahlberg was sitting on his lap and they were looking into it. It was amazing. I loved it. Wasn't it great, right? Come on. Where, but only Howard Stern would let something like that happen for a fan and, you know, a part of the whack pack. I mean, dreams do come true. I have to be honest.

Sure, and this is a dream for me. You got to get you on Howard. Okay. I got to get you on Howard. Don't, don't, don't, now you're just making me a little too crazy. Okay, this is a dream for me. I have so much to talk to you about, but let's try to get the MMA connection here going. So I saw you at the UFC 189 World Tour this Thursday, this past Thursday at the Beacon Theater, and you were with your son. And your son has a direct connection to MMA. What does your son do?

Well, you know, my son started to do. He made me, like, say, three times a day years ago, and he's a very good athlete for a big kid. He's a good athlete. And I was very apprehensive because, to me, it's rough and tough, and I'm not so into that. But, you know, he pushed me, and he loves it. He became a partner in the fight shop in East Coast. It's in New York City and on Orchard Street. It's called East Coast MMA.

And they have a website. Can I say to eastcoast-enway.com, right? Yeah. And because of that, he is very passionate about it. He got me into it. So he showed me all about Nog and then this Conner McGregor that was there. And I'm totally into Rhonda Rousey because it's all about girl power now and putting like a female in that type of situation.

And I've been kickboxing for four years now. I kickboxed at C.K.L. Bay Ridge for four years. Me, I'm 56 years old. I'm in good shape, knock on wood. You know what I mean? So I'm really into it. And I think that it's incredible sport. And he called me, wait, you want to hear the truth?

I was washing my kitchen floor. And he said, Mike, you think you could come to us? I said, I don't know what time. I said, okay, so I'm going to come. Did I ever know I was going to experience it like that? It reminded me of the Howard Stern fans, passion crazy. you know, and I absolutely loved it. And I met you.

It was amazing. Now, what did you think of it? As someone experiencing this for the first time, I mean, they were a little disrespectful to the champion, Jose Aldo, the people screamed. I mean, this was very, this was vintage New York, but did you think it was a little too crazy? Well, I think, like for a press conference like that,

and then when Dana Cook says to the audience, come up and ask questions, like, you know, it's no whole bar, there's no censorship, so you know it's going to be absolutely insane. But, like, it shows that the, you know, the fans are very passionate about the sport. It also shows that the fighters, you know, can take their medicine and not get, you know, they're answering the questions as best as they can without, you know, jumping off the stage and knocking somebody out. And tell us about your kickboxing background, because I saw this video of you.

It was at CKO and Bay Ridge, right? Right. Go ahead, go ahead. My daughter said, my, I want to try it, like, you know, four years ago. In fact, April will be my fourth year, and I said, ah, it's not the me. She goes, oh, please, please, please have a 22-year-old daughter. At that time, she was a little younger. I said, okay, we started three months.

I really loved that she dropped out, and I became friends with the two owners. Ben Bongiorno, who's a wrestling now, like, he's called a Great White Buffalo. He wrestles and he loves it. And Matt McQuist's coincidence is a jit-zitsu with Renzo Guadzi. He's another one. So they're into that, too, right? So if you believe I know all this, you think I only knew about Howard, but I know a lot. It's unbelievable.

I started kickboxing, and I absolutely love it. I go every single day. It's my passion. I go to C.K.O. Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, and if you ever want to farm me, I'm there at 4.30. So that's my second home. I love it there. Every day. Every day, yeah.

Now, other than, you listen, you wake up at 6 a.m. to listen to Howard? I wake up at 5.30. I'm like, I don't even need an alarm. I wake up. I listened to the show live. I never miss a, I haven't missed a live show in 20 years. I start darling at like 10, you know, 10 to 7 now before it used to be 10 to 6. I could hold on for four hours.

I could hold on for four minutes. It depends on, you know, the topic and if he wants to pick up, because people always ask me that question. Yeah. And, you know, and you're coming to AGT with me this year at Radio City. Don't forget. And you have to come to the store. Did you ever go to the East Coast, MMA, and on Orchard?

street. I've never been. They have the thickest clothes. It's the most amazing store. They have everything. And it's, you know, it's a great store. You have to come. So we'll have, we'll have like a, you know, meat, Ariel, Hawaiian.

Sure. So do you plan your vacations around when he's off? Because you say you haven't missed a show in 20 years. What if you're away? What if you're out of the country? What if you're on vacation? I don't go out of the country. I don't fly and I don't take a lot of vacations.

I don't know if you heard the show four weeks ago. I lost my little dog, Max. He passed away from liver cancer, and I'm very down and depressed about it. But I stayed close to home because of my dog, so I don't really go for. My vacation is my radio. My vacation is my family. That's my vacation, to be honest. I'm very simple.

And I'm sorry to hear about your dog, Maxie. I think some fans might not know this. And as you can imagine, a lot of MMA fans are Howard fans. I see that on Twitter now. Yes, they love you. You actually made your debut on the Howard Stern show when the great Stone Cold Steve Austin was on. Yes, someone was ragging on him for not being fan friendly, and you came to his defense in 1999, and that's how it all started.

16 years ago, right? You did your homework. Of course. Just like Howard. How it started. My brother made a collect, my dad at the time, my father, pissed away, and I had a gun business. They made Stone Cold. Steve was in a collectible gun, and he was so great.

He took my son and my nephews to a big wrestling match at Madison Square Garden, and he treated them like so beautiful, and some woman called up bragging. And, I mean, he was so good really to everyone. I mean, sometimes you can't stop to every single fan. It's very hard. And when I called at that time, stuttering John was answering the phones, and I heard my voice, and my voice is so terrible that the first thing, he said, what's your name?

And I said, Marion from Brooklyn, just off the top of my head. And it stuck the name. and then Howard picked up on me right away, and then Stone Cold proceeded to abuse me with Howard and saying, like, crazy shit, like, oh, you know, you're never going to get a heart on again once you hear her voice and you'll go back to your wife. It was very, very funny.

And truthfully, it didn't bother me. I have a thick skin, so it didn't save me. And so next day I called again, and then that's my history of Howard. That's how it happened. And when did the, you know, the crow sounds and all, like when did you really become a staple? When did you become a member of the whack pack?

I think, well, Howard, he's wishy-washing now. He's, like, changing it up. But I think what I sang the Star Spangled Banner at the Crazy Cabby, angry black fight at that time, it was like the WWE sort of restaurant venue in the city. It's not there anymore. And when I sang that, I think, like, they were breaking glass and dogs were howling, and I think they're doing a few crows, and now that's my signature sound, which I absolutely love and truth.

I don't even hear it when I'm speaking to Howard. It's like, you know, it's all oblivious. through it. I know. You think I'm crazy, right? No, people ask me that. I was talking to some of the guys before the show starting. They're like, do you get bothered by the cause and all that? The car, car. No, I'm like talking. I'm so into what I have to say to Howard that I don't even, you know, hear it anymore. What's your favorite Howard Stern moment ever, of all time before your, your involvement in the show after? Is there one that sticks out?

