MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 284

Episode Date: June 1, 2015

Featuring Bethe Correia, Urijah Faber, Matt Mitrione, Al Iaquinta, Joe Soto, Jason High, and Chris Horodecki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Ariel Hawani inside our New York City studio. I am happy to be inside. It is raining outside. So it's good to be inside here, the beginning of June, the start of my favorite two-month stretch of the calendar, June and July, July the best month. month of the year, as I think I've mentioned many times before on this show. It's the only month of the year as a kid where you don't have school unless you're one of those kids who have to go to summer school and, well, then we've got other problems. But you got to love June and July. Everyone's in a good mood. Everyone's feeling good about themselves. Typically, the weather is

very nice, not this particular Monday, but typically that is the case. And there are a lot of good fights to be had. For example, this past Saturday in Guyana, Brazil, a very small crowd apparently attended the event, but what a great main event. The return of Carlos Condit, he was successful in defeating Tiago Alves as violent as ever. Wow, that's second round. Those elbows, you couldn't even tell that it was an elbow at first. It just looked like a punch.

It was so quick. It was quicker, but reminiscent of the Chris Wyman, Mark Munoz knockout. And he is right back in there, right back in the mix. You have to wonder if Roy McDonald wins, does he get a title shot? If Roy McDonald loses, you'd have to think we'll finally get that rematch. It's more relevant now than it has been the last couple of years. A great return for Carlos Condit. He's been gone for around 15 months.

Also, Charles O'Levara looking very good against Nick Lentz, who looked completely different. Look like a hipster from Williamsburg. But that was a fun fight as well. So we have a lot to discuss. Big weekend coming up. World Series of Fighting in Action, UFC. Of course, back in action this time in New Orleans. Much to discuss, as always, we've got a loaded show, so let's get into the rundown.

3.30, we'll answer your questions and comments, talk about them. You know the drill. Hashtag the MMA hour, leave a question or comment in the comment section below. 325, we're going inside the vault. 305, we're going to talk to Bechkohe, who's, of course, preparing to fight Ronda Rousey, August 1st at UFC 190, but she's gotten herself into some trouble. as of late. Well, at least some heat. That's not all we want to talk to her about. First time she's on the show. Interesting character. She picked a fight with Ronda Rousey. She's getting it in her home country. I'm looking forward to having her on at 305. 245. We're going to talk to your eye, Faber. Ask him what's next. Remember it was last month in May. He lost to Frankie Edgar. Where does he go from here? What happened in Manila? All that and much more. Canadian Chris Horodeski

stops by at 225 to talk about his World Series of Fighting 21 Featherweight title fight against Lance Palmer. That is this Friday at... Where is it? It's in Alberta. And it's on NBCSN. Chris Hordesky, an OG. Still looks like he's 12.

But a good Canadian boy. 205 will have Ally, a quint on the show. You probably could have predicted this one after what Bobby Green had to say about both him and his team last week on the show. a lot of you writing in, giving us props for that one. I appreciate it very much. Didn't really have to do much, to be honest.

Just let him speak. Always appreciate Bobby Green. He is a colorful character. He is one that keeps you on your toes, and I didn't really mind anything that he brought to the table. So we'll have Ally Quint on at 205 to respond. Jason High returns to talk about a very interesting anniversary. This one has flown under the radar, but it is approaching.

It is actually next Sunday. this coming Sunday, Jason Hi, remember him? You haven't heard much of him over the past 365 days, or I should say, 329 days. 29? What horrible math? 359 days. Yeah, that's right. But he returns at 145. And then at 125, we'll talk to Joe Soto, who we haven't heard from since UFC 177.

He stepped up on short notice to fight T.J. Dilloshab, for the belt. Remember, short notice, that's not even, that's not even being fair. 24 hours notice to, to fight TJ for the belt. He lost, spirited affair, replaced Henna Brow. He returns this Saturday in New Orleans. But first, let us go to the Skype Machine. First guest of the day has a very big fight this Saturday in New Orleans. He is fighting Big Ben Rothwell. It has been quite some time since we had Matt Matrione on the program. And before I get to Matt Matreone, I do have to remind you that this episode of the MAA hour is being presented by NOS, do something epic. Go make your mark on the world. A hashtag with this NOS I will. Follow them on Twitter at NOS Energy Drink. How about

that, Matt? I see your chin and that wonderful t-shirt. I don't see your face. I don't see those baby greens. Are they green or blue? There they are. They're blue. I can't believe it. Shows up on mine. It must be something wrong. What's up, buddy. How are you doing? How about that? We got a sponsor. We're all growns up. It's about time, man. I'll hold my phone instead. It's good, buddy. What's going on? Not much. What happened to the hair? You know, I was thinking that you were just playing possum and you were going to keep the hair. I liked it long.

Well, I tell you what, man. My gray started showing up a little bit too much and it was just, you know, had to get rid of it. Plus, like, every time it was so long, it was like down on my mid-nose. I liked it. So every time I'd sparred, get in my eyes and be all over the place. It brought out your boy's charm. Well, I've got plenty of the, plenty of horrible long hair pictures on the internet, so I'm good with them. Now, where are we right now? Are we in your, in your home?

Is this where we are? I just bought a new home. This is my new home. Congratulations. Thank you very much. You're all growns up as well. You're all growns up as well. You're buying homes. I am. That's what I do. I, you know, buy them for a little bit, live in them, then rent them out, trying to set up my retirement of funds since the U.S. doesn't give it to us. Oh my. Are we going to are we going to start? Okay, so since you brought it up, where do we stand? When this Rebock thing came out. You were the most vocal one right off the bat and some were wondering what would happen. And then you posted on Twitter not that long afterwards that you actually got a call from Dana White, right? I did. I got a call from him. Okay, so let's, nothing got settled. Nothing

happened out of it, but he still called. And it was like, it was almost as if he was talking to somebody else, he was dictating notes to somebody else saying, okay, he's losing, you know, X amount per fight, blah, blah, blah, like kind of taking notes on it. And nothing. And nothing. nothing happened of it. And then I had a little, I had a little something going on. So I had to talk to him about a little bit more technical stuff afterwards. So I didn't end up closing the conversation as in to ask like, okay, well, now that you know how much I'm losing per fight, how are you guys going to make this right? What's going to happen with it? So I didn't get a chance to close on the conversation. But nothing's happened since. But I still at least had

a conversation with them. So the deal hasn't kicked in then. You know, hasn't kicked in yet. It kicks in next month. Are you going out with a band? or have people jump ship because they know it's coming? People meaning sponsors? I've had two companies jump ship. And I've had, I just signed a pretty good sponsor, Wing Stop, Chicken Wing Joint, 750 stores nationwide. I just signed them.

They're going to be one of my primary sponsors this camp. And they've been great to me, man. They've actually been really good. And I think there's a chance that might go on after the UFC puts it in effect. But I think that there's one of the biggest things that I'm kind of, I'm slightly bothered by when it comes down to Dana's positioning of this deal is that he says that it's just like the NFL and Major League Baseball and everybody else. But the thing is those are employee, employer-employee relationships. Those aren't 1099s and independent contractors. I mean, this is, him pulling this deal is like the PGA trying to pull this deal, you know, and that's not the case.

That's not realistic. and it really puts, it's a great, it's a great window dressing on his part. And I understand why he's doing it because it takes a lot of pressure off of that. But I don't think it's an accurate representation of what's really going on. Right. And you would know a lot about that because you played in the NFL. You know how that relationship goes. Do you feel like it's time that you guys have some sort of representative who sits down?

You know, it's not just with this. It's as much as we may applaud the drug testing stuff, you know, in other sports, that's a conversation that's had between both sides, right? I mean, they don't just come to the MLB players and say, okay, this is what you have to adhere to. That's a conversation. Same with the NFL. Do you feel like it's high time that the sport or maybe just the organization that is the UFC

adopts that as well? You know, I don't know, really. And really, it's a totally different conversation with all that. Because with the CBA and everything else, collects a bargaining agreement and everybody else and unions and associations, that's highly complicated stuff. And they've done, days in the UFC have done an effective job

of taking care of people where they need to be taken care of enough to the point where no, he's going to shout out the emperor is not wearing any clothing. So they've done an effective job as far as keeping us, not necessarily,

keeping us from teaming up with each other. And by them kind of limiting clothing sponsors and limiting some other stuff when they could have easily just put in a non-compete, you know, like, like they could easily, when affliction came outside of that, that, the fight promotion, and they said that they were so pissed because they, affliction built their name on the UFC's back. Well, all they had to do, in theory, was just put a non-compete in for five years. If you're going to advertise in the UFC, put a non-compete in for five, six,

10 years or whatever else. And then that would have effectively eliminated that concern. But when they did that, they drastically affected our sponsorship money, which means that we became more relying upon UFC's fight money. And so really it made it so we don't have extra cushion in order to be like, you know what the hell with it. This whole car will sit out because we made so much money our last time. Because when I first got in, if you were making one-to-one, like one times or the same amount and sponsorship money as you were to your fight purse, you were doing poorly.

I mean, if you were doing two times or three times or better, then you actually really knew where you were at with name value and worth. And so they effectively took that away from us. And so they took a lot of disposable income away until we became so much relying on their purses that it made it almost impossible for us to band together and say, look, we can sit out this card and we can do whatever else. Now, I don't think that whatever happened really because, you know, and a lot of times people say that it's the people that it's the people that it's the top five that need to sit out on every weight class, right? Like they need the Ronda Rouseys and the Jose Aldo's who's actually speaking out. and a bunch of other people, they need those people to bail out. Well, I don't necessarily think that's the case.

If something like that ever happened, like we're an association, right, we're to get, I think it's an association. I can't remember what the word is. It's not association, but, like, because it can't be union, right? Because union is employer-employee relationship. So anyways, if something were to ever start up, it would be, instead of being the top five, would be the depth of the purse because the top five people get taken care of relatively well in every weight class,

I would assume. But for everybody else, if you take away six through 20, six through 15, then there goes the heart of their order and there goes a lot of their lineups and their cards. So I think that would probably be the answer, but I don't think that'll ever happen. I'd be surprised. You mentioned Aldo, so clearly you have read his comments, which are all over the place today. What do you make of what he just said? I think he's very accurate. I think he's highly accurate. And I think that, I think that he's right and I think he's got huge stones to say it. He's the first champion to come out and say it, the first highly paid guy, which I'm assuming he's highly paid because nobody's beating him.

You know, I mean, a dude's a monster. Right. So I think he has huge stones and I think he's doing it for the greater good, which I don't, and it's not the same greater good as the Reebok deal, you know, like, I think that, I think that it takes huge stones on his part, and I respect him a lot for doing it, for sure. especially because he has a lot to lose, but he also knows that they, I think he probably feels that they can't really do that much to him because he's a man. And he knows that. Speaking of huge stones, I mean, at the end of the day, it does take huge stones to speak out

about something like this in the public sphere, right? And that's what you did right off the bat. You didn't follow anyone's lead. I mean, you were pretty quick to judge this. At some point were you thinking like, you know what, maybe this isn't the smartest thing for me to do career-wise? I could be shooting myself in the foot. I mean, you're on a role, and you're you're very much an important player in the heavyweight division, but you never know how things can be perceived, especially through Twitter, written, social media, all that stuff. Did you think twice at all about being openly critical of this deal when it was first announced? No, no, I didn't, to be honest. And I'll tell you why, because the way I was raised by my mother

and my father is that if I see something I don't agree and I speak out on it. It's, and like, And sometimes I'm an example of where keeping it real goes wrong. But I also, I live, I do my very best to live my life as being as open as honest as I can. And if I see something I don't agree with, I'll typically say something. Like, you know, that's not necessarily the case. I don't believe in that so much. So maybe that gets me in trouble sometimes, but that also lets me sleep at night because at least I express my genuine opinion. And people will know exactly where I stand.

And when you, yeah. It's typically, like, if you're going to get punished by the UFC, right, they're going to try to give you a bad fight for you, right? So that way you'll get smoked and you'll look terrible and you'll lose your next fight or whatever else. Right? Like that's, at least in my school of thought, that's like, if you do something and you get in bad grace with the UFC and you'll get a bad match up, you know? And, you know, if that's the case, I feel like right now, I'm the best fighter in the world, I feel like. So I don't think there's a bad matchup I could get. So I think I'd be very prepared for anybody that I was coming across.

period regardless of weight class best in the world i feel like i'm really damn good right now i feel like i've been really for for the last little bit yeah and i feel like i'm only getting better like this camp all my training partners my my my my coaches even chris who's my mentor but he's extremely honest with me they're like look do you look you look better than you've ever looked before take down defense striking creativity wise grappling transitioning everything i feel like i'm better than i've ever been. I'm not brand new. I'm not new and improved. Sure. I've just gotten better overall every single time.

Is there a secret to this change? Or is it just, you've just been in the game now and you're learning what it takes to become the best that you can be? I think that's probably it. There's not a secret for sure. Because I'm still doing the exact same things I've always done. I just feel like it's just, you know, I think maybe since my Brendan fight, you know, I think I'd, hopefully I made my last really stupid decision. in the middle of a fight, and now I'm just kind of fighting, you know, smarter and it's like safer.

Just fighting smarter. I know what I'm doing a little bit better. And I feel like I've finally gotten to a point where I can allow my athleticism to be my guide, and then the rest of my body and my ability follows after that. You know, way back when, when you fought Czech Congo, co-main event, remember that card, Nick Diaz, B.J. Penn. I was telling everyone, Matt Matron, Matt Matron, in a year will be fighting for the belt.

Well, you made me, you made me, you know, sound dumb then. But maybe it's going to come to fruition now. Maybe I was right all along. I just had the foresight to know that this was coming. I feel that there's not many people in the world that can beat me on any given day. I feel like I can beat anybody in the world. And with my training partners, with Coach Henry, with Coach Greg Jones down in Florida. And honestly, with Glenn Robinson, that allows me to go down there and train and work

with the Black Zions and get better. And Coach Neil Malanson came down with the Black Zanians and worked for a little while. And I made sure I got down there and did time with him and Struve and Anthony Johnson and Rashad. And Rico Verhoeven, like, I mean, just all these dudes, man. Like I just, I've just been fortunate, man, where all these people like, you know, they, we all worked hard and worked at the same tempo and we all got better. How many steps in between Ben Rothwell, who you fight on Saturday, co-main event? How many steps between him and say Kane Velasquez, in your opinion?

Well, I can answer that with, with, which I'm about like, after I beat family, how many fights would be there until like in your mind. I'm sure you think about this, right? No, actually, I have not. Genuinely have not. Wow. Because I'll tell you why. And I'll tell you how I answer, how I'd answer that question if you were asking ability-wise. And then I'll answer the question as to why I haven't thought that.

Okay. So, ability-wise between Kane and Ben. Kane didn't stop Ben The fight could stop But Ben was actually getting up against the wall When the referee stopped that fight Ben is durable as all hell I don't think he's ever been knocked out

And the dude, he had a belt in another organization He's a monster on all levels He's not great at anything But he's not bad anything either And he's he's he's been around long enough Where he knows what to do and how to handle himself in situations And when he gets put in a situation Where he's on queer street or

he's a it's an old term I'll give you a pass on that one I guess I appreciate it we're like where he gets he gets it's not a little bit funny right and like he's kind of he's doing this hill's dance that if he gets put in that situation he becomes highly aggressive

which is kind of unusual where most people will kind of fall back and kind of wait for them to kind of catch themselves he'll become even more aggressive charged forwards and start attacking and I think that that shows how he is how long he's been in the game where he knows his body well enough, where he can do something like that. I would think that, so that's my answer between him and Kane. I don't think there's a

huge difference there because, like I said, Kane didn't stop him, and that's one of the guys that Kane didn't stop as far as just putting hands on him and getting after him the whole way. And as far as why I haven't thought forwards as far as after I beat Ben, because I do believe I'll beat him, but Ben is so good at what he does that if I actually do take the time to look forwards past him, that's when I'll get my ass kick. Okay. And I feel like I'm good enough not to, but I feel that I respect Ben's abilities enough where I wouldn't do that.

I wouldn't disrespect him like that. I really think, not to look ahead, but I really think that considering how your last few fights have gone, the momentum you've built, you know, you're a popular guy, all that stuff, that you can really jump into that conversation come Saturday night. You know, I personally think Andre Arloffsky deserves, you know, a shot at the title, given what he did in his last fight and also, you know, his resume. It makes business sense to put them in that spot. But there are a couple of guys in there who need dance partners.

And I feel like you can really, as far as the top, top, top guys, I think you're right in that discussion if you win, especially impressively on Saturday. I agree. I think that there's some really good names out there right now that either for Ben or myself, whoever wins this, and especially if it's very convincingly and it looks good, that either one of us, too, can start making a whole lot of noise. And you want to keep doing this? I mean, after this is done, you're complaining about, you know, the money and the money that

you're losing. Does it make sense for you to continue being an MMA fighter after this? You know, man, that's an interesting question. It depends on my renegotiations. It depends on how, because after this fight, I have one fight left on my contract. Okay. And if the UFC wants to resign me, then we'll see what they come up with, what they offer. If not, then, you know, there's other conversations to be happy.

had, I'm sure. But, you know, I'm a fortunate guy. I have a mouthpiece. I'm articulate. And I've got, I've never left myself to be a man without options. And the NFL, that's the most dangerous thing as a man with options. So I learned a lesson in my life. And if the UFC decides they don't want me and no other fight organization wants me or whatever else, or I decide I've had enough, then, or the money's not right, then I'll go on and do something else. And I'll become a firefighter for Purdue University that doesn't have an age limit, and I'll be home all the time for my kids. I mean, I don't need to be a celebrity in my life. I don't fight to be famous. I fight to pay bills. And as long as I can do that and support my family, I couldn't care less

what I do. Do you want to resign with the UFC? Yeah, the UFC's been good to me, man. It's been really good to me. And I don't have any conversations with Dana. I don't. I don't have any conversations with Dana. I have more conversations with Joe Silva than I do with Dana. And I don't really talk to Lorenzo that often. But, you know, I enjoy it. It's the only organization I've ever fought in. So I don't want to go anywhere else. I don't want to experience something new, especially 13, 14 fights in. Why would I want to go somewhere else? But, I mean, it's a business. And I'm not going to preclude myself for many other options just because I'm comfortable here. And, you know, just curious because you're talking about Joe Silva and negotiations, you're going to do this on your own, right?

You don't have a manager anymore. Is that accurate? I do not have a manager. Yes, that is correct. Why did you decide to go that route? Well, because I felt like with, I felt like with the UFC deal and the Reebok deal, I felt like there was no reason for it anymore. Plus, like, I felt like, I felt that management, I felt management got too greedy. whereas like they they wanted night bonuses.

They wanted cuts of everything. They wanted, and it wasn't just on their, they're resting on their names and reputation and trying to claim that they're the ones that got you their bonuses or the night bonus, even if it wasn't like a performance bonus, it was like a night bonus, like a locker room bonus. They were trying to say those are hard work

that got you here and got you there. That's not the case, man. And if you don't want to pay that out and you have an argument with them, then things get awkward and intense. I don't need to pay out 20% of my purse to somebody that, you know, got me X amount of money in sponsorships when I'm the one who landed my biggest sponsors, my last two and three fights. So I don't need that, you know, and it's more of my mouthpiece and my own name and brand

that I've built versus like I haven't had a marketing company or a management company build me. It's been me and my ignorance building my own self out. But now you're going to have to go into a negotiation for the first time alone, right? that accurate? Well, yeah, but I have attorneys. I mean, don't give it wrong. I have legal counsel that I'll address with, and they'll be highly abreast at the situation and what other contracts are and the nuance of those contracts. I mean, I won't go into a contract negotiation I'm prepared. That's for sure.

Okay. Do you think that's going to be the norm in this sport? Do you think more guys are going to stop having managers? We've heard this, you know, from a few now. What was that? Chad Mendez is doing it too, right? No. No, actually, Chad Mendes is doing it too, right? No, actually, Chad Mendes super supportive of his team, but Joseph Benavides, yes. Okay, yeah. I mean, yeah, I think, I think it makes more sense to, and there's not enough money in our game to split up, you know, and sorry, that's my, my text alarm went off.

I think that there's, I don't think there's enough game, enough money in our game to give out 10 and 20 percent, and there's not enough left over. The fact that we're 1099s, we have to pay out an exorbitant amount of social security and self-employment taxes, everything else on top of that, everything we do is a write-off. We have to be extremely careful with our money. We have to pay our quarterly taxes. We have to do so many different things. And then in addition to that, pay out 20% plus X plus Y plus Z plus tip your trainers and everything else. It just gets remarkably complicated. And I don't think that there's enough left over for them. Okay, before I let you go, you're on a great streak, but even more fun is the fact that you've turned into, and I hope I'm not jinxing it here,

you've turned into one of these don't blink guys. I mean, your fights are ending rather quickly. Again, foresight here, Mitreone Minute, feel free to brand that. No problem. You can run with it. That's on the house. Are we looking to continue that? Is this something that you're striving for every time out these days? So I'll give you a very honest answer here. It's awesome. I don't be paid by the minute, so that's awesome that my fights have been, you know, nine of the first round lately. That's great. but and I'm not saying this just to be political at all totally legit I expect me and Ben to go 15 minutes

okay I don't think that there's going to be anything easy from Ben at all I feel like we know how he's going to come out and how he's going to attack us or attack me but I think I think this will not this will not be a quick and sexy fight I think it'll be an ugly grimy absolute war and not that I don't want one of those fights don't get me wrong. I don't want one of those flights. I don't want to get a punch in the face a little bunch. But I just don't see Ben going down

that easily. Well, dare I say, every time we get to see meat, sweat in the octagon, it's pretty sexy. I mean, I'm just going to throw it out there. So you know, tomato tomato, what sexy for me might not be for you, but that's just my opinion. Well, I appreciate it, my man. And I'll do my very best to end it quickly. Like I said, don't get paid by the minute. Yes. But Ben's pretty damn tough. And feel free to use that in a post-fight interview. I feel like you still me one of those shoutouts from back of the day. Remember that deal we had?

