MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 280

Episode Date: May 4, 2015

Featuring Daniel Cormier, Anthony Johnson, Junior dos Santos, Ryan Bader, Malki Kawa, Michelle Waterson, Jessica Penne, and Luke Thomas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

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Hello again, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani. Inside our New York City studio, it's beautiful outside. It is unbelievable. We have skipped over spring. It is now summer here in New York, and everyone's in such a good mood. It's a lovely time to be alive. And it's a great time to be a fan of combat sports, my friend.

because nothing really big this weekend, but holy moly for the next two months, two months, there's a UFC event every single weekend. Not to mention your usual Bellator appearances, World Series of Fighting appearances. It's going to be a very busy stretch leading up to... Actually, it's more than two months. No, actually, two months consecutive up until July 4th weekend, and then July gets crazy again in August. Anyhow, we have a lot of time to talk about. all of that. Needless to say, it's a very busy time in the world of mixed martial arts.

And we have a lot to get to on this show. Wow. When we said goodbye last week, holy moly, what a week it was. For me in particular, I did an MMA hour, an MMA beat, five episodes of UFC tonight. Oh, and John Jones just completely shut everything down. I mean, what a week for John Jones. When we said goodbye last week, John Jones was still MIA. We didn't know where he was. By Monday night, he was in police custody. By Tuesday, he was at his arraignment in Albuquerque. By Tuesday night, he was not only suspended indefinitely,

he was stripped of his light heavyweight title. We haven't heard from him other than a single tweet. Also, by Tuesday night, we found out that Daniel Cormier is now fighting Anthony Johnson for the real light heavyweight title. at UFC 187. We later found out that Chbibb Numagamadov is out of his fight against Donald Seroni being replaced by John McDessie of all people. Nirmagamadov had surgery

later in the week. He's out until around October. Then we find out that Alexander Gustafson is out of his fight against Glover Tashara, Yuaniyom, Jacek, now fighting Jessica Panay. Strawway title, UFC Berlin. It was a crazy week. So much going on. So much to digest. So much to talk about. Oh, and by the way, UFC New Orleans, yet to find a main event. Brian Bader is still in the dark. So what are we talking about today on the show? A lot. Oh yeah, by the way, there was the fight of the century this past weekend. And we have a lot

to say about that as well. Let's go through the rundown and then we have to get to our first guest. Of course, at around 350, we'll take your questions and comments. What's on your mind? What do you want to talk about so much going on in the last seven days? So much to come as well with the UFC returning to Australia this weekend. It's on Fight Pass. Great main event, Mark Hunt versus Debe Mioch, which is a very important fight in the heavyweight division. So we'll talk about all of that. At 345, we're going to talk to the aforementioned Jessica Pene,

who now faces Yana Yom J-Chickech. She was supposed to fight May 30th in Brazil against Juliana Lima. And now that fight, of course, is off. I actually don't think it's pronounced Juliana. I believe it's Juliana. I just wanted to give her a little bit of a different spin on her name. So now she's fighting for the belt. How about that? The former Invicta champion, Adamway champion, now fighting for the Straway title.

325, we're going to go inside the vault. 305. We're going to talk to Malki Kawa. His first interview since his client, John Jones, was stripped, suspended, arrested. What a week. What a transformation for John Jones. It all came crashing down. Also, lost essentially all his big sponsors, including Reebok, who he just signed with. 245. We're going to hear from Junior Dos Santos, Cigano, joining us. from Brazil. Haven't heard from him in a while since his fight against Miyochic in December. A couple of surgeries, elbow, knee.

What's up with him? Is he going to fight Alster? We'll find out. 225, we're going to talk to Michelle Waterson. News broke last week that she's officially signed with the UFC, and she'll be making her octagon debut July 12th in Florida against Angela Magana. How about that? The karate-hadi coming to the UFC.

205, we're going to talk to Anthony Johnson about. his new main event fight against Daniel Cormier, 145. We'll talk to D.C. About replacing John Jones, I'm looking forward to that fight. I still feel like it's the real belt. I feel like John Jones's shadow is right on top of those guys. They're not going to escape him. And that's what kind of makes it interesting.

He's not injured. He's still there. You know he's going to come back. One would assume at some point, and he has a history of both guys, it doesn't feel like an interim title to me, even though it probably should. because he didn't lose his belt. He's still really the champion in most people's eyes, and the best fighter in the world, regardless of what he's done. At 125, we're going to talk to

Ryan Bader. Where does he go from here? What's it like not getting the title shot? Is he going to wait? There's a lot to talk to Ryan Bader about. Kind of feel bad for him. He wanted to fight DC. Second time, he was in the running, and now he's not going to fight him, and he wanted the title shot. He's not going to get it. There's some talk of him fighting Glover to Cheras, since he doesn't have an opponent. He doesn't want that. So we have a lot to talk to Darth Bader about. But first, oh, by the way, I forgot to mention before I go to the Skype Machine for our first guest of the day, today's show is brought you by our good friends at NOS. How about that? We're back in the sponsor game, my friends. The M.M.A. Hour is presented by NOS. Do something epic. Go make your mark

on the world. Hashtag with this NOS I will. Follow them on Twitter at NOS energy drink. Look at this. filled with Noss. And if you see right over there, or right over there, no, you can't really see anything. I have a couple of GSP signed gloves that will be giving out in the coming week. So NOS is officially a part of the MAAR family.

We thank them very much. A great product you've seen those GSP commercials. I bet if you're an MMA fan, and they're pretty darn creative. So welcome to the team NOS. We'll be talking about them all show long for the next couple of months. But first, now we have to go to the

Skype machine to start off today's show. Let's welcome in our colleague over at MAPFundi.com, and who had tremendous coverage of Manny Packiel versus Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas. Holy moly, look at that Skype connection. Who's powering your Skype? Who's powering your internet over there in D.C.? Look, this is unbelievable stuff. I feel like you're sitting right next to me. Okay, the connection is great, but I can hear you. Okay, now I can hear you. What's going on? What'd you say? It's Comcast. Wow. Do you hear me now? Yes. Perfect. Yeah. Can you believe that? It's crazy. It's good service, huh? It's unbelievable. Holy moly. It's crystal clear.

This might be, this is top five best Skype connections we've ever had. All right. Yes. Look at you. Congratulations. So you're back from Las Vegas. How many days were you there? By the way, this is Luke Thomas of MMAFinding.com. I didn't officially welcome him in, but I'm sure you recognize the face, the beer, the hair, all that stuff. When did you get back from Vegas? And how long were you there for?

It felt like four months. Long week. I got out there Monday afternoon and I got back yesterday afternoon. You know, even for big UFC events, and I actually prefer the way they do it. You know, it's like Wednesday, Thursday, or most events sometimes on Tuesday. But boxing is like, they just milk the entire week. And you can imagine something of this magnitude. There were events every morning and every afternoon, and some cases,

nights through the whole week. Do you feel cleansed at this point? You know, you've been home for around 24 hours, or do you need to get some Vegas out of your system a little more? God. Vegas is just, I mean, if they could just sink that thing into the ground. round and I wouldn't miss it. I remember I was walking home after the fight because you couldn't get a cab at MGM. It was it was it was it was nor would you want to. The strip was completely at a standstill.

And I was walking outside of where the old ticketing window is where you get your credential up to the alleyway. And I remember I saw a brand new woman's pair of shoes, some items of clothing, and then a Budweiser can with vomit all on top of it. And I was like, I am done with this place. I'm ready to go home. Okay, so you've covered many UFCs. You've been to a bunch of sporting events, all that stuff. How does this one compare? Was this Olympic-style stuff? I mean, I've seen your pictures.

The coverage was great. It felt like a gigantic deal. I had the pleasure and the honor of covering an Olympics once, and it actually reminded me a lot of that with the tent and all that stuff. How would you compare this sporting event from a media perspective to the other ones you've been to? Yeah, so I never did anything bigger than this. Far and away, this was hard to wrap your head around.

The scale was so big. the videographer Casey, he, I said, I think he covered the Olympics with you, if I'm not mistaken. And he was saying that some of the bells and whistles, for example, because you had to have different credentials for everything, Way Inn had its own thing, Fight Week had its own thing, Fight Night had its own thing. And the Fight Night credential, for example,

had a magnetized strip you had to go against a wall with. Wow. It would turn green if it activated it and then unlock the door to get in. I think he said the only other place he's ever seen that was the Olympics. You know, folks were asking me all week, it was this big or smaller than a Super Bowl? And what I would say is never covered a Super Bowl, but talking to some of the other folks that were there,

not quite as big, but not because it couldn't be. Remember, if you went to, let's say, Dallas Cowboy Stadium, you can see 100,000 people. There's a ton of infrastructure where you can accommodate videographers and photographers and print media. They couldn't do that because MGM is just smaller. They only have so many ballrooms and the Garden Arena is only so big. But I've never seen something so global, right?

like everyone who is anyone from any media institution anywhere was there. The best people from New Zealand, Australia, China, Canada, Japan, France, Russia, Germany, everywhere. Everyone who had a major outlet was there. And so I found out, you know, and I don't know if you want to talk about it, we can or we can skip it. But like, I don't know what happened with Michelle Beal's credentials or Rachel Nichols credentials. But I can tell you credentialing was the hottest ticket, not the seats for the fans, just to get access. to do your job was borderline impossible for everyone. ESPN, last thing I'll say about this, only had five spots for everyone, TV, digital,

radio, anyone inside the arena on Fight Night. Think about that for a second. Yeah, that's unbelievable. And it's obviously a big story. So since you brought it up, let's just quickly touch on it. It might be a little inside baseball, you know, for us media guys, but this is stuff that fascinates me. So Michelle Beatle of ESPN, Rachel Nichols of CNN, they announced on Twitter Saturday morning

that they didn't get a credential, that their credential had been denied, and of course they've been very outspoken against Floyd Mayweather and his past, his checkered past. How big of a topic was that, you know, you said you don't know what happened, and I don't expect you to know really what happened, you know, the Mayweather people coming out and saying this is not true, whatever. We don't know who's really telling the truth, although at the end of the day, I would really side with Beetle and Nichols, given their reputations and just the kind of people that we know them to be. How big of a topic was this in the media center? Because I feel like everyone must have been talking about this before the fight. It was a huge deal. Yeah, so I would say as everyone was talking

about it, it was a very big deal. Look, I don't know what happened, as I mentioned before. To me, if someone said, if you had to make a bet, how would you bet? I would bet that beetle and Nichols are probably telling the truth. But the fact of the matter is, whether we like it or not, there's culpable deniability on the part of Mayweather's people. Understand that, like, just as an example, I had a credential all week for fight night. After the way-ins, I could not get to the media attempt. Some of our guys were denied credentials before the fight and then give it to them afterwards. People were swapping

credentials because they would say, okay, you media institution, you get three credentials. Anyone can be on those three. So people would swap them out, either just handing them over if they didn't have a picture on them or ahead of time it's changing the names on the list. As an example, you know, I do a show on Sirius XM, our producers

had a show, not at MGM, did a post-fite show at Mandalay Bay, and even with their credentials, everything set up, they could not get past security. So to me, it's like from the planning stage to the execution stage to what the various people in power were willing to give up, I'm sure that Mayweather is a horrible person and denied everything. And certainly it was on the minds of all the journalists. But I will say if there just absolutely is room for culpable deniability here. It seems a little too coincidental that to the more outspoken voices, female voices, would be the ones who, you know, were involved in this mix-up.

But, you know, it's just another thing to chalk up to Mayweather. you're not a fan of his and you want to blame him for something, this certainly seems like something you could blame him for. So let's talk about the aftermath. We don't really need to go through the fight because everyone saw it. And if you're interested, I'm sure you saw and you could go back, whatever. But the aftermath, everything that I've heard from people overwhelmingly has been three things, three things. And I want to see if you agree with these things. One, it was boring. The fight was boring. It didn't live up to the hype. It wasn't the fight of the century. I wasted my money if I bought it. Two, boxing is dead. This is the end of

boxing. This was their big fight. They fought, and now it was boring, and now we don't care anymore, and we won't care ever again. And three, this was a great night for the UFC. The loss for boxing, the boring fight, all great things for the UFC. Do you agree with any of those statements? Partly agree with a couple of them. The third one, I think, is ludicrous. So let's start with the first one. It was boring. I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that. If you didn't like it, it's fine. I sort of attribute it to a little Demetrius Johnsonish, which is to say, I think a lot of people, both in MMA and boxing, want to say, well, if it's elite skill, you automatically must like it or there's something wrong with your taste in MMA. And I just think that's crazy.

I also talk about in Jiu-Jitsu, the Miao brothers. And maybe you know who they are, maybe you don't. But they have this style of competing that is, I mean, they're world champions at every level, blue, purple, brown, black. And I think their style is terrible. It's hard to watch. I don't like the way they compete, but they're obviously elite. I don't think it's, you can have a great palette for combat sports and still think elite guys are not particularly. particularly entertaining. I don't have a problem with that. I found it entertaining partly because,

not great, but good, because in the environment that I was in Vegas, you could cut the tension with a knife. So even when Pacquette would miss on a home run right hand, the whole room would, you know, get up like that. So, so I had a bit of a different perspective, but I understand if folks feel like they wasted their money. Is boxing dead? No, I don't, I don't, you know, this is sort of another crazy statement. Canello is going to fight Kirkland, and I think Houston, Texas, at the, uh, Minamate Park. thousand people are old, yeah. Baseball field. Yeah, so it's, you know, this idea that it's dead is, I think, overplayed. But I will say that, you know, look, Mayweather's got one more fight.

Pacio's going to have to get shoulder surgery if his injuries are accurate. When these guys go away, there's going to be a vacuum that has to be filled. I do think it'll eventually be filled, but there's going to be a bit of a down swing regards to that, although PBC, you know, being on network television sort of changes the equation a little bit. But the last thing I'd say about UFC having a great night, we sort of went over this when Paciow got robbed against Bradley the first time. Everyone was like, oh my God, Pac-Hale won. Worst decision. I'm sick of this. Look, either you like MMA at this point or you don't. And the dissatisfaction I think that some people feel with boxing, in small, very insignificant numbers, will carry over to MMA.

But UFC 186 had people walking out of the main event. This idea that like people, you know, listen, some people think that MMA is more exciting than boxing, and that's okay too. There's there's nothing wrong with that opinion. But we're at a point in our stage now where either you've decided you've liked it or you don't. And the idea that one was displeasing to you does not automatically make the other sort of instantly attractive. Very good points. I'll quickly say, I didn't think it was boring at all. I found it to be incredibly entertaining. I was on the edge of my seat. I loved everything about it. And I had a different perspective because I love things like seeing Al Bernstein and Jim Lampley on the TV together. Those things really get me,

you know, all jazzed up. I'm a geek for that stuff. Go ahead. I thought that their commentary was fantastic. The way they juggled Letterman and Farhood on the ringside judging was fantastic. I had no problem with Max Kellerman's questions. I thought they did a fantastic job on the production side. And then you had James Brown, who's incredible at his job with Polly Malinagi and Lennox Lewis. I thought the broadcast was great. It was fun seeing the celebrities, all that stuff. The walkouts were kind of hokey with the burger cake. But it was all, it was a spectacle. It was a spectacle. And I enjoyed every second of it. Even the delay because of the pay-per-view buys, I didn't mind it. And I'm usually, you know, long gone as far as sleeping is concerned.

by midnight Eastern time, and I loved it. I was so jazzed up after the fight. There was nothing that I could say was boring. It was because I expected that. And I know I'm not trying to be like a smart aleck here, but what did you expect? This was his 48th pro fight. This is exactly what Mayweather does.

This is textbook Mayweather. So I think it was a lot of casual fans tuning in, expecting the fight of the Century fireworks, and they got their hopes up. And then about the dead thing, I mean, you nailed it. Look at the money. Look at the money that was generated. How could something that's dead generate this kind of money?

And how could something that's dead get the kind of crowd that Canello is getting next week? And then back to that, you know, with the good for the UFC, how could something that's, you know, bad for the sport generate that kind of money in? And again, all these media members who are calling it boring, who are checking out boxing for the first time, I guarantee you they will not be at UFC 187. You know what I mean? So how could it be good for the UFC? These mainstream media members will not be crossing over because of what happened on Saturday. So I think all those statements that I've seen so many times over the last 24 hours are actually incredibly off base. I would actually say that if, let's say Paco had knocked him out or Mayweather had stopped him, you know, with strikes or something, that would have been good for UFC, right?

Because then you would have said, whoa, my interest in combat sports, my ability to watch a guy, pummel another guy in the face, it's been raised. You know, I might take a look to the left of an alternative or a look to the right of an alternative. Right. But because there was, I think, perceived in the casual perspective, and I'm with you, I thought the fight was pretty good. But because, you know, the general population did not, that actually comes. clamps down attention, not raises it up. Sure. And my biggest takeaway was, you know, everyone wants the UFC and MMA to be mainstream. I say, if this is the kind of dialogue that we get when combat sports become mainstream, because I consumed so much media leading up to this. Like, I loved

everything about it. The smallest thing, stuff like the credentials, all that stuff, the Beatles stuff, to the fight analysis. I mean, seeing Dana White do stuff for, yeah, I watched everything. It was fun kind of being a fan and a consumer. If this is the result of the mainstream media covering combat sports. I don't want them to cover the UFC because can you imagine the craziness that would come out of that? I mean, who needs them? Who needs them? I don't need them. I mean, maybe the UFC wants them, but I don't want to consume that as a fan. Yeah, the hot taking was hard to tolerate the whole time I was there. And I don't cover boxing full time, obviously, you know, I'm a bit of a carpet bagger a little bit too, if I'm being honest, and just sort of witnessing all the different things around

me about people saying this and that or reading, as you mentioned, and all the content that was produced around it. I would say, you know, look, what was the fight that happened recently? I can't even remember where all the content around it was like really good. I would say that, you know, this was Cormier Jones, Cormier Jones, right? Yes, of course. How could I forget? Yeah, so it produced all kinds of great content. And then this one did too. I mean, the writing was fantastic, the video stuff over the top, but it just brought in a population that is so pro- and this includes media so profoundly ignorant about what they're looking at it. It made it hard to tolerate at times. One last thing about this, and then I want to ask you about John Jones.

did you have a problem with legit mainstream media members touting the fact that they were going to stream this illegally? I mean, it's one thing to say that I disagree with Floyd Mayweather's lifestyle. I disagree with the kind of person that he is. I think he's a deplorable human being. I think he's a criminal, all that stuff. I'm 100% behind that. And, you know, I would agree with many of those statements. But to tout the fact that you're doing something illegal, to me seems very strange, especially in the public forum.

I mean, if you really think that this guy is the worst. kind of human being, don't watch it, you know, boycott it, don't cover it. No one's forcing you to do so. Now, why are you saying that I'm going to go out and steal something that, you know, it's not all going into his pocket. I mean, a lot of the people who are getting rich off of this are rich already. Packia is one of them, but he's not a bad person, I guess. I mean, he's had some checker things. You know what I mean? I just felt weird about seeing people on ESPN and other major outlets say that I'm going to go out of my way to steal this. That seems very hypocritical to me. And it bothered me. What did you think? It's a little weird. I'm with you too. And I'm not

sure what the right answer is. I don't think it bothered me as much as it did you, but I, first of all, I just thought it was weird to go out and publicly declare that sort of thing. Yeah, it's illegal. It's like, hey, everyone, look at me. I'm committing a crime, punishable by jail. Okay, well, maybe not that much, but you get the idea. But for me, though, I was sort of torn. It's like, it's not something I would ever do, and I did find it like, why would you declare such a thing like that? But on the other hand, the fact of the matter is we live in an age where I can just tell you a lot of media members routinely stream events when they're not supposed to. So what's worse? Doing it and then being fake about it or doing it and owning up to it. I don't know. All right. Let's talk about

John Jones. A very difficult week for him. I mean, it all really came crashing down. It's amazing to think back, you know, just four years ago when he became the champion, the youngest champion in UFC history, and now here we are, stripped of the title, no more big sponsors, and of course suspended indefinitely. Do you think the UFC made the right call by doing all of this last Tuesday? real quickly just as a bookend to the last May pack stuff we'll just end it here a lot of talk of john jones in that in the media space a lot heard it all week long about john jones so let that sink in for me yeah but i think the ufc made the right call here's what i would say in terms of his and i know people are like oh who cares but in terms of his status as an independent contractor

i don't know where they get the authority to do this and that's a separate conversation we can have down the road but in terms of the present if they hadn't done this to him i simply do not know who would. Now, I don't mean the specific act of stripping him, because who else could do that. I mean the act of bringing down the hammer. You know, you get guys like maybe there's an exaggerated example, but you get guys like John Jones who are able through youth and reckless decision-making, but also wealth and power to just create a kind of life for themselves where they can make, you know, he's a grown man. He's going to make the choices he wants, but he can largely, for the most part, free himself from the worst of the consequences. I mean, he is making

unbelievably bad choices. You losing one, not two sponsors. You've been stripped of your title first time for an infraction, essentially unrelated to fighting. And you're talking about having the world at your fingertips. I've been very forgiving of John Jones, and I think it's been well publicized by both critics and supporters of me. But this is one where he's, there's just, nothing you can absolutely say. I think a lot of the stuff he had done previously were things you could understand a young man doing. I've known people who have become productive members of society who have had issues with drug use or abuse who have had a couple of DUIs and they've gone on to be, you know, people you can respect and important members of their own community. But this,

allegedly what he did, running, or a hiddenist woman, pregnant, running, coming back for cash and then leaving again. This is absolutely, if it's real, appalling. UFC was left with very little wiggle room on this one. I think they did the only thing they thought they could, which was their act that they did. Deep down inside, what do you think? I mean, no one knows the answer to this question. I don't even think he knows the answer, but do you think he fights again this year? And do you believe that there is a roadmap for him to actually really turn his career around in the sense that I'm already starting to read people and hear people say, man, did they really have to take him out of the rankings? Do they really have to erase him from everything? Did they really have to take away

Reebok? It almost feels like if he does the right things, and obviously the most important thing is to clean up his life to, you know, we have to go through his whole, you know, court proceeding with, you know, whether or not the DA will actually go through this. But, and we pray to God that the woman who broke her arm is okay in the end, it doesn't really affect her pregnancy. But I feel like there's already this sentiment that, man, John Jones, they're a little hard on the guy. And if he does and says the right things, I feel like he can all of a sudden be liked again.

If he could just be himself and apologize and clean up his act for once, I feel like there's a roadmap to him cleaning himself up and actually being popular again. What do you think? I think he will fight again this year. I think probably in the second half. If you think about it, I don't know how fast his legal troubles will be resolved or won't. That's the big unknown. Right.

But I think that if someone told you he's going to have a six-month suspension, that's a fairly long time. It's half a year. It's a couple of fights on a more aggressive schedule. There's a lot that could be done. You add in all the Reebok being gone, and he lost muscle tech, I believe, as well. And the title. So a lot's already been done before the suspension sort of even gets carried out. That's my guess.

