MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 279

Episode Date: April 27, 2015

Featuring John Dodson, Mark Munoz, Tim Means, John Makdessi, Marina Shafir, Marc Raimondi, Kevin Iole, and Steve Hanoian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Ariel Halwani inside our New York City studio back from Montreal. UFC 186 has come and gone. And of course, that is not the big story as we begin this week's show. The big story, of course, on everyone's mind is John Jones. If you haven't heard by now, John Jones allegedly involved in a car accident early Sunday morning and the police in Albuquerque is looking for him. I'm going to read at the top of the show the latest courtesy of MMAfighting.com. We have obtained the police report for the accident that occurred Sunday morning.

Here's what my colleague, Mark Romandi, just posted on the site. If you're watching this live, this is the absolute latest. The man identified as John Jones allegedly fled the scene of a case. car accident on foot and marijuana was later found in what is believed to be Jones's rental car. The UFC Light Heavyweight Champion is the suspect in a three-car, hit-and-run accident that took place Sunday morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Albuquerque Police Department is still seeking Jones for questioning and has been unable to contact him. Witnesses said the driver who started the accident, exited his vehicle, then went back to grab, quote, a large handful of cash.

The man was described as an African-American wearing a white shirt and dark pants. He allegedly ran north from the accident scene and hopped a fence. Officers were unable to find them. Inside the man's vehicle, a silver Buick SUV police found a marijuana pipe with marijuana in it and quote paperwork belonging to a Jonathan Jones, which had MMA information on it from the state of Nevada. Off-duty police officer identified the man fleeing the vehicle as Jones, the MMA fighter. According to the report, the off-duty officer also described the man as wearing a white shirt with dark pants. He saw him run up a dirt hill. More on this you can read at MMAfighting.com as I said, here is a quote from the Albuquerque Police Department. We are currently following up with a victim to check on her status. We need to confirm the severity of the injuries before we file charges. One of the victims, as you may have heard by now, a pregnant woman in her 20s was taken to the hospital. She felt like she was going to, quote, pass out. The report stated. So this is an ongoing developing situation. Of course, most important is the health of everyone involved. So as this show, we've never

had a show where a situation like this was developing in the midst of it airing live, in the midst of our show airing live. So we will try our best to update you as we go along, but there's, of course, a lot of news to discuss UFC 186, as I mentioned in the books, Demetrius Johnson. Remember at the end of last week's show, I said that UFC 186 would be special in some way. Of course, ticket sales weren't that way. It was a very depressing crowd in Montreal. I wonder if and when the UFC will be back anytime soon. But something special did happen. Demetrius Johnson made history.

The latest finish in UFC history. 4.59 of the fifth round, he submits Kiochi Horaguchi via Armbar. Another solid, dominant performance by Demetrius Johnson, which of course leads to more questions about his drawing power and all that stuff. But as far as what happened inside the cage, Demetrius Johnson proving once again that he is without a doubt one of the very best fighters in the world, regardless of weight class.

Quintinandt Rampage Jackson. He wasn't on the card when we spoke last Monday. Another special thing happened along the way on Tuesday. The injunction was reversed, and he fought. He fought Fabio Maldonado. How about that? Guess what? He won.

215-pound catch weight, but he won a fight Taylor made for him, Quentin Jackson, back in the win column in the UFC. And of course, Michael Bisping picking up a big win over CB Dalloway as well. We will talk about all that and more. And wow, how about this? It's Manny Pacquiao-Floid Mayweather Week. So much to digest, so much to discuss at around 340. We'll hear from you. At around 325, Mark Romandi of M.AFighting.com has been all over this John Jones story,

so we'll hear from him. Hopefully get some updates. Hopefully we'll find out by then that John Jones has been in contact with the police. That would be step number one. 305. We'll talk to John McDessy, who picked up a big win over Shane Campbell on Saturday night. He's had a tumultuous year to get back inside the Octagon, and we'll talk to him about all that. Mark Munoz stopping by, talk about his May 16th, retirement fight against Luke Barnott at 245.

At 225, we'll talk to Tim Means about his fight against Matt Brown. He's fighting Matt Brown at UFC 189. Huge fight for Tim Means. 205 will talk to Marina Shafir, the newest member of the Invicta FC roster. 145 will talk to Steve Hanoian, who is the owner of Synapse Performance Therapy. He has a very interesting story. If you don't know the man, prepare to be riveted by his story. A great story coming up at 145. 125. We'll talk to John Dodson about his place in the flyweight division. But first, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in one of the very best in the business.

Works for Yahoo Sports, of course. If you follow mixed martial arts or boxing, you know this man. He is a 2014 Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, a man who is, when you talk about reporting in MMA and boxing, there's no one better than him. and he has a very busy week coming up with Manny Pachiav versus Floyd Mayweather, but we have to talk to him about some M-A-Stuff as well. I'm talking, of course, about Kevin Ioli of Yahoo Sports. Kevin, are you there? I'm here, Ariel. How are you, pal? It is great to have you on the show, Kevin.

When I booked you on, I believe, Wednesday or Thursday, I really wanted to just talk about Manny Pachial v. Floyd Mayweather, but of course, this John Jones story very much developing. You've written some stuff about it. We need to talk about that, first and foremost. Is there anything that you can provide that I didn't provide at the top there that our viewers should know right off the bat? No, you know, I think that you covered all the bases, and I mean, this is a really scary situation because, you know, where did John go? You know, it's the one thing that it seems to indicate is consciousness of guilt.

You know, if the police are looking to talk to you and you're hiding, you know, that is a scary thing. and they take that very seriously. Hopefully, like you said, he's been in contact with the police right now because this is not a trivial matter that he's involved in. And I think there's going to be all sorts of implications coming out of this once this all flows naturally forward. You have a very good working relationship with UFC President Dana White, Lorenzo Fertita. The UFC put out a statement, a very brief one, saying that they're just going to monitor the situation.

But that was last night. Of course, a lot more has happened since then. Have they told you anything about their stance on this situation? They have not. I talked very briefly to Dana yesterday via text, not even on the phone. And then, you know, he basically, I said, is the fight off? He said no, but we're trying to gather facts. And then after that, you know, he went radio silent and hasn't been responding at all.

And, you know, I think it's understandable because, you know, we want to know all the answers and we want to get into this. But, you know, there's a very real legal situation going on here that's far more important than a fight. You know, there are people, as you mentioned, that have been injured in an auto accident. There's an unborn life that we don't, you know, we don't know how that child is doing of the pregnant woman who was injured. Hopefully, no serious injuries came of this. But there are a lot of things that I think have to come before the UFC decides is John Jones fighting or is he not fighting. Absolutely, yeah, and you don't want to jump the gun if you're the UFC.

As reporters, you don't want to jump the gun. It's a very, very sensitive situation. And as we said, it's developing. I must say, the Albuquerque Police Department has been incredibly helpful in releasing as much information as possible. So we thank them very much. And as you know, Kevin, the story, the saga of John Jones, this is not the first time that he's had some kind of issue. You know, it all started in 2012 with that DUI. This past year in January, he popped for cocaine prior to the Daniel Cormier,

fight, although it only came out after the fight, and now this. I mean, if you're the UFC, how do you handle this situation? If we just have the facts as we have them right now, this is once again an issue. I mean, even if no one, no one comes away hurt, and we hope and pray that that's true. And this is the story right here. He just fled. I mean, that's still a pretty bad situation. Marijuana in his car, these are the facts according to the police. What do you do with John Jones? Well, there are allegations, not fast, right? So we don't, you know, there's a lot between now. And that's the thing, I think, in this internet age, you know, and, you know, and, it's,

You know, people want us as reporters to pronounce them guilty and say what's happened to them now. And we don't know the facts. We know the allegations. And so, and John's only a suspect even. He hasn't even been charged. So I think we have to step back a second and look and say, okay, wait, let's see what the police allege and what the charges are, if any, and then how the process goes forward. But that being said, you know, let's assume that if, in fact, it was John that jumped the fence and ran away,

and it was John's marijuana in that car, I think the UFC, you know, number one, easily has to pull him off, and I think that they have to seriously consider spending him for a very, very long period of time because they're taking, they have to take a hard stance. He's a previous offender in multiple ways. I mean, the brawl in the MGM, the DUI in Binghamton,

you know, the cocaine use, I think when you look at that, if the UFC is going to have a code of conduct and they do not apply it in a very serious way to John Jones, assuming that that was him and that was all his stuff, then I think it's a fraud and it's a joke and it's not worth the paper it's written on. They have to take a very strong stance on this. But, you know, we don't know the facts. So, I mean, I am open to hearing the facts and hearing, you know, what the defense is and hearing, you know, what the police. say before I want to pass judgment. You make a very good point about distinguishing fact from allegation. What is a fact, what is a fact, is that John, nor his lawyers or his manager, anyone

associated with him, has contacted the police when they've already put it out there that they'd like to speak to him. And that raises a whole bunch of questions. Why has he not contacted them? So we have to see what happens. And you also bring up a good point about this social media age that we live in. I mean, when this first came out and it was kind of trickling in, you know, via social media. I don't know about you, but had people just saying, like, do your job, where are you?

What are you doing? Like, all of a sudden, it's part of the job description to just tweet updates to people, and they don't realize that it takes time to actually gather information and separate fact from fiction. Did you get the same kind of thing? I've never experienced something like that because it was taking a while to update this story, and it was a little frustrating because you want to update people, and you're also getting people almost challenging you to put out whatever you know. Right. And I mean, and I love the fact that you're seeing people on Twitter talking about the quality of journalism. Well, you know, it's sad because what's happened, Twitter in particular, social media in general has led to this thing that, you know, being first or being the quickest

is always, you know, means it's the best journalism, and that is not what it is. And journalism is about gathering and reporting facts. And so, you know, in my particular case yesterday, when this happened, I was in a studio on the other side of town. I was doing 45 minutes on NBC Sports Radio with Chris Mannix talking about the Mayweather-Packo fight, and I got a text that this happened. So during breaks, I was texting with the Albuquerque Police Department. And so my Facebook private messages were lit up. How come you're not reporting this? What's going on?

And I had a lot of tweets people asking me. But it's, you know, it's the nature of the media world we live in today. And, you know, David Kanoe did a great job. You know, he got a hold of Officer Drobeck and put out facts that he could report. tremendous job by David, and I give him a lot of credit for that. That being said, you know, that this is a whole complicated legal case, and anybody who wants us, you, me, any other reporter, to go out there and say, well, this is what should happen to Jones without facts.

Put yourself in that situation, and if you were charged with a crime or alleged to have committed a crime, do you want the media convicting you and saying you should be fired from your job or whatever before you even had your day in court. And that's what I think people forget. This is the United States, and you're innocent until proven guilty. And it's what makes our country great. And while it looks suspicious, and I agree, you know, you make a good point, where are John's lawyers? Where is John's? But we don't know if they're talking to the police right now. You and I are on the telephone and a radio show. We don't know if John's lawyers have contacted the police. We don't know if his manager has contacted the police.

There's a lot we don't know right now. A spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department told me as of 1206 that they have yet to contact him. No one related to John, working with John, representing John, has contacted the Albuquerque to police department. So that's as of an hour ago, you know, right this second that could change as well. And by the way, for you, you cover both boxing and MMA. You are about to approach the biggest boxing match of your lifetime, maybe of anyone's lifetime. How are you going to cover both of these stories at the same time? Very difficult.

You know, I am going to do what I can do on the Jones thing, but I would not, I will not, frankly, be reporting it the same way as I would if there was no Mayweather-Packial fight going on this week because I have obligations. I'm booked up some days with radio interviews. I'm going to be at the MGM a lot this week, and this is a very serious story that takes a lot of thought, a lot of work, a lot of phone calls. it's legwork. And so, you know, frankly, it's going to take a little bit of a backseat. I'm going to have my staff working on this as well, just so we can have as much coverage as we could possibly have on it because obviously it's a massive story and a sport that means a lot to our site. Let's switch gears for a second and talk about that, because again, we have to be so careful with this John Jones story, still not convicted, still not charged with anything.

It's still all very, very fresh. And we have to be. very careful when we talk about it. So I want to talk about Mayweather Pachia. That's the reason we had you on the show to begin with. Wow, what a fight. The world is watching. Everyone's talking about it. It's one of those rare, rare occurrences where a combat sport transcends and everyone

no matter if you're a fan or not seems to be interested in this. And to me, it feels like, you know, we've been waiting for six years for the fight, but it almost feels like, wow, I can't believe it's actually here. It's a weird thing, right? Is it feel that way too? Like, it almost crept up on us, and maybe that's a good thing. I know it's been a rocky ride,

to get to this point. I'll ask you about that in a second. But does it almost feel like since the moment they announced it to this moment right now, it has been, you know, a day? It feels like it happened in 24 hours. It moved incredibly fast. You know, Ariel, I'll have to say, I guess you could say I'm kind of a jaded journalist, and I've been doing this for 36 years.

I've had a full-time job for 36 years. And, you know, I've seen pretty much everything. I've covered pretty much everything. But I'll tell you, I was sitting in the Nokia theater in Los Angeles, and they started the press conference. And we had talked to Floyd and Manny individually earlier, but they started the press conference, and they introduced Manny first, and Manny walked down the aisle past where I was sitting.

And I literally got goosebumps because I was thinking, this is the Ali Frazier of my lifetime, my professional lifetime. I was a kid listening to a transistor radio on March 8, 1971, when Ali fought Frazier, and there was updates going out at the end of every round. on radio. They didn't even have the live play by play. And getting those updates. To be covering this is surreal for me. You know, the fact that it's the biggest fight in how many years, and the attention on this fight is just phenomenal. The money these guys are generating is

phenomenal. You know, I got chills when I saw Manny walked down the aisle before they introduced Floyd because it was like, wow, this is really happening. You have done a tremendous job of reporting all the strange occurrences. leading up to this fight. Was there ever a point where you thought it was in serious jeopardy? Since that moment, since the Nokia Theater press conference, and since it was officially announced to the world, was there ever a point where you thought someone might pull the plug?

There was, Ariel. You know, I reported in late March, I believe it was, the first time that there was no contract between the MGM and the promoters of the fight. And even though I reported that, you know, it was a matter of record, you know, at that point, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. But as we got closer, you know, I wrote another big story in early May and, you know, that the promoters were battling over rooms and ticket allocations and things like that. You know, all of a sudden I started thinking, hey, there is a chance that this could not happen

because there are so many bad feelings. You know, Bob Aram and the MGM now have a horrendous relationship. That relationship certainly would play a factor in me thinking maybe it may not happen. Heyweather's promotions and top rank aren't necessarily on the same page. Bob Aram hates Al-Haman. Al-Hamon hates Bob Aram. So there were so many of these things going on. And we were less than a week away and tickets weren't on sale that it was like all of a sudden you're going,

holy smokes, you know, that this may not happen. It's unbelievable. It's really amazing that the tickets just went on sale last week. By the way, how many officially went on sale to the public? 500 went on sale to the public. And so I know there was like, you know, literally tens of thousands of people trying to get those 500 tickets. And, you know, I saw a couple tweets from people, and I talked to one person who actually got

tickets online. But some of the others say, this is a fraud. I got on there. And it was like, and I said, well, what about me with the Apple Watch? I stayed up until midnight 12-01, and I made my order, and it said, you'll get yours between April 24th and May 8th. And I'm going, I stayed up all this time, and I can't even get it on the launch. I think that's how people who were trying to get tickets felt.

They were on sale, 500 gone within, you know, less than a minute. And where did the rest go? Who gets the rest? So the way it breaks down at MGM got 40% of the tickets. So they put up a site feed. So they got 40% of the tickets, and they're going to go to their customers, the high rollers, the big gamblers that are going to come in, the celebrities that they want to have being part of the event.

So, you know, 40% went there. Then top rank and Mayweather Promotion. got a big allocation, basically just each under 30%. So then they give to their clients. So top rank, for instance, uses a ticket broker called curtain-call tickets. Pat Lynch, who is Arturo Gaddy's manager, owns that company, and they deal with him. And so Pat Lynch bought the tickets off top rank and then put some of those on the secondary market that you're seeing out there.

Same thing. Mayweather promotions, I'm sure, did the same thing. And then that very few, that 500 went on. on public sale. And then the weighing tickets are also on sales. Well, I know the proceeds going to charity. No more. Those are sold out, right?

They sold out within, I think, 10 minutes. And how much were those? They were $10 a ticket, and they had a limit of 10 per person. But I heard on the secondary market, they're going for like 300, right? Yeah, and there's closed circuit seats that are face value of 150 that are going for 900. Wow. And I haven't confirmed this. I called the Four Seasons, and I haven't confirmed, but

somebody told me that four seasons was going to charge $1,200 for the closed circuit. Of course, they were going to have a little nicer food beverage experience for the people going to that particular venue. But the face value of their tickets, I understood, was $1,200, although I did not confirm that. I briefly spoke to Dana White about the promotion for this fight after UFC 186, because obviously, you know, he's one of the greatest promoters of all time, and I was curious to get his take. I want to get your take on it because from where I sit, and I don't cover it and follow it as closely as you do, the promotion, I feel like, has been a little lackluster. Do you think that this was one of those fights where they didn't have to do anything, or is it only going to ramp up now?

I mean, it's obviously selling for itself. They sold out all that stuff, but I haven't really felt like they promoted it well. Yeah, you know, the fact is both of the guys didn't want to do much media. So Pachial came, and I disagree with this, but Pachial came to the U.S. January into early February, and that's where they had the infamous meeting at the Miami Heat game. And he did a lot of media then, and then initially when the fight was first signed, he did a lot of media at that point, and then he basically shut it down, and he hasn't talked at all for, you know, close to a month now.

Mayweather, you know, has been accessible. He's open his gym, but he hasn't talked every day. And so as a result, when you don't have the principles out there talking about it, It makes it really difficult to get that hype going. You know, they've tried to do it. You know, HBO had a fabulous show about the series at last. You know, Showtime's had a couple of good shows, including Dana White's voice in the open segment of Showtime show. Was on there twice.

You know, there have been good preview shows done on it. But when the fighters themselves aren't participating and aren't out there really talking too much, you know, I think it takes away from the excitement level. that, you know, we generally see. We're not hearing the trash talk or the predictions from the fighters like you would ordinarily expect in a fight of this magnitude. Deep down inside, are you expecting any more wackiness leading up to Saturday night? Of course.

Yeah. Of course. You know, it's bound to happen. I mean, it's boxing. I know the personalities involved. You know, there's too many volatile personalities and too many crazy situations. You know, Bob Aaron has certainly, you know, he's got a volcanic temper and, you know, and he's on edge right now. And poor Bob, I mean, I've been very critical of Bob during this promotion.

I've bought a lot of things. But, you know, he's 83 years old. You know, he's one of the greatest promoters of all time. And now here he is, you know, and the crowning fight of his career. And then, you know, all this craziness is going on. So, you know, you've got to expect Bob is going to erupt and have something to say at some point. You know, Freddie Roach can get crazy. You know, Floyd, nobody needs to talk about him.

Floyd, Sr. and Roger Mayweather, they're both. So I think, you know, it's just ripe and something is going to happen, if not more than one thing, before they ring the bell on Saturday night. Yeah, what a cast of characters. It's unbelievable. And let's not even talk about HBO and Showtime coming together, which is incredibly rare. Okay, before I let you go, I want to put you on the spot and get some predictions, all right? Okay, absolutely. How many paper views does it sell?

Three and a quarter, $100 each. Wow, that's unbelievable. Okay. What's the gate? The gate is $72 million. That's set in stone? That is set in stone. Now, that's not the secondary market area.

I also think about this. There was a front row ticket that was $10,000 face value. That sold on Stubhub, I believe, Jay Hart of Yahoo Sports did a story on this, I believe, was $141,000 for one ticket. Wow. Now, if you add the gate what the secondary market got for it, $72 million figure is a lot higher. Okay, I don't know if you could do this. math in your head, but how much do you think Mayweather walks away with at the end of the day

after everything is accounted for? I think close to $180 million. I think that's a good figure. He does not get a guarantee. So, Manny Pachiel, and that's because Mayweather's the promoter, they will show write a check. Leonard L.A.B. said they'll decide later this week

because they do, by commission law, I have to give the fighter a check on fight night. So here's what's going to happen. Paciel is guaranteed $50 million. So that means if nothing else, It sells no pay-per-views, Mani Pachyos walking out of there with $50 million. His check on Fight Night is going to be $25 million.

So the IRS will take, as a foreign athlete, they take the money off the top. So eventually it hasn't been done yet, but they'll take that $15. So he's, Mani Pachio is going to pay $15 million coming up on Saturday. Then Floyd Mayweather, they'll determine based on where they see the revenues at later in the week, what kind of check to write for him. but I know Mayweather's people were very history-conscious aerial, and I think that they're going to be looking at giving a big check, so I wouldn't be surprised if the check that he gets on Saturday night

is as high as $80 million or more. Who wins? I like Mayweather by decision. I think it's going to be a better fight than people think, but I think Mayweather's too smart, too good defensively, and I think he'll find a way to win it. Do they ever fight again? I thought it was a no-brainer up into all this nonsense with the contract and the tickets and everything.

So I wrote a column last week saying no. So I'll stand by that. You know, I think that it's logical to expect that they would, but, you know, maybe with the hard feelings going on out there, if Mayweather wins a wide decision, there's zero chance of it. If Pacquiao wins, I think it becomes more likely. And final one, in your lifetime covering combat sports, do you think you'll ever see a bigger fight with all, you know,

those ramifications, all the money tied to it than this one on Saturday? I think there will be a bigger one. Oh. But will I be around for it? That means, you know, 10 to 12 more years? I don't think so. What? That's crazy talk.

You better be around for that. Just to cover it? Yes. My lifetime. Yeah, 10 to 12 years, you know, you think how long it took for this? And, you know, I'm 55 right now, Ariel. So, you know, if I retire, it's 67, you know, so say 12 more years that I have of covering this, you know, I find it hard to believe you've got to get the perfect storm, you know.

The reason that this fight is so big is you have the number one and number two guys not only in their way, class, but in the world. And, you know, just go back and think if we could, you know, we could have put Anderson and John together or GSP and Anderson, how big that fight would have been. And, you know, they were, one guy would have had to move up in each case. When you have them in the same weight class and they've been rivals and they have such passionate fan bases and everything, you know, that does not come around all the time. And I think that's why in large part this fight is so big.

And so I don't think it's going to be easy to recreate that. And even if there's a rematch, the rematch will be big. I just don't think it'll ever be as big as this fight is. By the way, do you guys have any special coverage? Anything out of the ordinary for this fight? I mean, we are just wall to wall on this. Dan Wetzel's coming in. We have eight or ten people covering it.