I think I do. I do. I need the shout out. You know, Mitchelman. People know. People know when there's a hat tip going on, so they'll recognize that. A pleasure, as always, Matt. Thank you very much for the time. Congrats on the new house. Congrats on the streak as of Lake. Can't wait for this fight, in my opinion, one of, if not the most intriguing fight on the main card. Looking forward to it very much. Matt Matreone versus Ben Rothwell this Saturday, Fox Sports won in New Orleans, New Orleans, as they say, down there. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to eat normally down there.

Yes. I'm going to take advantage. Enjoy that. Great to see you as always. Thank you. I appreciate it, man. There he is. Matt Mitreone.

Speaks the truth. Speaks what's on his mind. We appreciate that as always. All right. Speaking of that New Orleans card, it's a great card, by the way. You know, it was obviously a lot more intriguing when it had DC versus Bator,

especially these days. That's not happening. It could happen very soon, but remember, that was the original, main event for this card, and it was a homecoming of sorts for one Daniel Cormier. But it's still a very, it's still a very intriguing card. The new main event, of course, Dan Henderson versus Tim Boch, Matt Mat Matrion versus Ben Rothwell, Yancey Maderos versus Dustin Porier, Brian Ortega versus Tiago Tevarez,

Alex Casares versus Francisco Rivera. That's a fun one. and then the last fight on the main card is very interesting as well Anthony Birchak versus our guests at this time joining us via the magic of Skype the one and only Joe Soto there he is in the flesh Hey what's up

well not really in the flesh in the digital we appreciate the time very much Joe how are you? I'm doing good doing good just ready to get this fight over with I guess well I have a lot to talk to you about but you say something interesting there over with

You don't enjoy this process the six days or so, five days before the fight? No, I mean, some of it, you know, it's cool. I mean, you know, in dream country and all that, but it's kind of like stressful too, you know? Yeah. You know, with fighting, somebody's going to punch you and you got to defend yourself and it's scary. I can imagine. But you got to enjoy the journey, right? The journey sometimes is more enjoyable than the actual end result, I would think.

Maybe not. Maybe not in fighting. The end result is pretty cool. You know what I mean? Like that's the best part of fighting is when it's over and you get that rush at the end and get your paycheck and get to go home to your family. That's the best part. But yeah, no, the journey's cool like doing interviews like this.

And, you know, I mean the process is cool. But at the same time, the nerves are, you know, killing you. Well, I got to ask you because even your manager, Jason House, can attest to this. For the last few months, prior to this fight being announced, I would ask him every few weeks. What's going on with Joe Soto? Where's Joe Soto been? I mean, you came out of nowhere as far as the UFC is concerned.

You get this title shot on the most bizarre circumstances possible, 24 hours notice. You put up a valiant effort. I mean, it was a tough fight. It was a fun fight to watch. And then you essentially disappeared. And that was back in August. Where have you been? Just been chilling, waiting for a fight.

I don't know. I've just been, you know, in the gym, just getting better and just relaxing. spending time with my family, but just getting up working on things, getting better. There's a lot of things I needed to work on after that fight. So you weren't injured or anything like that? No, no. I was cool.

I think the only thing that was really hurt on me after that fight was my leg for like a week or two. A couple of leg kicks, letting some good leg kicks, but that was about it. Of course, you lost the title fight, but I think a lot of people respected the fact that, A, you stepped up on 24 hours notice, and B, you put on a very strong,

effort. There was a lot of heart involved. I mean, you really fought as hard as you could, given the circumstances that you didn't prepare for the best in the world. Do you feel like you lost a little momentum afterwards? Because I feel like a lot of people were talking about you and you were, you were part of the conversation. And then, like I said, you disappeared. Do you feel like you lost that momentum? Do we still have Joe? There he is. I'm sorry. Yeah. No, I mean, I guess a little bit, you know, but you could always gain that back with an awesome fight, you know, good performance. So, you know, I'm not really too worried about that and as long as I keep winning, good things that happen, I guess.

How strange was the aftermath of that fight? Like when you got back home, the last, you know, when you left your home that week in August, you were preparing for, you know, just your debut, lower level fight, and you come back home a guy who just fought in the main event for the UFC belt. How long did it take for you to almost, you know, catch your breath and get over that whole situation? It took a while. I think that's where I took a little break, too.

I don't know. Yeah, it took a while for everything to sink in. you know, I was just, the biggest thing was I was just relieved that I was finally in the year, so it took a lot of years to get here. Yeah. And I think, I think that's what I needed to take like a breather, because I hustled for so many years, you know, try to grind to get in. And it was, it was hard to get in. But yeah, definitely, it was kind of weird that whole situation. Yeah, it took a lot for, you know, like, wow, that happened. So it was cool. Looking back, do you feel like you did as best as you could, or in your heart of hearts you think

you actually could have won, even given the circumstances? I think there's a lot of things I could have did differently. I mean, you know, it's kind of hard to game planning one night for the best guy in the world. I mean, I could have won, I guess. You know, I mean, there's a couple things. I don't know. He's a tough fighter. I mean, I don't know.

I think next time it could be different, but, I mean, you never know. He's always going to be dangerous and no matter how much time I have to prepare, you know. is a tough fight or so. But there's a couple of things I could do different that I kind of like, man, I should do that. It just, it was hard to be confident going into that fight, you know, like in your cardio and everything, 100% because you're just, you just didn't prepare for that fight for that situation.

So, you know, I couldn't go 100%. I had to try to reserve just to reserve my energy. You know, I couldn't, I had to fight like 80% or something. I couldn't push like I wanted to, so, but I don't know. That fight could go a lot of. different ways because we're both athletic and I don't know go a lot of different ways. As far as things you could have done differently, what comes to mind? I can't throw more lay kicks, you know.

I've already through more late kicks, you know, maybe we're to slow them down early, give them more to worry about, you know, just mixing up stuff like that. I kind of stick, I was kind of sticking to boxing and, you know, maybe I just wasn't confident myself, didn't, like, you know, doing a little bit kickboxing in there. Maybe I don't know. I thought if I just stuck to boxing and be safer. But I think I should have took a chance more and just threw more leg kicks. And I just didn't want to open myself up for anything because he's, you know, it's dangerous.

But they've got, you know, and just try to really try to force the take downs a little bit more. Yeah. I didn't, you know, a couple times I shot in and right when he defended I kind of let go just because I didn't want to have a struggle. I didn't want to use a lot of energy. So a lot of it was just trying to not use some. much energy because I was trying to go for the five rounds. Yeah, and of course you were originally preparing for a three-round fight. Big difference to fight five-round main event against the champion.

I'm assuming you've watched the fight since then, right? Oh, yeah. A lot? Yeah, yeah. Is that hard, or do you enjoy that experience? The first couple rounds is cool, you know? Yeah. The last round, kind of, you know, I don't like that round.

But, you know, I know, I go over to a friend's house, hey, you want to watch a fight? I'm like, yeah, whatever. throw it on whatever. There's nothing else you can watch at this point? Yeah, I know. Yeah, so that happens, you know, sometimes.

Yeah, so I watch it a few times. What was that night before like? You mentioned, you know, just you don't have a lot of time to game plan. Like, did you even go to sleep that night? Was it one of the more tense night befores of your career? Yeah, I was, I mean, it's always the same kind of. I mean, it's always kind of stressful.

But this one is times 10, right? Right? It had to have been. Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty just, it was just crazy. It was hard to like, is this happening? You know, it was just a weird feeling. You know, but I got through it, I guess. How much support did you get before and after from people who have known how much you've struggled and had to hustle, as you say, to get to this point? I mean, that was an unbelievable turn of events. We don't see that often in the UFC. what was that like to get that or did you get? I'm assuming you have friends who know your struggles

and who know how much you've hustled. What was the like? And how much did you get? Yeah, no, they, you know, everybody was definitely happy for me. Everybody was real positive. Everybody thought I did, you know, wow. You know, a lot of encouraging words. Everybody, yeah, I was just happy around here.

Everybody that knows me. And then, you know, from the fans, like on Facebook, people send me messages, you know, from all over the world, just, you know, saying that, you know, I did a good job. and, you know, congratulating me and just tell me I'm inspiration or whatever for whatever reason. So, that was cool.

It's got to be a weird thing because I would imagine you received more feedback for that fight, which was a loss than any other fight you've ever had, right? Yeah, definitely. And I kind of figured that would happen, you know, you know, I mean, it could happen, I guess.

I knew I would gain way more recognition and everything for taking the fight, you know. So, you know, it was a good decision. did this camp feel like Groundhog Day a little bit because you were preparing to fight Birchak, right? No, well, not really because I didn't really get to prepare for him either. Remember, I took the fight on three weeks notice. That's true.

So it wasn't really, you know, I mean, his name did come up before two. Like, I was supposed to fight him when he was at MCF, I think up in Canada. MFC. MFC, sorry. Yeah, he was former chairman. I was going to fight him back then, but I think the pay wasn't that good or something. And so I took a different fight. And then, you know, it came up for the UFC, but obviously didn't fight them.

So, you know, we're finally going to get this over with and, you know, see what happens. Speaking of a guy, because you were fighting in those smaller weight classes, which for a time, you know, it was hard to find a home. Now that you finally made it to the UFC, does it feel a little more like, okay, now I have a place that I don't have to worry about, you know, of course your debut is weird. But, you know, fights, if it falls through, you'll get a replacement. it's a little more, you know, it's a little more professional than some of the minor leagues. Not saying like a bellatory, but I'm saying below that when you're fighting on the regional circuit. Do you feel a little more comfortable like you kind of made it or not quite yet until you get that debut win under your belt and a few others? Yeah, no, I mean, part of me feels like, yeah, I made it, you know, because, I mean, nobody in my hometown.

Nobody in my, you know, area has ever reached, you know, pinnacle this high of anything. So part of me feels like, hey, you know, I made it, you know, just. and try to have fun with it and, you know, obviously win. But a part of me, you know, obviously I need to get that first win too to kind of really proved, you know, to myself, you know,

that I made it, like, okay. Right. And I think I'll be, I think I'll be a little bit less nervous after I get that first win under my belt. Do you get treated like a star in your hometown because you are a UFC fighter or pro fighter? Not really.

I don't think so. I think, you know, when you're in your hometown, The people know you like really well so they don't treat you any different. Like I know that guy. He's not, it's not big of a deal. So I don't feel like, once in a while, you know, mainly with like kids that come up to me more than anything. But, you know, I'm, I don't get out much either. I'm in a gym and I'm at home a lot.

Right. So. Are you at home right now? Yeah, I'm at home just waking up and about to go run. Oh, no. Did we wake you up? What time is it there? 1040.

No, actually, for some reason. reason, dude, I don't know if I was excited or something to be on your show, but I woke up like a five in the morning. I was like, and that never happens. And then I went back to bed, I woke up like an eight and just been like kind of just lounging around. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that you were excited to be on the show if that was the reason why you woke up. Yeah, no, I was excited to be on the show. It's, you know, always watch you and a fan of the show and everything. So, you know, your interviews and all that. So. Thank you, Joe. By the way, did you notice? You probably didn't because you were preparing for the fight, but the day

of your fight, Bellator tweeted out when you lost on their Twitter, which I thought was a bit of a low blow, like right before the guy's about the fight,

what would you make of that? Yeah, it was funny. I think one of my friends was like, Bellator needs to move on because Joe Setto did or something. Yeah.

It was, it is a business, I guess, they need to bring some views to Joe Warren, their champ at the time, I think he was. And,

but they just did it again, until I seen on Facebook Really? Yeah, that fight again. It is what it is. Do you leave on bad terms with those guys or what? It was weird.

I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it was bad terms, I guess so. I mean, a little bit, you know. What happened?

I don't know. They tried to resign me, I think, for like less money. They wanted to give me less money or something. I don't know. It was just hard dealing with them.

I don't know. It was just kind of a weird issue, I guess. I guess it ain't good. I mean, I don't know. I never had to fall out with anybody, but, you know, I don't know. Never fought for him again.

But that's a war and fight. That's the old regime, right? So maybe it's different now. Yeah, maybe it's different now. But, yeah, so. I mean, I don't know why they put. I mean, obviously it's a business. I don't know.

They want to bring attention to their fighter or whatever. Sure. With those fights. It's not that big overdeal. That's whatever. I don't know. I remember seeing that on Twitter in Sacramento, the day of the fight. I was like, I don't know, it just felt like they were bringing you, I don't know, just kind of like a low blow.

Yeah, it was just kind of a low blow. I don't like a low blow, but it's kind of like tasteless or something. I don't know, that's weird. Maybe that is a good word. Yes, tasteless. That is a good word. There's a certain line that I think you shouldn't cross. At the end of the day, these are people fighting for livelihoods and, I don't know, there's a lot at stake.

It just, the timing of it felt a little weird, but it is what it is. You're now in the UFC. You're fighting on this main card in New Orleans. It's a big fight. You said you've been taking a lot of time. anything different we're going to see from you on Saturday since you know you haven't it's it's very rare for a guy to be on 10 months and not be injured so I'm assuming you had a lot of time to work on things yeah no I definitely worked on a lot of things uh a lot of cool things too um I don't know

we'll see if I throw something different out there I mean sometimes if I could get by with just like the basics fundamentals you know but maybe you know I'll try something new if I have to if I get pushed to that spot, or I have to, you know, bring the toes up the toebox, but we'll see. All right. Well, I wish you the best.

It's good to see you again. Welcome back. And looking forward to this fight very much. It is this Saturday on Fox Sports 1. Main card at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, Anthony Burchack versus this man, Joe Soto. You can follow him on Twitter, Joe Soto 135. Thank you very much, Joe.

Talk to you soon. All right. Thanks for having me. All right, there is. Joe Soto joining us. Just woke up after, I guess, his little nap. And we are back with another free card on FS1, which is always great. You don't have to pay.

But I came to the conclusion on Saturday while watching that Carlos Condit, Tiago Alva's fight. I came to the conclusion that to be a UFC fan, especially one on the East Coast, is to be a fan of a West Coast NBA team, NHL team, Major League Baseball team. and even more trying to a degree than that because those games will start at 10.30, they'll end at 1-ish. The UFC events very often end at like 130. That's a tough thing for an East Coast.

I still feel like it's one of the few, if the only American Sports League that seems to cater to the West Coast fan more so than the East Coast fan, right? And I know there are going to be a lot of fans from Europe and Asia, you know, maybe in Australia. They like it because it's Sunday morning there. But a lot of the European fans, bellyache about this, say like, oh, what about us? We have to stay up until 6 a.m.

But you know that. That's part of the deal. It's an American sport. You have to do that with the NBA, the NFL, MLB. If you're a fan of those sports, I don't complain about having to wake up at 6 a.m. to watch, you know, an English Premier League match. I know that because it's a European league. This is an American league.

So you kind of expect certain things. And maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe I'm just, you know, I don't know. An old man. But sometimes I'm just, you know, falling asleep. But then I wake up. Carlos Condit made me wake up. That's for sure.

What a performance that was. Anyhow, let's move on. Let us welcome in our next guest. Let me just tell the people. about this. Our next guest of the day I told you that I told you that he's coming up on a very interesting anniversary.

His name of course is Jason Hyde. The last time we saw him in action was almost a year ago. June 7th 2014. He fought Hafeo do Sanjos in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was on a two-fight winning streak and in his mind, remember we had him on the show shortly there after, In his mind, it was somewhat of a controversial disputed finish.

Had a little incident with the referee and paid a huge price for that. He was suspended for a year by the New Mexico Athletic Commission. He was released from the UFC and had to sit out. But that suspension is up in six days. June 7, 2015, he's a free man. So I've been wanting to check in with him, but I wanted to wait until, you know, it was the right time. I wanted to wait until the suspension was over, and here we are, less than a week away. So we had to invite our old pal, Jason High, back to the MMAR. There he is,

rocking shades. Jason, how are you? How are you doing, man? I'm doing great. Wow, it looks beautiful where you are. Where are you right now? I'm in Kansas City, sort of, or later. Well, it looks wonderful. Are you home? Is that your backyard? Well, yeah, it's kind of like a communal open space. It's not really. all our backyard, yeah. Well, the future is bright for you, so I guess it's fitting that you are wearing shades today because your suspension is finally coming to an end

on June 7th, which is, I believe, Sunday. You are a free man, is that correct? I'm excited, man, yeah. I mean, you know, the anniversary, as you call it, an anniversary. The anniversary is usually reserved for, you know... What else would you call it, though? What is a... Even if it's, you know, a bad thing, isn't that an anniversary?

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for lack of a better word. Sure. Sure, sure. Yeah. So I'm excited to get back to work, though, man. I'm excited. What have you been doing for the last year? I've been building the gym with L.C. Davis, building American Top Team HD, training Jiu-Jitsu. I've been staying busy, man. How have you made a living for your family?

Oh, man, it's great. I have a good partner, and Gaff. You guys know her as. She's been super busy. She owns her own company. So she's working. I'm taking care of Jalen. It's working out. So you're Mr. Mom for the past year? I'm Mr. Mom.

It's been great. Yeah. Jailen's six. I'm outside because she likes to jump in, you know, jump in my interviews as you might remember. So, you know, I had to get away from her for a little bit. Shouldn't she be in school right now? Does she have school? Or is it off?

She's out of school, bro. It's over? It's daddy daughter time, you know? All right, all right. I like that. So you've obviously had a chance to get a lot closer to your daughter, which is great and do these things. But what has it been like in the prime of your career? You're a young guy. How old are you? Let me look at this right here. You are 33 years old, correct? Yeah, I'm 34.

What has it been like to just sit out? No injuries or anything like that. And you're kind of put on time out. What was that like for you? That part's been rough, man. I've got to be honest. If I'm being honest, it's been really rough just to sit on the sidelines and watch. but, you know, I'm just sharpening my utensils so I can eat again. Yeah. Has it been hard to be a fan?

I know you're a fan of the sport. You know, on Twitter you're always very, you know, vocal and it's clear that you're always consuming MMA. Has it been hard to watch the sport knowing that you can't compete for this past year? Yeah, it definitely has been, man. I mean, you know, it's hard to sit on the sidelines, man, especially, like you said, I'm healthy.

Yeah. I came off of a big rest from being, you know, not healthy with my appendix and everything, and then to get sat out for a year after that, it's like it was really heartbreaking, man. It's hard to sit out and watch. But, you know, we've been getting through it, and I'm ready to get back to work this year for sure.

You try to appeal this suspension, right? Yeah, we did try to appeal. I actually thought it went great, by the way. I think we talked about that, right? We never talked about it on the show. I had you on the show right when they gave you the initial suspension. but we haven't talked to you since. Did you go there in person?

Did you talk to them in person about this? The appeal? No, I didn't go there. It was on a Mike and I, my manager, were on a video, or not a video at, like, a teleconference. Yeah. And what was the case that you laid out for them? Well, I don't really, you know,

the first time I heard of the push of the referee was when the commissioner came to me in the locker room. So, you know, I took a good punch right before that. You know, it's just, I don't really remember the whole thing. So that was, that was pretty much our case. Sure. That was, that's the base of it. You know, that's it.

Did you feel as though, you know, given the fact that they were giving you a one-year suspension and that it was in the heat of the moment we've seen, sometimes these things happen in the heat of the moment, did you feel as though you might get a reduced? Like, were you confident that they would come to their senses to a degree and say, okay, six months, eight months, something like that? I was. I was pretty confident, especially I felt like the meeting went well.

I felt like it went really well, and Mike did too. So I thought, you know, we were going to get six to nine months. That was what I was hoping for, you know, at the worst, you know. But they upheld the year and here we are. What was that like? Was that like a kick in the balls when they appelled it? Yeah, you know, I'd say it was more like a poke in the eye. Oh.

You know, you got to protect. cup to protect the balls. There's nothing. It's like a bad poke. You know, you feel like you're going to vomit for a second and then that passes, you know. Because it's a weird thing because I'm assuming when they first announced the suspension, you thought, all right, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. There's a silver lining that can appeal this.

Once they take away that light, now you really have to, you know, settle in and deal with the consequences. Man, it's tough. And especially when we've seen other things. And, of course, you lost your job as well. You know, how many times have you replayed that whole thing over? Like, have you watched it? Could I have handled this differently?

Do I have an anger management problem? I mean, I would imagine. You seem like a pretty cool guy. I'm pretty chill, you know? Most people, I'm pretty chill. But, you know, that was obviously, it was out of character, you know. But, yeah, things happened, you know. I mean, things happened.

I didn't do it on purpose. I definitely wouldn't do it again. So, you know. You watch other situations? like I think of Claudia Gedelia and Ioanni on Jacek in December where there was a punch thrown after the bell. Do you watch other situations say, well, wait a second, was my thing worse than that? Why did they get this? Do you put yourself in that spot or do you feel like that makes you crazy?

