MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 276

Episode Date: April 6, 2015

Featuring Forrest Griffin & Stephan Bonnar, Cat Zingano, Al Iaquinta, Julianna Pena, Jimi Manuwa, and John Gooden. 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, April 6th, 2015. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. It's another Monday, a beautiful Monday here in New York. I am in such a good mood, my friends. So excited for this week's episode. There's so much to discuss. There's a lot of excitement in the air here in the tri-state area.

Of course, the UFC is returning to New Jersey. Jersey in a little less than two weeks. April is a very busy month for the UFC. I had a tremendous weekend. I was back home in Montreal and I probably had one of the top five best days of my life on Saturday. I'll talk about that maybe if we have time later on in the show, but my spirits are very high. I'm very excited. In fact, I was probably supposed to be home right now in Montreal, but I decided to come back to New York to do this show and then I'm going back to rejoin my family. My son is on spring break. It's Passover. I hope you all had a great Passover at Easter weekend. I needed to do this show.

There's so much to discuss. We had a very busy weekend, of course, in the world of UFC and MMA combat sports in general. And I wouldn't let you guys be without a show when there's so much to talk about. And there's another UFC event this weekend as well in Poland. So what are we talking about? What's going on in the world of mixed martial arts? Of course, Chad Mendez coming off arguably his most impressive win in the UFC. I think you can make a very strong case for that. Fairfax, Virginia afternoon show. I said it was sneaky good on paper.

It delivered. It was a lot of fun. A lot of interesting developments. A lot of great performances. None bigger than Chad Mendez defeating Ricardo Lama. Ally Quinta with the controversial win over Jorge Mazvedal, of course, we'll talk about that. Clay Guida getting back on track. Giuliana Pena returning.

What a performance. emotional performance. There was certainly a lot to digest and we'll be doing that on this show. So what's going on? Well, as always, we'll be taking your questions and comments. I know there is a lot on your mind. So hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. Leave a question or comment in the comment section below. At 325, we have a fun inside the vault. So looking forward to that. This is one of the more memorable ones. And once again, very apropos. At 305, the aforementioned Venezuelan Vigson, Julianna Pena, will talk about her. much anticipated, long-awaited, successful return to the UFC on Saturday afternoon.

And we'll also talk about what's next for her. Ally Quinta stops by. What a post-fight interview that was. Wow. memorable to say the least. We'll see if he has calmed down since then. He stops by at 245. 225.

We'll talk to John Gooden, who gets the call this Saturday afternoon on FightPass for the UFC Fight Night Krakovia show, Headline, of course, by Miracle Krocop versus Gabriel Gonzaga 2. He is calling that show, as always, with Dan Hardy. Artem LeBov will stop by a 205. Not a household name just yet, but he was Connor McGregor's running mate during that world tour the last 10 days or so. I mean, it didn't finish up. Recently finished up last Tuesday. What a scene that was in Dublin. Holy moly, was that crazy? We'll talk about that as well. A lot of people have very, very passionate. Views on that and deferring views, but I think it was a home run all in all. And the gate and ticket sales would suggest that. At 1.45, we'll talk to Jimmy Manoa, who returns to action this Saturday in Poland.

Big fight for him, co-mate event. 125, we're going to talk to Forrest Griffin and Stefan Bonner at the same time. Would you believe it? This week marks the 10-year anniversary of their legendary fight, the fight that helped resurrect the UFC, the Tough One finale, April 9, 2005. we'll have them on together to reminisce. How about that? But first, let us go to the phone lines

and welcome in our first guest of the day. One of the very best fighters in the UFC's Women's Bantamweight Division. She just fought Rhonda Rousey and very thankful that she is taking out some minutes of her busy day to join us. I'm talking about Alpha Kat Zengano who joins us right now.

Kat, how are you? I'm good, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for joining us. So, of course, we haven't heard much from you since your fight at UFC 184, I know you were just on vacation. Has this been sort of your plan,

just kind of stay out of the line line? I know you're somewhat active on social media, but, you know, not a lot of noise, not a lot of interviews and things of that nature. Did you just need some time off? Yeah, you know, like I just really felt like the drawing a bit and kind of taking some time

to regroup and collect myself so I could, I guess, get back in there when I'm ready and when my mind's a little bit right. So, yeah, just, I guess taking some time off to get healthy right now. And we're, what, a month and a half removed from the fight? How do you feel mentally afterwards? Because, you know, looking at you, post-fight press conference, and understandably so,

you were obviously very disappointed with how things turned out. Yeah, I am disappointed. You know, I'm pretty fired up about how I performed and getting caught like that. And, you know what I mean? It was a huge opportunity. It was kind of like the perfect wave. and surfing, you know, and I wanted to catch it and do something amazing, and instead I flopped in the water, and, you know, that sucks.

But, you know, it's kind of a good slap in the face. It definitely caused me to want to regroup and regain composure and come back even stronger. So, you know, like I said, I'm fired up, and when time I'm right, I'm ready to go in there and fix it. Have you rewatch the fight? I think I watched it a couple days later, maybe once or twice, but I haven't watched it since, no. And the big thing is, is a lot of people wondering why you decided to rush her.

Was that really something that you decided in the spur of the moment, or was that always the game plan? No, you know, I walked into the cage, and, you know, I was kind of pacing there waiting for her to get in, and it just kind of came to me that, you know, I really wanted to get going and get it started as soon. is that door was shut. And, you know, there was something to be said about people saying I was a slow starter. And I guess I can't really, you know, I guess if I were going to define myself, I wouldn't call myself a slow starter. I'd say I'm a reckless starter.

And, you know, sometimes, you know, nine times out of ten, it works out for me. And I guess that small percentage of the time it doesn't. And, you know, I wouldn't change the thing about my approach. It was, you know, had it been a couple inches in other different direction, it could have gone a completely different way. So, you know, I'm continuing to stay true to myself. I'll always do the fight I am, and I'm really excited to get out there,

and, like I said, go fix this, get my redemption. So if given the opportunity again, you start the fight the same way? Yeah, you know, I mean, like, it's me. That's who I am. And going out there aggressive is nine times out of ten the way that I want to do it. Was that, though, you know, all those people who did say you were a slow starter, because that was one of the narratives going into that fight, did that maybe play, like, did you want to show those people wrong? And did they maybe get to you in that sense where you really felt like, I mean, yeah, you could say you are reckless and things like that to start, but we've never really seen you come out like that. I mean, you were like a runaway training. I mean, you just had one thing on your mind, you went full force. Did, in hindsight, did they maybe get to you in that respect?

Yeah, I think that was probably my biggest mistake was, you know, like really thinking about doing it for other people versus doing it for myself. Mm-hmm. You know, like I said, as long as I stay true to myself in this sport and this career, like, I'm unstoppable. And I felt like that was an unfair definition of me because I don't feel like I have a slow start. And, you know, for some reason I did. I let it get to me. And I was like, all right, well, watch this. literally and then that kind of slapped me in the face. I'm really glad I said that.

Go ahead, sorry. Yeah, so I just, you know, in retrospect, it's something that I want to have a lot more control over and definitely not like it's my head. Did you ever have a discussion with your coaches and say this is what I'm thinking? I think this is the best way of going about this. Did they know that you were going to do that to start the fight?

No, I mean, I know they know I'm impulsive. I know they know that, like, I go off with instincts and what I feel at the moment. And so, you know, they support me in that because, like I said, I usually pull it off. But this time around, I got caught, and it didn't work. So back to the drying bar, you know. I remember talking to you on the Thursday before the fight, and it was amazing how comfortable and confident you were. You have certainly come a long way as far as doing interviews and things of that nature.

But how were you, you know, Saturday afternoon in the locker room before the fight, title fight, all that stuff you've been waiting for this opportunity. Were you still the same confident, calm, cat that we saw at Media Day? Or was the moment maybe getting to you a little bit? No, I felt good. I probably felt almost a little too calm. You know, it was like the moment I've been thinking about and, you know, grinding for for the last two years was finally there.

And it was weird because I constantly thought about how I was going to feel, you know, what was it going to be like? And it was finally right there in my hand. and all the work was done, and it was just time to perform. And, you know, I was analyzing every breath, every step I took, you know, the warm-up, the changes, there was a lot going on that night, and definitely an intense energy for the event. So, yeah, it was interesting, for sure. You've never been in a position like that before, such a big fight.

Did you at least enjoy the ride? I mean, I know the ending didn't go as planned, but you really had to put your out there and talk about your life and you know you're being followed and so many interviews and things like that was it a fun process for you um you know being kind of a private person it was a bit overwhelming but I have to say that I'm really grateful for for everything even though you know it was kind of an avalanche of attention and and things that were I guess abnormal for me during a camp especially getting ready for such a big fight but one thing that I can take from it is that it's all experience that I can put

to my book of life lessons. You know, next time I'll be in this situation because I plan on being at the top, you know, and fighting for that title, you know, whenever I can. I'll know what it's like to have been in all these interviews. I'll know what it's like to have such, you know, a huge following camera spans, fans, everybody around. The fact that I had to talk so much about my deep personal things,

you know, that was really hard for me, But on one level it was, I don't know, kind of therapeutic because I got to get things out and kind of, you know, get some things off my chest that I didn't even realize we're going to be helpful to share with people. And there's a lot of people I feel like I could touch and inspire. And I really didn't even know that that was the case and that felt good to me. So, you know, it's all a lot of experience that I'm glad I got. And I think that next time I fight for this kind of situation in place that I'll have, you know, it'll be easier because I'll know what it's like. That was actually my next question. I was wondering if people have reached out to you with heartfelt messages, you know, even in the lead-up and afterwards, people who have had similar, you know, experiences as you know, experiences as you and have been through the same kind of things.

I mean, do you view yourself maybe more so than ever as a role model to these people when before you're starting? out, you're just trying to make a name for yourself in this business. You're just trying to, you know, make some money for your family and all that stuff. But now you're on that platform where you're not only, you know, you're not only just a great fighter. I mean, you're, you're a contender in the women's division in this era where women's MMA is more popular than ever. You are being treated as serious role models to young girls. Did you ever imagine this and, and has that happened? And are you comfortable in that role? I'm very comfortable in that role. You know, like, one of the things that I like to do is,

is be helpful in any manner, you know. And although I know in the last couple years with the given stresses that I've had, you know, I've kind of, you know, gone into my shell, but in the only way that I've been able to help and, you know, I guess contribute to society in these ways that, you know, are things that I've gone through is through my actions and trying to continue that forward momentum and trying to be strong and show people,

ways to get through things and ways I can get through things and hopefully be inspiring and to see that that was the case and to hear that that was the case is you know it's a reward all in itself you know and I'm happy to do it and I'm happy to you know be there for people that have reached out and you know it's motivating for me to continue to be something that you know can hopefully help somebody someday it was kind of tough to watch the the post-fight interview with you Joe Rogan just because you were obviously very disappointed. How hard was that for you to do to be,

you know, handed the live mic in this crowd that's going crazy because of what just happened and you're, it literally seemed like you were trying to process the whole thing, but also not blow up in the moment. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, it was really intense and I couldn't believe what just it happened, you know, and it was hard because in any kind of sport that I've done, you know, you go and you compete and if you choke you fail like that you know you have an opportunity relatively soon that you can go fix it you know in tournament the next weekend or or something you know and and um or more matches or whatever and it was just so fast and so final and you know a huge part of me was just like okay fine she won but let's let's fight so we can really still see what

what happened you know like like i just i just trained really hard for that and i i i i fought emotionally and physically, you know, very hard to get to that point for it to be over that fast. And I know I'm capable of much more than that, and that says nothing to my potential. So, you know, it was just, it was really hard to kind of grasp what was going on and to put words to it. You know, I felt like I don't, I don't even know. I still don't even know. I'm still just fired up about it. And I just want to do what I need to do right now to get my mind right and go back in and fix all this, you know. Now that the dust is starting to settle a little bit,

is it possible that this was the best case scenario if you had to lose? If you had to lose that fight, because it was so freakish, it was so fast, as opposed to losing like a three or four or five round dominant, you know, one-sided loss to her, like we've seen in other title fights here, you can strongly make the case that you do something a little different. I mean, this is 14 seconds. It's very possible that things could go different the next. time and it happens so quickly that it leaves that door open to wondering, well, what happens

if the fight goes two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, et cetera? Do you feel like if you can sit back and try to find a silver lining that if you had to lose, this was the best case scenario? Do you get what I'm trying to say? Yeah, I mean, on one hand, it's like, all right, if I'm going to have my first boss in in MMA as a professional, yeah, to have it be to the world champion in a world title contention, you know, yeah, that's not horrible to be, to have to lose that quickly. Yeah, that's horrible. That feels terrible.

But I also know that, you know, being a competitor in these types of sports, like, you get caught. Like, it happens, and it just sucks. And to have it happen that fast just sucks. But I also know, like, and I think she knows, and I think all of our coaches collectively know and the promotion knows, like, you know, that 99 times out of a thousand that that wouldn't happen again. And I think that sets us up for a really good fight. Should they give a rematch sometime soon? You know, and I'll do whatever it takes to get to that point.

You know, I feel like it was, it's not a fluke. You know, Rhonda's very good, and she caught that arm, and that's what happened. But, you know, I'm a better athlete than what that showed of me. and I want to fix it. It's set up for, I don't know, it was a good investment. Everything that I did to get ready for the fight was a good investment for everyone and everything involved. I just want to get in there and do it again.

What did she say to you after the fight? There's a great picture of both of you embracing your forehead to forehead. Did she say anything at all to you in that moment? She said we can do it again. That was pretty much. Yeah, she was like, we can do it again. if you want, you know, and of course I want the course I want, you know. Your manager, Ed Sora, has told me that afterwards you were right away saying, I need to get

back in there, give me the number one person, you know, you even said that at the press conference, you were obviously upset, but you seem like you wanted to rip someone's head off. Is that, is that accurate? Is that what you said backstage upon returning? Yeah, you know, I mean, I just, that, yeah, yeah, it really was. It was just about, you know, I feel like I didn't get a fight. You know, I feel like I did all this work and went through so much over a special long creative time to get in there and not even get a fight. And I don't know.

I want to be where I plan on being, and I know I have everything it takes to be champion, and I just want the opportunity, and I'll do whatever it takes to get there. Have you had that discussion or your management team? have they started to talk about what could be next for you? No, I've told them, you know, like I said, I really need to just focus on a lot of personal stuff right now and get through and get, you know, emotionally and physically healthy with some things that I've been putting off. And I plan on talking about it pretty soon, but right now I really need to focus on, you know, the mental aspect of things and just coming back stronger.

And, you know, I pushed the bar a lot with these last couple fights, just, you know, trying to make everything work the best I could for the given situation. And this is kind of a slap in the face and tell me to slow down, take a minute, get myself together, and come back to a fighter that I can be, not the one I'm forcing at the moment, you know. What was it like when you went back home and reunited with your son? It was amazing. You know, actually, I didn't know what it was going to be like.

I felt sad. I was embarrassed, you know. But I think it was honestly a good thing for him to see me lose because, you know, he's in his, you know, a live life I've been winning at pretty much everything, you know, and he thinks that winning comes easy. And for him to see me lose, you know, it was, it was good for him, I guess, you know, in a weird roundabout way. I got back and he was in a wrestling tournament. and I made it to the final matches of the tournament and I got there and he was wrestling so hard and these matches were really intense

and he came up and gave me this huge hug but he was very focused that day and when he placed he ended up getting third place in this tournament we went and we got his trophy and he came up and he gave me this huge hug and he goes mom I did that I did all these matches I won my matches for you

I was just like oh my God he gets it like he gets why I do this he gets, he understands why all the hard work, why all the long hours, why the dieting, why the whatever is because of my love and support and wanting to provide for him. And granted, it's different. He's a kid and that's not his responsibility to do all that for me. But he understood the honor and the dedication and commitment that goes into, you know, hiding for something in someone you love.

Yeah. And that meant everything to me. I made it all the way. Sorry to interrupt you. You tweeted a beautiful picture of him on your shoulder with the trophy on March 2nd that I think a lot of people can relate to if you're a parent or something, but just for you to tweet that out and have that moment with him in that moment was, I'm sure that that's probably the best medicine that you could have received

after a heartbreaking defeat, right? Yeah, I mean, it made everything okay immediately. It was, this is great. And you just returned from a trip. Did that help heal you a little bit, at least mentally? Yeah, we went out there and I ate just pretty much everything inside is wonderful. We played on the beach. We snorkeled.

We did a bunch of activities that, you know, we're super relaxing and fun and calming. And it was a much-needed vacation, one that we haven't had the opportunity to take for a long time. and, you know, it was really good and very, yeah, very relaxing. In your mind, how long do you think you'll need before you're ready to return? You know, when I know you'll know, trust me, I'm on fire about this, and I want to get there as soon as I can. So as soon as I'm ready to go, it'll be common knowledge right away, I promise. Fair enough.

By the way, I just wanted to ask you, there was somewhat of a comical moment before your fight where you were, you knew you were getting undressed, you were in that moment where they check you the refs, and you took off your hat and you whipped it into the crowd, and it looked like you were whipping it at Connor McGregor who was sitting in the front row. Do you have some kind of beef with the notorious one? No, but that was pretty funny. I think the next time I'll try to throw at him again. Was that just a coincidence? It was a coincidence. I don't have that much going on other than the fight while I'm walking out to a fight. I actually, I tried to just launch the hat into the crowd, but the camera was too close to me, and I hit the camera with my arm,

and it ended up just kind of flinging it at him, so that's pretty awesome. Have you seen the clip of him trying to dodge it? No, I haven't yet. It's pretty funny, and he's proud of the fact that he claims he slipped the hat, but that clip has been shared everywhere, and I actually spoke to him about the fight just a few days later and he had very nice things to say about you. I don't know if you've seen that as well. But it may be a lighter moment in that in that whole evening that I'm sure is one that you'd like to forget you trying to take out the number one contender in the featherweight division. I think a lot of people were on your side.

A lot of his haters might have liked you doing that. That's awesome. Well, Kat, I just want to thank you for the time. I know it's probably not the best topic to discuss and you're just coming off of a trip and now here I am trying to bring it all back. But I really appreciate it. And you've handled it all like a class act as everyone expected. Looking forward very much to your return.

All the best to you. And again, thank you for coming on the show today to talk about it. Yeah, thanks. How a good day. Same to you. There she is. Katzen Gano. Still, in my opinion, a top contender in the UFC's Women's Bantamweight Division.

And like I said to her, not just saying it to her, because the fight ended so quickly and you can make the same case for the Sam McMahon fight, although this one was even shorter, there's still that door that, in my opinion, is pretty wide open. I still think that if you win one, two more fights, you're right back there. And I think a lot of people are picking Ronda to defeat Bechkoheya, and then, of course, there's the cyborg fight lingering. But one or two more performances, dominant performances, wins like she had against Amanda Nunes and Misha Tate. And not to say that those were 100% dominant or one-sided, but ones that inspired and got people excited, I really think we'll get a right

back in that same position. That fight was so quick, it received so much attention that it's not one of those where I think you fall all the way down the ladder. My opinion. Thank you very much to her. I really appreciate it. She is certainly a role model and want to look up to. All right, let's move along. On Thursday, guys, it is a very special anniversary. One of the most important ones in the history of our sport. April 9th, 2005, arguably one of the most important fights in the history of mixed martial arts, and that is no hyperbole, certainly in the history of the UFC, the Ultimate Fighter One finale, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Of course, by now, if you're watching this show, if you're listening to it, you know what

happened. It was Forrest Griffin versus Stefan Bonner, one of the best fights of all time, and so important as Dana White, Lorenzo Furtita, and everyone involved in the UFC have discussed on many occasions, so important for revitalizing, resurrecting the UFC after that first season, a lot of unknowns, and it kicked everything off. I actually had the pleasure of re-watching it this morning on Fight Pass, and the emotion involved, and the heart and the grit and the determination is outstanding. It's something you rarely see in sporting events. And since it is the 10th, 10-year anniversary this Thursday, April 9th, I thought it would be wonderful to have both men on, two of the most important figures in the history of the UFC on together to reminisce about this fight

in this moment and what it meant for them and of course the sport. So I am honored now to welcome in both Forrest Griffin who won that fight and the contract and his opponent, the man he'll be linked to forever that night, Stefan Bonner, who didn't win the fight but also won the contract. They're joining us right now via the phone. Forrest, are you there? I am here. What's happening? Stefan, are you there? I'm here. Wow. This is great. Thank you so much, guys, for doing it and congratulations on this anniversary for us. Let's start with you. Is it surreal to think that it's been 10 years? Does it feel like

it's been 10 years? Less or more? I would definitely feel like it's been 10 years. Yeah, I like for you got that UFC Fight Pass in there. I was just going to say, you can watch it every day on UFC Fight Pass. What a company man. Yeah, no, it's

yeah, it's definitely been 10 years. When's the last time? Maybe 11. Maybe somebody counted wrong. I don't know. Maybe it was a leap to you in there. No, no, no. It's actually 10 years. When's the last time you watched it for us? Probably Colonna British Columbia, right? What's that?

Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah. Colonna, absolutely. Yeah. But I don't remember that. That didn't end well for me. What's that, Stefan? What are you talking about? Colonna. It was an appearance we did. Okay.

They showed the fight at a comedy club. Or no, it turned into it. Yeah, it was a comedy club. And then we got up there and Forrest just started sucking down line. and really has a pretty good stand-up routine. But he's got to have a couple bottles of wine in him first, but it's really good, really funny. Yep, yep, a couple bottles of wine,

and then proffeywood was over. I went and vomited repeatedly. Wow. I figured you to be a guy who can handle your alcohol better. Stefan, what about you? What's it like for you to watch that? I mean, because at the end of the day, you did lose that fight,

although no one almost really remembers that because you both won the contract, and it's held in such high regard. guard, but is it hard for you? Because I think deep down inside, you thought you won the fight, right? No, I know it was close. I knew it could have went either way. So, yeah, I mean, he won, and I mean, I couldn't have picked a better guy to lose, too. Very well said. Okay, so I want to go back to that moment. I want to reminisce the whole thing, because again, like I said, I, I, I rewatch it this morning, and what a trip down memory lane it is. Stefan, let's start with you. What was it like backstage?