Well, before I, when I was pregnant with Nicole, I listened to the Channel 9 show. That's how I really got into it, maybe 24 years ago. That's when I really started. And then I, I don't know, I always felt like he always told the truth and I love the truth. And, you know, but one of my favorite moments was like the first time I went up because I went up as, you know, off a whim because they never met me. And like they just made me come in and they treated me like gold.

And, you know, I went up in a hazmat suit on a whim. I was behind stage at AGT and he gave me a big, big. bouquet he sang to me two years ago on my birthday at Radio City. I can't. There's so many, you know. I've been at his rallies. I've been outside at Letteman at 2 o'clock in the morning waiting for him. It's like, there's like a whole

list. In fact, I'm doing my shrine over because I had a shoring to him. I mean, Katie Corrick came to my house. I don't know if you know that and interviewed me. And I was on Katie Clark as being one of the super fans for Howard, so he didn't like to wear my shrine look. So now I'm redoing my shrine in honor of Howard.

And I saw your phone. Like I have a picture of my family on my phone. You have Howard all over it. The case. Right. Me and Howard, right. My daughter made me that for Christmas. And my cards are always Howard Stern cards.

In fact, I'll meet you in New Year's Eve, a New Year's card. I still have some. And my inside is Howard. It's all about Howard. And I wrote, I wrote him a song. I wrote, all I need is Howard in my life. And that, you know, I joined every, you know, every contest. And I, you know, I never won a contest.

I joined every contest, but I never won, but I have fun trying. I've got to be honest. For the unlucky souls who have never heard this song before, can you give us a couple lines? Yeah, well, Enrique Iglesias had gone up, and he was singing really bad, and so I decided to do his parody, and it was like,

All I need is Howard in my life. All I need is Howard's little dick. It'll do the trick. All I need is Howard in the morn. He makes me feel so horn. Oh, what would I do without Howard? I would feel very blue not to hear you fought burp and do all I need is how it in my life. Now, what does your family think of this?

I know I'm wacky, but family first. My family comes first. Oh, I'm a diehard family. I took care of my kids. I was a housewife and I was a stay-at-home mom and I got two brilliant children. Both, like, honor students, NYU, L-I-M, you know, my daughter's got a beautiful job, of my son. So I always,

my children always came first, even though I do have one confession. What is that? Well, my son was at a confirmation. I don't know, one of those boring church things. I did have the rest of that time. You could put like the radio in a year,

and I had it in my year one very early morning because I didn't want, I don't know what was on Howard, but I didn't want to miss it. That was the only time. The only one time. Wow. This is the first time.

I'm going to tell you, yes. You know, my son turned me on. which I think he'd be gray in the black pack. Big gnaug. What do you think? Big gnaug.

You think he'd be insulted? Wait, wait a second. No good? To have big gnaug in the whack pack? Yeah. Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, see that. Why him?

Is there a reason why he picked him? I'm saying he's my husband. No, I said I should pick him. My son turned me on and said he's very passionate about him. Yes. And I know he's a very good. you know, fighter. Sure.

So that's why we think. Wouldn't he be good? You know, have a match, maybe big gnaug with Bigfoot. What do you think? Well, yeah, there is a Bigfoot Silva

in the UFC. And I think he would be also another perfect guy to have, you know, as part of the Wack Pack. Although the Wack Pack, what did you make of Hansi, by the way,

saying that this was the lamest era in the history of the show and that he was, you know, it was like it was sort of apropos that he was a member of the Wack Pack now. Do you agree with that?

No, he just, he just wants to be negative and controversial. Listen to me. Who has a career like Howard Stern for 35 plus years, keeping people tuned in every day? Like if you heard the show, there was somebody that said today that who said he wasn't current again? I forgot.

Oh, Tom Hanks' son, right? Now, come on. You don't mean to tell me, like, my son's in his 30s. I meet kids that are 15, 16, 17, that just got the show now, you know, or hear the replay on Howard 101. he's got for every generation, and nobody else has that. And nobody has this show on a loop that plays old shows, you know, like you'd see a sitcom of I Love Lucy. You could tune into Howard 101 and you could have it. Nobody has that staying power of fans of all ages.

That's what I have to say. And I think you agree with me. You're just a super fan too. Sure, sure. Sternthology, it's the best. Anytime I'm in the car, that's where I go. Okay, so this is the big question. His contract is coming up.

What do you think he does? Because it seems like he's kind of teasing, leaving. I know, but I think he has a little more time in him. I've got to be honest. I think that if Sirius plays their cards right, and if Sirius Satellite radio is listening to this, Scott Greenstein and all the big CEOs, they got to do right by Howard,

because without Howard, I always said there would be no serious radio. I think he's a couple more years than him, and I definitely think he has to. And even though I'm the AGT Queen, I think it's too much on his plate. It's too much traveling. But I think he drops AGT and he sticks with series. I think we have a couple of more years to be, you know, thrill with.

I don't know what I'll do with myself. Yeah, I was going to ask you that. Do you feel like your days will be empty? I mean, what do you do? You're a young woman? Right. Well, no, I'm not that young, but I'm pretty sick. But I like, I did something about the radio, even without my dog in the house.

It keeps me occupied. It keeps me occupied. It keeps me upbeat. You know, it's just very funny to even hear the replays at different times and different things that happen. I'm passionate about my radio. There's a lot of shows. Like, I don't watch those shows. I talk about Breaking Bad.

I never saw Walking Dead. But my Howard is my 24-7 on all day and all night in the house. I've got to be honest. I love it. Well, it's beautiful. And I know deep down many moons ago, you wanted to be a Hollywood starlet yourself. You wanted to be a Joan River. And look at you now.

Now you're a huge star. You're world-renowned. Everyone knows you. Maybe not by your face, but certainly your voice. It is world-renowned, and this has been a real treat for me. Thank you so much, Marianne. I really enjoyed having you on. It's my pleasure.

You're such a nice young man, and I heard a lot of great things about you, and I'm so happy you're successful and something you're passionate about. And thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. I want to keep your number because you know why you come to AGT with your wife this year. Okay. I look forward to it. And check out East Coast MMA.

What's the website again? Eastcoast MNA.A.com. There it is. A great store in New York City. All the best to you, Marianne. And thank you for doing this. Again, I appreciate it. Thank you. There she is. The one and only Marianne from Brooklyn. How about that? That's a real treat for me. That was a lot of fun. I love Marianne. The whack pack. Are you kidding me? Of course, rest in peace to Eric the actor. I did see that high pitch Eric thing this morning. And I do believe that there is a connection. Hansi a big pro wrestling fan himself. I don't know if he likes MMA. But this is, uh, whew. That was fun. I know not everyone. I know there's kind of a divide. The opi and Anthony, or I don't think it's Opian Anthony anymore. It's just the Opie show. But to me, I have always been a Howard guy. I will be a Howard guy for as long as I live. He is an inspiration. He is my role model. And in my opinion,

I know some people can't see past the other stuff. But if you ever listen to his interviews and actually pay attention to how he speaks to someone and how he breaks down what's going on in their life and the follow-up questions, I mean, there is no better broadcaster, at least in my opinion. Howard Stern. Wow, that's the closest I've ever been to Howard Stern right there. And it was everything I imagined it to be and then some. Marianne from Brooklyn, thank you very much to her. All right, let us go inside the vault now. And Brock Lefner very much in the news, as I mentioned earlier, announcing last week that he is no longer going to fight.