Yeah, I feel like you could do that for a lot of situations for sure, but it really doesn't do anybody any good, you know. Doesn't do myself any good to do that. But you definitely see some things that have happened over, you know, over the past year since I've been out that in their reaction. makes you question some of the, you know, why they dealt with me so harshly, yeah. Yeah. But I guess every commission is different and, you know, you can't, I mean, like I said, you'll drive yourself crazy if you do that. Kind of the unknown thing about this, or maybe the forgotten thing, I should say,

is that it was against Hafeel dosangos, the future champion, which is amazing to think, you know, a year ago where he was and where he is today. Have you been rooting for Hafeel? Like, does this make your loss feel, you know, a little better? Do you feel better about the loss because he ended up being the champion? I wouldn't say that I feel better about the loss, but, you know, it makes it, it makes me that much more eager to get back in. Like, you know, I knew that from the beginning that I was up, you know, I belonged to the top of that division and, you know, that fight. It didn't prove it, obviously, because I lost, but it just proves that I can compete and I'm ready to go, you know?

Like, you know, I just want to get back in, you know? Yeah. I'm ready to eat. Did you think, honestly, did you think when you fought him, this guy has future chance? champion in him that I could be facing a guy who'll win the belt. I don't think a lot of people saw this coming. He surprised me with a couple things. Like, with his, the way he was, his front leg is pretty quick. Like, I don't think he's used it in the past couple of fights as much as he used it against me, but that kind of surprised me. So, and, you know, he's got

pretty good pressure. You know, that's definitely something that, uh, before that fight, we were talking that, you know, it's my first fight at 55, you know, I had to bring your pace up, You know, so that's one thing that, you know, I think I definitely learned from that fight. And he's shown it that he's got a great pace, you know, he's got great pressure. And he's honed that aspect of his game, you know. So, you know, it's definitely something to learn from, you know. When you return, will it be at 155 or 170? No, I'm going to stay at 55, man.

Okay. Yeah, I'm going to stay down there. And, you know, my weight is decent right now. and I keep it pretty healthy. I stay working out the whole year. You know, I've been in the gym, so nothing changed, really. So when this really, you know, sunk in, you didn't get super fat and just eat a lot of pizza and stuff and chill out for a bit? You know, I like donuts.

Oh, you know? That's your thing. Yeah, and licorice, bro. Okay. Killing it. But, you know, as long as you stay working out, you can have your donuts and your licorice. That's true. What's your donuts spot?

Do you have a favorite? Lamar's Kansas City Anybody from Kansas City knows about Lamar's You ever come here I'll bring you some Lamar's I've never heard of Lamar's What's their famous don't know Like what's your favorite one

Now I'm getting really hungry I like the glazed man That's just plain Jane How many do you have a week You know actually I don't have them weekly I wouldn't say I have Weekly you know

But Last You know I'll get six at a time And eat them in one sitting No. Throughout the day. Throughout the day. But you'll eat it in a 24-hour stretch. Oh, yeah, it was less than 24 hours.

Wow. Okay, how many licorice strips or whatever you call them sticks do you have in a week? Are you obsessed with those? Those I kind of eat a lot of, a lot. I wouldn't even want to estimate just for, you know, leave the fifth. I'll be honest with you. I love licorice. Not a huge fan of donuts, but nibs to me, quite frankly, are better than licorice.

What are nibbs exactly? You don't know what nibs are? They're like the cut-up licorice. I'm talking about little twiddlers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, nibs. If your licorish game up, man, you got to try that Australian-style liquorice to soft-chewy stuff. What's that? It's just a different kind of licorish.

Really? Same flavor as Twizzlers, but a little better. I think you like it. You got to try it. So you like the underground kind. You don't like the corporate America twizzlers kind. I like twizzlers, too. I'll take those in a pinch.

Okay, all right. Yeah. By the way, what's going on in Kansas? city these days. The Royals are rolling. Are you on the bandwagon? Because I feel like you weren't a Royals fan like a year ago this time. I jumped on the bandwagon, man. It's been since 85. I mean, sure. I jumped on the bandwagon last year, actually. It's like a lot of people. Like in October. Yeah. You know, before that, when they were, they were doing well early. Sure. A little earlier. Yeah, so. But are you still on the bandwagon? Like, are you watching all the games now? Are you just

going to jump back on in the fall? I still can't watch baseball. Oh, you can. Okay. But I'm rude. for the Royals and you know it's great that they're doing great I think it's awesome having a great baseball team here is there is there a royal's fever like are people you know a lot more infinitely more excited about their their success and their games than they were yeah I mean yeah there's a lot of people that you know around here that are just royals fans you know so it's a pretty cool baseball town you know I'm just not into baseball that much okay let's get back to your fighting stuff that was a nice little uh that was a nice little departure for a second Are people reaching out to you yet, or are they waiting for the suspension?

How does that work? Do they have to wait for the suspension to be up to, you know, start dialogue? How's this going down? No, it's going, I think it's going well. Mike's talking to some people, so we should have some news soon, you know? Oh, yeah. I think, yeah. Who's reaching out?

Well, I can't say any names right now. Come on, man. All right, fair enough. Is there a chance you go back to the UFC or is that off the table? man anything's possible sure uh you know they've certainly shown that they're willing to do do business sure is that your top choice because it ended i mean you like i said you you really seem to put everything together you'd want two in a row you were looking good is that what you'd like or are you just going to the the highest bidder so to speak um i don't know i felt like earlier in my career maybe

i would have cared a little bit about that more but now i really really I really, it's not that big a concern to me if I go back to the UFC. I'd like to go back because there's a lot of good guys there, and I think I could be at the top of that division. But I think also if I go to Bellator or anywhere else, I could be, you know, in the top five of that division, be right up there. You just want to stack that paper. Stacking that paper, man.

I'm ready to get back work, man. Well, it's a quicker climb up the 155 ladder in Belator. I would imagine just because there's less fighters in that division, right? Yeah, I mean, but there's some tough guys there, man. Anywhere you go, like, those top division, top organization, there's going to be a bunch of savages at the top. You know, I'm ready to be one of them. The 155-pound champion in Belator is an ATT guy, Will Brooks.

How do you feel about, you know, that? I mean, that's the guy at the end there. So how do you feel about potentially having to fight him if that would, you know, if that would come into play? For the belt, man. You'll do it. I'd fight him, yeah. And I think he knows that, you know, he's,

He's the champ, you know, he's ready to take on all comers, you know. A lot of respect for him. He's got incredible skills. But, you know, for the belt. You know him? I think it's good for A.T. Have you trained with him? Yeah.

We haven't done a whole lot of training, you know, maybe a little, a few grappling grounds, you know. But, you know, obviously, I don't live down there. So, you know, he's there every day, you know. You mentioned ATTHD. What's that? That's myself and Elsie Davis. Because we, well, we used to have the old spot over in another part of town, and we moved last year, actually, after, you know, right before the fight, Elsie put it all together. It's great.

I mean, it's called American Top Team HD, you know. What's the HD stand for? High Def. High Dev. High Davis. Oh, I like it. It just occurred to me. Wow.

That's a good one. Well done. Yeah, LC's about to get a title shot. You didn't know that? I didn't know that. He should be next in line. I mean, Gal Val is running his mouth on Twitter. I think a Belator should go ahead and make that fight.

Let my dude L.C. get that belt. Oh, so you're saying you think he should get it. It's not official, though, right? No, it's not official, but I definitely, I definitely think, like, who else? How's his mouth, by the way? It's good. He got his braces off last week, I think. Okay.

And he's going to be clear for contact soon in the next few weeks, I believe. That was really hard to watch. Yeah, man, he's a tough guy. When did that happen in the fight? Was that early or late? It looked like these teachers were... I think it happened maybe like the end of the second round when he took that up kick. That's when I think it happened.

And he didn't have a mouth guard there, right? Or did he? Well, you know, the kick was coming up like this. You know, you got mouthguard on your top. Yeah, yeah. So I think the heel just hit him right on the teeth, you know? So it's crazy. That was really hard to watch, I will admit.

That was at one point. God. Were you with him backstage there? No, I was not there. Who were you? I was holding down the gym, man. Okay. Yeah.

But if he fights for the belt, will you be there? Absolutely. Absolutely, I will be. Okay, so the anniversary is rapidly approaching. Let's say we have all the top organizations, matchmakers, decision makers in the world watching this. Why should someone sign Jason High? Why should he be someone? that they should go after on June 7th.

Hey, I'm a finisher. I'm going to be the top of your division. You know, don't worry about everybody else. I'm here. I'm back. I'll be back. So bring it, you know. Let's do it.

How quickly can you jump in there? Like, are you pretending like you're in camp right now so you can be as active as possible right off the bat? I've been training, but I'm not, I'd like to have a month, month's notice. But, you know, I stay ready, man. So, you know. whenever.

All right. Well, good luck to you. And do you think it's going to happen quickly? You say you've had some conversations. Do you think you'll be signed June 8th, or do you think it's going to take some time? I think... I wouldn't be surprised if it took a month or so.

Okay. All right. Well, good luck. Keep us posted. You see his Twitter page right over there, his Twitter handle, as the kids call it, so you can follow him if you want the latest. June 7th is a big day for this man,

Jason High. The suspension is over. Finally, a year later, a lot of people, including myself, thought it was a little too, a little too rough, especially when you consider the fact that he lost his job as well. But that is in the rearview mirror. It is all over. You are a free man very soon.

I wish you the best, Jason, and good luck in deciding where you're going to fight next. Thank you, man. Thank you for having me. Talk to you next time. Pleasure as always, there he is. The KC banded himself, Jason High, stopping by. Remember, he lost to Hafeld dos Angeles, which is crazy. Since then, Hafeld dosangos, of course, undefeated.

He was coming off the loss in a loss. Ormaga Madov. He beat Jason High, June 7th, then beat Benson Henderson, then Nate Diaz, then Anthony Pettis. What a climb for him. Good luck to Jason High. Great guy. And happy that he is finally a free man and able to resume his mixed martial arts career. Okay.

In a minute, we're going to be joined by one of the top stars, rising stars in the UFC's lightweight division. This is a man who has a very big full. fight on July 15th in San Diego, one of the important fights on that card. That is a card, of course, that is live and free on Fox Sports One. He is fighting Bobby King Green, not King Bobby Green, as I learned last week. It's Bobby King Green. And if you recall last week on this very program, Bobby King Green put on a pretty memorable performance. He was on fire. He brought back up. I think he had five people with him. And I pretty much didn't have to say,

much. I mean, the guy was spitting fire. He had a lot to say. He had a lot on his mind. And some of that was directed at our guest at this time, the man who will be fighting Bobby Green on July 15th. The one and only Al Ayahuinta. There he is. Back in the Lair. It's always from the same spot. Are you in your basement right now, Al? This is my room, man. This is your room. It's so dark. I look out and make sure everyone, you know, I look out the window, make sure no one's fucking with the house. Right. That's the place on lockdown, you know. This is, is this an upstairs room or a downstairs room?

Upstairs, yeah. Okay. For some reason, I have this vision of you being like in a cave or something here. So it just feels very, it feels very... Upstairs. Okay. All right, fair enough. So it's good to have you on the show.

Thank you very much. By the way, you were supposed to be at the Athlete Summit. Why aren't you there? I'm just getting over being sick. I got back from Vegas. Yeah, I got back from Vegas last week, and I got pretty sick. and just for my health, I think it's better I stay here

and get ready for a big fight. I got a big fight coming up. I think Bobby Green might not be taking me so serious, but I'm taking him very, very serious. Well, we'll get to that in a second. I want to ask you about Las Vegas. You were there, of course, to support your friend and teammate,

training partner, Chris Wyman. I just want to know, what was the post-fight celebration like? Do we behave? It was crazy, man. No, it was fun. It was fun. Nothing too crazy, but it was just a, you know,

they had the whole team there. Everyone was, you know, celebrating Chris's win. You know, he came out of it healthy. He was able to come to the party. And the whole team was there. It was really special, man. It was a great time. Were you in attendance?

Were you in the crowd? Oh, yeah, I was there. Yep, me, Aljo, truck, all of us. We all were scattered around the arena. And somehow we found, we found the, you know, like six seats. that were next to each other and the whole team sat together and it was awesome.

What were you thinking when he was rocked early on? Were you nervous? No, I wasn't really too nervous, man. That's Chris. Chris will do that. He'll kind of, he can take, he's got a great chin, so he can take some shots

and, you know, when they went flying across the ring, Vitor kind of stumbled, and then Chris went running after him. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I was like, ugh. And then when I saw he was all right, I was like, all right, all right, good.

You know, but that was the only time where I got, I wasn't really sure what the hell was going on. It was just mayhem. But when he was just covering up, I saw him, you know, he was doing his thing. How about that revelation last week on this program that he had a massive bun burning in the oven right before the fight?

He thought he had to go to the bathroom, and that might have affected his performance. I mean, that is pretty serious stuff. Yeah, it's kind of crazy, man. Jamie Franco, one of the wrestling coaches at the gym, he was like, man, I don't like the way he looks right now. I don't know what the hell's going on. And I was like, hey, whatever, Reagan, mind me, let's go.

And afterwards, we realized what the hell was really going on. And, you know, props for Jamie recognizing that. But yeah, it was, that's not fun. I would have stopped. I would have said, I'm going to the bathroom this oldest show. Yeah. You know, that's how he just, he just went with. it, man. He's really a team player. But yes, I agree. It looked like his face lost all its color.

It looked like something was seriously off. You probably couldn't tell because you were in the crowd. But watching it on TV, it seemed like the guy had just seen a ghost. Yeah, yeah. Looking back, it's kind of crazy. I don't know. He's got to see somebody about that. Yeah. He's got to take care of. That is very true. By the way, do you feel like he's elevated everyone's game? I mean, I know you don't probably spar and train with him all that often because you're in different weight classes. But just having the champion who's now defended the belt and beat in some of the greatest of all time, does that every day, does that lift

everyone like a, like, it's almost inspirational to see this guy in the gym. This is the best in the world in his weight class, maybe in the entire sport, you know, when it's all said and done, in the same space as you every single day. 100%. I've been asked a question a million times and I, it's the same answer every time. Of course. How, you know, learning from him, learning from Ray and Matt, I'm getting put through the same workouts.

as the chant. If I can do it, if I'm getting through the same pad workout, the same bag workout, strength and conditioning, if I'm learning the same moves on the ground, I know I'm in the right place. And, you know, and that's where I'm at the right place and it's going to show. It has been. Speaking of workouts, in my hand over here, I have the mixed martial arts. Yeah, look at that. Athlete Training Log by Ally Aquinta, which I purchased, proudly purchased this on Amazon.com. You can get it right now. And this thing, I mean, this was a steal.

I think it was like 40 bucks, right? Is that it? That's it. And 3999. 399. It's all yours. You got the world at your fingertips right now. You can be a band and it's just like raging out.

Was I one of the first people to buy this? Do you know, do you get those stats? Yeah, you were one of the first, yeah. How about that? I think it's on like the first 24 hours or so. Well, you know, when I say I'm going to do something, I do it. But here's the thing.

I got this book, not that long ago. We've had it here on the desk for the last couple seasons. There's a bit about you, a couple pages about you. And then there's a lot of pages where it's just kind of, you know, empty. I have to fill it out myself. Yeah, come on, man. You got to get on it. You got to start training now.

Now it's up to you, man. I can only leave you so far, Ariel. You have to do yourself. I can't do it all for you. I give you a little bit and now it's for you. 90 days, right? We've got 90 pages here. 90-day challenge.

What led you to do this? Why did you put this together? It's something I've been doing my whole life, is keeping, you know, I've been writing my goals down. I have just a stack of notebooks from freaking 2005 when I was like a senior in high school. That's when I really started getting serious about training and stuff. So I was writing down every workout meticulously. Moves that I learned, I review them at the end of the week. I'd go back.

You have it all right there. There's no forgetting anything, you know. there was a lot of stuff that I was learning that I was forgetting and now I write it all down. I got my techniques down and when it's all there right in front of you, you can see where you're slacking. You can see where you're maybe overtraining. And that's, you know, that's what it's all about putting it down and you can have a clear view on it. Who prompted you to do this? Was it you?

You said, yeah, I need to get people on this train. Did someone say, you know, Al, you've got to do this. You got to put this out there for the world. How did this? Because it's one thing to do it yourself and to talk to people about it, but to actually put together the book with your picture on it and get it on Amazon is a very big step. I'm proud of you. Yeah, no, thank you, Ariel. I appreciate it. But, yeah, I just did it. You know, it's short and it's sweet. It's not long. Me, I never liked reading. I don't like reading. I don't do it. I do audio books if I do anything.

So it's got like, what, a couple pages in the beginning, it's the important stuff. There's no fluff in there. It's all real, you know, you read that. That's what I wanted to get across. And, you know, If an upcoming fighter can get something out of it and learn, it took me a lot of time to, you know, put that all together in my career, finding the right gym and, you know, what I need to write down to keep it all in front of me. So I think, you know, it might cut out a lot of wasted time for guys upcoming. And if it can help someone, you know, that would be great. It served its purpose. So let's get to Bobby Green last week on this program. He was spitting fire.

I want to play you a quick clip of Bobby Green on this show last week. He saw enough. Come on, we saw enough. Maybe people missed it. Here he is, Bobby Green and friends on this show last week talking about Ally Quinta. So when that fight starts on July 15th, you're going to walk to the- I'm going to center cage and I'm not moving Al-A-Kintha. Come on.

Fight if you can. I came to fight. Does he do anything I'm going to be chasing him around I promise you you I promise you you won't be chasing me Does he do anything I promise you he won't be pushing

a fight on me I promise He hasn't pushed the fight on Maserlo That's what got him to win Even though he didn't win against Maselov He didn't not win Maslow is the better fighter But I promise you he won't do that to me

I'm gonna be pushing that fight I don't get tired I don't get tired Does he do anything Does he do anything that concerns you No No nothing

But run, but run. Run, that's what they're concerned me. These guys are not here to fight. What are we dancers? Are we crossfit guys? Are we track stars? You know, are we break dancers? You know?

Oh, man, what am I freaking taking crazy pills over here? What the fuck did I just watch? What is that? Ariel, you did such a great job. Let me tell you. Because if it was the ally acquitted the MMA hour, I would have went, get the fuck off my show. What the fuck are you talking about, bro?

Holy shit. And that was probably the, you just played the best part. He was actually coherent. And you could understand that other guy wasn't talking about what the hell. Oh, my God. Then they had his coach on there. What's that? Go ahead. I was just wondering, I know you watch the show from time to time. I was wondering, what was your reaction? If you were watching it live or after the fact, what was your reaction when you were watching this, this 30-minute interview, if you want to call it that? I was kind of just like giggling to myself, man. I was like, oh, man, this guy just doesn't get it. He doesn't get it.

Like, he's talking about Donald Seroni, and he's whining and complaining about this and that. And half the people don't give a shit that he's complaining. And then half the people that are listening to complain are glad. You know, who does this guy, he talks the whole time? He doesn't fight, you know. He's telling me standing in front, I'm going to stand. That's what I do.

Don't, don't think, has he watched any of my fights? I don't know. I'm taking him seriously. It doesn't seem like he's taking me too serious because he's talking about Donald Soroni. He's talking about, you know, his coach with this and his coach dad with him racist and whatnot. Like, what is going on? I'm training hard. I'm here.

I work out this morning. I'm going to the gym tonight. I'm going to work out hard. I don't know if he's doing that. I'm training every day for Bobby Green, the best Bobby Green. And, you know, the other thing is, when I ask, when people say, oh, who's your next fight? Who's your next fight? It's, oh, Bobby Green.

Oh, that's the guy that talks a lot, huh? That's the guy that talks a lot. I don't think if someone has Bobby Green, oh, who's your next fight, ally Aquitra, they're not going to say, oh, that's the guy that talks a lot. They're going to say that's the guy that's freaking tough as hell, comes forward, comes to fight every time, and that's, you know, that's what you're going to get. What about, am I, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

What about him mispronouncing your name all the time? Were you bothered by that? No, not really. I have a pretty difficult name. Okay. But, uh, I don't know. I, I'm, I'm not giving him too much credit. Maybe he's acting, you know, like playing up the whole WWF acting thing.

Maybe I'm giving him too much credit, but he doesn't seem too intelligent. and his team doesn't seem too intelligent. So, you know, I'm glad I am where I'm at. I'll tell you that much. You don't see guys like Bobby Green don't train where I'm at. They get weeded out real quick. And guys like Chris Wyman, guys like Al Jermaine Sterling, guys like myself, don't train where he's at

because we're way too smart for that. So, you know, that's what it is right there. He said he's going to stand in the middle of the cage and greet you there at the beginning of the fight. He's just going to stand right there and want you to come. Will you do the same? Will you follow him there, or is that a stupid thing to do? He's not going to do that. He's not going to do that.

He's going to come out. He's going to do this with his hands a little bit. He's going to do that. I'm going to throw a punch. I'll hit him. He's going to go like, he's going to make a face. Like, I didn't really hit him when I really did. That's what it does. He does every fight.

He does every fight. He talks while he's getting his ass kicked. And then he thinks he wants. He said, oh, Edson Barbosa, It threw that kick, and I blocked it, but it got through. And this, you blocked it or got, what the fuck happened? Did it get through, or did you block it? And then he's talking, and then he's like, and it didn't hurt, but on this, and that, it's like, dude, I'm going to put my hands up, and I'm going to fight.