I did some video segments I filmed last week. We also have, I guess I can announce this. Our expert analyst for the way in and fight night, I'll back into this. We tried to hire Sugar Ray Leonard, and he had to deal with NBC, so he couldn't do it. We tried to hire Mike Tyson. We talked to Timothy Bradley, but he's broadcasting on True TV on Friday night, so he couldn't do the way-in segment with us. We tried to get Shane Mosley.

He was unavailable to do it. So I thought, how can I get somebody that's going to resonate with the public that is a good boxing person that knows it, and that people are going to want to follow? So we have Mr. Dana F. White is going to serve at the way in. for us as an expert analyst, given his predictions, given his insights on the fight. So Dana will be working with us on Saturday

after the fight, just breaking down the fight, what happened, what's next for the guys, and he'll also do some segments on Friday with us after the way and just kind of preview in the fight. Dana White, a member of the media? Dana White, I have a credential. What?

I should email it to you that it says, congratulations to Dana White of Yahoo Sports. You've been a crew approve for a credential to Mayweather Pachio. This is unbelievable. Wow. That is, by the way, I may be biased. That's a better get than all those other people you mentioned.

Dana White? You know, Dana, the thing is people don't realize, Dana trained very high-level amateur fighters. He had a guy that was, he thought might make it to the 1996 Olympics, which was Floyd Olympic year, who ended up losing in the Olympic trials to Fernando Vargas. So Dana is a legitimate boxing guy, knows boxing very well, And I thought, you know what, this will be, after we couldn't get those other guys,

when we were kind of running out of names to really get, I thought, you know, Dana would be insightful. He would appeal to, like, the MMA fan that we're talking to now that maybe has interest in boxing, but isn't a hardcore boxing fan. And I thought he would appeal to so many different audiences, and he is very knowledgeable about boxing that I thought it made a lot of sense. So Dana's going to, that is our big special secret this week. Well, thank you for letting us know here. That is a brilliant move. I cannot wait to take that in.

Dana White, a member of the media. Holy moly. You know it's a big fight when. Kevin Ioli, thank you so much for the insight. Continue the great work, and I can't wait for that coverage all week long. This is huge stuff, and I really appreciate it. I know you're very busy, so I appreciate a few minutes of your time today. Be well, Ariel.

Thanks again for having me on. There he is. Kevin Ioli, one of the very best in the business. Dana White, a member of the media. Wow, the hits just keep on coming. All right. Let's move along now. Of course, on Saturday night, all eyes on the flyweight division,

Demetrius Johnson. retained his flyway title, is our next guest up next for Demetrius Johnson? Well, something needs to be done, but he has a very good shot at that. Let's talk to the man on line number one right now. John Dodson is joining us from Albuquerque, New Mexico. John, how are you? I'm doing good. I'm glad to be on the radio with y'all. Yeah, great to have you. I believe in the five-year history of our show, you've never been on this show before. I may be mistaken, but I think that's accurate, so it's great to have you on the show for the very first time. By the way, will you be watching Pacquout Mayweather on Saturday?

Of course. I'm going to be watching it. It's all our Marvin Day. I'll leave her to Mike Tyson. What are those two heavyweights, like, legends would have been able to fight. This is just generations of it, just with lighter guys. Yeah, who's your pick? I want Pacquil to knock out Mayweather just because it would be such an historical event for both these guys to retire.

Packow being able to knock out the best ever in Mayweather. But I'm a big Mayweather fan. Wow. Like, I'm really torn. Yeah. time I always talk about anyway asking about me about him. I'm like, oh, he's going to win. By far, my favorite fighter. And everyone's like, you know, too. He's like, yeah.

So I'm black and Filipino, so I'll talk between the two. Oh, you are? I didn't know that. Which side of the family's Filipino? I'm a mom-man. My mom's from the Philippines, and my dad just withdrew up. All right, so you have to go through. Actually, you are kind of torn. Yeah, you go, you're representing both sides there. All right, well, I guess everyone will be watching on Saturday. I know, I know all members of the M.A. community are very interested in this

fight. And by the way, before we get into your situation, you know, I feel compelled to ask just because you're a member of the team and you're there. Do you have any kind of update or anything on John Jones? I'm sure you're aware of the situation. Anything you can provide for us? I don't have anything to actually give you guys on information. I just know John was, like, I know John hopefully safe somewhere and I keep my heart out

for the guy. Like, if all the rumors is true, then I'll get my best wish to him. and we've been trying to spoke all the everybody who's both basically hearts and everything. Yeah, I'm assuming. We want to have everybody focused on the hot-limate with everybody fighting versus somebody else to screw. Sure. And I'm assuming you haven't talked to him since this all came out, right? No, I haven't even tried to talk to someone because I don't want to know any information on it.

So I don't want to be allowed to tell people anything that's all known. But I'm a good dude. And if this is, if all this happens out, it turns out that he did do it, I watch him because that's a lot. All right. Let's move along to your division. I think a lot of people were curious to see what would happen with Demetrius Johnson because you're coming back. We've been waiting for you to come back, and I think a lot of people believe that you can give him his toughest test.

Of course, you did so way back when you fought in Chicago. What did you make of his performance on Saturday? That's exactly what I told everybody. He was going to do this and go off. I think he was going to fight. I'm taking him down. I thought he was going to submit him. And I didn't think he was going to submit him in the fifth round,

but I thought you would have to come out and just on me. So you can't expect that you're going to do such a high class. You can still amazing against the guy that at 30, that he doesn't want to pitch it in the first way. So were you at all surprised, though, at some of the success Horaguchi had in the early rounds? I was because I'm not really surprised about it, because of Horo Gucci is a good guy

who trained with one of the best fighters in MMA ever, like in history. My kid Yom Mudd was one of the best people of all times, and he went to the back to D.C. he was wrestling up, so by far, like, I know that he's been able to step up he came for it. You know, considering the performances that Demetrius has had since your fight, because I think he kind of turned the corner as far as dominant since your fight, where would you rank this one? I want to rank about, like, the eye.

He's getting guys that he can honestly go ahead and pick a part with these, like, him and Demetrius is the fight guys that I, when I bought a fire right in Mount and he and he wants to fight Giac Omega, who I've knocked out as well, same thing with Benevede. So it should be between me and Benavides, see who can be the next one in line, and see who's going to be that next paddle contender. Yeah, and of course, Benavides has lost him twice, so one would think that you would have the edge there. You had a tremendous performance in June of last year in Albuquerque,

and then, of course, you were injured. How tough, I mean, when you get injured anytime, it's a tough pill to swallow, but you had that momentum, and it seemed like maybe you could be next after he was fighting, you know, a week later. Was that tough for you? to have to take a step back and see other people who aren't ranked as high as you, who don't have the resume that you have,

fight for the belt? Yeah, it sucks for me because of the fact that I just want to sit there. I'm watching everybody get the shot that's mine. I want my belt already, but I know that I should have already. Like, in my head, I've married the champion. I mean, you just have that first fight, granted it was a tough fight, but I believe that I still want that fight.

I thought I wanted to push your round, and you can you fit it. So you still believe, when's the last time you watched the fight? I watched it last night. I like, for real? Yeah. I watch it every single day.

Really? It's not because of the fact that I want to sit there and dwell and hate the guy. Like, he's my motivation right now. If I'm not me motivated myself to hate the guy. I'm motivating myself to become better than that. I want to make sure I can go ahead if I'm overseeing anybody's position or appreciate it about me saying that I was too slow that I got tired. I want to be able to go ahead and do the strict mistakes that I had once before.

So on average per week, you think you watch. that fight seven times a week? Yeah. Wow. Like, I want, like, I'm always studied that by it, and I say him, I study myself. Like, there's no better way to get past, to think about it than to try to become better. You're not sick of it? I'm sick of watching myself lose, of course, yeah.

Yeah. In my head, I think I win that fight all the time. Do you notice when us media members ask Demetrius about you, you know, he's such a, he's such a com cool and collected guy. You know, he's always very respectful, but it always seems like he gets annoyed when you're brought up. He always, you know, he's subtly says, you know, I'd like new competitors, new challenges, things like that. I always kind of feel like the angry Demetrius comes out when we're asking him about you. Do you notice that?

I noticed that all about that. I noticed that when you guys bring me up about 50 to me to D.C. Delishaw, both of them are like super bugged and super pissed. You get super butt hurt about the fact that you guys got something about it. And Demetri has a copacite with me, and he knows where he'll have, again, another self-fight with me. My potential could still have foul from him. And he goes out, he tells him that when I bought him, he was a fluke and that whatever would never happen again. But he already knows that I'm the only one to secure. I'm not that victory on it.

Do you think Demetrius wants nothing to do with you? Oh, of course. I don't think he wants anything to do with me because he believes that he wants to secure a legacy. But how are you going to secure a legacy when everybody he gets in there in the world? I'm the one who beat you already. Not you the champion, not you. Are you disappointed that you have to fight Zach McCovsky to maybe get a shot at Demetrius?

Would you have preferred to get the title shot right away? I am disappointed, but not for that type of reason. I'm disappointed because that's a really good friend of my name because it's an honor for me to go ahead and fight. I like him. But I thought I had secured my title shot against Demetri's Johnson and not having that chance to go ahead and fight him. and kind of like

I'm like, man, what else do I have to do? Right. And has it been hard to focus on Zach because you have a relationship, because you feel like you should be, you know, in that title shot spot already? Has it been hard to 100% focus on 187, May 23rd? Well, because I want to make sure I'm secure of victory.

That's my only focus. Does that very know what it's been like to be a champion when he's a champion of Belvoirie, and I've actually helped him. I've actually hoped to get ready for, actually win those titles for me to get a lot of, So, to get to the U.S.C., I kill the first man I called to take my place to get Scott Durgerson when I turned my menisketes to my knee. So, like, it's cool for me to go ahead and know that I'm a, to fight with my friends, and it's a real honor.

Because me and back, we always talked about that. He's a great friend, and he's going to be real fun. It's just going to be a good, better of action. But you probably feel like, you know him very well, right? Yeah, and I know that he doesn't know me very well, too. So they're going to go both ways. Like, he's going to know my ends and outs, and out, and I know all his ends and outs as well. How long did it take for you to be 100% recovered from the knee injury?

There's no such thing as being 100%. I feel like I can be, and I'm just going to get stronger. Do you feel, I mean, as healthy as can be, less than a month away from the fight? Yeah. I've been doing back to my park court stuff and making sure I'm doing everything with my normal routine. So people are sitting there asking why I'm doing these next thing.

But if I let my knee bother me and feel like pretty much scare me for doing anything that I want to do, but I'm never going to let it heal. If I can't push myself to be better than this fightless. Has anyone in the UFC told you or your management that if you win this fight, you will in fact be the number one contender? No, not yet.

I want to hear those words that you're saying, hey, you beat, you win this fight, you get the title shot. If I hear those words, I know when I go up there, just try to get hurt, get injured. I'm going to try that anyway, because I don't want to get hurt either way. but I just want to make sure I can go in there as best as possible and be able to fight

within the month yourself. So would you rather not hear those words before the fight? Oh, that'd be awesome. Okay. Because I'll go out and I'll sit there and I'll just try to

I'll do my best to end the fight as quickly as possible so I can go home with the last chill and get another fight with the fight in and fight up a saddle within the month or self so I know nobody else

I'm going to. Really? That quickly, huh? Yeah, the fight Donald's Ronnie. I know. me and him from doing, too. I want to fight. I don't know how much you pay attention to the media, the MMA media, but, you know, we often right before Demetrius fight, we're talking about his drawing power and the fact that the ticket sales weren't good in Montreal,

potentially the pay-per-views as well, and people, you know, say that they don't want to buy a paperview, the fly weights and all this stuff, you sitting on the sidelines and listening to all this, when you gave him the best fight and you guys did very well on Fox, does that bother you? Do you take that personally? Do you say, like, look, if I were champion, people would care, people would pack the house, people would buy the paper for you. Do you think that way?

I do because of the fact that I look at it this way. Well, me and to meet your spot for the title in Chicago, brought in the most people, the most people ever with $7.7 million viewers watch our fight. People want to say that they don't watch the flyway, so if I have 7.7 million people watching that fight, our thoughts for free, and I can very stand to you that we can do it again.

People love the fact. that I'm so sporadic and they want to see your mood. So I'm especially dealing for everybody to hate on. Look, it's sure smile and the Shiggy-Che's attitude in mine. Everybody wants to put there in downfight.

Like, oh, he's just too hyper. He's like a kid. He's like a cartoon. He shouldn't be in the U.C. Well, I'm knocking people out with this little Take a Chief smile on mine. And with DeMichie Johnson being so quiet, I'll be the most vocal person in the U.S.

Do you think Demetrius does a good enough job of selling himself? Like, he's a tremendous fighter. No one could take that away from him. But, you know, when you compare him to some of the other contenders and champions, he might not do as much media or put himself out there or make headlines.

It doesn't have to be negative ones, but just, you know, get people excited. Do you think he does enough? I don't know. He does enough in the fight, but he doesn't do enough for the panfects and care about him. I don't know that's how to say that people don't care for a great fighter. They care for a great athlete that can sit there and present themselves

to be on a weed box, to be someone that they will look up to and talk to feel like they're comfortable to be around and have that information that every fighter, every person who would want to be to aspire to beat. He might be, like, John, he's a pound to pound. One of the Pousel of the best in the world, but it just sucks to know that he's still not.

You can't draw that type of crowd that people want to see. And do you think that's up to the... The right opponent, that's all I see. Well, that is actually my next question. Do you think it's up to the champion to go the extra mile? And you also think that at times it takes two to tango. Like he's faced a lot of guys, Horaguchi, Carrioso, Bagotinov, who've done literally nothing to promote their fights.

Do you feel like it's on them as well? Yeah, I think it does take two to tango. It's not just, Demetri's having to do it all work, if you have the right opponent, because if you want to care about the quality, they need to be invested in it, if we want to suffer for reviews, we got both of us got to sell it, not just one of us. Sure. But do you think it is on the champion to go?

because some people say, well, you have the belt. It's not on you to sell the fight. Others say, yeah, it's actually, it actually is more on you than anyone, because you are the champion. It's part of the duties. How do you, where do you fall in that discussion? I do believe it's on the champion,

because, like, if you want to look at any other chance that's been a part of the sport, and show them, draw that out, tell the people that he's going to beat everybody up, and if they're not going to want to go with Eminemps champions, look at M&A. The man who can sell a fight no matter who opponent it. Even the opponent's that he knows

that he's going to sit there and just crush the cream and the way he's going to care about, he will sell the fight at the way and at the press conference at every single media event that he has to do that he will sell the fight so that people can watch him go out to go out and perform the way he does. And then look at the way that he performed and that way that he's back when he has to sit there and talk about Malabatia. This one, he's been a lot quieter, he's done a lot palmer

because he knows that this one doesn't need his name type of hiking. He does just step back and said nice days and stop there and just stay calm. You don't want to sit there and take a fight because he knows he knows he knows he's going to be one the greatest fights of all time. But, yes, you can be the champion. You should go ahead and put on that extra little miles to make people want to watch it. If you had your way, if you had a perfect scenario, let's say you beat Zach McCoskey, would you prefer a rematch against T.J. Dillishah or Demetrius Johnson?

You both are at the same night. I'll definitely take it. I'll knock out. I'll knock out of DJ. If you want to do a vice versa, I'll drop out DJ if I knock out DJ. But there's not one that you prefer over the other, you know, because you're probably not going to get two in the same night, unless you, you know, convince the UFC, but they usually... Hey, let me have my wish for a little bit. Oh, yeah, that's true.

You're right. You're right. You're right. Good point. No. If I had two champions that I want to fight the Meteoran REAP after that went, I'd have the Dimitri's Johnson just so I'm so I'm so proud. I buy his parents Kee-J, I know he wants to go ahead and do that to me, but I want to go

ahead and do that to DJ. Because Dimitius Johnson and I have unfinished business. I walked privately watched me. They went to the fight. I lost myself hit him. I watched them fall down, and I watched them walk away with my title. Yeah. Does it still eat you up inside?

It does because I didn't perform the way that I normally do in all my fights. I have it same type of tour, and I just think I literally watched it falls around. I let him back up, and whatever you ever really should you do that with any of my other competitors. Do you ever think, like, wow, you know, how different would my life be if I was championed for the last two years? Do you allow yourself to think like that? No, because let's keep all looking ahead and I'm going to be champion. I wouldn't want to sit there and say, what if I was a chance? and I just know I'm going to be the champion.

And that's the fact I'm going to stay with. Like, I'm going to sit there and just go out there and I'm going to bang it out with the youth. And when I walk along with the championship, I'm going to learn to know that we both knew this was going to happen. We came for the first fight, but I had to come from him. Do you think he's gone better since you guys last fought? Oh, yeah, it's gotten tremendous. I've seen he's taken down the ability. He's got so much faster.

And yet he's striking. He started going to look at more time. Granted he's working on more of a jitzy game. So, like, I see that he started to step up. areas with mixed martial arts. So is it fair to say that John, the magician Dotson, is the savior for the fly weights? Anyone complaining about the flywights?

Just wait until you come back. You are going to shake up this division. Of course, but we always thought it was to be E. McCall, but E. McCall hasn't been able to perform the way that he wants to. So I guess I can step up and say that I am the savior of the fireway division, and everybody wants to have a,

have a light of hope for it would be me. Awesome. that's a place to have your right favor, and now they got me. Great job, man. Looking forward to your fight, looking forward to your return. May 23rd, UFC 187, a tremendous card in Las Vegas, Memorial Day weekend. The return of Jodd Dodson versus Zach McCovsky,

and if he wins, could very well be next for Demetrius Johnson. Really appreciate the time, John. All the best to you, and we'll talk to you very soon. Oh, thank you, and I hope you see you soon. Or, yeah, next talk coming up. Yep, I will be there. I will see you there. All right, brother. he is. John Dotson. Great stuff. Again, as we've said, you can criticize Demetrius Johnson all you want.

But it does take two to tango. And I've always felt that John Dotson was the guy to get that fire out of Demetrius. And he brings up a great point. For a while, it did seem like it was Ian McCall. They, of course, fought twice. but every time McCall got that number one contender fight, he slipped. Now it's up to John Dodson, because I do think that he could bring that out of him. At the end of the day, you know, you could be a tremendous champion, a tremendous fighter, you could be the very best in the world, but if people don't believe that you're going to be challenged, if people don't believe that there's going to be anything worth going out of their way to watch, it's going to be a tough sell, especially a week before, you know, the biggest boxing match.

personally, I find him incredibly entertaining. To pull off a submission with one second, to have the presence of mind, to pull off a submission with one second remaining in the fight, which is exactly what he did on Saturday night, 459 of the fifth round. He could have coasted. He was done. Champions do that sort of thing. And give him credit.

Give Demetrius credit. He did as good of a job as possible this past week. He really ramped it up. He's come a long way. But for whatever reason, the people weren't, they weren't buying it, at least in Montreal. Because I've been to every single event in Montreal, except for one, the first one. I wasn't credentialed, but I was there. And we know what happened there, GSP versus Sarah, too.

I've been to every single one. And I've seen 24,000 people there. I've seen tremendous crowds. Just the red section was filled in Montreal. Nothing above. So essentially half the arena was tarped off. That was hard to watch. That was hard to see as a proud Montrealer. And the card was, you know, was killed. It was decimated. All kinds of craziness.

And, of course, the rampage thing didn't help him being pulled from the card and all that stuff. And then brought back. It was just a little too late in the game. But that was a hard thing to watch. And I was there in Vancouver when people were walking out. People need to feel like there's a challenge. It takes two to tango. And it's not fair to blame Demetri's Johnson. Could John Doughton be that man? I think he can. I really think he can. For now, let us go to the Skype machine and welcome in our next guest. Our next guest is a man who performs miracles, literally. He is the owner of Cinepps Performance Therapy. His name, Steve Hanoian. He joins us from Southern California right now, and he has worked with a who's who in the world of combat sports. Leodomachita, Vanderlai Silva, Jake Ellenberger, Freddie Roach, Floyd Mayweather, Mani Pacquiao, Mark Munoz, Fabrice O'Roodo Verduem, Hafelde dos Santos, Michael Bisping, Joseph Benavides. I could go on and on. I could talk about his list of clients for the next 20 minutes, but I'd rather talk to him.

There he is, via the Magic of Skype, Steve Hanoian joining us right now. Steve, how are you? Good, my buddy, how are you? Did I pronounce your last name correctly? You did great. You did great. I nailed it. The owner of Cineps. It is. What's your background, by the way? Armenian. 100% Armenian. Well, you are killing it, my friend, and it's always great to see you at the events.

I wanted to have you on the show for a long time. You are the owner of Synapse Performance Therapy. Explain to us exactly what it is you do and how you actually literally perform miracles on your patients. Well, I appreciate those words, Eric. I really do, man. It's something that I've created over the last 12 years, taking just nerve pathways and opening up at different angles,

making sure that we get the nerves and the body to fire correctly. So the first 10 years of my career, all I would do is work with people with ALS, MS, Parkinson's, people in wheelchairs that couldn't walk. I figured if I could help and figure out how to get somebody up to walk again or somebody to function again, I could take anybody in this world and help them. So the first 10 years, I would only see people in wheelchairs

and try to figure out what nerve pathways to connect to get them up to walk again. So now I've only been with athletes for two years and it's just taken off. It's been a blast. It's been so much fun. How did you go from, you know, just regular people needing your help to working with athletes?

It's a funny story. One of Mark Munoz's coach came into my office I would say about two and a half years ago. and he was suffering with some back problems, and I worked on him and helped him out, and he goes, this is amazing. Have you ever worked with athletes before? I said, no, not really.

I mean, I've worked with, you know, different, all different types of people. But specifically, MMA athletes, I have it. So I contacted Mark when we spoke, and I said, let me do some stuff on you. I figured out the nerve pathway that supplies the punch. And I figured out the nerve pathway, that supplies a kick. And when you open those up, the kicks and punches are harder, faster,

everything is there for these guys. Wow. It's an immediate relief. So now are you working with athletes more so than just regular folks? No, no, no, no. Still half and half. Okay. Still half and half. I still love the challenge of getting somebody up to walk again. And I love working with my athletes because you see the difference in the performance. And specifically with athletes, you see the day-to-day change for them. So, you know, these guys are training so hard in practice that to practice again the next day is tough. So we've come up with different ways to make sure that the body gets taken care of

at practice or sometimes during practice. I've been around MMA combat sports for, you know, almost a decade now as far as covering it. I've never heard of someone doing what you do. So medically and in the most simplest form possible, can you just explain to us what it is that you do the science behind it? The science behind it is basically making the nerve synapses fire correctly. You're taking a nerve pathway, you're opening it up at all these different angles, and you're making the nerve synapse fire correctly. Now, the nerve synapse is a messenger. Those are basically your messengers.