He is taking his talents back to WWE. He resigned with WWE late last week. It was an all-night negotiation. He decided, look, at this stage of my life and career, It's just time to focus on the wrestling. He's 37 years old. He's got a farm somewhere in Saskatchewan. He was the WW champion when he announced this.

He lost the belt yesterday, as I'm sure all of you know and are still very much torn up about. So I wanted to look back at Brock Leicester's last loss as, excuse me, I made a mistake, Brock Leicester's last win, his last win as a MMA fighter. It was UFC 116. It was July of 2010. July 3rd, to be exact. And it looked like it was going to be a loss.

If you recall, Shane Carwin was beating him up and was so close, so close to finishing him. And thankfully, for Brock, not for Shane, Josh Rosenthal, didn't stop the fight. And then if you recall, Shane Carwin just gassed himself out and was submitted early in the second round via arm triangle choke. That was fun stuff. I remember Brock jumping on the cage and saying that, you know, he was back and all that. Of course, he hadn't fought in quite some time. He had fought in a year due to his health issues. It was an amazing comeback, a great scene in Las Vegas at the, what was it? I believe it was the Mandalay Bay. Was it the Manilae Bay? Or was U.S. 116? It was the MGM. Excuse me. It was the MGM. He defeated chain car win.

And then after that win, one of the most memorable wins of at least the last five years, after that win. And this was back in those days where I got to, you know, go cage side and do interviews with celebrity. and all that. Jim Ross, good old JR was there, Bill Goldberg, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and of course, the advocate himself, Paul Heyman. They were all a cage side, and I got to go down the line and interview with them all about what just happened. It was amazing. I never met any of these people before. J.R., Bill Goldberg, Stone Cold, Paul Heyman, back to back, back in the same interview. This clip, as you can imagine, exploded online. People were very excited about it to get their immediate reactions to this amazing comeback. And so I thought with wrestling in the air, and of course Brock Lesnar officially announcing his retirement, it would be fun to look back at it. So let's go inside

the vault, July 3rd, 2010, post-fight talking to some of the greatest of all time about Brock Lester's win over Shane Carwin. What do you think about what happened just there? Brock Lester defeating Shane Carwin via submission. Well, I tell you, I was worried in the first round, but I know that Brock's got great guts and determination. He's got a renewed spirit about his life. And we saw that. I don't know if any other heavyweight in MMA that would have endured the first round

against a great fighter like Shane Carwin other than Brock Lesnar. So I'm really proud of Brock. And how about everything he had to go through this past year to see him go out there, so happy and humbled, how does that make you feel? Well, he's a changed man. He's still the baddest SOB

as he sat on the planet. He's right about that until somebody changes it, but he's got a different outlook. And it's a healthier outlook for him. And now that everything is on the same page, he's quite the specimen. Can anyone stop him? No one's unbeatable. And he realizes that, and that's why he'll continue to train. No one is unbeatable, especially in the USC Heavyweight Division.

But Brock Lesnar is an animal, and he is a rare breed, I'll tell you. Thank you very much, Chair. We appreciate watching that slobrenocker. We move along here to Mr. Stone Cold Steve Austin. Your thoughts on what you just witnessed? I really enjoyed the fight. I didn't think Brock wanted to stand up and trade with him, and Shane is very heavy-handed. And I really like to watch Shane fight. But Brock's my guy. He showed so much hard in this fight, making it through that first round, weathering a storm, and then coming back. I knew once he took Shane down, Shane wasn't going to get back up. And that was the case. I was a little surprised to see the tap out. I didn't think Brock would win like that. But I knew that once Shane got shot on the ground,

Brock would not let him up. And I'm very, very proud of Brock. How about that dicey situation in the first round? Did you think the ref made the right call to let the fight continue? Oh, in a fight like yes, you know, yeah, you let it go. Brock's a tough guy. You've got to let the Titans go at it. He did.

And, you know, Brock weathered the storm. He made it through. He was in trouble, but I agreed with the referee's decision all the way. Final question, is Brock Lesnar the best heavyweight in MMA? Yes, hands down, Brock Lesnar is the best heavyweight in MMA. He's just freaky strong, very fast, very quick. He continues to improve. Every time he steps in the octagon, his future, his present is great right now.

His future looks very, very bright. I'm very proud of Brock Lesnar, and he's a great champion, and obviously a very, very big draw here for the UFC. Thank you very much, sir. We appreciate the time. Let's move along here to a very happy happy very happy, Paul Heyman. Describe for me your emotions, sir.

I need a medic. Wow, I'm blown away. I mean, I, first of all, I think Josh Rosenthal deserves all the credit in the world because that was a hell of the judgment call in the first round. You could have called it there, and Brock was moving, and he was defending himself, but, you know, somebody could, I mean, it was Mazagadi the fight would have been stopped, you know? so I thought Rosendall deserves a lot of credit because it was tremendous officiating

and just again Brock you know I mean who's the fucking man you know I mean he took a beating anybody questions his chin anymore can shut the fuck up anybody that questions whether he can take a pounding can you know and Carwin deserves a lot of credit because he took the fight to Brock like nobody ever did and I was terrified out of my mind and I'm clutching hey you know what I you know

We didn't interview on the OLL before, and you haven't watched it, you should. Show to everyone what Brock Lester means to you, Paul. That's the picture. That's the picture. That's Brock's daughter Maya and my daughter, Azalea, when they were both nine months old, at WrestleMania 2003 and their strollers becoming friends. And that's how our week began. You know, it was his only sentimental, mushy moment of the week.

He said, here you go. And then all week long he's just thought about how. how blessed he is. And what he said was how he feels. You know, he was on his deathbed, and he came back, and he came back with his wife's about to have another baby. And he did this for his family and his friends and his training camp and for himself.

And I'm just babbling on because I'm blown away. I mean, I'm just, I'm so happy for him. I can't begin to tell you. I can see that. Can we bring in Bill Goldberg here for a second? Mr. Goldberg, come on here for just a quick second and stick around, Paul, for just a moment. Bill's

Bill is sweating like he was just involved in a three-round war out there What did you think of what you just saw Brock Lester submitting Shane Carwin? I haven't been to a UFC fight in a while And I wasn't going to miss this one to chair my boy

on for nothing in the world I think he had a good game plan As he said he was going to weather the storm, Shane's never been out of the first round I think you know Brock is a miracle walking now You know, the fact that he's even competing again is unbelievable.

At this level, it's astonishing. I mean, I think the most thing that I'm proud of of Brock is not that he won tonight. It's how he acted afterwards. Brock Lesnar is a great human being. He's a great family man. He's a great husband and a great father. But he's very emotional, as people have seen in the past. But if you know the guy deep down inside, he's as good as they come.

and what he did in their caves tonight is unreal he's progressed whether it's training with randy or his new boxing coach the guy is making leaps and bounds progress wise and he's only just begun what's this the sixth seventh mma fight the commentator's first one uh it's always emotional when i come here and my buddies are fighting but a guy's so close to me is brock i'm just It's awesome. It's just great. I can see the emotions. We thank you very much for the time. Great to talk to Bill Goldberg. All right, what a scene here at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

We like to get final word with Paul Heyman. Paul, when you have a moment, we'll get a final word with Paul Heyman. Final question to you, Paul. Final question to you, Paul. We've just talked to a bunch of old professional wrestling stars, some of the biggest names in history of this business. What does it mean to this fraternity to have Brock Lester go in there and win like this? I think it means a lot to his friends or the wrestling fraternity.