And he's not going to do that. I guarantee you. But if he does, you'll get an exciting fight. He's always talking about it. He wants to be exciting. He does it for the fans. But you walking around with your hands like this, making all kinds of moves. talking and stuff, that's not exciting

to the fans. He doesn't get it. He doesn't get it. And that's what that interview showed me is that he does not understand, he doesn't get the whole thing. He's coming after you. You don't go after the media. You embrace the media. The media is trying to help you, you know? He doesn't get it. He doesn't understand.

And I got to make him understand on, what is it, July 15th. I got six weeks, and, you know, he'll understand. Dare I say you have to make him humble? This, I have to make him humble. That's exactly, it's right, it's July 15th. It's the real versus the gibroni.

And I'm going to make him humble in San Diego. Okay, now I have to ask you about this. One more clip to play you. His coach, who he referred to his dad, Jake Benny, had some interesting things to say about your team. What's his name? His name is Jake. And I want to spell his last name just in case that I'm mispronouncing it, B-E-H-N-E-Y. I believe that's Benny, but if I'm mispronouncing it, I apologize from Pinnacle in California.

He had some interesting things to say about your team. I want to play you that quick clip right now and have you respond. Here it is, Jake, talking about the Serralongo team. We know a lot about their camp. We know a lot about their coaches. You know, they've been in the game a long time and they've given out great knowledge with some of the guys that they've trained and the guys that they've developed. But who have they really developed from the get-go?

That's what I want to know. Who have they developed from the get-go? this is not a serious question, is it? No, I want to know, like, who they groomed from the beginning. Who did they groom from the beginning of their career? Who didn't come into the camp? Chris Wyman. Chris Wyman came in as a zero-and-zero fighter.

Al Jermaine Sterling, Chris Wyman, Al-Ik, those are all grassroots. What do you make of that? Is Sarah Longo, a team that is taking guys from other camps and kind of jumping off of what... Or is it a grassroots thing? Dude, everyone from our gym is from Long Island. We're all born here, raised here. And then he's talking about, he's got the wrestling guy.

He's like, oh, he's coming in from New Jersey. Like, dude, you just fucking said right there. Where's you guys from? Where are they? California? Where's you guys from Cal? Bro. We're all from Long Island.

you know, we're all cut from the same cloth. We're born here. We're raised here. We all end up at raise and mats because, you know, water seeks his own level, like I said. And, yeah, I really don't know how to respond to that besides that, you know. It's, I think everyone knows. It's nuts, nuts. What were somebody to mess?

Well, that guy, and, I mean, Matt, he said he knew Matt, I trained with me. Matt, I'm sure Matt doesn't know who he is. So, you know, I think he was trying to make that interview more about himself, which is very sad, in my opinion, because that was supposed to be Bobby Green's interview. And, you know, he kind of made it about his gym and, you know, his guys. And, you know, I think there's a pretty big fight coming up. Me and Bobby Green's, it has potential to be a great fight. I'm going in there to dominate like always, but I think the point was, the point was

not made that there's a fight coming up. He talked about everything else, but me, my skills in the fight. I hope he, you know, I hope what he portrayed in that interview is true, because if that's the case, he's looking right past me, and anyone that's ever done that has been humbled very quick. So I think, you know, I'm going in there. I know that Bobby Green has the potential to be a tough guy. He's got some skills that, you know, are very good.

He's got great boxing when he wants to. to have great boxing. He's got great kicks when he wants to have great kicks and his wrestling's very good as well. So I'm going in there. I'm training hard. I'm training real hard. I'm pushing myself to the limit every day. And, you know, you're going to see that when we get in the fight. You don't have to doubt me. Has this become personal now? Before, maybe just a fight now is it different? No, I think it just makes a little fun, you know? We got a little something to talk about on the end of the time where, you know, it's a little bit. But definitely, you know, he's definitely not, I would never

train with a guy like that. I think my last couple of fights, it was guys that I respected, I enjoy, you know, even, you know, Ross Pearson, we had a little, there was a little back and forth, but, you know, I respected him. I respect Bobby Green's talent in the cage for sure, but

beyond that, there's not much. I think, you know, he's just, he doesn't get it, and that's basically it. A lot of people writing to you on Twitter and stuff after that, saying, you know, your fans? How did that go? Yeah, a lot of people were...

It was good, man. It shows, you know, there's a lot of people behind me. And that's what I do it for. I do it for, first and foremost, I do it for Long Island. I do it for the fans. And I just want everyone to enjoy watching me fight. That's why I'm in there. So it was good.

By the way, you didn't make it to Mexico, but San Diego, very close to Tijuana. Don Olin. You never know. You never know. Don Alejandro, might come, he might make a little trip down south, you know?

Are you going to invite, are you going to invite Alexa Grasso to your fight? She's only fighting a couple days prior, probably. She's a boyfriend and stuff. I don't stop messing. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Yeah, but there's more fish in the sea. There is. Plenty of fish. By the way, one last thing before I go

or before I let you go, what's going on with the wrestling? Are you making a transition? Are you doing the CM Punk but in reverse? Are you going to pro-rasseling? I saw a clip of you. I'm just having fun. They, uh, you know, that was just like, uh, who the hell does these things, Ariel? No one does it.

Someone asked me to wrestle at a birthday party. I got into, I was like, all right, I thought it was going to be like a little thing. They, I mean, it was rig, a real, you know, real legit. These guys are, these guys are for real. That guy, Earl Cooter, Jack Gallo. These guys are Long Island, East Coast guys that they go around to wrestle. And it gave me a whole different outlook on that, on the sport in general. It's a lot harder than I thought.

It was, it's a lot similar to MMA, man. Yeah. It's just, you know, more entertainment than real combat. But other than that, it's, you know, expressing yourself through the movements that you do, perfecting your game. All these things are, you know, it opened my eyes. I enjoy doing it. And, you know, in between fights, I'm going to go down there, hang out with the guys.

They're all cool. Yeah, yeah, it's like 45 minutes from my house. So I take a little trip every now and then. And it's a good workout, too. It's tough stuff. It's not easy by any means. Yeah, I saw a video of you doing the workout, which was actually pretty fascinating to watch.

You had some sort of video blog. What is it, like the Raging Al or something? What was that called? You don't even know. Make them humble. Make them humble. That's right. Yeah, it was cool to see.

I like the fact that you're doing that. I wonder now if you have a little more appreciation for your old friend, CM Punk. Oh yeah, no, 100%. Yeah, yeah. I tweeted that day when they want it, you know. There's nothing against him. I have nothing against him.

Anyone that wants to fight MMA, you have my respect. Making your first debut, whatnot, you know, but it's been a while. So maybe he's training hard. And I always see him posting pictures. So he's getting into it. And, you know, it's good. Good for him. How about this movement, by the way?

How about this movement of everyone copying your post-fight interviews? Oh, that was cool, huh? People mentioning it when Maywe. I mean, you've really created something. You even have shirts now, right? Why aren't you wearing one right now? I don't have shirts, man. You don't have shirts?

You have a hat? Oh, no, someone just, some random person just sent me those. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, someone just... Someone made it for you? Yeah, someone just sent me their fuck-you hats. Wow.

Yeah. Are you going to run with that? Yeah, I got to start running with it, don't I? See, the thing is, I keep, I fight. There's so much shit that I want to do. Yeah. Like, my house is falling apart. I bought this house like a year ago, and there was so much stuff that I had to, but I get a fight.

I get a fight. I get a fight. So I don't think anything's going to ever get done well, except fighting. I don't know. That's good. We're going to have to find some time somewhere or just pay someone to do something. I don't know. You should do that.

I should, right? But it is, it is fun. to see people copying you, right? Giving you that nod, right? It's great. You're going to run with that? Like, if you win and when you win, as you probably would correct me on July 15th, will you keep that going?

The booing thing? I mean, if they're not booing, you can't really do it, right? I can't really curse it anyone anymore. Yeah, that's true. Did you get in trouble for that? I was supposed to get, I mean, I got a stern talking to. Okay. But they were supposed to, they said maybe finding me, there was talks of finding me,

and then I just never heard anything back. But, yeah, I don't know. It all worked out good, I guess. Who called you? Yeah, Dana, we had a conference call with me, Matt, and Dana. Oh, man. Could you imagine how that goes? You should have filmed that one.

That we should have filmed, but, yeah, no, they had us on hold. It was me, Matt, and Ray. on the phone and we were waiting for damn it was like three kids in the principal's office waiting to get scolded and then uh nah it was it was good though he you know he's right he said he said i understand where you're coming from you know everything i like what you're doing you just can't curse on tv and i kind of i understand it's not you know coming from him he curses all the time but he doesn't curse on on you know live tv or they bleep it when he knows when he's you know he knows when it's on and went to turn it off. And, you know, in the heat of the moment, I just,

I got a little crazy, you know, I walked out of the cage and I was like, ah, what did I just do? And it turned out right. It turned down that bit. You know, it got me out there. And people are, you know, I think people appreciate my honesty. I'm not, I'm not putting on a fake character or whatever. I'm not sure I'm just being myself and having a good time. And that's it, man. Well, you definitely seem to have turned the corner as far as the fans are concerned. They're loving what you're doing right now, and I think I speak for a lot of them. Very excited about your fight. July 15th, it has changed a little bit. I feel like it's a little more personal now. You may say otherwise, but it's fun. It's a fight that has a lot of heat behind it right now.

Al-I-Quinta versus Bobby Green. It's a very important fight in the 155-pound division. Al, thank you, as always. We appreciate the time. Keep up the great stuff. Keep up the tweeting, all that stuff. You're doing great stuff. I appreciate it. And the book is great. I am going to take my training to the next level. Thanks to you. So there you go. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. We'll talk to you soon. Now, thank you very much for the time. There he is. Raging Ally Aquinta joining us from Strong Island. Big fight for him coming up July 15th in San Diego, California. All right, let's move along now. It is a busy weekend coming up in the world of mixed martial arts. That's pretty much the norm these days, right? There's always something going on. There's UFC, there's

RFA. There's also World Series of Fighting. It is taking place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and the main event is Lance Palmer defending his World Series of Fighting, Featherway Title against our guests at this time, the proud Canadian Chris Horideski. Chris, are you there? What's happening, Ariel? Great to have you on the show, Chris. I believe it's for the first time. We appreciate the time very much. So you're getting a chance to fight for the belt, World Series of Fighting, and you only have one fight for that organization where you surprised when you got the call that you were fighting for the belt. Yeah, and maybe a little surprised, but, you know, very fortunate.

It's, you know, taking place in Edmonton, so I'm sure that, you know, being in Canada goes a long way. And the company is still new, so there's not necessarily a whole lot to base, you know, base the fights off of. But, you know, I've been in the game for a long time, and, you know, I fought for championships before, so I'm ready to take the World Series of fighting a boat. that is a great point because you have been in the game for a long time but you know it seems like for the last few years you kind of been bouncing around different organizations now here you are fighting nationally televised show an organization that's coming up Palmer highly regarded do you feel like this is a chance to remind people that even though you've been bouncing around as of late and doing quite well we have to say you're not done yet you're still very much a player in the sport oh absolutely you know i'm 27 years old You know, but I'm coming up on 10 years now as a professional.

Wow. So, yeah. So it's been a long time. And, yeah, I've been, you know, I've been to the WAC. I've been to Bellator. I've been, you know, the IFL is the Canadian show that fought all over the place. And, you know, now World Series of Fighting is my home. And, you know, I'm ready to showcase the skills.

And I'm fighting, you know, main event fight goes a long way, and I'm going to make the most of it. Do you feel like people have forgotten about you? Do you get that sense? Not necessarily forgotten about me. If anybody is from Canada, they know about me. You know what I mean? Like the reputation, the startup, you know what? Myself, Mark Harmonic, Sam Stell, the Team Tompkins legacy that we got going

with our coach, Sean Tompkins passed down to us. It doesn't get forgotten. So maybe I'm not completely in the limelight, you know, with the UFC, but there's so many shows right now, so many people in the sport, so many athletes, it's kind of hard to keep up with everybody, right? Right. Of course, you mentioned your late coach, Sean Tompkins. I'm wondering, I haven't really, you know, had a chance to talk to you guys about this

since it'll happen. It happened almost four years ago now, which is mind-blowing. After that happened in August of 2011, his passing, you know, it seemed like, at least on paper, you had a draw, you had a loss, you had no contest, and you went on a bit of a role, did those losses or, you know, the lack of success, They're not all losses. One was in no contest that I said, the other draw. Did it have anything to do with the fact that you guys were kind of,

you know, you were looking for some direction, you were looking for a coach, and you had just been through something that was pretty traumatic? Oh, absolutely. You know, take your world and flip it upside down, you know what I mean, and try to make the most of it. Yeah. That's what happened to us.

You know, our coach, he was a lot more than just a trainer, a guy we saw three times a week, you know what I mean? We lived with the guy, you know, I was stood up with him at his wedding unfortunately I was there when he had you know when we buried him and it was you know just getting emotional thinking about it it meant so much

you know to us you know being together and everything but yeah it definitely took a bit of time a bit of finding ourselves you know I found myself now with a train with TriStar Gym when I'm preparing for fights

So it's under the tutelage of Paraza hobby, you know, Eric O'Keefe and Crewash and John Chamberg and all the guys there. So I got a good fit now and it's been working for me. So I think I found my niche. You know, we'll get to try star in a second, but I'm wondering if do you believe your career would be a lot different if that didn't happen in August of 2011? You know what? I can't really say.

you know what I mean you can say it would have been should have been but um I gotta take I gotta take the cars that have been dealt to me um I don't regret anything and uh and um

you know from from how we started man like you know what I mean it's we went so far and and you know we did it all through the backyard you know what I mean like Sean Sean raised us all up from from young kids you know to fighting on a world stage you know Mark Harmonic challenging for

the world title. But, like I said, you got to deal with the cards you've been played, the cards you've been dealt with, and, you know, and make the most of them. When did you decide to go to TriStar? After my fight with Mike Richmond, I got invited by Eric O'Keefe. He's one of the frauds of assistant coaches. And, you know, I've known the guys from Montreal long time. I started my career there.

You're from Montreal. Yep. and TKO and fighting alongside George St. Pierre, David Loazzo, all the guys out there. So I got invited through Eric. Eric said, you know, if you feel, I don't want to step on your toes. If you need somewhere to train through the transition period, you know, our doors are always open. And I went out there with my friend Chad Lapris, Chad, who won the Ultimate Fighter, Tough Nations. tried it out for about three weeks and enjoyed it

and made it a fit for preparing. Was that strange at first, though, because you had long been a member of this team, kind of this grassroots team, and then you had to go find a new home. Was it hard at first? I feel like it's like changing schools as a youngster or moving to a new town.

It's a little daunting at first, right? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know, I tried You know, we had traveled to Vegas quite a bit And I wanted to just To get out of Vegas just to not Get all those memories back You know what I mean?

And all those sites and everything You know, I think that was six years In and out of Vegas So I wanted to separate myself from there And kind of a fresh start And so they welcomed me in And you know, I felt at home And you live in the dorm.

over there, right? Yeah, yes, the trademark dorms. Yeah, what's that like? Oh, it's great. It's, you know, the living conditions is dorm life. It's not, you know, you're not staying at the Rich Carlton by any means. But the people you're there with, you know, it's good. It's a unique experience in terms of if you're going to meet people from all over the world.

this last trip out I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Duffy UFC fighter you know most notable right now for being the last guy to beat Connor McGregor

right Tom Breeze I've known him for about two two and a half years now you know he's kind of making the full-time dorm life you know what I mean from England

he won last last Saturday down in Brazil I met Stephen Ray you know a Scottish guy who was fighting on the UFC Scotland card. So you meet all these people, you know, from all different walks of life. So you're basically, you know, engulfed in the training atmosphere.

You know what I mean? So preparing for a fight, it's ideal because it consumes all your thoughts and everything. So in terms of that, it benefits so much, especially for preparing. How many guys live in, you know, a particular dorm? You know, we had, I would say, anywhere between 8 to 12, yeah. In one, like, apartment complex? In one room? No, no, not one room.

Oh, in the whole building? In the whole building, there had a common room. Okay, okay, okay. But it varies, you know, it could be more, could be less. And so you do the entire camp in Montreal, you leave Ontario. Yep, yeah. And now you're going, you know, you get to fight in Canada, which is kind of a unique thing for the,

champion to be on enemy territory. How did you pull that one off? That's a pretty unique thing. It's pretty fortunate. You know what I mean? Ryan Ford was supposed to be the main event. Right. Find you Shino Kami. Unfortunately, Ryan, you know, a friend of mine, he broke

his forearm again. He's had a few issues with that. He went into the fight with Jake Shields with the broken forearm going into the fight. So you've re-injured it. So he had to pull out. And it's kind of worked out well. I mean, they got two championship fights on this card.

Just perusing your Twitter briefly last night, did George St. Pierre recently take over a class that you were a part of? Was he part of? Yeah. It seems like he's more visible these days. Absolutely, yeah. He's kind of in and out of Montreal

just with his acting. Uh-huh. I think he was telling me, he just finished filming with Stephen Seagall. Oh, yeah. With the sense. The legend himself, yes. The honorable one, yes. But yeah, he ran practices last week.

So it's good having that knowledge, you know, and the guy who's been there, you know, he's fought on the biggest stages, and he's done pretty damn well. So I can't learn from anyone better than that. You think he fights again? I doubt it, to be honest. I doubt it. I don't think he needs to.

I think he's accomplished everything. He's went out. he's made a legacy for himself. You know what I mean? A few people, few champions get to retire on top. You know what I mean? Yeah.

The last one I would say probably is, you know, Lennox Lewis in the boxing in my mind that I can remember. So it's a big, it's high risk, little reward. If I was in his shoes, I would, I'm sure he's doing all right, man. Is that, is that something that, you know, from conversations you've had with him or is that just your gut, just, you know, just assessing where he's at in his life. That's my gut. Okay. You know what I mean?

Especially being busy with acting. You know what I mean? I'm sure. I don't, I'm not in his shoes. You know what I mean? I'm not in, you know, he, he was champion for, you know, he reigned the UFC for seven years. I can't remember exactly, but for a long time. And, you know, he's fought in the highest of the highest.

So leave on top, especially now with the busy acting career, I don't think it's going to come back. But we'll see. Correct me if I'm wrong here. Are you one of the last guys from the original team Topkins that has a shot at a belt here? I mean, let's just assume, given where you're at right now, that Sam Stout isn't going to fight for a belt next in the UFC, do you feel like you're one of those last guys that can represent and become a champion again as a part of that original team? Um, from the original team, you know, we still got Chris Coments. He's competing in the UFC.

Jesse Ronson. He got released, but he just came back with two or three strong performances, you know, all knockout finishes. So we still, you know, our team here in London is still rolling, you know, hard. And I'm ready to kick it off this Friday night. I was watching an old fight of yours. It was from, I believe, 2013. was a PFC won when you were fighting in London, which was a big deal for you. And I noticed that you kind of touched the logo on your banner before the fight.

Is that something that you've been doing since his passing ever since? Or was that just a one-time thing? You know, I believe his face was on there. Okay. You know what I mean? And Sean's face. Yeah, you know, I just, I mean, you don't take away 13 years that, you know, you don't forget about it that quick.

Right. You know, four years, yes, it's a long time, but, you know, the experience that we had, you know, it'll always be in my heart. It's amazing that you've been in the sport for 10 years, as you just reminded me. I remember when you were 12 and 0 in the IFL, you know, there was people would debate whether or not you were the very best

in the lightweight division. Now here you are fighting for a featherweight title. How long ago do those IFL days feel like? For me, it feels like more than 10 years ago. Yeah, you know, just reflecting upon, you know, things that happen in your life and, you know, the fights, you know, the different organizations. Yeah, it was a long time ago. It has been quite a ride. Does it bother you that you never got a shot in the UFC?

No, not necessarily. You know, I don't regret, you know, any choices I've made. I know I fought for the WC. You know what I mean? I've, it's the same thing pretty much as the big show. I found the last WSC.

Yeah. You know what I mean? All the same people, Dana White signed your checks. Bert Watson was the guy that led you to the cage. So I don't regret anything like that. And day by day, man,

and I'm, I'm short-sighted right now, which is World Series of Fighting and the Bell on Friday. And Lance Palmer is the champion. Team Alpha-Mill guy, Obviously, great wrestler. He acts as a lot of those guys wrestling coach.

He's come up through that team. Are you impressed with him? Has one loss. He's rebounded very nicely. Are you impressed with what he's saying? He's been in the sport a lot shorter than you, but definitely one of those prospects in the division. Absolutely.

You know what I mean? You know, he's a champion for a reason. And, you know, I have a lot of respect for him in terms of, you know, the school he comes from, you know, Alpha Male, Your Eye of Favor, Benavides, T. as DJ Dillishaw. So, you know, I know he's coming to bring it. I know he's doing everything to beat me, but I'm doing the same thing, man,

and I'm ready to bring it on Friday. I'm assuming you trained a lot of wrestling for this fight. Yeah, you know, you just work at everything. You know, getting ready for this fight to go anywhere. You know, on the feet and the clinch, on the ground, ready to roll. All right, well, I wish you the best of luck, Chris. It all goes down this Friday, NBCSN, NBC Sports Network, of course, 9 p.m. Eastern, two title fights. As Chris mentioned, the main event, Lance Palmer defending his World Series of Fighting Featherweight title against Chris Hordesky.