And that's it. You're just opening it up. So when we do that, everything is there for these guys. the punches, the kicks, the speed, the power, everything is there for them. And I read an article a few months back on M.A.junkie.com, a great article about, you know, your career and what you do. And you were explaining how valuable you would be if you were a part of the corner during a fight. Now, of course, there's some logistics involved and only X amount of people are allowed to be in there and work on a guy. But do you truly believe that if a fighter put you in his corner that you could change the outcome of the fight, that you can open up opportunities for him?

that he is not, or her, of course, that they would not have if you weren't there? No doubt, no doubt. We've already been doing that in practice already. So within basically that minute, 30 seconds on each shoulders, I've come up with a specific angle that when you open up the nerve pathway on the specific angle, the nerves fire. They really, you basically get the function out of the shoulder to be back where you started from. It's amazing. I love it when these guys.

look back at me going what did you just do you did that in a minute that's where I love to see so definitely with the corner roll I mean it's it's already proven we're doing that in practice right now already with a lot of my guys have you been in anyone's corner not yet what's how what's the weight well why is why is it everyone so hesitant it's tough because these guys are so used to doing the same thing in the corner yeah it's a it's sort of a habit it's a ritual these guys do a lot of, but I'm going to break somebody down one of these days. So I think it's coming soon. I really do. I really do. Now here's something that fascinates me greatly and one of the reasons why we had you on the show this week. You used to work with Manny Pachiao and of course Freddie Roach.

From what I understand, you were working on Freddie Roach, who of course, you know, is battling Parkinson's and Mani saw you working on him and was blown away and said you must work with me now as well, right? Yes, that's basically the story. You know, Freddie was, he came to before his Parkinson's, and he had some things going on with his foot. He couldn't really function. The foot really didn't function correctly at that time.

And we took it within about a month, we had his foot, you know, where he couldn't stabilize better, walk better, plantar flex the foot, correctly get upstairs. And it was a drastic change for him. And how long ago was that? How long ago were you working initially with him? That was two years ago. Okay.

That was two years ago. So when Manny saw that, he says, hey, you know, you help my coach, what can you do for me? So let me show you. I can figure out the nerve pathway that supplies the punch and I'll show you. And once I showed you, once I showed Manny, I didn't leave for the rest of the camp. I was there every day for that camp. Which fight was that? Bradley, too.

Okay. But now here's where things get really interesting. You're not working with Manny. You're working with Floyd Mayweather. I go on your Instagram one day, and I know you've been working with Manny because you told me many times. And then I go on your Instagram and I see you rocking the Mayweather gear. And I see you with his team and everything. I see you with Floyd.

What happened? It's, uh, it was a funny story. It's, uh, basically Mani and Freddie wanted camp sort of small. They wanted it quiet this, this camp. They wanted really to concentrate, I guess, on. on, you know, this fight. This fight is one of the biggest fights in the history of boxing.

So they wanted to close camp, and I said, no problem, no problem. I came out to Vegas to do some other media stuff, and one thing led to another, and here I am. I'm in Vegas right now. Wow. Been in Vegas for last six weeks.

Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. You did a little yada, yada, yada on us. How does... You still there? Oh, no, we lost them. We were just about to get to the good stuff. All right, we'll get him back. Isn't that interesting?

Right before the biggest fight. Oh, there you are. Okay, you did a little yada yada on us there. How does Floyd get in contact with you? How does this happen? So one of his fighters I've known for many years, Ben Shammoon. And Ben Shammoon has been a dear friend of mine for about two years now. And so I came out to Vegas to do some media stuff.

And Ben trains over the Mayweather boxing gym. So I went over there to see him and work on him, and sure enough, Champ was there. One thing led to another? Yeah, I am, six weeks later. Now, do you think that he was, you know, maybe interested in working with you not only because of what you do and the brilliance behind it, but because you did work with Manny? I mean, has he ever said to you, tell me a little bit about him? I mean, that's kind of intriguing in its own right, right? you're right but he never once has said anything to me about that really not at all he's been

i'm i'm shocked on how intelligent Floyd mayweather is i mean he is one of the best athletes i've ever seen one of the smartest athletes i've ever seen what he can do in the sport is unbelievable his training is legendary like you know you hear stories of him waking up at three or not waking up just going to train at three and you know at the most odd hours and and just to his desire, his will. Are you there for that stuff as well? I've been around, yeah. Wow.

You bet. You bet. Have you ever seen anything like it? No, never. Never. It's unbelievable to see what this man does. I mean, it's to know about the body and the nerves to fire and everything that I understand and I work with and everything. It is absolutely remarkable to see what Floyd Mayweather does in training.

And not only that, but how intense. intelligent he is in sparring sessions when he trains. It's something that I've preached for many years. I tell all my athletes, listen to your body. Your body, you will get the best performance out of your body if you listen to it daily. And that's what he does. He does that to the T. If he doesn't feel like training that day and his body needs a rest day, he will take a day off no matter what day it is.

So you said that you've been working with him for six weeks. maybe ballpark it for us if you can't remember the exact number. How many times have you actually worked on his body? Well, it all depends. I mean, I work a lot with the promotion side as well. So I'm at Mayweather Boxing Club just all day pretty much. So I'm working on a lot of the promotion side as well. There's 13 fighters underneath the promotion side.

So I'm working on those guys. I'm working on champ a few times. So it's been pretty much an all-day affair. When I'm out here, it's an all-day affair to be there. Now, you have a business in Southern California. How do you, you know, still conduct your business and run it when you're in Las Vegas for six weeks? Well, I have a business partner, Ryan Tritz, and he and Christina Kern, who also helps me out, they have done just a great job and helping me with the business aspect.

So they handle all the business stuff that I need help with, so I'm able just to 100% concentrate on my patients and help as many people as I possibly can and do my work. What about your patients in Southern California the last six weeks? Who works with them when you're away? Well, I've gone home twice and worked pretty much 12 hours, 14 hours twice. But, you know, I'm on the phone with them constantly trying to make sure, you know, if they're a migraine suffer, if they're sciatic nerve, whatever, you know, we have. I always try to give, I give all my people homework.

So if I open up a nerve pathway, I give homework after that to make sure that the nerve pathway remains open. So we're five days away from this gigantic fight. How many times, if any, will you work on Floyd in particular before the fight? You know, I've never worked with him this week. I mean, I've never worked with him in the fight week, so I'm not sure what to expect. Okay. Where will you be during the fight? I'm not sure yet.

I don't know about that one either, because I'm not sure what he expects. Sure. Have you ever worked? Can you be in the locker room? How does that work? Well, I've worked in the, you know, the UFC event. I've ended there. And with the Pachial fight a couple of years ago,

I was in the locker room as well with that one. But I'm not sure what Champ has in mind will just, no, I just go with the flow. I'm here for these guys. I just want to work and I want to just see their performance get better. That's what I'm here for. You're on call. Darn right.

Darn right. What's... I'll work any hour of the night. What's the biggest feather in your cap? You know, someone who hasn't walked the next amount of years, you know, a regular person that you were able to, you know, heal and allow them to get up and start walking. Do you have any story like that that would come to mind?

Yeah, we've had a numerous, you know, migraine suffers that suffer so long that get physically ill. We've had people that take a golf swing and they haven't walked since the golf swing. Now it was six years ago. We have people that, I mean, I see all the tough cases that just maybe people don't understand or doctors don't understand. They come to me and we get them better. I've really been blessed to help a lot of people.

One that comes to mind is a woman I have out in Long Beach, and she didn't walk for six years. And she didn't have a nerve firing. The percentage of a nerve firing was down to almost 3%. And basically now, six years later, and we got her up and walking with a walker after the second or third year. But now she's able, and it's so amazing. to see because she goes out shopping. She really enjoys your life. And it's funny because it's not,

it's almost to give somebody the ability to walk again. It's not the shopping. It's not those type of things where you would think it's cooking for themselves to get back in the kitchen and cook or it's going to the restroom by yourself or if it's, you know, just those little things that we take for granted daily means the most is somebody who can't walk that's in a wheelchair. Not to downplay the athletes, but I feel like that's more gratifying than working with the biggest name out there, celebrity, right? Any day of the week. Any day of the week, the more difference I can make, the happier I am.

I tell a lot of people, and I don't mean this to sound bad, but I say, the more screwed up you are, the happier I am, because the more of a difference I know I can make for them. And as far as MMA is concerned right now, who do you work with? I mean, we've had, I mean, Leoto just had. I got TJ coming up. I'm really excited for TJ's fight. I'm really excited for T. I was really excited when he got hurt. I was really bummed. But his camp, I'm excited for that fight. I really, I love T.J. He's a great fighter. And I'm excited to see him fight. And I saw you in Dallas. You were there for Hafelde Los Angeles, right?

You bet. You bet what a great fight that was. What a great fight week that was. That was, that was great. That was a lot of fun. So now as far as champions go, you have Verdume and RDA, right? Yes, sir. Anyone else? And TJ. That's right. Of course. You bet. Now, what happens, by the way, if, you know, this fight is over and Freddie and Mani say, we want you back?

What do you do? Well, I don't know about that one. I'll have to come to that row when you cross that row when it comes to it. I have no idea about that one, buddy. That's a good one, though. That is a good one. But did you leave on amicable terms? Oh, no, no, of course.

No, hey, I respect everybody. You know me. I respect everybody. I made sure that it was okay. I respected Freddie. I respect everybody always. I go above and beyond to make sure I don't step on anybody's toes or I don't disrespect anybody.

You know, now that, you know, this business has gotten a little bit bigger. It's just been so, you know, easy for me just to concentrate on my own people and sort of have a business partner that I took on so that he handles that side,

you know, the business side of things. So it's nice because I just get to concentrate and help. as many people as I possibly can. You ever work on those gigantic bodyguards of his? Actually, yes. Those are huge. A couple of them, yeah, you go on my Instagram, you'll see.

I come up to this guy's hip, I think. This guy is so big, I think I get to his hip. But, yeah, they're huge. I've never seen bigger bodyguards before my life. Where can people learn more about synapse performance therapy? Well, we have synapse performance therapy. Okay. We have Instagram, synapse performance therapy underscore.

And then we also have Armo Steve, which is me, that I've, you know, created that three years ago when I sort of started all this. So Armo Steve is something that I've done for the last few years of getting people going. So that's pretty much how you get some more information. But anyone I can help, any questions, any time, any place, that's what I'm here for. This is my passion is to help people and, you know, take the challenges on that I love challenges and I know what I can do. I have this gift. I have this mind that I understand the body and how to get nerves to fire again and really make a difference. And that's what I'm here for in this world.

I really enjoy. Tremendous stuff, Steve. Keep up the great work. Enjoy what promises to be a very interesting week in Las Vegas. Enjoy the ride. And thank you for all that you do. to finally have you on the show. Well, thank you very much, Ariel.

I appreciate you and your friendship, and I really give you props for always doing a great job and getting us the news and the media that we need daily. You do a great job. Thank you. Thank you, my friend. All the best. Take care.

There he is. Steve Hanoian, stopping by, owner of the Cineps Performance Therapy, fascinating stuff if you go online and research it and read some videos on his website as well about some of his greatest success stories. It's really fascinating stuff. And stuff that I've actually, the first time I met him,

I was battling with some stuff very similar to what he works on, not as severe. So I took some interest in what he was doing, read up on it. And it's just amazing. And then how about that? You go from Team Pacquayout to Team Mayweather. Pretty interesting. So we appreciate his time very much.

Wish him all the best. And wish him continued great work. He's killing it with those guys. Pretty amazing client list for Steve Hanoi. All right, let's move along now. As I mentioned earlier, our next guest is the newest member of the Invicta FC roster. You know her. She's a member of the four horsewoman.

She's a very good friend of Rhonda Rousey. You see her front row at WrestleMania. She's a part of the team over there at GFC, Glendale Fighting Club. One of the rising stars in the world of women's MMA, Marina Shafir, and also, also the owner of perhaps the greatest nickname in MMA. I've said it on this very show, the Supernova. from Moldova. Unbelievable. You can't come up

with something better than that. Marina joins us right now. Marina, how are you? I'm good, Ariel. How are you? I'm great. Thank you very much for coming on the show.

Oh, no problem. I actually just got finished with training with Josh Brennan, and he says, hello. Oh, look at you, name dropping. Yeah. And we just got our little

string conditioning circuit out Monday morning. Well, I appreciate the time, and congratulations, Mazel Tov. Muzzletov on the New Deal with Invicta. Why did you decide to go with Invicta? It was just a great fit for where I am in my career.

You know, I will find all the, I think I'll get all the experience that I need in Invicta. And it's just a great organization. I like what they're promoting. And, you know, I'm always trying to think, like, big picture-wise. I really hope it's something that takes over, you know, like, when. in's MMA. It's going to, I hope they expand out from the United States. Hopefully we can, in a couple of years, maybe do some international shows. I'm thinking, like, I'm thinking big picture wise, and I think it'll be a great opportunity. Now, of course, we haven't seen you in

action since last August when you suffered your first loss, pro or amateur. Haven't heard much from you as far as rumors, fights, things of that nature. Why the extended break? I just needed it. I just, um, I just, um, I just, everybody was just kind of in my ear about, you know, don't brush it off, brush it off, just like just brush it off, it's just one loss, yada, yada, yada, and I'm not a good loser. So, yeah, so I just needed to, because I really, I'm really, really serious about what I'm doing. and losing is just not, it's, it just wasn't part of the plan, I guess. And, you know, I've taken it in stride. You know, I've accepted it, and I'm really ready to show that I don't ever want to feel that again.

So I just needed that break to learn that. Because, you know, I've talked to a couple of fighters and, you know, it's just, it's a hard thing to, swallow, you know. You got to go back out there and just do your thing. So, yeah. Looking back, how did you handle it? I mean, did you, did you handle it as you expected? Was it worse? Did you, you know, did you have to, you know, just disappear from the M.A. world? I'm sure you've been able to digest it since then, but looking back, how did you handle it? I didn't really disappear, though. I just stayed out of, um, really, I just kind of, um, um, really, I just kind of, I kind of stayed out of the social media aspect of it, I guess.

And I really just, I started to grind it out in the gym. I mean, like, the next two to three weeks, I just shut down. But, you know, that happens. I just, the next day, I really could give two fucks of, like, what happened to me. I was just not really, you know, healthy mentally. but I just had to take myself out of all I feel like social media is like so misconstrued like just because I get a lot of like for example I get like a lot of feedback for not putting up like training posts and stuff all the time and everybody's like what are you doing just taking selfies

and you're just doing all this shit you're not even training blah blah blah and it's just really funny what people want to see and like believe what you're doing so it's really funny. I guess it was also kind of like a little experiment for after taking myself out and seeing what people would come up with. Because if I've learned from anything from Rondo in this whole MMA business, it's really a lot of fun if you take a step back and just watch how crazy people get over some certain stuff. You know, I remember when you suffered that loss and people were losing their minds and it was in such a distasteful way. It's amazing how you see people. want to dance on someone's grave and celebrate their misfortune. And because you are so closely linked to Rhonda and because she has yet to lose, people, you know, just celebrating the fact that,

oh, you know, her best friend has stumbled. Look at that. They're overrated, all that stuff. I mean, that, I don't blame you if you don't want to go on social media. I don't blame you if you didn't want to listen to all that. I mean, it was pretty disgusting stuff. That had to have made it worse, right? Oh, yeah. How did you handle all that? It was horrible. stuff that I was reading. I cried. I cried a lot. Like I said, you know,

I know myself, and that's pretty much all that matters at the end of the day. I know myself very well, and that loss, it didn't define me. It definitely shook me from the core, but, like, it didn't,

it just, it just, I just have to wake up. You know, and that's it. Like, I, I had to wake up and understand that I am completely capable of climbing this ladder and being completely 100% successful and just knocking some of these chicks off the block. And I had to learn that kind of the hard way. And, yeah, I get, everybody just thinks that just because, you know, I'm best friends with Rhonda and, you know, I'm pretty much, like, supposedly untouchable

when I'm just, I'm just as human as the next person. You know, I don't ever act like the world owes me anything, ever. And that is the one misconception people have about me is just because I'm friends with Ronda means that, you know, I get all the royalties too, and I'm untouchable, and that's not true. I don't, I work. When I go into a new gym, I bow, I shave, I shake hands.

I barely say anything because it's like you got to you got to prove yourself all over again. I don't, I'm not righteous. I don't ever act like I'm righteous. I, it's just, it's, it was really horrible some of the shit that like,

some of the people, some people would say. And you know, it's not like, attack me, that's fine. That's so, that's fine.

It's my loss. But, like, attacking my friends and, like, my training partners and shit like that. Like, that's so petty. So petty. And I'm sorry, I just want off track here.

No, no. The adrenaline. I just had done training, so, like, my adrenaline is kind of, like, all over the place. So if I get off topic, you can just stop me. No, it's totally fine. I'm wondering, though, did it ever get to a point where you were, like, screw MMA? I'm done with this? Oh, no, no, no, no.

Because in judo, you know, in judo, people think that, like, I was some world, champion judoka and i wasn't i was a really really really hard working joika but i had a couple serious back injuries that put me on my ass literally and um yeah i don't i never wanted i never ever thought that like fuck it just because i have a few bad uh you know a few bad comments about a lot on one match and no credit taken away from Amanda Bell. She's on her way up. She's doing really good things. I know she suffered a loss

past weekend. But I guarantee you I'm going to see that girl. I will get my rematch with her and I'm going to see her and it's going to be completely different. You know, and that last didn't it didn't make me want to abandon Eminem at all. Like I'm learning that I'm

very actually really good at this. And strategically, the way that I see things, it's different. And I know that, and I don't need anybody to tell me that. So, no, I'm 100% in this, and I can't wait until my next fight. I just can't wait. By the way, you've been training like... Sorry, go ahead.

Go ahead. No, I was just wondering if you knew when your debut will be. No, I don't. I don't. I just signed a contract last Monday, so now we're just working on a date, and I haven't heard anything yet. Will it be at 145? Yes. That is my...

That is my fighting weight. I get asked all the time if I can fight at 135. I can get down to 135 pounds. I will not be the kind of fighter that I want to be at 135 pounds. Are you not? Sorry? No, I won't perform to my potential, and I know that because my frame, my build, is completely different than Ronda's. My shoe size is like two sizes than her.

like I'm like really freakish I have huge long arms I have big feet I'm I've been told today by Josh that I'm a walking brick wall so I'm I'm just different I'm different I can't do I don't know what else to say to that of course I think a lot of people would want to push you into that fight with Cyborg because you know she says the same thing do you think you're even remotely ready for a challenge like that or would you like you know two three three four four or five more fights. It wouldn't make sense for me to fight her right now. Yeah. I'm off of a loss. I just signed to an organization. I have to earn that fight. I get that.

I know if I asked for it, she would take it in a heartbeat, but I know I have to work up towards that fight. I have to make people really believe, because I know I believe I will eventually have that fight and I believe that I will beat her. But I have to make everybody else believe that. And this is part of the journey.

I'm just really excited. I'm just really fucking excited to fight. And just prove people wrong. Correct me if I'm wrong here. I've noticed that the four horsewoman stuff, which I was a fan of, I thought it was great as a pro wrestling guy, you know, I have a great appreciation for that, especially in MMA, people who are able to bring that stuff over

and promote themselves properly. It feels like it's not as much in our face these days. You don't, you guys don't promote it as much. Do you regret anything that you guys, you know, as, you're part of the team? Do you regret anything that you guys did? Because I feel like it may be, in hindsight, that brought upon more hate on your shoulders and in your face and all that stuff. It's not that.

It's not that we don't promote it. It's very rare that all four of us. us and our schedules allow us to be together. Because when we hang out together, we hang out together. But, like, it's, especially Rhonda's, has been so fucking crazy that, like, it's hard for us to, when we are finally together, we, the last thing we think about is promoting the four horsemen. And the first thing we want to do is just fucking hang out. Like, we're, we're, like, the MMA version of Sex and the City.

So, from us. Yeah, like the four of us, like we're just, you know, the last thing we think about when we hang out with each other is pulling out our phones and being like, hey, let's take a pick. Like, we just want to enjoy each other and, you know, catch up and see what everybody's been doing because we have our own lives at the same time, you know. Like, I still train with Shana, Desmond, and Rhonda, but, like, we also have our own things going on. Was that always the case, though? Or have you learned from experience? learned what? Meaning, at first you feel like looking back, maybe we were promoting that too much,

and now you're just like, you know, screw it, I want to live my life, you know? Oh, no, no, no, we're still promoting it. It's just that, um, I don't know. Maybe we have been a little bit lazy on that. Shit, thanks, Ariel. I was like, send a group text message right now and be like, don't blame me. Don't blame me.

To promote this person thing. Because Ariel thinks that. I don't want that blame. But I think it's... I say shove it down people's throats if you want. I mean, more power to you. Yeah. Why not?

I completely understand to agree. I completely agree with you. And yeah. What was it like being in the front row for WrestleMania and then seeing your friend, knowing the kind of wrestling fan that you are, seeing your friend going to the ring with the rock and Stephanie Kamala?

I mean, what was that experience like for you? Okay. I knew what was it. going on. You knew, okay. I knew. Because I'm the best friend. Sure. But as soon as she jumped over the fence, I fucking lost my shit. I forgot that I knew. And I marked out over my best friend.

That's a pretty cool thing to say. I was her biggest fan. There's a meme out there, or there's a gift out there, of me marking the fuck out. And I, I, you know, really, I lost my mind. I knew what was going on, you know? Like, I had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen. But even in knowing, I don't know, I became one with the crowd and I lost my fucking mind.

I don't know how else to, like, it was awesome. I was so proud of her. I was so proud of how she handled it. I was so proud of, like, being able to, like, watch it with my friends. And it was awesome. It was really fucking awesome. It was definitely an experience worth having. Dana White said on Friday that she's won and done.

What do you think? Do you think we'll ever see her back in there? No. The world is her oyster. If she wants to get back in there, I'm sure she will. Would you ever like to do something like that? Absolutely. Absolutely.

That's how much fun they have in that ring. Like, it's like an action theater. Yeah. Live, live action theater. You know, it's, it's like, it's, they just have a ball. And they're all done up and everybody's pretty and everybody wears, like, really cute outfits that make them look super good and super awesome and just super creative. And I would love to, why would you not be a part of that, not want to be a part of that?

Who's your favorite? Do you want to do it? I want to do it. Who's your favorite wrestler? all time? The Undertaker. Really? Why? Yeah.

Um, I like her. It doesn't say much. Huh. Yeah. I was never a big Undertaker guy, to be honest. Yeah? I was more of a Brett Hart guy.