I think they need to get their shit together on their own. If they want to ride Brock Lesnar's coattails, then they need to get their own house in order, because Brock Lesnar has got his house in order. Very well said. We'll leave it at that. Brock Lesnar defeats Shane Carwin via second round submission. Classic Paul Heyman there.

Brock Lesner has his house in order. That was amazing. That was so much fun to relive. watch that one in a while. It felt like I was reporting live from the scene, even though it was taped. Grabbing Goldberg, J.R. Slobberknocker, Stone Cold. What a wild scene. It was fun when they let us go out there. That was a lot of fun. Brock Lesnar's last win as a UFC fighter, of course he retained the title. And in the UFC, by the way, if you recall, the UFC dodged a major bullet because Shane Karwin was accused of taking some stuff afterwards, and that would have been bad. And then, of course,

Chal Sunnan, the following month. Remember that? Could have been two champions. Dodge two major bullets. So that was a lot of fun. Anyhow, let us go to the questions and comments now, New York, Rick. Are you there? I am here. There he is. New York Rick himself. Anything you want to add to today's show so far? What a show And a lot of Skype guests And it was pretty seamless I feel like it was a good show technically It was

You're proud about that It was Did the stream die thus far? Nope Wow That's a first in a while I'm proud of that Because you should be proud of that

The rundown was a little You know There were some things Moving pieces at the start of the show And we made it work And it was a tight show How should we feel about Gus of Sin not

Laying the cards out on the table Should we bother by that or do we respect the fact that he's an employee and he has to do what he's told? I respect that fact. All right. As a PR guy, I respect him. Oh, I know. Oh, wow.

We're starting off with WrestleMania. Let's keep pissing people off. You know, I just want to say, yes. To troll. I just want to say, you know what? Stop threatening. The beauty about this is this is my show. I can do whatever I want.

Now, I'm not going to stray too far off. There's always a connection. There's always a purpose. But if you don't want to watch, don't watch. I don't care. Like, I love with these people. people who threaten this is going to be the last, like they're in the comment section saying this is the last time

I'm listening, I don't care. I would add to that. I do care. Please continue to watch. No. But I don't care. If you can't, by the way, it's a three and a half hour show. I'd like to think there's something for everyone. This is true. If you get bothered by clear

connections to our sport, it doesn't always have to be so cut and dry. But the face of the UFC, the UFC's women's bandamweight champion was involved in a major angle. That's not an MMA story. Are you kidding me? Get out of here.

What's wrong with these people? Why can't they see the light? I love the idea of these people, by the way. I love the idea of them getting all hot under the car. How are we going to defend this? How are we going to argue against this now? Right? The purest.

What a joke. All right. All right, let's hop right into it. By the way, we have a lot of questions. Let's try and hit them pretty quick. Yes, yes, yes. your opinion on WrestleMania as a whole

you being a fan I'd like to know your all around opinion of WrestleMania well is it even fair to say at this point that you're a fan well okay

here's a thing and sometimes I get labeled as a fan but I was the biggest the biggest fan I think I've talked about this I used to I used to order

the Wednesday night TNA weekly pay per view I used to order this in college 999 a week a week there was a weekly

pay per view they didn't have a show they didn't have a TV deal so I had to order every single week. And I did. I was that big of a fan. Of course, I, I subscribed to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and all this stuff. And I loved it. I loved it. I used to sit in my basement with my toy ring and the LGN toys. And I would make cards. I would film it. I would make like 12 deep cards. And I would sit there and I make the matches. And I'd

play with that thing forever. Sadly, my mom got rid of it. Like the only thing my mom has gotten rid of for my childhood were these toys. I had like 50 of them. It was unbelievable. It was a great collection. Anyway, I loved it. I loved nothing more. In the first grade, my parents took me to the Montreal Forum for my birthday, and I saw Brett Hart go to a time limit draw with Mr. Perfect. I'll never forget it.

Anyhow, all this to say, I love that. I went to WrestleMania 18, blah, blah, blah. But when the Chris Banwa thing happened, it really turned me off. It really did. I felt really weird and dirty about the sport and or the form of entertainment. And then over time, when I really started to immerse myself, here's the biggest thing, when I really started to immerse myself in M. and this became a love and a passion and a job,

I got the same satisfaction out of MMA as I did in pro wrestling. It was the same thing except the unpredictability, the realness, the fact that it was unscripted. But the rest, the pageantry, the theatrics, the stories, all the same. I mean, there are stories this weekend. It may not be as clear to you, but there's a story with Chad Mendes and Ricardo Lamas and certainly ally Quinta. I mean, the guy's playing a character, for God's sakes.

So anyway, I get all that from my... so I haven't felt the need to get back into it, and I found it to be too long. There's too much time devoted to it, three hours on Mondays, two hours later in the week, and too many paper reviews, all this stuff. It's just no time. I'm father now. But I will say this, I will say this. As I said at the top of the show, and you can attest to this, right?

You can attest? I'm waiting for you to say it. Well, I mentioned it earlier. I got a text late last week that I must watch WrestleMania that as an MMA reporter, I need to be watching, right? I sent it to you. Can confirm. And I actually guessed Rhonda, but I didn't want to put it out there because I'm not in the guessing business. I'm in the reporting business.

I have to be 100%. And there she was. And it was amazing. And I ended up watching the whole thing because I didn't want to miss anything because I didn't know when this thing was happening. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not saying I'm going to watch tonight and tomorrow. I'm not going to say that. But I have a great amount of respect and appreciation for the form of entertainment.

And above all, above all, to end this little rant, above all, I am smart enough to recognize that MMA's roots are in pro wrestling. And to ignore that, to me, I think is silly and is elitist. And just because you don't like it, doesn't mean you can't recognize it. And so I recognize it and I like it. And by the way, let's look at the last three months. CM Punk is in the UFC. The UFC gave Brockluster a gigantic contract offer.

Ronda Rousey was in WrestleMania. I mean, what more do you? That's just in the last three months. If you haven't recognized by now that the lines are blurred and it's not such a bad thing, stop taking yourself so seriously. and enjoy it. And don't say that you have to watch it, but just stop fighting it.

I don't get the people who fight it. Don't say that you have to sit there and watch it and enjoy it, but stop fighting it. Just recognize it for God's sake. I'm going to have to stuff it down your throat, you maggots. Anyway, that was my sergeant slaughter.

My mom apologizing now for throwing out the toys. This is what you've done, making her feel bad. But overall, you enjoyed WrestleMania, fun? I enjoyed it very much. and in fact the, I'm still kind of buzzing over the Ronda-Ossie thing. That part wasn't that great to me. I don't know.