All the best, Chris. Thank you so much for the time. We're looking forward to the fight. I appreciate it. Thank you, Ariel. There he is. Long-time MMA veteran, one of the very best at one time in the lightweight division back in the IFL days. Remember, he made it to the finals, their World Grand Prix back in 2007, and lost a shocking one to Ryan Schultz, December of 2007. Remember that? That was crazy stuff. And he has bounced around, fought in W.C. Belator, of course, last few years bouncing around,

but he has found a home in World Series of Fighting. And this Friday, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Edmonton Expo Center, Chris Palmer versus, excuse me, Chris Orddesc. versus Lance Palmer. Chris in that interview mentioned your eye of favor. Nice segue for our next guest. He is Uriah Fabor.

That's his name. And he joins us right now on the phone. Your I are you there? Wow, man. A lot of common sense going on in that whole conversation just had about my name. Yes.

And who I am. How about that? I appreciate that, man. You know, usually I have this big, long intro for our guest, but you're Uriah Fiber. I don't have to say anything anymore. Your name speaks.

speaks for itself. Oh, wow. Well, thanks, I guess. You've reached the mountaintop in that sense. Well, thank you for the time. It's always good to have you on the show. I didn't bother you all that much. Not that many reminders, right?

No, just one. Just one. And you kind of gave me the stiff arm. Let's be honest. Yeah? No, I was just, I didn't know. I hadn't talked to candy yet. Yeah.

So it was good. I mean, that's the way it should work. You guys take care of it, man. there. Here I am. I got a little euryitude. I'm not going to lie. I was a little nervous. I don't know if I believe that. Well, it's good to have you on the show. Thank you for the time. We are not that far removed from Manila. Are you still digesting what happened? Are you over it? How do you, where do you stand with that fight against Frank Yeager just a couple of weeks ago? You know, I've watched it quite a few times, and it was interesting.

kind of anti-climatic for me. I feel like, you know, it was because of the match, if it was, like, hard for, you know, openings to come to fruition. And so, you know, we had a lot of exchanges and kind of like a, they call it, like a high-speed chest mass, they call it. So I would like to do a little more damage and, you know, feel like I, you know, got some more damage done to me, but it was, it was tough, man, you know. I don't know.

I mean, the fight was definitely closer than the judge's scorecards, but, you know, it wasn't like I felt like anyone ran away with the fight, but, you know, it was just kind of a, it was kind of a, like I said, I think of a climatic. It's interesting they use that word because obviously you were involved in the fight, so you couldn't really check in, but a lot of the fans afterwards were saying, oh, this is like, you know, Pachiawaiweather. It had so much buzz and people were so excited, but it didn't live up to that hype in their own mind. And it sounds like you're kind of agreeing with them right now.

And not the lack of effort. Yeah, of course. In my opinion, I think just because of the matchup, it was like, you know, the real difference in the fight was, the real difference in the fight from, in my opinion, was the dead time grappling where he was doing attempts. to go for the takedown. It was against the cage. And, I mean, not a whole lot of offense happening right there, but, you know, and I watched the fight. It was an exciting fight, in my opinion.

But, you know, you see Frankie get rocked before in fights and have to come back. And you see me, you know, rock guys, and you get submissions and things like that. It's just harder when it's such an even fight. I mean, sometimes the mismatches are the best fights because you see one guy just getting, you know, his butt-weigh. whoops real bad. And, I mean, Frankie and I, neither of us are type of guys

to get her butts whooped and not for lack of trying there. And I actually enjoyed the fight. I thought it was a fun fight to watch for myself, you know, because I'd know what was going on. But,

you know, of course, I'd like to have gotten to win and, and, you know, had some more, like maybe a couple of knockdowns

or close to mission attempts, but, you know, it was a close match. For the record, I enjoyed it as well, just the sight of seeing you guys in the cage together was kind of, it did remind me of that Pac-Ile-May with the thing, because we've been talking about

you guys for so long, talking about you guys for, you know, fighting potentially for what seemed like five years or so. And then just the, the sight of you two in the cage together was a spectacle to itself. And, and, you know, if you know both of your styles and how good you are, one would expect that at some point there's, you know, like you said, the mismatches sometimes create the better, more exciting fights when you have two guys at your level. Sometimes it creates those kinds of fights. but it was one of the closest 50 to 45s that you'll ever see. You know what I mean?

The score doesn't really... If you tell someone, oh, yeah, he won 50 to 45, they're like, oh, wow, that's one-sided. It really doesn't tell the story of the fight. No, yeah, I know that. I mean, they got to get around every round. Every round, they got to give it to someone,

and depends on it. I feel like I could have gotten a couple of those rounds for sure, just depending, but not like anything to squawk about because, I mean, I feel like I landed a couple big substantial, you know, strikes. They ran a big knee, a couple overhand rides. People were talking about him throwing more combos. I don't remember seeing, like, a ton of combos landing on me,

but, I mean, he was probably throwing a lot more. But, yeah, man, it was just a close, frigging match, man. Seemed like he hinted that you were kind of... Go ahead. I mean, it's cool. It's cool to have... I mean, they should make some special rules where they can make a fight go, like...

you know, maybe 10 rounds. Because somebody's going to have to break at some point, and I don't think, you know, Frankie or I, we could have fought another five rounds easily, you know, which is not because, again, lack of exertion. It's just, you know, a lot of footwork and, you know, it was hard to hit, hard to hold down, you know, all that kind of stuff. I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way

because he was very complimentary when we had him on the show right after the fight, but it did seem like he insinuated that you were kind of hard to get. Like, you know, you were a moving target, so to speak, which is part of the point of a fight.

I mean, you're not supposed to stand there. But do you feel like, you know, was that part of what you were trying to do? Were you trying to be elusive there? Or do you think it's unfair to say that about your performance in the fight? I mean, I'm sure I was hard to hit. He was hard to hit, too.

Yeah. I don't think either of a fan of it. I mean, I feel like I was moving forward a lot. You know, so, especially in the fifth round. But, I mean,

it wasn't, I mean, we were toe to toe. So, I mean, yeah, it was, he was hard to hit, too.

I hope he didn't take that the wrong way. What, what? I know, I know how you like to, no, to read into things. Stop it.

Now. What did that, what did that fight tell you about your future as a featherweight? Do you, do you think that's the best weight class for you now at this point in your career? You know, I just, I mean, he's number one contender.

He just snatched Cubbs Swanson. He was on a huge run streak. He's beat guys at BJ Penn three times, and I feel like a couple little adjustments, and I could find a way to win. A couple big punches that hit on the button or, you know, a little more volume. I know I'm right there with the top level at both weight classes,

so, I mean, it just gives me options. I mean, there's a few guys in the world that are able to compete on multiple weight classes. Yeah. And at the highest level, I mean, some guys never get to be able to, you know, won't be able to hold a match to the top three their entire career, which, you know, that's just kind of the way it is. But I could do it at both weights, and I'll just see what the best matchups are.

So you haven't just... It definitely was a lot, a lot easier on my body. Yeah. 1-45 to be able to eat and have a, you know, super... healthy demeanor throughout all of training camp

was really, really nice for me. And I feel like I could do a little adjusting to really get used to have a heavier weight.

I felt fast, though. It's funny. And the fight, you know, I watched the fight in the commentary and a little bit

the after fight like, you know, with Florian and T.J. And the guy is talking about the fight. And

some guys, saying I was bigger and stronger and some guy was saying that he was faster and then you know, Florida was saying the other way around. It's like, I mean, it was pretty obviously it was the coolest map. So like, I mean, it depends what you're looking at when you talk about speed or strength or whatnot. I think, again, the real difference was the attempts at the takedowns. And for me, it wasn't like a plan to really, I don't ever like do takedowns or points.

It's more of to try to get a finish. And I think Frankie is the same way, but in a matchup, we're both Division I wrestlers or both high-level jihitsu players, you know, for me, that was dead time in there, you know. And that's kind of the difference. So, I mean, could I have done some more take-down attempts myself and tried to rest a little bit? Yeah, but I don't feel like it was the best move to finish the fight. And so that's why I wasn't going for as much wrestling. If I wanted to do it again and try to do more wrestling, I think I could have put more effort into it,

but it's just a close one, man. So you haven't decided if featherweight's next, if you're going to go back down to Bantamway, you haven't made that decision? No. Nope. I feel if the opportunities present themselves, I mean, you have some money fights waiting for you at 135, off the bat right away, Dominic Cruz.

That's still there, and that's gigantic. I feel like you have more. More money fights. What do you mean by money fight? That they pay me more money for him? Money fight? Is that what you mean? I don't know.

Is that not the case? I just mean money in terms of like when someone says that's money, I get what you're trying to say. You probably get the same amount, right? That would be a good fight. Yeah. Again, you know, Boral would be a good fight again. I feel like the last summer fought him was definitely, you know, unfinished in my side. he caught with a good punch,

but I definitely was still in the fight and stops a little early, so that's still a fight. I don't know, you know, there's opportunities up at 45s to. I'm just going to kind of wait and see. So you missed the one that I, the second one I was going to say,

I was going to say, TJ. He recently announced, right, I guess it was reported that he's no longer with MMA Inc, as is Joseph Benavita. Does that surprise you? you're kind of viewed as like the the face of that management team in my opinion as

of course you are a team alpha male no I mean that doesn't surprise me I know both TJ and Joseph and that's a whole separate gig that you know those guys have been from the beginning of their career with MMA Inc but you know all these

new changes with the UFC is you know some guys feel they don't need you know the management as much. I mean, I guess all sponsorships are taken care of, all the pre-work stuff for sponsorships are taken care of.

But, you know, I suggest those guys get some sort of management because it's not a good thing to be managing yourself in this sport as much as, you know, we're buddies sometimes with the UFC folks. And, I mean, it's good to have people looking out for you and people to bring, you know, bounce things off of. And they still have that with me. So, you know, it's, it is what it is for them. Save a buck is what they're going to do.

That's fine. Do you think when it's all said and done for you, you'll get it? I feel like you'll be a manager, promoter, something of that. I feel like you have that in your future. I don't know, man. I mean, I help manage and develop our guys on our team. Yeah. I help coach guys on the team.

You know, I've done a lot, wear a lot of different hats. it just all depends on where my passion is and what the next phase of things go but I'm definitely going to be helping guys out for a long time you know T.J. and Joseph included and you know, Danny also Castillo he's a guy that started with us from the very beginning and

you know, we still help each other out and yeah so it's it's a, you know, it is the changing landscape of M.A. is such an interesting thing It's like every month is a new rule or new thing in place. So we're just going with the times and being prepared for a battle. There are a few guys where it's going to seem a little weird to see them in the Reebok thing. I think you're one of them because you've been affiliated with Torque for a long time now

and part of that form. I don't know. You're always very – you've done a great job. I don't know how. But you've done a great job of affiliating yourself. I don't know how. Well, you know what I mean? Like, when I think of a brand, when I think of your eye favor, I think of brands, too.

You do such a great job. I've said this for a long time. You're kind of like the Delahoya back in the day of our sport. I feel like you're just one of the best businessmen out there. Well, thank you. Yeah, and this is not new. I've told you this before. So you in the quote unquote uniform, I think we'll take some getting used to.

Do you agree? Yeah, it will. But, I mean, the good thing is, I mean, TORC, luckily, we've built a solid brand, and I'm an owner of that brand, and we've got, you know, T.J. Lavin, who's helping out on the X-Game side of things. You know, we've got guys in the BMX world, the skateboard world, and, you know, that whole side of things,

and we've got a present still in mixed martial arts because of the brand started with mixed martial arts. So I think we have a bright future. Our gear is looking better and better. Every new batch of designs are awesome. So, I mean, there's, like, the school uniform, and then there's what you throw on right out of school. So that's kind of way I have both kids.

I love that. That's a great analogy. Yeah. No, I mean, that's it, right? You know, you got the blue slacks and you got, you know, your board shorts when you get out of school. So that's kind of way I look at this thing. And, you know, the U.S.U.S. is doing their, you know, helping themselves out on the business side. So, I mean, it's their business.

to whine about it. But for you, you would throw off the slacks, put on the board shorts, but no shirt. You didn't need a shirt, right? Back in the day in high school? Hopefully, hopefully not. It depends on the time of year in Northern California. Come on. We have a rainy season. We have winter. We have seasons out here. Fall. Springtime, summertime.

Absolutely not. Did you stick around in Manila or the Philippines anywhere around there after the fight? Yeah, it was awesome I actually Went to Borokai Oh yeah A couple days With Luke Barnett

Was he there too? Was he there too? Okay Was Luke Barnett there too? Yeah, I saw him out there Okay And You know

Justin Buckles Came out also And then I went to this island Palacin Island It was amazing man And I actually had done a tour In the Philippines A year prior to going

and the guys that set that up set me up with a really cool vacation for after the fight this island had seven different themed resorts on this 1100 acres island it was like all blue water white sand

so there was there was a Tuscany there was Costa de Sol so there's like an Italian, a Spanish Pouquet, Bali Balasin which is the Filipino one. There was a French resort and it was crazy

man. The food was amazing and it was beautiful. We were doing snorkeling and supboarding and going on, you know, wakeboarding and have an amazing meal. So it was nice, you know, after the fight to get a little relaxation even though I was, you know, kind of

bummed when I was getting the W. So who was on this trip? It was just you and Justin? No, I had a girlfriend with me. Oh. What are you're tied down now? What's going on? This is breaking news.

Yeah, yeah, tie down. Wow, this is huge. Finally. Yeah. Who's the lucky lady? I keep that personal. All right. I don't want to, no, I've been dating a girl for a while.

What? I'm shocked. What are you shocked about? I thought that you were a player for life. I mean, you're the California kid. You've got everyone... Oh, who said this? That's just the impression that I got.

I thought you said you read my book, dude. Yeah, but the impression, the impression. I thought you said you read my book. I remember you said you read my book? I did. And then there was something... No. That told me you didn't read the whole book.

You're lying right now. Look, this is not about me, all right? This is about you. So I was in a 10-year relationship, as you know, in the book. Yeah, but... They're not been a player for life. That's like the opposite. No, no.

I don't mean, in your... past life, typically when someone's in a relationship like that and they don't get married. Are you in your past life right now? I don't want to do in your real life. No, I mean, when the shackles are off, so to speak, then you just go wild, which, you know, you might have. You know what? Yes. My dad just pulled up, and he's a huge fan of yours, Ariel.

Oh, yes, I met him. He loves you, man. That's funny. Yes. Your mom is a fan of mine, and my dad's a fan of yours. It's pretty cool. Yeah, my mom just texted me a picture of her watching us have this conversation right now. She's so excited.

Yeah. Hello. Mr. Faber. What does he think about your new girlfriend? My new girlfriend. How have you been able to keep this under wraps? I mean, with social media these days, Instagram, you know, Friendsster, MySpace. I mean, there's so many outlets where people can find out about you.

And I feel like I follow you pretty closely. Really? Yeah. I feel like we've talked about this before. No, we've never talked. Is this one of Sacramento's finest, or is this off the grid? Sacramento. Oh, yeah.

Keeping it local. I like it. Oh, wow. Sounds like you're a man and you know your women. What do you mean? Ariel. What do you mean? What is that supposed to mean?

You like the local girls? What are you trying to say? I married a girl from Montreal. They all could be California girls. Yes, that is true. That is very true. Well, I'm very happy. This is, you know, I think a lot of people might be sad, including my mother, maybe, but this is nice. You know, I like what people find love.

Well, I didn't get married, buddy. I think you might be next step. That's true. That's true. So she went to the fight? Yeah. First time? No. Okay. What do you're laughing about? Lance Palmer looking ahead of his title fight.

Oh, man. He's looking like a beast, dude. That guy's an animal. Hey, it's funny. You just had Hordecae on your... Yeah. You just had the Hordeca on the show. Yeah.

You know, you should know this. When I fought TKO in Canada, I fought Menjabar. I'm pretty sure he was on that car, wasn't he, but only 17. Man, this is a guy that he still looks like he's 17. Let's find out. let's go into the record books here.

You know, this is in Canada. Yes. You're like one of the only MMA people. Not true. Huh? Not true. Only MMA media members from Canada? Is that what you're saying?

No, only one of the, only MMA media members that have been like a tried and true fan since the beginning. Well, of course. I remember that. It was in Montreal, but I don't know. I mean, it's hard for me to remember exactly. who was on the card, you know? Here it is, here it is.

I'm getting it. Wait a second. Oh, yeah, he was on the card. Good call. Who did he fight? You know, Mark Harmonic was on the card also. It was a good card. He wanted to come out and coach us, by the way.

If you're listening, Mark. Yeah, how's that going? Are you looking for a new coach? No, we're looking for possibly a stand-up guy to come in. We're always looking for new guys to add to the phone. We've got Joey, who's a great boxing coach. We've had a guy from L.A. I like to kick people on Instagram.

You want to check him out? He's a bad dude come and work with us. Wait, is that his name? Is that his name? I like to kick people on Instagram? Look it up. Okay. Hold on a second.

All right. Anyhow, that event was TKO-24. January of 2006, Mark Homnick fought in the main event. Uri Fabor fought Menjavar, as he said. In the co-main, Chris Hordeski fought Dave Parizzo. Rich Clementi as well was on the card.

Demasio Page. That was crazy. GSP was there with Loaso. Those were the days, right? Do you long for those days? Do you miss those days? No. Okay.

Do you? You know, You look up I like to kick people? No, I can't do that right now because, you know, I don't have a good connection where I am. But I will. His name is Ed, no. Call him Ed. Okay.

And, yeah, he's been out a couple times. We're trying to get it to where he can come out on a regular basis. And then Master Tong has been back in the mix, but he's commuting on the Amtrak from the bay. Okay. I like that. You still stick with that guy. I like that. You know, the guy keeps weasling in, man.

But you call it like you see it with him, and I appreciate that very much. It shows loyalty on your part. At the end of the day, your eye favor is going to stick with the guys who were there from day one. And I appreciate that. Oh, thanks. I think that's something that your new girlfriend would love to hear as well. Well, I'm telling. All right.

Send her my best. Hopefully. It's not Rosie O'Donnell, is it? Maybe. Oh, that would be something. That's big news. Get TMZ on that one. What's that?

Rosie is my girl. She is her girl. My mom will beat her up if she steps over that line. Yes, go ahead. You know that her son actually trains M.A. And he's kind of a stud. Really? Yeah.

In New York? I believe so. I can't remember where exactly, whether it's New York or right on the outskirts. What's his name? Yeah, I want to have him come out at some point. Yes. By the way, you still there? Yeah.

My mom just tweeted me, Breaking News, Breaking Hearts. Oh, nice. All right, well. Not over. It's not over yet. It's not. The dream is still alive. You do.

man. Well, you've said enough, you're right. Yes, go ahead. What's new with you? Oh, me? Well, I'm about to interview. Bechko ahead next.

What do you got? Are you referring to Chris Weidman here? Are you talking about something else? No, I wasn't talking to Chris Weidman. Why? Well, because last, no, last week he said he walked out to the Belford fight. He had to go to the bathroom. And I like to call that a bun burning in the oven.

And that's why he was a little off in the fight. Wow. Well, thanks for that. Yeah. intimate detail. But as for me, no, I'm stuck at two right now, but who knows what the future brings? At some point, we could double date.

Yeah. This morning. And what do you think about this new Ultimate Fighter? Which one? The one with the team versus team. Do you like that? Oh, you know, I got to be honest. I feel like the Ultimate Fighter needs a fresh coat of paint,

maybe a little break. this one doesn't really have the same kind of stakes because you don't get a contract and I don't know you know 20 seasons 21 seasons a lot I mean it's there's a reason why a lot of reality shows don't go that long so do you do you think I mean you know both those guys the owners and both those teams yes have a have a lot of money yes you think they're behind putting this thing together you think it was the UFC's idea Oh, I don't know. That's above my pay grade. Yeah.

It's interesting, because I don't know. They're owners of the team and coaches, right? Nah, I don't know about coaches. More owners. Especially Glenn. Yeah, Glenn is more just an owner, right? Do you want Alpha Mel to do that maybe? You know, Alba has mentioned a couple times.

Oh, yes. Of course. And Team Alpha male. I mean, I don't know exactly what the genesis of the whole thing was, But I know that we have a ton of up-and-coming talent that are really, really great. So, hi, Grandma. I'm doing an interview right now. Yes.

It's great to see you. Okay. This is my grandma. She's here. Hello, Grams. She's actually native of pollen. Oh, yes. I knew that.

I read that in your book. Did you? Yes. Well, we got to go. We've run out of time. I wish I blocked off more time for you because you feel, you feel, you feel, very open. Sometimes you don't want to talk. Now you want to talk. And, uh, you know, that's the way it goes sometimes. But I appreciate you coming on, even though, yeah. Thank you very much. Keep us posted on your

future. And, uh, you know, it was a great effort. I enjoyed the fight. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Yeah, I had a good time, man. I feel like it was in a real fight. Uh, we'd like to get the W, but I'll get it next time. And congrats on, uh, the new relationship. That's, that's huge. Oh, you got out. Thanks, buddy. All right. There he is. Your eye favorite. All the best. We'll talk to him very soon, I hope. Great appearance, as always. We'd love to have your eye favor on the show.

Okay, let's move along. She has been patient. Let's go to the Skype machine and welcome in our last guest of the day. There she is. Betch Kohair herself, tremendous Skype connection, joining us from all the way in Brazil. Betch, how are you? I'm good. Good afternoon.