Oh, I could see it. That makes a lot of sense. Canadian, you know, that all thing. I actually got to meet him after the show. Oh. Because Natalia Hart, actually, whenever she's in LA, she tries to get in a training session with Josh and Shana. And I've trained with her a few times, and she's the biggest sweetheart, and her father is so fun to talk to.

Yes, the Anvil. Yeah. Does he still have the big goatee? No, no goatee, but he definitely has the hair. Okay. Well, that's close enough. All right, so getting back to your fighting career, your MMA career, do you have any kind of ballpark? I mean, there's a show in July in Vegas.

Do you think you'll be on that card or do you think later in the air? I definitely would have mad at that. I wouldn't be mad at that. I would love to be on that show. That's what you want. I would love it. Anyone? Make it happen? Yep.

Anyone in the division that you want in particular? I have no cares. I have no cares. I know I'm not in the decision. decision-making position. So I'm just, I'm ready and focused and you know, I'm just, I'm ready for whoever.

Whoever they want me to do, or whoever they want me to do, whoever they want me to fight, I'm ready. All right. Well, that would be good timing with Rhonda fighting in August and, you know, a huge weekend for the UFC, you know, with the show being on that Friday, you making your debut,

that would make a lot of sense. And I do believe Cyborg is going to be on that card as well. I think you should be on that card. I think we should push for that. I think you are absolutely 100% right. Great to have you. Oh, by the way, before I let you go, I need to know the origin of the nickname, which I love so much. Where does it come from? Obviously, go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to be the fighter without a nickname for a while because nothing felt

Marina Shapier. Nothing was, everybody was like the fear, and I'm like, ah, it's so cheesy, I don't really like it. Shayna comes into my life. The first week, Shana and I hung out. She was on a tear, and we were drinking together, and she came up with a name for me. Wow. Yeah. Supernova from Moldova.

You're originally from New York, right? No, no, no. I was born in Moldova, but we moved to New York. We immigrated to New York. Which part? Albany. Oh, wow. Cross Cates Mall.

Yeah, Cross Cates Mall. There you have it. How old were you when you moved? Five years old. Oh, okay. Crossgate Mall, the best. Used to go there all the time. Well, a real pleasure to have you on the show for the first time, Marina. I wish you the best. Congratulations on the new deal. I hope you fight on that July card. And prove those haters wrong. Do your thing. I will. You too, Ariel. You too. You go, girl. Thanks. Thank you so much. All right. Talk to you soon. There she is. Marina Shafir, these soon. Supernova from Moldova. What a nickname. And you can credit Shana Bazler for that. Wow. Great stuff. Looking forward to her debut for Invicta FC. All right, let's move along. Some big news last week for the UFC's welterweight division. UFC 189, a great card, of course,

headlined by Connor McGregor versus Josealdo for the featherweight title. We were expecting, originally, Matt Brown versus Nathan Diaz. As you heard on this show, Nate Diaz said, never agreed to the fight. Wasn't going to do it. So there was an opening. and how about this, Tim Means, fresh off a win in Newark, New Jersey, back in action July 11th, he'll be fighting Matt Brown in a fight that has a lot of people excited. They're expecting a lot of action in that fight, a lot of violence, and we wanted to have Tim on the show to talk about that and a few other things. So here he is for the first time joining us, the Dirty Bird himself, Tim Means.

Tim, Tim, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Great to have you on the show. So how did you fill that Nate Diaz void? Did you ask for the fight? Did they contact you? had to go down? Dana informed me when I was leaving the venue there in Jersey,

took me a coach in the back, and just offered the idea to talk to us to think about it for a couple of days, and they were calling on Monday to get an answer, so here we are. Did you have to think about it much, or was this a fight that you wanted? This is a fight anybody who wants for trying to win bonuses, you know, so I was real happy with the offer. You know, I feel like the bosses are starting to definitely take notice are keeping me busy.

So, you know, I can be happy right now. So getting things in line here at the house to an house tour so I can go into this week and start preparing for Matt Brown. Was that the first substantial conversation that you ever had with Dana? Yeah, well, yeah, pretty much, man. Pretty much to shake his hand on stage. Yeah.

But Joe Silva, Joe Silver did a cool little bicep block on my hug. I was trying to get a suit messed up, like blocked it pretty slick. So, Dana-Wight took me called, you know, White sent his security guard, someone got a coach and I were doing media and, you know, said if Jordan didn't want to give me a hug, you wanted to give me a hug, and was just congratulating me and it seems sincere, you know, so

it's cool to have the guy who writes to checks wanting you to fight, so it was a cool feeling. Does a part of you think, like, it's about time, it's about time they're giving me these big fights on main card, big pay-per-view, noticing me. Do you feel that way a little bit? You know, I had to make right with how things went at 155. It wasn't my best effort.

I kind of say it wasn't my best effort. I really tried hard, to be in that weight class and show up and still fight. So with more energy at 170 pounds, my coach, my team, we all knew how I felt when I had energy and the things that I can do. So it's just a matter of showing the bosses what I can do. And that's starting to happen. That being said, though, I mean, were you surprised? You had two losses, two very tough guys, Mazvedo, Super Tough, Castillo as well.

Were you surprised when they let you go? No, man, I gave my words. I can make weight and I put my name on the contract. So they'd already offered me another time, not another, I'm trying to say. It already offered me another contract, out 155. And Joe Silver was just concerned about the weight cut, wanted me to move up, see how I did. Okay. And then he said he'd bring me back, and that's exactly how I played out.

I just had to show that I could do well and not get out powered, muscles around at the weight, you know, that I was just having issues with a weight cut. Yeah, he certainly stayed true to his word. You came back to the UFC and you fought Neil Magny last May. Unfortunately, you lost that fight. That's your last loss. You've won four in a row since then. But were you worried after that one?

Man, I can't catch a break here in the Octagon. No, man, nothing like that. I fought one of the longest dudes in the division. It's not the longest guy. So I learned a lot from that fight. I got back home, changed some timing drills up and movement drills to deal with the longer guys. and that fight prepared me well for the fights that were coming with guys, my height, my reach.

And in Magni, I might have lost a decision, but I ultimately won a lot from that flight. Like what? I can't use just my link to get away with things anymore. Like I 155, I was taller or longer. So certain things would help me to leverage, and I have to be technically founded this way to not get away with those types of advantages, you know.

So a lot of things are just playing out to where I have to be super technical and not cheat, you know, and not try to cut corners. You know, your story well documented at this point, your ups and downs, your time and jail and all that stuff. So to make it all the way to the UFC, to enjoy a little success, and then to, you know, to get cut and you're told you, okay, go out there and win. Was it hard to go back to the regional scene, so to speak, and you've tasted, you know, the big time, you've tasted the big leagues and then have to work. your way back up. Was that tough initially? No, man. I just I just had to go out there and perform and knock people out.

And just ultimately start enjoying being a fighter again. 155 was a burden. Make things done fun. We could the fight wasn't fun. I wasn't focused on the fight. I was just trying to get that stupid damn weight cut out of the way. So now I've gotten to step back, man, enjoy the moment and ultimately just enjoy my job again and just be open-minded. I'm learning in the gym every day. and not trying to think I know it all, and just ultimately trying to listen, and it's just paying off.

How much do you walk around at? What's your weight? I'm about 198 right now. Wow, so you were going from 198 to 155? My first started out. I was like 180. Okay. And then, you know, I started putting more time in the gym,

and then, you know, I started getting around the weight room and things like that started just changing my weight just naturally. So it was supposed to be a quick, a quick transition at 1.55. You have a few flights in and move up, and it turned out to be kind of a drawn-out thing. You know, injuries happened and just silly things, man. But, you know, you learn from those things. You have to stay mentally tough and sharp and just stay focused.

Things happen. Take step forward, you know. So I'm staying laid down and feeling bad for myself. That's not going to get anything accomplished. Did that happen initially, or you're not that kind of guy? You know, being locked up and that type of stuff, man, teaches you patience. Yeah. And, you know, you're there on court's time.

There, some get you when they watch you, and ultimately it just makes you patient. And those are the things I got from the Department of Corrections. I corrected myself, and now we're here. One of the other reasons I wanted to have you on this show, in addition to talking about the Matt Brown fight, was you, and correct me from wrong, you're not a big fan of the MMA media these days.

Is that accurate? I'm not a fan of the MMA media trying to say the fighters have to get better, and they can't even write the right facts in their story. You expect a certain grade out of us every time we come out and perform. We have to get better with take downs and we're bums and we suck at this. But fighters, or but the riders, I've seen, just right after the fight, I've seen websites writing that Sullivan took the fight last minute.

You know, those are wrong facts. Or I finished the fight with strikes. You know, just I feel some of these guys that are in the media, to take more pride in their work. You know, they expect a fighter to have to do it, and I think they should have to come back the other way as well. Is there an outlet or a writer in particular that really has gotten under your skin? Because sometimes I feel like people just say the term MMA media, and that's obviously,

you know, a lot of ground to cover. I can pick out any particular rider. It's just stories that I'm seeing that just aren't correct, you know, and it could be a variety of guys. I'm not really too sure, but I'm not really sure. but I write a couple things on Bleacher Report that they're just kind of always expecting more out of the fighter

than they want to put into their own work. And then you even called them out in your post-fight interview. Yeah, you know, you can bash me. I'm going to talk back, you know, just the way I work, you know. It's just amazing that you're in a UFC fight, you picked up a big win, and that came to mind. I can't imagine what else is going on in your mind, and that just proved how much it must have annoyed you.

Yeah, man. I think we do a lot of fighters, all the fights. We do a lot to put these shows on. And just the fact that guys are getting in there takes a lot of emotion and anxiety and a lot to deal with in general. You know, they're putting their lives on old to get in there and fight and make money for themselves. And, you know, these riders, they tear that down. They tear it hours and hours worth of work.

They tear it down in a two-minute block, you know. And that's not fair. You know, it's not fair at all. You're not putting in near the same amount of work to type on a computer. and then to get your facts wrong is just, it's embarrassing to me. So don't point the finger if you're not going to do your job better. Was there something in particular said about you before the fight that really bothered you? Kind of bothered myself.

Like, the fact that I'm one-dimensional and, you know, I actually take down defense in this stuff. Yeah, that was just a vendetta for myself. I have these tools and I need to start using them. I'm not just a striker. I'm not just a boxer. and if I want to be that guy, I need to go box. I need to go kickbox. I have these tools.

I have these submissions, and my coaches have, they've worked for me a long time. So for it to be a mental issue, I mean, not using my tools when I have them is just embarrassing on my own right. But I think things are starting to show I'm getting real comfortable with this plate and just getting stronger in the weight room. Just feeling better, man. So I have to expect myself to want to perform. well and use my tools and I have to do it because I know what I'm doing. So are you done with the M.A. Media now? Are you, are you just not going to read anything

anymore to not piss you off? I read. I dabble here and there, but for the most part, they, like, when the Matt Brown fight took off, like, there's so many people that either have supporters, you're going to have people talking shit, and I'm a type of guy where I'll shake hands and say hello, and I pretty much try to answer people back if they ask me a question, you know? So, but when the Matt Brown fine was announced, just things took off went crazy. I kind of would have been on my phone all day answering people if it was that case. So I really appreciate the support.

I appreciate the people that don't believe in me. I believe in me. My family, my team believes in me, and that's what's important. So with that being said, you know, I really, I appreciate everybody getting on the Twitter and giving me feedback and all that, but it's just kind of hard to answer everybody back in a single day, you know? Were people actually writing to you and saying that you're going to get your ass picked and stuff, or was it all positive? You get the positive, and then you get the bad.

People hate the matchup, and people, I'm going to get ran over, and Matt Brown's too strong, and, you know, it's just a good with the bat, you know, and you learn how to do with those things, so. I can never understand the kind of person that goes out of his way to tweet something like that to a pro athlete, like, you're going to lose. It's a very weird thing to do, in my opinion. I agree, man. I can understand saying you're my favorite fighter, I hope you win.

But to actually wish bad upon someone is a very strange thing for me to comprehend. Yeah, well, everyone's got an opinion now. That's what social media has done for people. Yeah. Given everyone in opinion. And that's just kind of where I'm out with the media guys, you know. Like you guys have to talk to us to get our names out there and write the reports and just have the reports right, you know, because we're, us as a fighter, or be as a fighter,

I can speak for other fighters. We get bashed at all angles, so they have the media tear us down and then also fans talk trash, you know, like it's kind of a weird issue to me or you don't think we're going to be able to talk back and lash back and lash out back. Sure.

No, I respect you for doing it. I think it's a fine thing. It's a healthy thing to do. We should have these discussions. By the way, Matt Brown, is he the kind of fighter that when you were coming up? You're like, that's a fight I want. This is the perfect guy for me.

Did you dream of this kind of matchup? Um, yeah, you know, I don't know if I dreamed or whatever. When you watch him fight, there's extra money attached to his name, you know, so if, if, if you're in a jailhouse type thing and you're locked up and the dude comes in and has a little bit of name and you want to build your credit, you want to jump on that dude that everybody knows, you know? So everybody knows Matt Browns and bonuses come with his name and people are going to know my name after this fight. Some people can make that analogy, but not really know what they're talking about. you can actually speak from the truth. I mean, you know exactly what you're talking about. Has that ever happened to you,

that situation where a guy comes in, where you know you can make your name off him in the jail? You know, I got a couple little fights in jail, man. Once people found out that I wasn't going to be a pushover, I got left alone. And I just kind of stuck to myself, played basketball here and there, except to keep my cardio up.

But ultimately, I was worried about my family and the things I needed to do differently when I got out. My nephew's following me and looking up to me. I didn't want him to be poisoned by my decision. And so I had a lot to think about before I got out. Yeah. In a weird way, that almost was a horrible thing,

but the best thing to ever happen to you to be locked out, it seems like you were able to really turn your life around, so people can't. Yeah, I lucked out, man. I didn't have no felonies or nothing, but I had a family friend that was a judge, and he was tired of me lying to him, and I just thought I was smarter than him.

I was an exception, and it doesn't work like that. You know, once you start getting above the law and thinking you're it, you know, things come crap. down hard. And it's a surreal moment when it does happen and you're sitting there in a jail cell. Just a place you never thought you to be. And you don't get to go home. You have to stay there for months at a time or a year or whatever you're doing life sometimes. So I don't forget about that place ever because things can change. So I don't know if felony is. I have a prison number and

I had enough misdemeanors to send me to the Department of Corrections. So I'm very thankful for the judges to send me and I'm very thankful to be a life day. And and just making money to feed myself and my family. And what were you charged with? Two counts of battery. I got in a fight with the guy that broke into my house. But rather than beating him up at the yard, I found him a couple days later.

And I wanted to beat him up. I took my stuff back. Oh. How did you find him? It's a small town, man. Had people telling me people instigating. People wanted to see a fight, you know, that type of stuff. And I jumped right in with both feet.

Wow. And had you done it in your yard, would it have been different? The outcome? Yeah, if I would have caught him coming out of my house with my stuff, yeah, it would have been a different outcome. You know, I wouldn't have gotten trouble for it. But since I found him down the street, and I said I planned it and that type of stuff,

I just heard where it was out and showed up and took my stuff back. And, you know, I only hit him one time. And it shouldn't hit him at all, I guess. So I got my stuff and wound up. I had a drug problem. And I was fighting demons, man, fighting depression, things like that that I was going through. So I just kind of learned that I was feeling sorry for myself and just being a wuss. And you said your friend who was a judge was tired of you lying to him.

What were you lying to him about? I was having a drug problem and things like that. They were drug testing me, and I wouldn't admit it. I keep denying it. And just the ultimate thing, the ultimate thing to being an addict is denial and saying you don't have that problem. And I was that got, once I started seeing my issues and admit my wrong and things like that, life got easy. Still have the curveball. You still have, you still have everyday struggles, things like that.

But there's no running away from stuff. You can't run away. And she catches up to you. When's the last time that you took any kind of drug? I'm clean eight years. Wow. I'm nothing that means. And, you know, I just, life's good.

I couldn't be happier. You know, no painkillers, none of that stuff. That's what I got addicted to when I had gotten shot. you know, it was the painkillers, and it's one thing just kind of led to another, and it turned into a four-year issue. And, you know, learned a lot from that time. I learned what type of guy I didn't want to be. I didn't want my nephews following and just the type of guy becoming my community.

It was embarrassing. So I went back. I fixed a lot of burnt bridges, and I didn't move out of the state. I went back to my hometown and fixed the issues I had made and just got on better terms with everybody. And you feel like now they're all fixed? I can pick something every day. Yeah. But the things are better, man.

I get to vent those life's frustrations in a cage. And if I'm having an issue, I go outside and hit my bag and, you know, try to work with the teens program we have here in Albuquerque. And I've been to the HP. Talk to these kids with having issues. And I can see the same anger in them. And a lot of them are just bored, you know. So it's good to be able to relate and talk to these kids and kind of. see them come out of like, we had kids that were being bullied and picked on,

and these kids come in my program, you start seeing them come out of their shell a couple months in, and they're smiling, they're laughing, and it's just a good thing. It feels good to give them back that way than running from the tops and having them chase me for stupid reasons. Of course you want to be successful as a fighter, but does part of the reason why you want to be successful to give hope to these kids, when they see you fighting on the biggest card of the year and doing so well in the UFC, the major leagues of your sport, I mean, that has to be inspiring for them. Does that come into play when you prepare for these fights?

Yeah, you know, I thought a lot of that was just my nephew, Gino, and he was looking up to me, and, you know, I really felt like I was poisoning and being the worst thing for him, and I really did love the kid, and I really do care about him. He's in band. He plays the saxophone. He's got good grades, and the kid just, he's just an awesome kid, and I didn't want to ruin that for him. You know, he's got a chance to go to college, things that my family just hasn't done, you know? it's just a good thing man it just feels good to know that he's in my 15th class

he's looking up to me in that light and not trying to be a criminal and just do stupid stupid issues the kids got his head on his shoulders to be more proud of him and when you were in jail did you ever allow yourself to think of moments like you're about to experience on July 11th

was that the ultimate motivation for getting out I mean this doesn't get any bigger this is a gigantic fight on a gigantic card on that branch is another fight man we're going to bleed We're going to show up that day. It's going to be done at 9 o'clock. You know, we're going to be on to the next fight.

So it's just another guy. People know his name a little more than mine, but it's going to be a violent fight, flat-out violent. And the best thing is I found a skill set where I can get paid and I can enjoy my job, and I don't have to get up at 6 a.m. to dig ditches anymore and pull weeds and pick up trash and not really have a skill set to fall back on, you know.

I've got a skill set where I can relate to these kids, You know, I consider it a skill set. I went to the real college, you know. I had to learn from not reading it in a book from actually having to learn the problem with it in my blood system and being locked up and having to deal with the angers. And, you know, I think these psychiatrists have to try to be the healer and be passionate reading it out of a book.

Just can't get the job done that way. So talking to these kids, I get to fight. Wint life's frustrations. So, man, life's good. Life's real good. I got my own home, my own car. My kids are looking up to me, you know, so life is just grand. And final thing, when you say that word violent, like, I feel it in my bones,

would you prefer that kind of fight as opposed to a quick, you know, one-minute knockout? Do you want to get into that firefight with Matt Brown? I want to win the fight, man. It can be fast. It can be long and drawn out. But the thing of the matter is, is it's not going to be a fire where you have to think a lot. He's a dude that comes after you and you just have to react and fight. And I do the best under them circumstances when someone's trying to come after me and hurt me.

And that speaks for itself in the fight where I've landed. The fast knockout is when guys are in my face. And Matt Brown is that exact guy that doesn't come out and he's going to try to put hands on me. So they want to bust me up. And that is flat out exciting. And I'll show up in shape for Vegas. Tim, great to have you on the show. All the best.

Continued success. and, you know, I hope that the MMA media does better by you in the coming months and weeks leading up to this fight. Looking forward to it very much. I think I speak for everyone and wish you all the luck of the world in the fight. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Thank you. All right, there he is. The Dirty Bird himself, Tim Means, stopping by July 11th in Las Vegas. He faces Matt Brown, UFC 189. An interesting fight at 170 pounds. What a great, interesting backstory he has. And always good to hear those stories, a guy who was literally Rockbottin, and now look at him.

Won four in a row doing very well in the UFC. And, you know, had to reinvent himself. Had a shot in the UFC at 155, didn't go his way, went to Legacy, won a couple of fights. Now here he is. Four and won his last five since returning to the UFC, but he's won four in a row. He lost that return fight to Neil Magny,

most recently defeating George Sullivan at UFC, on Fox number 15 in Newark, just last weekend. All right, let's move along. Big card coming up. We've been talking about it since it was announced. Uriah Faber, Frankie Edgar, Manila Philippines, May 16th. And you knew that they were not going to go to Manila. They were not going to go to the Philippines without having the Filipino wrecking machine himself on the card.

And that's who we're talking to right now. Via the Magic of Skype, Mark Munoz joins us. Mark, how are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well, Ariel. It's good to see you. It's great to see you as well. There's a lot that we need to talk to you about, but first, I got to ask you, this is a big weekend coming up, right?

Your boy, Pacquiao. How you feeling? Oh, man, I'm feeling excited for that fight. You know, just the fact that it's a long time coming for that fight. You know, I'm excited to watch it. Finally, it's here, and it's going to be an awesome fight. How will you watch it? Where will you watch it?

I'll have a bunch of family over at my house. My parents are coming down from Northern California to watch it. And so I'm pretty much being, I'm going to be low-key about it. I'm not going to go out to like a restaurant or anything like that. But just being low-key at my house, watching it and enjoying it at the comfort of my home. Can I ask you if your stream is fantastic, the quality of the stream. But would it be possible to turn down the volume because I hear myself when I speak? Okay.

And I think sometimes that's what happens. Do you still hear me? Yeah, is that good? This is good. This is great. All right. By the way, how do you feel going into the fight? A lot of people picking Floyd.

You know, I feel good. You know, many always shows up in big fights. You know, obviously I'm a bit nervous because Floyd is a heck of a fighter. You know, he's a counter puncher, and he is very good at getting guys coming at him and capitalizing on that. So Manny needs to be able to throw a lot of volume in his punches and get Floyd to open up, and that's where Manny really shines right there. So you're returning to action May 16th in Manila against Luke Barnott.

Of course, last time we saw you was UFC 184, and I know how much it meant to you to fight in the Philippines. Did you have to convince the UFC to give you this shot, considering how your last fight went, or was it an easy process? You know what? I went ahead and I called Dana and I said, hey Dana, this is a fight that I want to be on. And unfortunately, I didn't have the outcome that I wanted in UFC 184. And he said, you know what? You're getting the call. Don't worry about it. And I said, oh, man, thank you so much, Dana.