Did you understand what was at stake here other than the contract? Did you know? know that perhaps the future of the UFC on spike, the future of the sport, all this stuff that is being talked about 10 years later, did you know that it was that important to the company in the sport or in your mind were you just trying to win a fight? Yeah, I just can try to go in there and put on a show and win a fight backstage. I remember Dana coming up to me, congratulate me. I just remember I really had to go to the bathroom, and I was in the stall, and all of a sudden someone sounded out of the door, fighters started shit, pound, pound, pound, fighters go out of

shit, blah, blah, pa. I'm like Diego on the fighter, too. And Diego's trying to bust in there. That's your memory of backstage before the fight? Yeah. I mean, that sounds about right. That sounds about right. That sounds about, yeah.

What about you, Forrest? Anything that you remember in the moments leading up to the fight? What were you thinking? Yeah, I was in, me and Tim Florian, we're in the locker together. So I'll always, the last thing I remember is Dana comes and says, hey, if it's close, we've got to have a winner

because of the contract so there'll be a three-minute overtime round. So, like, when the fight ends, both of us go back to our corner and, like, okay, overtime round. You thought it was going into sudden death? Yes, I thought, like, sudden death. Not even sudden victory.

Yeah, death. Yeah, I did, too. That's why he first came and hugged me, and I was like, hey, wait, no hugged just yet. Yeah, we're not there. We've got where to go here. And then, like, it clearly. I saw my corner come in and like usher me to the chair and I was like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

Forrest, you mentioned that you were in the locker room with Kenny. He had just lost to Diego in the final. So technically Diego is the first ever ultimate fighter winner, although I think a lot of people remember it as you. Did that kind of mess with you at all? I mean, you were in the locker room with the guy who had just lost in the same kind of tournament? I have always hated that. It kills the vibe, man. You know, it is so, it's rough, you know.

Yeah, it's worse than killing a vibe, and then a condom rips is horrible. What about for you, Stefan? You were there with Diego, so did that up your vibe a little bit? Oh, yeah. I mean, being in the same locker room, Diego really gets you pumped up, you know? He's banging his head against the wall

and punching himself in the face. Yeah, got me going. And so when he walked back as the winner, did you have a moment with him or at that point were you locked in? Yeah, I locked in. I didn't even remember I'm coming back. So you guys walk out and it's amazing

looking back because you see a lot of celebrities for 2005 UFC. I see Kevin James there, Michael Clark Duncan. There are a bunch of other people that I noticed in the crowd. What was the atmosphere like in the arena or in the venue for us? Did it feel like, I mean,

it wasn't the show obviously because there was no one there, but did it feel like anything you had ever experienced in your MMA career at that point? Not really. It was bigger than anything. You know, I'd fought in bigger arenas. It was a cost of a village.

I'd fought in bigger places. But, you know, because of the way it is, it's actually kind of small and it was, you know, densely packed. It was a great venue. What about for you,

Stefan? Had you ever experienced anything in that moment, did it get to you at all? No, yeah, that was the biggest show I had fought in at that point. It was,

Yeah, it was pretty surreal. I'd say that. And, you know, coming out to that arena, I think during the second row, and everyone started stopping their feet, and the place was shaken. Yeah. I'd say that in the fight in Machita and Jungle Fight were two of the most memorable venues for me. And great call for us. Great memory.

It was, in fact, the Cox Pavilion. The host hotel was the Hard Rock, but the fight took place at Cox. Do you recall, Stefan, that Bruce Buffer mispronounce your name, both times before and after the fight, he kept calling you Stephen Bonner? Yeah, that's all right. I mean, I don't mind that. You know, he threw an American cycle in there.

Sure. Thanks to Charles Lewis, he came at. I was like, don't piss the guy off. If I'm going to fight him, don't piss the guy off. Right, come on, man, you know? You remember this. Let's, like, make him happy.

Let's relax him, you know? Could he have, like, a very, like, passive McMahon? Like, you know, the American quilter. Forrest, did you guys have this great relationship on the show and during the lead-up to the fight when you were off the show, or did it only develop after what you experienced together in the cage? Yeah, we didn't really socialize on the show at all or even after, you know? I sized up the two or three biggest threats right away. I knew he was the guy, you know. And so, you know, why get close to the guy if you know.

And he's on the other team. You know, at some point you're going to end up fighting him. Mike, you know, we sort of like clung to the people we either had already fought or didn't think we'd fight, you know, different with the classes. So, Stefan, you look back at the... Yeah, we got up. Go ahead. We got close there after that fight. After that fight, you know, the sport blew up and they sent us around and we did a lot of PR together.

But we were always, like... Yeah, even in the emergency room that night, you know. Yeah. My wife went out as Delta. Yeah. are. Yeah, getting stitched up together.

Wait, what was that? Did you guys actually share the hospital room together? Yeah, we did. That's amazing. I don't know if I ever knew that. He was like, you know, he was like two over, so I just walked over.

I was like, hey, man, what's up? Are you doing what you got? I was like, dude, you messed my nose up. Was it broken? You know, I don't know how broke. Everybody's like, I got a broken nose. Here's what I know.

I have a bump on my nose that was not there before. Like there's a big knot in my nose that was never there before that day. So I'm assuming that's what a broken nose is. Stefan, did you hold, you know,

you guys were friendly afterwards, but did you hold any resentment? I mean, you just lost the fight, you got the contract, but you wanted that W as well. Was it tough for you to swallow in the moment? No.

I mean, you know, all you could do is go in there and give it your best, and that's what I did. And, you know, I was genuinely happy for him.

You fought a great, fight and I even said that right afterwards. It's like, man, I'm so happy for you. Like, fucking way to push through it, you know, because I knew in that second you know, I had him hurt and he made it through and he won the third.

Forrest, what was going through your mind in between the first and second round? Because in particular in the second, even the announcers were noting this, you seemed tired. They were saying that you were gassing out, you couldn't lift your arms. Oh, I absolutely gassed. I have some mood. was just I was done in that second round. Like, I felt great the first round.

I felt sharp. I felt quick. And then, you know, I always tell the tail. Like, when I'm talking to somebody, you know, I kind of went for that arm bar at the end of the first round. Yes. And I made the biggest mistake. I didn't, I spent a lot of energy and quit breathing when I was going for it because I was, you know, I was like, oh, hey, I can just get the songbar. And then I didn't get up off the mat right away.

I laid on the mat for about 20 seconds. So when I sat on the stool, it felt. to me like, you know, I only had 30 seconds on the stool. So it felt to me like, I basically sat down and I like, okay, next round. I was like, no wait, wait, wait, wait, I didn't get my break. And, you know, it's kind of like, well, for us, you decided to lay on the canvas for 20 seconds. And I was like, oh, my God, where, what are you? So I just needed a minute. So the stoppage for blood was the best thing that happened to me. That's right. That was so gas. You know, I just, like, you know, I was just like, all right, I'm going to take this off my face.

take this off my face, too, and I don't take this off my face. You know, I was lucky I got that takedown, and when I was from the top, it just started pouring blood on Stefan and the record. We got to do something about that. Stefan, did you notice

he was that tired, and when they stopped it to check his cut, were you disappointed that he was essentially getting a chance to recuperate? No, really, I felt good up until I think it was after that, yeah, we start fighting again, and And I got a little break, too.

It's like, I started letting my hands go. I remember hitting them with a knee and a nice right hand. And then I got really excited, like, oh, I got him. I got him. And I jumped in with a right hand miss. And he tied me up. And I was just thinking, keep my arms loose finish them. And I wiggle the way.

And once I broke loose from that, then it hit me that I would cast out too. So, yeah, at that point, it was just so I was done. You were tired You were equally as tired I mean he gasped Maybe like a minute or so before me Okay You know

So I felt good I knew he was gas And then I tried to put him away And I didn't And he tied me up I got loose And then all of a sudden He jacked himself

Pryding me That's how you do it Goal buggy bunny Strategy A little bit Before you get exhausted Forrested On the broadcast

They mentioned That you had put everything that you owned in 8 by 10 storage unit. What did they mean by that? Like, you had to move out and you had nowhere to live leading up to this fight? Well, I just moved from Augusta back to Athens to being there better training to train the hardcore gym. And I put all my stuff in a storage unit that I never paid the fee on.

So if you ever see a bunch of 2004 cop stuff and some baseball cards, those are mine on that, you know, the auction thing. Yeah. So I just, like, never paid the storage. And then by the time I had enough money to pay the storage, I was like, man, you know, that stuff's not even worth it as much as it would cost you to get it out of storage. I just think it just keep it. So you never got it back? No.

I mean, there was a couple of flashlights, you know. Yeah. But nothing good. I'm surprised I never popped up on eBay or something like that, Forrest Griffin's stuff before the tough one finale. You know, when they would do those storage wars, I would watch and like, come on, be my stuff. Are they doing one in Augusta, Georgia? There's not a still-life storage war on Augusta, Georgia.

Stefan, when the fight is over, and you guys are both covered in blood, and you're tired as hell, and the place is going nuts, what's going through your mind? Do you sincerely believe that you had done enough to win that fight? I mean, I thought, honestly, I knew it was close, so I knew it was just kind of a toss-up,

and, you know, I thought there's a chance I could get the nod, and uh you know and then when he didn't when he got the nod uh it was just like um i can't even say was that disappointed i just put everything into it and it was kind of like uh oh gosh and uh you know and i went down kind of just because i was so tired i gave up my all but uh yeah i wasn't better about it that's how close fights go you know someone someone gets the not in the back of your mind did you think there was a chance at all that you could get a contract as well if you just have a great fight? Because now, you know, it seems like we didn't know what to expect from that finale. Now, you know, if you just have a solid run on the show, you're getting some kind of contract.

But what did you think? Honestly, at that point, it was like, in my mind it was like, you know, the winner goes on to fight in the UFC and gets the contract, you know? As far as I was concerned, when I lost a decision, my mind, I was like, okay, well, hey. And now what am I going to do with my life, you know? this was a good experience. I had fun, but, you know, time to move on. And, yeah, I really was kind of, you know, thinking about, you know, what I was going to do next outside of fighting.

Yeah, I kind of caught me by surprise. I really didn't. You got to look at it in terms of 2004, 2005. Yeah. There's only 20 guys in the UFC at that way. There's only two to three UFCs a year. So if you're not one of the main guys in USC, you're not making a living doing it, you know. know, there's only, you know, it's like Chuck, you know, he only defend his title like five times.

You know, there's only like eight fights during his run, you know, there's only two fights a year, three fights a year. So it wasn't like everybody could just make a living fight in the UFC. So you were thinking the same thing for us. You thought it was do or die for you? Yeah, well, I mean, you know, actually after the fight, I knew that, like, they'd want me back no matter what, win or lose. I was like, yeah, they're going to want me to do that again. Do you recall the crowd booing and yelling bullshit, bullshit? They weren't happy.

I don't remember that. I watched it today, and I was like, wow, the crowd was actually pretty upset with the decision. Do you remember that for us? Not at all. I don't remember that at all. Really? I don't remember that. Yes, go to fightpass.com, UFC Fightpass.com, another cheap plug.

And rewatch the ending. It's unbelievable. They were actually chanting. It's audible bullshit, bullshit, and booing. I don't remember that. I just... That was probably just my... brother and my best friend actually.

It was pretty loud. His brothers, his brothers were by the cab, but they were like, that's crazy talk. I remember, like, I remember coming out

and like everybody, like, one of the first times of my life, like, people like rushed forward, like, to hug me and like, you know,

I just remember a guy handing me a beer. And I was, oh, thanks, bro, I just gave it back. I'm like, all right. Okay.

No drink beer before classified drug test. Got it. Stefan, what about, do you remember this? Do you remember Bruce Buffer kind of waxing poetic saying, like, you have just witness stuff he never does now?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, whoa. That's pretty cool coming from. Yeah, it was like, it said something to the terms of like, yeah,

just witnessed like the most exciting action ever and say, I was like, oh, are you sure, man? That Patriot, Hissot-Couture fight was pretty awesome. It's really funny because he never does that sort of thing now, of course. No, it's a different audience. It's a different market. It's tighter.

It's for time, you know. It's a tighter show. It's the one's on TV. You know, we're going to wax this down to about a bygone air. You know, and that was really cool. He did that. You know, it made the event that much better. you know, I was fired up.

And to take it one step further, I mean, even when Dana announced that Stefan was also getting the contract, you know, Bruce is in the back cheering, everyone, it was almost like this family event. Like you guys were at, you know, one of those like softball games and everyone was rooting for you. There's something you never see now, of course, but it was like they all had been through it, you know, the struggles and here they are. And in their mind, they knew, wow, something special just happened. It's very surreal to rewatch it because even, you know, Dana is so young and he's all, Dana's doing the post-fight interview.

Rogan didn't even do it. Do you remember that? it felt very familial, if you know what I'm saying. Not that you know... Well, Rogan interviewed us. Rogan interviewed us, but then Rogan interviewed Dan. Are you sure? Because I just re-watched it,

and there's no, unless they cut it out, there's no Rogan interview. Yeah, they must have cut it out. He did interview me. That's weird. Yeah, because he, I remember him having the mic, and I remember saying just a couple things. Like, it's a like, I love you, Dandria, and we're going to

walk around like she'll ugly at so bees now. But yeah, that was when I told the mic from Rogan said that. Yeah, I don't think he actually asked me anything. I just grabbed the bike. Yeah, it's a good fight. You know, it's a good fight. Like, when the guy comes in, and before he can ask a question, you start talking.

You're like, hey, right, yeah, yeah. You know, he's trying to ask a question. You're like, no, do that, do you do that, bye. Forrest, you got a sion, and you also got a watch from the jewelers of Las Vegas, which you then promptly went. gave it to you, you said I could pawn this. That's what Stefan won't tell you. He actually isn't out of the time.

He did need a car, but we were both in dire need of a car, too. So you were excited about that. I needed a car at that point. My car was junk, and it was also like a property of a tow yard, and I had to pay a bunch to get it out. It wasn't even worth that money. I was really hoping for a car. Forrest, did you actually pawn the watch? Because you said that, and it was very audible. No, I never did. Okay. I can not wear it.

No, I just got it, like, clean and got a new band for it, and now I wear it. You know, when you're working out three times, the jewelry has no purpose. But now, you know, now it's like, hey, you know, wear a nice watch. Wait, you actually have the watch? You still have it? I have the watch. I have the scion.

Wow. There was a dirt bike, I think. A little like a mini bike. Somebody stole that out of my parents' garage. I think, I don't know. Yes, yes. Dana said to you, when he gave you the bike, please don't ride this thing.

Did you ever ride it? No, I never did. I never saw it. It was like your mini-bikes anyway. Yeah. I've never saw it, so I don't even know. Stefan, how are you going to celebrate April night this Thursday? Are you going to do anything to commemorate this moment?

This changed your life. Yeah, I'm probably going to egg for his house or something. Yeah. Key his eye on. When's the last time? You keep my thigh on. It's got like 300,000 miles on it. I'll buy it off you now.

When's the last time you guys hung out? We could share it. We could share it. I just got to get a new windshield. I can't, I haven't paid my, uh, my fees on it. I'm going to get a new windshield in a new time. When's the last time you guys hung out with each other? Uh, we had a United Nissan commercial like a week ago or less.

What kind of commercial? United Nissan. Oh, wow. The car? Yeah. Like a car, yeah. Like the car. This is a national commercial or just for Vegas?

Just for a Vegas. Uh, local. Okay, wow. Yeah, so we've been shooting those now. We probably shot about five together. And of course... Yeah, we've done a bunch, yeah. Famously...

Famously, uh, Stefan named his son after you for us. What was your reaction when you found out about that? Well, he just, I mean, it's also a cool man. Sure, of course. Like, if I turn out to be a total douche, Griffin's actually just a cool name. And, you know, family guy. So, it's not your name to son off. And Griffin Bonner, just, I have a very, like, fortunately, his son is.

He's got a good ring to it. Sure. I would hear that. Go, Griffin-Botter. It's like, it's like, it's very masculine, like, hyper-masculate. Like, you know, I was worried that, like, he'd never said Griffin-Botter, and he'd be, like, a little, like, bookwork. I said, you know, like, Griffin-Botter.

Oh, I thought you'd be bigger. You know, sometimes. guys, people have mixed feelings about sequels and sometimes they're just kind of a race from our memory and of course you guys fought each other a second time but no one ever talks about that fight. Stefan, would you prefer it be that way? I mean, it didn't quite live

up, it was almost impossible to live up to the first one, right? Yeah, I mean, that night, I really didn't want to be there. I was supposed to get elbow surgery and I'm not putting elbow surgery off. I just fought like three times and like four months and kind of was a wreck.

So I was, you know, like, I didn't go for it. It was more like, uh, yeah, six weeks notice too, right? Yeah,

yeah. I was, I was, I was scheduled to do like a, a USO tour, like in the middle, like right before the fight, uh,

I was scheduled to like, go, you know, do like a three week USO tour and I was like fired up, like, you know, getting like visas and paperwork. And they were like,

oh, no, You know, but it was a chocolate out card. So it was like, all right, that'll be cool. Did you guys see it? Go ahead, sorry? I remember 10 days out. I got a cut, like, over my left eye.

It had like 12 stitches or something. Dana flew me out to Vegas. I had a doctor look at it. And he's like, yeah, he can't fight. So it was actually called off. And I went out to the Cubs game with my dad, and I was drinking. And then I got a call from Dana.

Like, oh, we really need this fight. You know? And then I was like, yeah, what the hell. So that was another concern in the fight. I was like, oh, I don't want them to busts just cut open. I better not be too addressed. I don't know if you guys saw this, but just a couple weeks ago on our website, there was a big feature on Jason Thacker.

Do you remember Jason Thacker? Yes, dude, that was an awesome story. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was written by Chuck Minnandall, so I want to give him the credit. Are you, what were your emotions for us from you? And after reading it, I can see that Chuck

Mendenhall in his writing style also likes to rip off on S. Thompson. I do believe... I'm not the only writer that rips off under as Thompson. That's good. But what do you think? I mean, he's gone through a lot since that, and it, you know, unlike you guys, it wasn't, you know, it was maybe life-changing in a bad way for him. And I'm just wondering what you guys thought about reading someone who's still sort of struggling with the aftermath of being on that show. Did you have any idea?

No, no. me and a friend, our mutual friend, our mutual friend, Showinghow, I was showing how, we used to joke, like, the factor, you know, wouldn't really cut out to be a fighter, but then, like, you'd be in a hospital somewhere, and be, like, pageing back to soccer, and it'd be, like, can be like, show up,

or, like, you'd be, like, get in your car service, and be like, Jason's back, you know, just that he'd, like, pop up in some random place, you know? What about you, Stefan? Have you read that? Where's Waldo from. No, of course, just told me about it. said to hear that. I didn't know.

I guess on the show, he was like on a bunch of different antidepressants, and they didn't let them take those, right? Uh-huh. Correct. Yeah, what's the, do you know the deal with that? Because I'm 100% certain

if you tell people, like, you're on a lot of drugs, they won't put you on reality shows. Yeah, that is a good point. Yeah, are they at least make sure you had your medication? But, you know, usually there's like a big liability, like what I'm thinking is that maybe he wasn't quite upfront about the medication at first, you know? Because that's an easy eliminator.

Oh, you're on a bunch of medication. Ooh, we, you know. I don't know. Maybe, you know, 2004, man. Maybe things were different. Yeah, it was the wild west as far as reality. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good point, yeah.

Okay, so let's end on this. When you think back to that moment for us, when you think back to the fight, the night, everything that changed your life, what's the moment that sticks out? What's your favorite thing that happened that night? Oh, man. That's helpful, man. Probably in the second round when I was just gasped. And, like, you know, after they kind of restarted us and the people start stomping, I have, you know, time just a little bit more.

That was one of the coolest things that happened to me. How about you, Stefan? Probably the... hanging out in the emergency room. I really remember that. And then I had never tried Viagra before, and then Forrest gave me a Viagra. Wow.

And I tried it. Yeah, really? I don't remember that. I always had a bunch. Yeah, it was a good. I never have one of these. What a good friend. That's what friends are for right there.

Great cut. And by the, And so let's end on this, because you're the bunch, or the last one to fight, Stefan? You still got another one in you, or are you done? I was something, like, really comes along that sparks my interest. Because that's pretty contending or retired before, and then, you know, Belator offered me keto, like, right away,

and I was like, oh, God, like, you know what? That sounds like fun. And it was. It was fun in there. And he gave me a good fight as much as I hate him. He pushed me and I had to dig deep and it was a good fun fight. But just all the other stuff, you know, all the training and preparation and cut weight like that isn't fun anymore. I used to really enjoy that.

It just wasn't as fun all the wrestling. And one thing you don't want to be said when you're at the end of your career and, you know, it's your last fight coming out of retirement. You don't want to set a record for the most amount of weight cut the day of the day of. weigh-ins, which I did. I cut like 19 pounds and four hours. It's something you want to do early in your career. So sure, it's a new personal PR for me, personal record, but I don't think you should be doing that at the end of the career. Good point. Hey, by the way, Forrest, last thing to you, is it true that you lied about your age on the show? What, who? Which one? Me?

Yes, Forrest. Yeah, I'll comment. You did? I said, wait, what Stefan said. Okay, fair enough. We will leave it at that, and I want to remind everyone that starting today on UFC FightPass.com, they are turning it into Forrest Pass. All kinds of great content. That's correct.

You can watch the show. They have retrospective documentaries. The full season is available. And also Forrest is on there picking and introducing his favorite fights. So it's Forest Pass. And a small little anecdote, you guys don't remember this, but for the tough three, finale in Las Vegas. That card was headlined by Kenny Florian and Sam Stout. I was working as like a production assistant for a company that was contracted by SpikeTV.com to produce the

tough three finale pre-fight show on SpikeTV.com and I got to work with you guys. It was the first Yeah, we did that. I remember that. Yeah, it was the first UFC event that I ever attended in person and it was such a thrill for me to work with both of you were the host. It was a lot of fun. So I thank you for that memory. And I thank you for coming on the show to, uh, Menace, congratulations. Mazel Tov on the 10-year anniversary this Thursday. Enjoy it. And thank you for everything that you guys did for us.