Yes. Mateus is there as well, right? Yeah. Let's see your face, Matthias. I like to know who's. Oh, there he is. How are you, my friend? There is, Mateus, helping us out with this interview.

I appreciate your time very much. Okay, so let's get into it, Betch. Last week was a little controversial for you. What has it been like? Has it quieted down after your comments about Ronda Rousey and then her response about her father, or are you still feeling the heat a little bit? The same time pastime.

How is it? I calmed a little bit of the suicide of the father of Ronda Rouse or even if you're still sitting a bit of time, of tension? No, but I don't feel tension at any moment

because I am a conscience in a heart tranquill, it was just the wrong. Especially the Ronda,

the Ronda interpreted mal. I don't know that there had a tragedy in the family if I

would have been a question about this. It's a expression much me to make, I'm going to

get, U, will be a very typical of here. So, I'm clear and I

please, I said that she I have a family and I'm in peace. I'm very secure of what I do, what I'm doing, of what I'm saying, and I'm not to pay excuse, I have a attitude, even to I have an easy mind.

I didn't know Honda had a tragedy in her family, otherwise I would never have spoken something like that. But this is something we usually say in Brazil. If you've said something like, are you going to kill yourself? Even our war cry and the shows, the audience goes, ooh, I'm going to die. So it's something pretty common,

doesn't have the same value that you guys have. And with her personal tragedy, it took another level. But it's not what I meant, and I'm very secure about what I say and what I do, and about apologizing to her. And everyone, it was not my intention at any time. When did you realize that she had been through this, that her father committed suicide, and what was your reaction when you found out?

Did you feel bad right away? Did someone have to kind of explain to you the situation? What was your reaction when you saw when she saw? When she said, he died of her, he was suicidal? You felt a mal of the car. I need to explain the situation for you. I knew that the father had died when I was a child, but not knew the cause. I don't know.

When I saw by the Ronda, she said, she tweeted, and I asked some people, I asked her a Ronda me tweeted

about the father, a tragedy, what is what was, and I said, if there's tragedy in the family,

so if she she mowowow, I think the I can't give a excuse, I don't want to involve family,

my, my, I'm, for my family, I don't don't, I don't

don't fall of this trinity in form because I don't want that I family. So I was really little shocked, I don't know that

was in the family, but it's all resolved. I knew her father had died when she was a kid, but I never knew the reason. I ended up knowing by Rondas to eat, and I saw it she tweeted out at me and I looked at it, I

asked to people close to me, and what happened and what kind of tragedy, and they told me. And at the first I was a little bit shocked, and first thing that came to my mind was to apologize because father, mother, and brothers, this trinity to me is sacred.

I would never mention anything about anyone's family because I would never want anyone to mention my family. So I was a bit shocked at first, but I think we're all cool now. Do you believe that? Do you really believe it's all cool? because it's the the consensus seems to be that wow, Ronda's going to come on a different level now. Now it has become personal.

Do you believe that your apology to her was enough to make her think otherwise? You think it's all right? Because the perspective of the people is that now Ronda will come to him to let's, you know, that's people, you think that his discuses were sufficient or that she'll even will come with more things in the No, I just had a lot personal between us.

Not just a lot sportive, it's a lot personal. Because I really I just gave in the car of her,

when I vincere your friends, I got her I gave the title, and I want to be the champion, I'm just

a dispute of this title, I want to be a two women who are not putting to for your

invinciibility, I'm amvicta and she also. And I really, she used the words

forth with me, and I used with her too. The Rhonda, she said, I would have a encounter with Jesus,

says that's that I'm am a million in Brazil, and I'm a woman of attitude. And really,

for this was this mal-entid with the father of because she used the words

and I generally use also also words sometimes I'm really a lot

really spectacular because other to look us for the sport, to put in the position,

to be able to to fight for the personal and for our invincibility. There was

already something personal between us. It isn't just about this part. I

threw out in her phrase when I beat her friends and I provoked her I asked

for the belt and it's two women fighting for the invisibility I want to retire

undefeated and she wants to retire and defeated So she ended up using strong words towards me. She said I would have a meeting with Jesus and she would humiliate me in Brazil. And that's not something that I take lightly.

I'm a woman of attitude. And it ended up creating the situation of her father because, as I said, we used to that expression in Brazil a lot. And as I didn't know about her father, we ended up going this way. but I think we all had strong words to say to each other and we had the personal side as well and it is what it is. I'll be honest with you when I saw this happen and I saw your your apology, I had my doubts only because you seem to know a lot about Rhonda, about her life post-Olympics, about her dabbling with drugs and leaving home and things like that.

I mean, you really seem to know more than the casual person. And I feel like everyone knows, if you know anything about Rhonda, that her father committed suicide. And so I'll ask again, did you really not know this? Because it seems to have been brought up so many times before. Even in the UFC promotional videos, the countdown and the prime time, she's talked about it at length. Did you really miss that? He said that when he saw his tweet and then his apologies, to him, if it wasn't, it was something that you did for accident.

because the story of Rhonda is something that's that's a time, that the UFC has made promotion, that she said many of the details of her, how you know what happened after the Olympics, she said to stay at the house, and everything,

you really not did the father? No, I was that the father had died when a child, but not not been to be a lot of.

And I'm the stories that I see from, I don't see, no, no documentary, of her life of her, I see many lutes of her.

And it was were things that were that's really on Twitter, in the media, so I've seen talking about that she's of the mother

of the mother that she had to lose to get in drug for having the world, to have been in the media,

and in a moment, in the media, and in a moment I didn't talk so detailately of the father of her.

But it was really proposetal, many people people, but I'm with a conscience of Nippe

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm I'm created much with God, and I would be

Mecheery with family to To get to anyone, even my Peeroy enemy, and the more Risha of Lutta we have. What I have now, in the moment in-sie, is that I want to bathe much in Rhonda, that I want to do, because she's a miliada in Brazil, not

I, I want this cituron to Brazil, and for me, the only thing that I have in mind is this, bathe very in Runda. No, I knew her father had died when she was young, but I didn't know he had killed himself. The histories I know from Rwanda, I didn't see any documentary, I didn't see any TV show.

I know from what was recently edited in the media, like her running away when she had a fight with her mother, the drugs, the bullying me. And there wasn't much things said on her father. They didn't touch based on it after the book shows, these new facts. And it wasn't on purpose. I have my mind is clean, it's easy. I'm a person that was created based on God's teaching. And I would never ever talk about family, not even for my worst enemy.

So why would I do it with a fight rivalry? It doesn't make any sense. But what does is I want to beat Rhonda a lot. I want to humiliate her and leave the belt here in Brazil. and become the next champion. And of course, the fight is exactly two months away. It's August 1st. It's in Brazil. And it's interesting because she's the champion going to your home country on your turf.

She is quite popular in Brazil, it seems. She's competed there before in judo. It seems like when she comes in and does media, she's popular as well. Do you think the fans of Brazil will root for you more than her, or do you think that they'll be split? How do you think it's going to be when it comes to UFC 190? He says that it's interesting, because the Luta will be here in Brazil,

she's a champion of his living, lot to be here, and that she's very popular. Always that she comes here, there's a lot in front of her, much media, much the love of the public, you think that in the day of the

the lot, the team of the the team, or will be divided? No, it's more to me, with certain, it's normal, a public,

she has been fans in the world entire, like I've been with the States of the United, I have a great amount,

many Americans, many Americans, I de them, incredible. For the equivalent what I look, me am I. It's the same thing. When she here, there are many Brazilians who am I love her. But

when I go and down in the road, it's a nice thing, it's people are in any can't, in any the Brazil entire, people people are and me pereg of her to present,

for you see the repercussion that. The Brazil want a campaign Brazilian. Even, even the own fans of her,

as opposed to be fan of the Ronda, no fun, they're, that the champion the European

is a Brazilian. So if you have a car in a rhodo, not say that not to us are that's the country will prevail. I have to be certain of this. The people gritty for me, for where I am, I'm sure that I'm going to be the whole whole whole, very

very happy to be able to be winning the Rondon, and leaving here the Cinturion to Brazil. I think it will be more to me. It's normal that she has fans all around the world. When I go to the U.S., I have seen

the lots of fans coming at me, and lots of people from the US showing hate towards her and love towards me. So I don't think there will be any more fans shooting her, then that will be shooting me. Here, of course, there are people that love her. But when I walk on the street, a lot of people stop me and say they want me to give them her mold, as a gift.

So you can see how much big this has become. The Brazilian people, they want another Brazilian champion. They want a woman Brazilian champion. So even the ones that are her fans, they want to see in their heart. They want another Brazilian champion. So the nation will be the priority here, and I'm pretty sure everyone will be sharing me

when I take the title for her. Do you think if you didn't talk, you know, trash tried to get that fight and do the four-finger thing, you know, prior to the Duke fight and the Bezler fight, that you would have received the title fight, the shot against her on this big stage at this point in your career, do you think that helped? You think that helped? You think if you didn't have made that signal with the Mons and provoked her, right?

You're going to be able to get the center on this point in your career, or you think that this really helped? I think he helped, yes. very intelligent, to and I've done to the opportunity.

I was doing a career very beautiful my F.C. I was winning all the different.

And at times you have been not just the sufficient, you have to give to people who

want to you want to get to get to get to get to really, the lot of

you have to be a lot of a lot of a lot of the people want to want to

the people want the the first the F.C. That who's had, like, had someone battled at a

lot and really, I could, it was my merit me. Now, I will show that I'm not so, I

don't know I'm going, I do, I do, I do, I'm, I always, I always, I always,

I always, I always, I always, I'm always, I'm going, I'm going to show, I'm a champion.

I think it's happened a lot. It was very smart on my part, to take this opportunity and create

all this. I already had a beautiful career in the UFC. I was winning my fights. I was winning good. But I had to bring attention to myself. For you to have a title shot, you don't just have to win fights. You need to be able to sell yourself. And I think I did it pretty well. I brought the attention to me. And I'm selling this fight. You need not just wanted, but you need to sell it. And I think I created the biggest history in the UFC about wanting a fight and

going after it and it's my merit on it and I don't I want to make it clear that I don't don't just talk I'm talk and I do it and on August 1st I'll go there and I'll do it what do you think is the biggest weakness in her game the the weakness that you're going to look to exploit on August 1st? What do you think is the major frakees in the game of her that you want to explore on the 1st? I think the Rhonda is very secure, right? So, it's that she's always to use just what she has been in fort,

that is the judo. She has been to risk the MMIC, other gobs, other arts, because they have me afraid to get, to get her, she doesn't feel confidence. For this, she always, she always, with her judo. She has made to show her some of the MMA. So I'm here to show that the Honda really is a fauna, not a lot of a lotada

complete. Because this job of I'm with with a hand of my hand and I

don't go to not go not going to she will have to do the MMA

with me and she will be going to my zone of comfort because I

am a a complete a lot of MMA. I think she's very

insecure that's she only tries to use her judo she doesn't try anything

regarding MMA because I think I think she's afraid to lose. So she's afraid to take hits, and that's why I think she has no confidence, and always losing her only skill that's judo.

I'm here to show everyone that Honda is a farce. She's not a complete fighter, and I will show her to everyone. Her game is not going to work with me. She's going to have to try to use MMA, and that's my comfort zone. I'll show everyone that I'm better than her, and she will lose.

Do you think if Ronda never had an MMA career, if she never came into MMA from Judo, that there would still be women in the UFC, or do you at least give her credit for opening that door? Like you wouldn't even be here, no one would be here if it wasn't for her. Do you believe that or do you think otherwise? You think if Ronda not had said from MMAA, the division of feminine, would you start in the UFC, or you think that would have been done with her? You think that she'd have merit in this or not? I think that had

happened without her but maybe it would be more really she really she was

attract the MMA feminine for the F.C. a little I have the F.C. I would

put a division feminine because the women were growing much,

the women were showing a talent that if if it was

was a Ronda would be another that would call

the I think it would have happened anyway but it would would have taken more time if she wasn't here.

She had an amazing part in attracting the UFC attention, but I'm pretty sure they had seen that the women's were growing up, they were showing excellence, and if it wasn't wrong, someone else would come. But of course, we have to give her credit for we'll be in the UFC today. When you see her on the cover of magazines, when you see her in movies and things like that, Does it make you sick to your stomach?

When you see her in a cap of revist, you're doing film, you feel ennojada? No, I don't me sit ennojada. I think she'd have to invest in a little more in it. So if she has too put a little bit of your part physical, if she wants to be so in her beauty, so she'll invest in more nice. I think she's in a place in a place.

There, walk and walk-togne, a lot of people of people, who don't have to be much to make to make, that not have to be able to be to get to get a lot, that not have to be a sickerance. The Rhonda, I think, she has to be made of so to be to be to make sure. So, she invest in the career

of Hollywood, of artist, of model, that here is the new mutator of M.A. No, I don't get sick to my stomach, but I think she should invest more on this. She takes a lot of care about her looks and her beauty, beauty, but that means she's in the wrong place.

The octagon is for people that doesn't get, that aren't afraid to get hurt, doesn't have any problem, get hurt, doesn't care if you have a scar or anything like else. So if Ronald is afraid to get a little scar in her pretty face, she came to invest in her career as a model, as an artist, and go there. Because here is another model fighter and a real champion. Just a couple more questions. I'm enjoying this and I appreciate the time very much. I know you were in attendance in Los Angeles for UFC 184.

What are you thinking when Katzegano runs at her and she's now had these fights that have lasted 16 seconds, 14 seconds. What are you thinking about the way these women are fighting her? He said, he said, and probably is going to be interesting, and probably is going to say more questions. The first he said, if you were in the war with Zengano, And what you

I think, I'm going to go ahead, get to come up to when she's going to happen, after she's in 14, what you think, the form of that these women are not doing with Honda? The Rhonda, or she Or she's

a manna come to to pick the Judo in movement, the Judo adore to get

women in movement is type of the judo or then she's intimidated and they're intimidated, and they're

intimidated with this, all of all of the same error. So it's always

to observe, I study the anniversary and study the student, I study the student all I'm still,

I'm still I'm seeing what are the things are the things, I'm going to something that I'm working to do different, so I just want to

want to be a lot of the other thing that I'd like to show of MMA. It's not going to be, it's going to be accept the studio of her, not going to work with me, I don't go to the men's what I'm doing. I was there, the UFC invited me so they could promote me as the next challenger. And about the fight I already expected that because

every fight, you have already expected that because every fight Ronda has the same thing and her opponents are doing exactly the same thing. They either rush her or they let her put in in the cage. And you can't do that. Judo use your own strain against yourself and if you let her in Team Dating on the cage, you'll have nowhere to go. So everyone is doing the same mistake. But I'm studying Ronda, I'm studying her opponents, I'm studying myself, I'm studying everything

and I want to commit those same mistakes as they do. I'm working to do everything different and to put on a show of an MMA clinic for everyone to see. Because I want to accept her game and her game is not going to work on me. A quick side note, my colleague Guillermo Cruz recently wrote a story about an incident that you had with a taxi driver in Rio. I'm just wondering if everything's okay with you, if you're still dealing with that or has it all subsided at this point? Then a thing apart, Glythe Chris wrote about about that situation that you had with a taxista,

and he'd amassed and all right, he's asking if, is all the story, if the story has died, how is the process of this all? No, I was too tranquil, there really a disentering of the taxista

with my no-noive, but was all very resolved. I was amazed at least, but these things were calmed, So, it's all right, now just I'm thinking and focus on my and I'm trying a lot and just training and thanks a day, I just receive and passes positive.

Everything is okay now. It really happened. He had a fire with my fiancé. But everything is settled. I don't receive any more threats. Just positive messages. so things have come down. Now I can just focus on the fight and train to what I had to do

and just think about positive things. That is good to hear. When you dream about the fight, how do you envision it playing out on August 1st? When you're saying that it's good, not, know, that's all okay? And when you're with a lot, what you see happening in the first day, I guess. Knockout.

I don't have, I don't have a doubt, I don't have no doubt that I will wince I don't see the hypothesis of I don't see the hypothesis of

my faith not can't see all the result of my victory and I knockoutia in the Ronda, I don't want

to be a decision and I would be a if I could finalize I never know,

a guido tina in cached never you know, but I wanted nocout with a chute

in the chute in a case would be or then really using the hands, but I wanted to do it, but I never sent to her. I don't have any doubt that I'm going to win.

I don't see myself losing. It doesn't ever cross my mind. My fate doesn't allow that. I want to see a victory, me knocking the world out. If I can do it, I ended up to meet her. Maybe she gives me a guillotine or something like that. I'll take it, but I really want a knockout. I want to knock her out with a head kick.

I think it would be amazing. But if it doesn't happen, I can do it with my hands. I just want to give her something that she has never tasted before. Well, we see your special celebration dance if you win. You've been very famous for this dance. He's been very famous for this dance. He's talking about this. I'm going to do this round, I dance at least a dance.

I'm gonna dance at Ula-Ula-Ula. I think that's a commemoration of my life. And I'm already training some pass-ins, that really I know that this victory so will be going to go doing what I'm doing.

Maybe in Ronda, we even dance Zumba, Ula-Ula, anything. I'm already training some steps because I'm pretty sure I'm going to win, and so I'm already training for the celebration. Okay, last question, final thing. You've done such a great job of selling the fight, as you said, and of getting the fight.

Any message to Ronda Rousey? I want you to talk to Ronda Rousey right now. Is there anything you'd like to say to her? This is one of my question, if you've done a great way to this a luther. Any other than a letter to Rouse. You want a declaration directly to Ronda. Rhonda, Ronda, you don't is a super heroina. You're a façain.

I will prove this to you the first of August. You will leave the most of your life. You will see do, you will cry of the do, you will be humiliated in my country, you will, you will just be a centuron here, because I am a champion. You don't are a champion.

I want to invite you to show your M.MA, right? Because you just gain of your judo, I want to show your repertoire, I want to see, I want to see, test it with me. You will get up and you will get. You're not the super right? You think you are.

You are a farce. And I'll prove it on August 1st. I'll give you the biggest beating of your life. I'll make you suffer pain. I'll make you cry of pain. I'll humiliate you and leave your belt here. You're not a champion. I'm a champion.

I invite you to try your MMA game because your judo is not going to work here. I'm going to beat you up and everyone is going to see it. Wow. Matez, tell Betz, I've never been more afraid in my life than when she turned to the camera and start a bit. pointing. Holy moly. I felt it.

She switched just like that. Bang. Looked right at the camera. Oh my lord. When I talk about Ronda, I get like this. When I talk about Sondra, I get like this. I get pizza. Well, I felt it.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the time. Thank you very much to you. And Matthias, tremendous job. Thank you so much for translating all of that. I really, really appreciate it. I wish you the best of luck on August 1st. I can't wait for the fight.

You've done a fantastic job of selling everything and getting the fight to this point. And good luck in training. It's going to be a great one. Thank you so much once again, Betch. Obrigo. I thank you for all this interview. I've wished a good sort for you in the Lutta.

I'll say, I'm in Portuguese. I'm, thank you. I thank you. I'd love the interview. It was awesome. I never had a interview with Skype. I thought very good. And I'd invite to all.

to the day 1st, August, I'll I'll see my look at a show, will be an show, will be incredible, and see the new champion world. Thank you. I appreciate it.

And I've had done a Skype interview before I love it. And I invite everyone to watch my fight on August 1st. It's going to be a show and you're going to see the new world champion. All right. Thank you guys.

Bye-bye. Appreciate the time. There she is. Wow. Did you see that? I hope you guys got that. I hope you felt that like I did. When she turned to the camera right there and started pointing and talking about Ronda Rousey directly to Ronda Rousey, whew, that was pretty intense.

I'm not going to lie. Wow. She's good. She is good. You can't take anything away from her. She is good at what she does. She is good at picking a fight. She is very good at keeping the interest in the fight going.

Certainly got herself into some hot water with the comments last. week she claimed she didn't know at this point you know hey we we have to take her at our word but I do feel like it is it's still a little strange that she knew all that other stuff and didn't know about the suicide but look we can go on and on it seems like it's something that she's very apologetic about and maybe she you know feels like hey I cross the line there but when you hear and see her talk about ronda rousey you can't help but be very excited for august first nothing like a little rivalry intense one it's going to be fun less than a hand of times two undefeated fighters have fought for a UFC belt. Another one in those times

going to be in just exactly two months time from now. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UFC 190, Ronda Rousey versus Bechko Hea. Great stuff from her. A lot of people can learn. Even if she can't speak English, she gets her point across. A lot of people in the UFC and an MMA in general can learn from Bechko Hea. All right. Before we get to Inside the Vault, Actually, let's go to Inside the Vault now and then I'll do what I wanted to do after Inside the Vault. As I mentioned, the UFC is back. That does it, by the way, for today's interviews.

I hope you enjoyed them. I will remind you that today's episode of the M.A. Hour is presented by NOS. No looking back, no holding back, and absolutely no regrets. Find a Noss near you at find Noss.com. So the UFC is back in New Orleans. This Saturday, it's on Fox Sports One. There's been a guy on Twitter. I forget his name.

that escapes me right now. He has been harassing me for the last two months or so to get Twaz on the show. You know Twas, the White Anderson Silva, Brian Ebersol. This guy has been harassing me to get Brian Ebersol on the program. Well, it didn't happen, but it kind of did happen because this installment of Inside the Vault is an interview that I conducted on February 27, 2011

with Brian Ebersol. Brian Embersol is back in action this Saturday at the Smoothie King Center, home of the New Orleans Pelicans and their new head coach, Alvin Gentry. Omari Akbendov is his opponent. He, Brian Ebersol returned to action in September. He picked up a big win over John Howard. It was a split decision win. Prior to that, he had not fought in, well, a little less than a year. And his story is a very interesting one.