And I thanked him right there. He goes, I can't have a Philippines car without the Filipino record machine. So I was like, I appreciate that, Dana. Were you worried that they wouldn't say that after the fight? Yeah, I was worried, you know, being that, you know, it was, it was, you know, not a good showing on my part, you know, and, you know, I really wanted to be on that card. So, you know, I just wanted to make sure. And, you know, you put this stipulation out there that this is your retirement fight, win or lose, right? You're not fighting anymore after this? Why? Yeah. Yeah, just because, you know, this, this year has been kind of a tumultuous year for. for me and I'm entering a new chapter. I'm actually retiring from MMA.

I'm I've sold Rain Training Center and I'm looking to get into coaching for wrestling again. You know, for me is my son is going into high school. My daughter's got two more years in college and I want to be able to be a a dad that that leaves a legacy with his children and you know I want to be able to spend time with them these past six years have gone by so fast and I haven't really gone to spend spend time with him really you know I mean I've been you know I've been doing I've been spending 12 13 hour days at the gym and teaching coaching and then I've been doing a lot of community work with my anti-bullying campaigns all the while trying to be a wife,

I'm trying to be a husband to a wife and four kids, and then being a UFC fighter on top of that. So it's been a hard year as far as injuries and, you know, just a lot of stress. I want to be able to simplify my life. So I believe this is breaking news, what you just said about rain. So Rain Training Center is no more,

or you're just not involved with it anymore? No, I mean, it's, It is breaking news. I mean, I went ahead and shut the doors just last week. Wow. And yeah, so it's, that is breaking news. It's, you actually are the first one that I aired the news to. Well, we appreciate that. Ultimately, why did you decide to do that?

Did you think about maybe keeping it open and having another owner, you know, run it or someone else that you know run it? Why did you decide to just shut the doors? Well, I've had general managers come in to be able to run the gym and had three of them. And it didn't work out. And, you know, there was a time where I wanted to franchise and wanted to get into other places as far as Rain Training Center goes. But then I couldn't really feel comfortable of running and getting better at my own facility. So right now I'm just postponing it. You know, I shut the doors.

I want to simplify right now. And, you know, I've gotten to the point where I'm training here at Ruka right now, as you see behind me. Oh, wow. Training at Ruka. And, you know, training with the likes of Sean Strickland, Johnny Cisneros, Jay Silva, Mani, Lara. I got a bunch of training partners here. Michael Bisman will be shown up too with Kendall Grove. So, you know, I've got a lot of good guys I'm training with here.

Why not close the doors after your last fight? I know. I know. I just, it, because of the lease, because of the lease agreements and all of that, I didn't want to incur a lot of, a lot of, I just didn't want to throw away money. Okay. You know, so, so, yeah, so I decided to do it now. And it's going, the transition is going pretty well, though.

How difficult was it, though? It was a big part of your life, and you were, you know, you're a big part of the sport. You bred a lot of great fighters. How difficult was it on, when was it that you closed the doors? You said the end of last week? Yeah, it was just, yeah, the end of last week. What was that like? Friday.

Oh, man, it was tough. It was really tough. I actually got emotional. I really got emotional. There was a three-day, kind of a three-day period where it was like a three-day period of morning. I um you know there's there's I helped a lot of people through that gym I you know people came up to me they said uh you saved my life having this gym open and um kids that are under kind of underprivileged or at risk came to the gym and um they they found a purpose in their life through the gym and you know

just it's it it was tough it was really tough for me but you know my my my first service is to my family. You know, I want to be able to, you know, be able to leave a lasting, lasting impact on my family first. If I feel that I can't do that, I got to tend to them first. And the gem was keeping me away. I mean, I was spending 12, 13-hour days, and my wife was there as well, and we weren't really spending time as a family. And so having those general managers come in and them not doing as well as I hoped they would do, it was, you know, I had to do something. And this was the only option for me. When did you tell the fighters who were a part of the gym?

I told them about a month ago. And how did they react? They were upset. Yeah. So now they're all looking for new gyms? Yeah. Yeah, they are. They're all scrambling.

And it was a hard decision for me. It really was. You know, I'm not going to lie. I, you know, to be able to shut the doors to something that was so dear to me, where I helped a lot of people out and where I got a lot of help from, you know, it was a very difficult decision, but it put a lot of stress on me as well. You know, I feel that, I feel that, you know, with the gym on my shoulders, that there was a lot of stress on me.

You know, I was, you know, I wasn't just a UFC fighter. I wasn't concentrating on being a UFC fighter first, but I was being, I was owner and operator of Rain Training Center as well. And, you know, being able to make ends meet at the end of month and making sure I make payroll and lease payments and all of that. It was very stressful. So, yeah, I decided to kind of move on from that. In hindsight, do you regret doing it? Do you think that you would have been more successful in your UFC career had you not opened the gym?

You know, I, you know, I truly believe everything happens for a reason, you know, and there was, there was, there was, there was, there was, there was, there was a lot of relationships I made through the gym as far as, as far as, as people that will help me out later in my career. So, so, yeah, I mean, it's, I don't regret, I never say I regret anything, but, but, but I feel that, you know, with, with that stress on top of my shoulders, when my business partner had to tend to his business after the financial crisis, it put a lot of stress on me. So, yeah, so, you know, we don't know. You know, I don't know if I've had the gym or not, you know, so I can't speculate because it never happened. But at the same time, I know that, you know, it's a bit of a relief for me as well

to not even think about the financial burden. burden of it. So, yeah, so I'll just keep it at that. And by the way, just curious, did any of the big-name fighters who were part of the gym at the last minute try to buy it off of you or, you know, keep it going or take over the lease? Anything like that happened? Or did it, no, there's no talks of it, no. No, there's no talks of that at all. And they pretty much understood where I was coming from. I had, I let them know and I pretty much just let them know, you know, why I was doing it and what we were going to do as far as transitioning into another facility and what we were going to do as far as practices goes. And I told them, you know, and we actually reached out to Ruka

and Pat Tenori is letting us train here temporarily until we find a place. So what a story that you have here going into your final fight just a couple weeks ago. You add another layer with this breaking news. How would you describe your mental state going into this fight? I mean, not only is it your last fight, but you just closed your gym, and it's back home, and it's a huge deal for not only you and your family. It's what you've dreamt of to fight in the Philippines. There's a lot going on here, my friend.

There is. How are you dealing with it? I'm doing well, man. I'm excited. I'm excited. I had a great practice. today here and got great training partners. You know, my weight is down.

You know, I mean, I guess, you know, you heard about the last weight cut, and it was very hard. And usually when I have a hard weight cut, it's pretty, it's probably not a good outcome for me. But, hey, my weight's good. I'm going into this fight ready and prepared. I've had a great training camp, and I'm ready, ready to go. Yeah, you alluded to that.

the strangest thing about the whole Burr-Watson thing was that you are universally loved. I mean, no one says anything bad about Mark Munoz. And the fact that you were tied to this story was just completely bizarre for me. How hard was that whole thing? Because he's beloved as well, to a degree. I mean, you really don't hear anyone say anything bad about you.

It's amazing. Like, no one off the record, no one talks smack. It's unbelievable. What a reputation you have? It's something you should be very proud of. But then this whole thing happens, and you're caught in the middle of it. What was that like?

Yeah, it was crazy. You know, I didn't know anything that was going on. I was oblivious to anything that was going on. And when I saw something on Twitter and on social media, I was like, what? What's going on here? And Bert quit and he's not the man anymore. So I called him. And he had answered my phone call and we had spoken.

And he goes, hey, Mark, you know, there's some stuff that were said. I didn't like how it went. And, you know, I'm not, I'm not working for the UFC anymore. And I go, Bert, I hope it's not because of me. He goes, no, no, no, it's not because of you. It's not because of you. I, you know, I said some things. I have to stand behind what I said.

And, you know, that's what it is. And, you know, I got none but love for you. That's what he said to me. And I said, I got none but love for you, Bert. And I'm sorry how everything went down. He goes, it's not your fault. Don't worry about it. And that's how it went.

That's how our conversation went. But I'm still getting backlashes from fans on social media. Like, how can you do this? And it's all your fault. If you didn't make weight the first time, you know, blah, blah, blah. So I was like, man, it's crazy. They don't stop. Yeah, they don't stop.

They don't stop. So you go into this fight against Luke Barnardot. Do you like this matchup? Yeah, I really like this matchup. I like this matchup. I like, I'm really positive going into this fight. And I'm feeling, feeling good. You know, my weight's good.

You know, I'm not worried about anything else. I'm not injured. So I'm feeling really good going into this fight. How many days in advance do you go to Manila, to the Philippines? I'm going to go two days in advance. That's it. What do you mean? Two days from when you're supposed to go?

Yeah, two days when I'm supposed to go. Okay, so like on a Saturday or a Sunday? day? Yeah, I'll be there on Saturday. I thought you meant two days in advance from the fight. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'll never do that. And how many, do you have friends' family there? Oh, man, I got a huge family there.

Wow. It's crazy. How many people do you think will be there related to you or that your friends or they have any kind of relationship with? Well, when I went there the first time to do a promotional tour for the UFC, I had over 250 of my family members. Wow. In a restaurant where they close a restaurant down and it was just my family and I there.

And I went there and there was four generations of my family in that restaurant alone. So it was like, I'm your dad's sister, daughter's daughter, son. And I'm like, what? How is that possible? You know, and yeah, so it's crazy. There's like four generations there that I'm, you know, related to. And it was pretty awesome. And to hear the stories of how my parents grew up and just the Philippines and being there,

it was a very, very emotional time. And it was great to be there with my family. So I think over 250 people are going to be at the fight. Wow. And enjoying, of my family. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. And they're into it, right? I mean, the Philippines have been wanting this for a long time.

It seems like any time a guest fighter comes, there's a huge crowd. They're very knowledgeable, right? Very, very knowledgeable. I mean, the culture is a fighting culture. I mean, they fought for independence from the Spanish, you know, and they love their combat sports. I mean, you just think of Mani Pachia. Yeah. I mean, he's the number one when it comes to combat sports.

And, you know, he's led the way and is a pioneer for him. everything. So, yeah, so he's just combat sports in general. In MMA, they're very knowledgeable about MMA. And over there, they're really good at striking, really good at jiu-suitous, but they lack wrestling. So I want to be able to help him in that department. So what's the game plan after May 16th? Your son, he's how old? He's 13, going to be a freshman next year. And he's going to make a run as a wrestler. Would you like for him to be a fighter as well? Yeah, well, I don't know about being a fighter. fighter.

But he wants to wrestle. He came up to me just last year about six months ago and he goes, Dad, I want to quit soccer and baseball. Let me give you a little perspective on that. As a baseball player, he went to Cooperstown, New York, and has played for one of the best travel ball teams in Orange County, batted 12-15 there, and didn't make a single error in third base. He was amazing.

And then he plays for one of the best soccer. clubs in Orange County, the strikers, and starts for them. And he's very good on the soccer field. And he came up to me and goes, Dad, I want to quit soccer and baseball and concentrate wrestling. I'm like, what? Why? I'm like, why do you want to do that?

He goes, Dad, I love wrestling. And I'm like, oh, wow, you love wrestling. Okay. And I said, well, your goals in wrestling. He goes, Dad, I want to be, I want to go to Division I University. I want to get a full-rise scholarship. I said, wait, hold on. There are 77 schools that give scholarship.

Not all of them get full-ride scholarships. And how are you going to get a full-right scholarship out of the thousands of kids that want a scholarship? What makes you think that you're going to get a scholarship without batting an eye? He looks at me dead in the face and he goes, I have you dead. Wow. So, oh, my gosh. So that just outright just got me emotional. And I was like, okay, bud, we're going to do this.

So now I got the best kids in the area. I called them. I said, hey, guys, would you? want to come down and be coached by me and train with my son, and they're about the same size of my son, and he's going at it with them and getting better and getting better real quick. So I'm happy about that, and I want to be able to coach him in high school. And so I think about getting my teacher credential and teaching at a high school

and coaching him, and then UFC Gem has approached me, and they want me to take a hold of their wrestling. program in all the UFC gyms and be able to develop people in wrestling at all the UFC gyms. Wow. Well, that is wonderful. What a wonderful story that is. And I love those pictures that you post on your Instagram of you and your son in the morning running. Now it kind of makes a lot more sense.

It's a beautiful thing. As a father, that stuff makes me emotional as well. And that story that you just told makes me very emotional. So you're a lucky man. You're lucky that your son would do that. I am a lucky man. And it's crazy, too, because. Because, you know, my son has been around it.

He's been around it for a long time. And even my daughter, she wants to get a scholarship in soccer. And she is working really hard at that, too. And she asks me all the time about what to eat and how it should lift and do all this stuff. And I want to be able to help her and help my son. And my son woke me up at 6 o'clock in the morning and said, hey, dad, let's go running. And I'm like, what, bud, it's 6 o'clock in the morning? And then he goes, that's the only time I could go out.

It's all right, let's go. Let's put the shoes on. Let's go running. So that's the kind of stuff that I love. And he's willing to do that. He wants to do that. I am not forcing him to do anything. He is making the decision because he loves to do it and he wants to work hard. So I love that, man. I love that he's making an impact on them and both my wife and I, and we're trying to raise him in the best way we can. That is amazing. I have no problem saying this. One of the best parts. of my job and getting involved in this sport is meeting people like you and especially you. You're a class act, my man, you're a great

ambassador for this sport, MMA wrestling, you're just a great human being, a great father. I wish you nothing but success. I wish you the best of luck in that fight. I know how much it means to you and then of course with your son and hey, good luck on Saturday with Manny Packiao as well. I also appreciate you telling us the news here. I know it's not the best of news,

but thank you for doing that on this show. Wish you nothing but the best, Mark. You're such a great guy. I'll miss getting to cover you but hopefully our past will cross whatever we're doing in the near future as well. For sure, Ariel. Thank you. I appreciate you. Having me on the show. Thank you. All the best. There he is. The one and only. Filipino wrecking machine himself. Wow. Great stuff from him there. We really appreciate his time. Pretty heavy-duty stuff. Wasn't expecting all of that. But we wish him the best on May 16th

against Luke Bart. Now, what a great card that is and a very interesting fight for his last one ever. All right. Let us move along now. Let us welcome in a man. who is victorious this Saturday in Montreal. Big win over Shane Campbell. What a great finish it was. Sidespped him and then a short right, boom. Done. Great return for John McDessy,

and he joins us right now on the phone. John, how are you? Yeah, I'm good. How are you doing? Thank you. And thank you for your patience. We appreciate the time very much. What a great win.

48 hours later. How does it feel? Yeah, man. It's a crazy feeling. You know, I mean, when you dedicate your life to a sport and just able to go out there and, you know, train hard and go out there and just perform the way you wanted to perform, you know.

It's just a lot of build-up coming into this fight. I was very hungry and I had time to, you know, reflect. I had a lot of personal issues and just happy to, you know, be able to restructure my life and my team. And I feel like I'm surrounded by the right people and just I feel like I'm starting to understand, you know, figure out my myself and just, you know, develop my skills. and believe in my skills and let it go out there and just trusting myself and doing where I do best. Considering your time away from the sport, you had in Faden over a year around 14 months.

Was this one of the best wins, the most gratifying wins of your career? You know what? I mean, it's a combination of stuff. You know, I truly believe, you know, having my last controversial loss and, you know, regardless of winner-lose, you know, And, of course, you know, every fight I always feel like I can do better, you know what I mean? I'm always perfecting my game, always trying to be better, you know, and just after that and the eye surgery and just restructuring my team, you know, having some personal issues. Just, just every, it's a combination and stuff, you know, I choose, I find that this fight was one of my highest top performances, you know, because if you look at, forget about the fight itself, just the fact is coming into this fight, you know, all the struggles I went through, all the person. and also mental struggles I went to. I mean, with myself, I find that it was very gratifying

to be able to just let it all out there because, you know, I mean, it's not a surprise. You know, I am emotionally driven, you know. I'm more of a, I need to be emotionally energized to go out there and perform good. Because if mentally I'm not there, it's going to be a bad night for John McSessie. You know, you've talked about the mental side of the game

for quite some time now. Do you feel like you finally figured it out or is it still a work in progress? I mean, at any day, man, that's the secret of life. That's the formula of life. You know, that's what we all struggle in, you know, regardless of our accomplishments. You know, I mean, I just truly believe that's the secret of life is to find the right formula. Yes, do I feel that I have it?

I mean, of course, in life, you got to keep progressing. There's no such thing as perfection as much as we want to be perfect, but there is no such thing. At any day, I am human, I am going to make mistakes. You know what I mean? But the goal is to learn from my mistakes. That's the goal. And I feel like I'm a happy state of mind. I can become a world champion and beat up the whole 155 division.

I mean, yeah, in my dreams, that's the goal. Of course, that would be a perfect picture. But, I mean, reality, I mean, of course, that doesn't always go your way. I mean, 155 division, in my opinion, is the hardest division in the UFC. It's the most stark division. It's the most talented division. I truly believe that, you know, especially there's a big gap. You know, if you look at 170 to 155, you know, it's a big gap.

know, a lot of big 155 years, you know, and in my history of my career, I fought bigger guys than me, you know, and that's another struggle, you know, and that's another obstacle that I got to fight, I got to fight guys bigger than me majority of the time, you know what I mean, and this is why, you know, it's a combination of stuff, you know what I mean? It's, and there's a whole list that I got to keep checking, checking, to be able to get to the top, you know what So for those that don't know, why did you take that time off? I mean, you didn't have any major injury or anything. I know you said you had eye surgery, but that was more elective, right? Well, the eye surgery actually was a long-term thing.

Since a kid, after business, you know, I had a double vision. Just, it was more of a self-conscious thing. I mean, physically, I'm able to be able to fight. Yes, I was physically able to fight, but it was more of a subconscious. It was more of a mental thing. You know, I wanted to get off my chest. And I had two surgeries in the past. It wasn't successful.

I'm very fortunate. I actually found actually a smart doctor that actually knows what he's doing. You know, and he actually fixed my eye. and, you know, just two, too, you know, I died, and also, I wasn't in a happy state. You know, I mean, I would go into a fight not questioning, like, training, questioning myself. And I told myself, if I'm going to take a risk, you know what I mean, going, I mean, because to get into that cage, it takes a lot out of you. You know, I mean, there's so much people don't, don't see what goes through behind the scenes and what fighters go through, you know what I mean, to get into that cage, you know what I mean? And not only to get into the case to actually be the best, I mean, to be the top competitor.

You know, so, I mean, just everything, you know, I mean, I found that, you know, I just had to time off because I had no choice, you know. But also, you know, the other biggest thing that was struggling was the whole, I wanted to put it on the record, you know, this whole Feeder Fighter thing. I mean, of course, you're aware of Fear Fighter, Brian, but with everything went down, you know, the whole, the issues are happening with Fear Fighter. what I want to just to say on record that I was always focused in my fighting career, I was always focused in my martial life. That was my goal. I was never involved in the business aspect with the fear of fire. Yes, my older brother, David MacDecis, yes.

I was a part of feeder fighter. I was the inspiration behind fear of fighter. I was an inspiration, but there's a whole team, there's so many people involved in fear of fighters, a lot of parties. My brother helped me in the business aspect. brother helped me. My brother was always there with me from day one before Free of Fire. He always helped to take care of me, you know, financially. He always made sure that I was comfortable. My brother always made sure that I was able to train full-time,

you know what I mean? So everything else, dealing with Fraterfighter with all these accusations, with numbers and fighters, I have no idea, you know, and I'm tired of people pointing fingers at me. Yeah. And I thought I just wanted to clear out, you know what I mean? I was never involved with the business. I was just, I'm a sponsor advocate by Fear of Fight, they supported me. My brother helped me to cover my hip-cared me when I came to my fighting career. He helped me with the management side, and that's it. That's all, that's all, that was, that was my only person to, my, my involvement with

fear of fight. So, so, this, this might be a very good opportunity to clear that up. For those that don't know, your brother owned Fear the Fighter, right? He was, he was, he was, he was, he was involved with Fear the Fighter, yes. Not the only, not the only owner. He was involved. That's what it was. He was a part of it.

He was, he was, of course you can say, yes. He was one of the owners of Fear the Fighter. Were you an owner as well? My name was on the paper. I, you know, helped my brother in a sense of, when I came to the paperwork, I just used my name. My name was just for paper, for paper racism. That's it, just on the paper. But nothing else.

you had no financial interest in the company? I was a sponsor actually. No, I mean, like you didn't invest in the company. You didn't own a piece of the company. You didn't put any of your money into it. You were only getting money by sponsorship. No, no, everything was too sponsored. Yeah, I was getting sponsored.

And does it still exist? Does the company still exist? Yeah, well, the only that I'm educated in, and my knowledge that the company is getting bought, it's just going to be a new investor, there's going to be a new administration, and everything should be getting taken care of. Okay. And as I'm sure you know, a lot of fighters have come out, most notably, Gagar Musassi,

Michael Bisping saying that they are owed money from fear of the fighter. Why, do you have any idea why they haven't been paid? No, unfortunately, you know, I'm sorry to hear that. That's another thing where I want to come up with. I'm very fortunate that this is happening. it was never part of the plan and I have no idea with that I have no idea at all

there's nothing that I can do and that's the truth okay and do you have any idea why like do you speak to your brother hey these guys are coming because you're the face right I mean your name is attached so I'm sure you get a lot of the heat

you tell your brother what's going on here does he tell you anything about why all of a sudden the payments have stopped no I didn't talk anything I'm not involved at all when it comes to business and that was that was the you know i was always focused on my career you know that's why that's why i wanted to go on record and just to let you know that i was never a part of the business

but it is your family right so i'm sure you've had you know you want to have a conversation with him like let's clear this up because this is your community that's being affected fighters you know when you won when you won on saturday people were like well i hope he gives that money to you know people are blaming you even if it's not you so don't you want to kind of clear it up so that you don't get this blame anymore Yes, 100%. This is why I'm saying it in the public. And this is why I'm saying that what I know, of course, I spoke to my brother.

Of course, we're brothers. I mean, he's always been there for me. You always been there for each other. I mean, this is valuable. You know, what I'm trying to say is that what I know is that my brother is taking care of the problem in the sense of what I know. What I was informed is that the company is going to be new administration. it got bought off and everything should be getting everything should be taking care of basically I'm trying to say that's what I know he he has sold the company is that what you're saying

the company is supposed to be bought off yes that's what I'm saying yeah and and and will your brother and the former owners have nothing to do with it is there like a new management coming in yes yes yes and correct me if I'm wrong you weren't sponsored by them for this fight right 100% no how come How come? Well, because you had been spot? The company is going to reconstruction. Okay.

Everything is changed now. It's a new administration, new owners. Everything is going to be taken care of. Nothing is in my control no more in the sense of. Before I was sponsored by a fighter, I was sponsored. I think that's it, that's all. And do you have any idea how much they owe the fighters? No.