This moment will be one we'll never forget. And it's certainly, and in my opinion, I don't think it's over-exaggerated. I certainly think that it helped keep the UFC alive. So from all the UFC fans, from all the MMA fans, thank you to both of you. That's what we're going to tell people anyway. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Stefan.

Thanks. Thank you, guys. Cheers. There they are. Thanks, guys. Boris Griffin, Stefan Bono. we will never forget it. April 9th, 2005, again, UFC Fightpass.com right now. You can see Forrest Pass, retrospective documentaries, the full fight, the full season, and also Forrest Griffin picking

and introducing his favorite fights of all time. Happy anniversary to both them. All right, let's move along. As I mentioned, the UFC is back on Fight Pass this Saturday afternoon here in the United States. It's UFC Fight Night Krakovia and in the co-main event. It's Poland zone, Jan Blakovitz, going up against Jimmy Manoa, who joins us right now via The Magic of Skype. Jimmy, how are you, my friend? What's up, Ariel? You're okay? I'm doing great. I apologize for the delay, but as you can imagine, that was a pretty special moment. You recall watching that fight, Forrest Griffin, Stefan Bonner.

Yeah, I do, actually. That's before I even started training the MMA that fight between Forrest Griffin. I was like, wow, it's epic. Did that inspire you? Definitely, 100% of true. The two warriors went out of it, and no one wanted to give up It was a great fight and there's a great moment for UFC and the MMA. Where are you right now? I just finished swimming in the gym. I'm sure you're kind of tapering off now as far as your workouts are concerned, right?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Just a few last few sharpening up bits and everything. I've still got a couple of days left to train. A few more days left to train. So, yeah, just the last little bits. So like I said, this is a big fight, co-main event, all that stuff, but you were supposed to have a very big fight,

just a few months ago against Shogunhua, and then just days before the fight, you broke your foot the first time in your career that you have ever had to pull out of a fight. Can you explain to us how it happened, what happened, and mentally, how did you deal with that? Because there was no bigger opportunity for you at the time than fighting Shogun Hua in Brazil, I would imagine.

Yeah, definitely. It would have been my first fight in outside of the UK. And do you know what? It was like even a few, about a month before, my foot started hurting, and it's swelling up and I thought, I couldn't remember kicking, kicking anyone's elbow

or kicking, because I hadn't been really sparring in that. And I was in Sweden in All-Stars and we had an X-ray and everything and it just got worse and worse leading up to the fight. I thought it would get better. I kept icing it and everything. I couldn't kick the pads. I couldn't spa.

I thought I was only doing boxing and stuff. And I kick-in is one of my main weapons sort of thing and it got so bad because I flew back to London 10 days before the fight and we had an MRI scanning it showed a stress fracture and I was like, I still want to fight because I've never pulled out

so I fought with worse injuries than I thought with broken ribs, broken hands and stuff and the doctor said, listen, if you fight, your foot's going to break, your foot might even break before the fire as a stress fracture and, you know, I asked the UFC

can I get a shot in it or can I have some pain killers or something just to deal with the pain. I don't mind if it breaks or whatever. And then I spoke to my team and then you just said, you know what's too big of a risk to fight. So I had to pull out. How difficult was that for you when you had to come to terms with the fact that you were pulling out of this main event? I was really down. I was really down. But you know what?

It could have been a blessing in disguise. I don't know. I just took it on the chin and carried on. I got back to training as soon as I could, as soon as I could. And, you know, we scheduled another fight. And here we are. Was it even tougher when you saw OSP knock him out in seconds thinking, man, that could have been me?

Yeah, of course, of course. But, you know, OSP is a different fighter from me. I think he's a different fighter for me. I think personally, if I thought Shogun, and I think it would probably go on longer. And I would have definitely got the win, but it would have been probably maybe more spectacular than that. You mentioned All-Stars in Sweden,

which of course is home to Alexander Gustafin and many other great fighters. You teamed up with them after you fought Gustafin, right? You didn't have a history with them beforehand? No, no. The friendship came through Team Alliance. I didn't actually train with Alex before, but I just missed him when I went there

and I was going to go back there and I just missed him. And, you know, we always used to talk on Twitter and we felt part of the same team but the opportunity came up for me to fight him when Elgaripo pulled out of the fight. So I thought we haven't trained together so we can fight.

And then we said, you know what, let's get the fight out of the way and then we'll get back to training together. So, you know, when the fight was over, I scheduled, I packed my bags and I went over there and done the training camp. What was that like for you? Was it weird at all to then train with the guy who just

beat you? Nah, not really. It didn't. It didn't feel like there was a great team out there, the great coaches, great people, and everyone made me feel welcome. I went out there on my own and it felt like home within a couple of days. Everyone was so welcoming

and stuff and that's it. So it felt all right. That was a gigantic. I mean, what a great moment that was for you, what a great opportunity, right? The fight in London main event against Gustafsson, who was just coming off, you know, one of the best fights of all time. How did you handle it? In retrospect, how did you deal with all that?

You know what? I'm kind of strong-minded than that, but it was a big, it was a big, big, big thing. And I think, do you know what, that could have, not taking it anyway from Alex, that could have, like, the whole dealing with it and the whole main event. And for me, it was the five rounds that was all in my head, were going. got into my head because I've, I haven't totally guessed in the fight before, but I've come out in the third round and I've felt bad. So it was kind of like in my head sort of thing, the five rounds. So I was pacing myself in the fight and, you know, I think it showed and he took advantage

of that. So, you know, but to me it comes down to experience. I'll put it down to experience and that. Yeah, I learn a lot from it. So is All-Stars your team now? Yeah, together with Lions Pride and over four. so yeah. Wow, okay. And now it's the opposite of that London situation because now you're going into enemy territory. You're fighting the local guy, if you will, Jan Blakovic, in Poland. How do you feel about that? Do you like that scenario more than being, you know, the guy getting all the attention for fighting at home? Yeah, of course, of course. I've always fought in London. I've never fought, I mean, in the UK, I've never fought outside of the UK. So it's not too far from here, but it's going to be going into enemy territory.

but you know I see that as my cage so it could be no matter where in the world it is as soon as I step into the cage it's going to be my cage so it doesn't matter whether the crowd's booing or whatever it's going to be me and him in the cage and it's not going to make no difference you had to do a media tour with him recently

in Poland what was that like it was okay it was okay was it weird a background nah not really he's all right but we've got a fight and we'll be both professionals and that, said hello.

And if I learned a few Polish words, for when I beat him to thank the crowd and stuff, Jean Cuyah. Uh-huh. So that means thank you. So, you know, that's what I'd be saying to the crowd after I win. And you are the co-main event under Krokop Gonzaga. That was a fight that took place in England, the first one.

And it was one of the most shocking results at the time in the history of the UFC when Gonzaga knocked off Krokoff. head you recall watching that fight. I know it was before your time as far as you have seen whatnot but you recall being uh you know being in attendance or watching where were you and that happened you were yeah I think I can't remember what I was I remember watching that fight and you know I think Crocuk was the favorite was the oh yeah he's a pride champion and everything and when I saw it was like wow he knocked him out with his with his own trademark kick and stuff and you know like just go to show how great MMA is like anything can happen I never bet or or or

or predict fights anymore. Like, anything can happen. That's what's so great about the sport. Anything can happen. There's so many ways to win, so many ways to lose, and that, so it was great. Did you watch Yan's UFC debut, and if so, what do you think of it?

A tremendous body kick defeating Latifie in his home country. Were you impressed about it? I was there. I was there for the weigh-ins. I was there for the fight. And I was Cajicide for the fight. I watched it. And I remember thinking, ah, but I wonder if I'll get to fight,

and I was watching him and stuff. He looked good. He looked good. Latif is a totally different fighter for me and that. But he looked good. He looked good. That's why he's in the UFC. I've known about Blackovich for a few years.

And he's European. I'm European as well. And, you know, he's been on my radar, but he hasn't fought for the UFC. When I heard that he fought for the – he signed with the UFC. he was on my radio immediately so you know there we are like I'm going to have to take him out now

but I do recall talking to you before this fight was announced and wondering when you'll be back who you want to fight you said you were looking for a top 10 opponent he is not top 10 were you disappointed when you got him as your opponent do you know what at first at first I was a bit but I talked to my man who talked to my team

it's not a warm up fight at all because he's very dangerous he showed in his last fight and I know about him is a veteran and that But, you know, I'll just accept it because, and we was asking for top 10 opponents, but most of them are busy. Yeah. Got a fight lined up and stuff, and a couple of them don't make sense and that.

So, you know, I'm happy. I want to fight after this. I want to fight two more times this year anyway. So, you know, then I can pick off two top 10 opponents after this. And then I'm back on track. Going into that Gustafin fight, you're undefeated. You're a 14-0. and the fight prior to that was October of 2013.

So you've only fought once between October of 2013 and April of 2015. You feel like you're kind of a forgotten man here a little bit. Like you need to remind people that Jimmy Manuel is still very much a player in this division. Yeah, I think so, but you know what? That doesn't really care on my mind. I take, I'm in USC.

I'm in the USC. I'm still learning. I'm still learning. I'm still working on my stuff. So I've taken this time out to, But if you look at my Instagram, I'm always training. I'm always in a gym, sparring, training, learning and stuff. So, you know, I'm not rushing anything at the moment.

But now I feel that I'm ready to take on my training at All-Stars and everything, the good spy. I feel ready. I feel good. I've tuned up all my disciplines and I feel good. I'm ready. I know you're a boxing guy, right? You loved Mike Tyson growing up, correct?

Correct. Have you ever heard of Roy Jones's song Y'all Must Have You ever heard of this song? Roy Jones, what? You know Roy Jones, right? The great Boxing Legend. He had a rap song called Y'all Must Have Forgot. I've got to hear it. You got to hear it. Because it's one of my favorite songs of all time.

It's about people forgetting what he had accomplished. And now every event, I have nominated a candidate to win the Y'all Must have forgot award. Last week it was Giuliana Pena. It's basically fighters who we may have forgotten about who now come back a big way and remind us that we forgot about them and now they're very much players. And you're my candidate for this event, the All Musta For God candidate. So I want to see you deliver on Saturday to live up to that name. You feel me?

Let's do this. Let's do this. Let's do this. I might look it up and I might come out to it. I've got a song I'm coming out to you, but I look it up if I like it. Oh my God. Can I tell you something? If you decide to make that your walkout song, you go down in the history of this show,

Hall of Fame. We're going to put a mural up. Check it out. Someone's going to send it to you on Twitter. I can assure you right now. It's an unbelievable song and it will pump you up. It's Roy Jones rapping.

Y'all must have forgot. It will get you fired up. No question about it. All right, let me see. Let me see. All right. Cool. Well, all the best, my man.

Thank you very much for the time. Can't wait for the fight. This Saturday, UFC fight pass Krakovia, Poland. Jimmy Manoa versus Jan Blakovich, a great fight in the 205 pound division. We appreciate the time and wish you the best, Jimmy. Thanks a lot, man. Great having it.

There he is. Jimmy Manoa. Could you imagine if he comes out to Y'all must have forgot. Someone please send him that song, ASAP. I would love it. Thank you. Wow. Could you imagine? Could you imagine if he comes out to y'all must forgot? He is the almost forgot candidate for this card. Julianna Pena, delivered in a very big way. And if you look at the card, it's him. I guess Miracle Krokoop could be in that, but whatever. It's Jimmy Mano, in my opinion,

because I don't think Mirro Krokoop has a run in him. And I do feel like we kind of forgot about Jimmy Manuel. I mean, people still talk about Mirko, but Jimmy's my almost forgot candidate. Someone will please send him that song. It would be unbelievable. Could you imagine? People sick of the reference.

You're not sick of the reference. Devin Brady, are you crazy? Y'am must have forgot. Jimmy Manuel this Saturday against Jan Blachovitz. I believe I'm pronouncing it correctly. And it's Krakowia, right? I've been to Poland. I was in Poland once. I was there in the 11th grade. And I got to tell you, the memories aren't very fond because it was a very, it was a very unique trip. It was this trip called

the March of the Living. And they send a group of students. And I don't think we had to pay for it, but you have to go through this whole interview process. And basically, we visited the concentration camps, including Auschwitz in Poland. And it was April. It was very, around this time, 1999, it was dark, it was dreary, it was wet, it was a very depressing trip, it was obviously very emotional. I think about that trip every single day. I mean, that trip changed the way I view life. And it was very intense because we spent a week in Poland, and then we spent a week in Israel. And, you know, as a young Jewish boy growing up, you're impacted greatly by this because you go to these concentration camps and you see the mountains of ashes and the clothes

and the glasses, I'll never forget, and the toys. All, of course, from the Holocaust in World War II. It was a very intense trip. So that's really my only memory of Poland, and you go in there expecting this, and it's even worse than you expected. But, of course, it's a very thriving and developing country now. I very much recommend checking out this 30-minute documentary

that they have posted on FightPass with Dan Hardy, going to the arena in Krakow and going to some gyms, And it's clearly, you know, it's been, what, 70 years since World War II, so you can't hold on to that grudge. But that is always the first thing that I think about that trip, that experience in Poland, and then going to Israel the following week and just, what a range of emotions and life altering 14 days to go from the darkest and most depressing week of my life, really. I mean, you cannot even imagine what you're seeing. and then going to kind of celebrate life and state of Israel and all that stuff the following week. I know a lot of people don't like when I talk about that stuff, but honestly, that's what I think about.

When I think about Poland, then it's good now that we have happier things to think about, including the UFC making its debut there this Saturday afternoon on UFC Fight Pass. In a minute, we're going to be joined by Artem Labov, aka the prospect killer, aka the Russian Hammer and if you don't know Artem he's never fought in the UFC he's never fought in Belvoir he's never fought in do we have him by the way

okay he's never fought in World Series of Fighting but I can assure you you have seen him before he was Connor McGregor's running mate all throughout the UFC 189 World Tour he's all over embedded

he was with him in the hotels Red Rock Vegas L.A Rio, Boston, New York, Toronto, Dublin. He was there throughout. He's a member of the straight blast gym in Ireland. And he's a guy that has been sort of campaigning to get into the UFC for quite some time. As coach John Kavanaugh campaigning to get him into the UFC, he is popular over there. In fact, he has a fight that was announced recently. He has a fight that was announced recently against Tommy McCafferty for UX.S.

fight night number three. He was actually on our show. It was either before or after UFC 178 from Las Vegas when they were trying to get him to fight Dennis Siever in Stockholm. He didn't get the fight. But he continues to campaign. He continues to try to get a shot. Since then, he has competed a couple of times. His record, when you look at it, isn't the most impressive one of all time. According to Sherdog, it's just 11 and 10. He's coming off a win. Prior to that, he had a draw. Those are the two fights that he has had since being on this show. But he's unbeaten his last three.

And if you may recall, when he was on this show, he has had to fight a lot of fights outside of his way class. A lot of people have pulled out of fights, including quite recently. It seems like there are a lot of people who don't want to fight this man, given his style and history and the team that he is a part of. He corners Connor.

He's a part of his team that corners him for all his fights. and he knows him quite well. And I wanted to get a sense for what that experience was like. It all culminated in Dublin last Tuesday, one of the most unbelievable press conferences, if you want to call it that, it really wasn't a press conference because of all the fans involved in what they said.

I think they took like four questions from the media in attendance. It was one of the most incredible scenes I've ever seen in sports, not just MMA, where you have two top fighters, a champion and the top contender sitting there. And fans, drunk or not, yelling obscenities, screaming, chanting. It was, it was like the Jerry Springer show times, times 10. Connor snatching away the belt, the stare downs, the young Nate dog trying to make a case for a flight to Las Vegas to be there while his hero, his mentor, Connor McGregor fights for the belt.

And I know a lot of people were disappointed. I know a lot of people were embarrassed. I know a lot of people were all fired up, especially in Ireland saying that this was an embarrassment for the sport and this set the sport back. And to that, I say, lighten up. I thought it was amazing. I thought it was great theater.

I thought it was, it was just, it was fun to watch. And why should you be fired up if Josealdo wasn't fired up? If anything, it feels like he's using all of this as fuel. If anything, it feels like he handled it better than most people, period, let alone champions. he handled it in a very class way. I know things have come out about what he said in Portuguese and all that, but come on. Could you imagine sitting there and there's 5,000 Irishmen yelling at you,

saying you're going to your ass kicked and way worse than that and handling it the way he did? I mean, we learned way more about Joseo Alto throughout that process than we did about Connor. There was nothing new out of Connor. It was very entertaining. It was a lot of fun to watch. But Josealdo made us learn a lot about him.

And that was the best part of Embedded, in my opinion. that was the best part of this tour. Finally, we have gotten to know Jose Aldo. And again, that's why I say Aldo needed McGregor more than McGregor needed Aldo. McGregor would have done this regardless of who was the champion. Ricardo Lama, Chad Mendez, but Aldo needed this guy to bring this all out in him. And in my opinion, he passed with flying colors. So don't worry so bad.

Don't worry so much, excuse me, about how the fans were. I mean, what did you expect? It was late afternoon. early evening, Dublin, Ireland, after 10 days of this stuff, after what had transpired in Rio, you knew that they were going to come like that. And it really wasn't a press conference. It was more a fan gathering, if you will. And I thought it was brilliant. I thought the UFC 189 World Tour was one of the very best things they've ever done, truthfully. One of the very best pieces of promotional material, one of the very best pieces of marketing, one of the very best pieces

of promotion period that not only the UFC, but any organization has ever done in any sport. I think about what they did. They took these two guys across the world. I mean, yeah, we kind of ignored, you know, the other side of the globe. But, I mean, we went from Brazil to the United States, Canada, Europe. And every single stop it grew. Every single embedded, every single embedded got a hell of a lot more intense, a hell of a lot more interesting. And what they've sold, it's like a gate of 7 million, which is a record for the United States.

They're almost sold out as far as tickets are concerned. Connor McGregor, in fact, made his UFC debut two years ago today. It's been two years. It's been two years since the man made his debut. That's it. and look what he has become. He was fighting on the Facebook prelims two years ago today against Marcus Brimidge.

He was the people's main event. That was it. Now he's fighting in one of the biggest fights of the year. And it's all a credit to him. And I still don't understand why people say that the UFC is fast-tracking him, why people are saying the UFC is favoring him. I mean, if this is not indication enough

that A, he has worked for everything he's gotten, that B, he deserves all of this, that C, he can make star out of the people he's fighting like he's doing with Joseo who is getting the rope from him. Make no mistake about it. He is he is he is passing with flying colors. He is he is more interesting and more popular and and and and and and and and more veered now than he ever was because I think he has developed a hell of a lot

more fans after how he has handled this situation but Connor made him do that. Connor brought that upon him. Let's not forget it. No one else has done that for Joseoaldo. Joseoaldo benefited from this. world tour just as much as Connor, if not more, because there's a hell of a lot of people right now who want to see Connor McGregor get his ass kicked, who want to see Jose Aldo shut him up. And that's, that's perfect. That's fine. That's what people like Floyd Mayweather understand. As long as they

care, who cares if they boo you? As long as they care. Connor gets that as well. He gets it to a tee. He's becoming more heel now than he's ever been. The money, the suits, the bravado. all that stuff. It was brilliant. I'm being told that we're having a hard time connecting with our temps. So we're actually going to put him at the end of the show and then hopefully reconnect with him in a little bit. So let me just alert the folks online. We're actually going to go to the man who is going to be calling the Poland fights this Saturday on UFC Fight Pass John Gooden. A big fan of the show, man who has been watching the show from the comfort of his baths. for quite some time. We're going to connect with him in a minute. But again, to those Irish fans who were

kind of hiding under the sheets, who were complaining of this was bad, this wasn't bad. Two years ago, no one would even pay attention to your sport. Two years ago, you know, your, your, your, your, your one claim to fame was Tom Egan who fought in UFC 93 and then never, you know, never got another shot in the UFC and, you know, was, was dominated by John Hathaway. That was your claim to fame as far as the UFC was concerned. That was all you had to hang your hat on. Don't worry about, you know, a bunch of rowdy fans going nuts when the champion himself wasn't bothered by it. It's cage fighting. It's mixed martial arts. It's fun. It's supposed to be different. It doesn't have to be buttoned up. That's why even the ally Quinta thing doesn't bother me all that much. We don't always have to cater to

the mainstream. We don't always have to get everyone to love us. Stop worrying about how other people are going to perceive it. You know what that was. That was the culmination of a 10-day world tour in which emotions were very high, in which a lot was put into. I mean, that was a perfect storm. It started in Rio, where people were saying the same thing, except we just couldn't really understand what they were saying. And then we saw the exact same response in English, in Ireland. nothing's going to happen the sport won't be banned it won't go backwards

it's only going forwards don't worry about it let's get this man's opinion on it we're going to the phones for John Gooden we don't get to see his lovely new beard and hair is that true John are you on the phone what what is that what did you say

I can't hear you John ah now why can you I can hear you it's a little more Why can't I see you on the Skype? What's wrong with your Skype? You need to have a love with your man, New York, Rick. Oh. That's a bad issue.

Oh, I'm being told our Skype is crapping out on us. All right. So I do like that you called out New York, Rick. He deserves to be reprimanded now and again. So thank you for doing that. But I want to get your opinion on this. There's a lot to discuss with you, John. And by the way, do you still have the beard?

Because I'm very, this is the big storyline heading into Poland. Will you or won't you? keep the beard? This is your She's a hell of a story like. I think I'm going to keep the beard. I haven't had a go like a beard. So, uh,

it's about 35 years, no one. So I think it's time to bring on the beard. This is a very big problem, John. I can hardly hear what you're saying. Are you in a bad area? Self-folk, we call a landline.

What can we do here to rectify this? I should be good. I can actually be good. I don't know if you can, is this any better now? It's a little better now, yes. Okay. Okay, let's fight it. Just to confirm, you're keeping the beard.

The beard is, it's okay. I'm bringing the beard to Crackle. Okay, good to hear. Now, what do you make of this whole, you know, this whole scene that we saw last Tuesday in Dublin? As someone, you know, you're the voice of European UFC scene, and we saw, the fans yelling at Jose and a lot of fans were disappointed. They thought it was embarrassing all this stuff. What did you make of that scene in Dublin?