About being liked again, you know what? I don't even think about it. I think, sure, you know, this will in some ways enhance his, not appeal necessarily, but his visibility or his relevance as someone you want to watch. But to me, I'm actually kind of concerned if I'm just being honest. And I'm no medical professional or any kind of professional that deals with these sorts of issues. But this is a guy who has made repeated choices through his young life, some of them understandable, but many, many not, where he just keeps just poorly managing his affairs.

and I don't, I thought that, you know, if you crash your Bentley that the UFC bought for you with two passengers and that wasn't your wake-up call, you got some serious questions, you better start asking yourself. Yeah. That is, that is bad. That is really bad. So to me, it's like, I think he'll hire enough legal help to get through this. I think he can get back and beat guys at the top.

I'm not really worried about that. My question is, is this the end or is this another chapter? To that one, I really don't know the answer. Yeah, it's a tragic story. If you go back and look at that press conference, and he's so lucky that he didn't kill anyone. I mean, he's already had two big accidents here. And if you see the car afterwards, wow, he's very lucky. But if you go back and look at that press conference when he won the belt, March of 2011, March 19th in Newark, he's clean-shaven, fresh face, you know, wide-eye telling us about how he took down that mugger.

I mean, it's an unbelievable transformation. Now, here we are. You know, he's essentially blackballed right now. If you look him up, I mean, there's no mention of him in the rankings. It's a tragic story. This guy, in my opinion, is the greatest fighter of all time, and now his future is very much up in the air. And it's going to be interesting to see how he cleans it up. I hope that he has the right people around him. I hope that, you know, there are people telling him the right things to do. And by the way, you bring up that great point, and we'll end on this. You bring up that point about a lot of people talking about John at the Mayweather-Pakiaw, fight week. I think for the UFC, if you want to, you know, have a silver lining here, finally, we can't criticize them for the way they handled one of these situations. Because if you even go back to the cocaine thing, I mean, there were some comments. I mean, there was a lot to scrutinize. But this time, they really stepped up and they did what they had to do. And it was a big step towards being respected on the national stage, especially when all eyes were on combat sports. It was kind of a good PR week for the UFC, as crazy as that sounds. It was.

And also, remember, Dana White was on Sports Center. He had Connor McGregor on there, around the route. had done some media stuff. So it was a, in all things being equal, they certainly turned some lemons into lemonade. You know, and John Jones, you're not, not helping the issue very much. You know, I don't know what's going to happen with, here's what I would say. The UFC did not have to go as far as they did to protect their brand, because part of what they did was we got to protect ourselves and make ourselves look good here as any company is going to. That's a cynical take, but it's the world we live in. But they want to step beyond that, I feel like. I feel like they

want to step beyond being like, we're going to do what's best for us, and we're going to try and do what we think is best for you. In the end, the question is this, will it work? Yeah. Will it deter John Jones in the future from making poor choices? And to that, that to me is really, I am going to be watching that like a hawk because I have, there's a lot of reason to believe that maybe it won't be. Yeah, I think about a guy like Darrell Strawberry or DACA and these guys who were so great and their careers and their legacies cut short because of this, you know, this crazy stuff. hopefully that is not the case for John Jones. Luke, tremendous work in Vegas. Thank you very much for the time. I know you're pretty tired on this Monday afternoon.

We appreciate you stopping by and hope to talk to you soon, maybe this week on the MMA beat. Yeah, I can confirm I'll be there Thursday. Wow. Big news. Now I'm going to go watch the Avengers. I'll see you guys later. Enjoy. There he is. Luke Thomas of MMAfighting.com joining us. All right, let us move along. As I mentioned at the top of the show, the man who has been left out of this whole equation is our next guest. Ryan Bader. He was supposed to fight Daniel Cormier, June 6th, and New Orleans, and that's not happening right now. And as we sit here right this second, we don't know who he's fighting next. That's why we wanted to have him on the show to discuss that and a whole lot more. Ryan, are you there?

Yes, sir. How you doing? Hey, Ryan. Thank you very much for the time. So is that accurate right this second? You don't know what's next for you? Yeah, 100% accurate. You know, we're just trying to figure that out. You know, we've offered and to, you know, we've offered and to, the first. fight DC a couple of times, you know, we were in the running win he fought Dan Henderson, and, you know, I don't know if that was UFC's choice or if it was DC's choice to fight Henderson, you know, but, you know, that got pulled, and then I was supposed to fight him, you know, in June here on the New Orleans card, and that got pulled for obvious reason. He's not fighting for the title, and for us right now, we're trying to figure out, you know, what we're going to do. Ultimately, we want to fight for

that title, we think we deserve it. You know, in the top five here, you know, Rashad's out. DC and AJ are fighting for the title. John Jones has his whole deal going on. Guston's injured. You know, that leaves a couple people. Glover is on a two-fight losing street, just lost. Got dominated by Phil Davis, who I just fought.

You know, then the last hottest guy is, you know, Ovin St. Prue, I fought two fights ago, beat him. So we're kind of in that weird no-man zone. We take a fight for a paycheck, or do we ultimately, wait for what we want and why I'm in the sport is to have a title shot win that championship. So around this time last week, you know, there were all these rumors and stories out there about John Jones, but we really didn't know what was going on. I mean, he was still MIA at this point and we didn't know what the UFC would do. So as you're sitting there and digesting this

all, what are you thinking? Are you thinking, all right, if he, you know, if he does get charged with something, if the UFC does suspend him or strip him, is there a shot that I could step in? Were you making calls already? Because Dana White has said that Cormi, It was hitting him up, and maybe that's one of the reasons why he got the shot. Who knows? Were you doing the same? Yeah, you know what? My manager and all that were calling Deanna and Joe Silver and all that kind of stuff,

and we definitely wanted that fight. You know, I heard of, you know, rumors early Sunday morning, and, you know, first thing that popped into my mind is, you know, I need to jump in there and fight Anthony Johnson. And so we were pushing for that, pushing for that. You know, and, you know, I get the business decision, you know, as far as putting Dinoquembe in. You know, he just fought John Jones.

He has a platform to sell the fight with, you know, all stuff on Fox and, you know, all that stuff. You know, so the next best thing for us is to get that winner, you know. Like I said, four-fight win streak right now, and nobody else, I think, is qualified for that title shot. You know, they've all had their chances. They've all lost. You know, pretty much all of them are coming off losing streak. So, you know, I get that decision to put D.C. in, but we should be next. Did anyone from the UFC call either you or your manager before they came out and said,

all right, the new main event for 187 is D.C. versus Rumble? I mean, were you given a heads up and maybe this is why we did this, and this is what we're thinking for you next? Or did you find out, like, the rest of the world via Fox Sports One and Twitter? Yeah, no, I found out somebody texted me. It was like, oh, man, that sucks. I'm like, what? I knew right when I sent that text what.

I checked Twitter and I saw that, you know, Corneux has that fight. So like I said, I get giving him that fight, you know, for those reasons. But, you know, that's what, you know, we're pushing to get the next one. So I did find out like that. And so this whole past week, you know, I've been training hard. I'm continuing to doing what I was. I'm in the middle of camp right now.

You know, so I did a fight, Daniel Corneux. And now I have no clue. So this whole week, I've just been doing the same stuff, but not knowing what kind of opponent I'm training for. If I'm training for an opponent, you know, and who? And like I said earlier, do we fight just to get a paycheck and move on? Or ultimately, we want to be, you know, where D.C.'s at right now fighting for that title. And, you know, so we want the next shot. So as far as your training is concerned because you were supposed to fight essentially a month's time in New Orleans,

You haven't taken your foot off the gas at all? No, I have not. You know, so, you know, I don't want to get a call and something makes sense. And then, you know, I was 10 pounds heavier. I'm out of shape, you know, and, you know, not preparing right. And so I'm doing the same stuff. I was doing. Nothing's changed.

We're just waiting for that phone call. And I hope to know, you know, today, tomorrow, you know, soon. So, you know, that's kind of where we're at. We're kind of in a no-man zone right now, and we're just trying to figure it out. Is it hard, though, to get motivated, to get out of bed and go to the gym and train as hard as you were when you thought you were fighting Ryan Bader? Because in the back of your mind, you know, you don't have an opponent anymore. Yeah, you know, it's tough, but I can suck it up for, you know, if I'm training, and it's a couple weeks out from the fight, then definitely, you know, and I don't know an opponent. Right now, you know, I just keep doing what I'm doing.

it just sucks because I don't know what kind of fighter I would fight you know styles and everything I was fighting B.C. who's a wrestler brings a lot of pressure and we've watched a ton of videos we've known about this fight since I mean

what February yeah it's been a while so we put yeah we put a lot of time into this and and then you know a month later boom that's gone and then you have to start over and so we have no clue you know it is

but it is. You know, I'm always motivated, and, you know, I'm ready and continue to be ready. So we're just kind of, we're just kind of waiting to see. It's really up to the UFC, what they want to do. And do you agree with the UFC's decision to do what they did to John Jones to strip him and suspend him indefinitely? Do you, after everything that's happened to him and, of course, multiple infractions, do you think it was the right call? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

you know, this is his first offense, you know, and he, you know, and if he stayed at the scene and all that, and then, you know, you can maybe work something out, but, you know, there's a, this is a second, third offense, he left the whole scene, came back, that something, left it out for a couple of days, you know, and so, you know, you can't do that. So do I think John Jones is going to end up fighting in the U.S. Yes, you know, I think once you get stuff together, he's going to come back and, you know, know, it would be a good story and all that kind of stuff. But as right now, he's got a lot on his plate.

And I think the U.S.C. made the right decision, you know, for him and for the company. As someone who is very close to fighting for the light heavyweight title that used to be John Joneses, I mean, do you consider that the real belt? Or are you one of those guys who would say, okay, I'll win it. It's a nice feather of my cap, but that's not the real deal. The real belt comes when you beat John Jones. Yeah, you know, it kind of feel like a little consolation prize. you go out there.

It's none of our fault, you know, in the 205-pound division. It's not his fault. It's not D.C., whoever's going to fight for that belt, you know, in the future when John Jones is not there. You know, we just do the best we can. Those circumstances are not in our control, you know. But, you know, winning that belt, you know, something in the back of your mind is saying, you know, I did win this belt and I beat the guys that are in the division right now,

but there's some of you out there who's tried to the belt for, I don't know how many times, you know, eight defenses or whatnot. And, you know, that is a champion. And so, you know, you wouldn't really feel like you really, really earned that unless John Jones came back. You made that fight and you beat them. So, yeah, it would feel like a little consolation prize a little bit. And then things got even more complicated, I would say, when news came out on Friday

that Alexander Gustafin was injured, pulled out of his fight against Glover de Chera. And at least from my perspective, when, you know, we put out of the same, you know, put out this news. I mean, the overwhelming majority said, all right, well, why not do Glover versus Ryan Bader? They were supposed to fight two weeks apart. The first fight was fun. Of course, you lost that fight, and maybe people could say, okay, you want revenge, all that stuff. But as far as, you know,

I was told, and you're right here, so you can clear the air, you're not interested in that fight. Is that accurate? Well, it all depends. You know, we're interested in fighting for that title. You know, in Glover's, you know, on a two-fight losing streak, like I said, He just lost to Phil Davis, and what a 20- or five-pound division is in need of his contenders, you're going to knock one of us off right there. I plan on going out there and beating him by a fine glove.

He's on a three-fight win street. You know, so what happens with him down the road? I know he's one of the top guys, you know, and then, you have Gelson. He just had a kale loss to maybe the potential champion, and we were supposed to fight. You know, our hat was in there for that Sweden card. You know, we offered to fight him for the main event, you know, and AJ got that fight. You know, so we've always taken every single fight I was offered. You know, we step up and fight the tough names that nobody wants to fight, you know.

And so if I hear people saying, oh, you're ducking this, ducking that, I haven't ducked to anybody. You know, I have three fights that we're supposed to be with the top three guys, you know, and for whatever reason, whether it's them or the UFC, you know, they got pulled. And so, you know, we'll see what happens. It's totally not off the table. But like I keep going back to, you know, I'm in the sport to win. that championship. And so, you know, if we can go to the UFC and I talked to the Silver

Dana and say, hey, you got the winner, I'm going to fight the winner of, you know, of AJ and D.C. That's the best case scenario. You know, and we'll see the next couple of days. What else? What else happened? Just Glover's still on the table or not, so... Have they offered you guys Glover? No, they haven't offered us anything yet. Okay. So that hasn't even been a discussion, or did you guys even try to preempt that and say, once again, because I know you've said it on Twitter and in the media that you want to wait for the title shot, and then I'm wondering sometimes the UFC is receptive to that, sometimes they're not.

You know, we've seen them say, oh, you can't wait, it's not good for your career, who knows what happens. I mean, what kind of feedback are you getting there? Yeah, that's the whole thing. You know, before any of the stuff with Gustafin and all that, you know, I'm a manager to talk to Joe Silver, and he reiterated where we're at, and, you know, we want the winner and all that, and, you know, they were responsive. And he said, okay, and both a lot of understanding.

you know, usually if it's a straight-out no, you know, we all know Joseph, he'll just tell you. Yeah. No way in hell, it's going to happen, you know, bubble off. And so, you know, we're right there potentially maybe thinking that they're receptive to it, and so we're going to push for it. So that's where we're at. You know, I think the manager is going to talk to Joe Silva today or tomorrow and kind of getting straightened out because, number one, I have to know if I'm fighting

in June, who I'm fighting. or if potentially I can get the winner of A.J. and D.C. Forget about the belt and the rankings and all that stuff. Is there a part of you, though, that would like to avenge that loss? Because I know you think that you were doing very well in the fight, and then you made a mistake. So, I mean, since that's kind of looming, the competitor in you, just from a strict sporting standpoint, you want to say,

yeah, I want to prove to the world that I could beat this guy rather easily. Oh, absolutely. You know, if I go in there and get redemption on a loss, that I feel, you know, I could have had that fight, but, you know, at the end of the day, you know, I ended up losing. You know, I'm not one to make excuses, and he got me. But, yeah, of course, I want to go in there and get redemption and all that. And go out there and be Glover.

And, you know, maybe that solidifies my case, even a little bit more for the next title shot. Who knows, you know? You know, so we're just in that weird spot right now. So really just waiting to hear, waiting to hear from, El or Dana and hopefully today or tomorrow. You know, I recently had a pretty long talk with Michael Bisping about this subject, asking him whether or not, you know, even though he's accomplished so much in the sport, whether or not the fact that he's never won the belt, never actually gotten a title shot,

will, you know, eat him up inside when it's all said and done. And you've had a similar path where you've had, you know, these great runs and then you get the big fight and for whatever reason you can't get over that hump. Is this, you know, as you reach your early 30s here, is this, something that's starting to creep into your mind. Like you want to sniff that belt. You want to get into that big fight, main event, title shot. Are you worried that if you don't capitalize

on this moment right now, because you can make a case that you should be next in line with Jones gone, are you worried that this opportunity may never come again? Yeah, absolutely. No, for sure. You know, and we know how title shots, they come and go, and you never really know. You could be slated,

and you know, Dan could come out and say, hey, Bader's next in line, you know, and whatever the reason in injuries or, or someone else pops up has an amazing fight and they get the fight, you know. So, you know, when I look back, you know, I'm satisfied and not satisfied in time with my career because I want to get over that hump of beating those, like, top three guys and, you know, getting a title shot and winning that belt is the end goal, you know, and defending all that kind of stuff.

But, you know, at the same time, you know, I've had a great time with my career. You know, I fought nothing but the best guys. And with the competitor in me, definitely, and wants this huge opportunity if it's there. And I think it's here right now, and that's why we're pushing for this fight. And, you know, that's a whole deal. If I get that shot, you know, I'm going to go in there

and, you know, I'm definitely going to see a new fighter going in there and trying to take that belt away from whoever has it, you know, and get some style of fighting. So that's kind of where on that right now. I hate myself for asking this question, but I kind of feel like I have to. Do you think that there would be more of a case for you to get the title shot now, or there would be no question of you being next, if you had some finishes in that four-fight winning streak?

You know how fans are, you know how media is? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You do feel like... Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. You know, my last three fights, my last fight, I thought Phil Davis, who is probably the most awkward due to the fight ever. you know, and sometimes you show up in those fights, and, you know, I look back, and I have the same

criticism, you know, with myself. I'm my harshest critic, you know, and, you know, going back from there, you know, I'm coming off a broken hand, fighting a tough striker and phage out, you know, going in there and taking them down, and, you know, it was a game plan, and then it had a fracture hand, fighting OSP, you know, and so, you know, the last couple of fights, they've been decisions and all that, and I want to go in there, I want to look great, I want to have a fight where everything comes together and fight how I know, you know, my potential. So, yeah, I know I do agree with that. And, you know, I actually text Dana and I said, hey, you know, just let me have that shot.

I guarantee you, you know, I'll go in there, put it all out on the line. You know, it'll be exciting that whole deal, you know, because at the end of the day, it's an entertainment business also. Did you respond? I know I haven't heard from yet, but we're trying to figure that out this week. By the way, are you surprised Davis has gone that you were the one to essentially send him packing? No, I heard he was fighting out of his contract, you know, when we fought. And, you know, if you're doing that, you're gambling, and if you're doing that also,

you really don't kind of care where you're going. You know, you're taking that risk. If you lose, you're potentially more likely going to go to another organization because there might off you more money or whatnot. You know, so Davis is a very talented fighter, and, you know, nothing but the best one of them. He's a great guy. But, you know, for every fight,

I'm not worried about the repressions of, you know, anybody else. I'm just looking to go in there win that fight and get it done. So to recap, before we say goodbye, you understand why the UFC went with D.C., but you think you have done enough to sit this out for a little bit and wait to fight the winner of Anthony Johnson, Johnson versus Daniel Cormier.

The perfect scenario would be, you know, those guys fight in May, and then they turn around and we'll fight in whenever, September, August, or whenever they're ready. I mean, that's my perfect scenario. It's right here on that close, and that's what we want. Fair enough. Good luck getting it, Ryan, and appreciate the time here. Really great to have you on the show, and we'll be monitoring this situation.

Let us know you've been good of, you know, keeping us posted on Twitter, so keep it up. Thank you. well, dude. Thanks for having me, guys. All right, there he is. Ryan Bader. Campaining for that title shot, he wants it. He's won four in a row, four wins over Anthony Parosh, Fajal Cavalcante, OSP, and of course Phil Davis, most recently in Sweden.

And one wonders if the Alexander Gustafsson injury kind of screws things up for him because you have that Glover-Teshirea fight now open, and of course they replaced it with Yonio and Jacek and Jessica Penae, but now he has no opponent. It was supposed to be two weeks later. If that fight was still on, there really wouldn't have been an obvious answer for him,

especially with Rashad Evans out. So for a second there, it seemed like, wow, all the circumstances are great. And then Gustafsson gets injured, pulls out on Friday, and all of a sudden you're wondering, well, are they just going to match these two up? Because he's won four in a row.

His last loss was the Glover. Remember that fight September of 2013? It ended rather quickly. It ended in two minutes and 55 seconds and he was doing well early on but got caught, perhaps overanxious, and then lost via TKO in Brazil. So it's going to be really interesting to see what the UFC does.

And if John Jones is out for quite some time, he might be in a great spot, but they might ask him to take that fight. As of right now, that is not the case, so we'll see what happens. Ryan Bader, making his case to finally get a title shot. The man who got that title shot, of course, is the man who not that long ago fought for the belt. It was in January.

What a fight it was. Did very well as far as the promotion is concerned. Did very well as far as the pay-per-view buys are concerned. And now here he is, just weeks away. In fact, 19 days away from fighting for the belt once again. He's fighting Anthony Johnson, UFC 187, May 23rd. He is the one and only. DC Daniel Korme.

Look at that. Congratulations, my friend. Thank you, man. Thank you. Okay, let's go to the beginning of this story. You find out John Jones is in trouble. You find out there could be some serious repercussions. What are you doing to get that title shot?

You know what, man? I called Dana, called Lorenzo. Dana was actually on vacation, so he wasn't like accepting my calls. And he sent a few texts back and forth. And once he sent me a few texts back and forth and didn't tell me no initially, I was like, man, something may come of this. So then I started texting Lorenzo. Then I called Dana while I was running on the treadmill

to let him know that I was still preparing for the fight. I mean, there's things that you could do to show these guys that you want an opportunity, and that's exactly what I did. And then when did you find out that they actually picked you over anyone else? Tuesday evening, you know, it was like when I found out that they were going to going to let me fight for the championship. I got a phone call from Dan and Lorenzo both, and they were kind of talking to me,

and I just asked them some questions, you know, about whether or not this is for an interim title or a real title. Is this the main event or co-main event? I just asked him a few questions, you know, regarding, you know, that I had going into this fight. They answered it, and I was like, yep, that all makes me pretty happy. Were these demands on your part?

I demand to be in the main event? Okay, just questions. I just wanted to know, you know. It's like a lot of times, you know, people, we, we're so excited that we don't try to ask questions. And I shot a few questions. I've got a great relationship with the UFC. So, uh, I've found something out and you could do it younger guys too. You just ask.

A lot of times you just ask and a lot of times things happen. And so you will forever be linked to John Jones because of the brawl and because of the buildup to that fight, the animosity, the trash talk, all that stuff. So deep down, I mean, this was a massive deal for you. I mean, now you have a chance to become UFC champion. You couldn't get it done in January. Now, here you are just a few months later, right back in that same spot, and you could get what you have been working for for so long,

but you got it because of him screwing up. Once again, he has screwed up, and now it's serious. Now he's gone. Now he has been stripped. So do you kind of feel bad for the guy, or are you super happy that, you know, his transgressions led to this amazing moment for you? Not happy, man. You know, I'm not that person.

You know, I'm not the person that's happy when another guy has, has bad things happen to him, you know. It's just, you know, as you said, you know, we're going to be forever linked together. And if I managed to win this championship, then it'll actually draw us even closer together. And we'll never, I will be the guy that won the belt when John got stripped because of his incidents.

We will be forever tied. And, you know, it's a weird thing. You know, I don't ever celebrate someone's misfortune, you know. So I think more than anything, I had a reaction on a human level more than a competitive enemy level. It was more what's going to happen to John's ability to earn over the course of the next year. If that's what it takes. Jay, be quiet.

Jade, be quiet. What's going to happen to his kids and his fiance and his parents? It's a lot of things, you know. Thank God he's got such a strong support system to help him and back him through this deal, you know? I can't help but remember you saying over and again because they played it so many times of the promo, you are just a bad person, John. You are just the scum of the earth. That back and forth before the ESPN interview.

So does a part of you, though, say, and I believe you when you say all these things, I told you all, this isn't a good person. This isn't the man who the UFC should get behind and get all these sponsorships and be the champion. Do you think that way as well? Finally, I'm vindicated a little bit? No, I don't need to be vindicated in my thoughts,

you know, because guess what, man, at the end of the day, even though I don't believe he's a great person, someone else could. Obviously, the people around him believe that he is. So there's no vindication. I mean, I could have been basing my opinions on things that he had done in the past that were public. So it's not like I need another incident to actually say that John's not a very good person. You know, so this incident does nothing to further my feelings towards him in that respect.