Rhonda feels a little stiff, a little... Well, give her a break. I mean, it was her debut. She was probably nervous. You didn't think the way it all played out with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H coming out and saying, thank you, thank you, thank you. It's all because of us. No, I like the scenario, the circumstance, all that stuff.

But the actual, like, trash talk back and forth wasn't... didn't do it for me. But I like the idea of, you know, the rock coming out and then grabbing his co-star from the, from ringside. That was pretty cool. Oh, and by the way, another great connection, Furious 7 opening this weekend. Yeah. They share the same agent, a major power player, a brilliant guy, Brad Slater.

I'm not saying that because he told me to. He's brilliant, very powerful. So I thought it was great. Let's transition right into the next question. Okay, okay. Ronda Rousey, could she have a future as a WWE performer? Does a potential working relationship with WWE? put her in a Brock style bargaining position in the future.

Yes and yes. Clearly she loves it. Clearly she's a fan. She was sitting there with her friends, four horsemen and all that stuff. She enjoys it. Even when she talks, listen to her. When she talks about Bech-Coheia,

she's like, oh, I like this. She's building a storyline. She gets it. She's smart. The smart people do it. And by the way, he may not admit it, but Connor gets it too.

He took the Vincent McMahon walk from Vince. He's amplified. He said it himself. He calls it the billionaire strut. It's great. So the ones who get it, get it. Look at chill. Look at the money he made it off of it. So the ones who get it, get it. And she does.

And I think that she would have a future. She's an incredible athlete. And I mean, look, maybe the deal doesn't get struck. Who knows what happens in the next 365 days. But they definitely did what they did last night to lead to a match. There's no doubt about it. And that match would be, I mean, I would be, I would be captivated. I may even want to go to the damn thing. If I'm Ronda Rousey and I'm looking at Brock Lesnar, I see this as a eventual career path. He's laying the foundation for...

Well, it's hard to do both, though, at the same time. That's the problem. Yeah, no. When she's done with the UFC... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You do the movies, you wrestle. I mean, she's still young. Brock Lesnar has many years.

You know, he did WWE first. Yeah. And then... Or wrestling first, and then came to UFC and then went back. But, I mean, if you're looking at this as Ronda Rouse, you have to think of this as a possible career path, especially with the UFC opening the UFC opening the UFC. the bank, breaking the bank for Brock Lesnar.

If you follow her on Instagram, she has posted videos of her doing matches with Chena Bazeler. She clearly has an appreciation and a love for it. I don't think she should leave UFC anytime soon. I think that would be silly because she's in the prime and she's kicking ass right now. But if she's able to dabble and if the UFC is on board with it, which clearly they are, I saw some reports saying that they didn't know about it. Are you kidding?

Do you think that Ronda Rousey? I mean, if you've listened to one, if you heard of them saying, one thing about their relationship with her is that she always runs things by them. That's like the first thing they always say about her, why they love working with her so much. They 100% knew about it. It had been in the works for months, according to Brad Slater, who told me that himself. That's a no-brainer. If she could pull that off, by the way, that's a huge platform.

I mean, tonight, let's say she's not going to be on Raw, but let's say they're talking about it. There's three million or so people watching. That's just a win for everyone involved. I do find it funny, though, that Vince McMahon wouldn't let CM Punk walk out with Chil Sunnan back at UFC on Fox a couple years ago, but yet he taps into Ronda Rousey to bring her to wrestling. He's okay with having the UFC guys on his show,

but he doesn't let his guys go on the UFC show. I feel like that part was a little more personal. I feel like they just didn't like C&Punk. That's the vibe I get from all this stuff, and he didn't seem to like them very much. It seemed a little contentious, so I think that was more of that. I mean, listen, I don't know anything about the situation,

but it just seemed like Ronda is a more willing partner in this case, especially because she doesn't work for them. Yeah. But anyway, I think that's it for wrestling. We're moving on to... No, I want more. I'm going to turn this into the wrestling hour. If you've tuned out, have your buddy who was keeping track, call you, because we're back to MMA.

Hey, by the way, no calls this week. We ran out of time. There's a technical issue with the 1-800 number. Oh, what happened? Somebody at the phone company's not handling business. They cut the line? They cut it off. They said no more.

After last week, they were like too good. We can't top that. Done. But what about the calls that, oh, you didn't make any? Yeah, what about the people that you called? The people that I called? Like on the show, the guess. Oh, the different line?

No, no, no. The 1-800 number. Oh, the 1-800 number. All right. Not our phone lines. Knowing the issue of cutting too much weight is becoming problematic, and we know that cyborg walks around at 175. Why would you ask her to cut 40 pounds?

Sounds like Rhonda wants a weakened cyborg. I think Rhonda could take Cyborg easily at 145. You know what I love about this, which I've heard before? Why do we always look at Cyborg's weight, her walking around weight, and we never look at Rhonda's weight? You think Rhonda walks around at 135? Just because she doesn't tweet a picture of her

standing on a scale and showing that number, and by the way, who knows if it was really her, but I'm assuming it was, you don't think that she's bigger than her fighting weight? I mean, just look at her. Every fighter is bigger than their fighting weight. So I think there's no debate, though, that Chris is the bigger fighter of the two. She's the bigger fighter.

But I hope that this conversation dies when, you know, the news came out last week that she has signed a contract with Zufa. Now, of course, if you're Zufa, you want her under contract because Belator has a 145-pound division, and so you don't want to let her go there. And it's in your best interest to have her under contract if she can make that 135-pound weight limit. but I have, have to believe that she has signed this deal with the intention of going down there because A, I'm pretty sure she wants to make money

and that's the money fight. Fighting Charmaine Tweet, with all due respect, isn't the money fight. Fighting in Invicta isn't the money fight. Fighting in the UFC against Ronner Rousey will be her biggest payday, at least at that point, who knows what happens afterwards. So that's the fight to make.

So that's why she signed the deal. She's making a lot more money than if she was, you know, under another contract. So why do people keep bringing that up? she signed the contract and the UFC isn't going to bring her over unless she makes 135. And as I said

on the show before that news came out, the summer she'll fight, then maybe one more time and then she's coming if she can make it. And of course they got George Lockhart to work with her and if George Lockhart tells us that she can make it and he has and Brian Stan as well, then I believe him. I think these are all just games. And I don't believe that it's Cyborg.

I'm sorry to say, I don't believe it's cyborg tweeting this stuff out. I just don't. Well, what I'd say about that is I don't think people are necessarily hung up on the number itself and more on the idea that we talk about, you know, people making these drastic weight cuts and this having to come to an end. Yet we're pushing very, you know, there seems to be a very hard push for this fight to happen. No one's pushing. I don't understand. Who's pushing?

She's the one that's going to gain from this. Not us. I'm not making money off of this. Sure. So who's pushing her? Well, no, nobody's pushing her, but there is a push for it. I mean, and look, if she can't do it, she can't do it. That's the bottom line on it. At the end of the day, if she can't physically make it, then the fight won't happen. But I think, I'm not, I'm not sure. I guess nobody's pushing. I guess nobody's pushing.