Tell us how we should feel about what transpired last Tuesday in Ireland. Wow, you're on me now, aren't you? Jesus. Okay, well, my, my secret messages and I had a few texts and stuff. There were a little difficulties because I didn't think that it was the good showing for the thing. I wasn't mad at it. It's, I think that Econa really

feel when he went to Brazil and he did beat me when he was last down and he's not a hug. He's kind of going to be killed. So there's a friend in his husband. He didn't make him back. That's...

One second. Time out, John. Let's recall. I need to recall you, because I can't hear you, and this is bothering me very much. We need to reconnect and maybe get... Do you have a line line or something? Because it's very hard to hear what you're saying. I haven't got a land, I know. My surprise is probably the only way I can do it.

Okay. I'll allow New York, Rick, to figure this out, but I don't want to have you on and not be able to hear what you're saying. So let's recall you. Maybe if we could recall you, that'll be better, okay? Okay. Okay, all right. Let's try to figure this out,

because once again, we were being hampered by these issues. I thought the Skype issues were rectified. Apparently not. And I really want to get John on to hear what he has to say. So I apologize for that. We'll get John on in a minute. He's going to be calling the fights this Saturday in Poland. By the way, in case you're wondering, the people's main event this week, it's an easy one.

Everyone loves Joanne Calderwood. Look what her fans did when they were trying to get her a fight. Very much a people's fighter. So the people's main event, let your friends know, let everyone know. It's Joanne Calderwood versus Marina Morr. Rose. A lot of Polish fighters on this card. I believe the prelimbs are at 11 and then the main card is at around three if I'm not mistaken. Let us go back to, do we have them on Skype? Is this accurate? Oh, look at that. Crystal clear. John, can you hear me?

I can hear you. Wow, look at this. This is much better. I mean, what a connection you have. This is amazing. And we have confirmed that you do in fact have the beard. I have the beard. I have the bit. I have to this is my, not, don't look at that side. That side's okay, but this is the view. Okay, this is fantastic. Well, thank you again. We apologize for that. I want to hear what you had to say. You said you were talking to something. I couldn't really hear anything. You said, what was your take on what happened in Dublin? Okay, so, um, I had a few, oh, is there, is there, no, I think it's my voice. Okay, sorry, I'm just getting a bit of repeat now. Just put the volume down, put the volume down on your computer and that should fix it. Okay. So,

I got a few people direct messaging me. I had a few text messages from a few people in the MMA media, a few fans that weren't really happy about what was going down in Dublin. But from a personal perspective, I wasn't mad about it. I think that Conner got a hell of a reception

from the Brazilian fans when he did his Q&A with Megyn Olivy. So they were telling him he was going to die, this sort of stuff. So you can't blame the Irish fans, European fans, if you like, for coming out and having their say. And it was pretty well-spirited. I mean, it was funny a lot of the time. There were some remarks which were slightly disrespectful,

but it was alcohol-fueled. It was in the moment, things like that. So, listen, it created the most incredible scenes. I mean, when was the last time we saw that? You know, this kind of rivalry is really good. Yeah, it draws a few negative tinges here and there, But look, it's setting up this fight. International fight, building up to Connor and Joe say is unbelievable.

Even more so now. And who didn't watch the Embedded series? It was just fantastic. What do people say to you about Connerley? You walk around. People know that you work for the UFC. You call these fights. I'm sure you have a lot of people come up and want to say, oh, what do you make of

Connor? I mean, what are you hearing from people? Has he up the profile of the sport in your neck of the woods? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. We've recently had a new deal done with what we call a red top, a really widely shared newspaper over here called The Sun, it's by a very legitimate journalist called Simon Head.

And I think that having Connor around and creating this kind of exposure, this Ferrari around stuff and this interest is bringing more media outlets in. Of course, there's the UFC office that are opening up to all of this and letting the big newspapers know about it. But yeah, definitely. I mean, I've known Connor for a little while now. I think we worked it out. Maybe I first called the fight of his back in 2010.

So I've seen him develop, and he's always been, you know, a guy full of fire, full of passion, and he just needed the right platform in order to turn all the buttons up, get that volume jacked up, get some success, and then just keep riding the wave. Take away some of the, you know, there are a lot of elements there that you just have to just have to laugh at but actually when you strip back a lot of what he says there's some there's some motivational things in there that we're

going to be that we're going to be quoting and looking at for many years to come did you think though when you were calling his fights five or so years ago did you think he would turn into what he has become by the way this is the two-year anniversary today of his UFC debut yeah yeah yeah yeah I was listening earlier which is fantastic when you consider he's been out for for most of that with a knee injury as well which is pretty crazy I don't think I don't think any of us were considering the UFC back in 2010 where we were in a sports hall in Cork. Actually, I think the first fight that I saw between was Joseph Duffy and Conno McGregor.

That's the first fight I called. Wow. Between those guys. So, yeah, yeah. So it's going back a little while. But I don't think anyone was thinking of the UFC at that time. However, they were the takeaway fight for me. They were the two guys that I walked away.

way when I was prepping and certainly it lived up to the expectation it was always going to be these two young guys these two promising figures just just coming and and smashing one another in the middle of that cage so it was it lived up to what it needed to and we've just seen Connor and Joseph just just keep on snowboarding from there by the way what's going on behind you here I'm seeing a lot of bout sheets are these all the the fights that you called this is you see we have a new a new look here down there shame well. And this is this is my UFC research center and otherwise known as the Foxes Dojo. So so yeah, we have all the stuff laid out so that I can try and keep ahead on, you know,

who's fighting when and I just have to flip my eyes across that wall right there. So what goes, I think a lot of people would be interested in this. You're calling a fight this Saturday. What goes into it? How many hours of research do you think you put into it? I always used to, before the UFC, I kind of had to try and work at. hour. And I always said like an hour per guy was really, really conservative. And that was just looking at the guys. When you do a UFC broadcast and only really John and Mike will sympathize, if you like, on this, there's a whole production element. And I actually took the week off last week. And I was working solidly throughout that week to try and get everything in place. So I'd say,

if you were looking at office hours, it's a two-week job to prepare for. a solid two weeks, probably a six day a week, over two weeks to prepare for a fight. That's for me anyway. That's how long it's taking. Wow. By the way, was the last fight card that you called for the UFC, the one in Australia? I lost you there, Ariel. Sorry.

Was the last fight card that you guys called the one in Australia with Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping? That was the last full work. We were out in Stockholm for the big, the big pot show. but it seems like it's been a big break for you oh well the ufc yeah it seems like you haven't done i feel like we saw you a lot more last like why why such a big break between shows maybe you're not the right one to ask but do you have any idea uh no i mean it's it's a frustration you know i'm not i'm not going to moan this is this is a dream come true for me but for me to do for both dan and i to do the very best job that we can um we need a rhythm you know and uh and and

And we're just, it's been a long time now. And I think that the first couple of finance that we call next Saturday might suffer a little. We might, you know, we might face a few speed humps there. But look, we've got a job to do. I've done it quite a few times now. So we're going to get on with it. But look, this is like a, this is like a drug for me. This is, this is the pinnacle of what I want to do as a sports broadcaster.

So, of course I want more, you know. and I do kind of lean on the UFC and try and vocalize that. And I want them to try and look at it like I'm the guy on the soccer pitch that he's in the dressing room and he doesn't get picked and he gets upset. Or he gets taken off at half time, although he's played a good half, he gets taken off and he's like, you know, he's angry that he's been taken off. You know, I want to do more of this stuff and represent these fighters, represent the UFC in the school. Do you have, have you ever tried to convince them to let you do smaller shows just to, you know, to not get out of your element, to not get icy cold? I mean, you know, that keeps you flowing. Like you're a fighter.

You want to be as active as possible. I mean, it comes from Vegas. And at the same time, you know, there's way more than three teams now with the different combinations. And, you know, Mike and Joe, they have to be, they've got to do the big shows, right? and I know that you've got John, Brian, John Kelly. There's a lot of guys out there, you know? So I'm last through the door. I've only been around a year.

All I'm doing is just saying that I'm chomping at the bit to get to Friday. Of course I want more shows. It's not that Dan and I don't want to do them or we're not capable of doing them. It's a calendar, you know, and the UFC has to balance it out. I don't have those conversations, but it is what it is, you know? But when we're called into play, you're damn skippy, we're going to do the best that we can. How would you assess your first year calling the UFC fights? This is year two.

This is officially the beginning of year two. I know that you did that Sweden show, but this is the one that's available to everyone. Were you happy with your performance? And what's the like? Because I know sometimes UFC fans are creatures of habit. And when they don't hear Mike and Joe right away off the bat, they get all upset. And I know sometimes that you guys can be unfairly targeted. this way by these fans.

What was the whole experience like and how would you assess your performance on the mic? It was a bit choppy there. If we take the like the year, overall from, you know, my peers and the people that be in the U.S.C, I've had positive feedback. From the fans, again, you know, a lot of European fans and some North American fans too, They think we're different. Dan and I have a certain chemistry in that booth, I think, which appeals. You know, we are a bit different.

And I have to be grateful to the fans for giving me a shot, you know, for even sitting back and listening, hearing me out. Because, you know, I have been calling fights for a long time now. This is the sport that I have crafted my career. I haven't come into this. I haven't crashed the party. I started here and I hope I'll finish here too. But look, I'm not my own worst critic. There's nothing that the fans can say to me

that I wouldn't have known during the broadcast or have listened back to a fan now. So you recently went to... You know, you have to... I've learned that you have to monitor how much you listen to and read, but... Sorry, did you get that, Eric? Yeah, I did, I did. Go ahead.

Okay, yeah, so it was, yeah, just kind of saying that everyone's going to, you're always going to get people where you're not their cup of tea, a very famous phrase over here, and I guess that I'm probably not going to be the cup of tea for everyone. But do you know what? I'm going to keep trying to represent these athletes the best that I can, represent the sport and obviously the UFC. You recently went to Croatia. You spent some time with Miracle Krocop, who will be fighting, of course, in the main event, has returned to the UFC. what was that like? Because that seems like, that seems like this mysterious world that very few people in your position, my position, ever get to see.

Wow, he let you through those doors. What was that experience like? Scary? Very scary. Yeah. No, he was, it was scary at first, but Miko is a gentleman. He is, I guess, in a corporate world,

he's the senior vice president figure, you know, he's the guy It's been there that makes everything seem very simple, but you know he's high level. So going into, I've actually just written an article for UFC.com, which will probably go up in the next day or two.

And so without kind of regurgitating that, you know, walking into his home, you're actually in his home as well, which kind of puts you in a more unsettled state again. You know, it's not enough that you've got. a combat sports legend before you.

You're now in his home, meeting his children, his wife, and sitting on his furniture. So, you know, you really do have to mind you, your P's and Q's and your manners. But Miko was great. He was very hospitable. He knew what had to be done.

So we went there. We did what we had to do. And that was that. He was very business-like in that approach. But I was lucky. I got to see a few glimpses. of just like the comedy character that he can be. He really does enjoy having a laugh.

You know, Stipe A. Miotich was there. Oh, wow. They were always sharing jokes. I felt like I warmed him up a bit. He shared a few jokes with me, which I was happy about. So, yeah, it was good, but, you know, and boy, the whole time. And let's be honest.

I mean, a lot of people are questioning whether this is, you know, the right call. I mean, does he deserve to be in the UFC? Is he the old Mirko? can he turn back the clock? You got to see him train. Give us an honest assessment. How does he look at this age? Yeah, well, how he looks and how and also how he sounds.

And, you know, the narrative that he was, you know, projecting was he's a lot healthier now than he was in his first tenure with the UFC. He went through a lot of struggles with surgeries. He had a broken rib walking into the Nelson flight. He never really acclimatized to the Las Vegas air. So the cage or the octagon was a big problem for him. He's now adjusted all of this. He's got himself in a better state physically, which in turn has started the mental motivation,

really up the game there. And switch to camp up, you know, brought in steep ameotchich. You're not going to get much better sparring than that, you know, when you're trying to hit the upper echelons of the sport. So there was nothing that I looked into his eyes and there was nothing there that suggested to me that he was telling a story. You know, he is legitimately coming out to play for his own wants and desires and he believes that his body is in great condition to do so.

One of the things I wanted to talk to you about before we say goodbye, recently on Twitter, you kind of threw out there that you were considering doing a European UFC podcast. And of course, we do a podcast here, although sometimes we are hampered by these technical difficulties, which want to, you know, lead me to shoot my brains out. But anyhow, what, what were you thinking? And are you going to do this? Because I think that would be a fantastic idea. I love hearing you and Dan talk about fighting. I think you both have great presence and voices and things like that. Where do we stand on this whole process? Well, here's a clue. Oh, oh. Oh, look at that. I have a new toy aerial. Wow. This, this is the, the,

the Zoom H6 handy recorder, no less. Yeah, I think I'm going to go for it. I used to do a podcast when I was at Cage Warriors called Cage Side Podcast, the genius. Yes. And essentially, you know, it's just me pressing record on conversations I have with fighters. Back then, you know, they needed more exposure because there just weren't, there were no good people like you. to really with an audience. Not that I had an audience,

but I was just doing what I could to try and get their voices heard, get them answering some questions. So I think the same again for some of the newcomers from our region, as well as some of the more, you know, the veterans, if you like, the guys that have been around a while,

but also some educational stuff around rule sets, judging, things like that, you know? I don't want to be too controversial because of my position within the company. That's not my gig. I don't want to break stories. But I think there's enough in telling the story of fighters.

Because every time I speak to one of them, I'm just so engaged. Everyone's got a story and they're often very fascinating. And people need to hear that. It will help them bring fans. It will help the sport grow in its popularity. Well, I've got to say, if you do this, and I hope you do it sooner rather than later, I will be the first one to download this show

because I honestly view the EMEA team as a separate promotion. I love the family vibe. They do things very differently. The social media is different. The videos are different. The packages. I love how they always have the fighters do these kind of fun, quirky things, depending on where they are.

I've talked about the PR team ad nauseum on this show. I love them. I wish I can clone those people over there. Dave Allen is a tremendous guy. They're just such nice, genuine, warm people. I'm not saying the others aren't. but I almost view that team and I include you and Dan in that in that group as well as a whole separate promotion. And I would love, I think this would be a perfect compliment to all of that.

So I want you to start doing this sooner rather than later and get this ball rolling already. That's very kind of you to say. And yes, we have a great team over here, you know, and I feel very well looked after. You know, you're some of the referring back to some of the things you said earlier. I've had some conversations with these, you know, with my seniors and peers and peers around stuff and everyone's always open. They're sending me out to see Miko Crowcott. They didn't

have to, but they're giving me a role in production to go and do that. I did it with Joanna Jungerchick for the countdown show. I was there as the production executive just out there as an assistant helping with that. And I'm now doing some writing to fill in the gaps.

We've obviously got the inside the octagon show as well coming to a screen near you for USC 186. So yeah, they're trying to keep you busy doing stuff. And I would love to, I need to get a few things set up. You know, I'm going to hopefully get some time to ask you a couple of questions about, you know, how we do this without me toiling over, you know, certain aspects. Because I think I probably am a bit of a perfectionist. I don't need to be as polished maybe as that lovely studio you've got there.

But at the same time, I need to make sure we get a good level of quality before this goes like. Well, all the best to you with the podcast. For now, most importantly, all the best on Saturday. We will be watching. It's been too long since I heard you and Dan, so I'm really looking forward to that. It's a fun card. I appreciate you having us talk to you today, especially with all these technical difficulties. But it was great to have you on.

Keep the beard. I love it. And I hope we see a bow tie as well on Saturday, all right? Bowie and beard will be in full effect. Yes. Thank you very much indeed. All right, there he is. John Gooden, the voice of the EMEA events for the UFC.

He'll be calling the action on Saturday UFC FightPass.com is where you can watch the card. I do believe that it is, it kind of feels like a separate promotion over there. And that's fine. I like it. It gives it a whole different vibe. You ever notice that UFC UK Twitter account, it's a little less skulls and bones. and it's a little higher brown. I like it.

The pictures they put out, the videos they put out. I get a press release about every single card, every single fight on these cards. I like how they make it all seem very important. And if you've ever been to any of those events, they just do things a little different. And I think that's good. I think that the UFC is smart to have a flavor here in the United States,

a different kind of flavor over in Europe. And it is EMEA, but it really, it's really only Europe, at least for now. It seems that way. And then Canada has its own flavor. I like that. It feels like these separate different regions as opposed to just the UFC period. It's good to make it a little more local, if you will, to borrow the culture and have that flavor wherever you are.

And they do a fantastic job over there. So I tip my cap to them. And I'm very excited to hear John and Dan call the fights this Saturday. Okay. Let us move along in a minute. I believe we are going to be joined by Mr. Ally Quinta, who of course, course was very much in the news over the weekend. He defeated Jorge Mazvedal, but that's only part of the story. Of course, a lot of people believe he didn't do enough to win that fight. A lot of

people believe that Mazvedal won the fight 29, 28, maybe 30, 27. But the big story, of course, was his reaction afterwards. The big story was what he said on the mic. He didn't really want to speak, and credit to John Anick for at least getting some words, but he was very disappointed with the fans in Virginia and told them so. Raging Ally Iquinta was in full effect on Saturday night. And like I said earlier, I didn't mind it. I thought it was great. I'm really enjoying seeing Ia Quinta's personality come out.

I'm really enjoying watching the evolution of his personality. He was on this show not too long ago talking about post-fight after the Lozon fight, the Alejandro bid is great. It's all very entertaining to me, and I'm enjoying it greatly. So let us go to the Skype machine and welcome in our next guest in the same location as the last time we spoke to him,

the one and only raging ally, Quinta. Al, how are you? Yeah, I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good. That was everything. Have you calmed down? Are you over it? Yeah, it took me a little bit.

I'm good, though. Wow, look at that cut. It's looking a lot better. It's looking a lot better. It's feeling a lot better. better. How many stitches? 11.

Seven outside, three inside. You do the math. I don't know. Seven outside three. I think that's ten. Ten stitches. Have you watched the fight? I watched it a bunch of times, yeah.

Do you think you won? I do. I think I won the round. I think second round, third round, he took off. He was, you know, he wasn't fighting. And I was pushing forward. Even the first four minutes of the first round, I think I came after him. I pushed the pace.

You know, the last minute of that first round, he beat my ass. I'm not going to lie, I got, you know, but that's what I'm made of. I came through that and, you know, that's what it is. So to be honest with you, I've heard every scorecard there is on the Twitter, on the Facebook, there's a whole spectrum of, you know, score cards that you could choose from, depending on how you looked at that fight. Second and third round, I came to fight.

I think he was fighting like, you know, like he wanted a paycheck. And that was the difference in the fight for sure. So do you think that it was more about what he didn't do as opposed to what you did? In other words, if he fought the second and third rounds like he did in the first, do you think he would have won that fight?

and for some reason he took his foot off the gas? There was no... He landed a combination. He landed one combination in the end of the first round. Other than that, it was the same fight. The whole... If you take out that last minute of the first round, the whole fight was the same.

It was me going forward, him sticking a punch, two punches, taking three steps back, taking four steps back. So it was, you know... It's a tricky fight to score. It's hard. And, you know, I think me and him, we both gained respect for each other in the cage.

He had some things to say before. I had some things to say before. And, you know, I hit him with some good shots, and I could tell that he respected that. And I know, you know, he hit me with some good shots. And at the end of that first round, he had me on the ground. And, you know, he unleashed him. You know, I got hurt. I was hurt for sure.

but uh you know that round ended and he was on top of me and i i didn't even you know not even thinking about it it was like i was half out in half out you know i was just i kicked him off of me and he said oh don't kick off don't kick me off you and and you know that's what i'm made of you're on top me i'll end of the round i'm going to kick you off you get you know it was uh and it wasn't even disrespecting it's just that's what it was you know get get the fuck off me and if i'm so hurt next round come out and fight me again and he didn't do that. He went back to the same thing in the beginning around, and he couldn't land another combination like that again. So, you know, it was an extremely close fight. It was a good

fight. And I think that should be, you know, the point that's emphasized more than anything. What do you say to the people who say, look at the stats, he outstruck you in every round? I know stats are very controversial in MMA because they don't often tell the whole story. What do you say to those people? 100%. Stats don't do not tell the whole story. Um, they, I, I looked at a, you know, they said I was 0 for eight in takedowns. Oh for eight. Hmm. Do you remember me trying to take him down eight times?

Like, I wasn't shooting like Ben Asking and takedowns where it's like my life depends on it. I'm shooting and I'm really, you know, I'm getting him to the ground. I'm grabbing his leg. And if he doesn't, you know, if he's in good position, I'm throwing punches all of it. I'm not, I'm not throwing him. I'm not trying to take him down like I need to take him down. I don't need to take him down. I'm shooting in for a leg, and I'm grabbing a leg.

If, you know, the punches, he's landed a punch going backwards, and it's just touching me on my head, you know, I'm slamming leg kicks. You know, what does that count for? You know, there's just so many different ways you can score a fight like that. You know, it could have went either way. Depending on who you ask, you know, there was a lot of, you know, respectable fighters tweeted that I won that fight, And that's what I take most than anyone.

People that know about fighting, people that know in the second and third round, when things get tough, what it's like to just keep coming forward and really want it and not shy away from, you know, a battle. How much did the cut bother you throughout the fight? The beginning of the second round, I felt it a little bit, you know. It was not affecting my vision, but it was, yeah, I guess, you know, a little bit. But it wasn't too bad. It was below my eye. It was good.

You know, it was, it's been a lot worse cuts. Thank God it was where it was. It was amazing to watch both of your reactions when they announced it you won. He flipped out. You hardly moved. It was almost like you knew. You had no doubt in your mind that you won that fight. You just stood there as confident as can be.

Did you really not think there was a chance you lost that fight? You'll see. As they're talking, as they're saying, you know, they announced me. They announced him 3027, and they announced me. And I put my hand up. Before they even said it, I knew I won that. I knew the second and third round. I did more.

You know, did he do more damage in the fight? Possibly. But the way that, you know, the way this is scored, three rounds, I fought two harder. There's three guys sitting at the cage. There's three guys. And all that I had to do, you know, he won the first round. All that he had to do was show one of them that he won one round. All you need to do is one round.