I don't need vindication. You know, in terms of a fighter, the UFC had every right. to get behind him because he's the best at it. But just other things, you know, he was always, it was always going to be, it was going to be something like this that happened. You know, it's like so many times and so many people, when you hear people say,

one person tells you Ariel, Daniel Cormier, is not a very good person. He does some crazy things away from the spotlight. And you go, yeah, okay, well, that's fine. You hear that from John, or you hear that from a guy that I fought, of Patrick coming to somebody that doesn't like me, you go, well, you kind of take it as a great assault, but then you hear from another person, and you hear from another person, and then you

kind of start to go, well, maybe Daniel isn't the person that he says he is, and I think that's what people kind of miss with Johnny. At first it was just Rashad, and then it was someone else, and then it was someone else, and you start hearing stories. So, I mean, this isn't, this isn't something that happened overnight, man, you hear stories about the things that he did outside of the cage for a long time, and it's unfortunate that now it's kind of come to the light and look at what happened, you know? If when you win the belt on May 23rd, will you consider yourself the real UFC light heavyweight champion, or will you only consider yourself that if when you beat John Jones?

You know what, man? We're fighting for the real belt. You know what I mean? It's not my fault that John got into trouble. It's not Anthony Johnson's fault that he got into trouble. It's sad that because of his indiscretions, it casts a shadow over his championship that he's rained over for so long. But I feel like it's for the real title.

Nobody said, Daniel, you and Anthony are fighting for an interim belt. You guys are fighting for the real UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, and that's how I'm treating it. This is an opportunity for me to accomplish a goal that I set out to accomplish the moment I started fighting. It'll be a little different, you know, when I win, because John just beat me in January,

you know, so people can kind of point to that. But we'll see what happens the next time him and I fight. What's up with your old friend, Chale Sunnis, saying recently, quote, only a punk would wear John Jones's UFC light heavyweight title. You don't think Chale would have taken that belt? I think he would in a heartbeat. You know, that's the thing about Chale, you know,

and that's what you have to realize when you get to know him. You know, a lot of times he's just talking. And sometimes it comes true, so it's very weird because Chale said this fight won't happen with him in Rumble and it happened. But it's like he just kind of, Chale's like the guy that just talks, talks, talks, and eventually he'll stumble over something. You know, he doesn't know that that fight wasn't going to happen. And he was guessing.

And then by guessing, it actually, it happened. And now Chale seems like this, he seems like Yoda, you know. But in reality, he was just guessing. And, you know, but he would have taken this opportunity very quickly, just as he did to fight John whenever he had come off of a loss to Anderson Silva in the second fight. He will always take those opportunities. That's just him talking. This is the full quote from his podcast.

If John Jones stays in the division, you accept the title while he's still in the division. You didn't beat him. You're a punk. You're a punk. I would never put a belt around my waist knowing the guy five feet away for me is the true owner of it. Dan. Put the belt next to Chale's son in the seat. Today, Chale would still wear that belt, even though he doesn't even fight anymore.

You go, Chale, here you go. This is the guy. Remember, Chale paraded around with a big sister for a long time after getting submitted by Anderson. He said, this is my belt, even though Anderson had submitted him. I mean, come on. Like, we got to think of who we're talking to you. You know, you can't just remember the source. Remember to source one.

You know, when this fight was announced, made official last week, people are wondering, well, what kind of shape is DC in? I mean, will he have enough time to make 205? Will he be in good shape? His cardio. And I thought about it for a little bit, and I kind of feel like this is a blessing in disguise, because correct me, if I'm wrong here, I felt like you had too much time to prepare for the Jones fight. You may have peaked a little too early. Now you can really focus.

And most important, most important, the thing that I have heard really no one say, you have Kane Velasquez back. You didn't have him for the Jones fight. So do you kind of feel like the shortened camp and having Kane? I mean, these are two huge factors in your favor at this point. This is a huge, huge part of my training, you know, just in general normally that I didn't have. Last fight, I was so tied to Jones emotionally. I was so invested. I did like a 14-week training camp.

And three, four weeks before the fight, I was fighting five rounds with no problem, switching guys every round. But then by the end of my training camp era, I promised I was barely able to get through three rounds. And in the fight, you know, after the third round, it just felt like my body just wasn't listening to me anymore. You know, and that is a testament to John's abilities. And what he did to me in the fight, he was able to get a lot of body damage off for me. He was able to, he did a good job. And he was the reason that I started to get tired, but I really do feel like I had a little too much in that fight. Especially knowing, like, after the fight, there was a lot of disappointment, but then it felt like a relief.

like the weight of the world was gone, that I didn't have to deal with all the stuff that I was dealing with in regards to John Jones anymore. It was actually, I was weighed to invest it. How much do you weigh right now? Right now, like 229, 230, you know, so I'm not that bad. Last weekend I weighed out of practice, it was like 227, so I didn't through the weekend I put on a few more pounds,

but I'm just trying to get down to waking up about 225, and I'll be good. You know, that's normally what I weigh with fight weak. right now I'm about 232 pounds, 230 somewhere in that area and it'll be fine. So I just need to lose about five more pounds and I'll be okay.

You know, D.C., when I think about this fight and I think about you, I think about this song, one of the best songs out there, my favorite song. Because it's unbelievable. I'm hearing people. It's like you get one loss, one loss on your record, one to the greatest light heavyweight fighter of all time, at least right now, and I kind of feel like people think you're a scrub.

It's amazing. Like the comments that I'm here like, what? D.C. doesn't deserve this. What has he done to deserve this? It's amazing. Do you kind of feel the same way that people have forgotten about D.C.? And can I make the pitch right now for you to come out to the song? Will you be the first to step up and do the right thing and let the people know that they have forgotten just how damn good you are?

You know what, Halwani, man, it's, again, I do love that song. You know, it's not the best song. It's something that you would expect you to like, I mean, honestly. Come on. But I like it, man. You know, but the truth of the matter is, I won 15 straight fights, got to the top of the sport. I fought for the UFC championship against the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Most guys lose early.

Most guys lose in the middle. Most guys lose to people, even though it's years before, they have hiccups. I never had that hiccough. I made it to the top of this sport before actually suffering my first loss. to the number one pound-for-pound guy in the world. And somehow I have going from this guy that was, they thought I could beat the number one-pound-bought-a-pound-old to a complete scrub.

It's like I'm walking into a fight with Anthony Johnson and I'm going to just get destroyed. It makes absolutely no sense to me. And you know what, man? It's a testament to what Anthony has done. But it's also like, it's also very disrespectful in the fact that I've lost one time and I've beaten so many guys.

I've won the majority of every round of I've ever fought in last time I lost rounds against Jones was the first time that I've lost rounds in a fight. It's true. Now this guy, this guy that has actually recommitted himself to this sport, this guy that has done things

that no one had expected him to do is going to just walk through me. That makes no sense. And I'm telling you right now, I don't buy it. I don't buy it. I don't believe it. There's no way this is happening.

People are going to respect me because they have to. There is no way that Anthony Rumble Johnson is going to walk me down in the cage and just beat me up. That makes no sense. His coach told me, Henry Hoof, told me that this is a better matchup for them, that you're easier to figure out. We know what to expect from D.C. John Jones is tricky, creative. What do you make of those comments? You know what, man, it is Henry Hoof's job to actually instill confidence in his athlete. and if you're preparing for the number one pound-fought fighter in the world,

logic tells you it's an easier fight. So I'm not the number one-pound-fault fighter in the world. I'm another guy in the division, but I'm not number one pound-for-pound. I'm not undefeated anymore as John is. I haven't defended the light heavyweight championship eight times. So guess what? I don't know where Henry's from. I guess he's from the Netherlands or something,

so maybe it got lost in translation. Henry, all those things that I just listed obviously makes John Jones a different opponent than me. I mean, come on. So I don't know. Yeah, great observation, Henry Hoof. I mean, Jesus. Are you predictable, though?

Do people know, you know, the game plan at this point, how to beat you? I'm going to go fight. I'm going to go fight. I'm going to go fight. I'm not going to run around the octagon. I'm going to go forward. I'm going to pressure. I'm going to try to secure takedowns.

But I'm going to box, and I'm going to mix it up. It's pretty simple. Like, just because you know what's going to happen doesn't mean that you have the game plan to stop it. Kane Velasquez does the same thing every single time. He goes forward, he puts pressure, he attempts to take downs, and he boxes. Same thing. We do the same thing. There's no secret.

We're going to go and try and fight and try to win this championship. Is Rumble Johnson overrated in the sense that not too long ago, this was a guy who was losing, he was a mid-tier welterweight, right? I mean, he was losing some fights to mid-tier welterweight at 170 pounds. He had the issues. All of a sudden, he looks like a world-beater. I mean, take nothing away. But deep down, do you think he's overrated?

I don't think he's overrated. Not one bit. You know, I think he deserves the credit that he's gotten. But again, you know, as I've said time and time again, you know, I've gotten a little bit of a... It's been a little bad people coming back at me upset because I said these things about Rumble. But it's not like I'm lying. I'm only stating facts. You know, Rumble Johnson has smashed everybody over the course of nine fights.

He beat Phil Davis every second of every round. He beat Andre Arlofsky every second of every round. Actually, Arlofsky won a round against him in the World Series of fighting after he pretty much finished him in the first round. But when he didn't knock those guys out, he was still cruising. You know, he hasn't really been dealt that adversity that he received at Walterweight. So to me, it's just a matter of seeing how does he deal with adversity now that he's just this monster. You know, people have made him out to be King Kong and Godzilla all in one.

And as I said, you know, nobody's like that. Even sharing the cage with Jones, he's still not some unbeatable being. You know, he's not Ultron. He's not, he's not a, he is not the eater of worlds galactus, you know, and if you look at comic books and stuff, but he's not, he's not this world, world beater, you know, these are guys, these are men, these are human beings. They're just like me. They can lose on any night just as I did.

How does this happen, though? How does a guy who is at 170 do this at 205 in your opinion? How has he become this knockout artist, two divisions up? I think that he's just kind of found his hole. You know, before he's always a big guy cutting way too much weight. It's cutting like 235 pounds to 170. That's insane. And you obviously lose something there.

I think Rumble has found his home at, Ed Walt, at 205. The dude's a monster, man. He's a beast, and he's got confidence. You know, a lot of times it boils down the confidence. I walk into the octagon on January 3rd, thinking that I had every, everything to beat John Jones. And I was confident. And he did what he had to do to actually beat that out of me, make me believe that I wasn't going to win the fight. And he did it. So it's confidence. I have to go and prove to Anthony that those fights that he lost, it can still happen.

People like me will never know what it's like to fight for the belt, will never know what it's like to be in the cage. Do you think that the fact that you had this experience not that long ago where you've been through the whole buildup, it couldn't have been, you know, bigger, more magnified and you lost. And I remember seeing you afterwards. I mean, you were crushed. You were very emotional. The fact that it just happened in January, and he's never been through that. He's never sniffed it. He doesn't know what the media attention is going to be like, this is a big card? Do you think that's something that works in your favor? Is that something that people like myself who have never experienced it kind of, you know, play up a little too much leading up to these fights?

It's a big deal, man. You know, a lot of times it's a big deal. You know, and some people striving and some people don't. You know, it's a big deal. This will be, more media, the exposure will be bigger. And it also will be a little more to carry because of the Jones situation that will loom over the top of this fight. Yeah. It's a big deal.

But you know what, man? This is the fourth time now that I've trained and fought in five-round fights. I trained twice for Barnett. I trained twice for Jones, and I fought in a five-round fight against Barnett, and I fought a five-round fight against Jones. So this is like the fourth time

that I've prepared for. a five-round main event. I'm not sure Anthony ever has just a Dugustafson fight. Maybe the first time that he's ever prepared for a five-round main event. And hopefully, you know, that'll come into play in a few weeks. Have you allowed yourself to envision the fight? Do you have any idea how it's going to play out? You know what, man, it's, I've thought about it a little bit, you know, not yet.

You know, I do my visualization stuff as I get closer, but I'm watching film trying to see with Rumble does, you know, try to pick up on any habits that he may carry into the octagon. So I'm watching him right now, still taking notice, making my observations. And then as we get closer, I will start to break down and see where I match up well with him, what I do better than him, and how we match up in terms of against each other. As long as Kane is the champion at heavyweight, you're not going to fight there anymore. You don't want to fight your friend. Do you feel like this is do or die for you as far as being a UFC champion is concerned?

It's hard to get a third crack if you lose two. It has to be. I mean, and I'm not putting any more pressure on myself, but who gets an opportunity to do this twice back to back after losing? Yeah. So this is pressure that I want. I want to believe that if I don't do it this time, there will not be another opportunity. And you're putting that pressure on yourself. I do.

I want it. I want to win this championship fight, man. I can't lose to Anthony Johnson. I just really can't lose to Anthony Johnson. Wow. Why would you put that pressure on yourself? It's because, man, everything that I've wanted to do and be in this sport, I was up until January 3rd. I wanted to be undefeated.

I wanted to work hard. I wanted to get myself to the top of the sport, and I got there and I failed. So this is another opportunity to get it right. And you know what, man, I don't want to – I can't lose this fight. And by the way, before I let you go, are you going to take your foot off the game? Gaz, as far as training is concerned, Dana White has criticized A.K.A. Now we just saw Habib Nirmagamadav get injured. I mean, what's the mindset like now when it feels like there's this spotlight on you guys. Like if one of you guys, God forbid, something happens, more criticism is going to come.

And there's already this stigma out there. You know what, man, the Khabib thing actually just almost justified Dana's comments. But reality is, Habib wasn't really, he didn't do anything to hurt himself. He wasn't doing anything different. He wasn't wrestling. He actually just took a step backwards. and he was like, oh, wait, my knee. So it wasn't a, you know, I'm not going to peel back my training. As I said, time and time again, to prepare for a fight, you have to fight. And that's what Kane and I do on the daily basis.

Trust me, I don't like it. I don't like sparring five rounds with Kane Velasquez every day. It sucks. It goes hard, and he's very good and very technical. Every day you do that? Three times a week, I do. Three times a week, and he's as good as they come. So I think the world of Rumble Johnson,

I think the way he turned his life around is inspiring, but Anthony Johnson will not beat me on May 23rd. That is not happening. By the way, when are we going to see this video of you celebrating Seth Rollins's win? I've been told that there's video of this. You're going crazy, shedding tears. I mean, I've been told that you reacted to that win, you know, more emotionally than you would have if you win the belt.

I want to see this video. I think the world needs to see it. It wasn't emotional, but it was pure joy. It was so bad that my son wouldn't talk to me. me for the 45-minute ride home because he was mad because I was cheering for the bad guy because Seth Rollins won. And this dude, my son was done after John Cena fought. But he was mad.

It wasn't just me. It was Andrew Mayer, too, going absolutely crazy, bro. It was like a group of eight of us that went to WrestleMania, and we had a fantastic time. It was something that I wanted to do, and I'm glad I got the experience in my life. I'm lucky, man. Are we not going to see it? We're not going to see the video? The video is pretty embarrassing.

Maybe after I'm the UFC champion, I'll let you guys watch it. All right, fair enough. You know, I wanted to have you and Anthony on the phone at the same time, but it appears as though he may be ducking you. I don't know where he is. We can't find him, and I don't want to keep you hanging, you know, because I know you're very busy. So that is a fail on our part.

I appreciate the time, D.C., unless you want to stick around to talk to him. Now, I got to go to practice, but just play this message. Oh, Rumble. Guess who's at the door? I hope that he answers that door. DC, thank you so much for the time. Congratulations on the fight. Can't wait for May 23rd.

And I know you're very busy over there, so I appreciate you stopping by. I know UFC tonight leading up to this fight, right? You're going on hiatus. I'm done. I'm going dark. You know, I'm already dark, but I'm going dark. You see, it's funny, man.

This guy's funny. I'm going dark. May 23rd, I'll see you guys. But look. You hear that knocking? Oh, Rumble! Guess who's at the door? The potential future UFC light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier, tremendous stuff, as always.

We'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much, D.C. really appreciate it. All right, man. Thank you guys for having me. There he is. D.C., happy as ever. Happy as can be. And I wanted to do it.

You guys, you called me out, and I don't know what happened. Can't find the guy. What's going on? What's the dilly? Let me see here. My fingers are so fat. I can't text on this phone. I wanted to have the classic MMA hour back to back. No coincidence. You can see right through it. You know what's up. No coincidence. I tried to stretch. I tried to make it happen. We couldn't make it happen. I'm not going to blame our guys, but it's disappointing. Still great stuff from Daniel Cormier. And, you know, if Ryan Bader is going to agree with it, then I think you have, I haven't really seen anyone disagree with this decision. I mean, this is the right. call. In my opinion, he's the number two guy.

Very little doubt of that. And I know that he is the betting favorite. I got that email from Bovada, and they're usually pretty on point. But I still get the sense that a lot of people are not as high on his skills as they were going into the John Jones fight. I still get that sense. We have located Mr. Rumble Johnson. He is on the phone right now.

Anthony, are you there? Yeah, what's that, man? How are you? Hey, hey, you know, I tried to make some magic here. I wanted to have you and DC on the phone at the same time to really play this thing up, but we couldn't find you. I'm a little bummed out. My bad.

My bad. All he wanted to say to you, though, was, and I'll replay it. I'll reenact it. He just wanted to say, hey, Rumble, guess who's at the door? That was his message to you. Do you have a response to said message? No. You have kept.

You have kept it pretty pro, pretty 100, as the kids say, but I know you heard what he said about you last week, that at your core you're the same guy and all this stuff. I mean, that has to bother you a little bit, right? No, it doesn't bother me. He can think what he wants. I'm going to be who I am. You know, I'm nowhere close to the guy that I used to be,

nowhere close to the fighter that I used to be. So a lot of people still think that I am that same fighter that I used to be when I fought at once. 70, but I'm a different type of animal right now. So, everybody can think whatever they want, they can say whatever they want. I know who I am,

and, you know, we'll see. Part of you almost happy he feels that way? Great. Let him think that I'm that guy. That's perfect for you. I mean, personally, I don't care what he thinks, you know, like that. He's entitled to his own opinion.

I just have to focus on me and just do me. Now, honestly, though, I mean, this is a fun fight, and I think people are relatively excited. But deep down, you must have been disappointed that it's not John Jones, right? I mean, again, you've said all the right things, and I give you a ton of credit for that. But that's the fight. That's the guy that everyone wants to beat. You want to be the guy who beat the guy, right? Yeah, everybody wants to be the guy, to beat the guy, you know what I mean?

I was disappointed, you know what I mean? because I've worked so hard to fight the best. And I couldn't fight a champion, you know, so now I'm focused on the next best guy, and that's Daniel Cormier. Will you feel like you're the real champion if you beat Cormier, or will you only feel that way if you beat John? Yeah. I feel like I'm the champ if I beat him.

You know, I work my ass off to get where I am. It's not my fault. It's not anybody's fault with what happened to John. You know, John did that to himself. everybody knows that. But, you know, life goes on, and you got to keep it moving, you know. But when he comes back, if I still have the title, and if it's my time to fight him, I'll fight him, you know. But one day I know we'll eventually fight.

You know this. You think he's back relatively soon? I haven't. No, I haven't thought about it. Do you agree with the UFC's decision to strip him? It's a pretty big move. What do you think? Was it the right call?

Well, yeah, I think it was the right. I call it. If I was, you know, if it was my business, I wouldn't, I wouldn't allow that. I wouldn't want that to be, I wouldn't want somebody that did anything like that to be the face of my company. You know, it doesn't, it, you just don't, you're not representing the company the right way doing, doing that type of stuff. And nobody's perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But regardless if, like, if it was my company, if that was just first time doing something like that, you know, I probably would have, would have had a, you know, it probably did what they did right off the back. You know, it's just, it's just something that, you know, it doesn't look on the company, it doesn't look good for, just towards the fans,

it doesn't look good on his family, you know, it's just, it's a tough road. It's, it's very hard to, to get over something like that. And yet, and correct me if I'm wrong here, it almost feels like you sympathize a little bit with him with his, with his downfall, if you will. Is that accurate? Like, do you feel bad for the guy? Because you sent a very nice tweet to him, and it seemed like you were very positive, no ill will at all.

How do you feel towards him? I do feel bad for him. I feel bad for a lot of people. I feel bad for his family. You know, I feel bad for the UFC. I feel bad for the fans. Because, you know, UFC lost a great champion, you know. and the fans didn't get to see the fight that they wanted to see yet.

You know what I mean? And his family had to deal with this stuff, too, not just John, but his whole overall family, you know, and his team and stuff. So it's just tough, man. It's a tough road that everybody has to go down. But, you know, it is what it is. I hope he gets better. You know, best of luck to him, honestly.

Do you think the UFC made the right call by, picking Cormier and not someone like Ryan Bader who says he wants to shot. Do you think that was the right guy to put in there? Yeah, I think it is. Bader's tough. Bader is a good athlete. But when you have a guy like Daniel Camiere

and then you still have Gustafin, you know, it's a tough road, I think, for Bader. Because he has a lot of guys he still has to get through, at my opinion. know, even though I named two, I mean, like, if John was around, you know, I'm still there, Gutter's still there, Cormier still there, I mean, even though he, he rocked Glover, Glover still there. I'm like, it's not like it's an easy task for Beta to just say, you know, hey, I need it next. You know what I mean?

Like, it's a tough road. This division is not an easy division. And those, I don't think there's many people saying. I think it might be a little top heavy, but. It's very, very tough to stay at the top, and that's honestly why I think John Jones is the greatest ever because of who he has defeated as champion. Now, I spoke to your coach, Henry Hooft, last week,

and he told me that he feels like this matchup is more favorable for you because John is obviously very long, but the main thing is, I mean, he's so creative, he's tricky, he's hard to game plan for, and D.C., you know what you're going to get from him. He's stocky, he's a wrestler, he comes forward. Do you agree with that? That is going to, that this fight is easier? Not easier, but,

a more favorable matchup for you guys? Well, yeah, yeah, it is because then it's not six-four. You know what I mean? So, you know, I can punch pretty straight instead of having to punch up at a guy. So, you know, it makes it a lot more even for me. But I don't think this is by far going to be an easy fight. This is Daniel's second chance. He's going to bring it.

I know he is, you know. He was very passionate about his loss to John Jones, and he trained hard, and he was riding on so much emotion and everything. I think he's going to do the same thing with this fight, but that's what I'm prepared for. That's what I'm ready for, and we'll see what happens in May 23rd. How much will you lean on your friend Rashad Evans, who seems to know D.C. well, he prepared for him once it didn't happen,

but I feel like he can give you some good insight. Will he be a big part of this camp now? Probably was a big part for the John Jones fight since he's. he fought him and trained with him, but is that the case still with D.C.? Well, no, honestly, I just been relying on my coaches and the guys that I brought in. You know, Rashad has his style of fighting.