Obviously, everyone's throwing our numbers. This is all the accusation, speculation, but at the end of the day, people don't understand is that managers and lawyers are dealing with all this. Those are those are the people who are negotiating. Those are the people who are talking numbers. The managers and the lawyers, not the fighters. And the fighters are yelling and screaming out numbers. But how do we know what the managers are doing out and telling the fighters? They can be lying to the own fighters.

You know how it is business? You know what I'm saying? Sure. business can be a lot of people are not telling the truth so everyone is just throwing our names

pointing fingers I understand it's the name in the game people want to blame people I understand that trust me you know what I mean I'm a fighter

I know I know what I mean I'm I know how it's it's a lot of things that people are not aware of that happen you know I mean a lot of a lot of sharks

so that being said all I'm trying you know I mean that all being said I'm very unfortunate what's happening with the fighters and this whole speculation

but I just want to clear my name I can't speak for my brother, I cannot speak for any other person. All I can do is speak for myself, and I would sponsor athlete. I would never involve with the business. That was my part. Yeah.

Do you have a relationship with your brother still? Do you still talk to him? Of course, we see each other. Of course, 100%. My brother is married in many, as his kids, has life, you know, my life. Of course, you see each other in the family. I was just wondering if maybe this, you know, ruined your relationship severed because, like you said, you're taking a lot of heat.

I'm probably A lot of people would try to turn me on my brother and point in front of the day the people who are talking they're not even informed I'm not informed I don't even know what's happening

in the business part so I'm trying to say so a lot of people don't understand at any day the people who are behind the scenes who do the business who actually doing the negotiations

those are the guys you should point fingers to or ask questions to the managers to the lawyers It's not to me because I'm a fighter. I was a sponsor fighter. And I did not benefit from the company. I'm trying to say, if anything, yes, they helped me. You know what I mean?

But the guys who benefited from the company was the top fighters, the guys who have the higher rankings and whatever, you know, in the eye, the publicity eye, you know, I know the business, the business aspect, the management and lures take care. So when it comes to a number game and all that stuff, I was never involved with that. I kept my own business. I focused on my training and my fighting.

That's my main focus. What has it been like for you via social media and just reading some of the things? How difficult has all of this been? I stressed to share in me, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? Like the whole week of the fight, people, I closed my phone because I couldn't let that get to me.

You know, I put too much time, I dedicate too much time to what I do to let things to distract me from from my main focus. You know, my game, my focus is to be one of the world

best fighters in the world. My focus is one of the most exciting fighters in the world. I put too much, I committed my whole life to this. I sacrifice everything.

I have no friends, you know what I mean? In the sense of, like, I'm not sociable. You know, I, I dedicated myself to martial arts

since the age of six. I'm 29. I started MMA at the age of 24. You know what I mean? You know, if you consider how many different arts I did in my life, changing,

I want to, just so much struggles, you know, from gym to gym, from trainer to trainer, from teacher to teacher, you know, I mean, I always have to find myself. I always had to fight through everything, and, and this is just another fight, you know, and I was, I was too focused, it's too hungry on the fight night, you know, and I was, I was very happy with my performance, you know, and I had a top competitor, Shane Campbell, was, you know, people who weren't aware of him, but this guy was a key one champion. Yeah. I was over 80 professional fights, you know what I mean? Like, and he was a much bigger guy than

I mean, he had a rich advantage. I knew that it was going to be a tough fight, regardless if it was a three-week notice, you know what I mean? If I can't be a fight is a fight, you know, it's a risky business. It's a 50-50, you know what I mean? So that being said, you know, I was just, you know, I tried to focus people, you know, Twitter, all the three stuff, you know, my inner circle where, of course they were telling me what's happening, but, you know, there's nothing I can do, you know what I mean?

And I know that in the business part, it's going to be taking care of the lawyers of all the people are dealing with that stuff. And soon, publicly, it should be settled, hopefully, and, you know what I mean. I just want to thank you for your time for me, able to speak my mind. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, it's our pleasure to at least try to clear the air. Just had a couple more questions, if I can, about it. Were you officially the president of the company under the old regime? I wasn't, like I said, my name was a part of the fear of fire.

And apparently, apparently from rumors, apparently I was the president. I have no idea. I wasn't educated. I wasn't, like, that was one thing that I didn't really, that wasn't my concern. Maybe that was, if that was a mistake of my, I don't know if it was a mistake of my part, but I wasn't aware of what title that my name had. So do you, I mean, do you feel like, in hindsight, you shouldn't have, you know, you should have been a little more careful as to,

because now, I'm sure you never, in a million years, would have thought that this would happen, but if your name is listed as president, I was happy, I thought I was able to have an opportunity to have a credit, you know, for me it was just trying to build my credit. You know, if anything, you know, of course, as a fighter, the risk, you know what I mean? Financially, you take a lot of blows. And if I was able to secure myself somewhere else, you know, I'm trying to be a smart individual sense where if I'm able to have an opportunity to both credit or to have some another source of income so I don't always have to rely on only on my fight money.

You know what I mean? That made sense to me because that's another pressure that I have because if I'm always I don't want to only fight for money. I want to make sure that I have the right reasons that I'm finding because if you only fight for money, then then I find that that's where you can get hurt very bad in the game, you know, it's a fighting business and you know, you need to have more. higher motive than just money to succeed in life. You know, you have a drive.

You have to have a, you know, for me, it's about legacy, and this is what drives me. You know, I mean, this is what motivates me to train harder today. Do you understand, though, if you are listed as president, do you understand, though, why you may be receiving some of this criticism because that's usually where people go? Yes. Unfortunately, yes.

You know, I mean, it sucks, interesting, I mean, it sucks in a sense where I'm being straight honest with you, where it does drive me. It bothers me a lot because I work so hard for my name. Yeah. For me, it's all about my image. I'm trying to build an image. I want to be a good role model. I want to inspire people.

You know, I came from nothing. I came literally from nothing. I was a juvenile delinquent. I was in trouble with the police. I had struggled in high school, and martial arts literally saved my life. It gave me a focus. It gave me a strength. It gave me a new outlook in life.

You know, I would never think in 100 years I would be an interesting. a UFC fighter and be able to live my dreams. You know what I mean? So it's a good opportunity for me to be where I am I now, and I don't take it for granted. And I just, that's why, you know, everything I do, my image is important. So it bothers me a lot that my name is thrown around.

But I also understand that, unfortunately, that was my mistake for not being aware of what title my name hold. I just, you know, in my eyes, I was doing a smart, you know, business move in the sense of building my credit, hopefully, you know, being a part of something. You know, I was an inspiration behind the whole feeder fighter. Feed-of-Fiter is a great company, you know, the idea about it. Unfortunately, in the business aspect, it's not going as good as, you know, it is,

unfortunately, but people forgot, you know what I mean? Everybody was loving Fear of Friday when everyone was getting paid. And now because certain people haven't get paid yet, everybody is throwing it down. You know what I mean? But you have to understand this is business, you know what I mean? Not everything goes smooth in business. So as kind of the public face of the company and as it transitions to new owners and as a fighter yourself, do you want to try to ensure that the fighters who are owed money will get their money?

Because I can see someone saying, you know, listening to this interview and saying you sound very sincere and obviously it has affected you, but you may be washing your hands of the situation. Because your name was tied to it, whether you wanted it to be or not, will you try to ensure that these people get their money so that the hate and the tweets and all that stuff will stop and that this whole thing could be resolved. Of course, 100% of you. I mean, for me, of course, I, there's a reason why, you know, people don't understand, but strength and honor, that's my code. That's my core belief.

You know, I was a big fan of the movie Gladiator. You know what I mean? That was a movie that's me, you know, I was picturing myself as a gladiator, you know, going into a cage, entertaining the crowd, giving the crowd an exciting fight, you know, and be a gladiator. That's my image. You know, and strength and honor

and there's obviously courage. That's what represents me. You know what I mean? That's what I'm the inspiration by a fit of fire. So, of course, I'm not happy with all this,

all this bad media, all this, what's happening with all this rumors and speculations. Of course I'm not happy because it does affect me because that's what represents me. I'm an inspiration behind the whole fear of fire.

You know what I mean? So, of course, I do care. And, of course, that I'll try, you know, I'm always going to, in my, whatever I can do in my powers, I'm always going to try to make sure that everything is settled. And hopefully, everything can be resolved and everybody can move forward to positive and better things. That is great to hear. And by the way, do you know when the sale will be finalized?

No, that's nothing. You know, unfortunately, I was never involved. I don't, I'm not part of that at all. I don't, I have no control over that. Okay. But what I know, like I said, everything, is, I know that there's going to be public press soon, that I know. Okay.

Do you, do you, do you, do, do you, are you able to say with confidence that everyone who's owed money will get their money at some point? Do you know if that's, because, you know, sometimes when a new company takes over, they don't want to pay the debt of the old company. Do you know if that's the case? If, I don't know. I just, I don't know. That, unfortunately, as much as I would love to say, yes, I have no, I have no, I have no idea what, when it comes to the finances or I have no idea. I have no idea with the lawyers or anything like that. I have no idea.

Okay. In hindsight, do you wish you never got involved with this company? You know what? Do I wish? It's like you're asking me, do I wish, you know, if I went into the cage, if I got knocked out, do I wish I didn't go into that cage? I mean, I mean, in life, you're going to take risk, you know what I mean? In the moment, I thought it was a great opportunity for me. I jumped in the cage.

You know what I mean? In life, you don't have a lot of good opportunities in life. You know, you have to take whatever comes your way. and I felt at that time, there was a good opportunity to be a part of something, you know what I mean, and to build my credit. But, of course, of course, nobody wishes this upon themselves.

In life, everybody wishes to, you know, everybody wishes the best for themselves, you know, to do the smart choices, to do the smart, you know, for the future, for my family, for me, for able to have a family one day so I can have, so my family can live comfortable. You know what I mean? Like, that's my, that's my motive,

my other motivation is to be able to build a family and to be a good father and to show my family, you know, to be a good role model, you know what I mean, and to be able to take care of my family and to live comfort because at the end of the day, why do most people go to, why do we all go to work? Yeah. So we can take care of our families. Well, John, I have a lot of respect for you for coming on the show and answering these questions, especially coming off a win. I think it says a lot about you, and it's more than anyone involved with the company is doing.

So you deserve, in my opinion, a lot of respect and credit for that. I hope it gets resolved. I hope everyone who's owed their money gets their money, and we can move on from this. And everything ends well, and you can focus on your career and build off of this win Saturday night in Montreal. Again, thank you very much. Congratulations on the win. And if you want to keep us posted and clear the air, if that's necessary, you always have a forum here. Thank you so much for everything.

And because, in fact, don't hesitate to call me. Is there any questions? My phone, my number, you know my phone number. Thank you. Appreciate it very much. There he is. John McDessie, big win on Saturday, attempting to clear the air. The whole Fear of the Fighter controversy,

if you follow any fighter on Twitter who is affiliated with them, you've probably seen the tweets. Most notably, Gagarin Musassi, speaking about this as of late. New York Rick has alerted me to a press release on their website, on the Fear of the Fighter website that they posted on April 24th, So that was the Friday before UFC 186, just three days ago. It says, with support from our shareholders, suppliers, and creditors, our management has started to implement our previously announced restructuring plan to strengthen the company's financial condition and introduce our new services and products.

We believe the restructuring will result in a substantial capital structure for the company that will allow fear the fighter to grow and create value for our stakeholders and customers. The company will complete the implementation of our new strategy by the end of the third quarter. Meanwhile, we request anyone who wishes to contact us to send a message at info at fearthefighter.com. The company will not comment on any unsubstantiated claims posted through social media. The company only communicates through appropriate channels available on the company website. So there you have it. John McDessie, not doing what it's stated here. He actually came out and addressed some of these things.

Now, is he the one who is, you know, deserving of the blame? Well, I don't know, but kudos to the man for actually stepping up and answering some of these questions. Perhaps his brother should do the same as well, and we can end this and everyone can get the money they're owed and move on. These things happen in business. It's not the first time it's happened in MMA. Hopefully, it works out for everyone in the very near future.

All right. Thank you very much, John McDessie. Appreciate his time greatly. move along to our last guest of the day. My colleague over at MMAfighting.com, Mark Ramundi, stopping by to update us on the John Jones situation. Mark, are you there? What's up, Ariel?

Mark in his car, what's going on over here? Yeah. Why are you in your car right now? I'm not actually driving, though, so it's okay. Well, your Skype is crystal clear, but why exactly are you in your car? Why not? Good point. Is this your office?

I'm driving. I'm driving to out. Albuquerque right now as we speak. Well, I expect nothing less from you. I'm just kidding. No, but really? I actually have some special guests here with us. Right now?

Yeah, I have, um, that's Rubella. Okay. And that's Zick. And those are the dogs of Esther Lynn and Casey Leiden. Yes. Our wonderful MMAfighting.com coworkers. I'm a dog sitting while they were in Montreal for 186. and they're going to be in May by the Paki out next week as well.

So I'm dog sitting. Very nicely done. You're a good man. Let's talk about John Jones here. So at the top of the show, we read the majority of your article that you posted around two and a half hours ago. I have since received an update from the Albuquerque Police Department. They sent me this email and I'll read it and then I'll come to you for more. They wrote to me this.

We are working on an arrest warrant for John. John Jones. The female suffered a broken arm which has elevated the charge to felony leaving the scene of an accident. I then asked him, the individual's name, I don't want to butcher it, but Officer Tanner, T-I-X-I-E-R, T-I-E-R, Tischer, would be my guess. Do you know what to pronounce his last name? Sir, Tixier? Tick-E-A, I don't know. Tixie A, I'm not sure. I asked him about the victim, the 20-something-year-old pregnant woman. He said, The pregnancy appears to have been unaffected. We received a call from a local attorney who is representing himself as Mr. Jones's lawyer, but we haven't confirmed that.

That was in response to me asking if they have located John Jones. So still that mystery yet to be solved, his whereabouts. Do you have anything more that you can offer at this time? The only thing that I have extra right now is that the police are working on an arrest warrant for John Jones. The officer is working on it. It would still need to be signed by a judge. judge, but it seems like that is in the works. And it would be, it would be a felony arrest, as you just pointed out, because a broken bone, I guess in this case, well, you know,

allows the charge to jump up from a misdemeanor to a felony. Right. So it's, it's more serious than just your typical hit and run accident where there's no injury, right? Yeah, apparently, from what Tanner Tixier told me today is that the prognosis was incorrect yesterday about the condition of the female, the victim in this instance. And the police did an investigation today. They went to the hospital. They found out that she has a broken bone, which obviously is, it just makes it a more severe charge. It makes it a more severe charge because she's actually, it's not just a minor injury anymore. It's not a life-threatening injury, but it's a more serious injury. Sure. And the best news of all, obviously, is that the pregnancy is unaffected. So that that is obviously very, very good to hear. As far as his whereabouts, what you heard, still hasn't contacted the police personally. It seems like they're trying to verify if this person calling on behalf of him as his lawyer is, in fact, his lawyer. That's the latest, right? Right. Right. Gosh. What a crazy story. An unfortunate story.

It is a pretty great story. As it stands right now, of course, you want to hear from him. You want to verify of this. You want to get his side of the story. These are allegations. But now with the latest news that she suffered, you know, a broken bone, we're a month away. You hate to even talk about this, but this is the big picture. This is the business that we're in.

What do you think is going to happen to John Jones with that fight in a month? Wow. I think there's just so much that we don't know. Yeah. I would hate to speculate. he hasn't been charged with anything yet. He probably will be charged with something, but I don't know.

I mean, I, up until this latest development in the story with the broken bone and the potential of a felony charge, I was under the impression of the fight would still go on because this is a fight the UFC wants very badly. Nick Diaz was, you know, had a DUI a few months before,

a DUI arrest a few months before his fight with Anderson Silva. That didn't affect the fight. This is obviously a different circumstance, 100% of course, but I mean, there's nothing saying you have to be a choir boy to fight in a cage to headline a pay-per-view. So I don't, but now this is a whole different circumstance. If it's a felony, you know, he's going to be, if and when the charges go down, he's going to be wrapped up in some legal issues now for the foreseeable future. So I don't know. I wouldn't be stunned if the fight was off, but I also wouldn't be that surprised if it happened. I mean, Floyd Mayweather has been convicted on multiple counts of domestic abuse.

He's pled guilty to a couple of them. So, I mean, and he's been allowed to fight in the past. He also did jail time as well, but he's been allowed to fight. So I don't know. It's too much up in the air. I really would hate to speculate. No, I mean, and this is one of the unique things involved with doing a live show while this story is developing as we speak, you know, more news coming out one by one. It's, you know, it's a very

unique situation for us. So we don't want to speculate. Let's, let's pause on the John Jones story for a second because there is so much that is still unanswered. And I want to ask you about Demetri's Johnson, because we never really got to digest it. Didn't talk about it much with Kevin Ioli when he joined us earlier. I want to ask you about a tweet you put out on Saturday night. Oh boy You said if MMA were a sport You love my late night tweets Yes they're great

If MMA were a sport Demetrius Johnson would be a big star But it's not and he's not If MMA were a sport Stand by that What do you mean? Well of course I mean In most senses

MMA is a sport It's an athletic competition Between you know Between pro athletes Who are competing for a goal For a belt for money whatever So in that sense is absolutely a sport. But my whole point in that tweet was there is such a large entertainment

element in M.A. And that doesn't really exist in other sports. If you're in the NFL, right, and you're one of the best players in the NFL, indisputable, Demetius Johnson is one of the best fighters in the world, regardless of weight class. If you're that guy in the NFL, you're damn right getting paid a ton of money. Tim Duncan is not the most exciting guy. in the NBA, but he's damn good at what he does, and he was amazing in his prime, and he made 18 million a year. He made top dollar in the NBA. If you're really, really, really good in MMA, if you're one of the best in the world, that is not a guarantee that you're going to make as much money as someone who's more popular than you. So there's such an element of the entertainment.

There's an element of the drawing power. Drawing power is really what's all about in the UFC at an M.A. And that was my point with M. Tmitrius Johnson. Great fighter. But the gate was, you know, the gate was really subpar in Montreal. We don't know what the pay-per-view numbers are, but I suspect they probably aren't very good. So he's not a big star. That's just how it goes. So I agree with everything you said on the back end. I still disagree with it not being a sport because I think that the fighters are athletes and I do believe it is a sport.

Do you also say the same thing about boxing? Is boxing not a sport? Because you can say those same things apply in boxing as well. You need to be a draw. It's very similar in boxing, for sure. It's similar in boxing. Combat sports are a different animal. Sure.

I was probably... So what's wrong with saying that as opposed to it's not being a sport? What's wrong with just saying combat sports are a different animal? It's definitely a different animal. Josh Burnett was on your show a few weeks ago, and he made a comment that I really took to that I really appreciate it. He said that MMA is more of a spectacle than it is a sport. And I completely agree with that.

I really think that's the case 100%. Because what people don't understand, and people still always go by, well, this fighter deserves this. This fighter, you know, beat this person, he deserves it. You know, they think that it goes by merit when it really doesn't. It really goes by what fighter, what fight is going to make the most money for the organization. You know, in Major League Baseball, you don't put the Cardinals and the Yankees in the World Series every year because they're going to make the most money.

You get the best teams. You get the Royals in there some years, and nobody wants to watch the Royals. That wouldn't happen in the UFC. Sure. But the structure is definitely different. So what do you think? Do you think Demetrius Johnson will never be a draw? And do you think it's because he's small,

because he doesn't have that Conn McGregor-like personality, or is it because he hasn't found that foil, that running mate? Or is it all the above? Is it everything? What do you pin this on? All the above, all the above. All the above. It's not solely because he's small.

I saw a lot of people trying to make that argument on Twitter, on Saturday, and Sunday. It's not because there have been plenty of boxers his size, maybe a little bit bigger, who have been incredibly popular. Oscar Day La Jolla fought, you know, in the 130 pound, I think 137, you know, he's not that much bigger than Demetrius Johnson. Floyd Mayweather and Mani Pachia were fighting at 147. That's not that much bigger than Demetri's Johnson. Those are not big guys. Those are not, you know, big imposing guys.

I think that there's an element of that for sure. but it's just a combination of everything. He's a charismatic guy, but he doesn't really engage the fans in that way. He doesn't talk trash. He's not promoted great by the UFC. He doesn't have great competition. And his fighting style, although he finished that fight and he's finished a bunch of fights, is not the most crowd-pleasing.

He doesn't go out there and knock guys out. He doesn't go out there and submit guys in the first round. He doesn't steamroll them like Ronda Rousey does. He doesn't knock them out like a Chuck Liddell did. So all of those things go against him in that way. as far as him never being a star, you just don't know. I mean, there are so many elements to it. And honestly, a lot of it is things you don't understand.

George St. Pierre didn't have the most exciting fighting style when he was the champion. And he was a massive star. He was one of the biggest stars in the history of the UFC. You know, he also didn't talk any trash. You know, but he was charismatic in his own way. He obviously had a great look. There are so many different factors that go into it, but it just seems like Demetrius Johnson has a lot of those things going against him now.

Could that change at some point? Could someone step up and be a better, you know, a better challenger for him and kind of be the Connor McGregor to his Joseo? Yeah. Be the Chal Sondon, to his Anderson Silva. Of course that could happen. But as of right now, you know, it's kind of stagnant. Yeah, it really feels like all he needs is that rival to get it out of him. And by the way, you look at his last five fights.

Moraga, submission, Benevides, K.O., Bagotinov decision, although he was on EPO, so who knows what would have happened if he was clean. Right. Cariaso submission, Horiguchi submission. So it's not like he's not finishing fights. I know some of those are a little later, but it's worth noting. Can't argue it, but that's, you know,

you can't argue his merit. I mean, 100%, you know, indisputable, I think he's one of the best three fighters in the world pound for pound. But just because you're the best at something or one of the best of something doesn't guarantee you being popular, and that's just how it goes in combat sports.

Can Dodson bring it out of him? Do you think that's the fight? for him or not even? I mean, I think that's the best option right now for sure. Dodson, just talking to Demetrius about John Dodson, he kind of rose in the wrong way. I love that. I think that's good, right? Never have thought that.

That's, yeah, it's very good. Sure. And he's been, he's been noncommittal about wanting that rematch. You know, he's said multiple times that he doesn't want, he wants to, you know, go through the list of contenders rather than going back to a previous contender. So, you know, I think that there are things that John Dawson's a very charismatic guy. He speaks to his mind. He's very vocal.

He's not Connor McGregor. You know, he's not going to be Chelsea Sunnan. But it could be a step in the right direction. And that's probably the most marketable fight you can do, you know, in the flyway division, you know, right now. Ian McCall could have been that guy if he beat Lineger. And I would say Henry Sajudo is probably the next guy in line. Maybe, you know, maybe next year. Yeah.