And both of those guys said I won two and three. So that, you know, that says it right there. There was two guys. All I had to do was show them that I wanted two and three, and that's what I did. What did you think, though, when you heard 30 to 27 for him? I kind of thought that was, you know, par for the course. I figured that was going to happen. Why?

Well, it's been documented as, you know, the, uh, Doug, uh, Doug, uh, Doug, uh, going feud with, uh, we're not a feud, but whatever. He just, he's, he hates on us, uh, most particularly Ray Longo, but he's got a problem. And, uh, you know, it's, he's, he's a, you know, this is where I get serious. The whole thing, MMA is, this whole thing is kind of like a joke. Everyone thinks all boo. I curse them. It's funny. But this is where I get serious and, you know, you're going to have to talk to Ray about that.

But this guy is definitely. an incompetent judge and it's a travesty that he was anywhere in the vicinity of the octagon when i was fighting and and i will touch on this later i did speak to ray this morning he gave me some information but i just want to ask you one thing if you can confirm this did you ever speak to doug about maybe being in a movie of his he works as a stunt coordinator and that didn't fall through is that accurate or that fell through excuse me uh i i spoke with um not him directly but someone

someone called me um Steve Kofer who was the you know New York Sambo and Sambo Steve um he had

he had asked me to be in a movie and not a movie whatever it was he asked me to be in something and it was through this you know I find out later it's through this guy and he has an agenda there's always an agenda behind it and I kind of

you know, saw right through it. And I said, no, I don't want to be, you know, I didn't want anything to do with it. And then somehow he's judging my fight. So, you know, I turned down an offer from this guy, whatever the reason being, you know, and then he's judging my fight. So the deal right there that's not, you know, I don't know. It's just not right. I don't know how that happened.

I looked after the fight and I was like, you know, looking around the cage. I saw that, I saw it, and then I saw him sitting there. And I said to Ray, I said, why is this guy judging my fight? And it just, I knew right away. I said, I'm down one judge. I'm down. I need, you know, three judges are supposed to be, you know, objective, see the fight how it is. I knew right off the bat, this guy was, he was not giving me.

me he's not giving me nothing when did you find out that he's go ahead at least cut it up give me 29 28 but he gave me 30 27 which is just a big f you know you know give it 29 28 maswell because that's probably you know i've definitely won one round there's no way you can give me you know that so you know make it look a little bit whatever but there's what it is when did you find out he was judging and did you try to fix this did you try to complain i saw him judging i saw him judging i saw him the fights before I was watching in the screen in the back and I saw him there and I was like oh look who's it and then but I thought we had I thought I thought we had this thing where he wasn't judging any of our fights you know I thought this was I

thought this was well documented well known this guy was not a part of it and you know I don't know who is he to to we have people train at the gym, you know, there's, they excuse themselves. If there's even somebody that I know slightly that I have had even a conversation with, they'll excuse themselves from the fight. They'll say, listen, I can't rough his fight. I know him somewhat. I'm friendly with it.

Whatever it is, they say, I can't do it. And they get a backup judge to come in or get a backup. This guy, I mean, I'm going to say he asked for it. He somehow got, he got in there somehow. And it's a shame because, you know, no matter how the fight went, I feel like I was getting screwed either way. And I didn't find out until after, but it was, you know, it's just not right. Was that why you were so fired up because, you know, the fans were booing a little bit, but it seemed like you went from zero to 100 very quickly.

Was it because you had realized that you were put in this position, or were you legitimately upset at the fans for booing? No, I was upset at the fans. I mean, if you listen to the decision right after they announced me, everyone cheers. And then, you know, he kind of stormed out of the cage and made a big scene. And that's when they started booing. I think one person started booing. And then everyone started booing.

It was like, oh, yeah, just boo this guy. You know, whatever. Do you regret the way it all went down? No, not at all. I think if it went down in the same way, I'd do the same thing. You don't boo me. I'm the reason you're there watching. You know, I put it out.

I put it out there on the line. I got this scar on my face, you know, after I fought and, you know, it's a good fight. Matt's good. Matt said, you got a new scar on your face. And that was like, it's like, yo, I got a scar from this. This ain't a joke. You know, this is real.

And then people start booing me. What am I going to? Every time I look at this scar, I'm going to say, oh, that was the time. Remember the time that people booed me? So now every time I look at the scar, it's the time I cursed out Virginia and told them to go fuck themselves. So it's a little better, you know? And you said that you looked into the crowd and you saw two people flipping you off and that's what really drove you over the edge. Is that accurate?

Yeah, it was, I looked, you know, like you kind of, I'm looking up. I'm like, am I really getting booed right now? Is this happening? And I saw two kids just, fuck you. Fuck me. Fuck you. You're sitting there doing nothing. You're sitting there drinking beers, you're a freaking loser.

You go back to your little hillbilly, freaking whatever. Don't tell me, nothing. I'm the man right here. You cheer me. So, yeah, I would do the same thing again. And if they were a little closer, I probably would have kicked the guy in his ass. But it's frustrating. And all these people on Twitter, the same thing.

I saw people after the fight and they all wanted my autograph. I said, guaranteed, freaking half these people would booing me in the stadium. I guarantee it. Oh, Al, a fight, great fight. You're a warrior, this and that. Guaranteed you would boo me too, bro. Right. Fuck yourself.

Well, how about this, Al? Two gentlemen reached out to us, and they claimed to be the ones who gave you the finger. And they want to speak to you. And they're on the plane. Bring them here right now. I take them out back. Mokays, beat their ass.

Well, Al, Nick and Stephen are on the phone right now. Oh, here we go. Lincoln, Steve. What is this? Howard Stern? They want to apologize. Nick, are you there? Oh, get out of you.

I'm here, and thanks for not kicking our ass out. I, yeah, you know, we were just booing the decision, and when it seemed like you got mad at the crowd, we're old school pro wrestling fans. We reacted immediately, marking out, and we're glad you responded to what you did. We're glad you have no apologies. We, I'm sorry.

You know, because I saw you really feel bad about that in a post-type press conference. I'm talking to you with my wife. Man, you were really jerks to that guy. and you know that's not us we were just being fans it was all show to us we know it's not that you and uh you made uh ally at quince fans for life of us by reacting like a real person i appreciate that man thank you that's awesome that's you're forgiven to our ask you stephen what do you have to say about this

you know yeah it's kind of the same thing it's almost like uh you know i feel like Al's the new, he's a Nick Diaz of Long Island. If he could give a little bit more, fuck you. You'd probably have more band, actually, dude, because we love them after that. How about this, Al? They love you now. Isn't this crazy?

This is nuts. I like it. So all's good. You guys buried the hatchet? You forgive him, Al? Yeah. I'm cool with that. I think, like, you know,

he should just rent Long Island more, and today UFC shows up at MSG, and he's on that card. Get the biggest pop of his life. Yeah, man. I'm down. and let's go. I like these.

This is good. How about this? This is good. I was ready to go nuts and these guys are good guys. Well, guys, thank you for calling. Anything else you want to say to Al? Because, look, I mean, I think, you know, you don't have to give the guy the finger.

Do you understand why he was so upset? I mean, the guy put his heart and his blood and his sweat on the line, and then he sees you guys in the crowd. I mean, it wasn't called for, right? Totally. Yeah. I mean, after 60 ounces of a beer, things happen. There we go.

I can understand that. If anyone can understand that, it's Mr. Iaquint over here. All right, guys, thank you for calling in. We appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. We'll be sure for the next time. How about that, Al? Your favorite show makes dreams come true here.

We buried the hatchet. It's unreal. This is good. You know, I made a lot of friends that weekend, cursing people out and whatnot. everyone was cool you know it was uh it was a good time i met Mitch Clark's parents oh very nice after the fight you know and uh Mitch Clark's brother was talking a bunch of trash now Mitch I have no he's cool as hell I I saw him the whole week it was you know what's up man good luck I was rude you know it's all good but uh then I saw his family after

and they have been oh man they have been brutal to me on Twitter really yeah and I lost a I didn't win the fight. What are they saying? So I'm walking with my mom and a couple of my buddies from the gym, told my teammates, and the guy goes, hey, I'm Mitch Clark's dad. I go, hey, Mr. Clark, how are you? He goes, I'm the Gabagoole.

I guess I called somebody a Gabagoole. It was like a word. I just, I don't know. I was like, all right. And then it clicked. It was like, wait, Mitch Clark's brother talked a lot of shit online. I was like, where's your other son? And they all pointed out of him.

There's this little guy sitting across the table. And I was like, I was like, man, you got to take it easy on me. You know, you're kind of brutal. Your brother won the fight. Why are you coming after me? And he, yeah, he was just like, he was cool. So he didn't have a problem. But there's a lot of thing, you know, these guys on Twitter, they, you know, they go nuts.

And then when they're in front of you, it's, can I have a handshake in an autograph? It's kind of rough. You know, they don't realize people, people. people see and you know you get all the same stuff on Twitter and it can be rough so what do you think you've gained more fans by what you did they saw the real you they saw your emotion all that stuff or are you getting a lot of hate i've seen some of the tweets sent your way what's what's the reaction been like you know what it is i'm real man if you tweet me i'm going to tweet you back and usually what happens is they'll say something bad and i'll say fuck you and then

they'll say, and then they'll say, well, this and that, and then I'll say this and that. And by the end of it, it's like, you know what, you're not that bad of a guy. I'm a fan now, Al. And it's like, why do we have to curse each other out for it to be like that, you know? So I'm figuring this whole thing out as we go along. And these fans, you know, I think they're just like me, but I don't think I'm going out there on Twitter to just hate on people. I'm, you know, it is what it is. It's just cool.

It's all good, man. It's all good. How are you celebrating? Are we going to Mexico finally? What's going on? We came right home back to New York. Yep. I just chilled west of fight a little bit, didn't do anything crazy.

I'd like to go to Mexico in June, right? Yeah, that'd be great. I was going to wreck the hotel. The hotel room had every expectation of getting demolished. but I made a good friend in Clara Clara she was old enough to be my grandmother very nice Spanish lady spoke to me taught me she taught me a few things

in Spanish you know so I was like I can't ruin the hotel room now she'd have to clean it up yeah so I just left and you know didn't wreck anything this time and I think everyone's happier because of it and Clara still likes me so it's good I saw on the Alejandro de UFC Twitter account Are you showing her a magazine of some lovely mamacitas?

Is that the same lady? Yeah, that's her. That's clarinet. She loved it. She's awesome. By the way, she told. Go ahead. I just wanted to know when you decide where you're going to tweet things from?

Like, when do you decide to go in Al-Iquintan? When do you decide that the Spanish one deserves a tweet or two? I don't know. Yeah, it's a good question. I have no idea. It's one of my favorite things in M.A. Right now, that whole thing. It's pretty crazy, right?

Yeah, I don't know. We're going to have to just keep going with it and figure it out as it goes, I guess. Do you know what you want next? Who you want next? What makes sense for you next? You're on a bit of a role here now. I have no idea, man. I want a Heineken or something.

I want to just chill, get my eye better. Do you're the other thing. Okay. Those freaking Virginia, first of all, that place is beat. Virginia, the fans booed me, not, except for, for my two friends now. I like them. They're cool. Yeah, they're cool. Yeah, they're right.

But the doctors in Virginia, right, I'm getting stitches on my eye. I thought I was getting stitches. The guy goes, is two guys, these big Virginia and whatever. They go, we got this glue here.

It's $800 a bottle. He goes, yeah, $8, $800 a bottle. Like, all right, you can glue it. And they glue it. So one guy's holding my eye and the other guy's glueing. and the guy's has the rubber gloves, his rubber gloves got stuck. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Blued to my face. So I'm sitting there. I got this guy in there. They're yelling back and forth to each other. They had to rip the gloves off my face. My face is this blood squirting down my face. I had to go yesterday again to get stitches.

I had to do it all over again in New York. have a very intelligent doctor, Dr. Friedman, fix my face up, and now we're good. But, you know, what do we got going on down there in Virginia? It's not very good. Safe to assume you're not chomping at the bit to return to Virginia anytime soon. I can pretty much guarantee you I'll never go back to Virginia. That place is wrecked to begin with. I don't need to go there.

There's no reason to go back. All right, well, we'll end it at that note. Al, I appreciate it. What a performance. I loved everything about it. The fight was good, too, right? I think, I think harping on the scorecards is the wrong way to go about things. It was an entertaining 20 minutes. Thanks, Ariel. I appreciate it, man. All the best to you. We'll talk to you very soon. You got it. Thank you. There he is. Alejandro Aiaquinta, stopping by. Great stuff from him as always. And of course, I say, And just harping on these scorecards is the wrong way to go. I mean, that's the big controversy, and we're talking about Doug Crosby and all that stuff, and we'll talk more about him after the interviews are up.

But what I mean by that is, at the end of the day, it's all about entertainment. And that's what I was getting at with the Connor McGregor stuff. And now here we are talking about him and what he did afterwards, just as much as the fight. If you can entertain the people, it's half the battle, if not more. Okay. let's go to the phone lines and welcome in someone else who had a very big win. The y'all must have forgot winner on Saturday was the one who we thought it was going to be. She certainly lived up to all of that.

And then some, what a return, an emotional return, a victorious return, a dominant return. It was everything and then some. We're talking about Giuliana Pena, who won a tremendous fight on Saturday. She joins us right now via the phone. Juliana, are you there? Yes, I am. How you doing, Ariel? I'm doing great.

I'm sure not as good as you. Congratulations on what transpired on Saturday. I just saw this text message that you sent me. You're about to go on a Superman roller coaster. You just did? Is that accurate? Yeah, I just caught off, actually. I'm in six flags over here in D.C. and I'm enjoying my win to say the least. Wow. How was it? Oh, it was amazing. In fact, everybody that I'm with just went to go on for a second time, and now I'm sitting here. Oh. I'm so sorry. I apologize. your time, honestly. It's okay. I just had lunch and then I did that roller coaster, so I'm feeling

a little crazy myself. Wow. So this, was this what you were planning on doing regardless after the fight? Just go to this theme park. I think you have family in that area, right? Because I saw you tweeting about, I think your nephew, Oscar. Is that accurate? Yeah, I have a nephew. He's actually in Seattle. My sister just had him and I wasn't ever able to meet him because I couldn't leave Spokane because I had to train the whole time. So I haven't got to meet my my eighth nephew. I don't have family over here in D.C., but yes, I was. intentionally planning on staying in the Virginia, D.C. area, just because I've never been on this side of the state before.

And I wanted to see, you know, the Lincoln Monument and the White House and blah, blah, blah. So that's what I did yesterday, and it's six flags today. So, you know, the last time we saw you, you won the contract, you won the show. Very emotional stuff, very important stuff. But is it possible that this was bigger for you after everything you've been through after the injury, all that, to come back all the way and look the way you did on Saturday and then get the bonus, which we'll get to in, in more in depth in a second.

Was it possible that this meant more to you than winning the show? Is that possible? It's not possible just because being the first female ultimate fighter winner is quite the achievement. However, this definitely is right up there with the things that I'm most proud of. I had to prove it to myself that I was going to be able to get back in there and mentally still do the things that I was capable of doing before my knee injury. So it meant a lot to me and it said a lot knowing that I can get in there and then still do what I do, you know, with or without injuring my knee.

So it was a great feeling. Did you ever doubt yourself? Did you ever think that you might not come back to the UFC, you might not fight again? You know, when this first happened, there were people were saying you're going to be out for two years. It was impossible to return from this. It was impossible to return to your old self. Did you ever have a moment where you thought, yes, it's true, I won't be able to return? No, you know, maybe at first when I very first injured it,

when the ER doctor didn't really know what was going on. So he kind of said more things were torn than they were. And so when I got down to L.A. and Dr. Ronald Cavitney worked on my knee. He was very confident that I was going to be able to make a return and said that I would be fighting within a year. And so I just made sure that I was doing everything in my power possible to make sure that that was accurate. And so I did.

And then I rehabed my knee and I was confident in it, you know, after five, six months and being able to grapple and still submit my tree. partners like I had before, hadn't skipped a beat. And so there was never a time where I was like, I'm never going to be able to fight again. I always was confident that I would return to the cage. Your coach, Rick Little, told me that you actually wanted to return in January, but they wanted to bring you along a little slow just to make sure everything was okay.

January would have been insane. That would have been less than a year. Is that true? I think he wanted me to come back in January. But I had to tell him to hold up and that the doctor wasn't going to sign me off until it had been exactly a year since surgery. And February 6th was when I had surgery, and this February was exactly a year that I had surgery. So, yeah.

And how did you feel all week long? Were you more nervous than usual? Did you feel rusty? What was going through your mind as you were preparing for your return? You know, I'm always nervous. I'm always, you know, ready to beat the chick up in the hall hallway in the hotel, you know, just because I can't handle sometimes. I feel like the anticipation of leading.

up to that moment, I'm like ready to get it over with. You know, I've been waiting for so long and then I just want to just get it over with so that I don't have to keep waiting. So I'm always very anxious. I'm always very jittery. But it wasn't more or so less because of the knee or anything like that. It was just, that's just the way I always am. You know, you're getting in a fifth fight and you're literally going to war.

So it's always going to be, you know, a real setting that starts to creep in on you, you know, so that's the way it is. You beat Dutieva in a little less than four minutes. It was very dominant, one-sided. How would you assess your performance? Were you happy with all of it, or was there anything you weren't happy about? I haven't seen the fight. I just have seen, like, highlights.

I would say that I was disappointed that I got thrown, but at the same time, I know that she's very good at that, and that's, like, kind of her bread and butter. So I was always expecting to get thrown. I just didn't think that it would be that soon and that quickly. But, you know, I'm very comfortable off my back, and I wasn't too worried about it. You know, I almost had an arm bar, I think,

but I don't think I secured the position enough, so I gave that up and gave up my back, I think, and hit a reversal. But, yeah, it pretty much played out the way that I thought it was going to play out. In my head, I was like, I'm going to get thrown, I'm going to reverse her, I'm going to get on top, and then that's going to be the end of it, and that's pretty much how it went.

And what do you think of the stoppage? Were you thinking that this is lasting a little too long? No, because I'm always like that. I'm like a weird person like that. Every time I get in Mount and I'm, you know, punching a chick and the rest stops. And I always look up at the wrist like, what are you doing? She's still moving. Like, it's not even close, you know, but somebody else described it to me as somebody that's just taking wings off of a fly, you know,

and it was just a matter of a time. And so it was almost that the stoppage was too late. But, yeah, of course, I'm always thinking, you know, they stopped the fight too early. So why were you so emotional at the press conference when you found out that you won the bonus? I mean, I know $50,000 is a huge deal, but you were moved to tears. Why did that mean so much to you? Probably because that's what I had just found out. And also, there's a couple things.

$50,000 is a lot, and I know that a lot of that's going to Uncle Sam. But at the same time, I feel like, you know, off the ultimate fighter, I didn't get any, you know, submission of the season, fight of the season, anything like that. And I had finished everybody, and I had some exciting fights in my opinion. And so I was like, I felt like I got robbed there. And then I see everybody else, but I feel like they don't have that great of performances. And then they get these bonuses. And I'm like, dang it. It's my fault because I'm injured and I can't fight. And so it sucks that I can't, you know, get in there and try to be winning these bonuses like everybody else because I'm injured. But now that I came back, I just feel like it was a testament to all the

hard work that I've been doing, not only getting back in the cage again, but also coming off of a horrific knee injury in that short amount of a time and to be able to finish someone like that in the first round. And I think it was just very emotional for me. And I wasn't expecting that. And I was doing everything in my power not to completely ball my eyes out. I think Mike was sitting next to me like, get it together, sister, get it together. Because I was about ready to just start balling my eyes out for real. Did you cry afterwards when the press conference was over? I did, yeah, I went back out there and I saw Sean Shelby, I gave him a hug and I cried to him and I said, thank you so much. You have no idea what a blessing it is to have received that.

And do you have any idea what you're going to do with the money? I'm not going to touch it. I have a phobia for some reason. I think it's just because I never really had that much money ever before. And I have a huge phobia of spending my money. and I feel like one day I'm going to look at my bank account and it's just going to be gone, you know, and I see a lot of people also that are not, you know, in the U.S. anymore and they literally, you know, have to get other jobs and they're not financially set up

or secure because they blew all their money. And I just don't want that to happen to me and I want to hold on to it as long as possible, invest it by a house, you know, do something so I can, you know, have something to show for my money as opposed to just blowing it all over the place. You know, I want to try to be as frugal with my money as possible. And that means, you know, acting like I don't. The way a millionaire stays a millionaire is acting like he's not a millionaire, you know, so I want to try to be like that. What was the most difficult part of the last year? Was it the physical toll or was it maybe, you know, seeing all these other women progress, these fights?

Ronda Rousey, I know you felt like you were close to her when you won the show. Was it almost kind of being put to the side and watching the division develop without you after you had just had that amazing moment winning the show? I think that the hardest part was just that I couldn't compete, you know? I keep seeing these girls and they lose, you know, in 10 seconds. the 17 seconds and then it gets me so furious that I just want to smash glasses up against the wall, you know, because it just inferiorates me that I can't compete. And so, yeah, that was pretty difficult. And then just the fact that at that point I physically could not compete.

I couldn't bend my knee all the way, you know, and I just felt almost like worthless, you know. So it was a really crappy time in my life. But, you know, I believe that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And that's just another stepping stone for me to realize that, you know, You can still attain things if you work hard. And I think that my win and getting back in the cage is a testament to that. What I gathered from the press conference was you'd like a top five opponent next and then fight for the belt. Does that sound about right?

No. No. You know, they put a lot of words into my mouth all the time and they always want to bring up Ronda all the time and they always want to make it look like I have this massive beef with her. My issue is that I want to be the champion one day. And, you know, I didn't get in this sport to be a top 10 fighter. and I feel like the best approach for me is to continue to take fights to get my name out there to build some hype and to get people interested in a fight like that. That way I can, you know, be more financially set up for myself in the future when that time does come.

And I think that that only happens by taking more fights. And so it's not like I think that I can leapfrog everybody and just be like, oh, I beat this girl, give me a title shot, you know, I'm not crazy and I'm not selfish like that. So I think that it just makes sense to give me a couple more fights. And then if, you know, the boss says, okay, you're ready, then I'm ready. You know, I'll do whatever they tell me. Is there someone that makes sense to you now that you've had a few days to digest the fight? Is there someone that makes sense next?