I have my style of fighting. He has his way of what he would do, you know, if it came down to fighting in D.C. or John, and, you know, I do what I do. You know, we both have two totally different styles and, you know, just, you know, just because he might do a certain way, doesn't mean that's absolutely going to, you know, for me.

So I just do what I do, man. I don't really try to switch things up too much. So you're not going to bring in any wrestlers who, you know, fit his build and look like him and fight like him. I got my guys. I got guys, and I still have guys coming in. Okay. That'll give me a wrong for my money.

But it's not like we're slacking. on anything over here. And are you doing a lot of work with Vitor Belfort since he's fighting on the same card? So we, you know, we train, we drill and stuff like that. Vitor has his camp, I have mine. Okay. But, you know, some days we do get together and train side by side. And, you know, every time we spar, we spa with our training partners and stuff,

who we have in our camp, I tell them, hey, this is for a world title, you know. Spar like you're fighting in the title match right now. And, you know, we bump, we bump gloves and not ahead to each other. And we go and do what we have to do. And Vito's looking good. You know, he's trained. I've never, honestly, never seen a man train so hard for a year for one fight. And I have a lot of respect for him, man.

He's definitely, he's an inspiration to me. So do you think the buildup will be different for this fight because I get the sense that DC will try to get under your skin, bring up these past things, try to, you know, attack. You know, he likes to build things up, and he's maybe an emotional fighter. John wasn't really doing that. As champion, some might say he doesn't need to do that.

Are you preparing yourself, especially Fight Week, for D.C. to take some shots at you? Um, I mean, I'm ready for whatever. I don't expect anything, but I'm always ready for whatever. Um, if he takes, you know, take a couple, shots. I mean, that's fine with me. That gives the fans something to look forward to, and that just motivates me even more. You know, I like to just keep my mouth closed and do what I do. And I stick to my guns and just try to stay professional as possible and just fight hard as I can at the same time.

I'm happy you said that, and we'll end on this. I've had a lot of people, especially in the last week, considering, you know, how you handled the John Jones situation, say, what's up with Humble-Rumble? You know, do you believe that he's really this humble? Where did this guy come from? You know, I remember back of the day on my show, you were calling, we had that whole maid exchange. Remember that? That was fun.

Yeah, I remember that. And, you know, I was on the turn. What's that? I was driving on the turnpike. I remember that. That was great. You know, I enjoyed it, but, you know, you have matured in front of our eyes. Your interviews are different.

Your demeanor is different. You know, I recall interviewing you at a Strike Force Wayne, way back of the day, before the Burns fight, and even after the Burns fight. I mean, you've grown up a lot, and there's nothing wrong with that. But what do you say to the people who say this isn't the real rumble, that you're being too humble, you're being too nice, you're a prize fighter. We want to see some fire out of you. We want to see some trash dog.

What do you say to see those people? What do they want to see? They want to see me. And knock people out. That's not me. I'm not trying to be a fighter that they want me. I'm being who I am. So either they like it or they don't.

That's up to them. I'm going to still continue to be. myself. You know, I hold all of my emotions, and I don't I don't try and badmouth anybody, even if I don't like you. You know, that's why whenever I'm walking to the cage, I look at home, because I'm just waiting to explode on you soon as I get a chance. You know what I mean?

But, I mean, either way, they're going to, they're going to enjoy what I do. Sure. Because I always like that. and perform the best of my ability, when I lose a draw. So either they like it or they don't. That's up to them. I really don't care.

I just do what I do. You know, I make sure I stay true to myself. Would you agree, though, that you have come a long way in that regard that you have grown up? Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, when you have your career almost taken from you twice, it's uh

it's uh something that can definitely change who you are was the first time the I no not even that whenever the UFC cut me oh okay I didn't never the UFC cut me do I didn't know what I was going to do next

because all I knew was you know and all I knew was the fight in the UFC and then you know when I was accused of the things I was accused of the allegation and stuff. I was like, really? Something like this is about to be started when it's not true, and then I got put on the shelf a little bit. It was just, you know, you definitely change who you are.

You change your mindset. I mean, everything about you honestly changes, you know what I mean? Because you almost don't know. When you go through something like that, you kind of, you know who your friends are, but at the same time you don't know who your friends are. You know who has your back. you kind of know who doesn't have your back. It's just, it's a weird, weird situation, you know what I mean?

I put my walls up big time, you know what I mean, when all that stuff started happening. And I'm pretty sure I pushed away a lot of people that I didn't need to push away, but, hey, I was, I was almost to the point where I didn't know who to trust or who to like, you know, it was just if I felt like it was me against the world. Wow. And, but, but I, I'm over that. things, you know, things on the up and up, you know, because at the end of the day,

I still did my best to stay positive. A very last thing. Go ahead. Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. Yeah, yeah. At the end of the day, I still try to stay positive through the whole thing because, you know, I was like, okay, I worked my way back into being in the university. Now I have something else that's trying to hold me back, you know, and I didn't do anything.

So I just made sure I stay positive towards the end of the day. I just made sure I had to stay positive and just keep going forward. Yeah, and you've done a remarkable job of doing just that. I just wanted to ask you one last thing. Last Tuesday, before the news came out that Jones had been stripped, you tweeted, sometimes I just don't understand, L-O-L. And at the time, we were all searching for answers and what were you referring to there? Nothing.

Come on, man. Nothing, dude. It was just, you know, figure of speech. Figure of speech. What were you referring to? I mean nothing. It's in the past. Oh, come on.

It's in the past. I know you, man. I know you trying to get every little piece of dirt. No, it's that dirt. Every little fact you can get. I know you, I know you, man. You do your job very well. Well, I appreciate that.

You tweeted it. So, I mean, I wouldn't be doing my job. I know I tweeted, but, I mean, I have my reasons. And some people ask me and some, you know, some of my close friends asked me, I still didn't tell them. So, I mean, it was. nothing personal or towards anybody. You know, it's just something that, you know, I heard something and it did that

honestly popped in my head just to say, you know, so I didn't blow up. Was it related to the Jones situation or something different? No. No, something totally. Well, now it's even more interesting. You could have gone out of this by saying, oh, it's because I wanted to fight John Jones. Now you've made me even more inquisitive. And I'm probably going to ask you again, fight week.

So why not just get a little? I said it. I'm wait to fight with that's when everybody wants to tune in then. All right, fair enough. We'll wait till then. For now, good luck, May 23rd. Again, you've handled it all very, very impressively. So kudos on that.

Can't wait for the fight. Anthony, appreciate the time, as always, and we'll talk to you soon. All right, brother. Thank you, man. There he is. Anthony Johnson. Tried to make it happen, him in D.C. at the same time. But guess what?

We are just 19 days away from that fight. You don't have to wait very long to see them go head-to-head, toe-to-to-to, all that good stuff and more. It's going to be a great fight. I'm looking forward to it. of course, John Jones' shadow is definitely over this fight and you feel his presence, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for both of them, because one expects him to be back at some point.

I mean, I don't think it's the end, and we'll talk to Malki Kaua about that later on in the show. For now, though, let us go to our next guest. Very big week for her last week. Officially, it was announced that she has signed with the UFC. She's an official member of the UFC's Strawweight Division. She's the former Invicta 105-pound champion. She makes her debut on July 12th, tough finale in Florida against Angela Magana. She is the one and only karate-hadi herself.

Michelle Waterson, congratulations on the big news. So how long has this been in the works? Because I reported it on UFC tonight in February, but I'm wondering, because you last fought in 2014, late 2014, how long have you been talking to the UFC? the beginning of the year, and when I kind of showed interest, and I think we've just been kind of negotiating back and forth from the son. I'm getting deja vu the last time you're on my show, and it sounded like you were underwater, and now I'm hearing that.

So, I don't want to, oh, wait, we'll give you a second here. Okay. No, it's the same thing. So we're going to call you on your phone. Is that okay? Sure. Okay, we're going to call you right now. We'd still like to see you if you'd like to be on the phone and Skype at the same time.

That's cool. But I just want to hear you as well as possible. Okay. Okay. So we're going to call Michelle right now. As I mentioned, we haven't seen her fight in 2015. It has been several months, what, five months at this point? We last saw her Invicta December 5th.

That is when she defended her Invicta FC Adamweight title. and then on Monday it was officially announced on UFC tonight that she has officially signed with the UFC, a great addition to their strawweight division. She has fought at strawweight before, but as of late, had her most success at 105 pounds. Are you there? Can you hear me, Michelle? I can. Oh, that is so much better. Wow, that is fantastic. Was this something that you always wanted in the back of your mind, or were you kind of struggling with the idea because part of you wants to think, okay, the UFC is the big time. No one's going to deny that, but it's not your best weight class.

It's not where you had your most success as of late. Yeah. You know, when I first started my MMA career, you know, being a UFC fighter was a goal of mine. And so, sorry, my little one is being a butt-head. No problem. Ray out, okay? Okay, come here. I understand totally.

Don't worry. but yeah it's always been a goal of mine and you know for a lot of us females I don't think we ever imagined this day would come just because for a long time Dana White just didn't think things that women belong in the U.S.C so for that being available and you know I think everything happens for a reason and I feel like when I lost my belt it was you know I was heartbroken but again, I feel like everything happens for a reason and losing the belt gave me time to kind of think about my MMA career

and what I really wanted to do, you know, in these next couple of years. So I figured I could spend a year and a half trying to get my belt back at Invictor. I could spend a year and a half trying to get a different belt. Yeah. Were you a free agent? Was that the last fight on your current Invicta deal

or did the UFC buy the contract? I know there's a great relationship there between the two organizations, but how were you able to make the move? Yeah, you know, after my last fight with Tomato, that was, my last fight was invicted, and then I was supposed to sign another multi-fight deal, but then I took that last, it wasn't really last minute, I said, in that five-week fight against the haircut, And so they gave me a one-fite contract, and I was going to sign another multi-fight deal with them afterwards.

But, you know, because of the circumstances and because I did lose before signing a multi-fight deal, I just asked Shannon if she could give me a couple of weeks to think about, you know, what I wanted to do with my career. And, you know, Shannon is so supportive of all of female fighters, and I feel like she just, she wants the best for me. and so she allowed me to do so and just kind of figure out what I wanted to do. Would it be accurate to say that losing the belt was actually

the best thing to ever happen to your career? Because I'm guessing if you would have kept the belt, you would have had to stay in Invicta. Yeah, you know, parts of me feel that way. And I feel like I learned a lot by losing. There's so much more that goes into fighting than just being, you know,

physically the more. prominent person. Everything has to fall into place all at once. You have to be physically ready. You have to be mentally ready and, you know, on that day. And if it doesn't all fall into place, then you find a singleist plan. Do you need to attend to your daughter? Oh, Leah, please come here. It always happens at the best times, doesn't it? I think I should do it in purpose. No problem.

I completely understand being a father of two myself. Araya. Okay. Okay, honey. Just play with your toys, baby. Okay. Does she want some camera time? Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. There she is. Hello there. Congratulations on your mommy signing with the UFC. How about that? Very exciting.

Don't be so sad. This is big news. You have to let me do this interview, okay, baby? Okay. So precious. It's not working, honey. He's in the stage right now where she just doesn't listen to me. Oh, I know.

How old is she? She just turned four. Oh, okay. I have a three-year-old, and he's in that same stage, too, so I guess it lasts a year. Yeah. And beyond. Yeah, she's different. It's not working right now, baby.

and you're going to have to go play with you twice. Okay, you can stay here with me. That's cool. We've done this before. It's all right. We've had guest appearances. Okay, so then you signed with the UFC, and, of course, there is no 105-pound division,

so you have to, you know, fight as a straw weight. But I feel like this has been in talks for a long time. What took so long for it to actually become official? You know, I feel like, I feel like, you know, after the tough show, the UFC brought on a lot of straw weights. And to do right by them, I think they felt like they had to get all of those girls fight before they signed on new talent. Okay. And so that's just my justification behind it all.

And so I think it's just, you know, a timing thing. I know you fought at 1-15 before several years back. At this stage in your career, though, do you feel comfortable at that weight? Do you hang with the best at that weight? I do, you know, I don't feel like I would take the job unless I had the confidence in myself to do so. And I do. I feel comfortable there. I'm older now than I was back then.

Older-weiser. Actually, and bigger now than I was back then when I was fighting at 115. Oh. So I think it's a good move. I'm able to eat very well and healthy and have energy. And I'm excited for the move. And so they give you Angela Maganya of tough, what was it, 20 fame. In my opinion, probably the most obnoxious fighter on the UFC's roster.

If that really is her on Twitter, I mean, I don't think I've blocked many fighters on Twitter, and she's one of them. She's just very annoying. and rude. And I can't believe that a human being is actually that way. I feel like it's an actor. Someone's tweeting for her. Do you know anything of her antics? Have you followed her on Twitter? Have you seen her tweets? Do you know what kind of a person she is or at least pretends to be? No, I'm not too good at keeping up with everybody on Twitter. And it's kind of like you said,

almost for me it's like unnecessary to follow somebody that's like going out of the way to do to be like that. I actually know Margania from the beginning of my career. She's actually from Farmington, which is a small town out here in New Mexico. She's a cross-trained with us out in Jackson at the very beginning of my career. So I know of her very little. We cross-trained a little bit at the beginning of my career. and, you know, she never went out of her way to be rude to me, but social media definitely plays a huge role in, you know, an athlete,

the way people perceive an athlete these days. And, you know, if she wants to put herself out like that, I guess, you know, every story needs a villain, and if she wants to take that role, that's fine with me. I hope it's an act. I hope she isn't this annoying in real life, but at least on Twitter, she's very annoying. Do you think she's going to get under your skin? Do you think she's going to try to rile you up? You know, if she does, it's whatever, right?

I got more problems than the things coming out of her mouth to be worried about. Yeah. You know, I'm a grown woman and I've got to take care of business, you know? That is true. Now, what about the matchup? Did you like the matchup when you were offered it? I think it's a good matchup for my first five. in the UFC. She has a lot of fights under her. She's not afraid to fight with whoever, and

she was on the show, and she has one fight in the UFC, and so I think it'll be a good matchup for my first fight in the UFC. What about the Octagon jitters? What about those things that we hear about all the time? Are you expecting those? Will you lean on some of your friends and teammates at Jackson's? You have, you know, one of the most storied camps behind you with some of the greatest fighters of all time. Are you expecting those jitters, though? Are you that kind of person? You know, I think I am expecting them. Even just all the news coming out with me being signed to the UFC, I tried to have to get myself under control because it was really exciting, you know, seeing myself on the social media feed and just seeing the excitement

behind all the fans of UFC and women's in me behind me. And I'm behind me. And I, And I think it's really cool. So I'm excited to be a part of the UFC, and I just need to, you know, keep it together and get in there and just fight, be present. Because I feel like a huge part of why I lost my last fight is because I almost felt like a spectator. And it was real strange, but, you know, you love and you learn. And I definitely learned a lot from that loss. What do you mean by that? It's a very interesting thing.

I never heard someone say that in the fight game. A spectator at your own fight? Yeah. What do you mean? It was strange, like, even at the way end, I felt like I was on the outside of my body looking in and watching all my, you know, Invicta fighters get weighed in

and, you know, watching all the girls fight. Even that night and putting myself go into the ring and getting ready to fight. And even having conversations with myself as the fight is happening. Wow. Really? Has that ever happened to you before? Not to that extent. Like there have been times where I was unfocused, but I was able to rein everything in and find myself again. but everything happened so quickly. And I felt like I was talking to myself the entire time

and just trying to find that zone, and it never happened. And, yeah, so it was a strange thing. And why do you think that happened to you? You know, I think Kirk did a good job rushing in on me, and my eye blew up in that first round, and I think it was hard for me to kind of gather my thoughts after that,

I was more worried about trying to finish the fight instead of just, all right, you know, things happen, you know, and continue with my game plan. I think I felt like I needed to hurry up and finish the fight because my eye was blown up so bad. It couldn't be out of it. And it was just the wrong mentality to have. What was the injury that you suffered in your eye? It just caught me really good. Okay. Nothing broke?

Nothing broke. It just blew up. Okay. And you were very emotional. My colleague Esther Lynn has a great picture of you guys. I mean, it just shows the almost the thrill of victory, the agony and defeat, but also the mutual respect that a lot of the fighters have in this sport, which is one of the more commendable things about you fighters.

How long did it take for you to get over the loss? It was, you know, it was a while. It was like, you know, getting a belt was also one of my goals. And I didn't want to just be like a one-time champ. I had a lot of pride. And it was excitement with when people called me champ. And, you know, I felt like I had this responsibility to hold for Invicta. And for me to just kind of like let it slip through my fingers the way it did was,

it was really down to myself. And it took a while for me until it took a while for me until I realized, you know, I could let this bring me down or I could just, you know, brush my shoulders off and move forward. And that's what I did in the beginning of the years, I think, just try to, you know, not allow it to bring me down, but just learn from it and move forward. A lot of fighters who are in that position don't have kids and they could just go home and lick their wounds and take some time off and be selfish. You can't do that. You are a mother and you have someone that relies on you. Does that make it easier, or is it harder to then focus back on being a mother and dealing with the day-to-day stuff that you have to deal with being a mother to your beautiful child?

You know, I think it was, it was getting bad. My daughter has been to every single one of my fights, and this is the first time she's seen me lose. And I got beat up pretty bad, just in my eye, you know. So when she saw me, okay, you can't get it. go ahead um she you're fine baby buddy buddy he just got a kitten and my little one has these colorful socks on so she's her kittens like attacking her buddy come here you're fine are you um when i lost it was so hard for me not to cry in front of her i was in the back and i was like crying and talking to the coaches and just telling them how disappointed I was in myself.

And, you know, I heard them knocking and I knew it was my mom and my daughter. And when she came in, she was crying. And she was like, I didn't want to speak. She told me she didn't want to see me get hurt. And I pulled her in the floor. She could see me crying. And I just told her, you know, mommy's okay. Things happen, you know, and I'll, in the, you just have to, you have to learn

from your mistakes and get better. And that was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to do. Wow. Not, like, cry. That's making me emotional right now, just trying to put myself in your shoes. I can't imagine dealing with that. She understood what happened, though? Like, did she grasp the situation?

I think so. You know, she comes with me to practice, and she sees me spar and things like that. But she's never seen me, like, get hurt. And I just think that she was just feeling sympathetic for me because she saw, like, how bad I was, like my eye was. But I think she could just feel my presence and, like, how defeated I felt at that moment, you know? Okay, last thing, and then I'll let you go. I feel very bad that I'm taking you away from your daughter.

You know, I just have to ask, of course, you are a teammate of John Joneses. What has the last week been like for the team and what do you make of what happened to him in the last six days or so? You know, I think that we're trying to stay strong for him as a team. and he's family. He's part of the team, Jackson's, and I feel like we are trying to keep everything really close-knit. And just like in any family, you keep your problems, you know, in-house. And so that's what we're doing.

We're here to support him in anything he needs help with, just like he's always been there for us. So we're just kind of the hoping that he's looked through. Have you had a chance to see him? Like, is he okay or is he not around the team? Do you have any kind of update you can give us on him? him. No.

Okay. Fair enough. I respect it. I had to try, but I respect it. Michelle, congratulations on signing with the UFC. Very happy for you. Can't wait for your debut. It's July 12th, Fox Sports One, tough 21 finale in Hollywood, Florida. It's Michelle Waterson versus Angela Magana. Great stuff, as always. And please send our apologies to your daughter. We feel bad that we took her mommy away for a few minutes, but I appreciate you taking out some time. I'm so sorry. I apologize. I'm so unprofessional. No problem at all. Thank you very much. And again, congratulations. Good luck in training. Okay. Thank you so much. Have a good one.

There she is. Michelle Waterson, stopping by a big week for her signing with the UFC. All right, let us move along. A lot of you have been asking me over the last few weeks, what has happened, especially with this big heavyweight fight coming up on Saturday? Steve Miochich versus Mark Hunt. What has happened to Junior Dostos? Where has he? he been? We last saw him in action. Big win for him in December. UFC on Fox. And a lot of you wondering where he fits into this whole heavyweight title picture. So I had to get him on the show. Reached out to him. He is kind enough to come on. He is joining us right now. He is online, number one. Junior Dos Santos on the MMA hour. Junior, how are you?

Hi, Ariel. I'm good and you? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for the time. I'm excited to hear from you. And I know a lot of your fans are as well. I know after the fight against Miochich, you had elbow surgery and knee surgery. How close to 100% healthy are you right now, five months later? Yeah, I had knee surgery and nose surgery. Excuse me, nose surgery, sorry. Yeah, no, it's okay. Yeah, I'm having a good recovery, you know, and for sure, I need two more months, you know,

but everything is going very well, so I'm happy with that. And hopefully, I think October or November, I'll be back fighting, you know. Oh, that's great. And what exactly was wrong with your knee? And was this something that happened in the fight itself? Or was it afterwards or a buildup? What were wrong there? I think it was getting worse doing the fight.

You know, I had a torn ACL. So I had to do this surgery, you know. And it's very, you know, the last year. was a very tough year for me. And, you know, this surgery came to complicated the things more for me. But right now, I think I'm a very positive guy, and I'm really think I'm going to, you know, be 100% back. So were you not 100% in that Miochich fight?

Yeah, actually, yes, I was. I was okay. was a good for the fight. Okay. And the nose, you had a deviated septum. Is that accurate? Sorry, can you repeat that for me, please? What was wrong with your nose? Was it something that happened in the fight or an injury that you had been dealing with for a while? No, no. Yeah, my nose, I had, I don't know, I don't know actually how can I say that, but I think it's a septum, something, it's my septum. So, I just, I just, I just, was, correcting that, you know, not a big deal, but it's a very ancient thing.

So after the fight in December, you were on the same card as Alastair Overeem, and everyone said, oh, maybe we were going to see this fight that we've been wanting to see for quite some time. And since then, he's won again, and he's looked pretty good as of late. And since then, he's done some media. He's been in the Philippines, and he even did an interview with an outlet called ABS, C, B, and news. And he referred to you as a gatekeeper. He said that you're the gatekeeper,

and everyone knows this, and he wants, he wants to fight you. Do you feel the same way? Well, you know, I have to smile, because this guy is,

I don't know, you know, he knows I'm hard. That's why he's saying this thing, you know, he knows I'm injury, and I can't fight right now. That's why he's saying this,

this kind of thing. You know, I don't really think, I think, I really think he wants to promote himself, you know. And because I want to see he saying these things after I become 100% again, you know. Then I think he's going to be quiet again. But, of course, you know, I don't pick opponents. If the UFC wants me to fight him, I will fight him. And I will be glad to face him, you know, because we, We was supposed to fight, you know, twice.

And both of the times didn't happen because something happened with him, you know. Uh-huh. What do you make of how he has looked as of late? Are you impressed with him? Do you think he's back to his old self? Is this a fight that even interests you at this point? Well, I think he did well, you know. He did a good job.