But no one's putting a gun to her head. And I know in the past they've done catch weights, you know, the special Hughes Gracie fight and all that stuff. But look, I love when people try to reason here. it's their company. They own it. The same way it may not make sense that they haven't signed Ben Ascran. It may not make sense that they say, look, we'll fight Gina Corana at 145, but we won't fight her. Maybe there's an issue there. Maybe they believe she was cheating in the past, and that's why she's bigger, and they want to see her sweat a little to get down, or they believe that she can do it at 135. But everyone who I've talked to involved in this situation truly believes that she can make 135.

And regardless of what you may think about Zufa, I don't believe that they're in the business of putting people in uncomfortable positions and forcing them to cut weight. In fact, lately they've shown that they'll force you to go up if you can't make the weight. So, look, if she can't make it, she's not going to be in the UFC, but they're not putting a gun to her and say, you must make that weight in the UFC. They're saying to make it out so that you feel comfortable when you make it in. I mean, I think they're doing it as well as they can.

I believe they wanted to make this fight a long time ago, but they couldn't. So this is the best way to do it right now. Let's see what happens. All right, let's move quickly. Did you see the stoppage because Joe Warren screamed out loud against Galvow? they were told backstage that this would be a verbal tap. Was this good refereeing? It was.

Big John is the best. He's 1A, 1B, in my opinion, if not just 1A period or just one. Yeah, him and Herb Dean, I think, would be considered the best. Oh, okay. I thought you were saying he's both 1A and 1B. I was what to say that's very high praise. Well, I think a lot of people would call him that as well. I think that if they do a rematch, which is very possible,

and they do it relatively soon within the next 365 days, Joe Warren, if he goes out and complains, and I don't think he's been very vocal about it since then. Perhaps cooler heads prevailed. He should thank Big John for this, because if he let that submission go on a little longer, he could have tore up his knee. He could have been in serious, serious pain.

He would have 100% sustained an injury. So he yelled, that has been, that is pretty commonplace, that if you yell like that, you will have the fight called off. And that's what happened. I thought it was a fine call. I don't like, you know, sometimes I feel like the celebrations in MMA need to change a little bit.

You know, I love the pageantry. I love all that, but it just feels weird some of these celebrations. Like they go on a little too long. You know what I mean? It's like, I don't, I'm not. Marcus Galvow's celebration. It's just like a little too much. Oh, I've got no problem with it.

I have no problem with it. But it always feels like it goes on too long. It's like Leandro Silva. It always feels, it just feels like. Well, we're talking about two different things here. No. One guy won a legitimate win for the belt. by submitting, you know, technical submission on the champion.

And he celebrated his butt off and there's no problem here. There's a difference between celebrating a crooked win where the guy didn't tap and you're, you know, claiming he tapped and all this stuff. That's a different scenario. Just in general, every time someone dances, or at least, like, when Anderson danced, remember, it was just a quick, like, strumming of the guitar and that was it. When Aldo dances, it's very quick. Some of these other guys just need to work on their dancing.

saying i want to see a whole routine i got no i got no issues with it corny i think the world tour for aldo mcgregor uh for the aldo mcgregor for the romegrey has been brilliant and doing the embedded series for it was a great idea however i can't help but feel once the tour is over there's a chance of ufc losing some momentum it has been building for this fight with it's still a few months away what do you think the ufc can do to continue all the momentum they have built up uh right up to the fight perhaps the return of the primetime series or something similar quick side note joe warren tweeted to Big John McCarthy on March 28th, so Saturday, a day after the fight, I watched the fight at John McCarthy M.M.M.A. I understand why you stopped it and appreciate you looking out for my best interest.

And then Big John replied to him, I only care about your safety. You're a stud brother. I understand you never want to stop. That's why you will always be a champion. So there you have it. Even Joe Warren himself agrees with it. As for this, I don't understand the people who are worried about oversaturating this feud. Why? Because the point of this whole thing, the point of the World Tour, the point of Embedded was to sell tickets, and they've done that. Fastest sellout, according to Dana White, $7 million gate, all this stuff. I mean, it served its purpose. In fact, they could have even stopped it short because it already served its purpose, but it continues to get better every step of the way. Did you see the last embedded? I did. I mean, that was so intense,

this stuff. And by the way, it's not the Connor McGregor show. Aldo is just as interesting. We'll talk about that later. Okay. It's just been great. And every step of the way, and I saw the stare down today, and it all culminates tomorrow and Ireland. I think it has been perfect. And the beauty of it is that it will end on March 31st. And then we have, what, four months and change? I think they go away. There are a ton of big fights before that. I don't think you need the prime time series at this point. There'll be enough content. There'll be enough interviews, all that stuff. It has been a home run. Now, they can't do it every time. It costs a lot of money. Even to live stream some of these press conferences, which they haven't done, it's very expensive.

It's around like $15,000. So think about all the money they poured into this. with the hotel and the flights and all that stuff, the private plane, they've really poured a lot, and they got a lot out of it. It ended up being a home run. So they're not going to do it all the time. But anyone complaining, I mean, again, you don't have to watch it all that. Don't be worried about this fight. Come fight week, July, we will feel the exact same way about this fight. And there's enough separation between now and then to where I think we'll not forget about it, but like, cool down a little bit, and then it'll ramp back up. It's, I mean, you can't, the dynamic between them, what's going on and embedded. It's all been a home run. It's been one of the,

best pieces of promotional material that the UFC has ever done, period. And I don't see any negatives. I think it has been a 100% home run. Can't wait for tomorrow in Dublin. Teddy Holder and the big Tiago Silva shock, it seems to have been overshadowed somewhat by other MMA events, but just how big a shock was it when Teddy Holder finished Tiago Silva? That is as big a surprise to me as I thought the return of Tiago Silva was. Your thoughts? Yeah, that was a very big deal. If you missed it, Matt Hamill was supposed to fight Tiago Silva both of their respective WSOF debuts, Hamill pulling out of the fight on fight night due to an illness.

So in comes Teddy Holder, who was fighting on the undercard, relatively unknown, hadn't fought in like 18 months or so, and finished Silva in a matter of a minute or so, around two minutes. It was a fun fight to watch. The whole card was a lot of fun. If you missed it, I suggest checking it out. He was rocked early, came back, finished him. And, you know, Tiago Silva had been through a lot in the last year or so.