You know, it's not my style to call anybody out or to do that kind of thing. I heard a couple rumors, but I'll keep that on the underwraps, and I'll just let Sean Shelby and Dana White do their job. No, no, we love rumors. please feel free to share. Oh, no. That's between me and my bosses. I understand and I respect that.

By the way, you know, one of the things that is speaking of Dana, you know, he was a little bit, just very briefly for a brief moment trying to campaign for you to switch teams. You didn't do that. Did you ever clear the air with him and tell him and assure him that this was, you know, Sikh Jitsu was the right place for you to be even after the injury? Yeah, you know, me and Dana, we, I love his. to death. I can't say more encouraging words about the man. He has

been nothing but a godsend and a gift and has always had my back in one way or the other. And I think that it was just a big misunderstanding the whole situation what happened with my knee. And I made a mistake of calling him, bawling my eyes out on the way to the hospital. So, of course, after coming off the show, he was just frantic

and not just the way that things panned out for me and it was a little unfortunate but like I said it was a misunderstanding and um I think that he knows that it's awesome and cool of me to to stay loyal to my gym that's raised me from a babe you know I've never been anywhere else and I've uh I walked into his gym Rick Little's gym never throwing a punch in my life competing in any sort of combat sports before so I think that it's awesome that um I've been able to to take it this far and and to stick with my coach and and to not you know sell out or you know, be a gym jumper or, you know, go everywhere else to get the secret answer. I feel like if you put time on the mat and if you work hard, that it doesn't matter if you're

training in a hole in the wall, which is where we used to train, or if you're training in the most, you know, state of the art facility, hard work pays off and mat time is what's key. So as long as I'm doing that, then I shouldn't have a problem. Very well said. Okay, final thing for you and we'll let you get back to the fun and games. Do you have an idea when you would like to return? Do you need to give your body a rest or do you want to get right back in there? Yeah, I feel like I've been working this whole time, you know, just trying to come back from knee surgery and then right into fight camp.

One thing that I will say is that I'm already in shape now, so if in a couple months they want me to fight or maybe I say, no, I'm not ready to fight but stay in shape. And then, you know, someone pulls out on a, you know, injury or something like that. And then they ask me, then I'll step in on a case like that, you know. I think it's important to stay around the gym after a win, even after a win. loss and I think that for me personally I would like to take a little bit of a break and to just relax for a little bit and enjoy my win but anybody else around me is like no we'll take a fight next month so you know it's going to be a it's going to be a mix between what I want what my coaches and everybody else wants and then we'll come to a collective decision you know all in due time

there's no hurry for me right now though that's for sure which roller coaster is next what are we going on next the batwing I'm Batman. That is awesome. My son would love that. Enjoy it. Have fun. Congratulations again. Thank you so much for the time. And I really appreciate you taking out some time while you're at the amusement park. That really means a lot to us. Thank you so much, Juliana. And once again, congratulations on an amazing return. Looking forward to the next one.

Thanks, Ariel, for having me. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. All right, there she is. The Venezuelan vixen herself, Juliana, great stuff from her. And wow, that is so very thoughtful and kind that she would not even tell me beforehand that she was at this amusement park or going to be there and to sit out some of the rides and do the interview, that really means a lot. Thank you so much for her and to her. And again, what a performance that was defeating Malana Dutieva in three minutes and 59 seconds on Saturday afternoon in Fairfax, Virginia. All right, we are still trying to get a hold of Artim LeBov. I'm being told that he's having some kind of Skype phone issues,

although I think we're making some progress. Is that accurate in your, Rick? We'll see. Are you confident that we're going to get him? I really like to talk to the guy. Bueller? Is he on the phone? Oh, as we speak, how about that?

Okay. Well, in the meantime, how about some breaking news? UFC just sending out this press release moments ago. Anti-doping expert Jeff Novitsky joins UFC as vice president of athlete health and performance. Novitsky to lead development of UFC athlete health health and performance program. Let's read this. I'm reading it for the first time.

This was just sent to me. In a further commitment to the health and safety of its athletes, UFC announced today the hiring of Jeff Novitsky as vice president of athlete health and performance. Novitsky will spearhead the development of the organization's clean initiative education program designed to ensure that every athlete competes with natural ability on an even playing field. A federal agent for the United States Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, since 2008, Novitsky led investigation into companies suspected of illegal distribution of dietary supplements and designer steroids. Prior to joining the USFDA, Novitsky was a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service, aka the IRS, not Irwin R. Scheister, the Internal Revenue Service in their criminal investigation department, where he oversaw and investigated some of the highest profile performance enhancing drug PD cases in professional sports.

A former collegiate athlete himself who played basketball for San Jose State University from 1989 to 1991, Novitsky graduated with a degree in accounting. UFC is committed to year round, is committed year round to the health and safety and education of its athletes. Led by Novitsky, UFC will continue to invest in state-of-the-art sports science studies to further develop its out-of-competition PED testing and enrich its education and prevention programs. This is a quote from CEOO of the UFC Lawrence Epstein. There's no bigger advocate of clean professional sports than Jeff Novitsky. when we announced our commitment for an enhanced drug testing program in February,

we wanted to ensure that the best people would be helping the program moving forward. And Jeff will lead the UFC in developing the most comprehensive anti-doping policy in professional sports. This is from Novitsky himself. This is fascinating stuff, by the way. I am thrilled to be joining a world-class organization like the UFC that is committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure all of its athletes are competing in a clean sport. I am confident that UFC will be able to create a new gold standard testing. program and implement it as so a sustainable and level playing field is provided for all its athletes, end quote. Almost done here as part of its broader athlete health program, excuse

me, which includes the athlete accident insurance plan implemented in 2011. UFC. announced in February the development of an expanded drug testing program that will increase out-of-competition testing and pledge significant financial commitments for targeted testing protocols. Novitsky will play a leading role in the creation and implementation of the program scheduled to be unveiled in July 2015. Novitsky, who will join the UFC later this month in the organization's Las Vegas headquarters, will be made available to the media in the coming weeks.

Well, that's very exciting. And Kevin Ioli of Yahoo Sports tweeted this out, just moments ago. He said that Jeff Novitsky was the one who investigated Barry Bonds and Balco, in that famous case, years ago. A huge step forward, a huge photocomero.

confidence for anyone who is considering that the UFC is not serious about cleaning up the sport. This is a big deal. A guy like this would not attach himself to some rinky dink operation. So this is very exciting and kudos to everyone involved for making this happen. I hope to talk to him soon and I wish him the best. Jeff Novitsky joining the UFC to help clean up the sport and further cement the fact that in 2015 the UFC is interested in. in promoting a clean sport. How about that? Good stuff there. All right, we're going to go inside the vault now. And then afterwards, we'll get your questions and comments. Hopefully, our Tim will join us for a few minutes. We'll also talk about the Doug Crosby thing.

Speaking of which, as we go inside the vault here and we give a tip of the cap to the team Longocera, and by the way, I saw some people say, oh, you're just biased, you're biased. You know, that that's why you're bringing up this Doug Crosby's thing. Look, the bottom line is, and everyone who is thinking otherwise is missing the point. I don't care if he got the score right. I don't care if he nailed it. If you have any kind of conflict good or bad with a fighter, you should not be reffing or judging that fight. It's the same reason why Ricardo Almeida shouldn't be, you know, judging a Frankie Edgar fight or any one of those Hensel Gracie guys. Doug Crosby should not be judging a Ray Longo fighter's fight. And I have been trying for over a year. I've been trying for over a year. I've been

trying for over a year. Let me see if there's anything. To get Doug Crosby on the show. Remember UFC 171? He had that controversial scorecard main event, Robbie Loller and Johnny Hendricks. I wanted to have him on the show then. Couldn't get it done. I got the runaround. Too long of a story and quite frankly a pretty silly story too long to go into at this point. But I got the run around. I couldn't get it done. And it wasn't the first time there was a controversial scorecard. There was one at UFC 133. There was one at UFC He won 12, Abu Dhabi, the Frankie Edgar B.J. Penn fight. So I wanted to have them on, and it's hard to get judges on. I get it. They don't want to do interviews. But I tried. I tried for several months to get

him on. Didn't happen. And then I knew about the history. And there's only so much I could go into when people talk to off the record, you can't speak about it. But I did speak to Ray Longo this morning. And this is what he wanted me to relay. He claims that Doug Crosby has had inappropriate relationship with other fighters related to his gym, connected to his gym, and also Bellmore kickboxing also on Long Island. And when he says inappropriate, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but just it's too chummy. You can't be, you have to be unbiased if you're going to judge or rep these fights. Longo also claiming telling me this morning that a girl in his gym, who he did not name, had a court order of protection for almost three years.

against Doug Crosby, and it was enforced by two judges. He said to me, is that the guy that I want judging my fighters? There is a history there. As Al talked about, there was talks about him appearing in one of his films. He works as a stunt coordinator. He works in the film business. Is he mad at Al Ayquinta for not following through, for not being in it? We don't know. But even if there was that conversation, that alone should exclude him from judging.

And I do believe that Ray Longo deserves some of the blame here as well. If you feel so strongly about this guy judging your fighters, if you think that this shouldn't happen, if you think that there has been inappropriate activity between him and your fighters, then you need to do whatever possible to make sure that your fighters aren't put in that position. You can't say I found out an hour before and I tried to fix it. That's too late. anytime your fighter fights in a state or province anywhere in the world, you need to make sure

that this doesn't happen. That's part of your job, in my opinion. And he recognizes that. And he says he has a lawyer writing to all the commissions saying that they don't want to be put in this position again. It's up to him. And it's up to him to tell the UFC, we, no one, no one can, you can't cry afterwards. If you're not going to talk about it, if you're not going to be upfront about it, then how is anyone going to know? That's all he. he really wanted to say about the situation. He said he doesn't want to take away from his fighters. He doesn't want to get into a pissing match and argument, anything like that with another judge because he feels it's not about him. He doesn't want to take away from his fighters who have

some big fights coming up. Eddie Gordon, Al Jermaine Sterling, of course, Chris Wybin next month. He did say this. I will always protect my fighters. In fact, I'm going to the gym right now to train him. I produce winners, he said. This guy is a loser. He doesn't get one second of my time. That's what Ray Longo had to say about Doug Crosby. I have reached out to Doug Crosby once again to ask him to come on the show. I said, would you like to come on the show? The response that I got was a smiley face. I would love to give him a platform to defend himself and not make this a one-sided story. But the bottom line is, as of right now, I don't believe he should be. reffing Longo Fighters' fights.

Even if he got it right, that's not the point. Good or bad. If there's any kind of conflict, you should not be in that position. And I know that the talent pool for refs and judges in MMA is a very shallow one. I know that. It's hard to get around these things. There are going to be maybe six, seven degrees of separate. Maybe. Who knows?

But this is a very unique one. And it's time for the people involved to speak up if they truly feel that something wrong is going on. if they feel like it's unconsure to be put in this position, you have to speak up. You can't just rely on us to dig up what's going on behind the scenes of your gyms. You can't. You have to speak up.

It can't always be off the record. You have to speak up. This is what he wants to talk about right now. Hopefully we'll get more. If you want to talk about in the future, he always knows that there's a platform here. And it's not about me being biased or anything. Look, I watch the fight again.

I think you can make a very strong case, 29, 28, Mazvedal. There's no way, in my opinion, was 3027. 29, 28, Mazvedal, I would have no. no problem with that. It's a super close fight. Kind of like watching Forrest Griffin, Stefan Bonner won. It's very tough to call that. Five different judges may call it differently. This one even tougher, in my opinion. These are tough fights to call it. It's not always about the stats. It's not always about fight metric. I can assure you of that. But again, if a guy is chummy with a fighter,

they shouldn't be judging. If there's a conflict, a bad one, a negative one with a fighter, they shouldn't be judging. It's good or bad. And all the blame shouldn't just be on Doug. Maybe subconsciously. I'm not calling him a bad guy. I'm not saying anything. I want to speak to him.

But the fact that there is a history there, we should just, there's enough people out there who should, you know, who should be able to fill in and be that third judge. There are enough judges out there. We don't have to be put in this position.

It takes away from the fighters, the fight. It's unnecessary. So now that it's out there, to a degree, what the root of the problem is, what the real issue is between them, only they could speak of that. But I think enough has been said to where we know that Doug Crosby should not be judging a Team Longo fighter. Speaking of Team Longo, one of my favorite people to interview is Matt Serra, because he's always very entertaining. And I wanted to go inside the vault since they're

coming off a big win. There's a lot of talk about MMA in New York. I wanted to go inside the vault and look back at his final win inside the octagon, at least for now. UFC 109, it was in Las Vegas. He defeated Frank Trigg. And the best part of this interview, look how skinny Matt Serra looks. He looks like a stick. It's unbelievable. Like a completely different guy you would think this interview happened 20 years ago. Amazing stuff. Here's my post-fight interview with Matt Sarah following his win over Frank Trigg in February of 2010, UFC 109. Ariel Hawwani, UFC 109 in Las Vegas, Nevada with Matt Sarah, actually in his dressing room, the victorious Matt Sarah. That was pretty impressive stuff.

I might look a little shorter, but that's because I don't got my sneakers on. And you're not wearing lifts. Let me ask you something. Just scroll, go down for a second. What are those British knights? No, the Nike? Look at that. Nike SBs, baby.

Unbelievable, man. But go ahead. What are we talking about? All right, well, very impressive performance. April 2007. That's the last time you tasted victory inside the octagon. something's happening in the fight. Yes, it's been a while since you tasted victory.

How does it feel? Yeah, well, thanks for rubbing that in. But listen, you got to think the good with the bad. Like, dude, for instance, you know a guy's got to be tough and make it in life if he's got... If the guy... Your parents name is Ariel. Ariel, and you're like, man, it's like a boy named Sue.

You got to... It's like survival of the fittest. You got to survive. So I'm proud of you, man. But let's get back to what you were talking about with me and winning. You looked very impressive. you hit him with the right hook you know what I was working the body a lot

and uh he was coming back and I know my head movement kind of really sucked but you know some I felt the punches when he was coming back with weren't doing anything you know so uh you know I felt that you know

if it was going to be a battle of exchanges that I'd probably end up on top just from my experience in sparring you know and I land that combination a lot But we were planning to work the body, come up high with a punch or a kick. And I was well prepared in case he tried to get me down, which I thought he was going to try to do. Did you hear you at any point?

Nah, nothing. I'm not sorry, but no, I'd have to be vain. He hit me back a couple of times, but it just, you know, I sparse him. My neck is like my shock exorba. And plus with me, you got to punch down. So, you know. It looked like he was a little upset about the stoppage. Did you think it was a good stoppage?

Come on, I mean, you know, come on. What do you think? Do you see his eyes rolling back? He was done, bro. I mean, I stayed on him when he hit the floor, and I hit him a couple, I think, at least two more times. And I think for his own safety, that's the right thing. But, you know, he's a warrior. And, you know, I'm sure I would have said the same thing.

Right, so now here you are. I mean, you get this first round victory. You look very impressive. It seems as all of a sudden Matt Sarah is a contender again. You think so? Do you agree? Man, you know what? It's not for me to say, you know, I'm just out here to fight.

I'm looking forward to going home and celebrate my daughter's birthday. That's all I care about right now. It seems though you got a little emotional talking about your daughter afterwards. I did. What the hell's mad on me? My father. Which fight was bigger? I mean, obviously the GSP fight was huge, but it was so much on the line here.

And a lot of people were quick to wanting to doubt you here. You know what I mean? A lot of people were looking to write Matt Sarah off. This has got to be pretty big for you. You know, when I come out to that music, you know, I told you before, man. I'm like Rocky with Uma Plaza's. Write that down. That entrance is amazing.

Every time you come out to that song, for some reason, due to the smile on your face, it does. Me too, me too. It just makes me happy, man. I love the Rocky movies. I love Rocky 1 and 2. As it got on and it started getting more and more, Adrian started becoming a real bitch. And then Rocky wore the high socks. And I just, Rocky 1 and 2 were money.

The rest of them, I love, I'll watch them all. But, you know, the ones in the 80s, the last one was pretty good. Okay, so. I still got some stuff in the basement area, is what I'm saying. You do. Okay. And it's good because when we talked to you a couple of days ago, your energy was a little low. But now you're back up.

So it's good to see. You know, that's what happens when. Oh, yeah, you knock someone out. You get happy. So how are you going to celebrate? Lots of pasta, some Parmesan? Two parties when I get home. I got my in-laws.

And then I think the same night I'm going over to my mother's. It's a problem, bro. But I'm going to try to keep it under control to, you know, see what's up, see what comes up next. More importantly, I hope that this is the best UFC card ever that I'm on right here. I hope every fight ends, like, viciously, except not by knockout, so I get the bonus. Yeah, you, you're a little nervous about that, or do you think you got, because, I mean, thus far, we're talking to you midway through the card, but you got this in your back pocket right now. It was a pretty good, pretty good punch.

Good talk. That's it, all right. Okay. Matt, well, pleasure is always, man. Atmeds, sir, dot net, Ariel. Dude, you're up there with my favorite reporters. Up there. You might be the guy.

We got a thing going. I like this guy's good. This guy's going to be around. This guy's going to be like the Harrod Kossel of Eminem. dude, that's the biggest compliment you'll probably ever get in your life. It's all going to be downhill from here. It's all downhill, bro, all right?

Where's the gym opening? You know what? Give me a card, I'll let you know. You don't want to plug it? I want it to plug it in like a month. Matt sarah.net. I want you to be there, though, a grand opening. What do you got something to do?

Absolutely nothing. For you, anything. Thank you, brother. Harold Cosell. Great stuff for Matt Sarah. I love that. It's been a while since I watched that one. In the locker room.

Those are the best. ended up being his last UFC win. Fought one more time at UFC 119, lost Chris Lytle. But who knows if New York gets legalized in... Excuse me, if MMA gets legalized in New York, who knows? Maybe Matt Serra will come out of retirement, the big rematch against Matt Hughes. Another piece of breaking news before we get to your questions and comments. Melvin Galard is supposed to fight this weekend for World Series of Fighting,

but MMAJunky.com reporting that Melvin Galard is supposed to fight this weekend for World Series of Fighting, but MMOJonkees. has been pulled from the card. And actually, at 110, I was informed to this on my phone, but I missed it. So I just reached Shatu Ali Abdel-Aziz, executive vice president of WSOF. He told me that we are three days from the Wands, and he doesn't have any medicals. That is the main reason, but it doesn't help that he refused all interviews except one trashing WSUF, and he hasn't made weight for us yet. I'm letting Ray handle it. That's from Ali. So that is unfortunate. Melvin Galard is supposed to fight this weekend. An interesting WSOF card. That's on Friday.

It's a very busy week, or weekend, I should say, in the world of mixed martial arts. Bel-Tor is back with a very solid card. It's the return of Will Brooks, favorite of ours on this show, defending his title against Dave Jansen. Dave finally getting a shot at the Belator title, former WC fighter. Joe Schilling returning, Marcyne Held on the card, Alexander Volkov. I like this card. How about this sneaky one on the undercard? Joey Beltran versus Brian Rogers.

So that's Friday, 9 p.m. Eastern on Spike TV. And then also on Friday is WSOF. Main event is Honey Marks versus Dave Branch in the light heavyweight tournament. I don't love the idea of Dave Branch fighting in a light heavyweight tournament. He's the middleweight champion there. I don't know. I think it's a little risky. And what happens if he wins?

He's going to have both titles? I guess that's not the biggest deal for. an organization that doesn't run as many shows as the UFC, but I don't know. Nick Newell also fighting on the card, so that's fun, fighting in his home state of Connecticut, and the big one that a lot of people are looking forward to, including myself, Phoenix Jones making his World Series of Fighting debut, Ben Fodor, against Emmanuel Wallow. So that's a lot of fun on Friday. And then, of course, on Saturday, it's the UFC in Poland, also on Friday, by the way, RFA.

Very busy weekend coming up for now. Let us go to your questions and comments. because we have a lot to discuss. Hello. Yes. What's going on back there? Is it a stressful day? It hasn't been the easiest one after last week was super clean.

This one was a little messier. I think the thing that people forget sometimes is, and not giving us any excuses like people do after, I love when people say, here's an excuse, but it's not an excuse. Live show, A, show with no breaks, so you can't really,

regroup, right? We can't, we can't huddle up. We can't speak. We can't game plan. We got to go on the fly. You're kind of out there on your island doing your thing. The other guys are doing their thing. I'm doing my thing. It's tough. I think we rebound. You know, the technical difficulties are sometimes, you know, a bummer, but we get through them. What's going on with our Tim? Can we just cap this? I mean, I was talking briefly with John Kavanaugh, who's trying to help us out. He's in Germany and they can't reach him. He has a bad connection over there? Yeah. Phone. not so good, Skype, not so good. But he's very apologetic and he does not get a ban

because he was doing his very best, as were we. Okay. It was not anybody's fault. So I saw somebody saying is R-10 ban. Actually, I think it might have been Brian Tucker who said that. What? And I was like, no way. No.

He was doing his best. It just couldn't work. His phone was inaudible and his Skype was not connecting. Well, these things happen in MNMM. or on the MMA hour. By the way, update from Doug Crosby saying that he is not up for coming on the show today, but we'll talk soon. So there you have it.

I hope I verbalize that, you know, I'm not trying to throw the guy into the bus. I'm not trying to trash him. I want to have both sides of the story, but it's hard to do that when both sides don't really want to talk about it, and one side's talking a little more than the other. I mean, it's physically impossible to get a hold of this man. And if he doesn't want to do it, fine, but I got to go with what I got. you know what I mean and do you get what I'm trying to say about it not being the point like people are saying but but he got it right that's not the point if there's any kind of connection you shouldn't be judging those fights it's not that hard right no I mean that makes sense but I think there are people who would say he shouldn't be judging fights at all oh well that's a whole other story well that is a whole other story let's go to the questions okay first question Mendes and Pena is Chad the feather Chad Mendes, that is, the featherweight title gatekeeper.