His record, 51, 16, one draw, one no contest. And if you recall, back in February of 2011, he finally made it to the UFC in his adopted home country of Australia. He was fighting, he was scheduled to fight when he took this fight on short notice, the surging Chris Lytle. Chris Lytle was in the midst of perhaps the best run of his career. He had won four fights in a row. and who is he supposed to fight?

I forget now at the top of my head. Oh, was it Martin Capman? I believe it was Martin Capman. Was it Martin Capman? Let's see. Let me just look it up really quickly here so I can complete the story. It was...

Carlos Condit, excuse me, yes. Carlos Condit versus Chris Lytle. That was the fight. UFC 127. Conded got injured and Eversal took the fight on short notice. And a lot of people weren't expecting much from him because it was against Chris Lido

who had looked so good, because it was short notice all that stuff, but he came in there and won the fight and looked very good in doing so. This is the guy with the harrow, with the cartwheel kick, an orthodox fighter, a fun fighter, an entertaining fighter,

and he stepped up on the biggest stage possible and won his UFC debut. UFC 127 in Sydney. After the fight, we were in the locker room and spoke to him, and he was very emotional, talking about his journey, talking about the win,

and everything he had been through up until that point. A very memorable locker room post-fight interview, so I wanted to replay it here in this installment of Inside the Vault because he is back in action and to sort of please that guy who had been harassing me the last few weeks to get him on the show. So here it is, post-fight interview with Brian Ebersol, the White Anderson Silva.

That's his nickname Twaz, back on February 27, 2011. Ariel Halwani post-fight at UFC 127 alongside Brian Ebersol who defeated Chris Lytle tonight in his very first UFC fight and Brian, congratulations. You got this fight on short notice. You're fighting a tough guy like Chris Lytle. You're fighting in Australia where you live now. Can you describe the emotions going through your body right now?

Absolutely amazing. It's one of the first fights I can say that everybody I've known is watching at the same time. Most of my fights in obscurity in the U.S. or Australia, where you can't get a fight tape from a promoter. Most of them aren't on TV. So to know that I got people in South Africa, England, back home in the U.S. and my friends and family here in Australia, all at once. One big moment connected, cosmic, beautiful.

You know, we see a lot of guys make their debuts and they don't look like themselves. They seem a little tentative, a little nervous. You didn't seem that way. You, in fact, threw a cartwheel kick in the opening moments of the fight. How comfortable were you? I mean, did this just feel like a normal fight for you? I don't get hit very often. That's probably fight 76 all up as a professional.

And I've only had about four black eyes. So in the end, the nerves really aren't with getting hit. The nerves are fatiguing, getting tired, and not putting on my best performance. But the cartwheel had to throw it early. I knew Chris wouldn't take me down even if I ended up on the ground with it, which I did in the second round. And he just looked at me, so I jumped back up as quick as I could to make sure I didn't induce him into a takedown because I didn't really want to be down there. But yeah, no major nerves.

Biggest thing, again, conditioning on two weeks notice, I'm not going to lie, I wasn't in the best of shape. I was supposed to fight February 19 a week ago against an opponent that I would have ran through. All due respect, Lee All would, but, yeah, it would have been a bad day for him. and I wasn't really gearing up for a big fight until April 30th, so I had six weeks of kettlebells and sprints and all that. I haven't sprinted, I haven't done anything like that in the last couple weeks. So this was just me being kind of in, you know, veteran fight mode. At what point did you start to feel that?

At what point in the fight did you say, I'm getting a little tired here? I never really got tired, but somewhere in the second round, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to throw three fast enough to be comfortable. So I wanted to throw one, two, change levels and play. and to be quite honest, he throws such big punches and you see him drop for the uppercuts. I knew I could read him and see what he was doing, so there was no reason to really mix up past, you know,

the first, second, and third beat. Like I said, on number two, I should be touching him instead of sitting out here in the pocket trying to punch. So I just played a smart game plan and made sure I got the win tonight. Did he seriously hurt you at any point? No, he threw one good kick that ran through my forearm pretty well, across.

So that was really the only bump that I got. My mouthpiece fell out, just me being lazy, and in the clinch working with him. You seem to hurt him bad in the second round with that knee, and he's never been stopped via punches or via submission in a fight only due to cuts. How tough is he to actually finish? I mean, that was a pretty vicious knee. I wanted my bonus. I'm telling you what, I thought I had him.

He started sitting up against the cage. I was hoping to pin his head against the cage and throw knees to his chest and body, but he wrestled well enough and kept pressure. I couldn't do it. When he threw his head back down to the single leg, I threw on the bravo, dars choke, thought I was going to get him there again, but he backed himself against the cage

or I couldn't get comfortable with my arms. I couldn't tilt him over. And man, his awareness never goes. You know, he was never out of the fight, never looking for a way out. He just kept pushing. We saw a very bad judge's decision, at least in my opinion earlier in the night

with the Fukuda and Ring, where you had all nervous prior to the judges announcing, their final scores that you might not win this fight? After the knockdown in the second round, I figured I had a big easy round that round. The third round, a little bit nervous because I did go on bottom.

Halfway on purpose. He had a decent guillotine going, and it was more for the purpose of position. But when he inverted, it went upside down. It started to get a bit tight, and I couldn't take a chance with him locking his legs around me, so I had to give him position. And knowing that I spent about a minute maybe on bottom, Yeah, I was a little bit nervous because, again, he came forward with punches,

but I did a lot of good work against the cage, a lot of good knees, a lot of good elbows, and in shoulder strikes. And, you know, I pinned him against the cage pretty well with the forearms and really made him uncomfortable. So really what I want to do is just show, obviously, that I was in control. Like I said, I know a forearm in the throat's not a lot, but 20 or 30 seconds, so that takes a bit out of you. And if he can't move from there, obviously, I've got him pinned up. So I was hoping the judges saw that at least I was doing what I wanted to do,

maybe not the most effective or the flashiest moves, but that I was in control. So when I heard the 3027, I knew I won the fight. You fought on every stage in MMA. How do those stages compare to UFC one? They don't. This is it, you know, the treatment we've had as far as coming in, the hotel, the media. I've done interviews. It's no different by doing four or five interviews in a day.

Quite a different story. But just to know everything's sorted, you got doctors, you got paychecks, You got people around you that are professionals at what they do. It's much different than going to a show where the promoter is also the announcer, also the judge, and also the referee. Talk to us about the chest hair. What was the inspiration behind that? About two, maybe three years ago, I fought a kickboxer.

He was coming from Phuket, Thailand via South Africa. And I saw him wrestle on YouTube as a blue belt in a tournament. And I just shook my head and said, I was in for a rough one. So the pre-fight kind of thing came up with the air. and I left a little goatee as a marker for him saying you have to hit me in the chin to beat me because you have no hope on the ground and I kind of stuck with it My next fight was Hector Lombard So I kind of did the same thing but in reverse to be a bit subtle with Hector not the brightest guy all the time and a bit of a bit of a raging bull

So I actually left the the outside bit nice and hairy and I shaved this out So it was a bit more of a subtle arrow Hector couldn't find my chin and I've kind of stuck with it since then. You know there's a line in Lord of the Rings where the two little hobbits were the the forest and they said oh take us you know toward Mordor maybe being closer to the the danger is actually a way to keep us safe so I kind of give them the big big clue and for some reason they still can't find the chin anyone you want next um no man everybody at welterweight in the UFC right now is tough and to be honest I haven't looked at the roster and and even tried to do a matchup when I um when I got the call for this one my biggest concern was Fitch not being hurt you know friend we moved to

California very close to each other, did our recruiting trip together. And that was the biggest thing saying, oh, I hope I'm not fighting BJ, only because I didn't want it to be fit, you know, obviously with an injury. When I found out it was Lytle, I figured, oh, it's a good matchup for me, and an absolute honor to fight a samurai warrior like him. He's an absolute animal. But as far as what's next, I don't know, we'll have to talk. Okay, final question. You talked to us in the pre-fight interview about your long and strange journey to get to this point, all the ups and downs. I mean, at this point, obviously, you have so much more work to do, but can you sit back and say, I finally made it after 10 years,

after all those ups and downs, after moving here, it's got to feel like this is like you're on cloud nine, right? Absolutely. I mean, all these years, you know, I think people back home wondering what the hell I'm doing, so to finally make it. Yeah, kind of cool. Mom, Dad. Yeah, made it. Emotional, right? Oh, quite. You know, all these people come up to you on the street, oh, you're a fighter. Where do you fight her? You're a UFC guy, and you say no. You know, Gilbert Melendez is the same way. He's top. five in the world and he has to answer the same question say no i don't fight for the ufc people scoff at him you're kidding me some of the best guys in the world haven't fought here yet and um they get

a bit teased or looked down on for claim to be a fighter so yeah it's finally nice to be able to go as a matter of fact yes yes i am well brian a fantastic win congratulations on your first one in the octagon we can't wait to see what's next for you cool thank you great stuff there from brian ebersaw i'll remember that one for a long time it's something special when a guy has been around sport for so many years, so many fights, gets that opportunity, short notice in his adopted home country. He was very well known in Australia prior to that fight and steps up and beats a guy who was rolling at the time. Big win for him over Chris Lytle. And after that win, by the way, Ebersol went on a roll. He beat Dennis Hallman via TKO, beat Claude Patrick via split decision,

beat T.J. Waldberger. And then he took a very short notice fight. Like, Less than one month's notice, just less than one month's notice, against James Head, UFC 149. Remember that card that was just riddled with injuries? And unfortunately, his luck ended there, then lost a unanimous decision to Rick Story, but has since rebounded against John Howard. So it's been a nice run for him in the UFC, a very nice run. And it was great to see that emotion, great to see him get that big win in his UFC debut. Speaking of Claude Patrick, where has he been? Haven't seen, heard from him in a long time.

his last fight was against Brian Ebersoll at December of 2011. That was a long time ago. Almost four years. Holy moly. Might need to check in on Claude Patrick. Another one in Canada zone, 14 and 2. After his loss to Brian Ebersoll four years ago.

All right. So that does it for Inside the Vault. Brian Ebersol back in action this Saturday. Before we get your questions and comments, the good people over at Noss, as you know, they have been a part of the show for the last month or so, they hooked us up with these gloves. These gloves right here, you see them?

Hayabusa, Nass Energy Drink, MMA gloves. And if you look right over there, they are signed by George St. Pierre. See that? George St. Pierre signed these gloves. These actual gloves provided to us by Noss Energy Drink, and we appreciate it very much. And they gave them to us because they are part of the show, and they wanted us to then pass it along. to one of our loyal listeners slash viewers slash fans. And when I heard about this, there was a couple people that came to mind, but I thought,

all right, we need to hook this particular person up for being such a loyal part of the show, listener, viewer, fan. In fact, I do believe that she is watching the show right now. At least she was earlier because she was tweeting our good friend, Ash, a girly MMA on Twitter, way back when I accused her of being a catfish. I don't believe that anymore. She's even dabbling with a little MMA media herself. I think she even tried to periscope her viewing of today's episode.

On behalf of all of us here at MMA Hour, we wanted to hook her up with these gloves, these GSP gloves, sign gloves, because she has been such a huge supporter of the show, because she has been such a loyal part of the show. She's always sticking up for us. She's always defending us. She's always telling everyone that she's watching the show.

We appreciate that very much. Could have given these to a thousand different people, but I think she had been going through some health issues or something of that nature via, you know, we saw on her Twitter. So I thought this would be a nice little gift for our friend Ash. Thank you so much for everything. We hope you enjoy the gloves. You rock them proudly.

I mean, you don't have to actually rock them, but you can, you know, put them somewhere in your house and tell the world that you got them from the M.M.A. And we want to thank Noss for hooking us up with the gloves as well. So, Ash, excuse me, Ash, these are coming to you, courtesy of Noss. And thank you for everything that you've done for us and continue to do as a loyal part of the show. We appreciate it very much. All right.

Now let us get to our, and she even hooked us up with gifts back in the day. She got New York, Rick. What did she get you like? She got me some treats for my guinea pigs. Yes, for your guinea pigs. That's right. And my son, who was actually wearing her gift just a couple days ago, Bob Marley's shirt. Remember that whole thing?

Of course. It wasn't that long ago. Someone gives us a gift. You got to, I mean, it's almost rude not to give a gift back. Absolutely. So that's our way of saying thank you. Congrats, Ash. It was weird because you didn't want you said no.

She doesn't deserve it. Nice try. And I thought you guys were cool, so I don't know. Moving on to the questions. Yes. Carlos Condit, what are your thoughts on Condit's performance on Saturday night? I thought he looked pretty good considering his lengthy layoff. Who in the division do you think would make sense for him?

Next, I know he's already booked, but I imagine a fight with Matt Brown will be be a lot of fun. Interesting. No small talk, huh? You got right to business. No foreplay this week. What you got?

Well, I don't know. You just went right to it. I mean, I thought usually... You got to get me revved up. What do you... All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

No, no. Let's get right into it. Carlos Condit. Big win for him. Did you watch it? Of course. Yeah, yeah. Well, sometimes you don't watch.

No, come on. It's a very big win. You know, I was thinking about this. Are they going to try to rematch with Tyron Woodley? I don't think that really makes sense. because if you look at the rankings, he is four, Woodley's three. But I don't know. I'd like to wait and see what happens with Roy McDonald.

If Roy McDonald loses, and I know this might sound weird, because it's a guy coming off a win, fighting a guy coming off a loss. But if Roy McDonald loses, I don't think those rules apply anymore, to be quite honest. I'd like to see that rematch, finally. We've been teased, we've been promised, they've been going back and forth, in particular, Roy, and I know he's kind of gotten over it, but I think the time is now. That's also a rematch.

Yeah, but. here's the thing. Woodley is trying to get that title shot and he already beat Condit and it was probably the biggest win of his career. To make him recreate that magic at this stage seems a little unfair. But if Roy is coming off a title loss

and Condit's trying to get back in that title picture, of course, he was once interim champion, he lost that unification bout against GSP, I think it makes more sense at this stage of their career. You know what I'm saying? The Brown fight makes a lot of sense too, but let's not forget he has a fight coming up. So we have to see what happens there.

I really want to see the roar. So my point is, and Brown's fighting July 11th, so I think we just have to wait until July 11th, and it's not that far away. There are other fights that make sense for him, too. I think Safadi makes a lot of sense if he can get healthy. He's lower ranked, as was Tiago Alves. There are definitely some...

It's great to have Konda back because, A, he's such a great fighter. He's an aggressive fighter. He's a fun fighter to watch. Very often a finisher. And he's one of those big names who's been a part of the sport for a long time. So it's great to see him come back after such a long laugh, a very serious injury. It's just he infuses some life.

And I think maybe the break was good for him. He had been very active up until that point. And maybe this allowed him to take a step back and really get sharp once again. So that was nice. That was good to see. Devastating. Wow, that knows. I was okay with the finish.

Were you? Oh, of course. The ending, the decision to end. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I saw some people complain about that. I mean, come on. Look at that nose.

It's horrible. And you didn't really see Tiago Alva's complain. I mean, he would have kept fighting, though. We know that. He wanted to go out for the round, and the doctor said no. So, I mean, in this case, you know, his health and safety are first and foremost. And that was a badly, badly hurt nose. I believe he had surgery on it, even.

I saw something. That was something that we wrote, actually. but they said he's expected to have surgery, but you didn't have surgery, yeah, yeah. Likely, I think it was the word. How about Dubronx? Charles Oliveira looked impressive on Saturday against Nick Lentz, and I think he's been showing some really good improvements in recent fights. What were your thoughts on his performance and where he fits in the featherweight division?

Who do you think would be a good next fight for him? I was very impressed. That was a fun fight to watch. Yeah. Especially given their history. And, you know, when you consider the fact that it feels like they were supposed to to fight like a hundred times up until this point and something crazy happens all the time. So I was worried that the fight wouldn't happen for whatever strange reason.

But that was a lot of fun to watch. First round, rocked Nick Lentz. And, you know, I think it's important to note that referee did a fantastic job of not stopping the fight because if you watch it again, he was hovering there. He really wanted to jump in, or at least he was doing everything that he could to make sure Lentz was okay that he was able to keep fighting. And he was right in the perfect spot. and I think the ref deserves a lot of credit.

Now his name escapes me. If anyone knows, please tell me, and I'd love to give him a shout-out. So that was a really nice win, especially Lentz came back in the second round and a great finish. And they showed a crazy stat. Like, Charles O'Olveras, like third or fourth all-time now in subs. UFC history. Unbelievable. Very quietly climbing those particular ranks.

So what's next for him? Where is he ranked? He's ranked eighth? Hmm. Who's above him? Max Holloway? That's a... Is that not fair to Max?

I feel like that's not fair to Max, but that's a scrap right there. Yeah. Maybe it's not fair to Max. Cubs out for too long. Also, they fought. Can we just talk about Nick Lentz's new look? What do you think of it? I hadn't really thought about it until this point, but I guess...

It was very different. Thinking about it now, I guess he looked like a... a shrunken Brock Lesnar maybe when Brock had the beard I guess but the hair was a little different but yeah maybe you're right the lettuce on top the side's completely taken off

he looked like a completely different person though yeah he looked completely different he looked very old and I don't mean like like an old man just grizzled grizzled is the word yes I mean I'm pretty indifferent to how he looked it didn't really it was a little Connor McGregress

oh here he is here he is I knew that just talking about a stat would prompt my friend Michael Carroll to to poke his head out. He tells me that Oliver is tied for fourth with seven submissions. Fourth overall. The history of the UFC. So he's now on four in a row beat Hatsuyoki, beat Andy Ogle,

Jeremy Stevens back in December, and Nick Lentz. That's a quiet four-fight winning streak, huh? It is, yeah. Part of that lost to Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson. I don't know. I think that he deserves a step up, but I don't know if Max Holloway makes sense, and then there's no one, I don't know,

there's no one else that really, he'd have to fight someone behind him. That streak is impressive. You know what? Maybe I'm reconsidering the fight with Max Holloway. I think that could be a good one. I mean, I think it's a good fight regardless, but I'm saying it might make a little more sense

than I initially thought. How about Clay Guida? That could be fun. Clay is 10. Dubrox is 8. Lentz was, well, I don't know if these are the new ones or the old ones, but they're pretty close. That's a risky one to take. Why?

Why? Yeah, but, you know, his submissions, Gwita's wrestling. I kind of like it. That's the key there, Guita's wrestling. I mean, yeah? I don't know. I'm going with Clay Guida. Final answer.

I think those are both good fights, and I'd watch for sure. He's just an exciting fighter. Well, you sold me. Your enthusiasm sold me. Well, it just seems like there's not many options there. Yeah. If those are the two, then, I mean... That's my pick.

That's it. Is it time for the U.S.E. to take a break from Brazil? Lucas Martins was cleared to fight with a massive cut above his eye. Awful officiating, as an example, the Drew Dober-Leandro Silva fight from a previous event. Horrific judging. An example here is Norman Park versus Francisco Trinaldo. from this week and Juban versus Alves and then poor attendance. So he's listing a few factors.

So a Brazil hater. That would suggest going away from Brazil. What do you think? Well, bad news for you, my friend. Oh, it's my good friend UFC Facewap. They're going to Brazil in two months. UFC 190. Remember that?

I asked my friend Guillermo about this yesterday. We were talking over WhatsApp. Do you use WhatsApp? I do. and I said, yeah, attendance didn't seem great. The crowd seemed a little off what's going on here. He chalked it up to it not being a very interesting card for the local crowd. And he thinks that, if I may speak on his behalf, he thinks that 190 will do a lot better. Those tickets aren't on sale just yet. That's a good card. Paperview card is Rhonda Rousey. That feels like a very big deal.

And bitch is doing a great job of selling the fight. So I feel like we need to wait for U.S. to really tell the story. If Brazil has jumped the shark or if they're going there too often, I don't know. I mean, look, there is something to be said for going there a lot. Look what happened in Scotland today. They sold out in a matter of hours. Europe seems to be a pretty hot market these days. Connor, Michael Bispying on a role, he's headlining that show.

The London events seem to do pretty well. So, I don't know. I just think you have to give people the right kind of card. And as far as the officiating, I wouldn't put that much stock into that. I think officiating kind of sucks everywhere. Some nights you have great nights, some nights you have good nights. That's fair enough. But I don't really think we could pin that, especially when they work pretty closely with the UFC.

And by the way, for whatever it's worth, those officials are getting more cracks at UFC events these days than a lot of others. I mean, than most in the United States, because they're there that often. So at least they're getting a chance on the big stage. now, are they screwing up? I mean, are they, if they continue to screw up on the big stage, then it's a problem. And I do think that there are a few in particular over there that aren't really that great. But, you know, you know the commission over there, CAB, MMA works very closely with the UFC. So you would hope that when the UFC isn't there, they're still getting reps. That's what it's all about, and that the right people are in there. But I don't know, I'm not too high on officials

these days, regardless of where we may be. Las Vegas. Canada, Europe. There's some good ones, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot of bad ones. I think 190 will do better. One question about Joseo, please, from our friend James Glory. Joseo Aldo says that the Reebok deal is quote-unquote poop. I don't believe that's a quote. And has said he wants to see a union.