From what I understand, he wasn't very cooperative. with interviews and just maybe wasn't in the right space. Sometimes when you're not fighting in the UFC, you don't take things as seriously. Who knows, not making any excuses. But that is a very big deal. And now all of a sudden, Teddy Holder is in the finals of the WSOF light heavyweight tournament. Now, I believe that you don't have to have a belt for every weight class, especially, I wish WSUF, they have a great 135-pound champion, a great 145, 155, 170, even 185, I think David

branch has done a very good job of reinventing himself. And I wish that they would take the WEC approach where they didn't have a belt for every division because, you know, sometimes just make fun fights. You don't need to water things down. They are finally in the discussion of can't Justin Gaichi hang in the UFC. Can Marlon Marais hang in the UFC? And that's half the battle right there. If your champions are irrelevant, then in essence, your promotion is irrelevant. And that's not the case. For all that you can say about WS, for all that you can argue about all you can complain, you can say that about them. Their champions are very much. that discussion. So Teddy Holder now in the finals, great for him. It's a great win. I don't know where

exactly Tiago Silva was at in his career, but it was a nice moment and we all like those Rocky stories. So more power to the guy. What is your advice to Phil Davis? Obviously, we don't know what his real options are right now as far as what deals may be on the table for him with the UFC and other organizations. But let's assume there are many that many options are there if an agreement could be made on the terms. Should Phil remain committed to making it work as a light heavyweight in the UFC and hoping that he can still somehow improve enough to be a real contender for the belt, maybe push for a short-term deal so he gets another chance to prove himself in hopes of gaining more leverage than he currently has for a better deal,

or should he look to take his talents to a different organization where he has a chance to be a big fish in a smaller pond? What about trying to move down to middleweight to see if this reduces the impact of his lack of striking ability in relation to the contenders in his division? Okay, so I'll be quick here. if he has the same offer on the table, it's a no-brainer, you go to the UFC, that's the major leagues, everyone wants to be in the UFC. And it was kind of a passing conversation, but I'll say that that was the impression I got from him when I saw him in Dallas. Now, if he is not being offered a deal by the UFC, if he's offered way less money, then of course you have to look elsewhere. But in short, if I can sum this up, I think that, yeah, if he gets a similar deal to the one that he's being, you know, in UFC as opposed to other places, which I'm sure are very interested in him. So I'll forget that he has the Zinken relationship, that, you know, they have a great relationship with Koker. And I'm sure WSF would be interested in them as well, especially with them trying to make this division a thing,

205, you still got to go with the UFC, I would think. NSAC drug testing policies, what were your thoughts on the recent NSAC meeting in which they discussed possible changes to their drug testing policies? I thought there were a few interesting points raised, including the possibility of changing fight results. to a loss for a fighter who fails a test instead of a no contest. What do you think the chances are of the disgust changes actually being implemented? I don't think you should do a loss. I think the thing was five and a half hours long, and poor Sean Al-Shadi had to sit there and listen to the whole thing and recap it.

I'd just love to see some consistency. At the end of the day, you know, Hector Lombard, $70,000 or so dollars he was fined, and they gave him a one-year suspension. Other people have gotten, you know, nine-month suspension and just like a $2,500 fine. I just want to see rules to where a guy knows, essentially, why does it have to be this sort of judge and jury situation? If you fail a test, your first time failing, this is what you're getting.

Why can't it just be that? Now, maybe we don't know the number, but it's a percentage, this percentage. You're losing 20%, 15%, and you're out for this amount. Like, why do we always have to have this, this song and dance, this production? Why can't it be like other sports where if you fail once, you get this, you fail twice, you get this, you fail twice, you get this, and end a story. Make it clean, make it easy. I know the sport is evolving. It's changing all that good stuff.

But I find that the inconsistency to be a little bit, I don't know, a bit of a head scratcher. Thoughts on Brendan Chob's move to light heavyweight? Any thoughts on Brendan Chob moving down to light heavyweight? Will he find success at 205? Any thoughts on some fun matchups for him? Tom Lawler? How about that? I don't know if he'll find success.

That remains to be seen. I'm always a little cautious of guys, especially big guys like him, going down to try to reinvent themselves. But I believe he's been doing it the right way. And he's been dieting and taking it seriously. So it's not just a drastic cut, did a sort of test cut, if you will. And it seems like he's doing it the right way. So that's always very interesting.

But, you know, sometimes greener pastures aren't in another division. But maybe he needs this change. Excuse me. 205 is very, very shallow these days. So who knows? All the best to him. Jason Thacker, Ariel. What are your thoughts on the M&B community's response to Chuck's outstanding piece on Jason Thacker?

The GoFundMe page is close to $8,000 as I take this. Wow. I didn't know that. If you haven't read Chuck Mindenhall's story on Jason Thacker, it's an unbelievable story. It's one of his very best. It's one that we had been working on for around a year and a half or so. We finally found him. I was always very fascinated by this guy as a Canadian and of course a longtime fan of the sport and Chuck nailed it. He found him. Just go read the story. It's amazing. And I think it's just a testament to something I've talked about on this show many times. This is truly a community. We use the word MMA community. We kind of throw it out there. But it really is. more so than any other sport. I can't see a lot of other fans. I should take that back. Buffalo Bills fan did this to Dowell Talley, four dollar tally, a great Buffalo Bills player who needed it. Sports fans are a special bunch, and they truly care for their heroes, and even a guy like Jason Thacker, who isn't necessarily a hero, but one of them. I think it's a beautiful thing, and hopefully he accepts the money and uses it, and it helps them out in any way. But if you

are listening to this and haven't read that story, when this show is done, down, read it because it's an amazing piece of work. Our final one from the website, Mendez versus Lomas ratings. How do you expect the ratings for this card will be affected, excuse me, affected if at all, by the earlier event time?

Would you like to see more early fight night cards in the future? Also, more importantly, what is the people's main event for Saturday? Oh. They suggest Mazvitao versus Ayakinta. Look at you asking a PME question. I like the early shows. I think it was smart not to go head to head

with the NCAA Final Four. It just gives a whole new wrinkle to the card. Yeah, why not? You know, I feel about those 1 a.m. and times. It is brutal at times. So I love it. And I would be very much in favor of it. Yeah, 100%.

PME, no doubt. Alejandro Aiaquinta against Mazvedal and they're back and forth. Yeah, I love that fight. I like the Kesa Clark fight. Obviously, the Pena return is great. There is really something for everyone. Porier back up to 155. It's a really nice card.

And it's a nice 10-fight card as well. I like that. I'm reading your emails now Should I stop reading? Oh, there we go As long as you don't read them out loud I don't really hit. Well, you're talking smack I saw.

What? Seemed like it. We'll talk after. This is a tough question here. Okay, first question from Twitter. Fight of the Weekend, Hideo Tokoro versus L.C. Davis or Justin Gaichi versus Luis Palomino.

I'm going to do what I always hate when people do this. I hate it, but I have to do it. I have to sit on the fence. I have to call it a tie. It was great. Gachi Palomino, you know, I do believe that there is something to be said for the people out there who are saying like, oh, Gachi's a little too wild. He's a little sloppy. He should use his wrestling more. He's definitely playing with fire, but man, does it result in some fun fights? And then Tokoro versus Elsie Davis came out of left field turned into such a fun back and forth, barn burner, went all over the place. both of them. If you missed either of them, go out of your way to watch them. I love when cards kind of sneak up on you and you're just sitting there watching and bam, just pure excitement comes about. I mean, I can't pick one. If I had, I don't know. It would be wrong to pick one. So I'm going to give it a tie.

Both them are great. And by the way, I thought both cards were really good. Our next question is anyone else loving the other side of Aldo we see on Embedded, funny guy, who knew? And this person is an Irish McGregor fan. I think a lot of us knew. Remember that, video of him shopping for his first suit. Of course. He was always a fun-loving guy, dancing around, jumping into the crowd.