But, well, I think he did a good job. And, well, he's not, he's a good athlete, you know, he's a good fighter. But for sure, he likes, he's a better talker than a fighter. So you think that this isn't the fight that is actually going to happen, that he's only saying this now because you're hurt and he may take some other fight and say, oh, the timing didn't work out for us? Yeah, I think it's not, you know. I need actually, right now, I need maybe three more months, you know, to become 100% again, and I start training normally again, you know. So it's going to be, it's going to take some, you know, some time to be back fighting, you know.

So maybe this fight could be happening at the end of the year or maybe, like I said, October or November. if that is possible, I think it can happen. How would you describe the last two years for yourself, and in particular your career, because you know, you fought against Kane in October of 2013, and then it took you over a year to come back from injuries and whatnot just taking a break to fight steepe,

and now you're away for an extended period of time. Are you starting to get frustrated with the injuries, the time away from the sport? How are you dealing with all of this? Well, I think, like I said, it's a very tough time for me. I don't know what happened, but things start to, you know, bad things start to happen with me. But, you know, I think this bad things comes to you to make you learn something. And I hope, I think I'm learning a lot, you know, and I think it's going to be.

make me a better a better person and a better athlete. So for sure, I don't know, you know, why it's happening, but for sure it's very tough. You know, it was a really tough year. The last almost two years, you know, was really, really tough for me. But I'm looking forward. Like I said, I'm a very positive guy. And I think the things will be going very well again, you know. know, and I'll be 100% again.

And what exactly are you learning? Is it something that you need to do differently in training? Is it becoming a different kind of fighter? Not taking as much damage? Is it less sparring? I mean, what exactly are you learning from this time away? Well, learning there. That, yeah, like, I'm seeing the things in a bit way now, you know.

And, you know, like I said before, all the time I try to use my boxing skills in my fight. And it's a MMA, you know. I know I have to use my back skills that is my boxing skills. But I have to be able to fight anywhere, you know, with these guys. Like Velazquez, you know, my boxing skills always worked out very well, you know, against all the my opponents. But against the last case, he did a good job

and he fought my stand-up game, you know. And I think I have to be able to fight on the ground over to him, you know, in the other places. Because, well, like I said, it's an MMA. I'm learning a lot of things, you know, and that I have to be more patient, you know,

When I'm fighting, you know, be more focused. And, well, during, when you have hard times, you know, I think you learn more from those hard times than when you're having just good times. Speaking of your training, I want to try to clear something up. I've seen some reports out of Brazil that have said that you are going to start training at ATT and that you won't be training at Novunia anymore. Is that accurate? Are you going to move to the ATT facility in Florida, and that's where you will train for your upcoming fight whenever you return? Oh, no, no.

Actually, right now I'm training at Marlonial, and of course I'm still with my coach, the champion team, and Nordashti Jiu-Jitsu team. And, well, I'm still here, you know. Because I have a friend that Carre de Sapato, you know, he moved to ATT, but I was thinking to go

there and visit him and maybe have some training together, but not moving to just stay training there, you know? So, right now what I can say I'm here, you know, I'm here training and I'm going to be training

at the Navajo Nieland, and that's it. The Deppere Neda is a great guy, you know, and he's helped, helping, helping me a lot, and I think, yeah, I'm fine. Okay. One of the big stars at Novunia, of course, is the featherweight champion Joseo. And I want to know if you've ever talked to him about the way he markets himself,

because I think one of the best things that you did, and you were one of the first to do this as far as the Brazilian fighters are concerned, you learned how to speak English. And now we can do interviews like this. I remember when you couldn't speak English, you needed the help of a translator when you wanted to do interviews. Do you think it would help him as far as his popularity? and just being the biggest star that he could possibly be here in America if he tried to speak English more, if he did interviews like this,

if he learned how to, you know, just do it a little bit. You don't have to become fluent in English, but just to conduct an interview. Do you feel like this is something that would help him? And have you ever talked to him about this? Well, first, thank you. And, well, I think I'm still learning in all English. I don't know too much words.

My vocabulary is too short, but I do my best. I try to do my best. You do a great job. And of course, I... Well... I said you do a great job.

I never... What? No, I just said you do a great job in your interviews, in your English interviews. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Well,

I've never talked with Jose Aldo, but for sure he knows, you know, which he speaks English, that's going to be way better for him. know, because he's unbelievable. He's the number one pound for palm of the world. You know, he, wow, he's an incredible fighter.

And for sure, if he speaks English, that's going to be way better for him. And I think he's working on those things. And maybe sooner or late, we're going to see, we're going to have him speaking in English with us. You're in Brazil right now, right? Yeah, I'm in Brazil right now. How do the people who come up to you, because you're a very big name and a recognizable face, what do the people say to you about Anderson Silva? Are they down on him, the Brazilian fans?

Do they say that he let us down, that we don't like him as much anymore, considering everything he's been through? What do you hear from the people about him? Well, yeah, they said, you know, that was very sad, you know. They didn't approve what happened. But people here, they are always very supportive. You know, they are trying to help him, you know, to become better because he's, you know, one of the greatest of the whole times.

And for sure, a big example for all of us, you know, that things can happen in our life, you know. And for sure, you know, doesn't matter what happen, you know, people is going to be supporting him all the time because he's a very, very, it's an example here for us. Considering your boxing past, I'm wondering, did you watch the Floyd-Mayweather-Mani Pac-Pakiao fight? Well, yeah, they did.

As everybody, I did. Yes. What did you think of it? I enjoyed it very much, and I think the people who are criticizing it, maybe had their their expectations a little too high. You're a boxer. You appreciate the sport of boxing. Did you enjoy it, or do you feel as though it was a boring fight?

No, I enjoy it a lot, you know. I think that was a pretty good fight, you know, between big champions. And that was a pretty good fight, you know. And I think it, Flagmeilweather did a great job, you know, because all the time he wanted, I think he reconnect the better. punches, let's say, like this, you know, and and that's why he won, because all the time, Pachial was walking forward, you know,

and I think it score points too, you know. So I think the judge decided that Mayweather won because of the, he connected the better punch. But it was, I think it could better. But it was a very good fight, you know, for sure. Do you agree that boxing isn't as good as it once was, or are you still a big fan of the sport? Do you watch it when you can?

When I can, I watch it, you know, because I love boxing, you know. I really like to watch boxing fights. But it's hard, you know, to be watching, especially here in Brazil. But when I can, for sure, I watch it, you know. But for sure, UFC now becomes MNA, right? Actually, UFC in a A, MNA or C. Sure, sure. It becomes way, way, I think, bigger than boxing, you know.

Of course, the athletes on the boxing, they are, you know, they make a lot of money. That's the big difference because for sure we are, you know, we are, you know, we are, as famous as they are. So we are bigger, I think, so then boxing now. Okay, before I let you go, and again, thank you so much for the time. I really appreciate it. I just want to get two predictions from you, okay?

This weekend is a fight that I'm sure you're interested in. It's on Fight Pass. It's taking place in Australia. It's Mark Hunt, who you have a win over, against Steppe Miotich, who you just defeated. Who do you think wins? Well, I think, yeah. The athleticism of

Miocchich is going to make the difference. So I think Miocchic is going to win. But for sure, he has to take care because Mark Hunt, he hits very, very hard. So he has to be careful with that. Okay, so you're going with Miochich. Meokic. Okay, and then the big one, June 13th in Mexico,

two other guys who you have defeated in the past, Kane Velasquez, the champion against the Yankee. interim champion, Fabrice Ovidoum, who is your pick? Well, I think King Velasquez is the favorite, for sure, you know. Maybe this time that he was without fights, you know, it's going to be, maybe it can be a problem for him, you know, because Beirgoon is coming from, you know, good victories and all the time fighting. so maybe it's going to be better for him because of that.

But I see the last guy as the favorite, and I see him winning this fight, you know. Right now, I think it's the favor against anyone of the heavyweights, except against me. Of course. What's the message to the people who have forgotten about you, who say, oh, the division has passed you by, that you're inactive? What do you want to tell to those doubters?

Well, I want to tell people that don't forget me. I'm still here and you guys will see a lot. I can do a lot of things and I will do this thing. You know, you just wait for a little bit more. I'm recovering and I'm coming back stronger and more focus to have that belt again, you know. And it's not going to take too long, you know, to make it happen. So just wait a little bit more, and don't forget, Malvi. I'm coming. Thank you so much, Jr. This has been a great pleasure. I really appreciate the time, especially from Brazil, and thank you very much to Anna for hooking us up.

So great to hear from you. I know a lot of people really wanted to hear from you, so this means a lot to us. And good luck as you try to get back to 100%. And I hope to see you back sooner rather than later, hopefully, before the end of the year. Thanks again. Thank you, Ariel. Oh, brigado. Obrigado. There he is. The former UFC heavyweight champion, Junior dos Santos Sigano, stopping by from Brazil.

Great stuff from him. And again, thank you very much to Anna for hooking us up. It has been a while since we have seen him in action. It feels like it has been a very long time, and I think the heavyweight division could use him. It's amazing how all four of those fights, and you also have the Travis Brown, Andreelofsky fight. I mean, it's a very big stretch coming up for the heavyweight division.

And he has wins over all four. those guys. You know, he, I mean, he's still very much a player. Dare I say, y'all must have forgot about Junior Dos Santos. All right, I remind you that the MMA hour is presented by NOS. You see it all over the place here, over there, you see it over there, you see it over there. We got the Nas Zero. We got the charged citrus. We've got, what's this one? The CMPLX6 for enhanced mental focus. Your critic could probably use that one today. And I remind you that there is no looking back, there's no holding back, and absolutely no regrets. Find a NOS near you at find NOS.com. Their Twitter handle is at NOS Energy Drink. And the hashtag, to engage them, is hashtag with this

NOS I will. NOS Energy. Thank you so much for being a part of the team. Thank you for the support. And now we move along. We go to our next guest. He is joining us for you the Magic of Skype. He joins us from beautiful Miami, Florida. He is manager extraordinaire, the one and only Malki Kawa, who last time when he joined us from this very spot, there were a bunch of shoes, I believe, in back of you. No more shoes. What's going on? Where are all the shoes? I took them all home. That's it. I took them all home. Yeah, it's enough. They told me, well, the thing is we're redoing this office. I'm getting completely gutted and I'm redoing it. Okay. So I had to start taking my stuff home. But I've got like a thousand posters and a bunch of things I have no room for. So I have to start

take, I have a whole storage for my sneakers. I have a whole bunch of sneakers. So whatever, I just have to take them out of here. Of course, one of the many reasons why we wanted to have you on the show was to talk about your client, John Jones. But I want to get the breaking news out of the way first. Another one of your clients, Melvin Galardo, was just announced like two hours ago, maybe three hours ago that he has signed with Beltoir, released from World Series of Fighting late last week and now with Belator, what happened there? Why did he get released? Well, I mean, so really simply put, because I don't want to, you know, get into the problem that Melvin and them had between each other. But Melvin missed away with them a couple of times. They were upset with him.

He started, I guess this last fight got his medical, started getting his medicals in late. I think they didn't feel he was going to show up to the fight or be cleared the fight, which I disagreed with. And they pulled him off the cart. So I simply called Ali, my good friend, Ali for that matter, right? Yes. And I was like, listen, but you guys obviously, you know, are not happy with him. He's not happy this way. Let's just give me the release and let's just score separate ways and call that a day. And I think that actually, hats off to Ali.

He kind of made the tough call because a lot of the people at the World Series of fighting didn't want to release Melvin per se. And I think Ali kind of understood, you know, where everything was headed to and how it was going. Him being a manager and understanding our position, he went back and he's like, look, guys, I don't think this is going to work. So they gave us the release, which we're happy about and we're cool with. And, you know, I appreciate that they did that. And what do you call it? We went ahead and got him signed with Bellator to a phenomenal deal with Belator. And I'm very excited about working with Belator.

And I know I'm the guy that, what, about maybe a year ago or so, said, would never ever work with Belator. It's a new day. Yeah, but it's a different thing now, Ariel. I mean, Scott Coker is a great guy. It's so stand up. It's unbelievable. And, you know, Rich Chow is great. And it's easier to work with those guys.

And I'm excited to see what Bellator really is all about. I can't make a comment good or bad yet. because so far just the contract part of it was awesome. It was great. And they gave him a very fair deal. It was better than his UFC deal. Wow. Even coming off losses.

So I can say that part about them already is awesome. And with that being said, you know, I'm excited that, you know, to see what they're all about and see what working with Scott Koker is really about. Everyone says nothing but great things. So I'm excited about it, looking forward to it. Was there interest from the UFC? You know, I didn't even try, to be honest with you. Okay. And I don't think there was any interest from us at this point.

point, to be honest with you. And I don't mean in the bad way, it's just more like I didn't want to take him back there. Just the offer from Militor was that good. And I don't think they were going to do what they were doing for him. Okay, let's get to John Jones. Of course, you are very much linked to him. You have been with him for quite some time.

What has the last week been like for you? A little more than a week since this all happened Sunday morning. For you personally, what has it been like? You know, from, you know, there's two different aspects of it, right? Because he's my client, so it's obviously stressful from that. part and he's also my friend so it's very stressful from a from the relationship that me and him have it's just stressful it's just very very stressful a lot of a lot of uh questions and things of that nature and just you know anything that you would do you know if you care about somebody and you see somebody go through

anything good or bad you have emotions about it and that's basically kind of what it's been like how would you describe his his current mood and state right now i mean he's had some time to digest this i'm sure the aftermath the hangover if you will like it happened it was probably a shock and then he's stripped and he still has a lot more to deal with. I'm sure that was almost worse in a sense. What's he like almost a week later? He's focusing on himself. Okay. He's focusing on himself right now. That's what I can tell you. Okay. And for you, I mean, you have received some criticism, right? I mean, people have thrown around the word enablers and, you know, people who are surrounding him, who aren't doing right by him. Have you taken any of these comments to heart? Do you feel like you're

being attacked here. Your integrity is being attacked. Yeah, I mean, you know, look, if you don't care, and I know sometimes I say, I don't care what people say, but, you know, it's tough to not care when, you know, your kids are getting it at school. You know, I keep going back. Wow. People say it about me and this is, you know, my daughter's the one that comes back home and says, dad, you know, kids are saying that you're the one doing this and I'm like, you know, and it's tough because then you, you know, it's not me trying to defend myself to you guys or the media of the fans. It's my little kid that I have to look at and say that. But, you know, at the end of the day, I really honestly, at the end of the day, don't care.

Because if people know me, the ones who do know me, know that I, you know, I'm not an enabler. I'm not a guy that's, you know, looking to harm any of my clients. And I also think that you got to just kind of look at everything as a whole, right? I've got 70 clients. You know what I mean? And why am I then picking on John Jones? Why do I want to see him do bad? And that's where I think people just don't get it.

understand it and it's all good you know what I'm not going to try to sit here and make an argument or a case for myself you know what I mean I don't I think it's it's way beyond that at this point I don't even I don't even care good listen here's the point he left Ithacaque went to albuquerque right yeah would we say that Greg Jackson's enabler is is Brandon Gibson a leech or a hanger on are those guys that we've known you know over the past 10 years bad people is Mike Winkle John not a good person you know what I mean is easy you know so they can criticize me the coaches, everyone, and at the end of the day, you know, I think we've all learned that people are just going to find someone to pick on. And if I'm that guy, then I'm that guy.

It is true that you have a very impressive client list. You've had champions, former champions, all that stuff and other non-MMA fighters, but one could make the claim that he is your biggest client. He is your most popular client, your best client, all that stuff. So then they could say, well, you cater towards him. You don't tell him when to say when. You don't try to stop him. you're a yes man to him. You know, we've seen this before. What do you say to those people? You know, area, at the end of the day, again,

I think I'd rather wait to one day if John Jones writes a book or does a movie that they can portray the fights that me and them have had and the things that, both ways. I mean, you know, listen, let me put it to you like this. He's my number one client by far. I don't know that I would have had a lot of the same success that I would have had

without having him as a client. He's been a tremendous friend. he's been a good friend to me, my brother. He's been awesome to my kid. My whole family loves him. We love him. I love him. You know what I mean?

So if somebody thinks that me, that I'm a yes man, then I think the best person to answer that question would be John himself when he decides to talk to you guys. You ask him that because I think, you know, people got to realize that, you know, his income and his well-being, I derive an income from that, right? So take away the friendship and everything else. I derive an income from that. So if I'm just going to, yeah, sure, John, no problem.

Let's just go do whatever you guys think that he does or doesn't. You know what I mean? And if you think that I'm there saying, let's go, then you guys are crazy. I mean, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. You know what I mean? He's the boss. He tells us what to do and what not to do. But we all are men and we have our own opinions and we voiced them and we put them out there.

But, I mean, I just think that a lot of people have a lot of things wrong. A lot of things are mixed up in this whole situation, the scenario. And again, I don't think that today or your show is going to be the right. I'm not going to be able to change anyone's mind. Does that make sense? Sure, sure, absolutely. You know, if someone believes something, they're going to believe it and you could say a whole bunch of stuff. Can you look back at the past, you know, this run as champion and say, you know what, in hindsight, I should have done this. I should have put him here. I shouldn't have let him do that. Do you take any of the blame? What are we talking about? You know, what do you say blame? I mean, like at the end of the day, let me ask you this question. We forget all the great things he's done. Absolutely. We're quick to forget everything he's done. And we're quick to just.

judge, right? We're quick to judge. We're assuming that everything we're hearing and reading is the truth, right? Yeah. Okay. I'm not going to sit here and tell you guys in hindsight that I wish I would have done this different or that different because in honesty, I don't. I really don't. There's not, I mean, let me ask you this question. If I send Carlos Condit down to Brazil for an appearance, right, and the place catches fire and he gets injured, right? In hindsight, I wish I never would have sent him down there. But if he goes down there and he comes out of it perfectly fine, but there's an issue that happened because of whatever it is, then it happens. I mean, you know, I'm not going to be that guy that's going to sit here and tell you. I wish this and that would have been different because I can't

pinpoint a position or any, okay, you got to give me a scenario. I mean, I remember Dana White when we first told him about the mugging when the thing happened in New Jersey, right, before his title fight. He was like, are you kidding me? You're going to give me a heart attack. Well, if I would have known that there was going to be a mugging in that park, I wouldn't have put him there, not to save the lady or not save the lady, I just never would have put him there because you don't know what the outcome is going to be. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, I mean, are you following what I'm trying to say? Yes. I can't see here and say that there's something that I wish I would have had him do or not do because for the, I think the majority of everything that has happened around his career, people are taking

the DUI, the positive cocaine test in this situation now and saying, oh my God, and coming to a lot conclusions based on him. You take those three scenarios out. He's the greatest fighter that we've ever had. He's the greatest champion we've ever had. And I don't know where I would have possibly not put him in a certain position. Does that make sense? Were you surprised when the UFC stripped him? Did you think they would do that? I was very surprised. I didn't think they were going to do that. I don't think they should have. I'll get, I'll, that was my next question, but I just want to ask, what about the suspension? What about, you know, just suspending him indefinitely? Were you surprised about that? I'm not surprised.

about it. I kind of thought that's something that they had to do. I don't necessarily agree with it, but it's something that I thought that they had to do. So then let me ask you about the belt. Why don't you agree with it? John Jones won that belt inside the octagon. Nobody beat him for the belt, right? That's just one case in itself. But on the other hand, we're jumping to a lot of conclusions. We haven't let things play out. He hasn't had his day in court. And I don't think that it's okay to just, you know, hand punishments down like that. But I do definitely understand where the UFC and sponsors and everyone is coming from. I can totally understand. So since this is kind of this strange situation where this happened and he has a flight already book, like sometimes it can happen where he doesn't have a fight

and you can just keep him on ice, but he had a fight rapidly approaching, do you think they should have kept him on the card because there's no way this is going to be resolved? I mean, it's 19 days away at this point by May 23rd, so do you think they should have just let him fight? You know what, Ariel, again, I'm a firm believer that whether it's John Jones or any athlete, right,

when somebody's been accused of doing something, no matter what it looks like or it doesn't look like, I believe that they should have an opportunity to defend themselves first, have an opportunity to have their day in court. But if we go back to, like, the NFL, if you look at Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, they weren't allowed to play. You know what I mean? And then they went and had a lot of their stuff overturned

and a lot of things came out later that showed worse things and things that maybe weren't as bad as it first was perceived. I'd rather see leagues hand punishments out after people have had their day in court. But I can understand, you know, the court of public opinion sometimes reigns supreme. So I can understand that this had happened. So for me to tell you that I wish they wouldn't have suspended him, I think that that'd be me coming from a biased place, for all I'm trying to say. But, you know, I think we totally accepted the suspension.

I thought they had to do it. I agreed, you know, when they handed it down. I just don't know that indefinite was the right thing to do per se. And I definitely just don't agree with the belt being stripped. because if this gets resolved in the next 60 to 90 days, then what? You know, now you're saying, okay, well, now you're reinstated, and then what? You know what I mean? So to me, it's just, I just felt like this shit shouldn't have been to that degree.

But again, I'm coming from a more biased place than maybe where everyone else is coming from. I know you weren't physically there, but do you agree with the decision that they made last Tuesday? Excuse me, did you try to convince them other, like, were you a part of that discussion? Were you on the phone? Were you something to Skype, whatever? And did you try to say, look, guys, I mean, maybe John isn't in the right place to defend himself. Maybe he's got a lot going on in his mind, but I'm coming from, you know, a cooler spot right now. This isn't the right call.

Can't you just put them on ice? Can't you make an interim title? Did you try to do that or did you just take it? I'm not going to get into our conversations between me and the UFC, obviously, Eric, because, you know, it's a sensitive situation when it comes to that type of stuff. I'm just going to say that, you know, there was a lot of discussions that happened. And, you know, in the end, you know what I mean? This was the punishment that they gave and this is what we, you know, we're dealing with now. When did you first meet John, like for the first time?

UFC 100. Really? Okay. And he wasn't a client of yours, right? No, it wasn't a client of mine. I met him UFC 100. That's when he fought Jake O'Brien, correct? Yeah.

And how did you meet him? Like, what were the circumstances? He was around his old team, and his brother Arthur was there. And I caught him coming out of the way and he was rehydrating. And I walked up to him when I told him, I said, hey, you know what I mean? I think that you're going to be, to be honest with you at the time, I was still doing football. You had no MMA clients? No, I did have MMA clients.

You know, I represented in Tiago first and a bunch of other guys at the same time. But at the time, what's funny is that he had a brother who was playing for Syracuse. I was a highly touted defense alignment. Yeah. So I was really more interested in Arthur than I wasn't John. But I watched him fight at UFC 100 and instantly knew he was going to be the future of our sport. I mean, I knew it that day at UFC 100. It was a lot of reasons why I knew he was going to be the best, just watching him that fight.

Even though it wasn't one of his greatest fights at all. I wasn't even close to it. But it was more because of Arthur. I mean, I wanted to talk to Arthur more than anything. So Arthur was there. And I remember meeting Arthur real quick, but they were very, like, they weren't very, you know, I was an agent. So it wasn't like, oh, hey, what's up, how are you doing? Because he's very cool with fans and all that stuff.