What's your take on this? And now that Aldo is getting bolder and louder with his dissent, do you think a company-minded guy like Connor is preferred by the UFC to be the winner of the bout? Well, I don't know if this was the tip of the iceberg as far as that last question is concerned. But yeah, I mean, it's interesting, like Matt Mitrione said, because he's a champion. And we've heard it now from fighters in Mitrione's spot, perhaps a little lower, maybe a little above, but we haven't heard a champion talk about the Reebok deal. And Jose Aldo has not been afraid to speak his mind as of late.

So I thought that was really interesting. I mean, he's the guy who's going to stand to gain the most from this because champions make 40,000, but that still might not be what he's making now. We don't know. And he certainly doesn't have that rebuck deal that Connor has and, you know, the monster energy deal and all that stuff. So he must be coming from a place where, you know, he feels like he's losing out. But to me, the biggest thing right off the bat was, oh, you know, I'm not incredibly surprised because Aldo has been pretty vocal in the past. and oh wow a champion is speaking out and then I think that

I think that by Josealdo speaking out it puts more weight behind what the other fighters are saying you know what I mean? Sure. If he has a problem with it and he's at the top of the ladder then well then they certainly

could have a problem with it as well well to be fair though you know based on the translation if it's accurate you know it seemed like he was saying that this wasn't a move for more it was a move for Josealdo, it was more so a move for the group of fighters in general.

He admits that he can benefit from it, but he's saying that he's speaking out because it's more of a thing that would benefit all fighters. So yeah, I mean, his weight behind it is important in this case, a champion like him, and especially a long-standing champion like him, somebody that everybody kind of recognizes as a pound-for-pound grade and respects. That's a big step. I actually really like what he said about that, that he's actually thinking about others. Yeah. More often than not, people are talking always about themselves, but I really liked what he said

there. So I don't know. We'll see what happens. You know, sometimes I feel like it's not good to go through the media for this stuff because, you know, I've already talked about that. But look, it seems like they respond. They called Matt Matrione. They've called other people the Brennan Shop thing.

So who the hell knows? This is a story that will not die. That's what I know. Speaking of Matt Matrione. Yes. Is Matt Metriome one of the most underappreciated Ultimate Fighter competitors? To tell you the truth, originally on Tough Ten, I couldn't stand the dude. Now, he's my favorite hands down.

That's part of his charm. Plus, after seeing his pure punching power slash athletics, and more importantly, the infamous Mitriom Minute, where we get to see his hilarious personality. Is he one of the funniest people coming out of the Ultimate Fighter since Forrest Griffin, and underrated for a real possible Dark Horse contender? before I answer the question or address it, thank you very much to Darren Chung for letting me know that Kevin McDonald was the referee

in that Charles Olivera and Nick Lentz fight. He has a mean part as well, Kevin McDonald, who also, by the way, is American. So you can't, like I said, pin it all on the Brazilians. Matt Matrione is a guy that I've been very high on, and he brings up a great point. He's the only, you know, he's only fought in the UFC. his whole career has been in the UFC

which is pretty amazing. I don't know if we'll ever see that. Maybe CN Punk. When he fought Czech Congo several years ago UFC 137, I predicted in a year he'd be fighting for the belt.

Now that prediction was completely off and I can't take credit for it now like three years later but just to say that I felt like he had something in him. He was quick on his feet. He had power. You know, professional athlete

coming from a different sport, a tough sport. He was a tough guy. it just seemed like he was this piece of clay that had yet to be molded. And now he has an incredible amount of confidence. And, I mean, his striking has looked fantastic, working with Henry Hooft, and really putting it all together. And as he said, no real secret to his success. He's just really evolved and matured as a fighter, and it's paying off.

Ben Rothwell is a pretty big step up for him. Tough guy to finish. Gritty fighter, veteran, he's been around the block. He looked great. He took a licking and kept on ticking with Alster Overeign in September, had to, uh, take some time off due to an injury, but I love this fight. I think it's a real interesting test for Matt Mitrione. If he can get by this fight, I would put him in there in the Steppe Miochich discussion.

Again, I feel like Andre Arlowski, if Kane Velasquez wins, and there's no controversy, I would do Kane versus Arlowski next. There's no one else that makes sense. I would do Overeign versus JDS, and then I would do Mitrione versus Steepamioch. Am I crazy? No. You're not crazy. That's a fun fight, right?

It's a great fight. There's a lot of potential for Matt Mitrione here. And I think in the heavyweight division, you're just never far away from a title shot. Yeah. Everything changes so quickly and the division's very shallow. And I think Matt Mitrione could be a legit contender there. Relating back to the question more directly, do you feel he's one of the underrated personalities coming out of tough? Do you necessarily associate him with the top of the list of guys who came out of tough?

Um, well, I mean, look at that season. He's one of the few guys left, right? Well, I don't know about that. I mean, Nelson, Shab, Mitrione. I feel like there's another guy who's had, uh, who else. There were some guys who made it, but then kind of flew out. John Madsen and, uh, yeah. So, I mean, that's only three guys.

That's not a lot. James McSweeney. James McSweeney. The great Kimbo slice, you may have heard of him. He's making a comeback, yeah. I don't know. I wouldn't call him an underrated personality because I feel like we've been on that

personality bandwagon for quite some time as well. Right, that's fair enough. And I think, look, when he came into the sport, he came in because the ultimate fighter was looking for heavy weights. He had the great background, NFL player and all that, great personality. He was a much different guy on the show.

Remember he was talking to himself? He was hearing voices in his head. People thought he was a liar. I mean, it was a much different, Yeah, it was. And then he comes into the sport and, you know, he has a nice little run at the top. And then, you know, the thing with Malki, when he fired him. So he's done a good job of getting attention for himself.

I forgot about that. Fired him in the game. That was crazy. But now, I mean, look at his last few fights. It feels like he's a different fighter. Like, he's really put it all together. I felt like he had another run like this right before he fought Roy Nelson, where I was like, you know what?

I think he's turning a corner and I think he took that fight on short notice. That was a dumb fight to take. Man, I remember picking him in that fight too and saying, yeah, his athleticism is going to be so light on his feet. Five in a row. Then lost the Congo and then took a very short notice fight against Roy Nelson. He was out for a year. Yeah. Like so he was just kind of sitting around.

I just felt like he was off in that fight. And it was a quick fight. I thought that was going to be a showcase fight for him because I thought he's going to be able to avoid Roy's power. and, you know, use his footwork. And that, you know, derailed it a little bit. But he's back, and I think he's a possible contender, for sure. Coyed Sean Jordan in 459, remember in Macau? Absolutely.

Coyed Derek Lewis in 41 seconds in September. And K-O., T-KOed, Gabriel Gonzaga in less than two minutes back in December. Those guys can take punches. And give punches. Yes. Those are guys that can put you out as well. But Rothwell is a step above, so let's see what happens. Okay, is Uriah Fabor, Hall of Fame worthy?

Faber is retirement age, but still has a lot of fight left in him? But has he done enough to become a future inductee? What? If not, what more would he need to do outside of winning a title to solidify his place in the Hall of Fame? That is a crazy question. What? Really? He is a first ballot Hall of Famer if there was such thing as a ballot.

You agree, right? Of course. What? That is a crazy. This has to be a joke. Look, well, no, I mean... The division didn't exist, but he would have been a UFC champion if they had the featherweight division, the 145ers.

Whereas he says, yeah, 45s. I love when he says that. I mean, it's a no-brainer. You could say, though, that a lot of these guys who are on the fringe who don't have titles or, you know... But he has a title. He was the champion of the ZUFA organization. They just weren't in the UFC.

So I consider it the same thing. thing. Yeah, that's fair. And I mean, I think he's a no-brainer regardless. His career is just, you know, unassailable. Not only is he a Hall of Famer, he's a pioneer, he's a legend. Like, those are legit terms titles you could put on your eye favor. 100%. Yeah.

First ballot. It would be fun if they had ballots. Vegas Fighter Summit. Seems like the fighters are making their way to Vegas for the summit. Are you in any way surprised at who made the top 50 stars list, or would you have like to see it opened up to all athletes. Seems like Jamie Varner's wish has come true in educating fighters on savings, finances, and overall money management.

Don't you think many more could benefit from this outside of only the top 50? Okay, so let me clear something up here because I was the one who reported this on UFC tonight last week, and you had all these people belly aching, oh, 50, blah, blah, blah. First of all, let's just clear something up. They're not calling it a fighter summit,

they're calling it an athlete summit. So let's clear that up first. Second of all, it's not just 50 stars, point finale. It's 50 stars right now or upcoming stars or rising stars, whatever the hell you want to call them. And then later on, they're going to do 50 other ones and then 50 50, 50. The reason they're not doing 400 or 500, it's like 574 of the officials, they just felt A, too big, B, there are a lot of people who have heard this stuff already. They don't need to know about financial planning and, you know, social media and dealing with the media and all this. I mean, there's veterans of the sport. Like, you really think,

you know, Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson need to hear this stuff. Dan Henderson wouldn't be at something like this because he's a fight this weekend, but you get my point. So why not pinpoint, you know, the up-and-comers, the stars of tomorrow, and teach them this stuff on the ground floor? Also, they've been doing it with the Ultimate Fighter for the last few seasons. So all the members of the Ultimate Fighter have taken this exact summit, if you will. So it hasn't just been, you know, this new thing.

They did it a few years ago. they took a break, and now they're doing it smaller classes, so to speak. 50, and of course, they're not picking someone who's 0-1-1 who fought, you know, tough China. They're going to pinpoint the people that they want to invest in. And I have no problem with that. The Page Van Zanzance of the world, the Tony Ferguson's of the world, the ally quintas of the world, the Al Jermaine Sterlings of the world, the Julianna Pena's of the world. What's wrong with that?

But it's not just these. It's not a select company. You know what I mean? Well, they start with them. Yeah, but if they put you in that first group, it does say something. Well, absolutely. It's an indictment, you know. But it also depends on who has a fight coming up or not.

Look, Al didn't end up going. So there could be, you know, someone who's fighting this weekend. You know, so that depends. That's pretty important as well. But yeah, like I said, they're not going to waste their time in bringing someone over from, you know, Japan or China or anywhere in the world. If they don't feel like they have a future. Yep.

I really don't have a problem with that. It makes sense the way they're doing it, for sure. sure. I think it makes a lot of sense. Remember those fun kind of missives we got from the meetings last time? I think this is going to be interesting. Well, we also had the Matt Mat Matreone Tito Ortiz. That's right. There was all kinds of good stuff going on. Crackus. All the fighters, you know, posting pictures and other people in the meetings joining up. Yeah, it was people falling asleep. You also had the Strike Force fighters meeting Dana Lorenzo taking pictures with them, which was somewhat surreal. And speaking of Jamie Varner, I think that's really awesome that they invited him. He's going to be

there. I believe Rashad is speaking. Matt Hughes, Forrest Griffin. That's one of many. I spoke to Dave Schaller, who's, you know, obviously head of PR, but has been working on this for quite some time. And he was telling me, biometric analysis and nutrition and drug testing, of course. And they have a very big press conference on Wednesday, which will be led by Dana White, Lorenzo Fertita, Lawrence Epstein and Jeff Novitsky, who we talked about a few weeks ago, and they'll be announcing their whole, you know, drug testing program and all that stuff. So it's a very big week, and I think some of the fighters who are in town in Las Vegas for this summit are going to check that out as well.

So I have no problem. People are going to complain and say, and look, if you're a fighter who doesn't have a fight coming up and you weren't invited, yeah, I'd be kind of hurt. But what they told me was they're going to do it again, you know, late fourth quarter, early first quarter, so maybe you'll make that second cut. I guess that's just the way those things go. MMA in New York, not being from the area or a big fan of politics. I haven't kept up what's going on with MMA, rather, being allowed in New York. What are the chances that the UFC will put on a show there this year? And who would be your dream main and co-main events? Well, the clock is definitely

ticking. The calendar is up end of June. My main man, Mike, who tweets me about this stuff all the time. last week tweeted me the number, it's something like, it's less than 20, 20 days left, where they can actually vote on this. And if they don't get it done, that means you have to wait till 2016. So the clock is definitely ticking. And I don't know. I don't feel, I don't feel great about it for this year, to be honest. Well, something happens, Hail Mary. I mean, these things can happen pretty quickly. There's no doubt about it. But for anyone who thinks that, you know, December 5th or whatever that date is, that they have reserved, that MSG is a shoe-in, it is not. I mean, they have the date, but the fact that, you know, it's not a done deal here in New York State that the

Assembly hasn't voted on it yet is definitely a little concerning. So we'll see what happens. Around, I think it's around like 14 or so days. Like, they have these, they have a, this calendar, and there's specific days where they meet where they can vote on this stuff. It's already passed through the Senate, so that's one step. But the other big step, the step that they haven't been able to, Conquer is the Assembly, and they have X amount of days left in June. And come July, time is up, and you've got to wait until 2016. So the time is now, New York. Please, do it.

Rockhold, Wyden, MSG, let's get it done. What's another one? So that's a main or a co-main? What's another one? John Jones, Daniel Cormiere. That would be wild. Huge. But by saying that, I don't want to dismiss what he's got going.

on, you know, legally. This is your dream. This is not... But, I mean, that's the biggest, right? I mean, hell yes. New York zone, John Jones in his return fight in the main event, and then New York zone Chris Wyman co-made event, you can't beat that. That's the one.

Yeah. Okay, there's a lot to read here. Oh, my Lord. Let's talk division strength for a few minutes. So basically, how did the divisions shake out for you? This person has it in order. Lightweights are the strongest division. No-brainer.

Other weights under that. McGregor and a lot of others have helped that. Middleweight, which surprises me a little bit. Three monsters on top and some light heavy weights dropping down. Then there's a second group led by welter weights, fly weights, heavy weights, and then women's straw weight. And then the weakest light heavy women's bantam weight and bantam weight. Wow. No love for the bantam weights there. Okay, what's yours? I mean, light for sure. lights number one lights number one why you what do you got I don't know I don't know I have to digest this for a second you just sprung it upon me

I've always keep going keep going yeah I've always got lightweights I feel like feather weights is solid feather weights is super solid I would go welter weights next

I don't think Walter weight I don't think Walter weight is that week right now I think Walter weight's always pretty strong Um, then maybe, then maybe middle weights. Um, I could flip flop middle weights and fly weights there. Um, women's straw weight, then light heavy, then heavy. And then the two bantam weights last.

So you got no love for them too. What about the fly weights? Do you say that? Yeah. I had fly weights, uh, uh, Chris, uh, you know, uh, interchangeable with, middle weights at either four or five. I'm going welterweight. Number one? Yep.

No. Okay, scratch that. I made a mistake. That's not what I meant to say. I'm going middleweight, welterweight, lightweight. Okay, that's my top three. In order. Look at the middleweight top ten. It's crazy.

Middleweight's number one for sure. Middleweight Lightweight Welterweight Next group Okay, you ready for it? Featherweight Straw weight's such a hard one to predict

I mean I don't even know what to say about it It just seems like a free-for-all right now Let me get back to it Featherweight Light heavyweight Heavyweight Who's in the middleweight top ten Go back to this

I need to Chris Widman Luke Rockhole Jacaray Soza Leota Machita Vitor Belfort, Anderson Silva, Yuel Romero, Gagard Musassi, Tim Kennedy, Michael Bisping, Talas, ladies, that's the top 10.

Yeah, I'm taking lightweight all day. No. Dosangios, Pettis, Nirmagamadoff, Soroni, Gilbert, Michael Johnson, Benson, Benson, Edson Barbosa, Miles Jury, Eddie Alvarez, Josh Thompson. And then it keeps going and going. Yeah, but you're asking for top 10. It's not even close.

No, it's not asking for top 10. No, but you just ask me. It's talking about strength of divisions. You just asked me. Well, that's because you just ask you. said the middleweight top 10 is so amazing. And I was like, yeah, lightweight, lightweight, for sure. It's not even close. Anyway, that's mine. And honestly, I might put flyweight last. No. Okay, women's bad to wait last. Flyweight's got some stuff going on. I like flyweight.

My problem with flywood is no one seems to like go out there and grab that brass ring. The problem with flyweight is Demetrius makes it not look great because. No, no, no, but even these, like, Dotson didn't take it. Benavides, I didn't feel like he took it. This weekend, Formiga, didn't take it. Is Sohudo going to jump in there? Yeah, I like that. I feel like it's too early, but I could see it happening now. It feels like every time someone's close, it doesn't happen.

Okay, the last one from the website, then we've got one Twitter question. Shinya Yaoki, the Japanese legend won again one week ago for one FC defending his lightweight title. Yes. And it pretty much went unnoticed. My question to you guys is, would you like to see? Tobakan Juran compete under the UFC banner at least once. I would love to see Aoki compete in Japan under the UFC's bright lights. The highlight package in the buildup would be fun to watch.

AAPUFC, no-brainer, right? No-brainer. They're going to Japan in September. Let's see it there. I mean... And if not, if not, because I think that would be the ultimate. It would be a shame if he goes through his entire career without at least one UFC fight, especially in Japan.

That would be really cool. If not, let's see if he can really be really cool. rekindle that relationship with Scott Coker and let's see Will Brooks versus Shinnya-Oki. He has the one-strikeforce fight, right? That's it? Yeah, but then, you know, he had a Bel-Tor fight. Now that he's one-fc champion, it might get a little tricky, but... Yeah, let's get Shindya. Will Brooks versus Shini Yoki would be fun.

That would be fun. No? I mean, I think Will Brooks wins, for the record. Yeah, I think that's a bad style thing for Shinnia. I'd rather see something else. I mean, that's kind of like Gilbert Melendez all over again. Yeah, you're right. Who would you put him in the UFC against? How about, how about Shinya versus Marcyon Helt?

Wait, that's not UFC. No, but I'm saying. Who would you do? You suggested a Bell-Tor for it. I suggested another one. I just said. I just said, who would you put Shinia in the UFC against? And then you go, how about-

I don't know. Well, I was thinking about the other fight. You don't like that fight? That's in Barbosa. You don't like that fight? That's a Barbosa. No, I don't like that. Really?

No. I don't know. I like to think about it a little more, but I want to see Marcy and Hell. This just proves how weak the lightweight division is. Yeah, right. It proves how strong it is. Only one question from Twitter this week.

Condit versus Hendo in South Korea, you down? Condit versus Hendo. You mean Bendo? Benson. No, I'm not down. Are you down? I'm down. Really?

For sure, down. We were just talking about how limited the options were at Walterweight for uh yeah for condit for uh for condit's next opponent because there are rematches we have to wait for rory to lose potentially but that's that's a month away and plus even if that doesn't happen i'd still be down with like a tariff saffodian fight this one gets my juices going map brown i want to see benson back at i do it yeah but that's a that's a big jump that is a very big jump I mean, it's a great fight, but that's not what I would do for Carlos next. I want it.

Plus, what is it, June? I mean, that's five months away. I guess it could work. But if you're asking me, am I down? No. I'm not down. No, I'm not down. That's it.

That's it. I want to thank NOS Energy once again for sponsoring the show. Follow them on Twitter at NOS Energy Drink. Find a NOS near you at find noss.com. I also want to mention before we go, it was... Nine years ago yesterday that a pioneer, as far as MMA media is concerned, Ryan Bennett tragically passed away. If it wasn't for people like Ryan Bennett, we would not have shows like this.

MMA media would be a lot different. Never met the man. I do remember him passing away. Definitely one of those trailblazers, pioneers as far as MMA media is concerned. And I was reminded of the anniversary of his passing last week, and I just wanted to acknowledge his passing and his memory as well. Really an important figure. If you don't know about Ryan Bennett, you should read up on him a very important figure

in the history of the sport. And who knows, maybe a member of the new contributor wing, UFC Hall of Fame. I think that would be pretty cool. The light almost crashed. Did you see that? Did you hear that? That was freaky stuff. All right.

That does it for today's show. You can hit my music. UFC back. on Saturday, as I said, in Nalans, Dan Henderson versus Tim Boch. Gosh, we didn't get into this too much this week, but man, oh man, is this an important fight for Dan Henderson? Is this do or die for Hendo?

What do you think? I don't know. I think he needs a big performance. It's fighting Tim Boch, important fight for both men, but even more so for the legend Dan Henderson, coming off that loss to Gagha Musassi back in January. Also, as we mentioned, World Series of Fighting is back on Friday. It's also an RFA event.

It's always a busy time in the world of mixed martial arts, and we appreciate you spending part of your day with us here. If you're watching us live or if you're watching us after the fact, really appreciate all your love and support as well. We love you back. Just like Chris Weidman. Anyhow, I want to thank Matt Mitrione for stopping by. Great stuff from him, as always.

I want to thank Joe Soto. Good luck to him this Saturday against Anthony Birchak. Jason hi, congrats on your suspension coming to an end. Good luck to you. Ally Quinta, great stuff. Check out his athlete training log. Best $40 I ever spent. Thank you very much to Chris Hordeski.

Good luck to him on Friday. Uriah Fabor. Great stuff from him, as always. My opinion, go back down to 135, some big, quote-unquote money fights away you, my friend. And Betchko, ha, great stuff from her as always. We're back next Monday. Same time and place.

If you missed any portion of the show, check it out. Stitcher, iTunes, SoundCloud, all that other good stuff. Until next week, I say patience. Somebody. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats

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