It's just been great to see a little more of him, learn a little more, and just see the juxtaposition of their characters. Is boxing coach is the breakout star? The boxing coach is great. Just, you know, you saw how mad he was when Connor touched him. It wasn't a slap, but, you know, he did put his hands on him. And the way he's dealing with it, but getting a little more agitated, man, it's just, you know, again, it drives me nuts when people are trying to take

something away from Connor here because this is all his doing. Now, now, now, Aldo is stepping up to the plate and doing a great job himself, but this is the most talked about fight in the featherweight division, absolutely. One of the most talked about fights of all time now. It's doing very well, business-wise, and, you know, this wasn't happening before. So at least give the guy some credit. You may not like it, but give the guy some credit. Look what he's doing. And it's an interesting thing, because I could feel some people being like, you know, I'm getting tired of Connor. Like, I could feel the tides turning. There's a lot of emotions involved here. It's a lot of, it's a of fun. Hang on to that for a second. Do you think Aldo is going to get fed up and put his hands

on Connor before the tour is over? And should he? I don't think he will. I think there's one stop left. I think he's a pro. He recognizes he's the champion. I really don't think he will. I think that's crossing the line for him personally and he wouldn't do that now. Watch me eat my words tomorrow, but I really don't think he will. Now the atmosphere is going to be fantastic tomorrow. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be the most intense one by far. They're expecting like 2,500 people, but to answer the question, no, I don't think he will. This is the relevant question to what you were saying before. I'm a huge Connor fan, but his antics unembedded are leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Do you think he will start losing fans? I think his hardcore fans are going to be with him. I think some people might be feeling this way right now are going to forget about that. Come find out. They'll pick their guy. But what do you think? Is he losing you? You know how I felt already.

Yeah, but I was never really. But are you way off now? No, no, no, no. He hasn't done anything to turn you off even more. What is he done that's not something he would have done before? What's new that he's doing? Well, no, no, I don't feel that way. I think everything, honestly, I can't pick up one thing here.

It's just been all great. But you just see more of him. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We've had like eight embeddeds at this point. It's just more of the same. Connor McGregor just keeps doing the same thing. It's not like... But you can recognize his brilliance in what he's doing here, right?

My stance on this has not changed from day one. I think it's brilliant. I think it's gotten him a title shot when others may have had a better case and I think he's great at it it's not for me that's how I've always felt about it I'd much rather have something authentic

but certainly I mean you can't argue with the results he's on this tour because he's so popular and not only that he's taking it to I mean you saw in we're in New York and you know the people were just going nuts for him

Toronto it's not a big Irish community there they're going nuts for the guy people like him people like characters but I mean I do you get the sense that people are that he's losing fans because I don't know what he would have done now that he wouldn't have done before

that would make them previously a fan and now not it's just that we're seeing more of him but look this is this is a very small bubble that we live in this internet MMA bubble and much like the wrestling stuff you'll hear people are so you'll hear people other people complain about this. It's not a real thing because look at the ticket sales.

Look at the people trying to get tickets tomorrow in Dublin. Look at the people trying to get tickets to this fight in July. Look at the turnout. Did you see those pictures? I mean, in New York, I really thought there was going to be a riot. They were standing up. It was like the Jerry Springer show. Look at the turnout to this guy who's a featherweight who hasn't fought, you know, in the biggest of fights, who hasn't fought in many of these markets, who has no connection to these markets, going out, bang, bang, bang, and the turnout being amazing. The the numbers for Embedded being amazing. I think he's one of those guys who, even if you hate him, you can't help but watch him.

He's must-see TV. He really is. Does Connor McGregor improve the future pay for all fighters when he boasts about his purse to fight out, though? Now, let's be clear here. He didn't boast about it. I asked him about it, and I don't think he really, you know, he comes out talking about the money, but he doesn't talk about specifics unless asked. And even then, never said an exact number.

So let's be clear when we say boast. I think the draws are going to make their money. and I think a lot of draws in the past just haven't been 100% open or as honest with their money. You don't hear a lot of the top guys complain about their money. They're making a lot more than we are being told.

How much that is, whether it's enough, is another question. But I can assure you they're making a lot more than what we're being told. Our final question, who should Benson Henderson fight next? He was talking to Pettis, Anthony Pettis, Michael Johnson,

and Tyron Woodley over the weekend. This is Twitter. He went out to each one of them and said, I'll be your Huckleberry, so who is it? I don't like the Pettus fight. I want to see Pettus fight. Diaz. I like Woodley versus Hendricks. And so if we're going to pick from this trio, I think the Johnson fight makes sense.

However, however, I'd prefer him stick around at 170, at least for the next fight. Me too. Benson, don't do it yet. Don't ruin all that fun. Then it makes kind of the Brandon Thatch's thing sort of feel like nothing. Stay. On top of all that, international fight week, rapidly approaching.

The offer has been extended. Will he show up? Obviously not. How about you send Benson Henderson in a little tweet? No, a little tweet that says the same thing that he was saying to these guys. I've said enough. I talk to everybody involved. How about you, you know, come face me?

I've said enough. Are you scared? Me? I go to every event. I bring my shoes every event. I was in Dallas. I'm scared. I'm saying, send them the tweet.

Fire that tweet off. Is that what it is? Is that a signed contract? challenge him no i've done enough challenges it's time for him to come to me benson don't be scared don't be scared homie don't be scared

all right that does it that's it okay they're going to kill us we went over seven minutes so i apologize to the powers that be it has been another fun show you can hit my music guys and how about this if you're watching this live i'm going to be on the chad dukes show wjfk in washington dc

in eight minutes to talk a little more wrestling. How about that? So if you didn't get enough of it, and you're watching this live on Monday afternoon, I'll be on with my good pal, Chad Dukes, in around seven minutes from now. What a fun show. That was a lot of fun. A lot to digest, a lot to chew on, a lot to discuss. But we got through it and we enjoyed it. I want to thank Mr. Filthy Tom Lawler. Tom Lawler is ready to get back there. How about that? I kind of forgot about him as a fighter. Two years it's been. Two years.

Thank you to him. Great rundown. I love how you ran down the card. Like we were on live audio wrestling or something. Like I didn't need the whole breakdown of the card, but I appreciated the effort that he put into the whole thing. Thank you to Alexander Gustafson. Good luck against Glover de Chera.

No hard feelings that you didn't actually confirm the fight. Thank you to Todd Duffy and his advocate, Blake Bowman. That was very weird. Hopefully he gets the fight against Frank Muir. Thank you to Jamie Varner, honest stuff, and lightning stuff. I appreciate his time and all the best to him in retirement. Thank you to Chad Mendes. Good luck to him against Ricardo Llamas.

Thank you very much to Michael Bisping. Good luck to him. UFC 186. Let's be positive, friends. Montreal, I know it's not what we wanted, but let's try to embrace this and be positive. Thank you very much to Michael Keisa. Good luck to him this Saturday. And thank you very much to the mother of all whackpackers, Marianne from Brooklyn.

Ka! Kha! That was amazing. We'll see you next week. Enjoy your weekend. Until they say peace. Shaw Maria. Sacks 5th Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or the right outfit. Sacks is where you can find everything. From the perfect Chloe bag for your hard-to-shop-for-sister to a prodig jacket for a fancy holiday dinner.

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