Do that fight in Mexico? Maybe that, you know. That would be interesting, although you put the champ in a tough spot by, you know, going on enemy territory, so to speak. But it would make the fight seem important. It is all about the money, although Demetrius doesn't like talking about the money. I do think Dotson is the guy right now. Except when PJ Dillard wants $2 million for that.

That's a very good point. That's a very good point. Dotson, I thought was great on the show today. I really think he's making a very strong case. It seemed like he has this fire under him. He watches the fight every day. He says he watches the fight every day. fight every day. That's crazy stuff. I like it. By the way, we should note that this wasn't the

original plan. Of course, that card took many different twists and turns. But I will say this. I think they shouldn't try to group the fly weights and the bantam weights together. It's almost like this 0.5 plus 0.5 equals 1 type of thing. They need to do Demetrius on the undercard of a Wyden fight, a round a Rousey fight, a John Jones fight if he's, you know, fighting. You know, one of the big names as added value as opposed to trying to put the smaller weight classes that aren't draws by themselves together to try to equal one. You know what I mean? I feel like, as you mentioned earlier about the UFC, they need to put them in better spots.

And if it means going back on free TV to build them up, why not? He doesn't – he shouldn't have to answer these questions anymore. I mean, it is what it is. Let's move on from it. But every time it's becoming like a broken record, and it's got to get annoying. It's unfair to ask him to – it's obvious. right now that he's not a big draw, right? Right.

So it's unfair to ask him to carry these cards in these circumstances. Like you said, you know, you put him on a card with Chris Wyatman, Vitor Belford, you put him on a card with, you know, maybe even Ronda Rousey. You put him on a card with John Jones and you'll get more eyes on him. So at least you're exposed him to more people and let them decide if they want to watch him fight or not. So at least you're giving him that opportunity. But when you're putting him on a card, you know, as we know, the main event is, you know,

is by far the most important thing about a card. Right. As much as the U.S. like to say, you know, they try to stack cards and every fight has its own meaning and its own marketability. The main event, it's just shown, you know, by pay-per-view numbers over the years, that the main event is 90% of the reason why people buy the fight. So if you're asking a guy who's not a top draw to sell it on his own without really getting any help, it's not fair. You know, you can put them on, they put them on Fox before.

Nothing wrong with that. You know, it's free. You can't really complain about that. how many people out there really want to, at this point in time, want to spend 60 plus dollars to watch a fight headline by Demetrius Johnson. All respect to him, I think he's phenomenal. I really enjoyed the fight. I think I really enjoy watching him, not because we're similar size, but because I think he's great.

But I'm probably in the minority. I mean, you know, people were, I was running the M.MA fighting Twitter account on Saturday night. And, I mean, the dude was just getting the fight and the dude were just getting bashed. They were killing the poor guy. Like he's dominating a really game, excellent, talented fighter, finishing him with a minute left, a second left, I should say. That's hard to do. That's hard to do.

You know, this is not easy. But, you know, he has not engaged the fan base, the way that a lot of others have. It was historic. It was a big deal what he did on Saturday. But, yeah, I mean, I think it was good for him that he got the finish. It may be lessened some of the talk, but you're 100% right. And then how about to add insult to entry?

He has to rock Tommy's face all over the place. He traded the Xbox gear, which was, in my opinion, the best deal in MMA, the best partnership, the best sponsorship in MMA for that. I mean, I really hope the UFC made a lot of money. I really hope the UFC just made a boatload of money on that and that that money will trickle down to the fighters because it was kind of embarrassing.

You know, it was kind of embarrassing? Like, was Tommy headlining UFC 186? Like, he was everywhere. He's on Demetrius Johnson's shorts. He was on his shirt? He was on the shorts? Was he on the shorts? Was he on the shorts?

I'm pretty sure. Wow. Tommy. I would rather have seen Alan Belcher's tattoo. Wow. On a banner. Johnny Cash, his face. Not Tommy.

I don't even know. Honestly, I don't even know who Tommy is, man. You know the story. He won this contest and his Bud Light Living. I tried to tune that stuff out. All right, right. It seemed like he had a great weekend, by the way. I mean, it seemed like he was all over the place.

Hey, man. Good for Tommy. but, you know, don't let him infiltrate. I don't want to see his face everywhere when I'm watching at you. Yeah. Poor fighters. And we must say as well, in this day and age of PBC, you know, premier boxing champions and what they're doing on HBO on Showtime, you know, you need something really special

to go on pay-per-view. I mean, even boxing is moving away from it, and MMA seems to be the only ones really hanging on to a consistent paper. I mean, even WWE moving away from it. So, you know, we might see, or maybe we should see, a changing of the way they present those pay-per-view cards. For now, we must go, Mark. I don't know where you're going in your car.

Don't sit in there all day. It seems like a beautiful day in Southern California. It's every day in Southern California, R.A.R.A. Yes. You're doing a fantastic job. We appreciate the time. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks, man.

Take care. There he is. Mark Romandy of M.M.A.fighting.com with the latest on John Jones and, of course, Demetrius Johnson, winning once again on Saturday night. Okay. Let's go inside the vault. Of course, this weekend is a big one for the world of boxing. It is Manny Packout versus Floyd Mayweather. Finally, we are finally going to see this fight.

Six years in the making, and it almost feels like it came too fast. The buildup felt like it was 15 minutes long. I feel like we just had that press conference. I feel like they just announced it. I feel like we just saw them at the Miami Heat game. But maybe that's good. We're just five days away now. The world will be watching.

You heard the numbers from Kevin, Myoli, staggering numbers, jaw-dropping numbers, unbelievable numbers, literally unbelievable numbers, but it is finally going down this Saturday in Las Vegas. The promotion has been bizarre, to say to least, the commercials feel like they were put together on like I-movie or something like that, but this one sells itself. Surreal stuff. And way back when, way back, back in the day, I had an opportunity to interview Mandy Pac-Yau. Did you know that?

I feel like a lot of people don't know that. That's the forgotten thing for my interview with Bob Aram. I was at a media day at Yankee Stadium for Manny Packyell v. Miguel Coto. I interviewed Bob Aram. Of course, everyone remembers that interview where he went all crazy on M.MA and said a bunch of wild stuff. I also, somehow, I don't even remember how I finagled my way into a one-on-one interview with Manny Pacow wearing a New York Yankees jersey. I kid you not. So I thought it would be fun to look back at this interview.

It took place September 10th, 2009, Yankee Stadium. A couple months before his fight against Miguel Koto. Me interviewing Mani Pachia. The one time I did it, it was fun, fun ending. He actually sang for us. Here it is inside the vault. Mani, we're here at Yankee Stadium to promote this fight. Would you ever like to fight in a stadium like this?

No, I want to fight like this. I want to fight especially here in the youngest stadium someday. There's been a lot of talk about where you're going to train for this you've decided to spend most of your training camp in the Philippines. Why do you decide to switch things up? I decided to train in the Philippines because there's a good place to train there and high level, 5,000 above sea level. I mean, it's good place to train.

Is there any concern with all the distractions there that it might take away from some of your training time? Distraction is always there, but it depends how you discipline your yourself and how you control the people. And how about everything with Freddie Roach, everything cool with him? He said that he was frustrated that he couldn't get in contact with you a couple weeks ago. Everything is okay, there is no problem. I was busy the last few weeks because doing a movie and, you know.

All right, and let's quickly talk about your opponent. Miguel Kodo has looked impressive as of late. What are the biggest weaknesses in his game that you're going to try to exploit on a number? try to exploit on November 14th? We've seen a lot of weakness of Miguel Cota, but I won't tell you that now because that's my strength on the fight. Do you feel as though you have to keep reinventing yourself now that you have the bull's on your back, now that everyone's gunning for you? I'm sorry?

Do you feel like you have to keep changing your game and evolving because everyone's looking at you now? Well, I can change the game and study the game. It depends how it's my opponent or what style of my opponent. You know, that's the boxing. You have to study your opponent. Not only you train, go to the gym and train, just train. You have to train and study first and train in the gym.

Do you consider yourself the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world? Floyd Mayweather doesn't think so. Well, for me, whatever people recognize me, whatever people call me, I appreciate that. Okay, and final question. Can you sing some lyrics for us? you're such a great singer, sing some lyrics for us because we're in the Bronx where hip hop was born. Just a couple of songs because I know you're such a great lyricist, singer. Lurisies.

Any songs in Philippine? Anything. Just a line? Ah, anything. What's that? What do you want, mate? Nothing. When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary come to me.

Speaking, what a wisdom, let it be. Beautiful man. Best of luck. When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Mani, that song never sounded better. Did you hear his people trying to rush him,

trying to rob us of that moment? He's a busy man. But he pulled it off. Yeah, and... He was ignoring them. He's like, I'm going to nail this. He's... Acapella.

He's incredible. I think he's singing his own walkout for this one. At the same time? No, I think it might be recorded, but I think he's the singer on the song. That's pretty cool. Which is... Original song, or is it a cover? I'll look this up while we read the questions to be 100% accurate,

but I'm pretty sure I read that, which is something else, man. Yes. Anyhow, in case you're wondering, before we get to the questions, Mani Pacquiao ended up winning that fight against Miguel Koto. He won via 12th round TKO. He then beat Joshua Claudi, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez. And then it was the crazy, crazy, crazy split decision loss to Timothy Bradley,

which most people thought he won, most sane people. Then he was knocked out by Marquez, and we all thought, there goes the Mayweather fight, remember? Everyone was like, ah, that's it. We're never going to see it. but Mr. Pachial's rebounded pretty well, defeating Brandon Rios, then Bradley again in the rematch,

and most recently, Chris Algeri, and now we are five days away. It's amazing. That was 2009, and we were talking about Floyd Mayweather, and here we are six years later, finally they will get it on. Are you excited for this fight?

I am. I'll be watching. I'm so excited. I just love the spectacle. I feel like I'm not as excited as I thought I would be coming into the week. Oh, my God, I can't get enough of it. I'm sure as the week goes on,

I'll be, you know, more and more interested and I'm super excited. Now, I believe it is an original song, actually. Wow. Called. What's the source, though? Is this like? No, no, no. MMA mania has something on it.

Oh, it's called. Oh, boy, I'm not going to be able to pronounce this. But the translation is, I will fight for the Philippines. There we go. Can we hear it? Sing it. No. I don't know.

How am I going to sing it? I don't know it. Yeah, that's true. But yeah, it's an original song, and he's singing in his own walkout, which is pretty badass. So you're not excited? I'm excited, but I'm not as excited as I thought I would be. Why? Any particular reason? I mean, I can't point to any.

I don't know why. Do you feel like the buildup was kind of lacklustred? A little bit, actually. It felt like everything was rushed and kind of like bungled along the way with the whole ticket thing. It felt more like... That actually kind of felt like... Added promotion, added buzz, added controversy. It just felt like they were rushing to get this done and not giving the appropriate...

It's the song. Keep going. This is the one he's going to sing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not giving the appropriate amount of time. But either way, I mean, as I said, by the time the weekend comes, I'm going to be pretty stoked for it. Just an amazing music video. You're watching the full music video? Yeah, yeah. He released it April 12th.

Let's take a listen. I wish I understood. Maybe if I press CC, close captioning. Oh, there's actual fight footage. He's just so cute, you know? Who are you rooting for? I mean, I'm not rooting for anybody. I don't have a dog in the race.

Not really. I think Floyd's going to win, but I don't have a rooting stake. If Mani wins, that'd be awesome. By the way, Floyd wins, that'd be awesome. It's not cool for us to give props to other outlets. I think that's the way the media works sometimes. but I don't believe in that. Dana White, working for Yahoo Sports as a media member,

might be the most genius thing I've ever heard. It's pretty cool. You know why it's genius? It's not just about seeing him do that, which I think is genius in its own right. Every MMA fan will now check out their coverage, right? Yep. That just brings in all those fans.

I don't think there were many that weren't going to be in on it anyway, but if there were any, this was a good move to catch them. That ensures that they're going to go there. 100%, yeah. Wow. But it was also great because he's so notoriously harsh on media. Yes. But also very knowledgeable about boxing.

I'm not saying it's a... Yeah, yeah. It's just a funny move. It's like when Bob Knight started working for ESPN. That's right. He was great, right off the bat. I know. I think they got rid of him, though, recently.

Yeah, but he was, you know, when he first started, he was bringing the heat. I loved it. Yeah, he was. Okay, let's get into some questions already. Sorry, Manny. I'm rushing you away. I'm kidding. Keep it going until the end.

No, please no. This is like a national anthem. You can't turn it off. Once you play it, you got to let it go. Oh, my, Jesus. Okay. Obviously, you knew this was going to be the first one. Thoughts on the John Jones situation,

and do you have any updates on the case? Also, if true, what punishments do you think you should face? I'm going to respectfully skip this one because I feel like we covered the latest, right? Yep. I mean, I don't feel like I need to go over it again, so I'm going to skip this one. Go, if you're watching this as a segment,

go watch the interview with Mark Ramon. we covered all the John Jones. Yeah, or my tweets that I just put out. John Jones, at what point is John Jones too much trouble for the UFC? Can you imagine a point where the UFC fires him? Again, you have to be very careful in this situation. Okay, I'll get rid of the song now. You have to be very careful in this situation

because it's still all allegations. He still hasn't come out. You know, according to the police department spokesman that I spoke to, they haven't had much conversation, interaction with the man alleging to be his lawyer. So you got to hear from him first before, you know, putting the man away, cutting him things of that nature. The facts are the facts that he's had issues in the past. We know about the DUI. We know about the brawl, if you want to add that to it, although I don't think it's anywhere near, you know, the kind of infraction that a DUI is or what happened with the cocaine test.

So there's a history there. and a lot of people were skeptical of him only going to, you know, to rehab for 24 hours. And if there's more to this story, you can look back and say, was enough done to nip this in the butt? We'll see. But, you know, right now, I think it's tremendous news to hear that the victim's pregnancy is unaffected. Very sad to hear that, you know, she's injured, but that the victim's pregnant. pregnancy is unaffected is really good news, and now we wait to hear the latest. I guess I might as well just recap what I said earlier.

The latest from the Albuquerque Police Department is we are working on an arrest warrant for John Jones. The female suffered a broken arm, which has elevated the charge to felony, leaving the scene of an accident. The victim's pregnancy appears to have been unaffected. We received a call from a local attorney who's representing himself as Mr. Jones's lawyer, but we haven't confirmed that just yet. So that's the latest.

it is literally developing in front of our eyes. A very unfortunate story, because you can say it's very unfortunate, because they can't find them. And that's the face of this sport in many ways, one of the most popular and gifted athletes in the history of the sport. And to just be involved in this situation is not good for anyone involved. Okay, moving on to the next thing, Demetrius Johnson and Xbox.

Any insight into why Demetrius Johnson entered the octagonal without his usual Xbox logos. Has he lost the sponsorship, and do you think it has anything to do with the Reebok deal? Well, it does have to do with the Reebok deal. As many fighters have noted that, you know, the deal goes into effect in July, and it's not in the best interest of their longtime sponsors,

at least at the time, they thought there would be long-time and long-term sponsors to be in business. Now, I don't necessarily understand why you have to jump off now. Like, if guys having a fight today, Why do you have to jump off now? The thing goes into effect in July. But I could also understand it from their perspective as well.

You invest a lot, and then it just goes away, and you're like, all right, well, what's the point of this? I told Demetrius after the fight, I was just like, yeah, I missed. You know how I felt about that Xbox deal? I missed it. It just didn't look the same, especially with him weighing white. I don't know if that was his call, but I don't like the white shorts. That's just the aesthetic thing.

I certainly didn't like all the Tommy stuff. Well, wait a minute. Why are you such a fan of Tommy? What's wrong with you? I mean, he's a pound for pound great. I'll tell you this. Can't disrespect him. He radiates energy.

Like, the guy actually has a great smile. And, you know, like they showed all those clips of him with. And first of all, he's incredibly athletic. Did you see him doing the Showtime kick? That's why I'm saying he's a pound for pound great. Showtime kick. He was doing stuff with George St. Pierre. He's hanging out with Bruce Buffer, Ariani.

Wings with Chuck Lidel. Yeah. The guy is a legend. I mean, it seemed like he had the greatest weekend. I just don't want to see his face on the banner. I mean, I feel like... Oh, I want to see more Tommy. Are you joking?

I feel like you're joking here. No. And I got... You preferred... You preferred to... ...with Mark Raimundi for taking shots at Tommy. You preferred to see that over the Xbox? Well, I mean, the Xbox is in a special class all of its own.

That partnership with Demetrius was, you know, the best one that MMA has seen. The best. Better than any. Better than Nike. I feel like more people asked about Demetrius's Xbox thing going away, then asked about anything about the fight. Fans are funny like that. They really care.

They care about Demetrius' Xbox sponsorship more than watching him fight. You know what they care about? They care about controversy. You know, they love that. Wait a second. Did he get screwed? You know, that's what they care about.

All of a sudden, they care about Demetrius Johnson, but they'll crap all over him and say he's not a draw and say that his fights are boring. Fans are weird like that. And if I may, if I may, I was really bothered by, and I shouldn't be bothered, but it's like, this stuff comes out yesterday, and I go on my Twitter, and it's just like a tidal wave. Do your job.

What happened to you? You slacking? What's going on? Are you sleeping? Like, who says that I actually have to, no one in my job description to say that I, A, have to tweet. B, who says that I have to update you as I'm going when I don't have the facts? Like, do you really think that I was sleeping? Do you really think that I wasn't doing my job?

Do you really think I wasn't trying to get all the facts? What's wrong with you, people? What is it wrong with these people trying to pressure us into putting everything out there and getting things wrong? Developing situation, incredibly tricky situation, a sensitive situation. What's wrong with these people? Why are people like this? I don't get it. Well, I'll play devil's advocate and present the reason is, or the reason I think, is because in this,

era in 2015, a lot of people are willing to expose, you know, how the cake is made. And if you're not doing that, it feels like you're holding out rather than, you know, the people who are showing the steps and showing how the cake is made are presenting something that's valuable. And people should appreciate it rather than take it for granted and take it as given. And then if that's not happening, they think that you're not doing the work. Well, it's a very spoiled mentality. Like, tell us what you know right now. Absolutely.

No disagreement here. But do you agree with that? That there's a lot of that currently. And when that's not present, the people who are looking for that feel like they're being held out on? I guess so. But I feel like sometimes you have to give people the benefit of the doubt. reputation speak for themselves. Absolutely.

Look at my Twitter in the last 12 hours. I'm telling you how the cake is being made here, but I'm telling it to you from legit sources on the record with actual facts. At 4 p.m. yesterday, that wasn't the case. So I can't tell you. And I can't acknowledge it. I can't talk about it.

I'm not going to put my reputation out there. I mean, I can't compromise that. I don't care that you want to tweet right here and now. Go look for it from someone else. And I know this is not going to make it stop. I know it's not going to make it stop, but it's just, it doesn't make sense to me.

Like, this is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job. I accept that. I love that. I relish that. What do you think I was doing? It's just to make so sense. Like, really? You're actually threatening to unfollow me

because I'm not giving you the goods right now? What's wrong with you? Really? I guess that's called trolling these days. But it was just like, I never, because it was this big gap where nothing was being said. Yeah. And, you know, I started thinking, like, well, should I say something?

I don't know. And then finally, the Albuquerque Police Department spoke, and then things started to trickle in. And then we could talk about it. And then we could report it. Very bizarre. Our next question, what's more impressive? A 14-second arm bar? Or a 24-minute and 59-second arm bar?

Well, this is just a crazy question coming from predictably UFC face swap. I think there's some validity to it. Come on. That's like, I mean, that's six in one half dozen and the other. You can't go wrong. Oh, okay. I thought you were saying there was one that was clearly the right answer. It's like saying, what's better?

Tiermi Sue or a molten chocolate cake. They're both great. Okay. Then we're on the same page. Because that was impressive as hell. But how can you pick one or the other? I guess a case could be made for either. 14 seconds because you actually finished your opponent quickly.

The late one because you endured, endured, endured, and then finally pulled it off. So do you have a pick? No. Actually, yeah, I'll go 14 second arm bar. Yeah, I guess 14. If we have to pick one, I guess 14. But it's also very impressive. To finish somebody late is a test of endurance and will and hard and not wanting it to go to the judges.

Well, if you talk body of work, to find. finish a high level opponent who's been training for four months for you and you're able to dismantle them in 14 seconds. I mean, I guess that's pretty damn impressive. It's damn impressive. But both impressive. Champ versus Champ, DJ versus Demetrius Johnson rather versus T.J. D.J. D.J. D.J. D.J. D.J. D.J. D.J. D.R.R.R. Would is it simply to two more small is small fighters being matched up? What do you think of that one? I'm not in favor of this fight because I still feel as though there's work to be done in both weight classes, and I don't want to side. You know, I was saying this to someone, one of the best things that could happen to the

flyweight division is if Demetius Johnson just takes a break for a year, and the whole thing evolves. Now, you don't want him to take a break, but you know what I mean? You know, like, unintentionally, contenders will start to emerge. But the problem is Demetius Johnson is Mr. Reliable for the UFC. The guy never pulls out of fights. He's always available. He can come back on two months notice.

It's amazing. He doesn't get enough credit for that. On top of everything else, he doesn't get enough credit for. So the guy's reliable. It's on his fault that he doesn't have a Huckleberry. I'd rather see, personally, I'd rather see John Dodson versus both of them, versus Dmitrius and T.J. Dillowsha than I'd rather see both of them versus each other. Look, I'd pay money to see this.

This is great, but especially Dillashah. Like, DJ, I could get away, you know, he could get away with it. I can live with it. But T.J. has only defended his title once, and it was, you know, it was a strange fight that materialized in 24 hours. So I really feel like TJ needs to fight a few more times, and he needs to secure his place as best. Johnson has done that long ago, especially in his division.

Sure. I wouldn't buy this. Like, if they gave it to me, sure, I'd love it, but I wouldn't push for this. If I was a matchmaker, I wouldn't try to make this happen. But you really like this fight? I like it, but... I like Dodson better than versus each of them. I also prefer someone going, like I, I guess I could live with a catchweight.

I don't know. I prefer being for a belt. The biggest combat sports fight of our generation is this weekend, and the fighters are little guys. Last Saturday, the World Heavyweight title with Klitschko is on and seen as a warm-up for this event. On the other hand, Demetrius also fought Saturday and is seen as the number three pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world. Yet people constantly leave during his main events. Boxing and M.MA seemed backwards on their view of who the great fighters are right now and who is a draw. first question. Does boxing, does the boxing heavyweight champ being a Russian hurt the viewership?