I don't see anyone outside of Aldo that could get by him. And let's start with that, and then we'll go to the next one. So, Chad Mendes. Get out of here. Featherweight title, gatekeeper. Gatekeeper is someone way lower in the rankings. Gatekeeper is, you know, like, they used to call it Czech Congo a gatekeeper. Yeah, but we've heard this before to be like the, as the guy who has essentially ascended as high as they can and won't get that next title shot.

That's not a gatekeeper. Okay. A gatekeeper to me is. If you get past this guy... Ignore the word gatekeeper. Is Chad Mendez the guy stopping other contenders from getting the title shot? No, because Ricardo Lamos wasn't getting a title shot. Right?

If he beat Chan Mendez? Yeah, did you watch that fight? That's not a fight that you can resell to the public. UFC 169, his fight against Aldo? Yeah, I mean... Ricardo Lamas wasn't getting a title shot. I would be very surprised where I would have been very surprised if he would have received a title shot.

If Aldo would have won against McGregor and Lamas won, I could see Aldo maybe moving up. It's just, I have a hard time seeing them sell that final. I still have a hard time seeing. The point is, when you lose to everyone except for the champion, you can't be considered a gatekeeper A. And B, if the guy is knocking off like, you know, these, if they would have booked Mendez versus McGregor,

it would have made no sense whatsoever. Because that's a fight that obviously Mendez could win. And now you're killing off people who have a chance to fight. for the belt. But if they book him in these fights with guys who have a loss to Aldo or aren't close to Aldo or whatever, then it's fine. What he did on Saturday was reassert that he is arguably the second best featherweight in the world. Until McGregor fights, it's him or Frankie Edgar up there. You can make a case for either one. It was arguably his most impressive performance in the UFC. It was a huge win over a top guy. Something people have said, you know, he hasn't fought a top guy

recently. This was a huge win for him. And it gave him a lot of confidence. I want to see what they do next. If Edgar beats Faber, let's see that fight. That's the fight to make. And I still think that there, because Dana White loved that fight, because it was such a great fight, there's a chance he might get the crack. I don't think he'll get it so soon. To me, the one that he has to have his eye on is obviously if McGregor wins, because that is a whole new scenario for him or if Edgar beats favor. Okay, our second part is Giuliana Pena biting off more than she can fit in her mouth? never mind Chew, when talking about Ronda Rousey after only one fight. Well, I think she just cleared that up, right?

I think she just said on the show that people try to get her to talk smack about Ronda, try to put words in her mouth. I mean, I think she said all the right things in this interview. And I think that there's a story there being on the Ultimate Fighter, being friends with Misha Tate and all that stuff. But I think it would be silly. Look, Rhonda has her year lined up. She has Betcha Hayog's first.

She's got the movies. and then I think enough time will pass where we'll hopefully get the cyborg fight. There are other people in between. There's just sky involved. If she beats Misha Tate, that could happen. So Ronda's busy. I think we have to bring Juliana along a little slower,

build her up. She's someone the fans could get behind, but there's no need to rush her in there, in my opinion. Our next question. Of course, she also has Stephanie McMahon, Ronda Rousey. What did you think of Chad essentially telling the referee to stop the fight, Chad Mendes? Should we be worried about

referees being persuaded by fighters on finishes, penalties or anything else. Also, Chad Mendes admitted that he landed the first big shot he was holding back a bit because he felt like the finish was imminent and he didn't want to cause any unnecessary damage. Could this be a problem personally for Chad or other fighters who bring their conscience into the cage? No, not necessarily. I think it says a lot about him. I mean, Brian Stan was in a similar position against Alessio Sokara. We've seen this before. I thought that the fight went a little long. I thought that the, the Pena fight went a little long as well. But it's it's the gray area that will always be an issue in this sport.

It's so subjective. There's no clear cut line as to when you should stop a fight. So, hey, if a fighter is going to be like, look, the guy's out, and even Ricardo didn't argue with it, then more power to him. Now, it's, you know, it's a slippery slope. You don't want to get involved in that and get caught. I mean, we've seen people come back. Congo, Barry, the Scott Smith, Pete Self. I mean, we've seen people come back from the brink of defeat.

but in that case I think you can tell when your opponent is on the brink of defeat and I think it just proves once again Chad and all those guys they're very

they're very honorable guys Team Alpha male how can you hate on them I love the thing I love most about Team Alpha male is when they talk about the weight classes they always say 35s

45s you notice that yeah it's a very wrestling thing but they all do it and they all sound the exact same you ever notice that Benavides have I talked about this before

they all sound the exact same I don't know if it's a Sacramento thing thing or what Faber, Benavides, Mendez, they all sound the same. Yeah. It's bizarre. No, I hear it.

You would just hope that the refs don't go based on that. Yes, that's the most important point. Thank you very much. You can't listen to that guy and you don't want, so, oh, I get the point. You don't want to have a guy kind of, you know, sway the, the ref into stopping a fight by his words. But in this case...

Yeah, I mean, clearly in this case, he backed up and Lamas wasn't even moving. Like, this was clearly a case where it was time to stop the fight. So definitely not a problem for Chad Mendes. Hopefully he doesn't let up in a fight when he's essentially, you know, winning but doesn't have it secured yet. That would be a worst case scenario for him. But I mean, nothing terrible happened here. Probably could have been stopped a little sooner.

Yeah. And I can't think of a scenario or a past fight where a fighter has campaigned for the fight to stop unfairly. And the ref stopped the fight. Can you? I feel like it's happened. Really? Relatively recently, like as in, you know, in the past five years, I feel like it's happened a few times. Now, I don't think what happens is the fighter who is losing comes back to win. But I think there have been cases where that fighter wasn't necessarily out or submitting or losing. And they could have continued. But I don't think I can remember a case offhand where that fighter went on to win, you know, because of something. Like there was nothing that changed an outcome. come in a way that was catastrophic. But, you know, I'm sure the people out there will have examples and they can tweet them.

By the way, how about the great Marion Renaud tweeting, listening to the MMR with Ariahuanian teaching at the same time? That's multitasking at its finest. Hopefully the kids are getting an education right now, learning a little bit. That's a first for us. No, we love the kids. Well, it's the first that a teacher is actually listening and teaching at the same time, at least that I know of.

Yeah, I mean, possibly, yeah, hopefully, hopefully this starts a trend. Yes. Put the MMA hour in every classroom. Yes. Show it like, I used to watch Disney. They used to replay the same Disney movie over and over in elementary school. Hopefully they can swap that out for the MMA hour. I think it's more educational and better programming.

Next question. So what did you make of Ia Quinta's decision? Was it right? Was it wrong? Can you explain it? Hmm. Okay. Let's go round by round.

Mazvedal won the first, right? Yep. Everyone agrees. 10-9, though. I saw some people throw out a 10-8. That wasn't a 10-8. Not in my opinion, but I wouldn't be outraged if that was. The second.

Okay, let's skip the second. Third round, I think most people agree was for Ally Quinta, right? Do you agree? I would score it for him, but I would say it's not as definitive. as the first round. Not as definitive. Right. I thought the leg kicks. I thought the, the, the octagon control. I thought he was one pressing forward. You look at the stats. It was fairly close, but I'm giving it to Al. Now, the second one is the toughest one. That's the gray one. That's why I feel like you could go 29, 28 for either. And I could totally, I'm not arguing anyone who picks it,

29, who judges it 29, 28 for Masvedal. I can also see why you can judge it as 29, 28 for Al. I don't think that there is a, look, I don't think 3027 is crazy, but to me, 29, 28 for Mazvedal makes a whole lot more sense. I do think Al did enough to win that third round. I think you could justify 3027 Mosvado. Yeah, yeah. I'm not saying that's how I scored it. Yeah. I'm saying you could justify that.

I'm saying you could justify, you know, a lot of scores in that fight. But I think that the problem here is it's much more indicative of, it's much more indictment on Mazvedal style than anything that happened in the judging. Who's that? Is that Artem? Let's find out. Hang tight. Got a nice little tweet here from my old pal, Todd Harris. My old colleague at UFC Tonight.

Hey, Ariel Hawani at MMA Junkie. How about this announced team for World Series of Fighting Number 20? Todd Harris, Joey Varner, Cage Side, and the great Henzo Gracie. That is a lot of fun. Hensel Gracie calling the action this Friday on NBCSN. Penzo Gracie also in the inside the vault clip, in the back, if you notice, you know, watching the other fights in the chair. Who was that? It was a ghost.

It was nobody. No one? Nobody. Geez. Second time today. So what I was saying was Mazvedal, you could have predicted that. It happens to him every fight. It's the same way.

He's too comfortable. He's never put in danger, so he never feels the need to kind of go on the attack. He lets his opponent get off too much and, you know, he doesn't respond with urgency. And it's not indicative of somebody who's, you know, not winning a fight. It's indicative of somebody who doesn't feel hurt, who doesn't feel pressured. He never felt like he was out of control. So, I mean, it's just his style does not make for easy judging decisions. Even if, you know, and in my opinion, I thought, you know, he was the better,

fighter that night, for sure. Even if that's the case, it doesn't look good for the judges because it's not that he takes that. I wouldn't even say it takes his foot off the gas, which is what, you know, is commonly said. I'd say he just looks too comfortable. He, he's content to just kind to just kind of stand there back, you know, back up, land accurate shots, but not go on the aggressive because he's like, well, I'm landing the better punches anyway, so, you know, you should know, but that's not how it works. I mean, we've seen an MMA judging that they're not necessarily going to see that as effective offense, you know, being a counterstriker, and especially not in the way that he is. So if he went on the offensive in the second and third round, the same way

he did in the first, it would have been, you know, much better judging-wise for him. Try one more time. I'll read the next one and then we'll... Well, wait. I just wanted to add something to that while you go through the... I agree there. I think when a guy's kind of strolling around and fixing his hair and smiling after he gets hit, sometimes the judges don't like that. I don't necessarily like it. I never understood this thing of getting punched in the face and then smiling. I know what you're doing.

I know you're trying to, you know, shrug it off and say it didn't bother you. But I kind of feel like it bothers you when you do that. Like to me, when you do it, it makes me think like, ooh, that one stung him. You know? Nothing. Nothing. Tell these people to stop calling. You know what?

It might be, okay, if it happens, we may have to disconnect that mother because it might be some, you know, people. Anyway. What was up with that tweet you sent earlier? You'll see later. Oh, okay. A little surprise for you. Wow. Okay.

Okay, moving on. Did you just clap? Doug Crosby, I did, yeah. You mentioned on Twitter that he has a long history of beef with Longo and his camp, and you said you were going to talk about it on the show. As to why he was judging that fight, I felt he was the only judge to make the correct call in the raging Al-Mazved al-Fa fight, regardless of any feud. So here's the question, why did he judge that fight, and how would the commission go about it now? Well, look, I don't know why he judged a fight. I suspect at this point, with all this coming out,

that he's not going to be judging any Longo fighter's fights anytime soon. I do think that there is a lot of blame to go around here. I think that Longo needs to protect his fighters and make sure that he is not judging their fights. And it's not enough to say, I found out an hour before or whatever, which is what he said. You got to make sure it doesn't happen. Now, I laid out the history that I can share. I laid out that there's bad blood, the rest is up to them.

If they want to talk, the forum is yours. I'd love to have you on the show. If you don't, let's just not have this happen again. Do we have a problem with them assigning judges to fights too late? As in, if they found out just before, that's a problem, because this should be something that's handled ahead of time. Let's be honest. I mean, Al said that this is common knowledge.

It's not really common knowledge. How is the Virginia Commission supposed to know about this? If you don't talk about it. Yeah. You know? But, I mean, if this was assigned and they knew of it earlier, they could have made it common knowledge. Sure. But why not just say...

If Team Sarah Longo finds out, hey, you know, Doug Crosby is judging this fight, and they find out three hours before, a day before, they can make adjustments. They can say, hey, we have this problem with him. Can we, you know, do something to switch this? If they find it an hour before, then there's nothing that side can do in that, like, from that point. on. Now, certainly, you're making a valid point about making it more public knowledge, but maybe that's not their style. They don't want to, you know, defame the guy or whatever the case may be. But why not just try to, you know, get ahead of the game and contact, when you're going to a new commission or one that you're right, why not just say, look, this is our situation.

We don't want this happen. It's like Brock Leser when he said he didn't want Steve Mazegati. You can do that, right? You can, if you're a fighter, you can request to not have a referee. a certain individual one. So yeah, I mean... And let the UFC know that when they go overseas or whatever, this, you know, the UFC uses Doug. Yeah. Let the UFC know that we don't want to be put in this position.

How hard is that? And they're doing it now. I think they learned their lesson. Yeah. It's very unfortunate. And again, we'd love to have them on to talk. But, hey, this is what we have. The bottom line is, the most important thing is,

it doesn't matter if you got right or wrong or whatever. There's a connection there. And it's not a positive one. So let's just make sure it doesn't. doesn't happen. Okay, let's talk about the most important thing that happened that night. I'd like to hear how you guys felt about Al-A Quinta's post-fight interview. It elicited to two very different reactions. Some saw it as idiotic and unprofessional. Others loved it. To me, it was a genuine display of emotion, and I loved it. I loved it too. Look, you want your guys,

your fighters to be swearing at the crowd and saying, but look, I mean, this is the UFC, and I think Dana White has done it a couple times. Not on that kind of, stage, not on that form in front of a crowd, but you know, on Twitter and things of that nature, it's, you know, it's one of those things where you're like, well, look, if you do it, then why can I do it? Now, do you want this to happen all the time? Absolutely not. But in that moment, he was fired up about the crowd, about the way the fight went, I'm sure, about the judges situated, all that stuff. And he let them know. And it all, to me, it's all part of the evolution of Aliquinta, who, you know, when he first came into the UFC was a little vanilla,

a little blind and he's really coming into his own. We've talked about this at length leading up to this fight. And I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, look, if the fans are going to take it as a joke and come on, you know, it's like a typical troll. When you confront them, they're like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it. And that's the way these people are. So if they're going to take it that way, then why can't you give it back to them?

Why is it? Why are the customers always right? These guys work their ass off. They bleed, they sweat, they tear. They spend hours in the gym. If you're going to sit there and boom, because you paid for a ticket, then why can't you get some of them back? I have no problem with that. This is a big boy sport. Okay. And if you brought your five-year-old son to the event, then you have to deal with those repercussions.

If you're going to sit there and flip a guy off, tell me sucks, then I have no problem with a person saying it back to you. No problem at all. Yeah. I mean, I have nothing to add to that. Like, Al, that was incredible. Al's a human 100 emoji. He's the man. That was incredible. And what kind of person is? sits there and flips off a pro athlete that you just paid money to watch. It was weird. Especially since they don't really seem to have any animosity toward Al personal. Yeah. But I mean, they did say 60.

Just talk to them. They seemed like nice enough dude. But it just seemed like I think the key, the key, you know, potion in the mix here is the 60 ounces of alcohol that they consumed. Yes, of course. And that's a problem in itself. But I have no problem with a athlete giving it right back to the fact. If they're going to be rude, if they're going to be disrespectful, screw you.

You don't deserve it. I mean, buying a ticket is giving you the right to sit there and take it all in and be a part of the show. But it doesn't give you the right to be disrespectful and rude, in my opinion. It doesn't. I mean, that clip will limit in for me. Shout out to John Anick. That was incredible too. By the way, how great was the part where he was like, he was asking them the question,

like they're really going to respond. He's like, are you guys bullying me? You better not be bullying me. The sincerity with which he asked that question, was my favorite. I have two favorite parts. That's the number one. He was like, are you booing me? And I was hoping that somebody was actually going to answer. And then the second one was just John Attic's reaction. Yeah. It was very reminiscent of Kanye West and Mike Myers when Kanye said George Bush doesn't care about black people. He just, you know, he was surprised, but then he just kept on going.

The eyes got big and then time to move along and handle it like a pro. And one more thing. if you're wondering how the UFC feels about it and if they're upset, just look to the fact that they posted the clip online. That's right. They bleeped it out, but they still posted it online. They still wanted the world to see it in case you missed it.

So that says it all. Mine, when I was watching it on my TV station, the audio cut out for that part. Not me. You heard it. I heard it. My audio cut out. Oh, no, I heard it.

Huh. I wonder. You know, I watched it on TSN in Canada. I don't know if they're okay with that sort of thing. I think that's what it is. I think internationally I may have played because when I saw that clip circulating on Vine, I was like, I didn't hear it.

I knew, obviously I knew what had happened. Sure. But I didn't hear the explicit language. Anyway, next for Guida. Sounds like Clay Guida is interested in returning to the lightweight division. Considering he has a win over both the current of former champions, do you think this is a good move for him? Who would make a good return fight for him?

Ooh. First off, how about that post-fight interview or what? whatever that was. That wasn't really an interview. That was just him going going off script. What did he cover there? He covered Obama. He covered Easter. Gave a shout out to the people who actually were there in person. He gave a shout out to, oh, he gave a shout out to the main eventers. He gave a shout out to Hafelde Los Angeles and took a shot at him sort of about the whole

jaw thing. What else did he do? He, uh, vouched for wrestling. Vouch for wrestling. That's right. Oh, yeah, the whole tournament thing. Man, he was great. covered a lot of ground. He covered a lot. And then I love the fact that there was no follow-up question. Look, if you're Clay Guida and you see Anthony Pedison, Dosangos, and in particular, Dosangos, who wins the belt, doing what he is doing as of late? And you were once in that division and you're cutting this weight to go down to 145. You can't help but wonder, you know, what am I doing down here? If I beat these guys, I could be up there at the top. Now, we all know it doesn't work that way. But I would have no problem with him going up to 155.

Dosanjo's being a champion now gives him that path to the title wins a few, who knows? We see a rematch. In fact, if I were him, I would go up to 155 because of that reason, solely because of that reason. Yeah.

And who's he facing when he goes up? That's a good question. Who's he facing when he goes up? Let's look at the rankings here. I think it would have to be, I mean, that is a loaded lightweight division. That's the other problem. Well, you know, right now I see, according to the UFC rankings, that Ally Quinta is number 15 and Mazzal is 14.

And that's updated? Oh, I don't know. I don't think it is. I think it's updated. But my point is, I don't really think it needs to move all that much. Like, I think Al goes to 14 and Mazadal 15 if you want. You know what I mean? I don't think there's a lot of activity there on the back end.

I wouldn't hate, you know, an Iiquinta-guida fight. What do you think? Do you think Iaquinta deserves a bigger fight than that? Yeah, I do. You do? I think he should go higher than 14. But you thought he lost the fight. Yeah, but I don't write the record book.

He won. No, I know, but I'm just asking if you had your way. And I also think Mazvedal's style is very tough to handle and that there may be guys higher up in the division that are easier opponents for Al. And I think he's going to be in the top 10 soon. So I would rank him higher. But anyway, the point is.

I would like to see Greta back at 155 because he has wins over those guys and it just kind of freshened things up. He made a run. He lost to Mendez. It was hard to really place him and I don't think he's had his best fights at 145. I'd like to see him make one final run on 155. And credit to him, he left Jackson's

for the first time in a very long time, trained with Edmund Tarverdi and also train with Team Alphamel. He had Lance Palmer in his corner, get Edmund in his corner. So, you know, he's switching things up and it paid off on Saturday. Speaking of Featherweights moving up, Dustin Porier.

Is he a threat at lightweight? He had a successful lightweight debut on this card. So, or not rather, I guess, return. Return, right? I don't know if, I think it's a little early to call him a thread, but it was very good. I mean, that was a solid performance. And not only that, he looked much healthier. He looked much better.

He looked stronger. Like, it looked like he took the time to put on some real solid muscle, and he looked like a big lightweight. Poree? Coming up from featherweight. Porier, I, Quinta? Great fight. Or you want some one?

Guida, Porier, even? There's a lot of combinations. Mosvedal Porreier. Lightweight is not short on interesting matchups. Bobby Green Porriere? I'm in. Wait. Yeah, I'm in.

I'm in. I like it. But I mean, Green was very highly ranked. Yeah, he's like 11 or something now. But he is coming off a controversial win over Josh Thompson, remember? Yeah. I'm down for it all. Lightweight's wide open and let's see some fun fights.

Now, I believe you touched on this a little bit earlier, but let's quickly talk about it. the world tour, Aldo's Dublin reception. Do you not find people are being overly precious about how Aldo was treated in Dublin? As far as I could tell, the reception was just as hostile to McGregor in Rio, and could have been worse had Dana not cut it off. If anything, all the hostility brought out a side of Aldo

I was happy to see. He was witty, understood the value of the tour, and did not appear to take what the fans said too seriously. I just wish he could speak English, as I'd like to see more of his personality. Yes, finally, someone's smart ways in here. I love all these people who are coming to defend Joseo. Or the people who are saying Dana White should have defended Joseo

oh, he would never let someone talk to Ronda Rousey like that. Look, Josealdo is arguably top five grace fighters of all time. He doesn't need you to defend him. He doesn't need Dana White to stick up for him. Are you crazy? This guy can go in there and probably super kick every single one of those people in the face and one fell swoop. He doesn't need anyone to defend him. He was taking it like a champ. He recognizes in the back of his mind. This guy was talking about wanting to make more money being more popular. He recognizes that it's all good for him. He could handle your stupid insults. They weren't even that good. They weren't even that good the insults. Oh, what's it going to be like when he takes away your belt and kicks your ass? So what is this? Great five.

You know what I mean? So it was fun. It was entertaining. He played it off well. And the best part about it was he didn't let it get to him. Now, I can assure you he wants to kick his ass. He wants to win more so than he's ever wanted to win before. I can assure you he's using this as fuel. But why are people, you know, so afraid about A, how this looked, and B, about whether or not Jose Aldo hurt his feelings. Come on. Now, come on. What would you say to the people who are embarrassed by being a part of that atmosphere? I've seen a few, you know, people, including somebody in the comment section today who was like, you know, I wasn't thrilled with the way that turned out.

I was a little embarrassed. Well, look, I can't tell you how to feel. I mean, that's your prerogative. You felt that way good for you. All I'll say is, you know, if you consider yourself a fan of M.M. and you were embarrassed by your countrymates acting that way, then you have every right. I mean, it wasn't, look, I'm not going to show that video to my son.