Both of them are. But when I came up and said, hey, how are you doing? I'm so-and-so's guy. They kind of looked at me and were like, okay, well, what are you talking with us for? You know what I mean? So I just kind of introduced myself and just kind of kept it moving. But after I saw him fight, I knew that this guy was the truth. Like this is the kid that MMA needed.

So in July, that would be six years ago. And by the way, is someone calling you of importance? Yeah, a lot of people are calling me that are more important than you are you? Damn. I'm sorry. All right. Fair enough.

We appreciate the time. That's going to be in six years, UFC 100, right? That's six years, the six-year anniversary of UFC 100 is this July. Can you honestly tell us that he is the same person? I mean, everyone grows up, everyone matures. But did the belt lead him down the wrong path? Has he made mistakes? Can you say that?

I can't say anything to that. that effect, I think you guys know the mistakes he's made or haven't made. I think what I can tell you Ariel is that, you know, he's been a athlete since he was 12 years old. He was a pro athlete at 18, just like Kobe, just like LeBron. And I think that with being a pro athlete and being the face of an organization, okay, being the guy that had, and here's the difference. I mean, people don't get, LeBron walks into an organization like the NBA, and LeBron, you know, is part of a system that's already been established, sponsors and this and that. And it's a, it's a, it's a, you know, You come to MMA, and we're a relatively very new sport,

and there's a lot of growing up that this sport has to do on all aspects of it, from the league itself to the athletes themselves, to the agents, to managers, to the media, everybody. I think there's a lot that still needs to be done here. And you get this kid, and he's, you're the guy. You're the guy who's going to help us get the Nike sponsorships. You're the guy who's going to get gatorade. You're the guy who's going to be the face, and you're going to help us get the African-American demographic, and you're going to get America to jump on board like Canada and Brazil,

and you're the guy, and you're the guy, and you're the guy, and you're the guy, guy. And he was, you know, very young when all this stuff hit him. And I can tell you that there's, he's been an athlete this whole entire time, man. He's been, he's been the guy since he stepped foot into this organization, probably about what a year after he became a UFC fighter. He was pretty much, you know, the future of our sport. And what I can tell you is that I'm not going to blame anything on anything. I'm not going to tell you any mistake he's made or anything that, you know, I can't sit there and pretend that John Jones makes mistakes because of a belt. And I'm not going to sit here and pretend that any belt made John Jones.

You know what I mean? I think John Jones is responsible for John Jones. So you have invested almost six years in this guy and put a lot of time and effort, money, all that stuff. What was it like for you to wake up Wednesday morning? And at least right now, none of it exists anymore. The Reebok deal is gone. We've heard of other sponsors. The belt is gone.

How did you process that? I'm the best that I could. You know, it hurts because I know what he's done to get to the point where he's gone. So I know what he's been through. You know what I've gone through. and, you know, it's just, it is what it is. At the end of the day, you know, we wake up, we're living, we're breathing, we've got families. You know what I mean?

We've got friends. We've got people that we love and that we care about, and we know that we have to do what we have to do. You know what I mean? At least for me, that's just the way I feel. You know what I got other fighters, I got to go 10 too. I got a little girl that I got to be a dad too, and I got, you know, a mom that I got to be a son too. And brothers and sisters, I got to be a family man too. So, you know, it's disappointing for all of us.

I think the whole team, I mean, listen, think, think Greg Jackson is happy? You think, Izzy's happy, you think I'm happy, you think any, you think Arthur Jones, you think anybody's happy? I mean, we're all kind of like, okay, but we all know that, you know what, we know what we got to do. And that's, I think, you know, something that that is a new motivation for us. Do you know for sure that he will fight again? No, I don't know that for sure. How come?

I just don't. I don't know. It could very well be the last time we've seen John Jones into the Octagon. Really? I think John Jones is going to, I think John Jones is going to focus on John Jones. Jones. I think that he's going to take the time to do whatever he's got to do. And, you know, if this is the last time that we've seen him fight, it's the last time we've seen him fight. And I'm okay with that. That's why everybody's like, oh, you know, when you ask that question about sponsorship and, you know, what's it like for you to wake up?

And I understand that there's things bigger than that. You know, this is life we're talking about. This is, you know, it's more than a business. He's my friend. I care about him a lot. And I'm perfectly fine. If he never comes back to the sport again, you know, I'm okay with that. He's still going to down as the greatest of all time. And no one's going to ever convince me otherwise. fighters ever done what he's been able to do, and I don't think anyone's been able to impact the sport the way he has. And the reality of it is that you can try to bring him down any way you want. You can say the things he's done, didn't do, whatever. But I really do believe at the end of the day, you know, he's the greatest of all time inside the octagon. No one can take that away from him. You know, not that long ago, we heard GSP say, it's too much, it's too much pressure. I need time off, right? And we haven't seen him come back. And then when Anderson lost to Chris Wyman for the first time,

he was almost saying, like, you know, I don't want the rematch. I don't want the belt. He can have it. time. Did the same thing happen to John? I mean, did all of this get to be too much where it took away his love and he was feeling the pressure and all that? And is that why you're saying this now? No, I'm not saying this to you guys at all because I don't know if it was necessarily any one reason. Did you ever tell you that it's getting, it's wearing on him? Listen, the things that me and John talk about, area between me and John, I'm not going to get into some of the details of things that we've said. What I can just tell you and you guys can try to read between the lines is that, you know, I think every athlete comes to a point.

And it's not just John Jones. I've had other guys. I've had other guys who look in the mirror one day and they realize that a lot of it is just maybe sometimes too much. It's just too much. You know what I mean? If you don't fight a guy in seven days notice, you're trash. You know what I mean? If you stop a mugger, well, okay, great.

You're a great guy. Thanks so much. You're the new world champion. You need to do these interviews. There's so much that goes into it. It's not just him. This is what I'm trying to tell you. So we see it with GSP.

You see it with Anderson. I think a big part of if he never, comes back to the sport, Ariel, if he doesn't ever come back to the sport, it's because he doesn't want to come back to the sport. If it's because it was too much pressure, it could be. If it was because of the belt, it could be if the competition is too much, it could be whatever reason he decides is the reason why he won't come back to the sport. But it'll be solely on him. I'm not going to blame anything or anyone for anything John Jones does. You get what I'm coming from and no one, the same token can take credit for anything that John Jones does. Everything

that's John Jones is John Jones. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Coaches can't pretend that they're the reason why he's winning fights. I can't pretend that he's a millionaire because of the sponsorship deals that we do or not. All these things happen because of and all because of John Jones. You follow what I'm trying to tell you? So if he decides to walk away from this sport, if this is the last time we've ever seen him fight, and it very well may be, then it's because it's a decision he's decided to make. It won't be because of something that you guys are perceiving to be a problem.

It won't be because he's any of the negative headlines or the positive things he's done. It'll just be because, you know, he's figured that he's, he's had it. Maybe it's it's it. What does your heart say? Like deep down, what do you think? Do you think we'll ever see him fight again? I don't know, man. I'm 50-50. You're 50-50. There's days I think he'll definitely come back and there's days I think he's not coming back. Did he ever at any point in this last week say, I am done and then go back on his way? You know, because people are emotional. They say things and then they calm down a little bit. Again, the things he's told me and stuff that I said like there, I'm not going to tell anybody he said. I'm not going to say what he's

fair enough. My little theory is if Daniel Cormier wins that belt on May 23rd and starts parading around town with it and saying, I'm the new champion, blah, blah, blah, that might light a fire under him because of the way he feels about the guy. You know, him and Rumble seem to have a nice cordial relationship, not the case with Daniel it didn't end like we've seen before with guys hugging it out. Could Cormier win kind of be the thing that gets him to come back and get off his couch, you know? I mean, let me ask you this question, Harold, first of all.

If you're Daniel Cormier and you win this belt, right? You go braiding around the world that you're the champion and you're this and you're that. Do you think anyone on the face of this earth can actually take you serious? But you know he's going to do it, right? It's such a joke at that point. Huh? You know he's going to do it.

You know he's going to do it. He can do whatever he likes. I think that if that happens, listen, again, I'm going to say this to you again, and I want to be very clear. If John Jones comes back to the sport of MMA, right? Yeah. It's going to happen because he wants to.

Not because of Daniel Cormier, not because of me, not because of anybody. It's going to be because he wants to come back. And, I mean, that's all I got to say about it. Okay. What are his next? steps? Like, what does he do? I mean, from, because they haven't, the DA hasn't decided whether they're going to proceed with this case, right? Is that accurate?

I'm not going to talk anything about the case here. Okay. I'm not going to make clear right now. I can't just, I'm not going to, can't do it. Fair enough. Can you tell us, like, will he be doing any kind of rehab, like, any of that in play here, or it's just all family time? That, again, that's the stuff that's, that's, you know, between him and his family. Okay. And final thing on him, it was made, you know, very public that Reebok, dropped them, right? They put out a statement. Have any of his sponsors stood by him? You know what? It's not an appropriate time for me to discuss the sponsors right now. I'm going to let things kind of go, but I promise you at some point in the future area, I'm going to come back

and I'll address a lot of the things with the sponsors. I'll address some things more in-depth later on when I'm able to. Right now, it's not the time to talk about stuff like that. So I'm going to leave it alone, and you know, that's for another day. Okay, and I'm just curious, have you had a chance to see him in person? And if not, will you be seeing him in person soon? I hope so But you haven't seen him yet No Does it matter?

No well no I'm just wondering I was just wondering if you You had a chance to meet up with him And talk to him You know Why you're just worried about Why you're so worried about me

And John Jones is what I want to know Why me and John Why just me and John? Why is it me and John? You guys are so infatuated With this me and John Jones thing What do you mean? You're his

I mean every time I've ever seen John I've seen you You're his manager You're his friend All right well listen Can we move on to a different subject Absolutely But you don't understand

where I'm coming from? It's not, it would be weird. It was a joke. Okay. It was a joke. Because it would be weird if I didn't ask you about John Jones. I feel like we discussed this prior. Okay, fair enough. I just had Junior Dos Santos on the show and we were talking about Alistair Overeem. Is that the fight that's going to happen

next for Overeem? I would like for that to happen next. Even if he can only come back in October? I'm sorry? Even if he's only ready in October? Well, I mean, look, we were looking for a fight in July, August. Yeah. And I think that if I'm, if, you know, UFC's been kind of quiet on it.

So if I can kind of take that as any indication, they're probably going to push for that fight in October. If that's when he wants to come back, I got to get with Alist and see if he wants to wait until October or if he wants to take a fight now in August and then maybe be ready to turn around a fight October, November. And that might be the case as well. Okay, but that's what you want. Perfect World. That's what you want. Yeah, I'd like I'd like to get, I'd like to get Alistair a good top five fight now and have him win and set him up for a title fight. Absolutely. Because Junior seems to think that Alster is only saying this now because he's injured.

Like if he was healthy, he wouldn't be saying that he wants him. No, at the contrary, I didn't even know that he was out to this long. I mean, the truth in the fact of the matter is that, you know, when we talked about it, nobody said Junior was hurt. You know, we said, let's find out from the UFC if he's available. If he is, you know, let's push for that fight. So let me just put that, you know, rumor to bed right now. I'll just over him in no shape or form and saying it because he's hurt.

We actually, when I spoke to Joe, Joe said I got to get with, with over, sorry, with DeSantos, to find out what's his, what's his, you know, time table to come back. So I don't even think they knew he was going to be out that long. So with that being said, you know what I mean, Junior, love you to death, bro, you're cool and all, but Alistair

in no way, shape, performance, send it because you heard he's actually wants to fight you, but if it doesn't work out because of the timetable, then it doesn't work out. You have a rare thing coming up on May 30th, two of your longtime clients, your first client, Tiago Alves, fighting Carlos Condo. What are you going to do that day? I'm going to do the same exact thing I did when Carlos fought Tyron.

Just do my job for both guys and stay out of it. And just, you know, hopefully, you know, that there's a good fight and no injury. This last one came out with Carlos Keating his knee hurt. And I'm really hoping that, you know, this time, win or lose, that there's just no injury for any guy. Is Woodley going to fight Hendricks next? Well, I'm pushing for it. He really wants that fight back. You know what I mean?

I don't know if Hendricks wants that fight, to be honest with you. You know, listen, dude, let me take some. The guys I represent want to fight guys. You know what I mean? I've never had one of my fighters get called out by somebody and them call me and say, hey, man, I don't want to fight this guy. You know what I mean? Even Frank Meir, when Todd Duffy started calling him out, no reason to take that fight.

Frank Meir called and said, I'll take that fight. So if you look at Tyron's Twitter accounts on social media, he's looking for that fight. He's begging for that fight. And I don't think Johnny wants that. Johnny wants no part of Tyrant. I don't think that's a good fight for Johnny. You know what I mean? I think he wants to wait out and get the championship.

And I can understand where he's coming from. But if I was him, I'd fight Tyron and shut Tyron up. Tyrant could be annoying, dude, when it comes to that stuff. He's constant. I want that fight, want that fight. So, I mean, you know, if Johnny has any type of fight in him, then he'll fight Tyrant, but I don't think he wants it. And with July rapidly approaching in the UFC changing the way the Reebok deal is structured, it no longer goes by ranking. It goes by tenure.

How do you feel about the deal as it stands right now? Do you have more information? Do you feel more comfortable? Because this is going to change, you know, it's going to change the industry. It's going to change perhaps how you do your job. How do you feel about it? It's rapidly approaching. Yeah, no, I mean, look, you know, when John got the Nike deal back when he got it, right, Ariel, I told everybody back then, I think I might have said on your show and I know I said in interviews to get prepared because now it will be the time that you will find that the industry is going to start to change. Eventually, the UFC is going to have illegal-wide sponsor.

I think it took like a year and a half after that or two years after that, and now here we are where we're looking at Reebok sponsoring the whole, you know, UFC. you get what I'm coming from? And I said that was going to happen. The reason why I like that, the reason why I like that deal is because I think for the UFC to be regarded as some of the other sports, football, baseball, basketball, you need that to be in play. Just like soccer, everybody has their own uniform and stuff. Now, the differences is, like, in soccer,

you get a sponsor here or there that the league actually owns, the team owns, not the actual individual player. But what it's going to force agents to do is for us to go outside the octagon and start looking for the companies. that can actually activate people away from the octagon. There's only going to be a handful of those guys anyway. Just like an NBA and in football, there's only a handful of guys that get the big shoe deals

and the Nike deals and all this other stuff that they're, you know, traditionally get in the other sports. MMA is not there yet when it comes to that. I don't think any one of our athletes is necessarily on the level of LeBron. You follow him to say, the only one that was kind of getting there was John. And that's why he got so much interest from some of the bigger sponsors. But eventually you'll see somebody get there.

And when that happens, that person will get the sponsor. And it's only going to be that one person or maybe two or three. And then everyone else is going to get whatever they can find somewhere else. What I like about this Reebok deal is that it's going to give agents an opportunity, though, to go and sell a guy like a John Jones to these companies, you know what I mean, and hopefully get some of these deals done. So you might see someone of an Old Spice commercial or a Visa commercial or a Cadillac commercial. And there's because when the sport looks more professional, that's going to happen.

The downplay to that is, you know, you take a guy like a Carlos Condit who's who's popular in our sport, it might not be popular mainstream-wise, who might not be a big name to the average person, but in our sport is a big name, right? It's one of the more popular guys. He was making in the six figures. This is before the injury, six figures and sponsorship, right, in the total amount of sponsors.

So when they came on and said, you're going to be making more money now and you're not going to have any issues getting paid, well, there's a lot of guys on my roster, like a Tyron Woodley, like a Carlos Conno, like Tiago Alvis, like an Alas, like an Alastor Overeem that were making well over 30, 40, 50,000 a fight, especially if you take it over a course of a year, the guys making $250,000 a

year, you break that up over the course of the month. But they're trying to pay them for one fight a year or one fight that they fight. These guys are making that every single month. So now it's like, well, you replace everything with just clothing. Well, some of my guys had clothing deals that were bigger than the actual Reebok sponsorship that they're getting now. So that's where I think it's going to change a lot of stuff. It's going to force us to go out and get other opportunities outside the Octagon.

The sad thing is, I don't know if those opportunities are really going to be there. I don't know that there's going to be a lot of, you know, extra NASS sponsorships, for example, for fighters outside the Arctic. Thank you very much. I mean, she did a good job plugging it before the fact. Sure, sure. I appreciate it. Have you started to work on that? Have you started to look around?

Do you feel like there are some opportunities? I have been for a while. I have been for a while. If you guys go back, I mean, I give an example. Look at John. When you saw him, you know, when he was fighting, obviously, his whole entire for about the last, what, year and a half, two years. It's only been, you know, big sponsors on his stuff. His shorts are always empty.

It's just, you know, it was Nike at one point in Gatorade, Nike and EA Sports, Reebok and EA Sports, and that was it. There isn't any, we didn't put a lot of the traditional stuff on his shorts, and I've been doing that a lot, trying to, you know, open the doors for some of the smaller guys through some of the bigger name guys, getting them some deals and then turn around

and passing whatever we can around to some of the other people. And, you know, and hopefully we'll be able to continue to get some stuff done, but it's going to be hard. I'm telling you, it's going to take a lot of these agents to get out there and do it for their biggest name. client like if you took every big name guy right so if you got ronda let's say you know um obviously john before the situation john and maybe um uh cane and and you really start having all the agents push because we're separate groups pushing different guys out there you're gonna see something hit here

something hit there and then there's going to be the opportunity because it takes like you look at what happened right we got the nike deal for john reboc came into the sport you know you go get gatorade now power raid was to come around her you go get monster you know now you know gnaz might come around. And so I'm not looking at it. Like, I have to be the guy to go get a deal with a certain person. But if, you know, somebody else can go out and get something for one of the bigger named people, there's going to be an opportunity for us to go to their competitors and also, you know, solicit some business and hopefully open it up for other guys because there's only maybe five or six people in all of our sport that are mainstream people that can get these

type of deals. But if those six people are taken up and there's a company that wants to get in and compete, then you might be able to get some of the mid-level guys also some of those opportunities, or at least on the very basic appearance level, you know, show up here, let me use your name and likeness for a little bit type of thing, and there might be opportunities for some of the other fighters in this business. I just don't think that for 600 fighters on a roster, you're going to see a lot of that motion. It's going to be show up to a fight, here's your Reebok check, and call it a day. That's going to be it. Two last quick things before I let you go. If this is the end of John Jones's career at 27 years old, is he comfortable? Does he,

you know, has he made enough? Is he good for the foreseeable future? I mean, you know, listen, I'm not going to comment on that at all because I think it's out of place or out of line for me to do that. But, you know, if he doesn't come back, I think he knows what he's doing. I think he'd make, you know, the right, you know, decision from himself and his family. Do you think we will hear from him soon? I think so. Hopefully one day, I'm sure.

One day, of course, one day. I hope so. Maybe. Okay. So, yeah, hopefully. Fingers crossed. Great to have you on the show, Malky. A pleasure as always.

It's always good to be on the show. Same here, buddy. Thanks for giving us some time out of your day. I know you probably have 85 missed calls there. So get back to doing what you do. Appreciate the time and best of luck to you and the team. Thank you very much, sir. Appreciate it.

There he is. Makakawa stopping by. First round management. Check them out first round. Management.com. We appreciate the insight as always. Okay. Inside the vault time before we get to our next interview,

Jessica Peney coming up. This weekend, it is the UFC in Adelaide, Australia. And, you know, one of my favorite fighters to watch. is a man by the name of Anthony Parosh, the hippo. The man who defies age. He's like 100 years old at this point, yet still plugging away and still successful in the UFC. He returns to action, of course, anytime the UFC is in Australia, you know the hippo is going to be on the card. He's fighting Sean O'Connell, who I like as well.

And that is on the main card, fight pass. The whole card is on fight pass. Prelims at 745 Eastern. Main card at 11 Eastern. That is Saturday night, Sunday, in Austin. Australia. So I wanted to look back at a recent win for Anthony Peros. Remember back at UFC 163, August of 2013? Anthony Perosch fought our good pal Vinnie Magaliyash, the biggest troll in all of MMA. There is no one bigger than Vinny as far as trolling is concerned. And, well, the fight

didn't really go his way. He was knocked out in just 14 seconds by the hippo. It was August 3rd, 2013, it was in Brazil a 14-second knockout by the Australian Anthony Perosch. I wanted to look at that post-fight interview in this week's edition of Inside the Vault. Here it is. Ariel Hawani post-fight at UFC 163 alongside the hippo, Anthony Parosh, who just knocked out Vinnie Magalesh in 14 seconds of the very first round. Your last fight, you were knocked out in seven seconds. Now you come back 14 seconds.

Did you ever imagine this? No, not at all. Like, you know, no one likes to be knocked out, especially a short time, but it does feel good to be on the other end of it. And that fight was a year ago your fight against Ryan Jimmo. Was it frustrating? I know you had an injury in the wintertime, but was it frustrating to have to sit on that for so long, think about it, and wait to try to rectify the loss? Yeah, look, as you know, MMA is a very unforgiving sport, and you're only as good as your last fight. And you're right, I was ready to fight again.

last December in Australia, but I got injured, so I had to wait a little bit longer, but now the weight is over, and I can look for the next fight now. Speaking of the injury, you severed your toe. It was very John Jones-esque, although you did it a few months before him. How's the toe feeling? Toes 100%. You know, you have to treat it like a broken bone, took two months for the bone to heal, a month of rehab of bending the joint back in place, and now it's 100%. When you were game planning for this fight, did you think it would go down like that? Of course, you know,

Sometimes when you get two jujitsu guys, they'll start off standing, of course, as a fight normally does. But to knock them out that quickly, was that something you envisioned? I envisioned that it could have been anywhere. Like I've been working hard on my boxing, and we're working on, you know, set up the jab, move left, move right, set up the cross using the jab. So I was prepared to stand up, to work in the clinch, to go on the ground. I was prepared for everything. And I expected everything too. like my boxing coach says, look, you've got a hard ride, knock him out.

What's going through your mind when you land that initial punch and he goes down? Kind of in slow motion. It looked almost like he was pulling guard. What are you thinking? A little bit, you know, I've made the mistake before of, you know, celebrating too early. But you couldn't help get that bit of butterfly that, you know, I rocked him hard and just had to keep the pressure on until the referee stopped it. You know, a lot of people remember that you got an opportunity to return to the UFC.

short notice against Miracle Krocop in your home country of Australia. Do you ever think back to that if you didn't get that opening, none of this would be happening to you? You're absolutely right, or it might be happening a few years down the track because, you know, I was fighting at the time, but only on the local circuit. And I wasn't in the UFC yet, but maybe it needed two or three more wins. So, you know, the fight with Murko Krokoop definitely put me back in there much sooner. You're 41.

How many more years do you want to do this for? Hey, I'm 40. 41 in October. They had it wrong. The Americans, they flip the date over because I'm fifth or the tenth, but you thought it's anyway. Someone's wrong. You're 40. I don't want to give you an extra year.

I keep telling people, look, one of three things, if I lose more than I win, I'm going to give it up. If my body can't keep up with a training, I'll go. give it up. And finally, if I just don't want it anymore, I'll give it up. So at the moment, none of those three things are happening. I want it more than ever. I'm winning more. I feel the best I've ever had 40 years old, believe it or not, so I'm here to stay. Final question, is this even sweeter for you because of all the things Vinny said about you, saying that if you lost, you should be cut, talking about your jiu-jitsu, does that make it even better for you? Look, it does. It's not something I dwell on what the opponent.

says about me, but but yeah, I guess the last one kind of broke the straw that broke the camels back. Which was what? Which one? Well, he said that if he doesn't beat me, he deserves to be cut. Well, I'm still here, you know, on Monday,

I don't know where you'll be. Thank you very much. Amazing performance. Thank you. Gotta love the hippo. Great stuff from him that night in Brazil, August of 2013. And how about that? He is still kicking it. He's still going strong.

Since then he's one-in-one. Remember that lost to Ryan Bader in December of that year. That was a hard one to watch if you're a fan of the hippo. But he did come back and defeat Guto Inosinch in November of last year. Remember that? That was a quick win. First round, submission. And, well, Vinny stayed true to the stipulation. He was cut from the UFC after that, but he's still kicking it as well. I believe working out some things with the Titan and soon will be debuting for World Series of Fighting. But the hippo, after we were talking about it, you know, two years ago, 41 years old. Actually, no, I think he was 40 at the time. Now he's 42,

and still very much a part of the UFC. And it was a great story how he got into the UFC, if you recall. He was a very late replacement against Mirko Filipovich, Mirko Krokov at UFC 110, also in Sydney. Mirko's opponent fell out and he stepped up on just days. It was amazing. And it was supposed to be Ben Rothwell. He stepped up and had a nice performance and he has stuck around. I mean, that was five years ago. A nice draw for them in Australia.

He fights on the Fight Pass main card this Saturday night. You can get it on UFC FightPass.com. Also on UFC FightPass June 20th in Berlin, Germany. Yohanna Yom Jacek, the new UFC Strawway Channel. champion will defend her title for the very first time against our guests at this time. It was announced on Friday. It will no longer be Alexander Gustafsson versus Glover-Teshire as the main event. It will be Poland's own, Yohanna Young-Jechek, defending her title against Jessica Peney,

and she joins us right now on the phone. Jessica, are you there? Yes, I am. Well, thank you very much for joining us. And, you know, I have to say in the, what, six years since I've been doing this show, no one has ever asked me if they need to be camera-ready before an interview. You ask me that question. I appreciate that.

I appreciate that you have an attention to detail, but you sound great if that means anything. Well, thank you very much. We, of course, always love to see our guests via Skype, but I understand you just got done training, right? Yes, I did. I just got doing rounds with my coach, Eric O'Fero. So you are at Alliance these days, correct?

Is that new for you? Yeah, it is. I just made me move down here a couple months ago, and I love it. It's awesome. I know for a while you were at rain. We heard last week rain is no more. Is that why you moved? No, it's just kind of crazy timing.

Honestly, I kind of started to make my mood, my move down to San Diego, and I have a couple of friends from the tough show, training down in the Alliance, and they invite me to do some training. And I just really love the atmosphere. The environment is amazing. Eric's a great coach,

and there's some killers in the terms to train with. So when you were at, at rain, were you at rain full time, or did you have to move around? Like, did you have to go here for this type of thing and there, like different gyms in the area, as we've seen many of those fighters do? Yeah, I was, honestly, I was all over the place. I trained at like three different places, three or four different places. So now pretty much everything is under the Alliance roof, which makes things a lot easier. But it was, it's sad to see a ring go, but at the same time, I'm very happy for Mark, and, you know, he's starting a new chapter of

life and and I wish him the best success. Are you surprised it's no more? Did you see this coming? You know, I wasn't sure. I think all of us kind of had, you know, a hint to it or thought that, you know, it could go either way. So it was not a huge surprise that that rain shut down. When did you find out that there was a chance that you would be fighting for the title next?

I found out of Wednesday. Okay. So you had to keep it in your back pocket for two days. days? Yeah, for about that, yeah. So what did they say to you? I just, I got a call and said, hey, you know, we need fight on it and you're it. Sorry, you cut out there. Are you still there? Yes. Okay. So they said we need, and was it 100% or were they waiting to hear about Gustafson? What did they say to you then? No, they just said that Yawanna was, was sleep and they just need to confirm it with her, but otherwise everything's a go.

And, of course, you were preparing for a fight on May 30th, so this was great. I mean, you get a few more weeks to prepare, but more importantly, you get a title shot. I'm sure you had no reservations whatsoever, right? No, I didn't, but I was a little bit bum that I needed to go fight in Brazil because I was really looking forward to it. But, you know, this is a much better opportunity, and you can't test that up. Can't be upset about it at all. Absolutely.

Did you have any idea? that you were in that, you know, title picture that, you know, of course, you didn't know that Gus doesn't get injured or anything, but, you know, when Ioanna Juan, did you think that may be, all right, if I beat Lima, I could be next? We've heard Claudia Agudelia's name. Maybe there was some talk, you know, by fans wanting to see Joanne Calderwood before she lost. Did you think that you were in that discussion? You know, I really did. I thought that, you know, after after beating Giuliano Lima in Brazil, that I would definitely have solidified that, that opportunity. But, I mean, And again, you never know what the UFC is thinking, but I was very happy and very excited

that my name was in the mix. What was your reaction when you got that call? How did you process it? Well, I was at that lunch with some of my alliance teammates. And, you know, I see a phone call from Shelby. And sometimes I think that's like automatically bad news. My own man, my fight felt like, oh, my gosh, don't tell me bad news. So he just told me to get up and walk away.

and I needed to, you know, being a space where nobody could hear me and he let me know. And I just, I didn't quite process it until Friday morning when I woke up and my phone was exploding with messages and notifications. It just kind of all became real at that point. Did you go back to the table and tell your friends? No, no, I didn't. Although they knew something was up and I just said, I'm sorry, I can't tell you. Oh, I don't believe that for a second. You didn't tell them?

I am really good at keeping secrets. Really? You're stone-faced. I am. Wow. So they just said, what was it? Sorry, I can't tell you. You obviously weren't crying, so it wasn't bad news, but they had no idea.

Well, I mean, whether I'm happy or sad or mad or otherwise, I always have, like, the same look on my face. So I'm pretty hard to read in that aspect. But everybody, you know, was asking me what it was, and I just kind of brushed it off, and I said nothing. No big deal. Wow. Well done. definitely told people. I would have told Sean that I wasn't going to tell people, but then I probably would have told them. No, I love Sean. I'm not going to break his chest. That's good. He listens to

the show all the time, so he's probably very happy to hear that. I'm assuming you watched her fight against Carla Sparza, right? Yes, I did. Were you impressed like we all were by her performance? I mean, I think Yonah is a great fighter. She's a really tough girl, but I feel like Carla didn't really shot to fight and that made her look even better than she does normally. So I'm not at all distracted by that last fight. I match up with Yonah very differently than Carla. So do you feel like we're putting too much stock in that win? Like we're making it see.

It was more what Carla didn't do as opposed to what Yonah did do? Yonah played an extremely, you know, tight, well-thought-out game plan and she stuck to it and she accomplished her goal. But I feel like Carla didn't show up to fight. that fight the way that she normally does. And I mean, in this, in this weight division, there's a lot of, you know, good and bad matchups for people. There's, yeah, there's just a lot of different stylistic matchups that are, you know,

not as good as others and will pose a little bit more problems than other ones will. And I feel like it was a very difficult matchup for Carla. And also, I mean, this was her first official title defense in the UFC. And, you know, I kind of felt like she was, you know, maybe getting to her a little bit, I mean, she just had no emotion whatsoever. Are you going to prepare for that? I mean, you have champions there in your camp.

You have guys like Dominic Cruz there and many others. Will you try to be as prepared for the spotlight and the moment and being the main event as much as you possibly can? To a degree, you could only really prepare once you experience it. But is that something that you think about and something that you're afraid might affect you? You know, I've been fighting for a number of years, and I've been in there were some pretty tough individuals,

and I train with really tough people every single day. So I just, I can't put it in my head that this fight is any different than the next. It's a fight, a fight to fight. I'm going to go in there and we're going to try and kill each other. And I just have to think of it like that. I can't be distracted by the media and the lights and, you know, this that or the other. I just have to go on and focused and prepared.

You're not fighting her in Poland, but you are fighting her in Europe. How do you feel about that? Oh, I'm stoked. My mom's from Germany. So I'm really excited to going to Germany. Wow. You could be the fan favorite then. Well, I'm not European.

I don't know about that. But I'm very excited. I love to travel, and this board has taken me some really amazing places. So I'm just looking forward to the experience. So your mom was born in Germany? Where exactly? I'm not sure. She's actually going to give me her address and the city and everything that she was born.

And I'm going to go do a little bit exploring if I can. And will she be going to the fight? No, my parents are not allowed to go to my fights. Why not? I just, I don't want them there worrying about their little girl. I need to focus on myself and what I'm doing. They watch them home, and I talk to them before and after the fight. Do they want to go to the fight?

Like if you said yes, would they be there? I think so for sure. Have they ever been to one of your fights, and it didn't go well, and that's why you've banned them from it? No, the reason I've banned them from my fights is my mom went to my first amateur kickboxing fight. and all I could hear was her just screaming at the top of her lungs. And I was like, you know, this really stressed you out, and you were a little bit distracting.

I mean, I won the fight, but I just can't have it again, especially not on this scale. I just, you know, want them to relax, and I don't need that kind of, you know, nervous energy around me. Was she cool with that? Oh, yeah, she's fine with it. And will you be coming out with, like, the German flag? Will you try to be the fan favorite?

Will you try to get that cheap pop? I mean, you have a reason. You can do it, no? I'm going to go out there and I'm going to win the fight. That's what I'm going to do. How do you beat her? What's the biggest hole in her game in your opinion? I'm going to submit her.

You are? You think the ground game. Her takedown defense looked good against Carla. I'm not that kind of grappler. Do you foresee an early submission, a late submission? I just do a submission. Period. Yes.

By the way, I mean, obviously this is a big deal, but prior to getting this fight, were you feeling the love from the UFC? Because I stumbled upon a tweet from my good pal Robert Sargent, who noted that they never made a big announcement or a tweet or anything like that about your fight. It was just kind of added. And you wrote back to him something to the effect of, well, you know, I'm glad someone noticed that. Were you kind of feeling like you weren't getting the love from them?

You know, they have a lot of fighters on their roster. I, if I'm not getting, you know, attention from them, I just know I have to go out there and earn it, so that's what I have to do. I've never really gotten a whole lot of attention throughout my fight career from like anyone's specific promoter. I've just had to go out there and win fights and earn the respect. Why do you feel that is? I don't know.

I'm a quiet person. I don't really crave a whole lot of attention, honestly. Do you prefer not doing media and things like that? Are you one of those who says, just let me fight? No, I enjoy media. I actually do enjoy media. but for whatever reason you don't feel like they push you maybe no not as much as others but I'm okay with that

you're not bothered by it no I mean this is a big endorsement right absolutely I mean you got the call do you know if they called anyone else or was it just you were you the top choice I don't know you don't know who cares at this point no it's mine and and and what do you think I mean do you think being the Invicta champion and going through what you did there did it prepare you for this do you think that that's something that you have that maybe some of the other women who, you know, might fight for the belt

in the future, the division and the rankings are so interesting at this point because, like, number 15 or unranked person could beat number three or whatever Joanne Calderwood was. Do you think you've learned something from that, that you can apply to this run in the UFC? I mean, I definitely feel like all of my experiences leading up to this point has prepared me. So I feel very well prepared for it. I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be at this point in time. And do you feel like in a perfect world, 115 is the right way? for you or if there was a

I do. I was a little bit concerned initially just because I used to fight at 105 but I feel like this is a much better fit for my size and my shape and I'm you know working hard putting on muscle mass you know to go into the weight class a little bit better but I do feel like 115 and

it's where I should be so even if there's because I can make 105 doesn't necessarily mean it's the bet fit for me even a lot of guys you know go down in weight class and end up going back up because it's just too taxing on the body. So even if there was a 105-pound division in the UFC, you'd be a straw white? I'm not thinking about that right now. That's not a possibility. Yeah.

I'll cross that bridge when it happens. How about Michelle Waterson signing with the UFC? Is that something in the back of your mind? You'd love to avenge that fight? Of course. I know she got lucky in that fight, and I think she does too. So right now I'm not worried about that, though. I have a championship belt on my mind.

and if she happens to move up through the rankings and I get an opportunity, of course, I'm going to avenge it. I love how you're very quiet and confident at the same time. You say things like, you know, she got lucky and she knows that too. Oh, she knows it. Come on now. Why do you think? Do you think if I, I wish I would have had you on the show before she was on today. Do you think if I asked her that, she'd say yes?

I should be lying if she said no. How did she get lucky? You know, just fate wanted me in the USC. The stars aligned, and they said, you know what, you need to go to the U.S. You need to get out of your Invictic contrast. Okay, so that's why you lost. They pushed you out. The forces.

The forces did. Fair enough. Jessica, I wish you the best. I'm excited for this. I think the strawweight division has been a really fun story to watch unfold in the U.S. in a very short amount of time. Stylistically, I think this is a very fun fight, and it's pretty cool. It's the first ever title fight on Fight Pass.

How do you feel about that? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I just think it's an amazing thing all around. I mean, why is it an amazing thing? Years ago, I didn't think that women would ever be in the USC. And now they have the 135, now they have a 115, and now I'm fighting for a title. So, I mean, you can't be upset about that at all in any way, should perform.

Are they coming out of the woodwork now? Are people hitting you up and trying to be your friend before this big title fight? On Friday, I was really confused why I was. I was so popular when I woke up and I had all these messages on my phone and all this stuff because, you know, normally I'm pretty to myself individual. So I was a little surprised that it was, you know, all positivity. So I really appreciated it. Has it died down a little bit?

Oh, of course. I mean, I still get a lot of people telling me, you know, good luck and you deserve it and stuff like that. So it's really nice to hear the support and feel it. And what about all the stuff that you see from, like, Ronda? I mean, what's happened to her since becoming UFC champion? Do you want that? you said you'd like to be reserved. Do you want to be on the covers of magazine?

Do you want the big sponsorships? Is this the kind of thing that you dream about? I dream about being a champion and whatever comes with it is what happens and comes with it. So I'll welcome it all in. Well said. Thank you very much for the time. Best of luck to you. Really appreciate it.

Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. All right. There she is. The new number one contender in the UFC's Straw White Division, Jessica Panay. All business. No nonsense. I like it. I'm excited for it. June 20th, Fight Pass, the first ever UFC title fight in the short history of UFC Fight Pass. They've only been around, well, by the time this happens,

a year and a half, but significant. And I wonder if ticket sales interests locally will be greater now that it is Yawani-Jechek from nearby Poland fighting as opposed to Alexander Augustuson being the big European draw. I wonder. Of course, the big question now is, what happens to Glover-Teshirea? We do not have the answer to that question just yet, but hopefully soon. I wonder if they'll do the beta fight. Okay, that does it for today's interviews. What a show, huh? We're not done. Now it's time to answer some questions. A lot in your mind, I would suspect, right? Is there a lot going on back there, Mr. New York, Rick? There's a lot of John Jones questions. There's a lot of boxing, Pachial Mayweather questions.

So, yeah, the people want to hear from us. I just noticed your hat. It's nice, right? I actually think it's pretty cool. I like that you went with the no curve. No, I don't like the curve. Not that I'm a hat person. Sure.

So it's been a minute since I really put on a hat. No, it actually looks great on you. Yeah? It matches your sweatshirt. What is that? Pink. Wow. It's red.

It's red. Close enough. What colors of the Noss? Is it orange? Oh, that's a good question. I don't know. I think it's pretty similar. Whatever it is. It feels like it matches. It feels like you actually plan this.

And it looks good. I want to see you rocking that. I mean, it's a big change from what you were doing on Thursday with the slick back. Wow. What is that called? I mean, that's like a Pat Riley. That's like a hipster Pat Riley. Pat Riley, I like it.

That's what it felt like. Any comparison to Pat Riley I'll take. That man's a winner in life. Back on the beat, you felt good about it? I thought it was a good showing. How did you feel about it? I felt good. I felt good. I thought you did very well.

I thought Jeff did well. Mark did well. I mean, you know, sometimes it's tough when you have, well, three panelists who have never worked together because I feel like there's some kind of flow involved. You know what I mean? A little known fact.

Yes. I've been on the MMA beat five times. Okay. Jeff Wagenheim all five times. He's the guy. He's been my rock all five times. Yeah, I could see that. He's usually very reliable when it comes to the beat.

the other guys are the slackers. Yikes. Yeah, so maybe you did have some comfort with him, but Mark did great, and there was a lot to discuss, and we have a lot to discuss right now. So let us get to the questions, because the show is rapidly ticking away here. We have 23 or so minutes left.

Let's do it. Okay. What can the USC do to win? Oh, I'm sorry. Let me put it on full screen. By the way, I like this new camera angle here. What are we looking at? It's not the same for me?

No, for me. It's not about you. For me, it's like a bit, it's a bit on a tilt. Drinking my glass of water, by the way. What can the UFC do to win over some of the casual fight fans or non-fight fans who watched Maypack and were let down? I saw a lot of Twitter noise within the MMA bubble about the UFC being the real winner in the Maypack fight.

Do you think that this is true? And how does the UFC take full advantage of it? Should they tailor some of the publicity for big upcoming events along the lines of being a chance to see a real, quote-unquote, fight or even pushing out stats about finishing rates, maybe comparing that of Mayweather to those of UFC champs. I love this. This is so funny to me.

How in the world was the UFC the big winner on Saturday? How did that happen? The big winner on Saturday, my friends, there were a few of them. Floyd Mayweather, Mayweather promotions, Mani Packia out because he won a lot of money. Bob Aram, HBO, Showtime, all the broadcasters involved, Leo Santa Cruz. those were the big winners on Saturday. The UFC did not win anything on Saturday. By the way, all the people who are telling you that the UFC were the big winners are just

UFC fans are probably the UFC fans that are going to watch Fight Pass events, you know, the hardest of the hardcore. I didn't see any, like, I didn't see Dan Wetzel of Yahoo or, you know, Greg Bishop of Sports Illustrated, or even Kevin Ioli of Yahoo. I didn't see, you know, mainstream sports journalists say that the UFC were the big winners. How are they the big winners? The gate was 70 million. Paper views are like 3 to 4 million.

At least that's what they're projected to be. Manny and Florida walking away was seven figures. Nine figures. Excuse me. I always messed that up. Floyd Mayweather had a check in his hand for $100 million. How does this affect the UFC? I don't understand this.

Please tell me you don't subscribe to this notion. No, I do not. What does it mean? It means that... It's stupid. They want... You know, people who are UFC fans want everybody to recognize that there was a lot of hype. And for the people who are casual fans, it may not have lived up to that.

So, you know, Luke laid it out perfectly. It's not, it's not the people who watch this casually or, you know, who don't typically watch combat sports, aren't going to go, oh, well, that boxing match wasn't for me. Now let me try MMA. It's not really going to translate. It doesn't work that way, by the way. You know, all those people that you see online, it was fun. Actually, you know, it was funny? I was scoring the fight on Twitter, and I was doing it very quick because I loved it.

Man, everything about it. I thought the broadcast was just a plus. I mean, I think they did a great job, and especially when you consider the fact that we were really putting together crews that have never worked together. I mean, Jim Lampley and Al Bernstein have never worked together. And I thought everything was great. It couldn't have gone better, except for maybe the delay, but whatever. I was excited. It was fine.

and I then I check in on my notifications, like midway through, and had all these people going nuts, like, ah, you're such an idiot, you're a moron, you're scoring or wrong. By the way, I think I had it almost exactly the way Steve Farah had it, and very close to Harold Letterman. So all the people who said I couldn't score, or I don't know what I'm talking about, or stick to MMA, I got two words for you. But the point is, all the hot takes, all the people that never watch boxing that are just tuning in because this is what they're supposed to tune into or because it's a big event or they're intrigued by it. They felt like this was something they had to, you know, take, you know, take in, all those people are not going to jump ship to the UFC. It was all like the NFL

bloggers. You know what I mean? There's so many of those, those, you know, those general sports bloggers, writers who really only care about the NFL, it seems. It was all those people. Go back to watching the draft. And that's why I say, I don't care if the UFC is ever quote unquote mainstream. If this is what it means to be mainstream, at least for me, I have no financial stake in it. Leave us alone. I don't want to hear your hot takes. I don't want to hear about, you know, these people, they probably, and again, I don't want to say. sound like that guy, but they probably don't even know who Canella Alvarez is. They don't know that he's fighting in front of 30,000 people in a baseball stadium this Saturday on HBO. They have no idea.

So spare me the boxing is dead. Spare me the boring. Spare me all that stuff. Spare me the UFC. And by the way, I'm mixing two people here, by the way. The people who are saying boxing is dead and it's boring aren't necessarily the ones who are saying the UFC won. You know, the hardcore UFC fans might be saying that or rooting for that or hoping for that. And then you have just the casual sports guy who's saying the other two things. All of them are wrong. The fight was exactly what it should have been and what we thought it was going to be.

It was entertaining. Boxing is not dead. It's healthier than it has been in recent years. And this had nothing to do with the UFC. The only thing, by the way, the only thing it had to do with UFC is maybe it gave them the ceiling as to, wow, if we get the big fight,

if we get the right mix of story and fight and anticipation, maybe one day we could do this. You know, maybe. That's what it means. I mean, at the end of the day, it's really just the UFC and boxing that are in the pay-per-view business these days. So maybe it gave them that kind of aspiration. But that's it. That's the only connection.

Okay, our next question. What did you think of the criticism of Max Kellerman's interview with Manny Pacquiao after the fight? Man, I have the utmost respect for Max. I have really, I've been watching him for so long. I think he's amazing at his job. I can't say enough good things about it. him. I really enjoy him, and I think he's very, very smart. I mean, when you hear him talk about boxing, in particular, I know he does Sports Nation. And by the way, I watched Sports Nation last week when they

had Dana on, and he had a great segment with Teddy Atlas. I mean, I just think he's great at his job. He's one of the best media guys out there, and a young voice, and he gets it. The only thing that I, you know, I don't want to say I disagreed with, but I was thinking when I was watching him, because I love that stuff. I mean, it was just great to just watch the event. Again, I'll say it. I don't usually like to, you know, when I'm doing a post-fight interview, and I've never been in the cage or the ring in that capacity, I've done it backstage, which is a bit different. There's a lot more pressure on you, and I'm not going to compare the two. But I don't like to say, I scored it this way. I think you're kind of wrong with your assessment. You know, I felt this and that. I kind of feel like you just have to ask the questions and let the man say what he has to say. You know, I don't think that's necessarily the time and place to do that. I feel like the the time and place to do that is after the fact when they do their post-fi wrap-up. I know he wasn't in that position, but on your radio show, on your TV show, you know what I mean? I feel like when you're there sticking the microphone, people have said this to me a lot.

Why, you know, in the past, when Dana White says something, do you not refute it? Do you not challenge him? There's a certain way that you can challenge, but I don't think it's the time and place to interject your opinion, to say, well, I feel like this is the case. I think you can ask the questions in a certain way, and you can lead them down a certain path, But you have to stop there. And so that's his approach. He's done it before.

And you know those interviews. They're much different than the Joe Rogan post-fight interview. They're longer. They're more relaxed. You know, it's a whole different scene. And we've seen that before. So I wasn't surprised by it, but a lot of people did ask me in. And that's all I'll say.

Perhaps they're told to do that. You know, perhaps that's the way it is. We've seen those, right? Those long interviews with Larry Merchant. I love those. It's chaotic in the back. It's fine with me. Maybe they're told to do that.

That's just not the way I would do it in a post-fite fight interview. We're all different. Yeah, no, it's complete, the, the atmosphere feels completely different. It's a celebration at that point, or, you know, a disappointment for the, it's more of a conversation in a way, you know? Yeah, it's much more casual, whereas, you know, the post-fight in the UFC is, uh, real quick, try and get them out of there and then move on to the next thing. And it doesn't, it doesn't feel like the same, it doesn't feel like the same kind of level of analysis. And, you know, maybe the, the interjection of what, you know, he thought the score was is necessary for that, for that conversation. Um, I, I didn't,

didn't have a problem with it, but I can't claim to, you know, have a problem with something like that. I didn't have a problem with it. I just had a lot of people ask me about it. And also, I think it was surprising to see Manny be the one who was saying, I thought I won, and then later talking about the injury. And Floyd all of a sudden becoming this, like, humble good guy. I mean, what happened?

It was so strange. His whole demeanor changed throughout this fight. I mean, who thought that Manny would come across as the sore loser as opposed to Floyd coming across as the sore winner. You thought, you know, I thought Floyd would be saying, you know, I'm the best ever. Look what I did. Look what I did. Look what I did.

You know, he had nothing for me all this stuff. This is why I'm the greatest. Da-da-da-da. I'm going to beat the record. All that stuff. I'm going to be undefeated. He was saying, I got one more and I'm done. See you later.

And he was kind of being humble and a little bashful. It was very bizarre. But that's Floyd. I guess he's a dynamic individual. I'll say this. Judging by the lead-up up to this fight, I wasn't that surprised, to be honest. You didn't think he would stick it to him? Not really. It doesn't seem like he has that kind of animosity for Pacquiao anymore.

I think they both realize that this is the biggest stage. This is the biggest fight. But I don't think there's really that kind of animosity there that he needed to do anything other than make the statement that he did, that he is the best and he proved it. I also, just one more thing, I also am very surprised by people who are critical of the fight because that's exactly the way he fights. It's the same thing every time. I'm not saying it's bad, but what the heck did you expect? Did you expect at this juncture for him to become, you know, Arturo Gotti? Did you think that he would become, you know, Marvin Hagler? He wouldn't be, he's not going to do that at this point, 48 and no. It's not going to do it.

What were you expecting? I don't understand the people who thought, if anything, you should blame Mani for maybe not taking it to him. And I guess he was injured, whatever. Floyd did exactly what he has done so many times before for the last 17 or so years. He walks away with no scratches, no bumps, no bruises, and that's what makes him great. So what were you expecting? I don't get it. I think the people who have most vocally voiced that just didn't know. They didn't know what Floyd Mayweather is or what Floyd Mayweather does.

They just kind of bought into the hype surrounding the fight itself and thought that because this is the biggest fight, this means that it's the best stylistic fight, and that's just not the case. Floyd Mayweather did exactly what he's done in the past and did it to on a level that's not been seen, for defensively he's incredible. And I thought it was a smashing success. It's like, it's like going to, you know, watching a GSP fight and expecting him not to, you know, win a five-round decision. I think we've known, at this point, we kind of know what he is, just the same way we

know what some of the guys in MMA are. Biggest super fight the UFC can make. You referenced this earlier that they may have a vision of what this may look like. Coming off boxing super fight this weekend, what do you believe is the biggest drawing fight the UFC could make? Okay, and I just want to be clear. I don't think that the UFC or boxing, by the way, and very few other sports period

can match what we saw on Saturday. I mean, there's no way. That is a very freak thing. I mean, it's an unbelievable confluence of events that have to come together. You know what I mean? It's just like we can't even compare it. We've never seen anything like this before.

It's unheard of the amount of money that was on the line. I'd love to know how it compares to like the Super Bowl and the World Cup and all that stuff. I mean, it's just incredible for someone to even think that boxing was dead and that this can happen, and that boxing is dead as a result of what transpired. It's just crazy. I mean, what more of a success can you have

than what we saw on Saturday as far as dollars and cents? Anyhow, as far as super fights are concerned, the biggest ones the UFC can make right now, Velascus Jones, Jones, Jones, Silva, Zipharovov, GST, Brock Fador, Brock Jones. So we're still including Brock in this? Why not, right?

Yeah, I guess. The one that would get the most attention? Okay, well, I'm not going to play fantasy in the sense that, like, Brock, I mean, I just don't see it happen. happening. So I feel like the one that would get the most mainstream attention, and I don't even know how much mainstream attention it would get at this point, would probably be Silva GSP. I'm in agreement there. Yeah. Our next question kind of dovetails off that.

Is now the perfect time to make a fight between Anders and Silva and John Jones? I feel like they will both be clear to fight around the same time. Also, I don't know how they would have a timeline for John Jones, but in any case. Also, after seeing the buzz that boxing's biggest super-fite created, I could see the UFC wanting to make it happen before Jones gets another title shot. No, I couldn't disagree more. First of all, I mean, Malki kind of dropped the bomb shot. I wasn't expecting that, right?

I wasn't expecting him to say that there's a chance we may have seen the last. of him. When John Jones is ready to return, I would 100% want to see him fight for the belt. I want to see him regain the title. Look, the silver lining for the UFC here is if Daniel Cormier wins, you have an unbelievable fight. You have a fight that, in my opinion, if sold correctly. And again, I don't want to downplay what is at stake here. I don't want to downplay the court stuff, the charges, the woman who is injured, his personal demons. I don't want to downplay any of that. But in our little bubble here, we have to look at it from a sporting perspective. And the John Jones return against Daniel Cormier, who is parading around with his belt and rubbing it in his face and telling him that I'm the champion, this is the real belt.

And you screwed up and all that. I mean, there's animosity. There's real animosity. We saw it with our own eyes. 100% real. That would be a gigantic fight for the UFC. In my opinion, it would do over a million buys. And then you have on the flip side, the rumble fight, which would be very interesting in itself.

I think the DC fight would do more because of the way they will sell it. So that's the silver lining and if they do anything else. I mean, honestly, I think that the DC Jones fight, if DC wins and its Jones returning, will do more pay-per-view buys at this point than Silva Jones. Wide open 205 division. Do you see former contenders that recently dropped down a weight class moving back up? For example, Liotto Machita and Gagar Musasi since Jones is no longer champion? No, I still feel like there are players there. Of course, there's Rumble, there's DC, there's Glover,

there's Bader, there's OSP coming up, and you know how these things go. I mean, people come out of nowhere, people climb up the ladder rather quickly. So I think those guys have made the right call for their careers, and I don't think it would be smart. I mean, Machita at this point is, I mean, I feel like he can make 170 at this point. He's so lean. And then you have Gayguard, it's in his best interest to be a, at 185, so I don't see that happening. Maybe we'll see guys like, you know, Brendan Chobb who's planning on going down, but to be fair to him, he was always planning on going down. But maybe we'll see heavyweights who are kind of on the fringe and say, oh, I might have a

better shot at 205. Maybe we'll see that, but I don't see the guys from 185 coming up. Now that Jones Jones has gone, do we need to accept that either Daniel Corme or Rumble are the true light heavyweight champions when the past indiscretions of Jones control the narrative? the belt will have a cloud hanging over it. Is it time to let go of Jones until hopefully he returns and give the belt the value it deserves to the next winner? Well, I kind of feel like it's two separate things.

I do feel as though the winner of that fight is the true light heavyweight champion. 100%. They won the belt. I mean, the organization stripped him and they're the champion. But there's also a cloud, and that's what makes the fight so interesting. You know, it's not like John Jones tore his ACL

and he's gone for a long time. We don't know if he's back. We don't know if he's back now, and that's something that Maliki just said, but if he does return, one expects him to get a title shot right away, and he has a history with all these guys, there's a story there.

And yeah, he is the greatest light heavyweight champion of all time, and he's the greatest fighter of all time, in my opinion, as well. So his cloud is hanging over this fight, but the winner of the fight should not feel ashamed. I have no problem with him saying I'm the real champ, but I'll only truly feel like I've done something special if I beat John Jones. I'll only truly feel like a champion.

if I beat John Jones. There's no problem with winning that and saying it afterwards. But that's a real title fight, in my opinion. It's not like even one of those weird ones where remember when Brock was dealing with his stuff and Mier and Carwin fought in New Jersey. And you kind of had the sense Brock was coming back

rather soon, but they made an interim title fight just to have a title fight. And they've done this before. This one, he is suspended indefinitely. And now, even with Malky's saying that, you know, if he doesn't know, you have to move on, interim title wasn't the right call here 100%. The UFC did everything right

leading up to this and afterwards. They are the real champion. There's no doubt about it in my mind. It pains me because, you know, you know how much I've been on the Daniel Coromier for champion, you know, bandwagon, but I can't consider whoever wins this the real champion.

John Jones is the champion, and until he's beaten, he's always going to be the champion. I don't know. I don't know. You can make the champion. case that he has lost the right to be the champion. There is a privilege involved and there's responsibility involved. And you can make a case that he lost that right. It's not always about what you do inside the cage.

You have to act like a champion. I'm not sold. If in fact he hit someone and ran away, you're not acting like a champion. And I think that's that's punishable. So look, they didn't beat him. They have to take it from him. They can't claim. that they didn't beat him, but the organization acted in a certain way, and now that belt is up for grab. So why aren't they the champion?

Because they didn't take it. They have to take it. But there are many ways that one could lose a belt. You know, he could have broke his toe going into the second round against Chale, and he would have lost his belt. That's fine. Then Chale took it. Well, he kind of did it to himself if you watch the fight. It happened in the cage.

Yes, yes, I know, but there are ways, I mean, there's, look, the Kota, it's like, it's like, you know, well, I know what you're going to say in response to this, but, you know, in pro wrestling, you could be counted out, you could be pinned, you know, there are different ways that you could lose. You get what I'm saying? They're all in the, in the... I get it. They're all in the flow of the game. They're all part of the game.

There's a code of conduct, and I know it's laughed at times, and it's the butt of jokes. But if you don't live up to that stuff, if you don't follow the rules, you can lose the bell. And I'm okay with that. I think that's good for the sport. I think it's really good for the sport that something like that exists. I don't disagree with you there that it's important that the champion act in a certain way. But if you're Daniel Cormier or Rumble Johnson and you win that belt, you know in the back of your mind that you didn't take it from John Jones. But that's what makes the whole thing even better, right?

Well, no, because now you have the revenge. I think if you asked Daniel Cormier if he'd rather have the UFC title or get another crack at John Jones, I think it'd be a coin tosser. But it wouldn't be one or the other. Quintyze is fine. I could live with that. If it was one or the other, if he said, I don't think it would be like, give me the belt right away. I think he'd consider a shot of John Jones before a belt because that's, in my opinion, that's what I think. I actually feel like he would take the belt. Maybe at this point of his career, this age, it may be an easier decision, but I don't think it's as easy a decision as I'm taking the belt automatically.

beating John Jones, I think, is what makes you the champion. But hopefully we would be able to find that out eventually. Let's skip this one. UFC dress code. Should the UFC have a dress code? This is an example. Is Roy Nelson's Mullet and Beard, a great way to show character? Or should he be forced to have the Wall Street look?

Or how about some fighters like Yawanna, young J. Chick, that wear a button of shirt with jeans? What do you think, Gary? Yoana's dress code, if that's what you want to call it, is outstanding. showing up to Media Day at UFC 185 with the overalls down. It's a fantastic look. And the Air Jordans, no, there should not be a dress code. We're already pushing the issue here with the uniform. Let fighters be who they are.

That's the great thing about combat sports. You know, I'm going to miss the sponsors, the different shorts, things like that. I want the fighters to be as unique as possible. Yes, I'm going to miss all that. I'm not saying the Reebok thing is bad. I'm very curious to see how it looks and how it plays out, because I still think there are a lot of unanswered questions. But I like the fact that fighters aren't uniform.

I like the fact that they're different. That we've seen guys like Nassim Ahmed come out on a throne, and we see Floyd Mayweather come out wearing a sombrero. These are things that are a part of combat sports. I like fighters to be different. So absolutely not. No dress code. Now, the dress code, by the way, is kind of coming

because there are certain things on Fight Week that you can't wear anymore, but don't make fighters wear suits when they don't feel comfortable in them, that's, that's wrong. That's not the fight game. Do you believe this upcoming main event between Hunt and Stepe Miochich is a title Eliminator fight? I think it's a very important fight. I think it depends on what happens between Travis Brown and Andrea Olavski. I think there's a little four-man tournament going on there. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe Miotich wins and Brown wins, they match him up. If Arlofsky wins, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a title shot, given his name and his

drawing power. So I think it's one of those. like who looks the best and what makes most sense. And of course, how healthy is the winner of Kane versus Verdume? That's been a big problem in the past as well. But man, all of a sudden, this next month, really interesting for the heavyweight division. And then, of course, right after it, hopefully, you know, not too long after, we can get JDS versus Overeign. With Habib's injury, with Habib's injury, what is your opinion on Dana's Stone Age comments regarding AKA and others like them? Are in force changes afoot? Is that even possible? Well, from everyone I've talked to, on, off the record, it really was a freak thing.

And I think Javier Mendez was very honest when I spoke to him last week. He said, look, I don't believe Chhabib Nirmagamedov came into this camp at 100%. I feel like he was more at 90%. And I feel like he pushed himself too quickly. I wish he took an extra month off. And then I asked Habe that question, and he agreed. He agreed that he wasn't 100%. So I think all of that, preparing for a big fight, a lot of pressure, a lot of eyeballs, maybe, you know, he was pushing himself too much.

And then everyone is saying that he just tweaked it. Now, of course, there could be a buildup. He may have been overcompensating. Who knows, really, you know, what led to the injury. But it is the same leg. And everyone said he was just, you know, he was just moving around in the ring and it tweaked. And so I don't want to pin it on those guys. I actually think when you talk to them, they're all very receptive.

and appreciative of what Dana is saying, and they're willing to evolve to a degree, I don't think that the Chabib one falls under that. I know a lot of people want to complain and pin it on them, but I honestly don't think it does. Okay, our first question from Twitter. Where do concussions rank among MMA's biggest problems? For example, Veronica Rothenhausler,

Chris Holdsworth? Yes. T.J. Grant and Martin Kampman. certainly up there. I don't know what's one, two, or three, but at the end of the day, the most important thing, I mean, we could talk about the Reebok deal, and we could talk about unions and all these other potential issues. The most important thing is the health and safety of the fighters. And we saw recently someone, you know, on a smaller show, there was a tragic accident involving weight cutting. And this is definitely up there. And it's one of those things that I think as time goes on and the sport becomes, you know, older and bigger and more fights are put on. It's going to be something that we're going to have to deal with, much like boxing, and the NFL have had to deal with, and of course, football in general. So it's up there. I mean, it's in the top five if you want something like that.

But it's a very serious thing. At the end of the day, these people are being punched. And I'm happy that people like T.J. Grant, people like Chris Holdsworth. I'm happy that they're taking time off. I didn't even know Holdsworth was out. You need to read M.M.A.-Fighting.com. What was a – My colleague, Mark Romundi, has a great story that he posted.

I don't know, three, four weeks ago about Holdsworth is his time away from the sport, and it's 100% because of concussion issues. Was it in his last fight? Or was it in training? It was a mix. And it's been, I think it's going to be May since he last fought. May, it'll be a year. It's been, and how about the T.J. Grant story?

The guy had a title shot. He had two title shots, and there's no sign of him coming back anytime soon. I talked about this on UFC tonight a couple weeks ago. there's no timetable for his return. This is serious stuff. This has ended people's careers in other sports. And people are getting punched in the... The main thing is what they're doing in training. It's not what they're doing in the fight. It's how soon are they coming back after fights? It's what's happening in the sparring sessions when no one's watching really, and how soon they're coming back. That's where the real danger lies. It's not what happens in the fights. It's

really what they're doing behind the scenes. And at the end of the day, it's... You'd hope it'd be on their coaches to lead them down the right path. Have you been watching the new tough? What are your thoughts on the new season of tough? I have yet to see the new tough. How about you? You know me? I don't watch...

You know, I'll tell you why I have yet to see it. I mean, first off, there's been a hell of a lot going on. There's a lot of MMMA to digest. There's a lot going on, and I like to go to bed at 9 o'clock. But I wrote something about Tough. I was talking about the Michael Johnson Benson-Henderson fight. That's going to be the main event of the tough finale. And earlier, by the way, I said it was Hollywood, Florida.

I don't know if that has been 100% confirmed just yet. I know it's going to take place in Florida, but I don't know if the actual city within Florida has been confirmed. And I wrote that, you know, there's $500,000 on the line for the winning team and a contract for the winning fighter and all that. And then I was told that, no, no, there's no contract. It's the winning team gets this money and stuff, but there's necessarily not a contract waiting.

Now, of course, someone has a great performance or, two or three or four, I'm 100% certain they'll be signed. But they're not fighting for a contract. And then I was wondering, well, like, what's the point? You know? I like the contract part was the most important part of the whole thing. You know what I mean? Now it just becomes a battle between ATT and Blacksilians. So that, I don't know how I felt about that. I like the fact that they switched it up and I'm sure at some point I'll say, they're all on my DVR. I think it's only been on for two weeks. So it's not like I'm that behind. But you know what I mean?

I just felt like, well, that's kind of weird. Yeah. And I felt like that hasn't been promoted as much, maybe for the right reasons. So, I don't know. It's a weird thing. Well, I mean, we've always called for changes, you know, in the tough format. And I think they're, you know, trying their best to put out something that feels different every iteration. So, I mean, we'll see.

Let us know what you think if you've been watching it. Do you like it? Do you not like it? Is it interesting? Is it not interesting? Do you like the format? It being out of Las Vegas? the teams, the gym owners being the quote-unquote coaches.

I'm curious, legitimately. Speaking of liking it, I really do like, I have to say, the NOS. Oh, look at you. Zero. Look at you. I've been drinking it and I like it. What a company man. We appreciate it.

And that's a good little plug. I want to thank our good friends at NOS for sponsoring the MMA hour. You can follow them on Twitter at NOS Energy Drink. Find a NOS near you at find NOS.com. is great stuff. After this show, because I'm so tired after the show, speaking for the last three hours and 35 minutes, I'm going to drink all of these. All of them. Trying to sleep tonight or no? Yeah, it's true. Actually, I think one of them has no zeros because of the... No, there's caffeine in it. There is. I'm feeling it. You're feeling the kick.

Yeah. All right, so this weekend, before we go, a reminder that the UFC is back. And what do we got? We got May 9th, 16th, 20th. 23rd, 30th, June 6th, June 13th, June 20th, June 27th. Wow. And then nothing on July 4th, there's a break. And then we're back with July 11th, July 15th, July 18th, July 25th, August 1st, August 8th, August 23rd. I'm not sure if there's anything on August 15 just yet. What card is August 1st?

That is Ronda Rousey versus Pich-Go-Haya. Why? It's my birthday. Oh wow, look at that. Are you going to watch on your birthday? I mean, it's a good birthday present. But before all that, Glory, this Friday. Oh, yes, Glory this Friday. You'll be there, right? I will be there in San Diego.

Bill Goldberg, he's going to be at the open workouts, and it's going to be a fun time. It is a fun week. It is a fun week, yes, in combat sports. We have Glory on Friday. We have that RFA versus Legacy Superfight thing on Friday as well. You have that Canel Alvarez fight in the baseball stadium that will be watching. this Saturday. If anything, this fight, by the way, to put a bow on all of it has made me more

interested in boxing. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. And then UFC fight pass this Saturday. It all begins at 745 for the prelims. Anyone have known on the prelims? We've got the return of Kyle No. Katsuoyoki. Remember him against Daniel Hooker? And how about

Smiling Sam Alvey? He's back. Lisa Ellis versus Beck Rawlings of Australia, of course. Dylan Andrews is fighting. Alex Chambers against Kailen Curran. So some notables. And, oh, also, I like Alptecken Osklich. But then we got the main card. Our good pal, Jake Matthews, remember him on the show? He's returning against James Vic. That's an interesting fight. Sean O'Connell versus Anthony Porosch. And then we got Brad Tavares versus

Robert Whitaker, who, of course, is a big name over in Australia in the main event. The return of the KFC King himself, Mark Hunt versus Steepa Miotich. What a fight. Prediction? Jesus. I think Steepa's going to... Nah, man. I don't... That's a tough one. I think Steepa is going to be able to keep his range a little bit, but I wouldn't be surprised if Hunt was able to land one sometime during it. So let's go hunt. You're going with a dog.

It's a tough fight to call. I really don't know because Steep A gets hit a little bit. And nobody packs more power than Hunt. So I'll go out on a limb and say Hunt in an upset. All right. There you have it. You can hit my music. Again, thank you very much.

to our good friends at Nause. Thank you very much, New York Rick and the crew back there for doing what they do. By the way, credit to Mark Hunt at his age, 40 years old, in his 40s, still very active. You know, much has been said about his resurgence, what he's done in the UFC, all that good stuff.

The man is 41 years old and fought for the belt. He's returning before for Bresia Verdom, and I know that isn't necessarily Verdooms doing. He was waiting for Canaan. and the Mexico show and all that. But Mark Hunt, very active, meotish as well. And I love that fight.

I think that's going to, that is the perfect main event of a fight night slash fight pass show. So we'll get the call once again from our good pals, John Gooden and Dan Hardy this Saturday night

in Australia. All right. Good show. Thank you very much to everyone who stopped by. Wow, so much to digest. What will this week bring? Hopefully it's a little

it's a little more relaxed, right? Damn. A lot going on. We'll see what happens as far as John Jones is concerned. There's a lot more, I'm sure, to be told in this story, but for now we say goodbye. We'll be back next week, same time and place.

We say thank you very much to Luke Thomas for his great insight, great work in Las Vegas. We say thank you very much to Brian Bader. Good luck to him and getting the fight that he wants. Thank you very much to Daniel Cormier. All the best, Anthony Johnson, Michelle Watterson, Junior Dos Santos, Malki Kawa, and of course, Jessica Penne.

Good luck to her. UFC Straw White Title Fight June 20th. Thank you so much. We'll see you next Monday. Appreciate the time. Until then, I say, peace. I'm out of here. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them.

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