Two, what does Demetrius Johnson need to do to step up his popularity? And three, what makes the Manny Pacchio Floyd Mayweather's superfight so gigantic in your eyes to overshadow the entire boxing world, namely being the biggest money fight in history? And are we going to go? Are we going to watch? I think we both answered that. Before I get to that, speaking of Mr. Reliable, Michael Carroll of Fightmetric tells me, for what it's worth, there have been two arm bars in 14 seconds, but just one, four minutes, and 59, round five arm bar. Demetrius Johnson did what no one has ever done. Yeah. Does that change your answer?

No. Okay. Back to the questions. Does the boxing heavyweight champion Russian hurt his viewership? I don't know. There was a title fight. There was a Klitschko fight on Saturday. I don't know what the viewership was.

but it was a non-paper view. It was at MSG. Were you there? No, I was not. I was in Kansas City for Invicta. Oh, that's right. How was it? Fantastic.

Invicto always delivers, man. Yeah, but that was in Saturday. That was Friday. Yeah, but I was flying back on Saturday. Oh, okay. Well, not Saturday night. I wasn't getting off the plane to go. I believe our friend John Beer was there.

He was there. So there you go. I was not. Okay. Does it hurt his viewership? I don't know. I feel like it's more the Klitchco style that hurts his viewer. I remember back in the day, not that long ago. He was fighting on ESPN Classic, which was bizarre. A live event on ESPN Classic?

Anyhow, what does DJ need to do to step up his popularity? Gosh, do you have an hour? Look, I actually think he's come a long way. In the past week, he did a lot of good work media-wise. I really wanted to sit down with him and do one of those longer interviews that we did with Michael Bisping. Fortunately, he wasn't feeling well as we addressed in our pre-fight interview, but he's come a long way. I just think that you have to put him in the right position. And the right position means the right opponent, the right platform.

You know what I mean? Like if you put them on paper view against a guy who can't speak English, and there's no buzz there at all, there's no juice there, there's no rivalry there, there's no threat, then people just aren't going to buy it. There's too much out there, there's too many options, there's too many distractions. You know what I mean? There's just too much. You can't, and there's too many fights.

You know, there's 48 fights this year. So that makes a few expendable. That makes a few skisanship. so if you're not going to go out of your way to give people a reason to tune in they're not going to tune in so yeah I mean to a degree he has to step up but they also have to help him out a little bit

I think he's stepping up I think he's finally getting it he's dropping F bombs did you see what he said in my interview if you don't want to watch me F you and I don't know if that's the best approach but at least he's better than before he's coming out of his shell I would have loved I could tell that I could tell in our post fight that he was unhappy with his performance I would have loved if he would have said that

it felt like he was I would love to he said that Anyhow Third question What makes the Manny Pachial Oh the mani I mean I think you meant to say Manny Floyd Superfight so gigantic in your eyes

To overshadow the entire boxing one Namely being the biggest money fight I mean it's just I guess his thing is the comparison between MMA's smaller fighters and boxing smaller fighters Well I mean you can't even compare Mani Pachial is a worldwide superstar

He's a megastar. He's one of the most famous people in the world, as is Floyd Mayweather. Huge draws who understand how to sell in different ways. Pachia has a very different approach than Floyd. Floyd has done an amazing job of selling his fights. How do we get to this point? I mean, look what they've done. I mean, it's on a whole other level.

Also, they're great. I mean, their greatness speaks for themselves. Floyd is doing what very few people have done. He's undefeated at this stage in his career. I believe he's 48 and no. So, I mean, that in itself is amazing. He's never really been seen. seriously hurt, rocked in trouble in a fight. People love to see greatness. And distance makes the

heart grow fonder. We've been waiting for this. We've been salivating over this. You know, I think that actually waiting for the fight has made it bigger. I know people say, well, if you didn't get knocked out, it would have been bigger. If it would have happened, you know, five years ago, would have bigger. I think this has made it even bigger. People want events. People want big moments. They want to be there. They want to witness it. They want to be a part of it. And this feels like one. And it happens at the perfect time. So I don't subscribe to the idea that smaller equals less interest. I don't.

I think if, look, look at Connor. He's 1.45. Yep. It's not that much bigger. Look at these two guys. Look at Packet when he was younger. He was still a big draw. Look at Floyd when he was younger.

So I don't believe in it. But we can't compare these two. I mean, it's just apples and oranges. By the way, I should clear this up. And I don't know if he was talking about him, but the clitch goes our Ukrainian. And I screwed that up. and I expect you to correct me when I make these mistakes at the three-minute and 22,

three-hour and 22-minute mark of the show. But anyway, I digress. I feel like he was talking about the Clitchco's, right? Yeah. Heavyweight champ. Anyhow, okay, go ahead. Rummaging fights for Rampage. Title Talk for Rampage would be like a comedy bit right now.

So what do you do with the guy? What are some fun fights for Rampage now he's back? I like his idea of a reunion. tour, so to speak. Yeah. I also like the idea that someone presented to me on Twitter of having him

fight OSP August 8th in Nashville. Two Tennessee guys going at it. Do you think OSP's a mistake for him? I feel like OSP needs a fight like that. Yeah, I feel like that's a star maker for OSP more so than anything that helps rampage, though.

But isn't that the point? It's a rampage. We got the Fabio fight. That was on a silver platter for him. But now the whole point is to start building stars. And if he could beat the guy, I mean, that's an impressive win over a young gun. And it says, all right, I'm here.

I'm a legit contender. And if OSP wins, then, hey, he was the younger guy who's now a legit contender himself. I feel like that's a perfect fight. You like the, we've talked about this. You like the veteran versus veteran. Yeah. I kind of like the UFC on Fox 15 approach. Let's see if we can make stars.

PVZ over Herig, Rockhold over Machita, Holloway over Cub. Sterling over Mizugaki. I like those fights. You know what I'm saying? I'm not terribly opposed to them because, I mean, at this point, we can all admit that Rampage is probably not going to fight for a title unless a lot of things happen in that division. It is one of the more shallow divisions.

Yeah, I mean, I feel confident saying that, but at the same time, you know, anything can happen. But, yeah, I guess a loss for him at this point wouldn't really do, you know, wouldn't do much to damage his stock because he's not really ascending that ladder. So, yeah, if it becomes a fight where he's fighting OSP and OSP wins and uses that as, you know, the victory that takes him to the next level,

I'm okay with that fight. I feel like OSP already had that with the Shogun fight, but... I feel like the Shogun fight didn't do much for him. Surprisingly. It was pretty impressive. He went from Shogun to Pat Cummins. No knock on Pat, but that's a step down as far as notoriety is concerned. Yeah, no doubt about it. But I feel like two Tennessee guys on free TV, that makes a lot of sense. I'd watch it. I'd watch it. I mean, just look at the options. I don't

really want to say, you know what? I take back what I said. I don't want to see the reunion tour. I want to see him versus OSP August 8th in Nashville. Now, of course, as Dana White said to me in the post-fight interview, he may have some more illegal troubles on the way. So let's see if he can get out of him and actually make a run in the UFC, but at least for him, he wants to be. won the first one back. Okay. We move on to another veteran. This person desperately wanted my attention.

Bisbing looking fairly impressive in this fight against Dalloway. How about Bisbing versus Talas Ladez? Or the Hendo Boch winner? How do you see these matchups going? Or do you see a better one that could be set up for the count? And this person, we thankfully read that they purposely ask for Mondays off to listen to us live. So thank you for watching and listening. I didn't happen.

I don't know if I buy that. but if it's true, I appreciate it. I love the Hendo Boch idea. I think, like, Bisping, right now he's in this sort of... Bisbing versus Hendo would be... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's in this fun fight territory. Let's just get him some fun fights.

But now, shouldn't we be giving him to a younger guy so they can make their star off him? Isn't that what you're just... I know, see, I don't put him in that Rampage territory because Rampage tasted gold. He had his moment. You know, he did what he did. Also older.

Maybe just slightly, but... Bisping's not... Spring chicken. I'd like to see Bisping have some fun fights, and if he could put something together, then we'll deal... You know, I still... I have no problem saying this. I have a bit of a soft spot for Michael Bisping.

I still feel like it's somewhat of a travesty that he never got a title shot. Without a doubt, the most popular fighter in UFC history to never even get a title shot. Sure, but not winning the belt. Getting a title shot, that's unbelievable to me. The impact that he's had on the sport, the popularity that he's had.

I mean, that's amazing. especially in the division that for a long time was kind of subpar, right, other than the champion. Look at some of the other people who's, you know, fought for a belt. So I just want to see fun fights for him. And you know what?

Michael Bisping did a fantastic job of selling that CB Dalway fight that had no Jews. Sure it is. He really ramped it up in Montreal. And I think he deserves fun fights. I like Bisping when he's fired up. I don't want to see him wait until the final week and have to manufacture some stuff.

But you know what? The best thing about Michael Bisping is he doesn't manufacture. It all feels very genuine. He might be manufacturing, but it still feels genuine. You know what I mean? Like, when he gets pissed at the way in and he keeps going and going and going, it actually feels like he's really pissed off. He is really pissed off.

It's amazing how he can just make himself pissed off. Yeah, I think him during weight-cutting time is a sure-fire way to get something good. Didn't we talk about Tos ladies recently that we wanted to see him fight someone? Don't recall. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I had one. Oh, Jacaray. That's it. If you can't, Romero's manager told me that they're not going to have surgery and they want to fight in July.

So maybe they'll do that fight. But if they don't do it, I'm down with the Bissbing lightest fight. But Jacare is never going to get a title shot. Bissing Hendo would be fun. I mean, you don't have to sell anybody on that. How many times they roll out the clip of Hendo knocking Bisbing out? In this day and age of Krokoop Gonzaga 2, you know, of Hendo Shogun 2, kind of really, matches that didn't need to happen but happened anyway.

I could see that one being a Fox Sports Well, I'd say I could see it being a pay-per-view. I'd want that one back. Sure, sure, sure. And Hendo would be confident going into that. Yeah. Okay. Do you think the pay-rides and profits can be approved by lowering the price for less anticipated cards like UFC 186?

Keep in mind that they have increased the price for highly anticipated cards like Jones Cormier. Also, before anyone jumps on my case, I get every event and thoroughly enjoyed UFC 186. Um, I think that's a tricky game to play because you're telling the audience, I know, back in the day, WW used to do this with the In Your House pay-per-views, but I still think it's a tricky game to play because you're telling the audience in our mind, this isn't worth what our typical show is. Like if you before, I mean, are they, are they already doing that? A Fox show is not worth a pay-per-view because it's free. A paper-view with an increased price is worth more than the regular pay-per-view. Yeah, those are kind of. few and far between, but I get your point. The Fox show was a better card on paper than Montreal.

This one was an outlier. Typically, it won't be. And even down beyond that is an FS1 show, and then beyond that is a fight pass only show. I mean, there is already a tiered system in place. It's not like they're developing something here. So I think, you know, in my opinion, but I'm not anybody who has any kind of,

of maybe Dave Meltzer is a better person to ask about this. But I think, you know, people would see USC 186 and say maybe I'll pay less for that. Yeah. If the buy rates ended up not being very good. Here's what I'll say. And I know these things are planned months and events, so you can't really execute it. But in a perfect world, I just wish pay-per-view cards were pay-per-view cards and the ones who weren't aren't. You know, like, like we decide, oh, we got Jones and and Rumble and Wyden and Belford coming up.

That's pay-per-view worthy. Cain versus Redoom, that's pay-per-view worthy. Yeah. We got Conner, that's paper. You know, we got T.J. And, you know, maybe they're not ready for that. So we won't make that a pay-per-view. I just wish it wasn't tied to, like, okay, we have to do 14 pay-per-views.

It's so tough with that many cards. It's, like, impossible. But, you know, again, you can't compare boxing to the UFC. But boxing, when there's a fight that needs to be paid-view and when it's not, it's not. And I kind of wish it was like that. It's 100% true. Okay. Ben Ascgren.

I just wanted to hear your thoughts on what happened over the weekend between Ben Ascran and Sappo? Yes. Well, finally, 1-FC has an intriguing fight for Ben Ascran. If you saw the fight, it was quite shocking. Sapo was actually stuffing the takedown. He looked great early on, and then unfortunately, an eye-poke ended the fight. It's a no contest. So now you do the rematch. I mean, that's a no-brainer. Now you have a rivalry. Now you have a great rematch. Now you actually have a fight that people care about with Ben Ascreen, because the biggest problem that 1-FC was having wasn't Ascran. It was finding opponents who are on his level. And now we have that. So, There's a blessing in disguise here for everyone involved. There's an actual fight that we care about involving Ben Ascgren. So hopefully Sapu's eyes okay, not too injured. It was pretty gruesome, but he looked great leading up to it. The most trouble anyone's given.

I think we need to pump the brakes on this a little bit. Why? Look at the facts. Look at the actual tape. Yeah, it's too short an amount of time to... But that's why it's a great rematch. The people were acting, you know, on my Twitter feed, people are acting like Ben Ascran got knocked out.

And all that had happened was it was a stalemate after two and a half minutes. Yeah. Let's pump the brakes. I mean, I know, you know, Ben Ascgren is a love and or hate him kind of guy, but that wasn't enough to really determine much of anything. But it was enough to sell me on... Sure. If they do it again, more people will be interested, for sure. But he could come out and smoke him in two minutes and...

They got nothing else. They got nothing else. Yeah. So that's why I feel like it's good. But yeah, I mean, let's be careful on the, you know, Ben Asking got exposed kind of nonsense. No, no, no, I know you didn't, but I saw a lot of that. No, no, no, no. I didn't say that.

But you put that in like a little countdown video and you're like, ooh. Yeah, it looks great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm with you on that. But, you know, Ben Asking's going to Ben Askin. All right, this is the last one from the website. Real quick. Oh, Jesus.

We're going to run down, true or false. I hate this. No, you love this. I hate this. You love this. From today until the end of the year, we will have three new UFC champions. False. Super fight between two champions will happen in 2015.

You answer them. You're not doing anything. I don't have the patience for this. Oh my God. I hate true or false. All right, we're skipping it. No, no, no, do it. Do it. I want to hear your answer.

Super fight between two champions, false. Don't see it. Jones versus Gustafin. Aye, aye, aye. That's a tough one right now. False. I don't know what's going to happen. Rousey versus Cyborg will happen in 2015.

I'm going to say false. UFC will finally put an event in New York. True. Hopefully. Fingers crossed, knocking on the table right now. Three European UFC champions in 2015. Yohanna. Other candidates include Habib, McGregor, and Gustafson.

I think Habib gets it done 100%. That's a lock. McGregor could get it done. So I'm going to go false because I think Aldo wins. But I wouldn't be surprised if McGregor won either. So that's a possibility. Jacaree Sousa gets his title shot in 2015. Unfortunately, I don't think so because he'll never get a fight that gets him a title shot.

Kane Velasquez fights two times in 2015. When is Kane supposed to come back? June 13th. That's going to be rough. I'll say true, hopefully. Kane, good luck. Both female champions will keep their belts in 2015. Rousey and Yowna.

I'll say true to that as well. Last but not least, a question that the entire M. entire audience, MMA fighting needs to know true or false. Oh, that I will host at least one time in 2015 for Christa. Now it all makes sense.

By the way, greetings from Morocco. Of course. Go ahead. True or false? I mean, that's got to be false. I don't see that one happening.

Yeah, I agree with that one. Oh, I like how you finally weigh in just for that. Appreciate it. I'd love to see the show that you would book.

I would book a good show. But what's your dream? I feel like you know what kind of show I would book. If you're hosting, like what are you going for? Like, what's your go-to lineup? Well, you know, I've learned from the best, so I wouldn't give a lineup now. I'd have to see what's topical in the news cycle. I have to get, you know, what fights just happened, what fights are coming up.

Come on, I can't just go all willy-nilly. But you can guarantee that Tyrone Woodley and Will Brooks would be on that show. Yes. There's some crazy guy on Twitter, Prisdil, who's, telling me to stop bashing the fans. Are you a fighter? You have a micro, he's like tweeting all this stuff to me and Dana White. When did I bash the fans? Stop bashing the fans, Ariel. Crazy people. That's what happens. Speaking of the fans, here's an opportunity for you to bash them even further. Are you

disappointed with the fans who walked out during the main event? So I can't confirm people actually walked out because I wasn't in the arena when it happened. I did see them in Vancouver. Vancouver. I will say this. Come on, you know people walked out. No, honestly, I didn't see. Did you see? Everybody was tweeting it. I don't know.

Yeah, but come on. Yeah, you got to trust it. If there's one thing we've learned in the last 24 hours, 24 hours, don't believe Twitter. Anyway, I will say this. I do know that a lot of people got free tickets. And I could see people being like, all right, I was here for five, six hours. I don't need to see this because I have no emotional investment. I didn't pay for this main event.

You know what I mean? That's what happens when you give away a lot of freebies. Am I disappointed in them? No. I'm happy. At least they showed up. and fill that lower bowl. Here's the follow-up.

Yes. What do you think is the reason... Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, yes. What do you think is the reason why the UFC is having less fights in Canada? Are they disappointed in the market? That's the follow-up to the previous question.

Well, I can't see them coming back to Montreal in time soon, especially without GSP. Now, is that unfair, though? Because the card was worse, which would mean less people would be interested, which would mean... Yeah, it's unfair, but there are so many options out there, so many places, venues that want to hold UFC events,

so it's going to be tough. I don't know what's going on with Canada. It's a very bizarre thing. You know, if Roy wins, you can best believe they're coming back. But I don't know what's going on. I can't, you know, it's not for me to answer. I feel like Halifax was a good show. You need some GSP.

Yeah. Well, you need some stars. You need some local people. That will force them to come there. But the Canadians are great on Saturday. They did, but there's no breakout. But yes, there's a nice, you know, hopefully I'll be swallowing my words. There's a nice movement of youngsters coming up.

up. If Demetrius Johnson doesn't catch that arm bar, does he headline another pay-per-view? It wasn't an entertaining fight for large parts of it. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. You would say, yeah, he wouldn't headline another thing. No, no, no. He would headline another paper view. They seem somewhat defiant with him. Like, yeah, we're going to show you, which I don't know if it's the right way, but I think it helped them. I definitely think it helped them. It helped kind of change the narrative of the night because it would have been a decision.

Here we have, ooh, history was made, but I don't really think it affected it one way. or the other. Last question. If John Jones can't fight at UFC 189, could there be an interim championship match? And who would you like to see in it? I don't know if I feel comfortable even talking about this. But, okay. If John Jones can't fight at UFC

189, for whatever reason. If John Jones cannot fight a UFC 189, this is what should happen. Okay? You know it, I know it. It should be DC versus Rumble Johnson for the belt. And then if DC wins, of course, you could potentially, potentially. We don't know the severity again.

You're making me throw out all these disclaimers. You have that unbelievable rematch going back for the belt. Of course, then you have Rumble Johnson if he wins. You have that fight that you weren't getting. I mean, that one seems to open up the best possibilities. Okay. We hope, though, there's a trickle-down effect because if you take D.C. out of the Bader fight,

who does Bader fight? OSP can't fight him because they already fought and it was pretty one-sided. What happens then? You move Gustafson. I don't know if you could do this. that because then you're leaving Glover without a fight. I mean, it's just a bunch of a shakeup.

It's a real mess of a situation. That's it. This is real life, my friends. This isn't just like, oh, I hurt my knee. This is real deal of stuff. Let me check my email one more time before I go and see if there's an update. No update. So, of course, stay tuned to MAAFunding.com for all the updates on this developing story.

And how about this? UFC tonight on Fox Sports 1? It's on five times this week. Tonight, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at midnight eastern time. So hopefully we'll have more. But they're putting it on five times this week. How about that? Are you excited?

Yeah, I'll be watching. That's a lot of Ariel Hawani. Let's be honest. It's like a collective six minutes of Ariel Hawani. But I make my impact. A collective six minutes over the week. Yeah. No, it'll be good.

I make my presence felt. I'll be good. Before I go, I just want to thank everyone who came to my little panel breakfast on Friday, Montreal, for the Jewish Chamber of Commerce. Also, the CJA, we had Tom Wright, Forrest Griffin, David Loissel. They killed it. And it was about the business of MMA. And it actually turned out to be a lot about business. I mean, I was thinking like, hmm, how am I going to talk about business? It was actually, I mean, if you knew nothing about M.A. or even cared about M.A. There were a lot of business lessons, especially from Tom. Tom was great. Forrest was very funny. I think a lot of people were surprised. They didn't know about him. And David had a great, you know, local story. Just opened a gym, check it out. Crow Fitness Center in Montreal. It was just a great morning, and especially doing it from friends

and my parents. It was wonderful. So I really enjoyed it, and I thank the Jewish Chamber of Commerce for allowing me to do that. For now, we say goodbye. Wait, one more thing. Oh, okay.

I saw our friend Jason Jones, biggest UFC fan on Four Wheels at Invicta. Oh, wow. It was good to meet him. He had very nice things to say about you for some reason. So shout out to him. What a smile on his face.

He's a fantastic human being, and it was a pleasure to meet him. That's it. All right, now you get my music. I echo all those sentiments. So this should be a very interesting week in MMA. It feels like deja vu all over again. But once again, we are following a John Jones story that has nothing to do with fighting, although this one is a whole lot more serious than the last one in January with the cocaine positive drug test.

See what happens. This was an interesting show as well. Mark Munoz stuff. McDessie. Marina Shafir making history for the most F-bombs in an interview, I think. She did a great job. And John Dotson really brought it.

It wasn't like the comical, goofy John Dotson. It was a serious man-on-a-mission, John Dotson. Looking forward to his fight. Anyhow, I want to thank Kevin Ioli. Thank you very much for stopping by. Great insight. Check out his work, Yahoo Sports. should be an interesting week for him as well.

Thank you very much to Mr. John Dodson. Good luck to him at UFC 187. Thank you very much to Steve Hanoian. All the best to him and Synaps Performance Therapy. Thank you very much to Marina Shapir. Best of luck to her. Thank you very much to Tim Meads. Also a great guest.

Thank you very much to him. Mark Munoz, all the best in your retirement fight. John McDessi, good luck to you. Congrats on the win. And of course, thank you very much to Mark Romondi, who has been killing it over at MMAFighting.com. Next week we're back. How about Bobby Green ally Quinta?

Great fight added on Saturday. A whole lot more to talk about, I am sure, next week. Until then, we say peace. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need.

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And one thing we keep hearing about over and over again is that generative AI is causing a lot of problems in schools. There are a lot of people out there, including many of the listeners of the show who email us, who are worried about the obvious problem, students using chat GPT to cheat on assignments. But when our team went and poked at the story, they found that the issues in education with AI go a lot deeper to the very philosophy of education itself. If this technology becomes more ubiquitous, we'll have courses created by AI, graded by AI, with submissions from students, absolutely generated by AI. So it begs the question, what are we even doing here in higher ed? This episode is presented by Salesforce.