I'm not going to show that to people, you know, it wasn't the best of times. It wasn't the best indication of, you know, how great MMA fans can be. But my point is, I don't think it hurt the sport. I don't think it hurt the fight. I don't think it set the sport back. It was a bunch of rowdy, drunk fans

like we see at football games here or any other sporting event, getting a live microphone, and kind of being given the green light to say whatever they want to the guy, Much like the Brazilian fan said to Connor McGregor twice now. They did it once at that Q&A at UFC 179. They did it again, you know, just a few days prior. It's the same thing.

The only difference is us English-speaking people understood what they were saying this time. We didn't really understand, so it didn't mean as much to us. But I can assure you they were saying the same thing to Connor McGregor. So that's what it was. It was like a public shaming. And it was fun. It was unique. And it doesn't have to happen all the time.

And I hope it doesn't happen. But for what it was, it was very, both guys. guys got it. So it was fair, it was balanced. Let's move on. I'll also say this. At it, at their best, when the UFC opens the mic up for fans, even that's not good. So I mean, what were we expecting? If opening the mic up for fans was part of this tour at each stop, then, I mean, you had to think that this was what was going to happen. They knew it was happening. Yeah. The fighters knew it was happening. No, no, this shouldn't have surprised anybody. I thought it was about, you know, what was expected. And Jose Aldo is not crying at it.

night worried about this. He's going to be counting his money and let's not forget the embedded series, the stops along the way I was in New York, it was all a home run. Don't let this take away. It's the lasting image, but I can assure you, speaking of lasting images, I can assure you we're going to see Connor McGregor snatching that belt for years to come, much like that Tito Ortiz press conference way back in the day with Ken Chamrock, where he starts laughing and the chair gets kicked up in the air. I still don't understand how he did that, by the way, Ken Shamrock. Anyhow, I can assure you this will be a clip replayed for years to come. It's, it's, it's, I come. I call. iconic at this point just days later, and it was all a great piece of promotional material, in my opinion.

It was the opposite of malpractice. Okay. The upcoming fight night, Godzilla versus Crowcop 2. Worst card in modern UFC history. Get out of here. Now, they're providing some statistics. Otherwise, I wouldn't have even considered this. Okay.

Ten fighters on the card. There are 24 fighters total on the card. 10 are first-time UFC fighters, most of whom are local fighters. They probably don't even deserve to be in the UFC. That's yet to be seen. We'll see. Okay. Of the other 14, so there's 10 first-timers, 14 veterans, nine are coming off a loss.

The main event of Crowcott v. Gonzaga have a combined five wins in their last 10 fights, and neither guy is ranked in the top 10. And there are only two top 10 fighters in the card, Manow and Calderwood. Wow. What say you? Well, if you break it down like that, look, my, I still think that that's, I still think, like those tough China cards. Yeah, I think, I think. that's unfair. I think that we've seen

better and we've seen worse and this is what a fight night in other countries looks like these days. I have an expectation for those cards already, so it's not like, and I think that deep down inside we all have a soft spot for pride and crow cop

all that. It's going to be kind of... Who's mad about seeing Mirro Cop? Come on. I mean, I think there are people mad. I think some people don't love the fact they don't think he deserves it, blah, blah, blah. Get out of here. But I think that there's enough legitimate legitimate MMA storylines

to chew on on this card. Joanne Calderwood before Scotland is a very big deal for her and I think she's immensely popular.

I think the the Manoa fight is a very interesting and important fight at 205. It's too bad Claudia O'Dellia yeah.

Pulled out, I think that was very important as well. I still think that there's enough to chew on here. Is it the greatest card of all time?

No, absolutely not. But I don't think anyone would say it's a fun fight pass card like all the other fight pass cards

have been you know, some have been more important than others, of course, but you have to have a certain, it's not a pay-per-view. No one's no-one's saying it's a paper view. It's not a numbered event. And tune in for what interests you. You don't have to watch every single thing. I don't see many people complaining about this card, but you do, you do bring up some interesting. Yeah, I mean, the statistics are interesting, but I still think, I'm not mad about seeing Miracle-Cocat for free.

It's not the worst. Final question from the website, does Wall Matter for Rhonda, clever? With Walmart saying Rhonda's book is too violent. and refusing to sell it. Is this not, in fact, a missive, quote-unquote, buy-me for her book? Are you getting a copy and going on her recent WWA Stint and Hollywood success? How well do you believe it will sell? Well, the book comes out in May. And now I think Mark Ramundi published something that said that that's not true. It's not accurate. Well, look, it was always in the original story that we posted that it's going to be available online, but just not in stores. And then today, Mark Remundi was doing a fantastic job in the enemy fighting, reporting.

at this. Walmart will sell Ron Rousey's new book on its website, just not in stores, at least not right away. A report from New York Post last week stated that Walmart had deemed Rousie too violent would not be carrying her book. This is what a Walmart spokesperson told Mark. There are a variety of factors that we look at when determining what items to offer our customers. At this point, we've chosen to offer this particular title to our customers online. We'll continue to watch how customers respond. Now, first of all, since when is Walmart like a go-to for buying books? A. B, this is very silly and and and and maybe it is a brilliant ploy. I mean, who's talking about Walmart, especially in the MMA world, connected to anything. So this, this gives them some added attention and

it makes people think about me buying it online, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's all good promotion, in my opinion. I don't think anyone was saying I need to buy this book at Walmart. So it puts Rhonda's book in the news a month before it's supposed to come out. I've been told that the book is very well done. It's written by her sister, who's a journalist. I've been told there's stuff that's going to surprise us. And it all just sort of adds to whatever's going to. going on in her life. Fast and Furious 7 came out last week. Entourage was coming out. She got the fight in August. She was just on WrestleMania. She did that crazy tour on the View and Good Morning America and Jimmy Fallon. I mean...

So the question of the day, how is it going to sell? Look, you remember that time in the 90s when wrestling books were very popular? Yeah, I do. They tried it a little bit with the MMA books. I bought the Rock's book at that time. Oh, I mean, McFoly was great. McFoly's books were amazing. Jericho had a great one. There were tons of, I mean, it was a real thing. It was a really popular thing. Goldberg had one, Hulk Hogan, blah, blah, blah. And then they tried it a little bit with the MMA guys. Matt Hughes had one. Chuck Liddell had one. They never really took off. I think Ronda could help ignite that a little bit. I think the, I think the, I think the, it's not as in vogue to come out with a book these days,

especially when it's mid-career. I never like the idea of coming out with a book mid-career, but she's so popular. She's so much in the news these days. You might as well capitalize. She's got a great story, a great backstory. She's been through so much at Olympics. I mean, she's been through enough to complete a lifetime. So why not? I go out on a limb right now and say it becomes a New York Times bestseller, given her popularity, given how much she attracts different demographics,

young women, older women. She's an inspiration. I was watching the WrestleMania thing with my wife who hates wrestling, hates it, thinks it's the most juvenile and stupid thing out there. And she said, I turned to her afterwards, and it was just, coincidence that she was in the room and she was like yeah i'd watch that women especially in their 30s are inspired by ronda she does superhuman things and uh and i think a lot of people who wouldn't buy your typical mma book are going to buy it so i think it's going to do very well all right our first

question from twitter tomorrow is rampage jackson's hearing on whether he's fighting in the ufc this month or not does he get removed from the card wow so okay so this is the thing they they had the hearing on Thursday in New Jersey and the judge said that she will announce her her decision or verdict, whatever you want to call it, if she's going to grant Bell-Torne injunction on, on rampage, on having him fight a UFC 18-18-6th, 19 days away. 19 days away? Yeah, 19 days away. So she said she's going to announce this 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow, Tuesday.

From the people I spoke to, Team Jackson is very confident that it went well, that they were able to poke holes in Viacom's case, and they feel very confident. UFC put him on the broadcast on Saturday. Of course, they have to promote him. He's the biggest name on the main card, and there's something there with his return and all that. Although I will say he seemed very uninspired in that interview.

What's going on with the rampage these days? Does he need old Helwani to get back in his life? He still has to be blocked, and is still not a fan. But what was up with that interview? Did you see it? Yeah, it was a little listless for sure. Yeah, come on, man. I think he tweeted that he was uninterested in it.

Or Instagram. Yeah, he's like, the UFC made me do it. They woke me up. I'm not feeling it. Something like that on Instagram or Twitter. Oh, okay. Anyway, my guess, I'm going to go on a limb with the information that I have. I think he gets the fight.

I have a hard time believing that the UFC, with their legal team, that they would sign anyone who wasn't kosher, who wasn't free from their contract. that would be a major oversight, especially so close to the card. And by the way, it would be a huge blow to UFC 186, which I feel very personal when it comes to the criticism, 186. I have nothing to do with the card, but it's my hometown. I hate the fact that Montreal, if the attendance is bad, is going to get a bad rep for this. You know what I mean?

I hate the fact that people are going to say, like, oh, Montreal didn't show up, or, you know, I've seen some people talk about the ticket sales. Montreal's a great MMA town. It was supporting MMA before the UFC made its debut there, and UFC, U.S. 83 in 2008, had TKO shows. I mean, Quebec has always supported MMA. And I almost feel like in a weird way,

like I need to get people into this car. I don't know why, but it bothers me. It bothers me that this is what's happening. So I hope for the fans' sake that Rampage, who's a big enough name with a big enough history, is still on the card because that card is taking a hit, Dillasha, McDonald, all that stuff. All right, our next question.

What is the people's main event for the? the upcoming fight night card yes the manna will fight the calderwood fight and that fight is not on so not that fight yeah that is a weird that is a weird inclusion um i know you're a hater of the whole pmee movement not a hater at all i love it but oh the people the people need to decide it's it has to be calderwood it has to be calderwood because they i mean who who has a following like her of this crew right the scottish fans are very much like the irish fans who inspired the whole people's main event movement. They wanted her to fight for the belt in Scotland. They're almost single-handedly responsible for putting her on this card. It's got to be the Calderwood fight. Okay. There it is.

There it is. Next question. How will Bob Sapp do as vice president of the global public relations of Road FC? The time is now to welcome him back to the show. So I heard about this before the show and I think this is brilliant. Look, I have no beef with Bob Sap. I just didn't appreciate the fact that he was throwing fights, whether he wants to admit it or not. He was throwing fights, and it was embarrassing to everyone involved, most importantly to him. Now, to use him in a capacity like this, if this is in fact true, I'm not as tuned into the road FC scene as I am the North American or European scene, but if this is in fact true, this is a stroke of genius, and he is still a big name, he still commands our attention to a degree, although I think he's lost some of his luster. Well, this is perfect because

he's not fighting. He's not throwing fights here. Most importantly, yeah. And it still capitalizes on his name. So I think it's legit, smart. Should Glory hire him as the face that they need? Stop it. Bill Goldberg is the guy right now and he's doing an incredible job. How was Glory? I thought it. Did you watch it? I did not. I was home. You know, I'm not a fan of tape delayed events. I mean, come on. Air the damn thing live and then rear it. Yeah, it was, it was very good. It was very good.

I mean, two titles were on the line. Scala once a 10? I'd give it an eight, solid, maybe even eight and a half not. Wow. The only reason is because

there were no knockouts on the card. But the fights were incredible. I mean, you know, every time you watch an Andy Ristie fight, you know, you're getting something great. In the, in the co-man event, Gabriel Varga,

Canadian brother. Two Canadians won, right? Well, Simon Marcus won the middleweight tournament. Yeah. But it was a really solid event. And I think the people enjoyed it, and the Super Fight series aired on CBS Sports Network on Saturday, which was full of knockouts, including one from Chai Louis Parry, who I think is a star in the making. The guy's got the charisma. He's got the personality.

Is it the basketball player? It's the basketball player. Oh, yeah. Who fought for one FC. Correct. And six foot nine, I think. Got the looks, got the skills, got the mic work. He's something interesting.

All right. Our final question from Twitter. Yes. Please comment on. And then this link directs to the UFC 189 Toronto Press Tour. Oh, yes. Of course. I'm not going to read this whole article. No, please don't.

But how do you feel about the Toronto Press Tour? This first thing I have to say about this is, this first thing I have to say is A, I had no idea a cage potato still existed. So this is great to see. B, I did read this because it was sent to me via email last week. And I love the shilling for oneself. This is this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this is riveting. And C, to the people who are saying, how dare Dana White speak to a journalist, the key word being journalist this way, rude and all this stuff, I'll say, who's the journalist? It's not that guy. That guy's not a journalist. He's not. And I think it's embarrassing that anyone would call him a

journalist. It's embarrassment to the media core that actually takes this job seriously. I've met this individual, Brian DeSouza, Jay DeSuzza. And let's just say, I'm not all that impressed. I know he's written a book and whatnot, and I don't want to give him too much time, but this guy is not a journalist and clearly you come to a press conference, why are you making me get all excited here, come to a press conference and ask a fighter about a lawsuit. Come on. There's a time and a place. Be a little more professional. I understand that Bloody Elbow was the one that gave him the credential. I think that's what I heard. That's disappointing in its own right, but be a little more professional. That's not the time or place. And then you start yelling when you don't have the mic. And then you go on this victory tour, like you got Dana White to tell you to sit down. Embarrassment. I was at a fight network party. They were throwing this, like, kickoff party, party UFC 165, I believe Chris Wyman was there.

This man was there with a stack of his books, shilling those out, trying to convince Chris Wyman to start a union, like actively trying to convince him. And my favorite thing about this man, my favorite thing about this man who was going all around, getting people to feel sorry for him, calling himself a journalist, all this stuff. I mean, he didn't write anything for bloody elbow. I didn't see it. That was his report. My favorite thing is that he has appointed himself as this media ombudsman, this media watchdog. Yet he doesn't even practice good journalism himself. He doesn't even reach out to the people that he's talking about to get their side of the story when he's trying to critique their journalism. Do you understand what I'm saying? How can you act like a media watchdog if you don't practice good journalism yourself? So if you ask me, he got off easy. He deserved everything he got that day.

And if I were in charge, I wouldn't credential him. He's not a journalist. He's certainly not a journalist. He wasn't credentialed by Caged Potato. It's not a real site anymore. And he embarrassed all of us. How do you feel about the question? You go to a, okay, look, the day before, if he was smart,

if he was smart, the day before, Josea, oh, no, excuse me, Conno, McGrueger told me that he was going to make three times more than Jose Aldo, right? And Aldo has talked about money. I get it. The question you should have asked, the question you should have asked was, how do you feel about Conner-Megger claiming he's going to make three times more than you? It's not how do you feel about next to your boss.

Could you imagine that next year's boss? How do you feel about how much you're getting paid now? And oh, by the way, will you be joining the antitrust lawsuit led by, Rob Macy. Nice little plug there for your buddy. Embarrassing. That's your question. In a public form like that. How about this, buddy? Call up Jose Aldo, call us people and ask him that question. Why are you doing it that way? Why are you doing it that way? It's because of this. It's to get this kind of attention. It's in this day and age of RTs and favorites. You want your little buddies to patch you on your back and tell you how great you are and how strong you are and how cool you are

for standing up to the big, bad UFC, that's why you did it. You weren't looking to get any response out of it and write an article, exosate. If you were, why were we trying to do it in that setting? I'm not going to get anything out of it there. Come on. That's an embarrassment. That guy should never write a single thing

about MMA journalism or journalism, period. If he went to that press conference to ask that question and try to get a legitimate response out of him, you have to know that there's a time and place to ask certain questions. A fan event like that is, not the time and place. It's not. What did you expect Josiah to do? You're just being a dick to the guy. You're asking a guy if he's going to join an antitrust lawsuit next to his boss? What do you expect him to say?

Yes. Right before UFC 189, I'm going to sue the UFC. Come on. All right. You said you had a good thing of a tweet for me. No, I got something great for you. I'm going to flip it all around. Don't you worry. Well, you just made me end this show. I came back to New York to do this show. Left my family in my job. And then you really ended on a bad note. No, no, no. You're going to be very happy. Okay, but you understand what I'm saying? I do understand what you're saying with this.

One quick thing before we move on to the super secret surprise. Yes. Barow versus Faber. Faber motioned toward referee Herb Dean, and there was some controversy in whether that affected the stoppage. This is hearkening back to the question we had before about, you know, possibly talking the referee into stopping a fight. Many people were concerned about that fight.

Now, super secret surprise. And also the Drew Dober fights, some of you were saying. Well, that's a little different because the ref made his own bad call. Right, right, right. It wasn't like, you know, Dober wasn't even in danger. Anyway, our friend of the show at Agirlly MMA, our friend from South Carolina, she sent us a little care package. And it's going to brighten up your day.

She sent stuff for me. She sent stuff for you. So I'll start with what you've got. Okay. First. Is it anthrax? Oh. Get up.

end up. Wow. A little, a little t-shirt for the young one. Oh, that's a kid's shirt. Well, did you think you were, hold on, let me hold this back up. Did you think you were going to fit this? It's hard to tell. I love it. That's so nice. Wait, wait. Okay, okay. No, no, this is that. That's not all. Okay. She's a, she's a real fan. She's not just sending you that. Wow. Another kid shirt, Montreal Expos. That's amazing. Oh, yeah, I forgot talk about my great Saturday. Damn it. Run out of time. Okay. Keep going. Jonah Carey's book. Wow. What is this? What's going on here? What do we do deserve this? She's a loyal listener and she appreciates us and we appreciate her right back.

Wow. Some stickers. That is amazing. For the window. Yes. Montreal Expo. And now also, I'm sorry, we each got some rosebud solve as well. What is that? You know, for like lip, like hands, lips kind of keeping the moisture going. Keep it, keeping it fresh. And for me, first of all, I got. This little... What is that Jack? What is going on? The Jackman family.

And now there's guinea pigs on it because she sent me... What is that? What is that, though? That thing. That was just a card. Oh, okay. She sent me some crunch sticks.

And that's... For my guinea pigs. Oh, my gosh. And also, I haven't opened it yet, a mug that says, I love guinea pigs as well. For me and my wife. Just like that?

Unprompted? Just maybe it's for Easter. I'm not sure what it is, but Ash, we appreciate you. I know Ariel feels the same. same way. Thank you so much. And that's what prompted that tweet. That we have the best fans in the world. We do. We do. They are great. And I meet them all over the world. They often say good things about you as well. Believe it or not. They are very thoughtful. I love it. I love it. There you go. Turning it around. Thank you very much to Ash.

You're a kind soul. We appreciate your support. She has always supported us. She sticks up for us, too. She's always fought the good fight. So we appreciate it. Thank you very much. Happy Easter. Happy holidays to you. That's super kind. Thank you very much. And by the way, by the way, yes, I have to also give a shout out to another very loyal listener. Yoss the boss on Twitter. He's the one who hooked us up with the two fans. He got their numbers for us. Get out of here. Yeah, he was the one that did the whole thing.

I didn't do anything. He's the one that DM me and got their numbers. Yoss the boss from Twitter. Yoss, if you're out there, worked on Artem Labov as well. Let's see if we can get him. That'd be nice. Maybe he can replace you. Oh.

You're going to fire that shot. at the end. Yoss the boss. It doesn't say his full name here, but he's from Montreal. He's a great guy. So yeah, I echoed that. Great people online. And just so I can end it on a positive note, Saturday was one of the best days of my life. I went to the Olympic Stadium. I tweeted about it. I went to the Olympic Stadium. The former home of the Montreal Exposed there were 50,000 people on attendance, 50,000 people to watch a preseason baseball game. And it was the most surreal out-of-body experience in my life because it smelled and looked the same. I hadn't been in that stadium for 10 years. I thought I'd never watch a baseball game there anymore. If you know anything about me, you know how much the

expos meant to me. I wear the hat in my Twitter avatar and I walked in there and it smelled the same. It looked the same. It felt the same. There were 50,000 people there and I got to go back there and the expos weren't playing, but I got to relive the whole thing. It was surreal. And not only that, I got to relive it and experience it with my son as a father. And I got a ice cream and a hot dog and con candy. And I got to take my son to a sporting event for the first time. And he sat on my lap and he he slept on me on the way home. I went on the subway with him for the first time in like 15 years of Montreal subway and it was just amazing. I hope anyone who has a kid can experience that because that was surreal. And to the good people in Montreal, they are fighting for

their baseball team back. I am on your side and I hope that Major League Baseball is listening. I know this is not a baseball show, but just walking into that arena, 50,000 people, that stadium and reliving that and getting, I felt like I was in grade nine. It was unbelievable. I was actually an out-of-body experience. I couldn't believe that I was back in there. Same sight, same sound, same smell with my son, who loved it. It was great. So that's why I had such a great weekend.

And I'm happy we've been able to end this show in a positive note. You can hit my music. Yeah. Another episode of the M. May Hour in the books. I am sorry to those who are hoping to hear from Artim and Bob. Hopefully we'll hear from him soon enough. But it was a jam-pack show, a lot to digest, a lot of great guests, and we appreciate their time and your time very much. I want to thank Katzengano. What great stuff from her, right? Wow, that was awesome.

Another example of why we love the sport so much and why it's unlike any other. People like Katzenegano. Thank you very much to her. Good luck to her and her return. Thank you very much to Forrest Griffin and Stefan Bonner. Congratulations. Ten years ago this Thursday, how will you celebrate? tough finale number one Griffin and Bonner put on an all-time classic check out Forest Pass all week long

UFC FightPass.com Speaking of FightPass Jimmy Manoa in action this Saturday on Fight Pass good luck to him y'all must have forgot please use that music

that would be so amazing thank you very much you John Gooden good luck to him I apologize for the tech difficulties but it happens he looked great and I look forward

to hearing his call this Saturday thank you very much to ally Quinta, great stuff as always from him, really coming into his own, nothing to be ashamed of, fought his ass off, that's all we can ask for. And also, congratulations and welcome back to Juliana Pena. Tremendous stuff out of her. We appreciate her taking out some time today as well. Thank you so much for tuning in. We're back next week. Same time and place. Until then, I say pay. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports, you're always looking for ways to get closer to the action.

And your Chase card can get you exactly that. With a Chase card, you can experience more. That means access to pre-sales, preferred seating, and more savings. For more information about how to step into a world of more with Chase experiences, visit chase.com slash experiences. Benefits available only to eligible Chase card holders, deposit and credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. member FDIC.

Terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations apply. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new terms and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known for

of soccer, a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf.