MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 436

Episode Date: May 29, 2018

Ariel Helwani speaks to Peter Carroll (00:10:20), Rory MacDonald (00:28:04), Gegard Mousasi (00:49:01), Andre Harrison (01:10:55) in studio, Bec Rawlings (01:49:32), Arnold Allen (02:09:10), Aaron Chalmers (02:32:55), Michael Page (02:56:07), Stephen Thompson (03:13:28), Angela Lee (03:37:13), Darren Till (03:51:55), and NewYorkRic for The MMA [After] Hour featuring Ric's Picks (04:26:37) and the answers to your questions (05:02:55). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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hour back in your life on this Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. I missed you yesterday. Of course, we were off yesterday. We were observing Memorial Day here in the United States. A very important day in this country honoring and remembering and giving thanks to all the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for this great country. have allowed us to live in freedom. So it is important, at least in my opinion, to observe that

day and to take the day off and be with family and to try to be as thankful as possible. So again, we thank all those people and we were thinking about their loved ones. And I know that's a very hard day for people who have served and people who have loved ones who have served. So definitely thinking of them and thanking them yesterday and every day for what they have done for us living in this country. Now, back on a Tuesday, special Tuesday edition, of course, we weren't going to miss out on this week because there is so much to discuss, a very busy weekend in MMA, a very UK-centric weekend in MMA. I thought, as of late last night, I was going to start off by talking about Bellator 200 and

Gagha Musasi becoming the Belator middleweight champion, that very dominant win over Hafeel Carvalio. I thought I was going to talk about Michael Vennon Page's incredible win over David Rickles. I mean, just completely demoralizing the caveman, an unbelievable. I mean, that performance was just, to me, it reminded me of Anderson Silva against Forrest Griffin at UFC 101, broke him mentally to do that to another fighter is nothing short of amazing. I thought I would talk about Aaron Chalmers. I thought I would talk about Phil Davis's incredible. knockout. I thought I would talk about the controversial

Darren Till versus Stephen Wonderboy Thompson fight in Liverpool. I thought I would talk about the return of Arnold Allen and Makwan Amir County. I thought I would talk about all these things right off the bat, but things changed late Monday night.

Because our old friend, the tough three winner, the former UFC middleweight champion, the man who almost single-handedly built the UK market on his own, the Count Michael Bisping announced his retirement from mixed martial arts

on his very own podcast, Believe You Me, Monday afternoon. And it was an interesting way to announce his retirement because for the longest time, we thought that he would have a retirement fight, or at the very least make some sort of grandiose announcement. But it happened on a Memorial Day, Monday here in the United States. it came out while most of England was probably sleeping. I would imagine most of his fans overseas woke up to the news. And it was just an eight-minute clip that came out.

And by the way, I do appreciate the shout-out that just kind of came and went. And it seemed heartfelt. It seemed like he's at peace with the decision. As the story went, he was on a flight to New York to, well, I do believe he has some business to attend to. tend to and he saw a movie, I think it's called the Journeyman, and he basically had that epiphany. And that's how it goes. You just kind of see the light. You just kind of have this epiphany. You have this moment and you say enough is enough. Now, unfortunately for Michael, he talked about how one of his eyes, we know about the right eye. It has been bothering him. It has unfortunately

gone worse over time. We know about that one. But unfortunately, he has been dealing with issues with now his quote unquote good eye, the left eye, and his family has wanted him to retire for quite some time. And I'm happy he realized he doesn't need a retirement fight. I'm happy he realized that he has done it all. He has been in the UFC for almost 12 years now. Like I said, tough three winner. He has had so many ups and downs, eventually won the middleweight title in the most improbable way. He built a market. You can make a case that he built a continent as far as UFC in Europe is concerned. I mean, he was the face of European UFC for a very long time. And he doesn't need to do anything else. And so this idea that he had to fight in London and

March or he had to fight in Liverpool, have one last hurrah. Why? It never made any sense to me. And it's somewhat fitting that on a weekend where the UK was very much in focus and in particular England was very much in focus as far as Belator on Friday and the UFC on Sunday, it's fitting that on the heels of all of that as we sort of crowned the new Michael Bisping, so to speak. Here's Michael Bisping saying goodbye. My one gripe, if I could offer a gripe, is not that he announced it on his own podcast and didn't announce it here. Surely I would have loved to have had him on this show and talk to him. And for all the people who are giving me grief about not having him on the show today, you should know by now that I did try and I did speak to him, but he is busy today and he has

a life and he has things planned. Hopefully next week we'll have him on, if not the following week. The point is, I'm happy he did it on his own terms. I'm happy he did it on his podcast. He deserves to do it on his podcast. That's his platform. Build it up. It's smart. Smart business.

I do kind of wish that because they were in Liverpool the day before, as I suggested after the Gaslam fight, play his music, play song to, have him walk out, have him go in the middle of the cage, say goodbye to the English fans, maybe put the gloves in the middle of the cage, something of that nature. say, you know, thanks for the memories, thanks for being with me, thanks for the support, and then walk out. That would have been really cool.

That would have been a great moment. Now I saw someone on Twitter say to me, well, he's a, he's a Manchester guy in Liverpool. They would never allow that. B.S. Are you telling me that the people in Liverpool would have booed Michael Bisping? No, this is not a soccer rivalry or a football rivalry. Everyone in England, or I would say,

the vast majority of the fans over there idolize that man. And I know the media thinks very highly of him, I know the promoters think very highly of him. I know all his foes are sad that he's leaving because everyone wanted to fight Michael Bisping throughout the course of his career. There will never be another one like him. We will miss him dearly and we all knew that we would miss him while he was fighting, which says a lot about him.

He understood the art of promotion, selling a fight. I saw a stat from my friend, Aunt Evans, knocked down six times in fights and came back to win. That's a UFC record. Of course, tied for the most fights and wins in the UFC, middleweight champion. 199. The list goes on and on. First event I ever covered in person was the top three finale. First event that I bought a ticket to as a fan was UFC 78, where he fought against Rashad Evans. And I thought my career came to an end the night that he became UFC midway champion at UFC 199.

I'll never forget looking at my phone, checking Twitter as we were being escorted out of the building. And I see that Michael Freakin Bisping is now the middleweight champion of the world. Surreal. And I'll never forget it. And so, yeah, I've talked about how. I feel about the man how every time he comes on the show, he brings it unlike any other. I'm happy to hear that he's going to be involved in MMA, maybe from a TV capacity, maybe even more in the future. But we will miss him and there will not be another one like him. What a great career. And for the most part, he leaves on top in the sense that he didn't stick around for three, four, five, six fights. You know, he had one extra one. It was quickly after the

George St. Pierre fight and then he moves on. It wasn't like we had to deal with an awkward thing with Michael Bisbane. I kind of wish for his sake he got the Gaslam fight back. He has his reasons for taking that fight. He wanted to right the wrong. But it's not like he stuck around for three, four years longer. Hopefully the eyes get better. Hopefully he doesn't take any damage. There's no serious long-term damage to that second eye that he's worried about. And he's able to be, you know, a happy, healthy, successful individual post-fighting because that's not always the case. So it's it's a great time to celebrate Michael Bisping. It's a great time to thank Michael Bisping

for everything he's done for this sport. And it's a great time to appreciate him as well because he has done so much more than just give us great fights. And like I said, he built a market and introduced a lot of people. I mean, being there for the Anderson Silva fight, getting to walk around London with him,

so many great memories with Michael Bisping. We'll share some of those throughout the show. We'll talk to some of our guests about him and his influence. It's great that we have a lot of English fighters on today's show. I'm looking forward to that. and hopefully in the not too distant future,

we could talk to Michael Bisping as well. Let me run down today's lineup and then we'll get to our first guest of the day. 505 M.A. after hour 445. The aforementioned Darren Till will join us and shame on all of you who thought that I wasn't trying to get Darren Till. You people drive me nuts.

You have no idea how much you drive me nuts. And I know by saying it, it will just bring more of those comments, but gosh, you drive me nuts. You really do. You really do drive me nuts. Angela Lee will be on at 425. 405. We'll talk to Stephen Thompson about the fight against Darren Till. Michael Venham Page will be on at 345.

Talk to him about his big win. Aaron Chalmers will be on at 325-305. Arnold Allen. We'll talk to us about his big return win on Sunday. Beck Rawlings has some exciting things in the works for this weekend. We'll talk to her about that at 245. 205. Andre Harrison, the former ROC, Titan FC, PFL, Featherway champion, will be in studio. I'm looking forward to that. And at 145, Gagamusasi, the new Bel-Tor Middorweight Champion, will join us. And 125, we'll talk to Roy McDonald about his future plans. But first, let's talk to a man who was very busy last week. He covered an event in London on Friday. He went to Liverpool on Saturday, covered the event there. I'm not even sure if he's awake right now, but we'll do our best to get something out of him.

Our own Pizzi Carroll is standing by via the magicist Skype. Let's talk to him. There he is. In his brand new office. Wow, look at this guy. Look at that smile. That's amazing. How are you, sir? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing okay.

I've been having a few little power now throughout the day, but I'm fairly good to go now, I think. You're recovering? You're all right? Yeah, I'm okay. I think I'm going to make it. Okay, good. Phenomenal work last week. It was great to follow your coverage. You did a great job. I mean, for a guy who couldn't even turn on a camera two weeks ago, you did pretty darn well, my friend. Yeah, I had a lot of help, it has to be said, from my colleagues on Press Row. they were very good to me.

I was kind of like a baby back at UFC London. So I was able to have a bit more experience this time around, but they still helped me throughout the week so much. I really, I really couldn't dare. I've done it without them. So I'm very grateful for that. Nice to see some unity among the media core. It's great to hear that as well.

So I wanted to have you on, of course, to talk about the weekend, the highs, the lows. But first, I know a lot of people may mistake this, but I know you're not English. so I don't want to put you in the same category as Michael Bisping, but you do live pretty nearby, and you are European, and I'm sure you grew up somewhat in this sport alongside Michael Bisping and followed his career very closely.

When I say Michael Bisping, what's a favorite memory or two that comes to mind? Yeah, well, like, I just think he's a, you know, a real pioneer for this scene. You know, I can remember when Connor obviously broke true in the UFC for Ireland, there was always like, oh, this is the guy who's made the path. But if you think about it,

eight years before Michael Bisping had already been down that same path. So he's really opened the door that all these European guys walked through. Absolutely unbelievable. I guess personally covering the Anderson Silva fight was absolutely amazing in London, just seeing him kind of rallying come back after we all thought the fight was finished. That was brilliant. And then like even just from my own group of friends, UFC 199, he just completely captured the imagination with that and went out and they, you know, scarred that massive upset, went over Liu Rockhold. I think those two moments, they're quite close together.

So I think they'll always be my top moments for Bisping. Yeah, the amazing thing to me about Bisping, and I think what defines his career, is that, like, I think back to sitting down with him at UFC 186. And at that point, he was coming off the first loss to Luke Rockhold in Australia. And it sort of felt like, okay, that was his best chance. And now he'd kind of just be sort of a gatekeeper. We've seen this often in the UFC. in an MMA and the fact that he went from that guy

who was telling me in his interview, yeah, I'm just going to win a couple here and then I'll be in the title picture and then I'll finally get the belt and actually achieving that. There are so many times and New York, Rick and I would argue about this all the time where I thought this was his last chance. He's not going to get over the hump. That was his best shot. And the fact that he kept overcoming those obstacles and losing the big fight, but then finally breaking through and it

took a little luck with of course Chris Wyman getting injured prior to 199. That to me sums up who he is. He is the quintessential English fighter. in the sense that he was knocked down so many times and somehow stuck around long enough and blazed a big enough trail to finally make it to that title fight and then once he got that one opportunity,

he broke through. And that's why it really bothered me after winning the belt when people would say he's picking fights. Because Michael Busbyn never picked fights. He fought everyone. He fought the toughest guys. That's the thing that really bugged me after, that sort of narrative that developed, you know, in the year after beating Rockhold in that second fight. You know what I mean? Yeah, like I mean, I feel like every single person in the MMA world actually ruled him out apart from himself. And I think that's an amazing thing for fighters to, for us to a sport to like you got, I was talking to Nathaniel Wood today who of course makes his debut at the weekend in Utica.

And he, you know, he, you know, I was singing Bispings praises, you know what I mean, to watch this guy never give up on himself and to reach that goal. I think I think for everybody watching, and I know you couldn't watch that night, unfortunately. me, but I think for everybody watching, that was a very emotional thing to see Bispin get that gold. You know what I mean? It was an amazing thing to see. Thanks for reminding me of that, by the way. I still have not seen that fight in its entirety, by the way. Really? Yes, I still not. I can't go back because I think about what was going on. Yeah, I'm a little too. Maybe now I could come to terms with it all. Yeah, I guess. I, you know, I have those wounds and I continue to lick them, I guess. But yeah, it's amazing.

Do you agree with me, though? Like, do you think it would have been a really special thing had he walked out song to Liverpool in the middle of the cage? Do you feel like that would have been apropos? Because I got some people saying, ah, he's from Manchester. No, the Liverpool fans would have. That's stupid, right? Not yet. They would have, they would have given him the reception, like, that he deserves 100%.

I think you're dead right about that. And, you know, just hearing about the eyes, the issues, like, this is the right decision. You know what I mean? And I think it was slightly underwhelming. to kind of wake up this morning and it was a as a European guy. Like, it was already out far out. It's like, what the hell?

But I just thought there be a bit more planning with that. Like, it seems like it was just, it was nearly like he just made the decision and went with it straight away. Didn't kind of waste any time. Let's get this done. And maybe that's what it's like. Maybe it's just like removing a band-ed. You know what I mean?

Maybe it's just one of them things. Just let's get it done so it's done and I can't go back on it. Maybe that's what he was thinking. The same way I feel like I can't possibly do. what someone like Michael Bisping does. Like there is no gene in my body that would allow me to walk into a cage and fight another human being. I don't want to criticize the way he says goodbye because if that's the way it felt right for him,

then that's the way it felt right for him. You know, do it on his podcast, maybe try to sweep it under the rug, you know, with less fanfare, not do a whole big shabang. Although he did mention on Twitter today that he will have a sort of more formal, you know, statement or announcement, if you will. But, you know, if that's the way you wanted to do it, then God bless him. text message would have been nice or something, wouldn't it? It would have been nice.

Yes, it would have been nice. I mean, doing it on this show today. I would have bumped you off the top, you know, the top interview of the day. Oh, I know. Oh, I know. I would have been told me right away. Okay, so, of course, we could talk about Michael Bisping for an hour and I would love to do it, but so much has happened, you know, in the last few days and you were at both events.

Could I ask if it's possible to pick one? What was the highlight of those, you know, those two days, Friday? Saturday and you and Sunday you could pick something else if you want but of those two events like what's what's what's the thing that sticks out the most um I think uh MVP's when a bellator was absolutely huge it just felt that was my first time watching michael venom page live that that event that whole event seemed like a complete home room for belator when you can when you think about it like if you look at that card beforehand the main card gay guy messassi win what he's huge and a convincing win, kind of getting back from that debut. I think, you know, he was quite angry with the reaction

of his debut because it wasn't completely one-sided and he wasn't dominant. The same thing we see with a lot of UFC guys going to Bel-Tor, let's be honest. So, but I have to say MVP was the star of that night. It felt absolutely huge. And obviously one of the biggest moments of the whole weekend, I'd say, was MVP. But again, Darren Taylor's entrance was absolutely unbelievable, you know, real, real shades of Dublin in 2014 about that, um, spointingling stuff. And I was actually walking into the arena, and because I was backstage shooting the last video. And then I was walking into the arena as his song started.

I'm not going to lie to you. It kind of felt like, I was walking out. You know what I mean? It was like shaking as I was walking in. It was brilliant. So, I mean, those two moments, they're right up there at the top, to be honest, with Jerry. It's, it sounds like you, that you would think that all that is for you, all that fanfare is for you.

That's a typical Irishman attitude. But it's interesting. You say MVP and his performance, and obviously it's a great choice. You talk about Till's walkout, but you don't mention Till's performance. You don't mention the fight itself. Why not? I love the fight. I'm not going to like you.

I thought I was right front and center for it, and it was so tense throughout the thing. Like, I mean, it was so tense. I knew about these guys, you could tell. They're both looking at each other. And one mistake could cost it. this fight. That's the way it felt like both guys were kind of fighting, you know? You could even see, like, Darren talked about it in the post-foy press conference. He talked about how he was trying to give Tim Wonderboy the impression that he was trying to put him out of there at all

times. And he was making faces at him, as if, like, he was about to throw a big punch all the time. Like, it was, there was so many little games going on in this, in this fight. It was unbelievable. And there was nothing in it. Like, I couldn't. Like, we were sitting there trying to discuss the rounds with the other media members there. And we honestly, up until the fifth round was the only round where we knew, well, Till definitely won that one because he knocked him down. It was impossible.

And everybody, everybody in the media room after had different scorecards. Nobody, nobody agreed unanimously on any round it felt like everyone had the different selection of rounds with just Till and the fifth was pretty much a staple of everyone's card. It was incredibly tense. The entrance was brilliant. But I understand that

I even talk to some guys in the airport about this. Like, for fans who just, like, you know, casual fans that are coming there to see a fight that is, they're coming to see a starboard. They're expecting to see, you know, a war. They don't, they don't want to see these chess matches. And like, I personally love it.

I love the fight. I thought it was very interesting. But from what I'm hearing, like, I mean, a lot of people weren't satisfied with it as a spectacle at all. Who did you score it for? I scored it for Till, but I mean, I said, I even tweeted it just before the, the announcement, I was like, this is completely up in the air.

Like, I'm not, like, either way, everyone's going to call this a robbery. If Thompson won, I think people will call it a robbery. If Till wins are going to call it a robbery, I thought it was that close. I read it. It doesn't surprise me that it's so disputed and debated. And I haven't got a chance to watch the broadcast. And I'm really looking forward to watching the broadcast. It's still blacked out over here.

So I'll have to have a look again. But at the time, I think it's very hard for you to remember. what rounds I was scoring because they were so tight, you know what I mean? So I think I had like one, two, five, I think for Till. But like I can see even now when I'm saying that I'm thinking about Wonderboy's body shot in the first round, which was really good. But there was such tiny moments, you know? Like I don't think, I think there's an argument either way. It's, I think the crowd as well were massively beneficial to, like, if the judges could be.

weighed. I mean, every, every punch that Darren was even whiffing on, like, I mean, the stands were exploding, you know what I mean? It was, it was a really intense atmosphere. But again, if someone had it for Thompson, like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't dispute it either. I mean, I think it's right down the middle there. Yeah, I was going to add, I'm not offended by anyone who scored it for Till. I'm not offended by anyone who scored it for Wonderboy. Honestly, I mean, I feel like the judges really had a hard task on their hands. on Sunday. I'm offended by the word robbery because it's not a robbery. Either way, I mean, it's just, you know what I mean? It's not a robbery. It was just controversial, right? I talk, I have a judge

Ben Cartlidge over here. He's one of the best judges in the world. He does a lot of events over here. And he just, he always says to me, like, I mean, people just don't understand the small margins here. You know, a 3227 card can look ridiculous sometimes. Yeah. You know what I mean? But like, it could be just the slightest margins that win people around. And then this is a robbery. This is a robbery. This is a robbery and it kind of like, you know, it makes the judges look bad then and stuff. But I'm, you know, this is just MMA, isn't it? Like, this is, it's always people getting on their high horses and getting excited about these things. So, I mean, I'm just used to it. Like, I called it before it even happened. I knew people are going to be jumping up and down about it. It's just the way it is. It's, uh,

it's, you know, I fully expected it. Just, just what I was watching the FOIA, I knew that was the way it was going to go. We'd be remiss if we don't bring up the fact that this main event almost didn't happen and that would have been the ultimate disaster for the UFC. Darren Till Miss Waite had had personal issues to attend to. The UFC and Dana White in particular seemed to be understanding. He didn't blast him. He did say, you know, you should be making weight, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't your typical fire from Dana because he did seem to have some personal issues.

But then one of the big stipulations was he had to weigh 188 or less on Sunday morning. he ends up weighing 187.3, so that was a massive bullet dodge by everyone involved. Do you feel now like he will be somewhat penalized? Does he not progress as much as he would have had he made weight and won? Do you think that they're going to slow his role, so to speak? Or do you feel like he's back on that fast track? Like, they're really going to get behind this guy? And should they really get behind him?

Do you feel like you've seen enough out of him this far? I'm actually been blown away by his improvements in the last two fights. I think it's crazy. even to take that Soroni fight short, that seemed like a massive step up at the time. Now, obviously, he's a big size advantage, but, you know, it's crazy to think that he's on from Soroni to like the best guy in the UFC.

You know what I mean? Like, it's the, like the best striker in the UFC and to look so good. Like, I don't care if you were that for Thompson. If Darren Till came up slightly short against Thompson and someone's estimation, that's incredible. that's really incredible for a guy like in such a short amount of the time

I was looking back in an interview I did with Darren last year in May before he kind of came back from that 18 months off and he was like I don't care about money like I don't I'll never care about money once I have a nice pair of trainers and a full belly that's all I ever care about

and he's just like I bet I bet that's changed now mate I say that's changed a good bit buddy but um it's uh he's um I think he's doing a great job I do have issues with his size. He's huge, as he says himself. He's the grilly, you know. He's a unit of a man.

Oh, he was watching an interview with Darren about a week before this fight with Jim Edwards. And he said that he weighed 190 pounds a week out. That's huge. And I think you see young guys doing this. You see kind of guys his age 25 getting away with this. But as soon as you get older, that's suddenly, just one day that's going to become incredibly difficult. he's going to miss weight. And the problem is now, everyone's going to be looking at him like they're looking at McKenzie

Darren now. Do you know what I mean? Every time she's on the scales, it's the big story. Everyone's watching it so closely. And that must add stress to the situation as well. He's miswake twice in the UFC. He needs to come in at 170 now the next time on the nose to prove this. Will they put him into an interim title situation or a toil situation?

I don't know. I don't know. It's hard to know with the UFC. You know, it really is. They're really fond of this guy. think, but I don't think it's crazy to think that they might give him another fight at 170, like a Mazvedal or something, to make sure he can hit the weight before he goes into them total conversations.

Is that the kind of opponent you would book him? I know, I mean, he says himself, you know, and I give him a lot of credit for this, like, hey, I'm not asking for a title shot. Like, you don't hear him really banging that drum. He said all those C words are going to get it, right? So is it a Mazvedal kind of guy that you put him up against? I don't know, you know what I mean? I think there are, like I thought there were a lot better choices than Wonderboy, you know, for the Liverpool card.

Like when you think about that UFC Dublin card, and I really feel like that was the blueprint that the UFC used here, I think everybody kind of agrees they were trying to create a star before they bring Darren to America, like make him look like this huge star, which he did. I would have still done like a Mike Perry fight there. Well, maybe not Mike. He had dropped a blood. but something like, I mean, Mike would have driven so many headlines. Like for him to go in against Wonderboy, he goes far for the toilet toys and came up just short. And to do that well is crazy.

So, like, I really felt like they were giving them a very, very tough task there. So for him to come true to the other side of it, even if, as I said already, even if he came up slightly short in the anonymous decision, that would have been a huge statement for him as far as I'm concerned. Phenomenal weekend in England. P.C., your coverage was top notch. Great job, my friend. Get some rest.

And thank you for joining us on this Tuesday. It's good to catch up with you. Thanks, Wood. All right, there he is. P.C. Carroll is stopping by. He survived. London and Liverpool was there. By the way, when New Yorkerick's beloved Liverpool FC

dropped the Champions League final. We won't bring that up on Saturday. But of course, the action started on Friday with Bellator 200. The big story on that night was Gagra Musassi getting his first Bellator. title shot he thoroughly defeated, dominated Hafeel Carvalio, and now we have at 170, Roy McDonald as Bellator champion 185, Gagher Musassi, and Ryan Bader at 205. We'll see what happens in the heavyweight tournament, but all of a sudden those free agent acquisitions from the UFC

starting to pay off for Bellator. One of those guys, Ryan McDonald, he's kind enough to be joining us. He's on the phone right now. I want to get his thoughts on Friday and some other things as well. Rory, how are you? Hey, Ariel. I'm doing good. I'm doing great. Thanks for joining us. So we have a lot to discuss. First, I want to ask you, you know, the last time we spoke was after the Douglas Lima fight and you were pretty banged up. How are you recovering? Are you fully healed or still need some more time? No, I'm fully healed. Okay. Did it take a while? Yeah, I can't remember exactly, but, yeah, it was a bit slow a few weeks after the fight.

It was really in a lot of pain, but then all of a sudden the pain went away, and it started just coming slowly back to normal. But, yeah, that's fine. It's feeling like a normal leg again. It's always going to be a bit bumpy, though, because the fascia tore off the bone, but it functions the same. Wow. So it's tore off the bone in that fight in January against Lima?

Yeah. Just because the hematoma was so big, it's in a little section of the muscle there. Yeah. The fascia that keeps the muscle tight to the bone or whatever. It's not there anymore. So it's a bit softer than other parts. But, I mean, as far as function and strength and everything,

it's still just normal. And no surgery, though, right? No. Okay. I was curious because on Friday, you tweeted out like just seconds after Musassi's win. Of course, a lot of us were lamenting the fact that the event wasn't shown live in North America. Were you just following along on Twitter or were you watching some other way?

Yeah, I was just following on Twitter. Okay. And then you sort of said to him that you wanted to fight. He actually, you know, mentioned you as well. Why is that something of interest to you this fight? Is it because he's the most, you know, well-known guy that's within striking distance? You want the second belt? What is it about this opportunity that has you excited?

Well, for multiple reasons. Number one, it was my goal to be the champion of middleweight and welterweight. And then Gaggar's been, you know, been hyping the fight between us. Like he wants to fight me and, you know, obviously want what he has. So I think that's really, it's great timing. And yeah, he's one of the. best guys in the world at 185. So I mean, who better to fight for a world title at middleweight than him. Did you have an opportunity to actually watch his fight later on?

Yeah, I watched it. It was really impressive. He did a great job. Were you expecting him to win that convincingly that, you know, I guess you could say easily? Not really. He never really expected title fight to go that easy. easy, but I mean, it's how it is sometimes. So what's interesting about this is you put out the tweet. He responded to you. I saw, you know, Belator's social media put out a little thing and you responded to that, which I thought was very interesting. But the impression that I'm getting as of right now is that it's not in the immediate plans as far as the decision makers are concerned. Are you hearing otherwise? Like,

do you have a sense as to what they, you know, what they're thinking if they're actually interested in booking this right away? The feeling I'm getting, because I've been going back and forth with them a lot, because I'm very interested in. I'm pushing for this fight, so I've been messaging Scott, messaging Richard Chow, and the feeling I'm getting from them is they don't know.

I think they're going to meet about it with everyone who makes those kind of decisions, and I think they'll make an executive decision at that point. But, I mean, obviously, me and Gaggard won it, and I think fans want it. I think it would be the biggest fight for Bellator that they could put on right now. In my opinion, if they pass this opportunity by, it would be a mistake because, you mean, how often can you get this kind of timing, you know? And one fight could change the direction of any one of our careers, you know? So I think the opportunity is now, and we should take it.

Have they told you? I mean, to me, it just seems like the easiest call of all time. It seems like a no-brainer. You've got these two, I mean, arguably the two best fighters in the organization. You're the two fighters in your respective weight classes that Belator can say, hey, UFC, our champions are better than your champions. They've never been able to say that. They could legitimately say you're better than Woodley. You beat Woodley, of course.

And they could legitimately say Musassi is better than Whitaker. And there's an argument there. It's not like the craziest thing. Why wouldn't you want to do this exciting matchups? fight. Do they give you any reason why they're not exactly all in right off the bat? I think because it is a group decision. That's my feeling. It's not just one person that says yes or no to this. I think they had some plans before this fight went the way it did, before his media week went the way it did. So, you know, he built up this opportunity, you know,

and everybody wants it now. I don't think they've foreseen that. I think they had other ideas that they had planned, which I don't even know what they are, but I think they have to go back to the drawing board a little bit and revise what they had planned. Because of the buzz and the support behind this idea? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I saw an interview with Scott Coker piggybacking off of what you just said, and he said he had some plans for you, but you just said you don't know. So they haven't brought anything else to your attention before this? No, no. They didn't tell me anything. Are you antsy to have some kind of guidance?

Like, are you ready to get back in there? Yeah, I mean, I had mentioned to them that I was able to fight on the May 25th card, but it was a little too late for them. I needed some time to heal from my leg. and they were kind of rushing my decision. And by the time I had given an answer, they said the card was already complete.

So since then, I've just been waiting to hear some news. Okay. And so if we have this fight, like right now you're kind of in between fights, so to speak, could I ask, like typically, what do you walk around at? Well, I mean, for the last two years, I've been walking around in the mid-180s, but I felt like I was just I was doing too much cardio and I was losing too much power and size

so since my last fight I've been increasing my size and my power and things like that I've been addressing that so I'm walking around more the 200 range now oh wow that does a huge difference so you would have to cut weight for a fight at 185 yeah I mean once I'm in shape though I mean, power lifting and eating more, you know, it's just, it's not like real weight, you know, it comes up quick when you're an athlete.

So when you're back training full, when I'm back training full force, training for an MMA fight, I won't be cutting much weight. I'll just hopefully be a little more powerful and maybe a little bigger. If you're walking around. I'm not, I'm not, like, that's not something I worry about as far as moving up to the middle. weight. I know I'm going to be outsized there, so it's not really about that. I'm not trying to get that much bigger.

If you're walking around at 200 these days, do you foresee a time when you'll be too big for 170 or do you think that's... No, no, I've been too... Like most of my career in the UFC, I was walking around plus 200. I was just a little bit like

soft, that's all. And I wasn't taking care of like the conditioning aspect of training outside of fight. So, you know, for the last two years, I was just making a change on my training schedule, you know, outside of fights, inside of training camps and things like that, and my eating habits. So I had lost a bit of weight, not, like, intentionally, just, you know, it happened. But I don't really, I don't manage my weight that strictly. I mean, I know my body pretty well over the years.

I've been fighting for pro since I was 16 years old, so I'm pretty used to how my weight fluctuates, and I don't get stressed about that. Did that tweet from Bellator, the one where they quoted him calling you chicken, did that piss you off? Well, no, I didn't get too angry about it. I was just a little frustrated at the fact that they're not guaranteeing me this fight,

yet they're promoting his challenge calling me a chicken. So in the sense, if they decide not to put this fight together, it's kind of like could be perceived as I ducked his challenge, you know, but I don't want it to be like that. You know, I want it to be publicly known that I want this fight as much as Musasi does. So it really is in the hands of Bellator. That's pretty much what I was trying to get across, is that my decision is like they know my decision on this i want to be in there

bussasi wants to be in there so now belator has to get it done and so right now i mean this is a huge fight but there was a time where we were kind of getting excited at the potential idea of you versus ben ascran you guys were going back and forth as well seems like that idea has kind of fizzled out um based off what scott cocker said they they didn't want to do a one-fight deal and i can understand that because you know they don't want someone walking away with a belt potentially. How close did that ever get? Were there ever serious talks about this?

Well, I had brought it up to Scott and Rich on several occasions when I first came to Bellator. You know, all the time I brought it up. I was always interested in fighting that guy. But it just never seemed to be of interest. so I don't know I don't know why it didn't work out on their on their part

you know with Ben and Belator I don't know how the talks went between them I just know that it didn't go any further than me bringing it up to them there is a theory that he kind of likes to stir the pot with these fights because he knows that nothing will ever happen

so it's like the perfect spot to be in do you believe that as well I don't know I don't want to I don't want to judge because I don't know Ben at all I would hope that he he would be up for the challenge

I really don't know I don't know well enough to make the decision I haven't looked into his career enough I know I know he's a talented wrestler and he's good at what he does and it would be an interesting fight so I mean I'm very interested if they were able to get it put together.

Is there any part of you that think there's a chance here, or do you feel like it's dead at this point? It seems to be off my radar at the moment because no one's talking about it. Last time I brought it up to them, and the last I heard in interviews is that Bellator isn't interested in signing him. So I think it's what it's going to take is a change in Ben's what he wants, as far as signing a new contract with the organization.

You know, I think it's going to take some flexibility on his part to get fights. So right now I'm just focused on that mussofti fight. That's all I really care about. You know, I'm really hyped on that, and I'm really pushing for that one. Has there been any talk about finally bringing you back to Canada and having your next fight? if it is against Musassi or anyone else, be in your home country? Well, I think that would be really great,

especially with that kind of opponent and the world title on the line and we've already being a world champion. I think that would be a great card to bring to Canada. It's uncharted territory for them, and I really don't know how much work they've done as far as organizing an event or talking to different locations and stuff. But I think that would be great. I would love it.

But I'm looking at your Twitter now and you have the picture of you with the belt. Here we are four months after you became champion. Does it feel different? Like, do you feel like a different person? Do you feel like a different fighter now that you're finally a champion? I know it's not the UFC belt that you were, you know, coveting for a long time. But does this feel like you thought it would feel when you dreamed of becoming a champion? It seems exactly the same.

I don't know. I thought it might be a little different, but besides, you know, more people gunning for that spot, but, like, more people wanting to fight me, you know? Yeah. Because everyone wants that spot, but, no, everything feels totally the same. Nothing changed in my life because of it. Nothing? No perk, nothing. Wow.

Not really, besides people calling me champ. Right, right. I don't know. I'm happy with it. You know, it's nice to be there, and it's nice to have gotten to that position in the sports, and it was a long-time goal of mine, and I'm looking to achieve more, like, the middleweight title and things like that. I'm still not done. I have a lot more, you know, things that I want to take care of in the sport before I leave.

Do you feel like because you have a win over Woodley, your win is monumental for the company, because it's the first time that they can seriously say that their champion is better than the U.S. Do you feel like that is something that they're proud of? Like, that's a massive feather in your cap? I guess so. I mean, it's hard to do. I don't really believe in the MMA math because at that skill level, when you're talking about world title competitors,

it could be anybody's fight on any given night because everyone's at such a high-skill level and everybody's so dangerous. You know, anyone can win it. you know, if they're feeling good and the other guy's not. So I don't really think about it too much. I see a lot of people arguing about that online and stuff. But, I mean, I know that I'm up there. You know, I'm up with the top guys in the world still.

Nothing's changed. It's just I'm fighting for a different organization at the moment. By the way, and I'm not sure if this is actual, like, new news. And you know I've always been interested in the Bitcoin stuff, but I don't quite understand it. Did you make some kind of announcement about going public or something? I saw the videos that you did. What is going on there with the, or is it just like some regurgitated? This training video I posted.

Yeah. Yeah, I was wearing a Bitcoin Cash t-shirt. And I guess it went a little bit viral in the crypto community a little bit that I was wearing a Bitcoin Cash t-shirt. but yeah, it's just a, it's just a digital currency that I support. Okay, and that's big news because you came out with it? I guess. I don't know. I didn't really plan for it to be any sort of big news. It was just a shirt I was wearing. But, I mean, if you follow my tweets, I'm constantly retweeting and favoriting

and commenting on Bitcoin Cash things and dash things. different cryptocurrencies that I actually enjoy and like. But yeah, no, there's nothing, no big news, really. And so is Bitcoin Cash like a brand, or is that like just your supporting of the culture, so to speak? Bitcoin Cash is a digital currency, and it came, it forked off of, basically there was a fork on the Bitcoin chain

that happened back in August 2017. and so it's fairly new, but basically, in my opinion, it is the real Bitcoin, and the Bitcoin now that is holding the name is going on a different set of rules or a different style. I don't know. I don't know how to explain that very well, but there's a ton of videos and research that everybody could do, but I think Bitcoin cash is good. because you could use it as peer-to-peer currency.

So it's electronic currency, peer-to-peer, basically. Wow, okay, interesting. I still have to wrap my head around all that. By the way, before I let you go, did you watch the UFC main event on Sunday, same way class as yours? You fought Wonderboy, Till's a rising star, and if so, I'm wondering who you thought won

or at least what you thought of Darren Till. I didn't watch that fight. I watched like a couple, like, 10-second highlights on Instagram. I heard it was a close fight, but nothing really action-packed. Okay. Are you, are you, are you, are you a believer in Darren Till, or are you not too familiar with him thus far? Well, I mean, if he gave Warner Boy a hard fight, he's obviously, he's up there, you know. So, honestly, I haven't watched too much of him.

I know he beat up Cowboy really good, and he's had some, is some good. I think I watched some highlights of him. He's obviously very skilled and he's a big guy. He's powerful. So, I mean, he's another exciting young guy to watch come up. I think that's great. Where does Wonderb- Have another new...

Sorry? No, yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I was just saying it's exciting having new blood with talent come up, you know, young blood. That's good. Just going five rounds with Wonderboy, which is what you did. Like, where does he rank in terms of, like, the top of the time? office opponents that you have fought, the trickiest guys. Because sometimes I think people get frustrated like,

oh, it's not the most action-pack fight because it's not like a fire fight, like a Robbie Lawler fight. But that's because he's so damn good and he's so hard to figure out, right? Well, I mean, it's hard for me to say I fought him in a totally different style. I changed a style that I've never fought anyone like before. I totally experimented with a totally different set of skills that I acquired over two months. before the fight. So, I mean, if I were to fight him again,

I know I wouldn't fight him the same way. I'd fight him more. I'd fight everybody. If you've seen my last fight with Paul and my last fight against Douglas Lima. You know, I just fight with, I fight with my strengths now. I fight with the style I'm comfortable with. If I fought him like that, I think it would go a lot better for me. But he obviously, he's very elusive,

and he's got a unique style about him. So it's not easy to train for a guy like that or get training partners who can give you that look. So, you know, he's very unique, which, you know, it's cool to see. Roy, this is something I like to do sometimes on the program when people are in the same stratosphere. I like to try to play matchmaker myself

and bring them on at the same time. So if you don't mind just staying there for one quick second because I do want to bring in Gagard Musaz here. Let's see if we could do what Scott Coker and company can't do right now. Gaggard, let's go to the Skype machine here for a second, and that's no knock on Scott. I'm just kidding. But let's go to Skype and say hello to the new Belator middleweight champion,

Gagarin Musassi, who's right there. Gagard, how are you, my friend? I'm good there. How are you? I'm doing great. You know, I'm talking to Rory McDonald right now, and it just occurred to me. Why don't I try to get these two great men on the phone together

to see if we can hash this out. So please say hello to Rory McDonald, the Beltor Welterway champion. How about you, Rory? I'm good. How are you, buddy? I'm good, my friend. Good. Gagard, are you interested in this fight? You like this idea? You want this to happen next? You versus Rory for your middleweight title?

Yeah, I think Rory is a big name. It's a fight fan fight that everyone want to see. I want to make the fight. I think Rory wants to make the fight. And, you know, that was... Rory started with wanting to come up weights and we liked the fight. So he said it and we replied it 100 times. And now, I don't know, it's not up to me. It's like Rory said, it's up to Belator.

Roy, what do you think of that? I think he's exactly right. We both want this fight to happen. It's in Belator's hands at the moment. So I think it's, I think if the fans who want to see this fight happen, what you guys got to do is get on your social media and let Bella Torr know that this is a fight you guys want

and it's going to put pressure on them to make this happen. Yes, give the people what they want. Roy, we'll let you go. Any parting words for Gergaard before we talk to him solo here? Not really. Congratulations on your victory. It was good. Thank you.

There you go. I love it. Okay. Roy, thanks so much for the time. I appreciate it. All right, take care, Ariel. Thank you. How about that? Wow. Gagar Musassi and Warren McDonald, the two biggest names in Bellator right now, in my opinion. As I said to Rory, Gagard, this is the first time Belator can say that they have two champions in two different weight classes that are better than the UFC's champions. And that's a big deal for them.

So congratulations to you, my friend, on winning the Bellator title. What a performance. First, I have to ask, did you think it would be, I hate to use the word easy when it comes to a fight because I know it's not easy in terms of the training, you're dealing with mentally and physically. But that was as one-sided as it gets in terms of a title fight. Did you think it would go like that?

No, I was expecting a tough fight, especially him being on a 14-15 winning streak. I was expecting him to be confident. I was expecting to win, but I thought because he's on a winning streak, he's going to go to five rounds and make it tough for me. But at the press conference, confident and then I had him at the weighing when we had the stare down he didn't

look confident he was a little bit he had a little bit big eyes and that night I slept really well because I knew I had him and I could also the stare down just before the fight he didn't look confident so actually I don't know I didn't scare him I didn't intimidate him or anything He was just impressed by my... I don't know, he was impressed. By your presence? Yeah, I don't know, but I think, yeah,

it was maybe fighting for big names and stuff like that. He was impressed maybe. Because I was expecting a lot of fight, but like I said, I thought he was lost even before the fight started, to be honest. Has that ever happened to you in your career where you looked at a man before a fight and you felt I got this guy?

Yeah, yeah. A lot of times I don't lie, they say. But, yeah, a lot of times you can see the guy is confident or the guy is scared. Yeah, you feel it gives you advantage, you know. 100%. Is it possible to describe what you're seeing that makes you believe this and feel this way? Like, okay, there is a change here? What are you seeing out of him?

It just animal behavior. I don't know. If you have dogs, if you're scared of the dog, the dog steals it. None is going to bite you. So it's not any different in humans. You know, you can look tough, but sometimes, you know, you can read it. And I felt like, yeah, yeah, that night I slept real good. Wow.

So did you go back and tell your team, your coaches, I got this guy, I saw something, we're good, we're okay? Yeah, yeah, I think But I have to say I was really in phenomenal shape For that fight You know Every time I have a bad performance If I had a lot

I come back stronger And I was really In the best shape I've told ever But I didn't go on the media I'd say that Because you know I was a faith

If I lose People are going to say It's full of shit But But after the Alex sand the fight. I stepped up. I trained harder. I had better rest. Everything. My cardio was so good. You know, I was so confident in my cardio that, you know, that, yeah, that night I was at my best.

I was physically really strong. So I think any middleweight would have had a really tough, top night. And I think it would have been very difficult to beat me at that night. I remember talking to you on the Monday after your debut win over Schlomenko, you were very fired up about the criticism and of course you injured your eye. Do you feel now like, okay, all that's gone? This was the kind of performance that you needed to shut everyone up to let them know that the Belator version of Gagra Musassi is the same one that we've seen for all these years? Yeah, I think so. I think if I would have lost, oh my God, the Russians would have killed me. Oh, yeah.

But now I silence them a little bit. but they will come back like cockroaches. No, but I don't know. You have always people that don't like you or I don't know. But I felt like I was healthy. I didn't have any injuries and I was able to do what I wanted. And I think it put a little, yeah. So, you know, I'm in my prime.

I'm really, I'm really, I am in my prime. So this is the years that I need to fight big names. I know this is your second fight in Bellator, but I'm wondering just, and not to harp on it, the fact that you never got that UFC title fight, does that still fuel you that you wanted to get this belt to sort of prove to them that you were the best, like they have a title fight coming up in two weeks? You could very well have been in that fight fighting for the middleweight title. You were on that impressive winning streak was, is that part of your thinking like, I need to prove these people wrong, I need to shove it, you know, shove it, you know, shove it. up their high knee and let them know that they let the best middle weight go?

Well, you know, like they asked me before, my goal is never to be the best middleweight. That was never my goal when I started it or when I trained. I was always thinking about winning. Of course, I want to win, but

being the best, I don't care. And, yeah, I, you know, I won the battle to belt. I think it would make any different if it was the UFC belt. For me, it's all the same. I felt like I finally got that built.

So for me, it's no different than if it would have been the UFC belt. Because I worked to this point, and it was everything I felt like came together. I was fighting in London. My friends were there, the build-up, everything. I felt like eventually got bumped up to main events after the Corps got injured. I felt like everything was working to that point, and that was my moment to grab it, and, you know, thank God it worked out for me.

But, yeah, I don't know. I'm happy. I'm happy. Do you think you're the best middleweight in the world right now? Best middleweight. I don't know. No, I don't think so. No, but that's not my goal to be the best middleweight. That's not my goal, you know.

But do I think I can fight Whitaker or you Romero or Luke Rock? or would have bought Michael Bisping when he was champion. Yeah, I think I would have been able to win. So you say that's not your goal. What is your goal? To be the best fighter, period? Well, just win my fight, make my money. You go back to your farm, right?

Listen, everyone is fighting for money. I don't know what people are. People coming on the show. I'm fighting for honor. I'm fighting for my country. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All that are nonsense. You know, don't pay any of those fights.

is they don't fight. So everyone is paying for the paycheck. And I'm, what is it? Yeah. That's what I do. I get paid to fight. Nothing glamorous about it. Sure, you're a prize fighter.

There's nothing wrong with that. I do this show to pay bills as well. We all do that, right? That's how you survive. But so I'm curious, do you feel like you're at your best right now? Like, this is the best stretch of your career. And if so, why? Why do you feel like you're at your best?

because you said best training camp, best shape of your career. What's different now? Yeah, I think after the Alexander fight, I trained harder. I was with Alexander, when I was training, I was training twice a day,

and then once a day, twice a day, once a day. I went back to twice a day. I trained longer. I was doing stretching, what I never do. Wow. You know, I did better rest,

better everything, longer trainings, harder trainings. I studied my opponent really well. I was prepared on the ground everywhere. I worked on my ground and found everywhere. The fight would have gone. I would have been prepared. So I was really, like I said, that was the point with him.

I knew for him it was routine because he was winning and winning and winning. He didn't change anything. But me coming up that tough fight, I have to change a lot of things and get better. And sometimes losses are not that bad or top fights are not that bad because you step up. And I feel like I even step up, I'm better now than my previous fight. And your eye is okay, right? No problem since the recovery of the-Chic. No, no.

Eyes good, only looks a little bit. When it's tired, it goes, you know. When I get tired, it does look not the same, but I can get fixed, but after my career. Okay. Will you do that? Yeah, because the girls love me. Kinky Musasi has to be at his kinkiest, right? Yeah, I'm picky about the way I look, so I don't want to look ugly.

You didn't hear what I said, though, right? I said kinky musasi has to be at his kinkiest. Oh, yeah, no, Kinky Musashi is gone. What? What happened? That was like a five-month run for you. I'm getting older. I'm getting older.

You know, it's not the same anymore. Yeah. You got to slow down, right? Yeah. But now you're a champion. You've got to live it up a bit, right? At least a couple weeks' vacation, right? I'm coming to L.A. and eating.

I love eating. Yeah. I'm going to do that. Okay. Did you get a sense afterwards? You know, Rory was saying that he's hitting up Scott Coker and Rich Chow, Mike Cogan, all these people about trying to make the fight. What are they saying to you about this fight?

Are they interested? Do you get the sense that they're interested? Well, I didn't know anything about Belizeau, but I thought I was boring, but Roy is more boring than me. The guy is, you know. One of us have to be the bad guy, and I will take that role, no problem. I will be the bad guy. You need rivalry, rivalry. Rivalry.

I think you're covering your speaker now, because I can't hear you anymore. There you go. Rivalry. Yeah, rivalry, yes. Yeah. So I'm going to be the bad guy in this one, and Rory can be the good guy. He's Canadian anyway. They're always so friendly.

What do you mean? What do you mean? He's boring. His interviews? The way he was talking was pretty boring, don't you think so? I was like that a couple years ago. Yes, I remember. Now it's the fun Musassi.

Yes, please don't go back to the other Musassi. This Musassi is much better. I remember that night in London, it all changed there. When you talked about the rankings and everything, that was a great night for you. And Machita. So what is being, what is bad Musassi mean? I came out of the closets. Yeah, well, sort of.

Doesn't quite mean the same over here, but I get what you're saying. What does bad Musassi mean? I'm sorry. Bad Musassi. What does that mean? Bad Musassi. I don't know. I'm the same guy.

I don't know. I just talk a lot more. You'll talk a lot of trash, though. Okay. Do you think he's crazy for thinking that he can hang with you going up to 185 from 170? Listen, I'm no Michael Bisping. I know I know what GSP did, but believe me, I'm physically a lot stronger than Michael Bisping. He's not going to, technically I'm better. So it's almost the same fight GSP versus Michael Bisping, but now it's Rory against me.

that type. I think he doesn't know but he's a big belt of weight but still he doesn't have anything over me that I'm impressed

let's say wrestling or stand up or he doesn't have the reach speed the striking so I don't know

I train with Douglas Lima he's a tough kid but I could feel this weight difference so you think he thinks that this is maybe an easy opportunity to get a second title, but... I don't know if he thinks it's easy, but

he will feel it in the fight because I'm one of... I feel like I'm one of the strong middleweights physically, but if they're not on steroids, I'm physically one of the strongest. Wow. Look at you taking a shot of Michael Bisping on the day he retires. No remorse. No, I'm not taking it. I like the guy.

He's a nice guy, but yeah come on he was fighting dan henderson he had a tough fight he had a couple you know he did well he did well he did but he was picking his fight and uh yeah would it be safe to say that even you know even though rory isn't a natural 185 you know there's not a lot going on at one 85 right now in belator this is a huge deal for them to have you as champion but this is the fight of all the options that that interests you the most because he's a name, it feels special, right?

I don't know, because listen, there's some Russian guy that fought on the same card, he's good. There's an American guy, bald guy, he's good. There's one jujitsu guy, he's good. He's eight. I don't know any of those names, to be honest. They're all contenders,

but you don't know them. I don't know them. So for me, if I go and fight them, if I lose to one of them, oh my God, they will come out and say, Gerard is the, you know, they just need me to lose to somebody that doesn't have a name. Right. Then they're going to kill me. They're going to bury me. But Rory is a big name.

It's a big name. If I win, people will know I have a win over a good fighter, a very well-known fighter. So of course it's for me a win-win situation than fighting a guy that no one knows Yeah I think I know one of the people you're referring to Hafeu Lovato Jr., the guy who won in Chicago Around a month ago, right? The jiu-jitsu guy?

Yeah, I think so, yeah Yeah But it doesn't really get you too excited I've never seen him fight, I don't know Okay I don't know Yeah And is it safe to say because the fight was so quick

that you want to return relatively soon? No, I need rest. Okay. I want to rest. You need a break. Yeah, I had a really hard training camp because three months.

Like I said, I was really in the best shape. I could have been. I think you could see physically I was so much stronger than him. And I don't know. It would have been nice if I could go five rounds

to test my cardio, but I was, wasn't getting tired. Yeah, well. It was like I was on some juice. Oh, no. Don't say that. Musasi juice.

Now we get tested. I'm clean. Yeah. And there's no USADA in Belator, so it's all good. No, we got tested. We got surprised tested. Oh, yeah? And the Mohegan son test us.

And they surprised test us. That's good. They came to Amsterdam? Yeah, yeah. I had to go to Rotterdam. get tested. Oh, nice. Okay. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. How many times?

One time and also before the fight and they could have tested me also after the fight. You never know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And by the way, one last thing, that picture that you took. Procob got tested also. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They went all the way to probation to test himself.

Yeah. For me, it's good. Sure. I wanted to ask you about that picture you took with all your belts. That has to make you good, right? Yeah, I'm missing one belt because they took it from me. So I'm just trying to figure out to make that one. I miss one belt and then, yeah, my brother made that picture.

I do, I don't do that, you know, I'm not that. He made the picture. They do Twitter. I don't do Twitter. I just put some stuff on Instagram. Wait, what's the belt that you're missing? The dream middleweight belt. Oh, okay.

There was a dream belt there, right? Or was that a different dream belt? Yeah, but that was the last one. light heavy weights. Ah, okay, okay, okay. And the other one was from the Grand Prix. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see, you see.

I'm trying to get it done. Get one also made. But I have to find the company that made the belt. Okay, this is something you want. You want all your belts. Yes, for the collection. Sure. For a picture, it's nice.

Does your brother even ask you before tweeting that, or he just does it and you find out after? If I have to argue with him, he's going to give me a lot of headache. I don't like it, but he does it. and it saves me some time. I just let him do what he likes to do. It's like finding out that there's no Santa Claus when I find out that you're not the one behind the tweets. Instagram is the real mosa.

Always, 100% you, or is there sometimes where your brother comes in to? I just put pictures. I don't write anything. You don't write. This is great. Well, I'm so happy for you, Gaggard. It's really nice to see you with the belt. It's a long time coming.

congratulations. Enjoy your time off now, the food, you know, the parties. I'm sure it's going to be crazy on the farm over there, right? You're going to be going nuts. Yeah, yeah, 100%. It's Amsterdam, baby. All the best you, Gagher. We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you, my friend. Thank you. All right, there he is. The one and only. Gagard Musasi. How about that? Oh, he is so entertaining. Always so much fun to talk to him.

He is now the new Belator, middleweight champion. And like I said, you got Rory at 170. You got Gagar Musassi at 185, and you've got Ryan Bader at 205. We'll see what happens in the heavyweight tournament. But all of a sudden, those free agent acquisitions starting to pay off big time for Beltoe. And I couldn't agree more. Not slighting any of those guys at 185 or 170, but that is the biggest fight that

belt or can ever put on right now. Roy McDonald, Gaguer Musassi, make it for the 185 belt. There's no one who's really threatening at 170 or really threatening at 185. No one's really going to be, you know, upset. I'm sure someone will be upset, but there's no one who's on like some crazy winning streak where they will feel like they're slighted. And unless I'm forgetting about someone, it feels like a really good time to capitalize on what they've both done as of late. So sign me up for that one. Again, I get the sense that at least last time I checked in they're not too hot on it, at least not right now.

Definitely in the future. They're not totally against it. But I don't know if right now, maybe with the pressure, maybe with this little appearance here, things will change, we'll find out. Great stuff there from Rory and Gaggard. I'm looking forward to seeing what Belltor does there. Okay, let's move along now.

Very excited to welcome in our next guest in studio. He is the former Ring of Combat, Titan FC, and PFL, Featherweight Champion, the one and only Andre Harrison is in the house. The Bull is here. How are you, my friend? There you are. I'm a little blinded by the light.

Great to have it in studio. I got you a gift, man. Got me a gift. Wow. Some Dre to Bull shirts, man. Wow, thank you. Can I open it here? Yeah, you can.

This is great. You know, a lot of people come in studio, not a lot of people give me gifts. So I appreciate it. First, I thought you were giving me like an iPad or something. It's a only bag I had. Wow, this is great stuff. This is great stuff.

I appreciate it. This is your logo. You have the tattoo, right? Right over there. Yeah, I've seen it. There you have. Branded. I'm branded.

I appreciate it. Thank you, my man. Thank you very much. We will proudly rock this in the studio. Who designed this, by the way? Actually, my manager did Matt Cully. Really? Yeah, he got that taken care of for me.

Well done. That is important. You got to have a brand. Yeah, I have to, man. You're back in action June 7th, New York, just a few minutes from here. Madison Square Garden Theater. You are headlining. I don't want to call it the first PFL card because you did fight, you know,

on on those kind of feel like I don't know how to call them but this is like the inaugural season where we're getting to see the reappe afl and you're a new york guy yeah to get this opportunity to fight you know at the theater at msg in your home state what does this mean like when you got the call that you would be the headlining guy right you know it's funny I didn't really get a call that I was head on the card what happened was I was up late one night and I'm scrolling and somebody screenshot at the order of the card and they tagged me on Twitter it was like Drey's headline in MSG. And I was like, it does look like I'm headlined in MSG.

I was like, well, all right. I was like, well, all right, cool. You didn't get the official call? No, I never got it. So what did you do when you saw that? It was like a surreal moment because, like, I fought the MSG before. I fought when I fought Bruce Boyington, New Year's Eve, like a little while back. Yeah, a year and a half ago.

Yeah. So I fought, that was like the first time and I was like, yo, this is like a bucket list moment. You know what I mean? Like, I'm fighting the MSG. like this is a big big thing for me you know what i mean so when i went ahead now and i found out like now i'm headlining it it's like surreal like a lot of the stuff that people are talking about really didn't even sink into me yet yeah yeah like being on billboards and yeah i saw you you posted something on your instagram i think that's like at a bus stop or something there's a billboard

your face on it right there's at bus stops there's some like that like there's a models in the city or whatever it's like above there there's all over the place um in penn station wow It was all over the place, yeah. That's incredible. And you deserve it. Undefeated, 17 and 0. It does feel like, like I said, a ring in combat champion,

a Titan FC champion. I know there was a time where you thought maybe you'd end up in the UFC. Now you're one of the pillars for PFL. And you were a champion in PFL. You were the 145 champion. But then they took the belt away to start this whole new system here.

Were you annoyed about that? Well, it was World Series of Fighting. That's why I had the bell for them. And at first, I was like, man, I just got it. Then I looked at it in a different kind of way. I was like, you know what? I'm going to be the last featherweight to ever hold a World Series of fighting belt ever.

So for me, I just took it like that. And I was like, all right, well, now on to the next one. I know PFL is having this league. And it sounds like a whole bunch of good stuff that they're looking to do. You know, that's going to be more appealing towards the fighters. So I was like, you know what? I'm excited to go and chase another title. You know, I've been chasing titles my entire career.

So you weren't sad about winning the belt and then shortly thereafter not being. a champion anymore. Nah, because I defended it already. I defended it. I was all right with that. All right. How do you feel about this whole format where, you know, there's kind of like a regular season and standings and then you move on, and then you move on with, of course, the big

pot at the end of the rainbow? Do you like this sort of thing? I do. I grew up wrestling. You know, I've been wrestling since I was in the seventh grade and we'd compete sometimes multiple times a week. You know what I mean? So the whole, the system that they have lined up for the league is cool for me.

You know what I mean? I get to stay active, which if, you know, if you followed me throughout my career, I fight like every other month or as much as I possibly can. And so I get to stay active. And like you said, that big pot at the end of the season, you know, that's, that's, can't really top that. So you say staying active, but they've had a bit of a break here. Yeah. Try to get everything in order.

How frustrating has this been? I mean, at first I was like, man, that's going to be 10 months, you know, since, you know, since I last competed. But then I just took the time. I got with my coaches Keith Trimble, Joe Scarola, my strength coach, Dr. Michael Camp. And I just, we just all put together a program and I just spent the whole time to 10 months working, you know. Wow. So I'm a way better fighter now than I was when you guys saw me last July. You know what I mean?

So I'm so excited to go out there and display all the different things I've been working on and techniques. And it's going to be a good time. Do you have to be careful when you have a break like that but you're not injured or anything like? because you don't want to sort of fizzle out and over-exert yourself on your way to your fight, right? Like, there's sort of science to that, correct? Yeah, like peeking at the right moments. Yeah. I mean, yeah, but a person like me, like since I started training seven years ago, I've always been training.

I'm not one of those guys that, you know, a fight, and then the next month and a half, two months, I'm away partying, you know, taking crazy vacations. That's not me. You know, I'm that guy that fight Saturday night. and that following Monday or Tuesday I'm back at the gym hitting the bag and working on this didn't really go too well during the fight let me try and see how this would work

and that's how I am so for me I'm always training I'm always looking to try and get better because to be a martial arts you're never perfect but you want to chase perfection so that's just how I am you know about being perfect as far as your record

is concerned 17 and 0 that's an incredibly impressive record regardless of weight class Do you feel like you get the respect that you deserve in the MMA community for that? I feel like I'm starting to. Okay. Like a lot of people at first, like, you know, they'll say that I'd be the notable people and stuff like that. But, you know, for whatever reason, it wouldn't get the same, like, aura as another person.

We get, like, I think Darren Tild is now 17, 0 and 1 or something. You know, like him, he's like a superstar. You know what I mean? But now I feel like I'm getting there, like, you know, especially like. with PFO backing me the way that they're doing, you know, being able to be on commercials and radio stuff,

you know, it's me being here, you know what I mean? Like, it's definitely a surreal. But like when you hear people talk about the best feather weights, right?

And, and of course, in the UFC, they're always going to get, they're always going to get mentioned. Like, Max Holloway is always going to get mentioned. And then you'll have a trickle-down effect

in Bellator, maybe not mentioned as much. But I feel like you don't get talked about enough. Like, if someone was putting a pound for pound, or I should say pound for pound, but like not, not a UFC rankings, like an MMA 145 ranking. I feel like you don't get mentioned as much, and you probably should.

Does it piss you off? Like I said, I grew up wrestling, so you're always taught never to worry about a piece of paper and what other people's opinions are. But in my mind, and anybody that knows me in a sense of fighting, like, anybody that's trained with me or fought me or whatever the case may be, anybody that's actually like been there and watched me throughout the course of my career, they know that I, I am one of the best featherweights on the planet. You know, that's just hands down.

There's no way you can tell me if you pull up the rankings that there's going to be 20 other guys that can beat me. There's no way you're going to tell me that. In my mind, I feel like I am the best featherweight on the planet, hands down. You know what I mean? I don't care which fight league you're talking about. I am the best feather weight, period. You know what I mean?

And every time I go out there, I show that. And I work my tail off to make sure that I am. I remember when you were funny for Titan FC, And those fights were airing on Fight Pass. You know, you did a couple of interviews about, you know, maybe this is the bridge to get to the UFC. Ultimately, why didn't that happen? And ultimately, why did you end up signing with World Series? Honestly, I'm not sure what was going on at that time frame.

I would have liked to bump up to a different promotion where I would have got paid more and things of that nature. Just changing scenery, whatever. But it didn't happen. Like, the UFC every time, you know, somebody would get hurt or, you know, whatever they'll always bring in somebody different like and I'm just like man I don't know why or what else I need to do to get picked like I'm legitimately winning every single fight you know and then when when World Series opened up they were doing something on New Year's Eve at the garden it was like a opportunity was like all right I'll go there and I'll be getting paid the same as if I went to the

UFC so why not go you know what I mean so I went to world series I was I was able to beat Bruce one in ten and then everybody saw the performance and they was like yo you should get a crack at Lance Palmer that was next and everybody that saw that fight they was like man this dude is legit you know what I mean so um and then since then you know the rest is the Palmer fight feels like a real turning point for you because he um was one of the faces of the organization alpha male he had been there for quite some time was it and I know we talked about the the layoff but the fact that you haven't been able to like build on that momentum has that been annoying No.

Like, do you feel like you lost a little bit of that momentum? Or do you think come June 7th, you'll pick right up? I know June 7, I'm going to pick right. And then it's going to steamroll because, like, they're doing events, like, back to back, to back to back. So I know it's going to pick up and it's going to be something special, man. This year's going to be a special year. Yeah, it can end when it's all said and done, you'd be making over a million dollars, right?

Yeah, I'd be making over a million. I would have headlined, you know, several shows. And, you know, it's going to be a crazy. Like, when you first start out, you know, you know, I was talking to people the other day. When you first start out fighting, you know, you look at guys that are in a position that you want to be in. And you're like, man, I could be there one day. But it's all like wishful thinking, like hoping.

You know what I mean? Because all the different disciplines that goes into being a mixed martial artist, it's so many different ways to go out there and lose a fight. And once you lose a fight, it's like nobody cares about you. You know what I mean? And so to be able to go out there and win, win, win, win, win. Like, it's tough, you know what I mean? So I've been working towards like these kind of moments since I started my athletic career. You know what I mean?

And now that it's here, like I intend to take full out, you know, I intend to enter full out, man, and do it as big as it can be done, you know? Any reservations? I mean, because that is a large sum of money and they're paying it, you know, over several different weight classes. Any reservations about like, is this all for real? Did you ever have moments like that? In the beginning, yeah.

But then. Like it almost seems too good to be true, right? In the sense, but then like we went out. They like flew a couple people out to Washington and I think it was the fight with Lance Palmer fought, Stephen Siler. And, you know, and I got to meet like a lot of people and a lot of important people and I'm just like, all right, well, this is serious. Okay. This is not a joke. It's not a fraud. Like they are about their business. Like they mean what they say. You know what I mean? Like that same night, I had a gentleman that I was talking to and he was, you know, doing some marketing stuff for him. And he was like, you know,

Drey, like, we want to, you know, make you into a superstar. You know, we want to make sure that everybody that's into fighting knows who you are. You know what I mean? He was like, if you could just give me your, you know, your Facebook handle, your Twitter, your Instagram handle, whichever one. Now, I couldn't even remember my Instagram title at the time, but then, like, I gave my Facebook page and I had maybe, I don't have a lot of follows on a lot of different things, but I went from having maybe like 2,500, 3,000 followers on Facebook to like 85,000 overnight. Oh, wow. Like, legitimately, I woke up the next morning and I looked just notifications just, and I was

just like, man. And then, like, you know, a lot of people, like, they got like the whole fake profile stuff. Recently, it was just my birthday, right? May 16th, I turned 30. Happy birthday. Thank you. And I had people from all over the world messaging me happy birthday that are into, like, fitness and fighting, like, people from everywhere.

Africa to all. All the Caribbean countries, England, I mean, do you name it, people were messaging me saying, you know, happy birthday champ and all this other stuff. And it was like, it was overwhelming. Wow. So you sense a difference. You feel like they're pushing you. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And there's no doubts about the money.

No, not at all. Okay. That is good because, I mean, it's just, I think it's better. The more options for fighters, the more places that you can go to earn a living, it's not good when there's just one dominant brand, right? And now, I was it. And now, I've been saying that for years now. You know what I mean? Like people, most people.

they don't even understand that mixed martial arts is the sport and UFC is the promotion. People are actually, hey man, you do UFC, like that kind, they don't even know the difference. You know what I mean? And that's how dominant a presence UFC has. You know what I mean? And so now

other promotions and other leagues, you know, coming out and stepping up their game is going to force everybody to have to step up their game. And fighters are now are going to have the ability to decide whether I want to go here or go there or go there and then they'll get paid. Better to go here so next time around this promotion or this league knows that if you want to get an

upcoming talent you have to now put out more money and it'd be better for everybody overall. Do you have animosity towards the UFC's that they didn't give you the call? You don't? No, not a little. I'm a firm believer. Everything happens when it's supposed to happen. You know what I mean? And there are times where like you're sitting up there and you're training.

You know, I trained alongside a lot of like top fighters that were making good money, you know, at the time. And I'm holding my own, you know, doing well, doing extremely well. And I'm sitting up there like, man, this person's getting paid this and I'm getting paid this. Like, what's going on? But then you have to understand that there's certain lessons that you're supposed to learn before you get to where you're supposed to go. You know what I mean? If you don't learn those lessons and you just jump over there, you might get somewhere where you're not ready for yet. You know, and again, if you look at my career, I've had several five-round title fights, both on TV or on fight path, whatever.

I've fought in different time zone. I've fought in different areas, so I'm no stranger to fighting away from home. I'm no stranger to fighting 25 minutes. I'm no stranger. There's not a scenario you can put me in where I'm going to feel uncomfortable. You know what I mean? I don't care if I get booed after the fight. None of that matters to me.

The only thing that matters me is getting my hand raised and making sure that, you know, my coaches are good and they understand that, you know, this is all a team thing. You know what I mean? Like me and my coach is with family, man. Like Keith is my dad. This morning, he came and trained me in the gym early, early this morning before he had to drive out and be in Utica for Gregor and Gian. You know, I mean, that's how tight-knit we are. You know, so a lot of that stuff, man, it's, you know, we're ready, man.

Yeah, you're originally from Long Island, correct? And you were a college wrestler. No. You competed in New York, but then you went to Kansas? Well, I... You transferred, right? Yeah, I got a... When I was in junior college, I got a scholarship to be to wrestling Kansas at a division two school.

Now, I went out there. One of my teammates at the time, he was fighting. He had an amateur title at 145, drug me into it, and I just literally became obsessed with it and tried to learn everything humanly possible about it. About MMA? Everything human. You had no aspirations prior to that to become an MMA fighter? What did you want to do upon graduating? I wanted to be a lawyer.

Really? Wow. Did you go to, were you in law? Or I guess you'd have to go. That'd be graduate school, right? Yeah, yeah. You didn't do anything, but that was your goal. You'll graduate.

It was a nice run as a wrestler, and then I'll go to the real world. Yeah. And then your friend just says, come along and let me show you about this MMA thing. He was just like, Dre, man, you know, one time I went to his house, we were getting ready to go out. And I seen a title belt, you know, and I was like, and growing up, I always, like, if I seen a medal, I was like, I want this medal. And I would go to that tournament just to win that medal. And I did the same thing. If I seen a plaque, I was like, I have no plaques.

I want to go to this tournament so I can win that flag. So when I seen the belt, the same thing happened. I was like, and he was like, yo, Dre, I don't have anybody to train with. You know, maybe we could work out sometimes, put on boxing gloves. I was like, fine, no problem. And, you know, for the people that never, like, received a leg kick, they don't understand how much that affects it. You know what I mean?

Because when we were just boxing, we were fine. Then when we added in leg kicks, it was a different, it was a game change. And I tried to kick him back, hands down, and I ended up getting hit, and I'm just like, I got to learn that. I got to learn everything about this. And I became obsessed and by the time I finally got him back, because I'm very spiteful. Somebody get me, I got to get him back. So by the time I got him back, it was a week before my first amateur fight.

And so I fought, I had six amateur fights, I think I won two titles, the No Mercy title, and a champion of champions titles out in Colorado. And then from there I was just hooked. I knew I was like, all right, this is what I want to do. I want to do this, like, you know, and then I tried to train my dream. him in Colorado and it was just, the chemistry was just off, man. And then when I came here, I spoke to Spiro, who's my strength and conditioning coach. And when I spoke to Spiro, he was like, all right, I'll introduce you to Keith. And once he introduced me to Keith Trimble, he sat me down and the rest was history, man.

We spoke, and I literally probably talked to Keith every single day. I don't think there's a day that goes by. How long ago is that? About seven and a half years, maybe. Okay. Yeah. Did you grow up watching MMA at all? or were you not a fan of the sport?

I would watch, like, boxing. I would watch a lot of boxing and stuff. Like, Penel Whitaker, one of my favorites. Sweet pee. Sweet pee, yeah. So, I'd watch a lot of boxing and stuff. And every once in a while, like, I would watch M.A. Like, I remember, I think I first really, really got into it,

like when Anderson Silver fought Rich Franklin. Because I was a Rich Franklin fan. I was like, yeah, this dude is legit. All right. And then everybody was talking about how the spider's coming and the dude is dangerous. And I'm just like, man, let me see what. this thing. And I went out there and I watched

Anderson. I was like, oh my Lord, this dude is no joke. And then I just, then it trick would, once I become obsessed to something it's bad, I can't not know everything I could possibly try and know about it. You know what I mean? So you know what's interesting about Belmore. I feel like every time people talk about Long Island

MMA, they talk about Sarah Longo, right? And I feel like Keith and the fighters who train there don't get the attention that they deserve. Don't get the respect that they deserve. Is there a sense of that as well, like that you guys 1,000. Okay.

All right. I'm happy that you said that. See, check this out. All right. And this is no shots to any other gyms. This is no bias to any other gyms. But if you think about it, right? Mostly other gyms, fighters are who they are before they even get there.

You know what I mean? So let's take Rashad Evans going to Black Zions, for example. He was already a world champion before he got there. You know what I mean? And that's how it usually is across the board. at Belmore, most of the guys start there. You know what I mean? Ryan LaFlair, he started there at Belmont.

Dennis Bermuda, when he was on that seven, eight fight stint, he was there every single day. You know, I remember having battle sessions with getting him ready for Clay Gwita. He was there that entire time. You know what I mean? You got the guys, Jay Haran, Phil Barron. It goes back. And it's not. Costs.

I see costs almost every day. You know what I mean? We're still there? Yeah. What's he doing these days? He just. pops in randomly trains in the morning and then heads out. He's a cop now?

Yeah, he's a corrections officer. Wow, that is wild. He never came back, never had aspirations of coming back? Every once in a while he flirts with the idea of popping back in, but then he doesn't commit to them. Okay. So I get what you're saying, but with all due respect, and I'm the one who brought it up, can't you say the same thing about Serer Longo as well, like Wideman, Al Jermaine? Those guys kind of came up from the bottom too there, right?

Yeah, that is true, but Keith has it in all different disciplines. Yeah, that's right. You look at it like a guy like Chris Algeria who won a world title in boxing, a guy like Adam Kowanovsky, who is now also 17 and no like 14 or 15 knockouts. And as in talks about, you know, maybe one or two more fights before finding somebody like Joshua. He done it in all different disciplines. You know, again, Chris won two or three titles in kickboxing. You know, so you talk about kickboxing and boxing and MMA.

He's had champs, world champs, in every single discipline. So why do you think people don't talk about him as much? Is it because he doesn't promote himself? He's not one to do a lot of interviews. Yeah. Is that why? It's possible. Maybe not enough media coverage, I guess.

But, I mean, the dude is always working, man. He's always working. So he doesn't really have time to just, you know, set aside to come on the air, for example, to do an interview. Sure. You know, he's always training somebody. He trains, like, his fighters during the day and then towards the night, he trains regular clients. And also, I mean, he's probably the fittest coach there is. I mean, holy smokes, right?

I've seen him in sparring sessions with, like, John Volante getting ready for fights. He spars with him personally? Yeah, he did. Wow. Damn, how old is he? Keith now is 46. Wow, and he's going in there still. Yeah, he's a bad man.

He's a bad guy. Yeah, he is jacked. If anyone doesn't know, I mean, he is as fit as he gets. So you mentioned Gregor, Gregor Gillespie and John Valante fighting this Friday in Utica. Yeah. I mean, Valante's not close to him. you in wait, obviously, but to have someone like Gregor around, are you guys peeking at the same time? Is that

good for you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Me and Greg, we're two guys that are always training. We're always looking to get better, so we train pretty much every day. We go to Joe Scarola, too, together, so we go literally from Belmore to Joe's then back to Belmore. That's how it is all the time. Is there a rivalry

with the the Saralongo Gym? Like, well, you guys, do you guys spar together at times? We used to, not as much anymore. What happened? That, politics? It could be. Could be politics. Could be a little drama. Really?

What would you guys do? Like the gyms would come together and it would be like these smokers? No, like sometimes Keith used to bring like me and Dennis, we'll go over there and spar like Al and Bowman or vice versa. They'll bring their guys on. Yeah. Like alternate every other, you know, sparring session. When did that end? Maybe a couple of years back.

Wow. What's a scoop? What happened? Let us, you know. You know. I plead a fifth. Yeah, I can tell that you know. I plead a fifth.

Wow. Some drama, huh? Well, I wouldn't say drama, drama, just a difference of opinion. Interesting, okay. So would you say there's a rivalry now? Not at all. No? I've seen two of my teammates, Cody Payne and Austin Wolfson fought over the weekend at Triton fights.

And, you know, we were down there. I seen Ally Aquinter. Me and him are, I love Al. I was a crazy dude, but he's a good dude. I like Al a lot. We were talking and about everything. He even mentioned, you know, starting up training and everything. thing again so it's not like a you see them and it's like you mean muck okay we don't have that kind of

relationship like if i see um you know matt sarah or anybody like i say hi they say hi back and we all talk everything's cool do you remember watching like for a guy from long island you remember or maybe this was before your time when sarah won the belt is that a big deal yeah yeah that was serious yeah right it was like because everybody everybody was saying that he was going to get killed yeah he just went out there and you know laid that right hand down and now is it How far do you live from, like where he's from, like how personal was that to you? Did that give you hope that, okay, a guy from where I'm from can actually do something like this? Yeah, if that, when you talk about the hope factor, I would say it struck more home when like, probably like when Chris beat.

Yeah, that must have been nuts. Yeah, because Chris grew up in Baldwin, I grew up in Freeport. That's like, I literally run around that. Okay. So, yeah. That's where Chuck Gordon is from. right? Yeah, Eddie, yeah.

From Freeport, correct? Yeah, that's where I always hear him talk about it. Yeah, because that must be nuts for a guy who's trying to come up and then you see someone from your hood actually beat the goat who you just talked about beating Rich Franklin, right? That was crazy. And that's a good again a second time. Nuts. I can't imagine there being a rivalry between those guys, because for the most part, they're all great guys, right?

Yeah, it's cool. Like, Chris was at the gym not too long ago with Giann, you know. Right. So it's not, I wouldn't say there's a rivalry or like a bitter relationship. That's not the case, you know. Okay. Are you going to Utica? No, I'm not.

I'm fighting next week. So I'm going to just be home training and getting right. And this is a Thursday night. So they're always going to be on Thursday nights. They're also coming to Long Island. When was that? Like end of July. Are you going to be on those as well?

It's very possible. Okay. But can you break it down for those? How many first, how many regular season fights are there? So there's going to be two regular season fights. Two, okay. And then you go into the playoffs. It's going to be the quarters and the semis.

And that's going to be sometime in October, I believe. Okay. And then there's the finals that it be, I believe, on New Year's Eve. Right. And, yeah, so that's pretty. And there's a point system. You know, if you win, you get an automatic three points. If you stop somebody in the first round, you get an additional three, second round, additional two, third round, additional point.

Whoever has the most points at the end of the first two rounds, they'll be the top seed. Whoever has the least amount, they'll be the last seed. and then that's how their bracket guys up to go in and get it done. So if you're first seed, you're fighting number eight, basically. It's like how it would be in the NBA playoff, so to speak. And you also get points for finishes and certain kinds of finishes. Do you feel like you have a handle on everything?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you seem just by breaking it down right here, but it's a lot to remember. For me, it's simple, man. Just go out. Just go out there, win, and advance. That's it. And that's been one of their cat phrases. You win, you advance.

You can't get any more. simply. You don't win and you've got to worry about complications. My mind never goes to the negative. So in my mind, I'm going out there, I'm going to win and I'm going to advance. But the fact that you get points for finishes, that doesn't change your mindset at all? No, not at all.

You're not going to try to go for the finish a little more than you would have in the past? You know, it's funny, man, because people get at me sometimes. Why you need finish him? Why you ain't finish them? I'm for some tough guys, man. Some guys, not everybody wants to just collect their check and get out of there. You know, some people want to

get both checks, you know what I mean? And I've been unfortunate enough to fight stubborn guys that don't want to go nowhere, man. And you look like a guy like Bacera, Popo Bessera, when I fought him defending my Titan belt, you know, that dude did not want to go anywhere. I was hitting him as hard as I can repeatedly in that fifth round, and he was exhausted. All the stumbling he was doing, he would not go down. You know what I mean? And some of the guys that I fought, they've never been finished. So why is all the extra extra pressure on me to be the first? You know what I mean? Like I'm it's not that I'm not trying or I'm reserving or being conservative. It's just some people don't want to go away, man. They want to win too. So I always feel like the knock on on like Kamar Usman is

dealing with it as well now. Like you're trying to win a fight and and for the most, I know there's some guys who maybe play it safe, but for the most part, you could tell when someone is actually like putting forth the best effort. And no one should be judged in my opinion. Like if you continue, to win, you continue to win, you know, it's yeah, it's maybe some, you know, it's a cherry on top to get like a spectacular knockout, but it shouldn't be a knock against you, in my opinion. I agree

man, like, do you honestly think that I want to be out there fighting for 25 minutes? That's hard, you know what I mean? Even if you're the one landing the strikes, like your shin is not meant to kick knees and elbows and that hurts. You know what I mean? Your hand and those little mitts aren't meant to crack repeatedly over

and over and over again. That's not It doesn't feel good on your body. When lose a drawer, you're in pain the next day. You know what I mean? So it's like, I don't want to be out there for a half hour fighting. You know, I'd love to go out there and just quickly just touch somebody and they go right to sleep. But it doesn't happen that way. This person has been training eight to ten weeks for me as well.

They're ready to go as well. You know what I mean? So do you feel that? Like, does it feel like a bit of a, like would you like to shut the, even though you're saying all that? And I totally believe you. Would it be nice to shut up some people and get a couple finishes? that that tacos away? No, man, because you don't care.

You can't satisfy everybody. You know what I mean? Like, some people, they're going to just have something to say no matter what. You know, no matter what. With Bruce Boynton, I submitted him like in the first minute and a half. When I'm, the next day, I'm sitting up there and I'm walking around the city. My phone lights up. I look and it was like, hey, Jerry, just to give you a little point out, it was congratulations on your fight.

Just to give you a little point of, you know, when you hit that right hand, you shouldn't go directly for the tape. You should do that. And I'm like, dude, it was a minute and a half. Yeah. Like, what more could you actually? Some fan? Just random people, man.

Everybody always has something to say. Everybody's a coach and everybody knows everything about the sport, man. It'd be the people that never fought before. Sure, sure, sure. That's got to drive you nuts. I have fun with people, man. Like, I talk trashy people sometimes online. I don't know.

Some people may get offended. I don't, it's not mine. So I've been trying for like a day and a half now to get a read on how to pronounce your opponent's name. Good luck. I even asked PFL to get him, man. They were kind of, uh, Juma Beck, Torsun, I think. Your guess is better than mine.

Every interview that I've gone on, they've asked me the same thing. I'm like, dude, I don't know. I just say Juma. Juma's cool. That's cool. 26 and 1 from China, tough guy. Do you know anything about, like, did you know who he was before they offered you him? Had you ever heard of him?

No, I didn't know. What do you know about him now? I know he's a tough dude pretty well-rounded. Like he'll throw some hard strikes. He'll shoot and wrestle if he can. You know, anybody that has 20-plus 20 wins or whatever, as a professional, you've got to give some sort of respect to. I know, like I said, he's a tough dude. He's well-rounded.

It's just me. I just feel like I'm on a different level. You can find, there is a lot of footage out on him. Have you seen it? I've watched some, yeah. Are you the type to watch a lot? Yeah, not a lot, but I'll watch enough to like remember patterns and certain things. Is there anything that he does that impresses you?

No, not really. All right. Isn't it amazing? Like, if that friend, you ever think about it, if that friend never told you, like, here, 17 and 0 as a pro, you're on the cusp of, you know, this big tournament and a million dollars, you'd be in, like, some office lawyer.

Imagine? No knock on lawyers. I mean, nice life. Yeah. But it's not MSG. It's not, you know what I mean? It's not backing people out. I really feel like this is like what I'm supposed to be doing.

Like, you couldn't, right now I couldn't picture doing anything else. You know what I mean? And your family's cool with it? Oh, yeah, they love it. They love it. They'll go to your fights? Yeah, yeah. My mom would be there, my cousins, my sisters are all coming.

Wow. It's going to be so many Bull fans in MSG. How many people you think you'll have there? A couple hundred. Really? Wow. Most of them live in the New York area? No, not all of them.

I got family flying up from Florida, Atlanta. They just stay all over the place. And mom is okay with this? When I first told my mom I was going to fight, she was sleeping. It was like in the middle of the night. I said, mommy, you know, my mom is Trinidadian. Okay. I said, Mommy, I'm getting ready to go fight.

She was like, all right, all right. I'm going to come. I said, all right, cool. So I told, she thought it was probably like a national tournament because I wrestled in the nationals, a couple times one time in Nebraska. So she thought it was probably one of those. My sister told her like, you know, Dre is going to be in the cage punching and kicking and all that other stuff.

She was like, what? He's going to be doing it? She was like, what's wrong with this child? What I go wrong with this child? And I was like, no, mommy, it's all right. I've been working hard. She was like, you know, something wrong with you. I don't know.

But then, like, you know, that fight was maybe a minute and a half. The next fight, probably is saving. And she was like, all right, well, this is what you want to do, baby, go ahead. Now she's on board. Yeah, yeah. She's been on board. She got my amateur belts hanging up at the house. Oh, sick.

Yeah, she's been on board. When's the last time you lost something? It's been a while, right? I was in the gym sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, we have wars in the gym, man. You know, you look at my training partners, man. They aren't walkovers.

Greg is 11 and no in the UFC. Co-main eventing. You know, Cody Payne, he's a tough dude, a whole bunch of kickboxing fights. Nick Fiore, Georgi, Levan Machasvelli, who, Levin is what, like 15 and 2? Like, I got a lot of, like, tough, tough training partners, man. And then my coaches, too. My coaches, they're world class, you know what I'm saying?

For me, Keith, you can't get a better striking coach than Keith. Cannot get a better striking coach than Keith. And I feel the same way about Joe Scarola and, you know, the rest of my coaching staff, man. Mike Camp, Sparrow, like, you can't get these guys like experts in their field. You know what I mean? You put them all together with the chemistry that we have. You have no choice but to really win. I wish you the best, man.

Thanks for coming in. Appreciate to have you. I've been really enjoying watching your fights, your climb, Ring of Combat Titan, World Series PFC. and I think it's awesome that they're giving you the headlining spot. And everybody got to come. They got to come on MSG, you know, June 7th, man, and watch me do it a little over a week away. And if not, it's live on NBCSN. Yeah, live.

Around the country. Wish you the best. Good luck to you. Good luck in the tournament. Thanks for coming in. Alex over here is going to walk you out. And thank you for the gifts. No problem.

And wear them well. I will. I will. I appreciate it. Great logo, my man. All right. Great job. There he is.

Andre Harrison stopping by. Great stuff out of him. As I said, 17 and 0 and he will be a big part of the first PFL season so to speak what an opportunity for him former World Series of fighting champion former Titan FC champion former ring of combat champion which if you're unfamiliar with

ring of combat big promotion here on the east coast he is without a doubt one of the very best fighters on their roster you can make a case that he is the best honestly at this point I know they have guys like Jake Shields but he is supremely talented and they are getting behind him in a big way. So check that out, June 7th, here in New York, MSG Theater. And if you're not in New York, of course, NBCSN will broadcast the fight. Now, this Saturday, so there's UFC in Utica on Friday, but this Saturday, there's a new promotion called Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships. And there's a lot of familiar names on this

card, my friends. Rico Rodriguez is one of them. Beck Rawlings, who was recently in the UFC, is another And yes, this is bare-knuckle fighting. No joke. It's happening in Wyoming. It's available on pay-per-view. And the rules are a little different. There are some similarities to MMA and boxing, but the rules are a little different as far as, you know, this particular promotion and the kind of action that you'll see to, you know, to MMA and boxing. So here's, we're going to talk to Beck Rawlings about this, her departure from the UFC being a part of something like this. But here's a quick little video, sort of. of explaining what BKFC is all about, what the rules are all about, and you'll get a sense for how brutal this is. I mean, it's literally bare-knuckle fighting. So here's a video, and then on the back end, we'll talk to Beck Rawlings right here on the M.A.R. Welcome to a new era in combat sports. Bare-knuckle fighting championship is the oldest, and now the newest form of combat sports. Bare knuckle fighting championship is contested in the most innovative fighting platform of our time, the squared circle.

A 22-foot circular ring encased in a 28-foot square platform created for optimal viewing. In the center of the ring, there are two lines. These lines are where the fight begins, with both fighters just three feet apart. In bare-knuckle fighting championship, fighters risk the wrist the end. thumbs are taped, but their knuckles are completely exposed. This is the purest form of hand-to-hand combat. Each round is two minutes in length, and fights are set for five, seven, and nine rounds for championship bouts.

Factor in the small fighting area, and you have set the environment for nonstop heart-pounding action. Here are the rules of engagement for bare-knuckle fighting championship. The referee will instruct each fighter to tow the line. The fighters will square up and put their front foot on their respective line. The bout begins when the referee instructs the fighters to knuckle up. Knuckle up. In bare-knuckle fighting championship, fighters will lead with their knuckles.

As brutal as bare-knuckle punches are, they're the only offensive weapon allowed. Straight punches and punches to the body are highly effective strikes. When the fighters are in a clinch, they're permitted with one arm to punch their way out. The referee will not call for a break unless there is a three-second role in the action. Fighters are allowed to grab the back of their opponent's head or neck and then punch their way out. This will ensure more action and clenches with limited holding. In bare-knuckle fighting championship, victory is claimed by knockout, referee's stoppage, or judge's decision.

A premium is placed on aggressiveness and punching power. Bare knuckle fighting championship, the beginning. Live June 2nd at the Cheyenne Ice and Event Center in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Get your tickets now for this historic event online at barenuckle.tv. You can order the pay-per-view broadcast any time through all major distribution outlets. So there you have it. A little primer on bare knuckle fighting championship. as I said, some familiar names on the card.

It airs this Saturday on pay-per-view, one of the familiar names, former UFC heavyweight champion Rico Rodriguez. Another one, someone who very recently fought in the UFC. Rowdy, Beck Rawlings, she's kind enough to be joining us via the magic of Skype. Let us go back to the Skype machine and say hello to Beck Rawlings. Beck, how are you? Hey, I'm good, thank you.

Good to talk to you. Thank you for coming on. Wow. Okay, we have a lot to discuss here because there's a lot to digest from that video. But first, let me ask you, you recently fought in the UFC, you recently parted ways with the UFC. What happened?

What went wrong towards the end of your run in the UFC? You know, I dropped four losses in a row, so that's a lot. You know, they gave me a chance. Some fighters get dropped after one loss. So, you know, I had some tough fires. I had some tough weight cuts. Some, you know, split decisions. Just wasn't working for me.

So, you know, I kind of expected it after my last fight with Ashley. So it wasn't really a huge surprise to me. So, yeah, like, it sucks. Obviously, it doesn't, it's not very nice getting cut and doing the job. But I'm safe to be confident and hopefully, you know, about my future. Any regrets? Anything that you wish you would have done differently towards the end? Yeah, you know, I wish I didn't fight my last.

fight at 115 against Peter. It was a horrible weight cut. I nearly killed myself trying to make that weight. It was just a really bad decision to go ahead with that fight. At that point, they didn't have the 125 division in yet,

so I was kind of stuck. I either waited and hoped that they were going to bring it in or I killed myself to make 115. So, you know, I wish I had just waited. Obviously, I didn't know that they were going to bring it in the next, you know, a few months slater.

So, but yeah, that's one of my main regrets is taking that fight and just really, the cut to 115 really made with my performance. It was just another loss that I shouldn't have taken. And now that they did open up 125, were you hopeful that maybe you would, you would kind of get a clean slate and they would allow you to fight at this more natural weight for you? Or did you think that maybe, for lack of a better term, like the damage was done and the losing streak was the losing streak and it was hard to stick around after that. Yeah, I was hopeful that they would treat it as a clean slate,

especially my first fight at 125. Joanne Cold War, she pulled out two weeks prior to the fight and then I go short notice opponent. She missed weight and then it was a shitty decision. So I was like, okay, maybe they'll give me another chance. Maybe they'll look at all the things leading up to these losses and things like that and give me another chance. but it's a business, it's cutthroat business.

And you can't take it personally. It is what it is. I don't agree with this. I don't subscribe to this. And I know you heard it. What Ashley Evan Smith said about you not being like a good representative, you were too raunchy, I think she said. What do you make of those comments?

You know, she can think what she thinks. It didn't really bother me. I know the real reason why she doesn't like me. it is what it is. But, you know, I know I'm a good role model. I know I'm a good mom. I know I'm good for this sport. I know I've led the way for Australian women M&A.

So she can say what she wants. It's like water off my back. Okay. What is the real reason why she doesn't like you? Because she was dating Jules for Jackal and I told her that he was a woman basher and to stay away from him and that he's going to hurt her. and she didn't like me reaching out to her about that. You know, me, I've been a strong advocate against domestic violence,

and I've been trying my hardest to help victims or try to, you know, help people that may get stuck in that situation. But she didn't want my help, and she took it the wrong way, I guess. Okay. So then you part ways with the UFC, and shortly thereafter we find out about this opportunity. Bare knuckle fighting championship. How did this come about? I woke up. It was literally the day after I found out I'd been released. I woke up to a message on my Facebook page with them reaching out to me asking if I would be interested in fighting

for them. So I sent their information to my manager and he looked into it, spoke with them and he's like, look, it's a fight. It's suited for you. Like it's something like, this is exactly a sport that would work for you. If you want to go for it, go for it. I'm not against it. And I'll I was like, hell yeah. You know, I love to fight. It was, you know, a positive thing after just being released that I could focus all my attention on. So, yeah. So it is actual bare knuckle.

Do you have any reservations about that? No. Yeah, it's been, I just have my wrist and my thumb tape and my knuckles are completely bare. I don't know if you've ever tried on a UFC glove before, but they are more really. just for the public to think that we're protected. They don't really protect that much. Okay. So, you know, it protects you from superficial cuts.

There's still hand injuries and things like that in M&A. So you really have to focus on how you're punching, where you're punching your accuracy. Obviously, I'm not going to go out there and throw like a 10-punch competition as in boxing. I've got to be more particular in what I'm throwing and where I'm throwing. So it's kind of cool. I'm excited about that aspect of it.

This feels like somewhat of a dumb question, but also not. Do you train bare knuckle at any point? It is a dumb question or it's not? No, it's not. Oh, okay, okay. We can't spa bare knuckle because we can't hurt each other. Yeah. I've been doing partner drills a lot, bare knuckle,

and I've also been hitting pads and doing like, hand strengthening techniques on like sandbags. It's called iron palm training. It's like old martial arts, um, hand strengthening routine that you do. And then you rub like these Chinese herb oils into your skin to strengthen your skin and knuckles up.

So, you know, we've gone real old school on this. And as far as like the rule set is concerned, it's more akin to boxing than MMA, right? There are no takedowns or, or kicks allowed, correct?

Yeah, it's just boxing. It's just you're only allowed to punch with your hand. The only thing different from traditional boxing is the fact that obviously we have no gloves on. And we're allowed to work in the clinch. We're allowed to collar tie with one hand and punch with the other. And we're also allowed to overhook and punch with the other. You're not allowed to grab with two hands. You always have to be punching.

Otherwise, the rest will separate. Okay. And from what I understand, correct me from wrong, this fight is a five-round fight, but the rounds are two minutes long. Is that accurate? Yeah, that's correct. Does that change, like the fact that it's a much shorter round for you, more rounds, but in the end you're fighting less amount of time?

How do you feel about that? Yeah, look, obviously it's a different pace with the two minutes. You really have to put in the work from get-go. You can't just cruise into it like you would in a five-minute round. But, you know, I'm always fit. I've been sparring boxing rounds with great, boxes back home. So I've gotten used to the boxing pace and that kind of thing. So yeah, it doesn't really matter to me. Like I'm, I just like to fight. A fight for flight to me.

I don't care how long the round is, how many rounds it is. I show up and I fight. Do you have any idea why the rounds are so short? So I know women's boxing are always two minute rounds. The men's are three minute rounds. But I think for the Ben, I obviously, I think it's because they don't go for very long. Like if you've ever watched the bare knuckle scene over in the UK, a lot of their fights are finished in the first round or second round because we're Ben-Uckle. So I might have something to do with that. They don't want as much damage, I guess. If you have three minutes to work, you're going to get more damage than you would with two minutes. I'm not sure if you

heard about this, but from what I was told, Wyoming, which is where this this fight card is taking place is known as the equality state. And the promoters wanted to have a female fight on this card, not because they were obliged to, but because they wanted to sort of represent what the state is all about. And that's why they made the effort to get someone like you who's well-known in the world of MMA to be on this card and why it's such a big deal. Have you been told that as well? And if so, could you expand on that a bit? You haven't been told that. No, I had no idea. That's really cool, though. Wow. You know, they were always keen to get me signed. and they were really excited that I was interested in it.

So it makes sense. But no, I'd never heard that. So this is what I was told. Let me pass this along because I actually thought it was really cool when I heard this. Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote in 1869. More precisely, women were granted the right to vote there. So there would be enough voting citizens to meet the population requirement for statehood. This action led to the nickname the suffrage state.

and then the equality state. And so they wanted to sort of represent that, you know, this wasn't just a male-dominated card because it's taking place in Wyoming because they've been so progressive. So here you are representing that. That's awesome. I had no idea that that's really cool.

This state seems obviously very relaxed in that sense. Obviously, they're the first state to sanctioned their knuckleboxing. So that's really cool. You're in Wyoming right now. Yeah, yeah, I got in on Sunday. I always try to get in like a week before just to get it, you know, climatized and all that. What is Wyoming like? It's very green.

There's lots of green grass everywhere. Okay. There's lots of space. I think every room I've gone into has a picture of a buffalo and apparently that's on their state. That's cool. But it's been cool. Everyone's really kind and, um, welcoming and yeah, it's definitely different compared to where I'm from back, I'm back home

in Brisbane. So, but yeah, it's refreshing. Are you still a part of Alliance MMA? Yeah, I just haven't been back there. It's just been really hard to travel over there with my two kids. They're getting older. They're getting, they're in school. And it's just been really hard to really leave them for six to seven weeks at a time.

So I'm still a part of the alliance, but they're cool. me training at my gym in Brisbane when it fits, especially like depending on opponents and things like that. So I'm fighting out of a united fight team in Brisbane, Australia, and they're a great match for me. They're a great team for me. But I'm always going to be welcome back at Alliance. You know, it's not like you've been kicked out and not allowed to go back. Right. So I'm just curious, like, will someone like Eric Del Fierro be in your corner on Saturday, or if not, who will be in your corner? I have a feeling Eric is coming. I have a feeling Eric is coming. I know Joey Beltran's fighting on it.

So he said he was going to try and make it out. He was trying to work around because he's a firefighter as well. So he should always change. Very busy man, Eric. So he said he was going to try and make it out. He's also my manager. So if he can get out here, he's going to get out here. I was messaging him last week and seeing if he was going to come out and he said,

oh, it's nice that someone misses me. So he's going to try and get out here. So yeah, if you make it out, he'll definitely be in my corner. It'll be cool to have him and my two coaches cornering together. Wait, so Joey Beltran, formerly of the UFC and Beltaur, will also be fighting on this card. Yes. Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't see his name in the press release.

Maybe you broke some news. Maybe I missed it. Oh, there it is. There it is. Is that the same Joey Beltran, though? It says 145. No, this is a mistake. Oh no, they just got the weights on the...

Yes, because he's fighting Tony Lopez. That's a mistake. Yes, that is a mistake. And your weight... Your weight class, what is it for this one? It'll be 125. 125. You're fighting a lady by the name of Alma Garcia.

What, if anything, do you know about her? She's a boxer. She lives in Denver, Colorado. That's pretty much the extent that I know of her. She's got one fight on YouTube that I was able to look at and my coach back home studied it. So there's not much really to know about her because there's not much footage or anything like that. I just noticed she's a boxer and she's tough from what everyone said about her. Okay.

And now what does this mean for your MMA career? Are you hoping to continue in MMA despite this? Yeah. Look, I'm currently in talks with Invicta. So I think we're just going to wait and see how all this. plays out on Saturday, obviously, with injuries and things like that. But, yeah, I'm definitely looking to get wins in my MMA career. And I definitely want to make it back to the UFC.

This isn't something that I'm just going to give up on just because I've been released. I think going back to me, it would be really good for me. And, yeah, I told Dana why I messaged him the other week, and I told him I'll be back. So, yeah. Now the big question is, did he write you back? Yes, you did, actually. He said it was a pleasure having me. Yeah, he said it was a pleasure having me and take care and, you know, he looks forward to it.

Okay. Yeah, we left on. Okay, that is good. And so, like, I mean, you've been around the fight game for a long time. You've had many fights, well over 10. Do you feel like you'll be a little more nervous heading into this one because it's actual bare-knuckle? Like, do you get the sense that the nerves are different or, as you said, a fight to fight? No, I'm not, not any more nervous.

You know, obviously there are some nerves because you're fighting in front of people and someone's trying to hurt you across the ring from you. So, but not, not any more nervous, maybe a little less nervous. I think the bright lights of the UFC kind of got to me a little bit there. And I kind of went away from what I'm known for, especially in my last fight. I really didn't let go as much as I should have. So, yeah, I don't know. I feel like there's no pressure. I'm just going to go out there and have fun and fight.

I love fighting. So, yeah, I just try not to let any pressure or anything get to me. Have you ever been in a bare-knuckle fight? I'll incriminate myself. Okay. Yeah, maybe, you know, there's... I'm up with four siblings, and I was the youngest. So I've definitely known how to fight bare-knuckle.

My brother used to make me and my sister fight each other When we were little And he would pay us at the end of it What? I would always Yeah, I would win And in Australia we have coins And there's a 50 cent coin

And there's a dollar coin And the 50 cent coin is bigger And I would always take the 50 cent Because I thought it was more Oh no And he didn't tell you He would rip me up Oh one

Typical promoter, right? Ripping off his fighters Yeah Yes So he is to blame for my fighting career now and I tell my mom that every time she says oh why do you have to fight my blame your son wow and and is he aware of this as well yeah he's actually quite proud of it he tells all his friends all the time did any of your other siblings become fighters as well

no actually um so he owns his own business my other sister is in the air force she's a nurse and my eldest there is a police officer wow Yeah. So you're the... I didn't want to say it, but so you said it. And now you're fighting in a bare-knuckle fighting. Who would have thought? Unbelievable.

I'm nervous for you. I don't know if I've ever said that before to someone, but this just makes me nervous. You know, my question, he said something really well the other day when someone interviewed him. He said, you know, everyone's worried about us getting hurt, but we train every day to defend. We're trained every day not to get hit, not to get hurt. So I think people forget that. Like they think we're just training to hurt others, but no, we're actually training to defend as well.

So I'm not worried. I have faith in my boxing skills. My coach has just been amazing for me back in Australia. So we're confident with my defense and all that. So no, not scared. All right. Well, that is good to hear. I wish you the best.

Beck, this is pretty crazy stuff. This is exciting stuff. June 2nd, live on pay-per-view. It's available in both the United States and Canada on paper view. Bear Knuckle Fighting Championship, one of the featured fights on the card. Beck Rawlings against Alma Garcia, five rounds, two-minute fight, two-minute rounds, I should say. It might last two minutes in the end. And I'm looking forward to seeing how you do.

This is pretty cool. So congratulations to you on getting this opportunity. And, of course, best of luck to you come Saturday night. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. We'll talk to you soon. There she is. Routy Beck Rawlings, the pride of Brisbane, Australia, returning to action, probably sooner than most thought on Saturday. Rico Rodriguez, Bobby Gunn. Who are some of the other familiar names? She did mention Joey Beltran. Oh, Eric Prundel, formerly of Belator as well. Tony Lopez, Desmond Johnson. So there you have it. this Saturday, BKFC, the beginning, live on pay-per-view, June 2nd, 9 p.m. Eastern available in both the United States and Canada and the suggested retail price for the pay-per-view, according to this press release, is $2999. So there you have it. No UFC on Saturday if you're looking for something to watch.

Might I suggest BKFC? Okay, let us move along to our next guest. I'm very excited to talk to this man. What a performance on Sunday. It looked as though things were not going his way. It looked as though he was potentially on route to his first UFC loss. But things turned around. One of the great comebacks of 2018,

Arnold Allen pulled off an amazing submission with just a couple of minutes left in the third round of his fight on Sunday in Liverpool against Mads Burnell. He now extends his winning streak. in the UFC to four in a row, one of the longest winning streaks

in his way class and his post-fight interview was just as entertaining. One of my favorites on the program, good to say hello once again to the one and only

Arnold Allen. There he is. Arnold Allen. How are you, sir? I'm good. Yourself? I'm doing great. Are you on the beach?

Yeah, well, I'm just, I've left the pub. I'm outside the pub. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's the pubs over there. Oh, I see. Okay. I didn't know there were many...

Are you in England right now? Yeah, I'm in England. I'm in England. Are you an Ipswich? Just down the road. I mean, it's called Felix, though. It's just outside my little village. It's nice. Wow. What a scene this is? A pub? Across the street on the beach. You've got... What is that? A Hawaiian shirt on? What do you got over there? I don't know. I bought it when I went out as a drug dealer one night.

I went out in fancy dress and I went out like Miami Vice style. Yeah. Well, you're looking great. Some charity show up on. Thank you. That's a phenomenal look. Before I talk to you about your fight, Arnold, I just have to ask because there was some massive news late last night regarding a pioneer trailblazer for English MMA, European

MMA, Michael Bisping announcing his retirement. And I've seen you kind of interact with him. And I know you tweeted him something either it was this morning or late last night. what does Michael Bisping mean to you? You know, he's a Bisbin's an inspiration. He was, you know, he was a guy. He came back from so many, like, things.

No one would have ever thought Bisbee was going to be a world champion, but against all the odds, he did it. He just kept working and working and working. First British world champion, or as an English world champion, more to the point as well, he proved everyone wrong.

And, yeah, he's a big inspiration, huge inspiration. He's a pioneer, for everyone in Britain, especially. You ever have a chance to meet him, train with him, any interactions with him? I've met him briefly. I don't know him well personally. I've met him briefly.

Was this a guy who you stayed up late at night to watch? Was he one of your favorites after coming up? Yeah, I used to stay up until like four or five in the morning to watch the pay-per-views. I was a kid, I begged my mom and dad to get the pay-per-view, so I'll watch it. I'd be streaming it illegally. But yeah, yeah. I was always out watching these fights, especially when he was fighting.

I was watching four or five in the morning. I'm going on a bike, sorry. It's okay. Yeah. It was amazing. It stayed up four in the morning. That sucked, but it was worth it to watch these guys fight. Favorite Michael Bissping moment?

When he won the title. It had to be. Yeah, yeah. When he won the title. I think especially after the first, fight with Rockhold, no one expected him to win, especially with a knockout, no one expected to win the second fight.

And even myself, I was a bit doubtful, to be honest. I was, you know, I wouldn't have put a bet on it. Yeah, I feel like most people would pick that. So now let's talk about you and what you experienced on Sunday. It just didn't feel like the fight was going your way leading into the third. How would you assess it? What was going wrong for you and why was it going wrong?

I just didn't get going really. It was just a shit night. He had a great performance. He thought well. And he surprises up a couple of things. He had like different tools than we expected, you know. I watched his previous fights. He wasn't really a guy that shot double legs or anything.

And then on the night of the fight he started shooting these power double legs. Like he was GSP. I was like, I was surprised. I was like, how is this guy doing? Yeah, and Yeah, I had a little bit of I wasn't going to mention it, but I'm going to mention it I had a bit of like flu for the last couple of weeks

I haven't been, I'd probably have been coughing up all night and everything but whatever. It's where it is I got the win, so I don't need to make excuses. Wow. Were you close to pulling out? No, you know what? I have nearly had, I have 15 pound in my bank right now and there was never a chance of pulling out.

If I pulled out, it was very, to work, so no, there was never a chance. 15 pounds? Yeah. Wow. Heading into the fight. They still don't pay me, but yeah. How are you surviving off 15 pounds?

Oh, wait. I don't know. I'm ducking to diving. I'm making it work. I'm buying shirts from the charity shop. That's what's happening. Are you, are you sweating that? Are you nervous? What, nervous? They're not going to pay me. No. I mean, just like when you go to your bank,

can you see 15 pounds? Does that make you nervous? I've had minus 500 before. Oh my gosh. When was that? Yeah. It was actually before I had my UFC debut. I had the fight and I had minus 500 at the moment of signing the contract.

And I remember obviously I want a bonus in that fight too. And I went into the bank when I got the bonus paid in and they were all giving me funny looks. so like we know you have you don't have money where's this come from I'm like won something yeah I feel I was up to no good wow

well good for you I'm happy that you know you you not only won but you get the win bonus as well obviously you haven't fought in Quinceum time so that that probably hurt right I mean were you able to make money of any kind during the left you haven't fought since March of last year

were you able to make any income or is that why it's so low Yeah, I haven't been able to make any income since then, so. Okay. And why the long laugh? What were you battling? You had an injury, correct? Yeah, I had some other stuff, but as well, like, some bullshit, but whatever. Yeah, I've fractured my hand, sparring.

I was sparring with Mansour Banu. I don't know if you're familiar with him, but he's, I think he's on, he's under one million pound or no one million dollar lightweight tournament at the minute I can't remember who is putting it on I think it's rogue but yeah he's a tough guy

and I hit him with a left hand and I'd fractured the side of my hand and put me out for a few months so yeah I was supposed to fight last year in October but I had to decline obviously because of that hand injury and then the time I was ready to fight

January someone sent my visas to the wrong person and someone somewhere I don't know who I won't know who I won't whatever happened. And yeah, that happened.

Now we're here. Did you, are you able to elaborate on that? Did you have some sort of legal issues that you had to clear up? Yeah. I mean, obviously it was out there before. I got accused of some stuff. It's not exactly how it went down, but I don't want to go into it. There's more, yeah, yeah.

Here's what it is. It's done. I got accused of what I got accused of. Yeah, cool. It's all cleared up now? yeah it's all cleared up now so clear that up so are you able to travel are you able to go

to the states Canada you're able to fight anywhere yeah I've been traveling I was in Boston a few weeks before that fight that was gonna go ahead in Boston I actually flew to Boston for a few days went back to Montreal before and then yeah everyone's like oh he can't go to Boston

because of this that and I'm like I was in Boston last week right yeah so But, yeah, I can go wherever. Yeah. Okay. So you don't want to necessarily set the record straight or clear up anything? No.

Nothing needs to be said, I don't think. Is that why you grew out the mustache to go incognito? Undercover. Yeah. Basically, Ollie is, you know, Oli O'Bin Mercere, he has a nice mustache. And someone else, one of my teeth is Mandel-N-Nello. He grew out a nice mustache. mustache. I said, big dick grew out one at TriStar. I was like, man, all these guys have got cool

mustache. So I'm going to get involved with a mustache. And it's become a thing. I think it's funny. Yeah, it's funny. I don't think it looks good, though, just so everyone knows. I have to say, I think it looks great. I think a blonde mustache works for some reason. And I feel like you have the kind of hair color that if you get a real thick one, like you sort of remind you have like a 1960s English detective Arnold Allen the color

I mean you got the look yeah I'll take that I'll take that I'll keep it I'll keep it just for that yes

were you planning on shaving it before this great compliment no it was just I wasn't sure what to do to be honest

everyone keeps some people were in soul with me some people will compliment it but I like the funny comments

it makes me laugh I see him online I'm like like a serial killer and some stuff I don't know. What's going on? Keep it. Keep it. Keep it. I say keep it. What was your corner telling you

in between the second and third round? Did you know that the submission was there? Was that just something that you saw in the moment? What was the plan of attack there? The plan was definitely to finish him. Bryce told me to start boxing short. I said I had to lower my stance for the double-eges. I had to sprawl hard. I had to be ready for the shots.

And obviously I wasn't, I didn't. But yeah, obviously it's the trope I've caught before. It's something I've caught in the gym quite a lot. And I was surprised that he wasn't aware of the trope. So I felt he left his neck resting on the top of my arm for a second. And I was like, I was like, I think this is going to work. And then he put his head lower and it was in. And as soon it was in, I won't get a let go.

I knew I knew I had his neck. I knew had his neck at that point. He did it. I think in the first row he put his head there, he adjusted actually. So, he recognized it. What was that feeling like when he tapped,

considering how the fight had been going, that you had pulled out? I mean, you looked somewhat relieved. What was that feeling like? Definitely, I was definitely relieved. Like,

you know, I was confident still, I was like, still going to look for the knockout. I was going to try and finish. I weren't going to quit for sure, but yeah, I was,

I was relieved. I was really relieved. Yeah, yeah, relief, that's the main feeling. Of the four, wins that you've had now in the UFC, does this one top them because of what you've had to

overcome? Yeah, I'm happy to be able to show. I've got heart, you know, I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to fall over. It's a learning fight. I'm going to come back. I'm going to come back. But there's obviously other people out in my division that are probably looking at

thinking, oh, it's an easy fight. I'll take it. But you know what? It was my worst night. So if you look at me on my worst night, I still get a win against a game opponent. on his best night that's that's

I mean something to me now you made headlines for the comeback but you also made headlines for your Polo's fight interview when you brought in your father good old Pacer yeah

and uh people people got all up in arms about you kind of calling them out but I recall in this show you made similar jokes of course you know that it's not the same kind of stage but do you regret making those jokes

do you feel like people didn't get that you were making a joke what what's your take now after you know two days because people were all up in arms about you sort of incriminating your father. Yeah, no, I don't regret it. It's just a joke me and my dad have always. Like when I was growing up, he was like, say it was early 2000s and stuff.

He was taking a lot of steroids when he was doing the strong, it was just the culture they were all taking steroids. I'd walk at his room, he was ejecting him. It was always very open about it. We never like, you know, he was always very against me. and my brother doing it anything. He was like, look, I don't want you doing this, it'll ruin your life, all this and that.

You know, you'll be dependent on it. He always talked to, like, not like we ever wanted to try it, but yeah. So we always make jokes at him, and just stupid things. Make joke about him being angry when he was on steroids. The angry dinners, you know, because he was on steroids or that.

So it's just a joke between me and my dad. I know some people don't get a joke, and especially as American guys watching English guy making a joke. I think everyone that's English gives it, but yeah. So when you see your dad doing that as a kid, you're never, you know, you're never curious, you never say you want to do it yourself? No, I was just figured that's fucked up. I was just figured that's messed up.

I was like, what are you doing, man? Yeah. But isn't your brother, doesn't your brother do a strong man as well? He does strong man, but I'll be honest, he's dead scared of me. He's dead scared of needles, so he's, I think they've tried to get one stuff, but they can't. He's too scared. He's too scared. He wouldn't take it.

They said apparently it's no good. Wow, so I'm assuming he's not a very good strong man if he's not taking that stuff. Not in the minute. Not in the minute. I don't know. He's doing well. He used to be. Okay.

He's not doing. All right. He's still all right. Does your dad still compete? No, no. He just trained. He trained. He's still 52, but he's, uh, he's doing all right. For a 52 year old, he's doing well.

Yeah, I mean, I, as a 35 year old, I wish I was in the shape that he's in as a 52 year old. I mean, it's unbelievable. I don't know. I can recommend the supplements he's taken if you want. They'll get you there, I'm sure. What, if anything, did you Sada say to you after that? Were there any comments? They haven't come knocking yet. Jeff, Jeff ain't been banging at the door, Jeff. I hope they do. They've never tested me in England.

I don't know what it is. I've never been tested back home. Wow. Something tells me they might test you now. Bring them more than merry. I don't care. And last time we spoke, you also told me that you banned your mom from attending your events because she incites fights.

Is that band still in place? You know what? She came to this one in Liverpool because I had someone drop out. and I had a spare ticket. I was like, there's only one person I can give it to, really. But apparently she was fine. Apparently she was fine. My brother was looking after her.

So it was okay. She was well-behaved. Wow. So you lifted the band now as a result. She's welcome back? She's welcome. I think, yeah, she made a good display. No trouble.

She was partying pretty hard after. I actually left. I left the club before my mom and dad. They were still out. They were ringing me out. I was like, I'm in bed. I said I'm in bed. Go away.

It's amazing. That is incredible. Did your dad care that you said that on national TV, or he knew you were, you know, you were just having a laugh? Yeah. He knew I was having a laugh. We always joke about it. I always joke about it.

What a relationship. I love it. We always busted. Yeah. It's thunder. And what about your dog? What's your dog's name again? Trafford.

Trafford. What a great name. Is he still around? Yeah. He was down the beach here earlier, but my dad took him away. He kept barking at everyone. He's on bloody steroids as well, the dog. What? Yeah, he's got off-riders.

The dog got off-riders in his joints, so they're injecting some roids in his joints. Gosh. But he's a whole house full. Yeah, Nick Diaz was right. Everyone's on steroids. steroids in the Allen household. Even the dog.

Yeah. A dog. Is your dad injecting him or is a doctor doing that? My dad's doing it. He brought me up when I was in Montreal. I was like, Dad, you're going to kill my dog, man. Please. He's like, no, no, no.

I've done the science. It's good. And he seems fine. He seems okay. Oh, wow. I guess it's working. Yeah. He's a doctor as well.

Has anyone approached your family about doing some kind of reality? show or something, like a fight passion? I feel like this needs to be documented. Nah, I don't know. I don't know. I think my dad's been on TV a few times, some weird stuff in the 90s, but I don't know. Doing what? It would be funny.

How is it? It was a strong man event. He did some sort of strong man event, but basically he'll tell you the story if you ever meet him, but they wanted it. It was a journalist, and a report wanted to pull him up on the Stelroy talking. There was a lot of trouble with stories in the 90s and this and that.

Basically, they asked him and he just said, yeah, I'll take this, this, this, this. And I take that, I take this month of this. And the guy was like, oh, what do you do with that? He just told us everything. I think they were expecting him to be like, no, no, no, I don't take anything. I don't take anything. He just told him everything. Oh, my God. It's quite like. Unbelievable. I never met your dad, but I love him. He cracks me up.

Yeah, yeah. He's a nice guy. He's a sweet. And one of the all-time great names. Pacer Allen, I mean, you can't beat that. Yeah. What a weird name, Pacer. Yeah. Arnold's, he called me Arnold, so we've got a gift, too.

Arnold's a fantastic name as well. Your name, Arnold Almighty Allen, to me, it's like one of the best fight names of all time. I don't know what it is about it. Oh, you think? I love it. Yeah. Thank you. Now, what about the return?

Do you, I mean, you need to make up for some lost time here. Do you want to get back in there relatively quickly? Yeah, I'm going to take a month back in England just to chill with my family. I've been away for nearly the last year. So I spend a few weeks here at home with my family. My grandson has a bit sick, so I'm going to go see him, make sure I catch up with him. But, yeah, I'd like to fight middle of the middle of the year now, won't we? But September, September, will be cool.

A few people send me suggestions for September, maybe late August. I'm back to Montreal in July so from there I'll be preparing for a fight. I'm going to be training here but it's not the same level as try to start to do us. Right. Now that you're on this winning streak, I saw it, I mean, it's

one of the best winning streaks at 145 who comes to mind? Right. No one really. You know what? I always have thoughts and I speak to Fraz and he's like, he'll tell me otherwise or, you know, and I've never taught a world champion.

I've never been a world cast coach. There's a reason I go to him for advice, and I listen to him. So I just wait for Frey's to tell me what to do. When is that money supposed to get the bank account? I don't know. I think it was because it was a Sunday. And then in England, it was a bank holiday Monday. Ah, yeah.

I guess so it's all been messed up. Okay. Wow. So you get the show, the win, and the performance bonus. This is great. yes sir this would be good any plans as far as what you're going to do with it or just try to save it I was thinking about buying my dad a truck

okay just wants a beat up old truck like a really bad truck all right but that's where you want so I'm gonna have a look see if I can find one I'm gonna see what can get last thing for you Arnold what was the atmosphere like first UFC event in Liverpool did it live up your expectations did it exceed them what was it like in there It was great.

It was great. It was electric. You know, like, the fans in Liverpool, they're like a, they're very passionate about their sport, especially football. I was out Saturday night watching the Champions League final. Obviously, they didn't win, but there was, it was grown men in the streets crying, you know, like, it was crazy. It was a crazy weekend in Liverpool. Obviously, for down-till, it was crazy watching his walkout, sweet Caroline. Yeah.

It was really cool. It was a great answer. I hope to do something like that myself one day, you know, with my own... I don't know about my own town, but maybe London. That's close enough. Yeah. Well, you deserve it. A 4-0 now in the UFC.

Thanks. Great comeback win. And welcome back. We missed you, Arnold. So I'm looking forward to... Thanks for having me. Of course. It's a pleasure and honor.

You crack me up. I enjoy it very much. So... And your number one fan is Luke Barnat. This guy is really championing your cause. He's always building you up. Yeah, he is. he has been from day one yeah he has been great guy i wish you the best enjoy your time out enjoy your

time off and please keep the mustache for us it's it's looking great i will do all right i can't shave it now absolutely and please say hello to pacer for us as well i will do i will do all right thank you arnold all the best thanks for us see you soon there he is the one and only Arnold Allen Arnold Almighty Alan What a great guy Wow do I enjoy him From the mustache

His dad shooting himself up Shooting up the dog The mom getting banned The brother The Strongman brother What a great guy How do you not love this guy And so now like I said

He is Four and own the UFC With some You know some impressive wins Let's not forget He's the one who gave Makwanamir Kani His first UFC loss

Curious to see what they do with him Next Next, didn't want to talk about the issue as far as the legal issue and all that. I respect it. You can look it up if you'd like. It is there on the Google machine. And so I'll respect his stance. Glad to hear that it's all cleared up and he's able to travel and do his thing.

All right. Let's move along. Like I said, a big weekend. for English MMA, a big weekend in the UK with the Liverpool event on Sunday, also Belator 200 in London on Friday. And one of the big stories that night was the debut of the Joker, Aaron Chalmers. You've seen him on the program before, formerly of the Jordie Shore. And here he was coming over from Bama into Bellator, people wondering, okay, what would be like on a much larger stage? And it couldn't have gone any better. He won't.

via guillotine choke in just a minute and 55 seconds. He defeated Ash Griffiths in the first round. An impressive victory for him. The haters continue to be vocal. He continues to shut them up. And to me, it's a very fun story to watch because for some reason, people keep getting hot under the collar about this guy. He keeps ignoring them.

He's training with a great team. The likes of Leon Edwards and his brother, Fabian Edwards. And he's doing his thing. He's not just some freak show. He's not some gimmick. he's actually going in there and fighting the people who they put in front of him

and beating the people who they put in front of him and he's doing it in very impressive fashion and he's doing it as he should, building himself up. So what a performance

wanted to talk to him about that and what's next? Let's go back to the Skype Machine and say hello to the Joker Aaron Chalmers. There he is. Aaron, how are you? I'm very good.

How are you? I'm doing great. Great to talk to you again and congratulations on your first victory in Belator. What was the difference, if any, in fighting in Beltaire as opposed to Bama

did you feel a difference? Do you know what is? Nah, like obviously when I walk out, I don't really acknowledge the crowd and stuff so there was a lot more attending, but it was a really chilled week. It was a really chilled week.

A lot of big names around and had trained hard, so nah, I didn't feel different. Yeah, and with all due respect, Obama, it is different when you're fighting on a card with the likes of, you know, Gagher Musassi, and of course, there was supposed to have Roy Nelson and Miracle Krookop there, the likes of MVP, Phil Davis.

At any point, are you looking around like, man, a year ago, I wasn't even in this, and now I'm sharing the bill with these guys, I'm on the main card. Does it still kind of feel like a dream? Yeah, well, at the press conference, Roy Nelson was sitting behind us, and I've always been a big fan,

ever since he was on the ultimate fight, I saw, I was kind of just sitting looking at him, and I was thinking, he's going to be thinking why is he just staring at this but then obviously I went and spoke to him and it is crazy it's absolutely crazy

so like you say one year ago I was nothing I hadn't even had a fight so now I've been on one of the biggest MMA cards in England with some of the biggest names

so yeah it's good to go man I really enjoyed it do you feel like winning and especially the way in which you won on a stage like Belator will shut up the critics or does this only make them louder? Do you feel like there's more critics now?

It just makes them worse, which is, I love it. You know, there is, like, how can you anger so many people that you don't even know? I don't even, like, these people are getting so angry and they've never even met us, so it just shows you how pathetic that they are. But yeah, the more I keep winning, the more it annoys them and good.

I really, I actually really enjoy it. people get you said something in the post fight scrum that i thought was actually accurate very apropos you said they'll only be happy once i lose you feel that way right like what is it like what's it like to have all these people like feeling that they are hoping that you fail that's the world that we're living these days no one wants to say anyone do well they all they all want to say you fail that and that's that's just the world we're living so like i say people tweet us all day every day, but I haven't even got Twitter, so I never even say it.

So they're wasting the time. My management on my Twitter and they're on it. So, all these people are tweeting day and the out, and I don't even say it. Wow. It's quite a weird. I actually sit back and I actually find it really amusing, because

at the end of the day, someone, if you break it down, if you break it down, obviously, my first fight camp was four weeks. I've never trained in my life, really. First bike camp was four weeks. then I went away filming, drinking, then I started training again for my second fight.

That was six weeks. Then went away again, filming and drinking. And my first fight came was eight weeks. And then I went, and I had a time off. So if you break it down, I think I've trained my whole life 28 weeks. The kids have been fighting, have trained four, five, six years. And I've demolished every one of them in the first round. So people can say whatever they want.

I can guarantee no one on 28 weeks training, would do what I've done. But because I've been on a TV show before, it's just easy to hate. So, yeah, like I say, I looked at other fighters' records in their early careers. Just because they weren't on a big platform, all fighters at my stage are fighting a lot,

a lot less opponents than I'm fighting, a lot less. So I can't win. So no matter how I, even if I beat a 10-0, someone would say it was a fix. So what's the point trying to please, everyone? Instead of pleasing them, I'm just trying to test them off. That to me is the craziest argument of all. If someone wants to say, oh, he's getting a prime spot on Bellator 200 because he's famous,

all right, fine, there is something to that, and I feel like you've acknowledged it. But for people to criticize you for your opponent's records, like that you're supposed to be fighting guys who are 10 and 15 and 0 at this stage of her career, that's absolutely ludicrous. That would be mismanagement by your team to put you in fights like. that. That is the worst criticism that they can put forth. But that's it. Like,

like you say, no fighter, no, not even Belitobama, you have seen, you would never mismatch like that. Yeah. You would never put a 4-0

with a 15 and 0, no way. Like, you just make no sense. But like you say, because, just because I'm winning, that's the only argument to have.

That is literally the only argument that to have. but then you can turn it around this way people are annoyed that obviously I've got on Bama there I've got on Bellator but you can put it like this break it down we've got two fighters one sells 20 tickets to his family

and his Nana and a couple of friends the other ones sells 5,000 tickets get on TV and 60th countries on MTV if you're a businessman which fighter are you going to choose sure no brainer that's a business that's a business perspective

but if the offer is If they said, oh, like, I've seen people say, oh, what about a title fight? I'll take a title fight in five, six, seven year if I ever thought I was ready. That, to me, that would be jumping in the queue, but I'm not asking for a title fight. I'm trying to build me record up, and I'm enjoying myself. And I'm annoying a lot of people on the way by doing this. You blew me away with the Twitter comment because when I reached out to you, it was just a couple hours before, after your fight, and I was like, wow, look at this guy.

you know he's on a TV show I've seen the clips drinking he's responding to me he probably should be out celebrating but now I know it wasn't really you responding it was your management yeah but we managed but when you were like when you when you when you were that was sitting next to me management so okay all right obviously he was a real wants you back on what I mean is in the day to day in day to day yeah sure if he's just that common abuse it just gets bypassed whereas obviously when big names like yourself I mean by the time you message. I was, I was, it was my birthday the next day, so I was really drunk, but I still got the message.

Happy birthday. I just, I'll just, I'll just bypass all the, all the hate because it's not even working in the way. Was there a time where you were more active? And by the way, happy birthday, in case you didn't hear, what a great present for you. But was there a time where you were more active and then you decided I need to get off this because there's too much negativity?

I'll be honest with you. I was speaking about with you about it, like mental health. rooms and stuff. So two years ago, there was a stage where I couldn't leave the house for anxiety. I was that badly with anxiety that I couldn't leave the house. So to walk out in front of 8,500 people on Bellator, that's an achievement in itself. So no one really knows the struggles that other people are going through. So for me, my, in minding myself, from going to not be able to leave the house with anxiety, walking out to do that, that's a huge achievement. But no one sees that people just see

oh he's on Bellator he's fucking this and that but like I say in two years I went from the real dark days so on top of the world and I keep

I keep obviously proving myself right that obviously I went through the dark ages and if someone said two years ago woke out and putting

8,000 people and have a fight there's no way no way so it just shows you that it can be done and I've come a long way since then wow

why were you so anxious obviously I was on a TV show on a big platform and you're just a target you're just a target for abuse really you put yourself in the limelight and like you say I was I would get maybe one bad comment in 20 good but I would always focus on the bad

and at the time I was just the way to get around things was just to drink so I'll just drink myself I'll just drink every night and obviously the anxiety would get worse It was a never-rounding circle and then obviously I started saying a therapist about it and speaking about it

and it was the best thing I've ever done fast forward two years from sitting in my room not being to leave to walk out in front of Bellator in front of millions and I loved every minute of it so you feel like you've conquered that like it's not crippling you anymore

nah not at all not at all literally I feel like once someone told us whatever you go walk in like you own the place hence why I walked in the bell at all cage I own the whole place and like I go now when I walk in

I enjoy it even people through normally it would annoy us but I enjoy it like I enjoy that people are that annoyed by us so like I see everywhere I walk I walk in a nightclub I walk anywhere I'm walking like I own the place that's where it's always stuck in my head nice um one thing I can't

quite understand why did Bama let you go you go Obviously, I had asked, Bellator is huge, and they come in, and obviously, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. So I had asked to terminate the contract, and it's a bit ongoing, but I'm now 100% Belator fighter. Okay. Obviously, no bad blood, but like you see, you've got to look after number one, and as soon as Bellator come in, there's no way that I was going to turn it down,

because they might not have come back again. Okay, and so are they reluctant to give you up? Maybe. I don't know. I don't really know. I would imagine so, but there's still a big promotion, and I'm sure I've got plenty of the fighters that can be on their cord. What do you make of... Bellator. Sorry. Would you make of Scott Coker?

Yeah, I really like Scott. I really like Scott. He's a nice bloke. Like, every time I met him, he's really nice. And hopefully he's got some big plans for us. The dream is to fight in America, so that's what I'm pushing for. That's interesting. That was actually my next question. I could understand why that would be your dream, but you're such a big draw in England,

so I don't know if it makes business sense to bring you over. Do you feel like they're going to bring you over soon or keep you in England? I feel like they bring us over. I feel like they will. I had a good response, apparently, from me. the American side after Bellatos, so who knows? Like I say, wherever Scott tells us I'm fighting, whether I'd be England, whether I'd be America, whatever it'd be somewhere in Europe, I'll be, I'll just fight wherever he tells

this. He's the boss, so whatever he says goes. Now, I have to ask you about the fight itself, it wasn't a very long fight, but at one point it did seem like he rocked you with that knee. How hurt were you? Do you know what's funny, right? I was, after the fight, I was pressing me face, because I didn't feel it. I didn't, I'd be honest, I didn't,

it didn't rock his, I just didn't really feel it. And then, to be honest, the finish was a bit sloppy, but I knew, like, I was told, if I hit him, like, he just gave up, and that's what it looked like,

I hit him, and he just kind of didn't want to know. Like, to be honest, when I had, when I had the choke, I was literally going to rip his head off if he didn't, if he didn't tap. He refused to tap, and then he apparently went out.

But there was no way I was leaving go until he was either out or he was tapping because he said a lot of shit in the buildup and that just a lot of stuff and he was saying he was a kickboxing champion and I was what I wanted to just stand in the middle of the cage and just fight and just see who got

knocked out but he didn't want to do that so this was somewhat personal just all in the buildup he was um he was just like slating and saying there's no way he can beat me and just the same shit with every fight I say is to us and they all find out in a couple of minutes that they're not good enough, simple as that.

I find it interesting that you keep saying us instead of me and I. Even when you talk about getting hit, you say hit us, rock us. Why is that? That's just where I'm from in England. That's just how it comes out. Oh, okay. That's interesting because I thought it was like a team thing. You feel so a part of your team that you feel like you're in it together.

no it's just where i'm from in england in newcastle that's that's just what we say everyone even when i move like go to london and stuff people always say why do you say us and it i don't know it just comes out like that okay fair enough um how soon do you want to return um well after this birthday weekend i've had too much alcohol so that's it i'm i'm not drinking again it's sicking is so i'm gonna have a week off um and i'm gonna go back training next week one week's enough one week off at that diet one week of alcohol and it's boring so yeah I want to go back to camp and then I'll be

ready hopefully August, September October whenever I wants this okay um the sooner the better sooner the better okay by the way could I ask about the tattoos because your tattoos have almost become just like big like

it's just ink there's no design there on your neck and on your arm why is that right so obviously I've had some old tattoos So what we're doing, we're lasering all the front off And then both my arms go black But then they get like white 3D Geometric patterns put back through

But obviously with being in camp I haven't got tattooed So they look at the minute The door, like it looks like nothing But when they're done it'll be all black With all white dot work back through it Ah, so there's a... I thought you just liked the black

No, no, no no So like it's a work in progress But obviously you can't get tattooed And be in camp because it's actually agony. So, like I say, it's all blackwood, then white dots back through. So it will, it will look good, but I don't know, it just looks as if it, it's all a bit patchy. And now that you're in Belator and the career is rolling along, are you done with the TV show? Yeah, yeah, I've, um, like I say, I was 31 on Saturday, and yeah, I've just, I've done four years on it, and you

can't, you can't juggle being an MMA fight at in drinking for a living, so I had to give up one, and I chose to be an MMA fighter, and I'm really enjoying it. Is this news? Have you broken up the band here? Is this like Paul McCartney leaving the Beatles? No, you know what is? I left last year. They've already filmed the new series. Oh, okay.

So, yeah, no, it's not a new news. I thought I was going to be on, like, one of the rags or something like that. That would have been big. Yeah. None of that sort. And as far as the quality of opponent, you're happy? Do you feel like it's time for a bit of a step? Or are you happy with this progression?

I always want to step up. Like I say, the latter fought on Friday had over 100 fights in combat sports. He was a kickboxing champion. He's had boxing fights. He just had 10 pro fights. He had five amateur MMA fights. And it's still not good enough. So, like I say, I always have to step up.

I always ask for one. I don't pick and choose my opponents but obviously the next one has to be a step up and I'll be more than ready. In general, I wouldn't mind going second and third round, but fucking hell if I see someone if I can take a shot and put him away in the first round

then why wouldn't I do that? And it was a birthday, so I wasn't messing up to be in and out and that's exactly what I've done. Short of the better, you get paid the same. Why not? Last thing for you, Aaron. Yeah, absolutely.

Before I let you go, I'm just curious. I know you're newer to the game, but some massive news as far as European and English MMA is concerned regarding the retirement of Michael Bisping. And I'm just wondering what Michael Bisping means to you, if you have any memories of Michael Bisping. He's been around for years. Obviously, I always followed MMA before I even started.

And like I say, look at him, he's people, everyone was saying that he would never be champion and look for he's done. He's done it for the sport. So anything's possible. Anything is possible. He was a great, great fighter. And I think he fouled out at the right time.

He's done everything he needs to do. He's got a good love of cash in the bank store. You know what I mean? He's had a good hard career. So now you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy his time off. That's right. Well, I wish you the best. Congratulations.

What an impressive victory. Each one continues to be more impressive than the next. It's a lot of fun watching you. progress and also piss everyone off while doing so. That is a lot of fun, my friend. So keep it up. Continued success. Congratulations. And I'm looking forward to the next one. Great to talk to you again, Aaron.

Thank you very much. Take care. All right. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. Aaron, the Joker, Chalmers, stopping by. Now 4 and 0. And like I said, he continues to piss off the haters. But he is continuing to win. And he's fighting the right kind of opponents. Anyone who wants to see him in there against someone who's 10 and

0, 12 and 0, it just doesn't make, it just doesn't make sense. So that was really impressive. That was on Friday. Ash Griffiths was the opponent, submitted him in the first round. And what is this that I see over here? As I told you at the beginning of the show, the impression that I was getting was that Bellator wasn't too hot on this Gaggard-Musasi versus... Roy McDonald fight and now here is my good pal Mike Bonn of MMA junkie saying what is it? I don't see what this is. Saying that Scott Coker has dismissed immediate Roy McDonald versus Gagha Musasi fight but one day. I mean come on what are you talking about that is the fight that is the fight to make it's too obvious it's too easy what is this article

Let me see here. Is this from today? 340, May 29th. They're all in, claiming Canadian chicken. McDonald has been toying when, well, it seems like this is old. Quote, as I was walking over here, Rory was blowing my phone up going, quote, let's do it. I want to get this fight on.

Coker told reporters including MMA junkie after Biltor 200, we'll go back and let's see. We're working on a few things that will make sense. That fight will happen one day. How soon I'm not sure. And Coker's plan. Gaggart showed why he's probably one of the best in the world. Now he's our world champion.

I know when we signed him to fight in strike force, he was amazing. He's getting better and better. and we have some great fights ahead of him. Okay, so where's the quote? Where's the one day? I don't see the... So it seems like this is from Friday, not exactly new news.

Mike Bond. What's wrong with you? Getting us all upset for nothing. I mean, Jesus. A lot has happened since Friday. Unless I'm reading this incorrectly. A lot has happened since Friday. They've been on the show together.

They've had their back and forth. So let's see. All right. We'll continue to bang the drum on that one. A lot of fun to catch. catch up with Aaron Chalmers, Arnold Allen, two British fighters in a matter of moments. I do believe we are going to be joined by Michael Venom Page. We are efforting, as they say in the world of television, to reach out to him or at least to connect with him, although I'm being

told that we might have some issues with that. And what a performance out of Michael Venom Page. Unbelievable. In case you missed it, Michael Venom Page fought David Rickles on Friday. And this was straight out of, in my opinion, this was straight out of a UFC 101 Anderson Silva against Forrest Griffin because I mean to make a fighter quit like that

he defeated him in the second round, 43 seconds into the second round, busted him open and then it was a verbal submission the victory via TKO but he just mentally broke David Rickles and in many respects it was your typical Michael Page fight, you know, all the showboating

all the mustard. It didn't seem he got cracked once, didn't seem like he was ever in danger, hands down, shimmying, dancing, gloating, but connecting. And connecting in a big way. And then finally, it seemed like he opened up Rickles and Rickles just quit. He wanted nothing to do with that fight. It was unbelievable. I mean, what an amazing performance. And to do that to a fellow fighter, a tough fighter and David Rickles, to make him mentally break like that is just no short. I mean, that is just an incredible athletic achievement. Maybe his most impressive performance in Bell Tour. Let's ask him about that. He joins us now via the phone. Michael Page is standing by. MVP, how are you?

I'm doing very, very well. Very, very well. Thank you. How you doing? I got nervous that you were you were alluding us, like you were alluding those punches from David Rickles, but we found you, so I'm happy. Yes, yes. And I apologize. Yeah, just been a bit busy, a bit crazy. I can... I can understand, and I appreciate you giving us some time. Thank you very much. Do you agree with that sentiment?

Was that your best performance in Belator thus far? I'd have to say yes, only more just because of how I felt. I genuinely felt like that was the best I've ever felt in a fight. So obviously, yeah, the performance was great as well, but I felt like that was the only way that performance was going to go because, you know, the preparation for this one, I was telling everybody I was doing a lot different things in my preparation. My coach had changed a few things,

and I just felt super, super fast and super energized. So, yeah, it was definitely by far probably one of my best performances. Could you elaborate on that? Like, what were you doing differently? Why did you feel so good? Why was it the best? Well, I think the main thing is, added a weights program.

And normally, I've done very, very lightweight. Wates just very light weights. I never really gone, gone too deep into any weight program. And my coach said he thinks it's time that I actually was a bit heavier in my fight for one and a little

bit more explosive. And he was definitely right about that. I felt unbelievable. My leg, I felt like I had gone you know, seven, eight, nine, rounds just that's how fresh my legs felt and this as well I was getting away with dancing in between rounds it was amazing I mean to do that we've seen you do that sort of thing before

it felt like maybe it was dialed up a little bit and now I can understand why have you ever had an opponent quit like that mentally quit like that you broke them to the point where they were telling the referee I want no mas no more I'm done has that ever happened prior to beltor or in any other you know combat um you know combat sport that you have ever been a part of Um, in the kickboxing world, I had a lot of, uh, my name was, my name was very, was very big. So I had a lot of people just mentally break, even before I stepped in. And that was just to do with my name. But in the, in the mixed martial arts world, I'd never, I'd rarely, really, really even see it, let alone.

Yeah. It happened to you. So, um, you know, you know, we know how tough everybody is in just. just to get in the cage, but someone of Dave Rickles standard as well. They could have been a million ways that I had predicted this to finish

and that definitely wouldn't have been one of them. And what is that like to see that? To actually be in the contest and then see your opponent break like that. What does that feel like? It's amazing. I think it's just tribute to exactly where I was and how good I was.

on that night. And like I said, I felt amazing, but you can feel amazing and still not, you know, fight the way you want.

And I think everything came, everything came to, came to fruition, came to plan. And I was, I was just so, I was so excited about just that whole night

was just unbelievable for me. I'm still, I'm still buzzing off it now. I probably watched a fight about 10 times. Wow. Is it possible that that feels better than a knockout, like the cyborg knockout? Does that feel even better? Because you made the opponent do that? Yeah, well, obviously, they both have, they both have their own, you know, bonuses. Like that cyborg, uh, K.O. went, that went all over the place. And I don't think, um, this fight had done the same thing. But in terms of, uh, the crowd this time round, I felt was just,

they were like times 10 to the last fight. How that lifted me. My performance where I was, there were so many bonuses in this fight. I really did enjoy this fight in so many different ways. Him quitting, it's not even something I thought about too deep, as much as it is an achievement to get someone as tough as him to quit. But I just enjoyed the whole thing. Like, there's just every part of it I enjoyed.

How much did all the theatrics beforehand with the heart and all that fire you up? Did any of that bother you? No, I never care for all of that kind of stuff. I know a lot of the times, a lot of the times that people come in, but to be fair, I kind of understood his character. He's a bit of a joker himself. And I like that. I like the fact that people are characters.

Okay, so it never got on your skin. It didn't make it more personal. No, not at all, not at all, not at all. I felt absolutely just in the zone. I've never felt as hungry and as fired up as I have before in this fight. Like I said, I was in the back just doing drills with my training partners and my coaches and they were looking at me like, what, you look possessed. And that's exactly how I felt.

I felt possessed. I felt like I was, I've never felt that fired up before. There was, there was like a focused anger inside of me as well. Normally it's just more, just more enjoyment, but I had the enjoyment side with that kind of focus anger. I felt unbelievable. Hard to believe that it's been around a year and a half since you competed in Beltoe, of course you had the boxing match,

but November of 2016 feels like a very long time ago. Any, you know, like the time off, like did you feel like you kind of had to remind people, who MVP is, you had to do something spectacular. I'll get to the daily stuff in a second, but did you sort of feel like you had to make up for lost time? Not really, like, I say this for a lot of people. I know what I can do in the cage,

and the time off was just unfortunate. Time off was time off that I wish I did, which never happened that way. And if I could go back, you know, I'd have been in the cage a lot earlier doing this, but I don't feel like I have to prove to anybody and if anybody that feels like I do usually people that I don't care for their opinions every time I go out I said nobody can do what I do in the cage

there's nobody in the world that can do what I do in a cage in terms of just how many angles I hit in terms of how I can capture the crowd the moves that I can put off in the cage to speed my accuracy the excitement. I think I put on a full show that nobody else

can actually put on while they're in the cage. Yeah, I think you made a pretty strong point once again as far as that is concerned on Friday. And so the time off you mentioned, like you wish you didn't have that time off, you could do it differently.

Why were you out for so long? There's a mixture of a lot of things. There's a mixture of injuries. of being a bit of a headache. And I think this is another reason why, you know, the weight training has actually helped me as well. I feel a lot stronger. Paul Jarman, one of our physios,

actually amazing to work with from back to basic. I've been doing a lot more physio work just to make sure. Even when I'm, I feel, this is where I think a lot of fighters go wrong is when they feel amazing, they don't ever check themselves out. And they don't get, you know, they don't get the continuous treatment because, you know, they feel good. And that's where, you know, things, can then go wrong and go wrong in a big way where this time I've been making sure that I've been getting, you know,

religious treatments every week, even when I'm feeling amazing. And again, then building my strength up with the new weights program with my coaches. Yeah, I just think everything has just gone right. Whereas before, I kept getting injuries. There's a lot of personal stuff happening behind the scenes as well. trying to arrange things with Bellator. The communications just wasn't on point as it is now. And, yeah, they were just a mixture of things.

And unfortunately, I wasn't able to, you know, it's taking me this long to get that fight. And if I could have changed it 100% I would. And now, of course, I have to ask you about Paul Daly. I thought it was unfortunate that this fight didn't happen in Belator 200, especially because it was taking place in London. I think it's one of the very best fights that Beltor could put on. the time that it has taken to put this together

almost adds to the legend of it, but I want to see it. And so he has been very vocal about it. I know you guys have gone back and forth. I know you have said that, you know, time's up, you've moved on. Is there anything we can do to convince you otherwise? Can this fight be saved or is it really dead?

I'd never say it's dead because I'm happy to fight anybody. And if that comes up, if it comes up again, it comes up again. I'm just like, I don't know if you've seen, you know, understood what's happened from the beginning, but I've, I've had contracts. I've signed contracts for this guy a countless amount of times now. And, you know, having someone be disrespectful about you in that way and then still not want to fight you, then call you out and then still not want to fight you.

And then call you out again and still not want to fight you. It's tiring. And I feel like, you know, you. know, I don't have that same fire as I did. Like I said, it was personal. I don't have that same fire in me as I did before. But just because I don't, I see him as a bit of a joke. Like, he's lost a hell of a lot of respect.

You know, we can have a little back and forth with each other. But a lot of the time they're, regardless, even when there's a lot of heated moments, a lot of fighters do respect each other. But I genuinely just don't respect him anymore. I have zero respect for this man. in the way he's conducted himself. It seemed ridiculously childish, and it is childish. It kind of shows me where, you know, the poor daily that we used to see

that we saw years ago in the UFC, sucker punching somebody after the fight, it's still the poor daily that stands in front of us today. And he hasn't grown at all. Years have gone past, and he's still the same person. This fight should have happened. And if you think about it, he had, he bragged about having two contract in front of him, one being myself and one being John Fitch.

And he decided to take the wrestler and then complain about being wrestled in his own fight, booing his own fight while he's getting punched in the face and not take the fight. Two weeks later, that would have made way more sense in terms of whatever. everybody wanted in terms of what he wanted as a style, not being wrestled, actually wanted to stand on his feet and strike and prove, you know, he's the best strike, you know, if he's the best, who's the best striker, shall I say? Yeah, there's just so many things that I would just like, I just don't take him seriously anymore.

So him calling me out now, it kind of, it feels like a bit of a get out of jail, rich, a get out of jail free just because, you know, he lost that fight and he needs something to kind of push himself back up into the limelight. you know what, go and prove yourself to be worthy of me again. And then if you do that, then, yeah, we can fight. But outside of that, I genuinely do not give a crap about this guy. And like I said, I've lost all respect. So I don't even care to show him any time.

I'm not saying no to this fight because, again, if this MVP steps in the cage with poor daily, it will be a bad night for him anyway. And last time I spoke to you I also said if I was to fight him I don't want him to be able to feed his kids afterwards So he'd have to put all of it on the table And if he really does want his fight that bad now He needs to prove it one way or the other

Do you believe that he wants to fight Or do you think this is some sort of You know like PR stunt He's got new management Like do you actually feel like he wants this? I actually said to a lot of my guys I think it's PR because as you say He's got new management, and they know how to make, you know, it's their job to know how to make fighters relevant and how to, you know, push their people's names back up.

And again, it's a bit of a coincidence. He's just over a sudden. Now he's got Twitter, he's got Instagram, he's got all these things, and the first thing he does is call my name. But yet he talks of me as if I'm a lesser person, and I'm not on his level, but now he needs me to become relevant again. And this is why I say, I have no interest in doing you any favors. I haven't replied to him You know I've spoken to the media

You know the MMA media Honestly And I just say how I feel But I've always been like that And but I just don't care I think I'm not the one calling you I'm not doing any of that kind of stuff I didn't mention it

And I will never mention his name You know the situation is a situation Like I said if it comes back up I think he's giving up something He's either gone back out And proven himself Or like I said He's putting everything on the line

To fight me And that's the only way is going to come up again. How soon do you want to return? Oh, as soon as possible, man. I'm looking at, actually looking at a boxing fight, just to get one in as quick as possible. So I'm hoping that goes ahead.

There's still a few things I need to, we need to kind of sort out. And then straight back in at MMA, I feel ridiculously fresh still, because if you saw in that fire, I didn't get touched. and you know I'm not injured or anything from that fight so yeah I'm good to go man I'm just

I'm back in the gym already already working on on the next moves and better in myself so I'm just looking forward to being in the cage again being in the ring again and just you know showing off and showing off what I can do and last thing for you Michael because we've asked several of our guests today who are from England about this

about the news of Michael Bisping retiring. I'm wondering what Michael Bisping meant to you, if anything, and your feelings when you found out that he was walking away. I understand it. Now, you know, he's just someone that's been in the game for a long time and, you know, we're struggling to cross that final hurdle and then he did it and, you know, he was riding on that wave. Unfortunately, lost it, lost it again.

But again, I think he was already coming to the end of the... end of his career anyway, even if he didn't, I think he would have retired. He's a wicked character, man. Like, I didn't really follow him before, just purely because I didn't really follow MMA when I was doing a kitboxing. But when I got in, obviously, when you learn about it and you kind of, you back, you backtrack and, you know, download all the old stuff and, you know, realize who he is and what he does mean to the MMA community, anybody in the British, in the British

MMA scene would have mentioned his name. And yeah, he's done a lot, man. And I personally am proud of him just because of what he's achieved in the mixed martial arts. And I'm sure what he's going to go into achieving in whatever he goes on to do. And he's a wicked character. Whatever you like him or hate him, he's a really good character to have in sports or stop. And to have him as one of your own, shall I say, being a Brit. Yeah, I'll just say I'm really proud of him and what he's done with him.

achieved. Great stuff, Mike. I mean, really, what a performance. That to me is one of the greatest performances I've ever seen to see another man in high-level MMMA quit like that is nothing short of amazing. So congratulations to you. Welcome back and looking forward to the next one. Oh yeah, I can't wait to get back in. Thank you for having me in the show as always, man. Take care. All right, there he is. Michael Venham Page, one of the most exciting fighters in the sport today. He adds another highlight to his amazing highlight reel with that finish against David Rickles on Friday. one of the biggest stories, if not the biggest story of the weekend. Of course, Stephen Thompson against Darren Till, somewhat controversial finish.

It goes to distance in the end. Darren Till gets the victory. As I said before the fight, I throw around the term, mensch a lot. There's no greater mention this sport than Stephen Thompson. Kind enough to be joining us on the show right now. Really appreciate his time. Let's go to him right away. Here he is.

Stephen Thompson joining us. Stephen, how are you? Doing great, my friend. Doing great. How about yourself? I'm doing really great. I can't thank you enough. Usually when someone loses,

and I know it was a disappointing one, I like to give some distance, but this one was so controversial that I was dying to hear your thoughts, so I really appreciate the time. From what I understand, you're still in the UK, right? Yeah, yeah.

I was actually in Wales, hang out with some of the local karate schools here and got a chance to get to meet some of the people and hang out with the fans here in Europe, the UK, so it's been a lot of fun, man. Really cool. Really cool experience. After a fight going down like that to stick around in sort of enemy territory, what is it like?

Like, are you looking forward to leaving or are you okay? Has everyone been respectful and nice? You know what? Ever since I stepped off the plane, everybody's been really respectful, very welcoming. And, you know, before, except for on Sunday, obviously, you know, fighting the hometown guy. But, yeah, everybody's been great here. Everybody's been great, man. Beautiful country.

you know, the things here in the UK are just old. Like the oldest stuff that we get back in the States, you know, 100, 200 years old. Here it's thousands of years old. So I find that super fascinating. So I've got to hang out and see some of the castles and some of the history here. So it's a lot of fun.

Before we get to the actual fight, I want to ask you about before the fight, when you found out that Darren had missed weight by three and a half pounds, and I know there was a bit of a negotiation, although in speaking to your dad, in your mind, you were coming to fight, you were there to fight. Lost my other, okay, we're back, I lost you there for a second.

There you go, I got you. I got you. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Sorry, my headphones just went out. All right. Did you... No problem?

What was your reaction when you found out that he had missed weight? And was there ever a doubt in your mind about taking the fight, you know, knowing about the stats that fighters who miss weight are undefeated if the fight goes through? How did you feel about it all? you know what i was i was you know devastated i didn't think the fight was going to happen i mean from what from what i had heard was he ended up showing up wearing three pounds heavy and due to family problems and then goes for the hour to make weight and he comes back even heavier three and a half pounds i'm like what it's almost like he wasn't even trying was going through my head you know like is he even trying to make weight um you know it

It just thinks that these guys, they sign a contract can be a certain weight, and they don't make the criteria of that contract. You know what I mean? It's just very unprofessional in my eyes. I've got over 70-something fights, and not once have I ever missed weight and not going to. Even in my second fight, when I fought Matt Brown, I was walking around about 210, which I'll never do again, but we still made weight. You know, it almost killed me, but I got down.

there. You know, it just doesn't make sense to me. I didn't think the fight was going to happen. I was, my dad could tell that I was a little frustrated. And he was like, listen, man, you need to focus on as if this fight is going to happen, focus on you, do what you got to do. Don't let's let's see if we can make this thing happen. I'm like, all right, I was like, you guys take care of it, and I'll focus on the fight. Did you consider not taking the fight, considering the weight discrepancy? You know what? It would not mean. really. I mean, I was focused as if I was going to actually fight. You know, my dad and my management are great, and I trust them with every, you know, decision that they make. So I was kind of letting

them handle that. That was definitely going through their head, you know, during, during the whole thing. So, yeah, it was definitely going through their head if they didn't kind of get what they wanted to get. You know, we wanted to get down to 185. And they're, they're taking it. team was like, dude, he's already up to 191. We're like, what? It's literally been an hour ago that he was one, that's seven to three and a half, and he's already back up to 191. I was like 183 at the time, you know, in that hour.

I was like, man, this dude, he's got to be kidding me. So, like, all right, well, okay, just do 188 then. And they're like, okay, we'll make it happen all right. We'll just do that. And, you know, it's just, ah, really, you know, you can't describe what goes to your head at that moment, you know, because, you know, you fly all that way thinking this thing is not going to happen now. And you can't allow that negativity getting in your head when you didn't

ready to go out there and do battle. But yeah, man, it definitely does get in your head. I know this is somewhat tricky territory because you don't want to come off as giving excuses, but can you acknowledge that like the drama and even the morning way in where he had to be under 188 and not knowing if it's actually going to be on or not? I mean, even listening to Dana White, it didn't seem like he was, even Darren Till himself said he didn't know if he can hit 188 after the wands. Does that mess with you going into the fight? Like, are you? You want to be at peace the night before, right? And know that, okay, the fight is on.

Can you acknowledge that that kind of was, you know, a distraction heading into fight night? You know, I didn't allow it to be a problem for me, you know? I, you know, you're dealt with obstacles in life, and you're dealt with obstacles in this business, and you've got to kind of understand that that's going to happen, and you guys got to, you know, my thinking was, This guy is going to be massive when he steps out there.

But you know what? I came out of sway. There's a lot of fans here that pay for tickets and want to see me do battle with this guy. And I don't, you know, I didn't want to let him down. So I took the fight knowing this guy was going to be, you know, a pretty, pretty stout and pretty heavy guy going in there, you know. Most people, I mean, I don't think if, I think if that was tiring, he wouldn't, he would have said no. He would, he would have probably, probably wouldn't have taken. I think most guys wouldn't have taken it.

You know, especially the way things are going with guys who, people who aren't making weight, and, you know, the winning, you know. I think it's like 8-0 right now. Guys who are going to make weight and won the fight. So, yeah, I didn't allow it to be a problem. I mean, of course, it's always in the back of your head, but I told myself it's going to happen. So I just mentally kind of blocked that out and prepared myself for it.

Do you regret saying yes to the fight? Say that again? Do you regret accepting the fight on those terms? No, you know, I don't regret taking any fight. It was definitely a learning experience. Just the whole process was a learning experience. You know, first, you know, the UFC coming to me as number one container, after fighting the number four ranked guy in the division,

going back even farther, fighting the number eight guy, flying to his hometown, you know, him not making weight and you know it was all an experience man I didn't like it

but sometimes you got to do things that you don't like to do and do it anyway but I don't regret it man it was definitely a learning experience in my book in the fight itself could you feel

like there was a size advantage or a disadvantage in your favor I think in one of the rounds I don't know if it was the third round. I had blitzed there until, and he literally just kind of covered up and shugged me off, and I flew back. I almost turned all the way.

I think it did turn all the way around. But, yeah, I mean, I can, when you hit somebody, most of the guys at my weight that I, you know, I, you are pretty confident of the same weight as you when you step out there. You know, when you make contact, you know, you can tell it, you're pretty much the same size. When I would kick or even sidekick or even try and. punch there until, you know, you could tell that he was a pretty solid dude. And you couldn't really see it on his upper body, but you can definitely see it in his lower body. He's, you know, sick, you know, sick guy. But, you know what? I went out there and did battle anyway, and it was

a good experience. It was a good experience for me. And, you know, you know, hopefully if he gets this weight thing down and maybe walk around a lower weight or just, you know, whatever, I would like definitely love to do it again. Have you had a chance? to rewatch the fight? I, to be honest with you, I haven't yet. I've seen clips on social media, but I haven't gone back and seen the entire fight yet. There are some points in that fight that I wanted to kind of go back and look,

you know, especially in the second round when he did that sidekick to my leg. It was actually to my knee that I felt that he, I wanted to make sure, you know, see if that's where he ended up hitting me was my knee. You know, my left leg, I've had surgery many times on that leg. And when I was out, I was like, dude, this dude is literally kicking me in my knee. I'm not, I mean, is that a legal spot? Is that not a legal spot? I thought it was a thigh.

But I'm pretty sure the knee is not a legal area to hit. And it was almost like this dude was trying to put me out, you know? And he hit me in the knee. And after that, my movement was pretty much out the window. I was more focused on keeping my knee. it was just another thing to think about out there. When you're in a competitive situation, you just want to focus on what you have to do

and not about keeping your knee stable, you know? So I'm not really sure what kind of damage is done, but we're going to go back and get it looked at. So hopefully it's nothing too bad. How does it feel right now? Can you walk on it on your own? I can walk on my own, but I got to keep it slightly bent. There's a lot of slowing out now.

You know, a lot of pain in the back of my knee. So, you know, as of right now, I'm thinking it's just something minor. You know, hopefully it's nothing major. But, you know, it sucks, man. It really does. Disappointed about the whole situation and then coming out of it with an injury like that, it makes it all worse. Do you feel, Stephen, like he's a dirty fighter?

You know, no, I mean, there's spiders out there. I mean, John Jones does those knee, you know, my dog. you know, when I fought Monsvidal, it was literally more of a sidekick to kind of keep me at bay. And it was actually to the quiet. I mean, he was aiming for the thigh. When I fought Darren,

it was kind of like he deliberately was going for my knee. But, you know, it could have been just his misjudgment. I don't like to think bad or negative on people, but, you know, when I was out there, I felt like he was going for the knee, you know?

And so I know it's tough because you're in the midst of the fight, but if I asked you, which rounds do you think you decisively won? Do you know? You know, I felt I won four of the five. The first, the second, and the third controversial, but definitely the fourth, you know. I think the third would probably be the more controversial. I think he definitely had the fifth, obviously, with the knockdown.

At that point, my, it was more on trying to. to keep my leg from collapsing than anything. It just felt really unstable in that fifth round. But, you know, that third could have been controversial, but at least, you know, the first, second, third, controversial, but definitely the fourth. If that fight happens anywhere other than Liverpool, Vegas, New York, California,

do you think you win that fight? You know, I don't know, man. the judges these nowadays you got a lot of guys who could I think do a lot more I don't know to do better with judging

reading the judge you know reading the fight and I know close fights are very hard in the moment but that seems to be a lot of that happening recently but yeah I think so I really do I think so

Darren is definitely a tough guy man and you know he's very confident person definitely built for the fight game and yeah I think I would win that fight the crowd was obviously very boisterous do you feel I mean you've been around the fight game for a long time do you feel like they impacted the judges you know them sometimes reacting to something that's not really happening

you know either it's it's a miss punch you avoiding a punch do you feel like they are swayed by that the judges I don't know you know that that's a very a good question. Possibility. Maybe, but I don't know, man. You know, you've got to be professional out there. And I like to think that, you know, the judges as being professional and not thinking that, you know, and then focused on the fire and not really about what the fans are doing. Because, yeah, I mean, I literally didn't hear a thing out there. I didn't hear the crowd. People were saying, every time a punch would whiff by you, not even make contact, the crowd was

going crazy. So, I don't know. That could be a possibility, yeah. Obviously, the kicks to the knee affected the fight, and I know it's fresh, but in hindsight, do you wish you did anything differently in the fight? You know what? No, man, I did out there and gave it, gave it what I got, gave it all I had, definitely the knee's sloped down a little bit, but, you know, even, you know, kill being the bigger

guy. You know, I spot with big guys every day. with big guys every day. It was definitely a chess match out there, and that's what I love the game. That's why I love to fight these guys is because of that chess match. So not only was it his striking that I had to think

about, but it was also how to get around his size. What do I have to do? I can't blitz the guy. You know, I've got to work more angles. I can't work the angles because of my knee, so I've got to back up and try and strike this guy, you know? That's why I do what I do. To try and, you know, to beat the puzzle, you know,

to figure it out. So, yeah, man, I loved every minute of it. Even the crowd walking out was just awesome. Even though they were booing me, I couldn't help but smile because it was such a cool thing to hear. All those people were just going crazy. You know, you don't really hear that in the state. I mean, the last time I heard something like that was

when I went back and watched the UFC 205, when I popped my head out of the guillotine that Tyrant had me in. Yeah. You know, and I don't really think that was as loud as. as that, you know? And I feel like if you weren't such a nice guy, the booze would be even louder. Like, it was almost like they were reluctantly bullying you

because they had to because you were fighting their guy. It was cool because they were booing me, and I was always walking there like, boo! Hey, man, give me a high five, boom, boo! And they're like, hey, give me your shoulder. Give me a high five, man. You work, you know, go to me like, boo! And they would still boo, you know?

They were like wishing me luck and booing me at the same time. It was hilarious. There seemed to be a lot of music. mutual respect between you and Darren. Is there a line there? Do you feel like sometimes it becomes, like, you know, the guys on Fox afterwards called it a sparring match where it just, it didn't seem like you were trying to knock the guy's head off.

And that's not something that we see from, like, you're not a mean-spirited person. But do you feel like there's a line between too much respect and just kind of just enough to where it doesn't feel like it's a glorified sparring match? Yeah, yeah, I think there is. I mean, there definitely, I don't think that was the case out there this Sunday. It was more the fact that I wasn't able to really put a whole lot of power behind anything, especially, you know, I love to work my angles.

I love to angle off and throw my kicks and set up my punches that way. It was just the fact that was unable to do it because of afraid of my leg collapsing, my knee giving out. So I was more thinking of keeping that stable than any. anything else, you know. Last thing I want is go out there and tear an ASEA and be out for a year. Right. 35 years old, man. I got a small winner to kind of do what I want to do. And I kind of understand with the fans that when they watch that fight and not really know what's going on to think that,

you know? I mean, even though I was out there, I was trying to hit the guy hard. I really was. I was trying to hit the guy hard. It was just that I was unable to put myself in a position to do so, you know, so it was more of me backing up and trying to hit this guy. Because if I took another knee kick like that again, I would be done. I would be done. So it was, there was a lot going. And in a fight, you don't want a lot to be thinking about. You just want reaction.

You know, if you're thinking is too slow. And I was definitely thinking out there because there was another obstacle that I had to kind of get around. And that was just the effect, the stability of my knee out there, you know. It frustrates me. Like, I'm sitting here thinking about it. I'm holding my knee, not even knowing I'm grabbing my knee. It's like a subconscious thing.

I've done it once. And it's like, ah, that's the last thing I want to happen is for my knee to go out. Because then I, you know, you never know. My career could be over, you know. And this is what I love to do. Right. And it was so interesting to watch you as they were reading the scorecards and eventually announced him as the winner because you didn't have, you know, like sometimes we see

these big reactions where the guy's upset, he thinks he won, you think you won four rounds, and you just, you have a smile, you clap, and then you kind of walk off and you didn't, you know, you didn't throw a big stink backstage even. How would you do that? How was that possible? Like you said, you went in enemy territory and you, like, and you just, he misweighed all this stuff and you're just standing there clapping. How, how do you remain so professional throughout all of this? You know, I do respect everybody I step in the aisle. I know there's a strategy to a lot of these guys making comments about people, making them mad. It's a part of the strategy to get in their head.

It's mental warfare, basically, and I understand that. I know the guy doesn't actually hate me, and I've never given them a reason to hate me. But, you know, even though I thought I had it, I thought I was going to get it. but for some reason when they were going over the scorecard I was like man watch that these this be for a for daring to watch it happen and then when they said it almost like I had mentally prepared for it you know what I mean and once they make that announcement you know I'm not going to go out there and pitch a fit I'm going to take it like a man and be a gentleman and shake my partner's hand and you know and that's how it should be done I think

that's how it should be and I can't go back and change it I can't go to the judge and say, hey, you change this, you know what I mean? You make it, you make it right. You can't do that. You know, and that's what I get for leaving it in, for allowing that kick to happen and allowing it to go in the judge's eyes. You know, it's just, yeah, it is what it is. I would imagine, though, you think, you know, two judges scoring at 49 to 46 is pretty

crazy. I do. I do think that. I mean, you know, everybody that I've talked to said, you know, I won that fight. But even after the fight, man, it was always pretty cool because I think, again, a lot of fans, you know, the way I reacted after the fight. You know? Sure. You know, that's why I do what I do.

Not just to put on a good show, but hopefully to, you know, to be an example for, you know, people out there like that, you know, who, you know, see the true martial artists. And that's why I always say I would love it if I woke up one day and I saw my kids with a Stephen Thompson poster on their wall because you are the very best that this sport has to offer. You are a better man than most of us

because I don't think anyone would have begrudged you for throwing a fit after having overcome everything that you overcame at that point and you just kind of stood there clapping. I mean, that to me is more impressive than anything you've done in the cage. It's just incredible the way you can conduct yourself. So I think that you have a lot to be proud of on that front.

You know, that definitely means a lot, man. I really appreciate it. You know, my dad, after the fight, you know, told me how proud he was. So that was like, you know, that was like super cool. You know what I mean? To hear that from him. And, uh, and my dad's a good man. And, you know, I just want to, I know what the martial arts has done for me, not just a martial artist, but, but as a man as well. to where I present myself in defeat and in a win makes all the difference

so I thought it was pretty cool you know so I appreciate that absolutely and I mean it last thing before I let you go so obviously you have to get your your leg checked out and maybe it's not immediately but I'm assuming at some

point down the line you'd love to run this back I would love to I would love to man you know what Dana White you know hopefully we'll get something going. If it's not, if it's not Darren Till, then, you know, give me the winner-lose with the RDA

and COVID-Colving to fight or whatever. You know, I'm still not giving up on that title and I'm going to go out there and give it the best I can and put on a show for everybody out there. So that's the plan, man. Still looking to the top, baby. Still looking to the top.

Well done, Stephen. Again, congratulations on a great fight. Congratulations on conducting yourself like a true pro all-class. And really appreciate you coming on here and of course good luck with the knee. Please keep us posted. I hope it's nothing serious and that you can return sooner rather than later. Yeah, I appreciate it, my friend. Always a pleasure being on with you. And hopefully we can

do it again soon. Absolutely. Absolutely. We'd love it. Thank you so much, Stephen. There he is. Stephen Wonderboy Thompson joining us from England. He is still there. What more can you say about that guy? Who dislikes that man? I know you may be a big Darren Till fan. You could be a big Tyrone Woodley fan, pick any guy. But how do you not respect that man in the way he conducts himself in and out of the cage? He doesn't whine. He doesn't complain. He has a legitimate gripe here. It was a close fight. It wasn't a robbery. It was close. And those judges had a pretty hard task on Sunday. I mean, that is a, so you can watch that fight with 10 different people, and I bet they all come up with different scorecards. Now, 49, 46 does seem like a big gap. But again, there's very small

margins here. So I don't think it was a robbery. I would love to see it again at some point. I don't think we're seeing it anytime soon. And again, I hope that his knee is not too hurt. In around 15, 20 minutes, we're going to be joined by Darren Till so stay tuned for that. But first, let us go back to the Skype machine and say hello to our next guest. She is the reigning defending one Adamweight champion. She returned to action just a couple of weeks ago, defeating Mae Amaguchi for the second time. They have fought 10 rounds now. And each one better than the previous one. great stuff. She is still undefeated. In my opinion, she is the face of one championship. She is Angela Lee, who is joining us now via the Magic Escape. There she is. Angela, how are you?

Aloha. Hi, good morning. It's good to be back on the show. Yes, and I appreciate you saying good morning as it's 436 and I've been on the air for almost four hours now, but I know you are in Hawaii. So thank you for joining us early in the morning over there. And what a great fight that was. Is it possible to compare the two? Like which one you enjoyed more? They were both phenomenal and arguably the best fights of the year as far as women's

MMA is concerned, at least thus far and of course the one a couple years ago. Which one did you enjoy more, the first or the second? That's tough. I mean, they're two completely different feelings and emotions going into them. The first one, it was very exciting because it was my shot at the world title. And that's when I first became the champion. and then going into this last match, it was, you know, I was coming in as the champion

and defending the belt. And also it was a really big night because my little brother, Christian, was fighting on the same card. And so a lot of different emotions because I actually went and I watched his fight Cage side before going out for my match. So it was crazy.

It was really crazy, crazy night. but if I had to pick which one I liked better I think this one because you know kind of just like I mean the first match was very like everyone was talking about it was very close

back and forth and this one I kind of just wanted to seal the deal and I was trying to go for the finish still went to a decision I mean she's a tough girl but yeah I mean I'm really happy with the way the fight went out the scene as you were walking

out was very emotional and you were very emotional. And that's not something that we often see. I mean, it reminded me a bit of Katzengano as she walked out for her UFC debut. You have been through a lot over the past few months. And of course, your brother fighting and not able to realize his dream in that particular fight of becoming a champion. Could you tell us what was going through your mind, if anything, at that moment? Yeah, it was a wild night. So many emotions. In November, I was supposed to have this, the same fight. But unfortunately, you know, I got into a car accident here in Hawaii, and that put me out for a couple of months. Recovering from that was difficult, but, you know, I managed to, you know, take this journey back and and take all the time I needed to get back into a healthy mindset.

And so the training camp for this fight in particular was the longest I've ever had. It was like almost two months. And, or sorry, over two months. And but it was nice because I got to train alongside my brother. And that was even more motivating because it was, you know, going to be the biggest fight of both of our lives. Fighting on the same card as Christian was a dream come true. It was something we always talked about. So just that alone, us being the main event and the co-main event, it was a really big honor.

And I'm so glad that happened. And even though Christian didn't come away with the bout and the victory, I think definitely everything happens for a reason. And he's going to come back stronger from this. So, I mean, that's what adversities do to us, you know. We overcome it and we come back stronger. I remember seeing the photos of the car accident and obviously, you know, shocking to see and very happy to see that you're okay and that you're able to resume your career. Could you tell us what injuries did you suffer in the accident? Surprisingly, very, very minor injuries. I mean,

a bunch of bruises, minor burns, and a concussion, slight concussion. I was more just really shaken up by the whole thing, like, pretty unstable. Just, you know, it was kind of traumatizing. Yeah. So it was really good to take, you know, the time off from everything, you know, kind of just pause everything that I was doing regarding, like, fighting and training and get back to my family because it was actually, it's been a few years since I've spent, like, solid time at home, you know, back in Hawaii with them.

so it was definitely good kind of like a restart button and are you okay to drive now yeah and i know i have no issues driving um it was more i don't know i i think just a lot of things happening at one time you know it was overwhelmed by a lot and i mean physically i i could have fought and you know i could have gotten back to training if i wanted to in a couple weeks but um Like, even when I attended the one championship event in November, and I had to go there and kind of like do like a meet and greet and say hi to some people. And it was just like way too much for me. I was trying to act like I was okay. But I was like, ooh, not dealing with that well.

But after the holidays, I think, you know, January, I was like, I was good. I was back to normal. And it's because you fell asleep at the wheel. Is that the story? It was like a split second, like dozed off. And then I tried to like, you know, I turned my wheel. And it's a really like narrow road. And I hit the guardrail.

And as soon as I hit the guardrail, like my car just started rolling. And it was like, I don't know, five or six times. I can't. Yeah, it's still crazy to think about. Okay. Wow. Very happy that you're okay and that, you know, no serious injuries. That's incredible.

And what a Sina was to see you out there as your brother was fighting in a perfect world. Like I remember talking to Anthony Pettis about this and his brother fighting on the same card when he was champion and eventually lost his belt. And he wasn't happy seeing his brother get knocked out. Would you rather not do, I know it's cool to fight on the same card as your brother, especially you're both fighting for belts. But there's a lot of emotion involved as well. And especially when it doesn't go his way, did that kind of mess you? you up as well before your fight? It was really hard to stay focused and, you know, kind of just remember, like, that I had a job

to do too. I think it was really hard for me to deal with, but also my dad, who's both of our head coaches, to, you know, deal with that and what happened, and then try to get me focused ready for my fight. that was pretty much right after that. We haven't talked about it if that's something that, you know, we're going to do again or not. I think, you know, it has its pros and cons. When it's good, everything is great, like 100 times better.

But when things don't go according to plan, you know, I have to just really stay focused. And that's what I kept telling myself. And I really tried to do that. And I was all the way up to the point where, Christian said bye to me right about at the Pat Down area and I was just like, oh, broke down. It was tough. It was tough. And then stepping into the cage, I was like, can you pull it together?

Like, this is the biggest fight of your life right now. Yeah. And then what I thought was interesting was after the fight, as you were kind of addressing your family, you talked a lot about your brother as well. And I'm wondering, you shouldn't feel this way, but I'm just wondering because you are so close to your brother, are there feelings of, guilt like I won, he didn't, I don't want to be too happy here because I know he's hurting inside, but he's also happy for me. What is, what is, what is, what is that feeling like?

Definitely mixed emotions. I was, I was happy, you know, about, about my win, but then also, you know, we're so close that I know my brother was, you know, definitely not, you know, not happy with how, how his fight went. And, and I felt that too. And I just felt that too. And I just I felt like I had to speak about it. And I'm always completely honest with everyone. And I just had to say what was all my mind. What's it like fighting someone like May, you know, veteran of the sport for a second time? Like, do you get, is there a deja vu involved?

Like, oh, I remember she does this. I remember she does that. Or did you feel like she was a completely different opponent this time around? You know, I felt that she still had that same grit and toughness. because that's kind of just embedded when you're fighting for as long as she has. But I know that she's made improvements in her game since the last time that we fought.

I knew she really, really wanted this and she trained her butt off for it and I expected that. I really wanted to go out there and finish her, you know, because of course, like, that's always the goal. So a couple of times I got close to doing that, but in the end came out to

you know five round war again and hey I'm not complaining it's just that much more experience and what about the fact that it had been a year in between fights did you feel like you needed some time to get going um

I you know I came out and I wasn't so as hesitant as I thought I would be um I think it's due to the fact that I had a really good training camp and we got a lot of like life sparring in and and we kind of went over the game plan a lot and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. It was more towards the later rounds that I kind of got burned out a little bit. So it was kind of like opposite of the first fight.

But yeah, I stuck to the game plan and everything worked out. At the beginning of this interview, I said that I believe that you are the face of one championship. Do you feel the same way? I know you're very humble, so maybe that's a difficult thing for you to concede, but it seems to me like you are the face of the promotion. Would you agree? I think that we've definitely, it's been like a partnership, you know, throughout, when I first joined one championship, you know,

they didn't really have a female division and they didn't have any female champions. So I feel like I've definitely helped to pioneer and add to that aspect of their whole, missing a whole different side of it, a whole woman's division. And I think I helped to fill that gap. Since, I mean, it's been three years and the amount of things that I've done with one championship is mind-blowing. I'm just really grateful because I wouldn't be here without them. Yeah.

And I know you get a lot of press and attention back in Hawaii. And what a time it is for Hawaiian MMA with the likes of Max Holloway doing what he's doing and of course Brad Tavares. I mean, there's there's a real long list of great Hawaiian fighters right now. Are there any talks? We talked about this a little bit last time you were on about doing an event in Hawaii. Could one beat the UFC in terms of getting there first? Are there any talks of that with you headlining? Oh, I really hope so. It's something that we have talked about. And yeah, I know UFC, Hawaii, they were trying to do a really big push for that. I think just any sort of

sort of organization coming to Hawaii would be really great for everyone here. There's so much talent and I know the local people would love to come out for that. So I mean, hopefully in the very near future, we'll see about that. Okay. Have they talked to you about anything? Do you know of any plans? No, not as right now. I can't say anything. Or maybe not that you can share. They're not that I can share, but they are looking to expand

into more countries and hopefully soon. And this is a very exciting time for you. You also got engaged since we last spoke, right? Congratulations. Mazel Tov. I did. Wow, look at you. That's amazing.

When are you getting married? July 18th. Okay. Wow. So that's coming up. How are the preparations? It's going to be a big wedding? No, actually.

it's going to be, you know, more private and just with close family and some friends. But yeah, I mean, it's a 50-day countdown right now and everything's going amazing. I'm just so happy. Are you a Bridezilla? No, I think I'm the complete opposite, actually. I think I'm very carefree and just all about me, like, you know, enjoy each step of the way, enjoying the process of it. Well, enjoy that. Enjoy the process.

congratulations to both you and your fiance, your family, and congrats on the big win a couple of weeks ago. Great to see you back. And like I said, very happy that everything was okay as far as the accident was concerned and that you're able to resume your very impressive and young career. So I wish you nothing but the best. Great to catch up with you again, Angela. Thank you for coming on. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure. All right. We will talk to you soon. There she is. Angela Lee, in my opinion, the face of one championship. they're Adam White champion. She returned to action in successful fashion just a couple of weeks ago against Mayamaguchi,

her second win against her. And now she moves on to her wedding. How exciting is that? Okay, one guest left. And as I told him, it wouldn't be the same without him. And we had to speak to Darren Till. He was the star of the weekend.

He was the star of the week. He picked up a win in Liverpool, in his hometown against Wonderboy Thompson. What a scene it was as he came out to Sweet Caroline. He is short on time. So let us not waste any time. Let's say hello to Darren. till right now. Darren, how are you?

Oh, man. You're okay? I'm doing great, Darren. I really appreciate you taking some time. I know it's been a whirlwind for you, so thank you so much. I don't want to make always, always, Paul. I know this was a dream for you. You were very vocal about that. Now that it has happened,

did it exceed your expectations? Did it live up to the expectations? How would you describe the experience of fighting in your hometown now that it's over? Just a memorable moment. I made history in a great career that I'm going to have. That's going to be one of the most memorable memories ever. Historic history was made the 27th of May, 2018.

Were you able to smell the roses, enjoy the process? Obviously, when you're fighting your fight week, it's all very intense, but were you able to enjoy the fact that you had accomplished this? Yeah, I've enjoyed every moment of it, good or bad. I'm most happy that I've got it done, especially. against the guy like Stephen Thompson, you know, I didn't fight anyone,

but in my opinion, you know, after the champion, the best striker fighter in the division. Obviously, there's a lot to talk about as far as the fight is concerned, but could I ask,

you know, as far as the weight cut and the way in, I know you, you were dealing with something personal and I'm not going to pry. Is everything okay now? Is your family okay?

Is everything, right? Yeah, everything's sound. You know, I did have a problem, but, you know, just quickly on while we're on the subject, you know, no excuses for not making weight. I did not make weight. I apologize one last time to Stephen Thompson and his team. I'm embarrassed and ashamed by it, but move on from things.

I'll always face adversity, good or bad. There is definitely no excuse in the world for not making weight. and that is totally my fault and no one else's. That's that. Is it true that you offered 100% of your purse to Stephen and his team?

Yeah. Listen, I've done everything to make the weight like I ever know all everybody knows I have a big weight cut. I just wish, you know, there's definitely,

but I just wish some of these people that talk about your weight cuts you've never done one in the life could experience one because it's the worst thing

in the world and as I said, you know, it's only down to us. But yeah, I said to me coach when he was on the phone with Mick Mayer,

I said just offer him 100% of me first then. If it's not looking like his team wants to take the fight and my coach said, okay, I'll see what I can do. So it ended up being obviously 30% and I had to weigh in on the day of the fight. But if they would have accepted 100%, that would have been fired with me. And will this change your stance on continuing to fight at 170?

Do you feel like you are now just too big for welterweight? No, I add the same amount of weight. to cut as when I was in Poland against Cowboy and I made $170 there it's just obviously I got caught up and a few things

that night at the weight cut and I wasn't able to make the weight I did struggle it was really hard that night but no I can still make well to wait just going to have to be more on it you know as I said it's a mistake from my part it's going to have to be more

more more on it now lighter weight four So no matter what happens I always make weight So you know That's what I'm still fighting up well to eat How difficult was it to have a cap

That you couldn't go over 188 So you couldn't like fully You couldn't fully Rehydrate the night before Did you feel like that was an added stress? Yeah that was the hardest thing Because I didn't know where the fight would go on And as soon as after

When I'd missed weight I started Hydrating again I went way past 188 I went like to 191, 192, I think so the morning of the fight I had to go to the gym and train for 45 minutes hard to get back to 187 with your way then that. So that was, you know, that was quite hard

to do because I didn't really want to do that, but you know what I mean? You've just fucking, you got to fucking soldier on having you. You've just got to get through shit. Do you want to address why? What happened or would you rather keep that private? Listen, as I've just said here, I could say anything in the world happened yet.

And there's still going to be a cunt on line who's going to say, well, it's not an excuse. And I totally agree with that cunt. So, yeah, it was a family problem. It wasn't the most ideal situation for me cutting weight and also having to be worried about something else. But, you know, I didn't make weight. It's not no one's fault.

It's not my coaches. It's not, you know, my family members' problem. It's not no one's problem but my own and it's me you didn't make weight there's definitely no excuse so you know that that is what it is Have you had a chance to rewatch the fight?

I've watched bits I think when I get a chance I will watch it but I've watched just like little clipped and highlights and I'm just still trying to get me head around you know actually what's happened everything because UFC LaPrew is now over it

It's been there and happened. It was amazing. The reason I asked was, do you know, like, decisively which rounds you won? That you felt that you won, no question about. Obviously, the fifth, there's no question.

I, listen, I know, I've been looking, I don't use this, but I've been watching a few, what, like, the analysts and that of saying, and I know people since they've gone back and watched the fight, I've sort of been saying,

it could have went either way. Listen, I do think I won the fight. Yeah. From what I've seen, people saying this and that, these type of people, I was even watching on the UFC Fox desk. What, like, I know Michael Chaser or something, and Bissping, like we're saying,

why didn't Munderboy kick as much, or why didn't tell me this? This is high-level striking. This is the thing, right, Ariel, let me tell you. Everyone, every single person, every UFC fighter, whatever, all expected me to go in there and get wiped clean by Stephen Thompson. Now what happened, the aftermath is they're all so fucking shocked because I went in there,

and I didn't get wiped out, and I hung with, the most hardest person in the division to deal with because of how good he is. And everyone saw, like, well, Willie won the fight. You know, he threw more strikes, you know what I mean? So that's how I'm seeing it. But I did control the cage. Yeah, he did throw more strikes. But most time, I nullified it.

I defended. And when I threw a strike, you know, I did hurt him. I just think what tipped it was in the fifth, you know, the knockdown. And that, but the thing with Stephen is, if you look at all his fight, he moves. so well, you can get away from people so well. Every time I had him against the cage, I was sort of cutting his angles off for him, you know,

and making myself a bigger person than what I already am to make him feel small in there. And then if you're watching the fifth, you know, you can see sort of accepts the fact that the left hand's coming and turns his head, and that's what, you know, it gets him at the back of the head and he dropped. But listen, right, it was a close fight.

It really was, it was fucking, it was so good to be in there fighting against him. After the fifth round, I still didn't have him figured out and he didn't have me figured out it was a chess match like I said it at B and yeah

I even said to Mick because I heard that Stephen Thompson's dad said well we should do it in our backyard in South Carolina somewhere okay this is not like if he wants to do that

so I message Mick straight to and I was like they want to take it to Stephen to gladly go there and I think it would be around the same fight again it's just in my opinion the most tricky

every single person count at me out and expect it. my take on it. It could, and either way, it definitely could have. My way,

all be biased and looking at it from Stevens where, but either way it was a close fighting, you can't leave

in the judge's hands and on that night I got the fight. If Stephen would have got the decision, I wouldn't have been bitter about it, you know,

and I don't think he's better. I just think all these people who don't know a lot are bitter. Yeah. Go ahead.

I've seen a lot of tweets on on that, I'm not on Twitter, but I've seen like a video, a lot of fighters on that tweet

and, you know, I've got no heart scenes, but that just shows me there a week and that, you know, I see a lot of them hating on me and that, and when I see, because I, I'd never do that, you know, when Mike Perry lost his, you know, kick on my while he's down, I would never ever do that in my life,

and some of them are trying to do that to me. I know a lot of them talk about the weight, and that's my fault, but even, like, with the fight, and to me, that just shows me there weekings because I would never do it to them yet, fighting, fighting, and, you know, when there's bad bloodier there and every,

but it just seems to be like, on them to Twitter, no matter what, just start talking all kinds of crazy shit and you know that's there right there their opinion to it but it's just to me it just shows a big weakness like just fucking worry about yourself will you or like yeah give an opinion but

to me it just seems like a lot of them are hating on me you know what I mean it is what it is I'm not asked and obviously they've got their opinions which they're entitled to but you know it just seems to me like a bit of a vicious vicious opinion it doesn't seem like a normal like just an unbiased

opinion if you get what I'm saying yeah do you feel like a lot of your fellow fighters are jealous of you because of all this attention and everything that you're doing. That could be it. I could be not. But most of the fighters who I've seen treating

I've got more attention than me. They've, you know, they've 40 to me actually longer. They've had harder fights and this and that. So I don't see what it is behind it. And I think 90% of them who are treating aren't even in my weight class.

So what did he tweet about? Why are they hating on me? Maybe it is because I'm getting I pay extra attention I was able to bring the number one to Liverpool and Apple it's just really the cookie combo sometimes and you know I'm not faced by it

I just sometimes I just think to myself when I was seeing the stuff I was like hmm that shows bear week and it's not mine Darren we had Stephen on the show earlier and he wasn't bitter and he wasn't taking shots to you the only thing he brought up that one could be

I guess I mean he talked about the weight stuff but really he was as respectful as it gets he talked about the attacks to the knee and wondered if those were illegal that you were targeting his surgically repaired knee. Were you specifically targeting that knee to try to re-injured because you knew that he had surgery on it multiple times? No, I didn't know, as I said, I don't study fighters,

don't study what happened or anything. And I didn't even know Stephen was on the show tonight. Obviously, I'm just in my own little world, but two things to say, I know Stephen is not. He is the nicest man I have ever met in my life. He's such a fucking good guy. Like, he smiles too much.

He needs to smile. or less. Like, all my, my best, my best friends have said to me, how much of a nice guy is he done? I'm just like, yeah, he is. It's not him who's like bitter than it, because he never got the decision. As I said, it could have went either way. If he would have got it, it would have been

the same. Yeah, obviously, he needs to address the waiting because that's, he didn't do any longer. It was me. But the knee thing, no, was in the first. I knew that I needed to keep me front leg like bouncy for him because his front leg is like a jab

when he throws into the body into the face so I knew that I needed to keep him thinking about like my leg so I started throwing a few like like straight kicks to the knee and to the thigh and I threw one and like he just dropped his face

and he said I think he said something like ooh and I thought oh he's hurt there so like I tapped it a few more times and that but it was sort of just to keep him on edge about my front foot as much as it is, because I was, the biggest thing I was worrying about going into this fight was

that front leg, because it's like a jab, it's so wickedly fast. So after I've done that, you know, he was on edge, I was on edge, for five rounds, we were on edge, and people were saying, it's not the barn-bairner we all expected. I knew it was not going to be the bar and baner.

Like, obviously I come out and said I was going to finish him, but I knew that wasn't the case. He expected the aggressive bad until there was no way he was getting that with such a striker like that, such a top-level strikeer. Honestly, just had my brain pulled up for the five rounds.

I probably had this, and for me, it was one of the best fights ever. It was just so sicky to just get past each other. I know we're short on time. Do you have time for three more questions, Darren? No, I'm fine, I'm talking. I was sick today. I lost my voice in that because I don't know what was up with me,

but I've met and I've had a tablet, and that's all my cake. You can crack on. Okay, cool. appreciate that. Thank you. The entrance is one of the greatest entrances of all time and you switched it up on us. You usually, you know,

you don't come out to that song and you came out to Sweet Caroline and everyone loved it and the clips are just amazing. When did you decide to switch it up and why did you pick that song? Well, if you say it's one of the best answers, I appreciate that, thank you. I hope

it is up there. It was incredible. Obviously, provide the show yeah, but I just knew where it was, the type of people, Liverpool people are, and that type of song gets people,

you know, in the mood. I just knew it was the right, the right thing to do, and I hope it was, you know, I think I watched me walk out once before on YouTube

and it gave me goosebumps again. So, you know, if it's up there being one of the best instances and the crowd was amazing, like, before I was jumping in the octagon, I just had to just look around,

and be like, oh, it's fucking crazy. you know what I mean I've seen all it was just mad I can't believe it I feel like I really picked

the right song to come out to Oh my God When you walk out And you hear everyone singing like that That must get I mean you must feel on cloud nine Right

Yeah no Yeah the walkout Definitely I feel on cloud Unbelievable I hope to do that again Could you explain Like what does that song represent For Yanks

Like myself As the English would call me What does that song represent in England or in Liverpool, to be exact? Obviously, I'm just young, so Neil Diamond's before my time, but I remember listening to it when I was a child with my dad and that, and he got me into all the old-screw musical music like that. But to me, from what I've seen over my years of being on this head, is what it represents is just people sort of come together.

It's like one of them songs that you could be in a bar with someone you don't know. That song comes on, and next minute you're hugging each other and your best mates and you're buying each of the drinks. That's what I think it represents. So I thought to myself, in an arena like that, they're all coming to watch me,

the hometown boy against one of the best fighters in the world. No matter who they are, they're just going to look next to them and just start cheering and chanting, and that's exactly what they did. So that's what I thought it represents and obviously approved on the night. That's the type of song it does represent,

you know, whatever. I don't even know the lyrics to me. I just know that sweet carolet. That's it. And Darren, there seemed to be a lot of mutual respect between you and Stephen, and there was a lot of embracing. And that's not something that we typically see from you. Why was that the case?

You mentioned the Fox guys. They were critical of that afterwards as well. Do you feel like there was too much of it? Yeah, I know people are going to, because I'm not sitting here and saying that no one can be, they're not allowed to be critical. It's just they don't understand top-level strifeen, like I do. And that's the two. That's not me being cocky or agony,

but I've just proved it. They're like, they're not getting what it is. It's not this type of thing where I can just run in and be this big aggressor against a guy like Stephen. And Stephen knows he knew he couldn't do it with me.

So it was sort of like, yeah, okay, let's see who's high-level strike and beats whose and as you've seen how close it was. So that's, it just, that, it was a lot of respect and touching and bracing. And, you know, he miss, I miss and we're sort of like, yeah, you missed that, I missed that, I'll get your back,

and that's what it was like. So, you know, it definitely was high-level cycle. So, you know, people are going to be critical, and they're entitled to be, but it's maybe because they don't fully understand top-level cycle. That's my opinion on it. And what symbolism to have you win the way in which you won on that stage, and then literally the next day, the man who built that market, Michael Bisping, retires. I was just curious, I saw you pay tribute to him on Instagram, which I thought was very cool. But I'm just curious what Michael Bisping means to you. And if you had any memories, like, did you grow up, you know, dreaming of being Michael Bisping

and doing what he did for the market and, of course, becoming champion? You are now the new Michael Bisping, right? So I'm just curious what he means to you. No, I grew up watching Michael, yeah? Never wants to be like him. Obviously, I don't want to be like anyone else. But for me, the highlight of his career was when he beat himson Silver. That fight for me was amazing.

when he won the title, everything, you know, everything he's done, he's done it all the right way. As much as he's like Marm, I know a lot of people don't like him and a lot of people love him. But it's, you know, at the end of the day, he says what he means, and he means what he says. So to me, I sort of thought, did he plan to retire the next day after that just fourth day? I don't really know, but obviously I'm going to pay tribute to someone like that. He was the face of MMA. But just with you saying, you know, I'm probably the new Michael. I don't feel like I am.

I don't ever want to come out and be like, yeah, I'm the face of the MMA for England or whatever, because I don't feel like that's not right. That's not justice to all the other people who are out there fighting the hearts out yet. Some of us do get the attention in the spotlight more, but we're all there together. So for me, you know, all my fellow Britain in the UFC,

guys and girls and all the other ones on the lower level shows, we're all the face. Just some of us get a bit more attention than others. but I'm definitely never going to think I'm the face of any of that. As I said, just for myself and that, I just want to be agreed. So I'm definitely not the face of British MMA and never will be. I respect you saying that. I would respectfully disagree, but I appreciate your humility.

Did you watch Liverpool FC on Saturday? Were you able to watch, or did you ignore that? Were you too focused? No, I watched some highlights. I was a bit busy with things and that, but I did watch some highlights yet. it was a good match. Obviously, we lost, so we needed the win. And then, you know, I was gutted for the...

Molly, she lost. You know, I wanted to win on a debut. You know, it's not nice to lose, especially in front of your hometown. So it was like it was two losses for Liverpool, and then, you know, I would have put the ice on the cake if I had a loss. So I'm glad I was able to scrape a little bit back for Liverpool.

But, you know, I was gutted Liverpool lost, and I was good at that Molly loss. But, you know, shit happened. She'll come back from it, and definitely Liverpool. will definitely come back from it as well. And let's end on this, Darren, and again, thank you so much for the time.

Dana White says Las Vegas next for you. You said you'd love to fight in Anfield. You want to sell out a stadium. What do you think is going to happen? Do you think your next fight will be in America? Hopefully, yeah. That would be amazing to fight in America, to fight one of the American guys in the division.

If Dana says Vegas, then that's where it's going to be. I don't know if I'm, you know, well-known enough in England. Two cells a stadium, I know I said it, and it is obviously a dream of man. To be honest, when you say a dream, you can't just think it in your head. You've got to say it out loud and manifest it, and that's what I definitely do. So we'll see. I'd love to talk. I've never, never ever in my life, sat down and had a chat with Dana.

I don't ever feel the need to just, you know, sort of do what gets said in that. but yeah, we'll see, mate, I want to fight again, I want to fight soon, I want to see what's happening, and I know Stephen said he needs to check his knee in that, but, you know, you've got all these experts out here

saying this, saying that, because it was in Liverpool. If anyone wants me to come to America and fight Stephen again, Stephen definitely wants it, if he's not injured, I can do that as soon as possible, that rematch, you know,

obviously there's other guys there I want to fight as well, but, you know, let's show all these critics that it's going to be another one of the it probably could be the same fight definitely going to be the same outcome I'm going to win again maybe I can be a bit more

against and knock him out this time we'll see so that's what I'm thinking who's at the top of the list is there one guy that you feel like makes the most sense next if it's not Steve and I think I think Usman or Mazvedal because Usman's in a good position

because he's just beat he beat Deem I don't know what's happening with the RDA Colby, Woodley's situation I think Colby beats RDA and then I think he fights Taran if Tarant's even coming back, I don't think is Woodley even coming back to fight, I know he said it, but I don't think he is, so

it's weird because the champion's ready to fight and he had like four fights last year, so I don't know why there's an insurm already, I don't understand that. He got injured, but he did have a lot of fights, so it's sort of weird, right? now so even if they don't put me against Stephen or Euseman and one of them guys get to go with the insomber as I said in the post-fight press and I'm not bothered maybe maybe they deserve it more they've fought more people so I'm just sitting back and let's

fucking have it with anyone I don't care just want to fucking I want to train me bollocks up and I want to fucking I want to fight hard and show that I'm worthy that's what that's what I want never changed Darren you you are a delight my friend I love this humility I love everything that you're saying you have this like a mixture of humility and bravado. It's amazing. It's very unique. So I really respect it and I'm very happy that you're able to realize your dream of fighting in your home. What a scene it was. I wish I could have been there myself, but so happy that you were able to come on for a few minutes. Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. And try not to celebrate too much.

I see on Instagram you're having good time, but don't go too crazy, okay? No. No, I'm just going to have a little week. I've seen some friends. family and they're taking care of people and then Monday back at it to see where the next journey takes us. I look forward to it. Enjoy the donuts. I'm sure you'll have a couple in celebration as well. Thank you so much, Darren. I can't say we'll have donuts now, where I can't say we have donuts. That's true. I never made weight. So if I'm going to eat shit, people are going to hate me. So now I'm going to have some chicken. Okay. All right. Enjoy the chicken, my friend. And get well soon. Thank you so much. Bye, mate. There is. Look at him. Darren Till, on top of the world.

The new face of British MMA, I don't think that Michael Bispeng did it on purpose. I think the timing was just that he was on a flight and the timing was right. And I know that Michael had been mulling it over for quite some time. And he was on this flight and watched the Journeyman film and thought that the time was right. And I think he was going to be in New York alongside his co-host, Luis Gomez, who, by the way, they do a great job on that podcast. Believe you, me, I enjoy it. I enjoy the banter very much.

and Michael is obviously a natural. But what symbolism? To have it the day after that fight, to have him come out and announce his retirement and to have Darren Till do what he did in Liverpool. What a weekend in England for mixed martial arts from Belltor 200. And again, to have British fighters do what they did,

MVP, Aaron Chalmers. I mean, these are big moments on big stages. And of course, Darren Till and to have Arnold Allen, come back and do what he did. And yes, Malamakan suffered a loss in her debut. I thought the referee did a poor job in terms of stopping the fight. Should have stopped it, I think, at least

five seconds earlier. But nevertheless, she will be back as well. Just a great scene. And that walkout was phenomenal. Sweet Caroline. My only gripe, and I actually think, and I retweeted Luke Thomas, I think that the new UFC

broadcaster, Brendan Fitzgerald, does a phenomenal job. I thought he did a great job with with Dan Hardy. I know John Gooden was gutted to a degree that he couldn't call the fights, although I'm sure he's very happy that he's a father now, and I'm so happy for him and his wife. My only gripe is in those moments when they are walking out, and they did a great job early on laying out. I would have laid out even longer. And of course, I'm playing armchair producer here. But let's hear that crowd as long as possible. That is so rare in our sport to have someone, you know, who is representing. a city and a country come out and with that kind of emotion and with that kind of build up

and to have the crowd sing in unison like that. And he's right. That is the kind of song that people just love to sing together. They do it at the Boston Red Sox games. That's long been a tradition there. My friend PT Carroll tells me that it is a song that has played before main events in England a lot. It's very much a boxing thing. And it's just great. It's a great song. He picked the right song. You want everyone to come together and sing. Lay out just a little longer so you can experience that. But again, I'm nitpicking here. It was an amazing moment. And luckily enough for him, he reigned supreme. Amazing to hear that he offered 100% of his purse. That is just absurd. He really does have this amazing mixture. And I'm not saying it's unique to him, but it is unique to see someone that humble but also that confident, right?

I mean, you can be both. But you hear him say like, yeah, I know I said I'd want to fight an Anfield, but I'm not really quite sure if, you know, I can actually sell that place out just yet. And you know what? Stephen probably deserves a title shop before me. I mean, but then also saying that I'm the best and everyone's going to get it. It's been a lot of fun to see how far he's coming. And PT is right. He really is right.

He has improved a hell of a lot in a very short amount of time. I mean, who would have thought not that long ago, Darren Till, who was fighting on the fight past prelums. You know, now headlining his second straight UFC card brings the UFC almost single-handedly to Liverpool. You know, when he was fighting on some of these cards, I mean, he's fighting Nicholas Dalby to a draw. He's very low on the total pole.

Has not fought on a pay-per-view yet. has fought in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in Ireland in Sweden in the Netherlands in Poland in England he's never fought in the United States once part of that the majority of his fights were in Brazil which of course is where he I mean this guy when we were talking about him remember I was talking about him all the time about having the the the scouser gis the the the scouser slash Portuguese accent you remember those interviews

like he was just kind of a character on on the low end of the card and now he has just exploded what an unbelievable turn of events for him. And of course, you can't talk about the weekend without talking about missing weight and he's owning up to it. I mean, he didn't even offer a single excuse. And from what I'm told, the excuses is pretty darn valid. He's owning up to it. He's offering 100% of his purse. What more can you say about the guy? I feel for Wonderboy. I really do. I thought it was close. I thought it was three, two. But, man, I don't think that that was a robbery. And I really think that it could go either way. I mean, I feel like you can watch

that fight five more times and get different scores. Those first three rounds, even the first four, I mean, the fifth is the easiest round of all. And maybe the first you can make a case, but really, those are super close rounds, super close. One thing that's really interesting to consider is open scoring and how that would affect a fight. But I honestly feel like it would do more harm than good. I'd love to see it. I'd love to see it tried out. I'd love to see it happen.

but I wonder if someone, you know, is up two rounds to none going into the third, two very close rounds, like those first three, three-round fight, you know, at that point, do they take their foot off the gas? And, hey, are they, are they, you know, are they, is it warranted, basically? When you're up in a tennis match or, or you're up in a basketball game, you know,

you know how much you're up and do these fighters deserve. There's definitely an argument to be made there. I'm not saying that they're not allowed to take their foot off the gas. They have to go balls to the wall for all 15 or 25 minutes. I just wonder what that would look like in a fight. If you have someone completely avoiding and then once you're so focused on avoiding, are you prone to mistakes or when you're fighting not to lose as opposed to fighting to win? Anyway, we have a little more time in the show.

MMA after hours coming up. We'll talk a little more about Liverpool, of course. Magni's big win. Again, Makwan Ameriqani's big win. Like I said, Molly McCann, suffering the loss against Gillian Robertson, Elias Theodora with the win. You know, Landsberg, Tom Breeze looked really good in his fight against Dan Kelly at 185, Darren Stewart, with a really solid win over Eric Spicely and also a great post-fight interview as well. A lot of great post-fight interviews, by the way. Claudio Silva coming back after very long left, four years, defeating Nordine Taleb.

And then apparently there was some, according to reports, histrionics, as one would call them in the hotel. And again, Makwan, Arnold Allen, Neil Magny, Darren Till, all victorious as well. A lot of news, of course, throughout the MMA world, the UFC and ESPN are now fully involved in this business deal. they have signed for five years beginning in 2019. ESPN is going to be the exclusive home of the UFC beginning in 2019.

20 events on ESPN Plus exclusively 10 events on ESPN. Prelims will be on ESPN plus plus the 12 paper views and the prelims on ESPN that the UFC will be producing. So the Fox era is coming to an end after seven years and they're moving over to the worldwide leader. Who would have thought that 10 years ago? has always been where Dana White has wanted to be, and now he is getting to realize that dream. They are in business with the Walt Disney Company and let the record show that I beat them to it. I'm just kidding. Very exciting.

Cub Swanson, Hanato Moikano booked. We can talk about Nick Diaz, of course, an unfortunate weekend for him, but that story is still unfolding as we speak. And of course, Fabrice Over Doom, getting Popeye Usada. So now that fight against Alexi Olenic that we talked. told you about last week no longer happening. It's now Mark Hunt versus Alexiolanic September 15th in Moscow, although it has not been officially announced as well. And how about Utica coming up in just a matter of days? We've got MMA on Tuesday, although it feels like a Monday, but it really is

Tuesday. And then the UFC on Friday, June 1st in Utica. And it's headline by Marlon Maris versus Jimmy Rivera. What a phenomenal. By the way, this card in Utica is really damn good. And it's creeping up on us, but it is phenomenal. I love this card. Almost every fight on this card is of interest to me. Jared Brooks versus Shorty Torres. Shorty Torres, the champ Chan from Titan getting an opportunity. How about Nathaniel Wood on the prelims? Nathaniel Wood, the prospect? Why did he not fight in Liverpool? I still don't understand that. But he's fighting in Utica, New York, of all places. Against Johnny Eduardo. What a great fight that is at 135. Jessica Aguilar against Jody Escobel, Desmond Green against Gleyssen Tibau. Balal-Mahamed

against Chas. Who is this? Chance. Renconter. That is an incredible. name, Chance Ronkont. I've never heard of such a fellow. Is that a real name? Chance Black Eagle, Hong Kong. Phenomenal. And he's from Oklahoma of all places. Okay.

That is great. Nick Lentz against David Tameor. I'm surprised that this isn't on the main card, although it's all in Fs when Mr. Siddhar, U.S. against Lauren Murphy, John Volante against Sam Alvi, Julio Arseh against Daniel Tamor, Jake Ellenberger versus Ben Saunders, Walt Harris,

Daniel Spitz, Gregor Gillespie against Vince Pichelle, and then Jimmy Rivera versus Marmaris. That is a great 13 fights coming at you from Utica, New York, of all places, the Adirondack Bank Center. Okay, so we have all that and more to talk about. So if you are watching us on Twitter, stay right there. If you are watching us on MMA Fighting or YouTube or Facebook, go to live.com. com slash MMA Fighting.

There it is right over there. Thank you very much, Austin. We're going to answer some of your questions. We're going to talk about the cards. We're going to go to the question of the day. We are also going to hear from the man himself, New York, Rick, who is drowning himself in tears because his quote-unquote beloved Reds lost on Saturday. What a great game or match that was. So we'll talk to him.

We'll check out Rick's picks as well. All right. Go to Twitter. Live.com slash MMA fighting. The MMA after hour starts right now. And we are back. Time now for everyone's favorite segment. my friends

And now it's time To open up your ears And your minds MMA fans It's time for Rick's Picks Rick's Picks Rick's Picks Rick's are lots of fun

And his hair isn't a bun Because it's You already know what it is Rick's Picks Ladies and gentlemen Boys and Girls It's the moment you've all been waiting for It's the new craze

Taking the World by Storm Live from the Vox Studios In beautiful New York City It's time for Rick's Picks Yes Time now for Rick's Picks He is

Oh what is that Come on You know what Memorial Day I'll give it to you USA There it is What are we rocking there

Amma Fighting shirt Look You gotta rep the brand right Yeah Is that the only one How many you got This is the only one You think

You think they give me more than the one I'm lucky I got this I had to beg I had to beg for this I feel like we go through This whole thing every time I anytime you talk

about the MMA fanning you should pop you got a mug no I don't have a mug wow look I'm happy with

what I got need to get Scott Holtsman the mug he is dying for a mug is Scott dying for the mug

or is Danny dying for the that's good question but he did make me feel bad because Scott's a dad now

and he's yeah I mean look he's the Jewish guilt Jewish guilt's a real thing it is real what a day

my friend what a day we did it all we accomplished it all of course we didn't talk to Michael Bisping and everyone will make me feel bad about that, but we did get Darren Till and to all those people. Yeah, but did you get Michael Bisping?

No, I didn't get Michael Bisping. I suck. I really suck. It's unbelievable. What a weekend for you, though? Yeah, I mean, look, the Cavaliers advancing. I wonder, I feel like, you know, your beloved Reds losing just ruined the whole thing. Oh, wow. Off the bandwagon already.

JK. Look at you. I mean, that was brutal. The tweets were cute. I appreciated that you knew the names of the players, that you looked them up and everything. I thought it was cute. You know, I thought it was cute.

I will take this abuse, but not from you. From anybody? From anybody but you. It was nice. I thought you was like, you looked them up, you Googled them, you made it seem like they were really... You pick new teams. Did you watch...

Like you're picking out clothing. Did you watch? I did, yeah. You did, wow. It was brutal. It was brutal. What was brutal about it? They weren't expected to win.

No. Well, first of all, I take it. for the first 40 minutes the attack was super aggressive, the pressure was on, it seemed like they were on the attack almost the entire time, then... I'm not a football expert. I'm not a football expert, I'm not a soccer expert,

but don't you have to catch the ball like if you're the keeper, like, and not throw it away? Isn't that part of what you're supposed to? Yeah, that was rough. I mean, forget catching the ball. He rolled it off somebody's foot into the goal. I mean, the second goal,

the goal by Gareth Bale, where he did the bicycle kick. I mean, you can't stop that. There's no keeper in the world. That's one of the greatest goals. It's incredible. But the other two? I mean, come on.

And Manet had an incredible goal. Look at you. That could have been one. That could have been one. You know what? I don't appreciate this. Are you a fan of Egypt now? Are you in Egypt now?

No. So now the bandwagoning has turned from now I'm a Muhammad Salah. Well, I mean, I would. Are you an Egypt international fan? No. I do like Salah. I think he's incredible and I thought

it was unfortunate that he was taken out by what I would say was probably a dirty play. I can't claim to be as first in how the tackling and soccer

goes, but that looked pretty illegal. So that was unfortunate because it seemed like they had some momentum that really halted when that happened.

What about chance Hong Kong? What could you tell me about him? Who? Watch it become like the greatest fighter of all time.

I'm sorry. Who? I was like running down the list and I was like, wait a second, chance, Renconter, I'm not familiar with that name. But I'm sure I'm going to hear from a lot of people who are going to tell me about how I'm wrong.

Well, I'll say this. Yes. That was unfortunate. I was heartbroken. The Cavs made it all right, though. That was great. You know what, I'm happy for the Cavs.

They are the underdog. And it kind of feels like, this matchup sort of feels like when the Buffalo Bills made it to the Super Bowl for the forced trams. time. It feels like everyone outside of Buffalo. Almost, except that the cat's got the W.

What I'm saying is this matchup happening for four straight years, it feels like most people outside of Cleveland and the Bay Area are kind of tired of it. Just because it's the same matchup, you know? Sure. And so that's what it reminds me of as far as the bills are concerned. Like it seemed like everyone outside of Buffalo wanted to see a new team in there. But I'm okay with it because I don't feel like Boston had a better chance. I don't think either team has a chance to be honest,

which is a little bit of a bummer that it kind of fizzles out, but... Well, I don't know about that. I think the Cavs have a chance. On the record, right now, on the record, how many games do they win? Enough. What does that mean?

On the record. There was a very simple answer right there. You had to say four. You're a fan, you say four. You live with your team. You die with your team. You don't say enough. Well, we do more living than most.

There's other teams that die a lot. I won't mention any names. A lot of teams that die. When you're winning 15 games with Rodney Hood's leading the way. Boy, Rodney Hood's had a rough playoffs. The eighth pick's going to be great. Luca, I'm hearing talks of Luca dropping in the draft. We'll snag them at number eight.

Reset the franchise then. How many games are they going to win? They're going to win them all. They're going to win 16 in the playoffs. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, it's going to be rough. I'm going to fight through. Okay.

Do you have any picks for us? I do have some picks. Okay, here we go. Our first one from a friend of the show and earlier guest, P.C. Carroll. Oh, yes. The walkout. Can we turn up the volume on this a little bit? Been discussed by you earlier.

Amazing. And as you talked about it, I'm not laying out for it. Yeah. Darren Pill. Darren Till coming out to Sweet Caroline. Where does this run? in the pantheon of great walkouts. It's up there.

It's a very solid one. I do feel a little bit slighted because he did talk about the walkout very specifically leading into this, talking about when the Phil Collins and then we didn't get the Phil Collins. Yeah, but this is better. I'm not saying, I'm not, look, I'm not arguing that this wasn't good. But you don't tease, you don't tease the Phil Collins and then not deliver the Phil Collins. That's how I think. It was a happy surprise.

It was a pleasant surprise. But yeah, it was well done. and the crowd singing it it's up there with some of the most memorable ones probably going to be a contender for a walkout of the year during the MMA hours awards

for 2018 so well done to Darren and the crowd in Liverpool and by the way yep the walkout was phenomenal everything was phenomenal I saw some people comparing

like to me the Liverpool it's very hard like you forget it's hard to compare sometimes the crowds are mic differently. Oh, you're talking about volume? Yeah, I saw some people complaining on online.

It's hard to criticize a crowd. You take it from whoever's in the arena. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They tell you, they're the gauge for that. And it sounded like it was it was mayhem. It was bedlam. Okay, after Darren Till won, he gave a post spite speech in the cage, and we're going to hear that now.

Now, is this censored or uncensored? This is uncensored. Oh. There it is. Live. He's, yes, say him what? No! No! No one! He turned on the switch. Who's doubting him now? It's a good question.

Again, can I play armchair producer for a second? Director in this case. Stay on Darren in that moment. Stay on him. I want to see him. Play the clip again. You're telling me you don't want to see Darren Till right now? Okay, but I get the cut.

No, do the cut in the reaction. They were reacting. No, do the cut after that when Hardy's talking. You don't do the cut in the man I want to see the emotion I mean he's a board Them doubters Stay

Stay stay stay Stay stay stay stay Stay stay stay Who the f is doubting me now Stay with the man Remember I'm not here to take part I'm here to take over That clip isn't the same

If it's if there's a shot of the crowd Stay with the guy That was his I get here to take part I get it but I also understand All right All right okay Speaking of crowd reactions

To Darren Till Here we have outside the arena. I love this. Seens Keith in Liverpool capturing this for us. And now we have something from another user

a little bit more of the view. Oh, this is awesome. Incredible. Can you imagine being from a place and then one day, like imagine you just walking down the streets

of flushing New York and having people shot your name. Not from Flushing, but I'd like that. Where are you from? Jamaica, Jamaica Queens, baby. Jamaica Queens, baby. Jamaica Queen's same thing.

Isn't it close enough? Do you disgust me? No, it's not. Jamaica, I'll take flushing. Right next door. I'll take flushing? But no, they're not the same. Anyway.

How cool is that? Very cool. Very cool. Speaking of very cool, Gigard Musasi, pretty cool, winning another belt, letting us know that there's one missing.

And also letting us know that he didn't actually tweet this. Yeah, and he wasn't the one who put it out. But the middleweight dream belt missing. But some nice hardware for Gagard Musasi over the course of a career. Always been a little bit underrated, but I think this says everything that needs to be set. And with the flag of Armenia underneath and, I mean, just Gaggar Musassi calling out Roy McDonald for being boring in interviews.

I mean, what is this life that we're living? This is just incredible. Years ago, I mean, imagine. Imagine Gaygard Musassi saying that. I love it. Come on, Scott. What are you thinking? What are you doing?

Who else is there? Am I forgetting someone? Who am I forgetting? Who am I forgetting? Who am I forget? Who's at 185 right now? That makes sense. I mean, Lovato Jr. is great, but like, come on.

What are we talking about? Defending the title once? What are we saying? This is Beltor. They play by different rules. But do you lose a fight that you could build more? What, build more? It's Musassi and McDonald.

Everyone knows who they are. They've been in the UFC for years. Musassi's been in this game for well over a decade. What are you building to? What is there to build? I don't know. Maybe a bigger event. Maybe there's something on the calendar next year that they can, like, I don't know.

Like Belt for 300 that they're going to do in freaking, you know, God knows where, Australia. There has to be a reason to not do it. There has to be. I don't think we've been given it yet, but there has to be. Makes my head hurt. There's like, I can't. You know what I miss? You know what I think it might be time?

There's no real great, like, who's, I'm just looking now. Like, we just talk about the UFC rankings, right? Yes. But there's no real great, like, MMA rankings these days, like consensus rankings. Sure. I just want to see, and of course there's no Beltow rankings. But who am I forgetting? Is there an obvious one?

You know, like Michael Page isn't fighting Rory, right? No, there's not an obvious one. Just do the fight. Dude in freaking Canada. Dude in like BC. Dude in Ontario. You're telling me that's not going to sell. Dude in Montreal.

You're telling me that's not going to sell. Roy versus Sager. I think it would. I don't think, and I don't think they're oblivious to that fact either. There has, I can't imagine that there's not a reason. Come on. Don't screw this up. These guys could lose, right?

They could get injured. It's a great fight. They both want it. How often does it happen where two chants are. champions. I'm playing the whole game like money, pay me, this and that. They're both actively saying I want the fight. Give me the fight. Let's do the fight.

Yeah. It's very rare in this day and age. Let's go. Come on. Scott? Tim Bellator's hands. Go. Also from that event, Michael Page. Oh my God. This is incredible. A fantastic

performance by him. How did David Rickles even begin to try to solve this? I mean, what is that? And I think Those kicks, they're like jazz. There's been a lot of talk over Michael's career regarding, you know, level of competition.

I think David Rickles is an opponent who eliminates some of that. That was it, right? That was, yes. He's done. And this is where he tells him you're effed. And Rickles says, yeah, you're right.

I mean, that's just on. And how about the referee not even understanding what's going on? Look, he's telling them to fight. Yeah. He's like, no, no, no, I'm done, man. there's like 10 seconds that have passed. Yeah.

Wow. Well, I don't think Rickles went straight to him and made it clear, but at a certain point, it was very clear. Can I ask you? Do you have a clip of the celebration? I have that. Okay, so explain this to me. So this is Michael Vennon Page with the Infinity Gauntlet.

And what is the Infinity Gauntlet? Are you actually, are you, here's an important question. Are you actually unfamiliar or are you just teeing it up for me? I am 100% unfamiliar. as a heart attack. I have no idea what this is. Okay, so there's a movie.

Of course I could have looked it up, but I just didn't fair enough. No, I'm glad you asked. We'll get into this and then we'll get into the picture. He's wearing a glove with jewels on it. Okay. Of different colors. Yes. There's a movie out right now in Avengers Infinity War.

I've heard of it. In that movie, there's a character named Thanos. Oh. Who is trying to essentially kill half the population. of the world, or of the universe, rather. Okay. In order to do that,

he has this glove that was created for him, that gauntlet that you see, and he has to collect these jewels, which have different powers, put them into the gauntlet, and then he has the ability

to do what it is that he is trying to do, which is kill half the universe. And so Michael Venom Page being very powerful is wielding that power and could kill half the universe. if he wanted.

Now is this something that you could buy in a store or do you think like he had this? I don't think that one's one you can buy in a store.

No, no, no. Like, you know at the Disney store they sell like Moana? Yeah, but look at the level of that. Oh, that's legit? Yeah, that looks pretty good. That's not a,

that's not like a store. No, that's, that's not one you find at Kmart down the aisles. Okay, so now. Put this picture here. Yeah.

He's been featured many times on Rick's picks. Chris Pratt. Chris Pratt. Star of, or one of the stars of, since there's many. Avengers Infinity Ward.

Is he the character? With Michael Page. Yeah, he's the guy? No, no, he's not the guy who wields the gauntlet. He is not that guy. Okay. That is played by Josh Brolin. But he is in the movie.

He's a character named Star Lord. I see. I feel like Chris Pratt needs a better Instagram handle than Pratt, Pratt, Pratt. I'm okay with it. It's a weird. Isn't he like a big enough star that he can just get his own name? He's a big enough star that it doesn't matter what his handle is. You'll find it.

That's true. But clearly, you know, a big fight fan in attendance for Bellator 200 here after the fight celebrating with Michael Venom Page. My favorite part of this picture is Bellator matchmaker Rich Chowd just sort of kind of peeking over. Yeah, he's creeping over with Hans Mullen Camp of a monster. They're like, hey, guys, include us. Like, I don't think they're actually trying to photo bomb. They're just trying to see what's up. They might have even been trying to get out of the way.

But that's true. Let's see how many followers. Wow. All right. He's doing pretty well that Chris Pratt. Yeah, I think his handles all right. 18.2 million followers on Instagram. Wow.

I think people can find him. I can't tell you one movie that Chris Pratt has been in. I mean, other than I guess this one. It seems like he's doing something with Jurassic World. Can see that. You never saw that. Did it just come out? No, because he says, I'm being able to.

There's a second one. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It seems like he's really promoting something. So you never saw that, huh? The new one? Jurassic World. No, this is an older movie. I've seen Jurassic Park, of course.

No, not Jurassic Park. He wasn't in that. Is he British? No. Chris Pratt's not British, huh? What was he doing in England? I don't know. Goming something, maybe. Promotional Tour for Avengers? Who knows? I see. Well, that's cool for Bellator to get him there.

Yeah, 50 Cent also there. I wonder if they paid him like they paid 50 Cent. Well, there was a picture with 50 Cent and Michael and Chris Pratt. You make this stop. Although I'm all about Charlie Ward versus 50. cent. I'm all in. Sign me up.

Look, if it's not going to be Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Ward seems just as good. Charlie Ward versus 50 cent is the ultimate. Now, is it, would you rather see Charlie Ward,

who trains at SBG? Yeah. Or would you rather see Charlie Ward former Heisman winner Knicks' point guard fight 50s? I want SBG's

Charlie Ward. And by the way, how about Demetius Johnson tweeted just moments ago? Did you see this? What did he tweet? Him competing

against Thanos and pulling off the whizbar. Oh yeah, I saw that quickly, but I don't have enough time to settle that one over. People do the creative characters. You've seen yourself in the game, right? Yeah, but this is weird. The guy's like all blue and stuff.

How do you do that? Magic, I believe. He did it. Yeah. Have you ever played this game? I haven't, no. Yeah. I kind of stopped playing video games.

Wow. Yeah. He became a daddy. A little bit before that, but that doesn't help. That's for sure. Wow. Okay. We go to another highlight from this event.

Aaron Shore. No, Iron Chalmers. Oh, Aaron Chalmers. This was great. Look at this. He said he was going to rip his head off. He's got heavy hands this Aaron Chalmers. Yeah.

Dropping people left and right. Look at this standing guillotine. Bound! Look at that body. Choked out lamp. You see that body? Yeah. You can pinpoint precisely when he's out.

Oh, look at that. that knee too. For a second I thought the knee was illegal but then there were a lot of people talking about whether they thought this was suspect or something I mean talking about suspect the punches that they were throwing in there did not look like uh get out of here was suspect they were working here this this looked like a guy getting choked to damn sleep yeah yeah big win me to ask him that like what are you talking about yeah no not not about that but uh clear i mean you know respect to to chalmers i think he's handled this all this all right his entire career so far in MMA

pretty well. He's giving a good account of himself. That choke reminded me of a very what's the word vocal person who sends me messages all the time on Instagram.

A guy named Duncan Smith here featured at NEF 33 local event in I believe Maine or the New England area and as you'll see in a second he's going to get a very similar choke but Duncan sending me

Instagram messages all the time finally get in the nod for this choke oh now he's going to send you even more look at that bang is this new? So the footage just came out but I believe it's from last month at NEF 33

and asleep so well done to Duncan amateur 2 and 2 shout out okay excuse me we have this tweet here from the believe you me podcast

which broke the news Michael Bisping officially announcing his retirement and he talked about it on that podcast and also sent this message on Twitter after an outpouring of support

saying utterly blown away by the beautiful messages regarding my retirement I have so many people I need to thank right now oh I'm sorry but right now thank you for the kind words

I should retire more often. Hopefully not. Hopefully this one sticks, not because I don't think Michael Bisping can still get it done, but because I don't think he has anything left to prove. Yeah, this is the time. We don't want to see him sticking around two, three more years, getting knocked out. There's nothing else to do.

Yeah. It's kind of wild. It's kind of wild. Because I remember so many conversations where it was like, is this the last one for Michael Bisping? And I kept saying, no. It's never, it's like he's one or two fights away always. And he's, and he's, And he kept himself ready, got a championship, because he was going to be one of the guys that, you know, we were looking at as best to never win a UFC title. Forget about best to never win. Best to never fight for a UFC title.

Yeah, you're right. Best to never have even been there. I mean, if Chris Widman doesn't get hurt prior to UFC 199, there's a very good chance. Everything changes. You know, he fights someone. He gets injured, loses, whatever. I mean, he so much had to go right for him. And you'll recall he wasn't even the first choice that was talk of.

Jacques Raqqaet taking that fight against Rockhold. That was always his best attribute, though. Always game, always ready. He would have always been in that position because the other guys are going to turn down the fight, and he's not. I just remember being at the pre-fight press conference, and he was so relaxed. It was at the forum,

and that's when he did the whole believe, achieve thing. Yeah. And Rockhold seemed a little tense. He was the one playing with House money. I was just going to say that. It just seemed like he had nothing to lose. He was just loving it. He was never in that position before, finally got it.

And I think, you know, even though those circumstances played out the way they did and he got that title shot because of other people not being able to, I still think, you know, that win over Anderson Silva was enough to say, like, this is a suitable contender. And he proved it. He proved it by beating Luke Rockhold. You know what's funny about that event? It was one of my favorite events leading up to it. I stayed in Manhattan Beach. I love being in L.A. I don't get to go there very often.

So that was really cool. the new forum, the renovated forum, which was super cool where the lake was to play. And the card was awesome. You know, Cruz, Faber, Max Holloway against Ricardo Lama's, Henderson, Lombard,

Porier, Bobby Green, Ortega, Guida on the prelims. It was a really good card. Remember the first fight, Polo Reyes against Dun & King? Yeah, one of the fight of the year contenders. It was such a fun. I got to go to a Dodger game

for the first time. Of course, it all ended differently. But it's such a, like that man, that, that, that, and it's almost exactly, which is kind of crazy, if you would have done this next week, it would have been almost exactly two years to the day

because it was what, June 4th. Yeah, it was June 4th. We're May 29th. So had he done it next week, it would have been exactly two years. I can't decide if it feels like a really long time ago or a short time ago. But anyway, crazy.

Congratulations to Michael Bisping on a great career. Yeah. Favorite Bisping moment? Um, I don't know if I have one. I don't know if there's one moment that stands out to me. me more than just respecting him as one of the like, oh, Gs of the trash talk game and just being able to make everything,

every fight that he was in to me felt like he took something personally. And you don't really see that anymore. You don't see somebody who gets as up for the fights the way he does. He was able to generate trash talk. He was able to generate bad feelings in a way that I don't think anybody before or since has been able to. And even late into his career, he was able to do that. So I don't know.

I don't think I have a specific moment. I kind of just think of him as a very unique character in this sport that I don't know if we'll ever see again. And one of the true like all-timers. And I think I would have said that even before winning the UFC belt, but that solidifies it. That just makes it gravy. He's just one of the best interviews in the history of the sport, at least in my time. Yeah. I was trying to think of what my favorite interviews with him were because every time he comes

on, he smashes it. It's incredibly entertaining. The walk and talk in London prior to the Anderson-Silver play was phenomenal. And thank you to Aunt Evans for setting that up. A bit of a drive-in talk at times. A bit of a driving talk, that is right. The appearance on the MMA hour after the Rockhold fight, the second one was announced, was just like some of the most inspiring stuff that has ever been set on this show.

I mean, I remember he was sitting outside. It was just incredible. I highly recommend going back and watching that. And the sit down that we had in Montreal, UFC 186, or prior to 186, we were actually supposed to talk to Demetrius Johnson that day and he got super sick. He had some kind of food poisoning or the flu. And so there's old reliable Michael Bisping sitting down to talk to us. And I'm so glad that he did because when you look back at that interview and you hear him talk about this coming off the rock hold fight in Australia where he lost and was somewhat dominated, submitted for the first time. him talking about the belt and all this stuff

was just ludicrous goes into that fight against CB Dalloway, not a ton of buzz going into that fight and then comes back against Talas Lathus and then all of a sudden he's back in that position. So I'm really happy that we got the opportunity to do that. But he was always available, always willing to come on the show and always so accessible.

I mean, I was in Australia with the Jorge Rivera fight, the spitting and all that stuff. Yeah. What a ride it has been for him? Unbelievable. We will miss him. Absolutely. He's one of the ones that we have

added good. Now he's gone. Okay. I'm featuring here a tweet from the MacLife about the ESPN new television deal in the $1.5 million billion dollar range, but only to say Connor McGregor. Yes. Responding quote tweeting that and saying respect. His eyes on

the new UFC and ESPN deal. True or false. Conner McGregor in the span of this five years, right? It's a five year deal. And so people, just to be clear, it's not 1.5 billion a year. It's 300,000 a year over five years. And by the way, just to be clear, and this is nothing to do with my future employment,

the UFC at the height of the Fox deal, which is this year, it kind of increased every year. They're currently making 160 a year, right, from Fox? Same number of events. They keep production control. Ratings are down. Somehow they were able to double it. Yeah. And not only that go to where they've always wanted to be.

at least Dana White, and that's ESPN. That is incredible. That is a home run, unlike any home run that they've ever hit, maybe the $4 billion sale. But that is a massive victory for the new ownership group. And you're not just going, you know, it's great to get that money from Turner, from Fox, from anyone, but now you're going to the, you know, like,

in a way, being on Fox is cool and all, but it kind of lives in a vacuum. The way ESPN works with all the ancillary programming, whether it's first take or sports center or PTI. You get talked about a little more. Witness the fact that over the last two days I went on the ESPN app, which by the way, again,

I really highly recommend that they've done a great job with it and I'm not being biased. They really have. But there has been in the five headlines, which is, you know, Cavs, this, that. There's been a UFC story the last two days. There's been Habib Conner talk

and there's been Bisping retiring. Now, these are pretty big stories. Yeah. But you just, you're a part of the news cycle. And that's something that you can't necessarily put a value on. So my question to you is, and I agree with Daniel,

like this is a huge victory and he deserves to be very happy about it. But my question to you is, in those five years, does Connor McGregor ever fight once on ESPN? Yeah. You say yes? I say yes.

Wow. I think it would happen early, but yeah, I say yes. Interesting. I have no insight. I'm just curious what you thought. Yeah, I just think as a show of good faith, you get into this deal,

you have to throw them a bone at some point and make that a thing that happens. And I don't think... I think you can figure out ways to make it work. I think you can figure out ways to recoup that. I think you can figure out ways

for Connor McGregor to be on board with that. So I'm gonna say, yeah, I think it happens once. And one thing to look out for a lot of these events happening on ESPN Plus, which I know there's reservations

because of the price tag. And again, this is just in America. However, they will be run from what I'm hearing, much like a fight pass card where because you're paying for it, less commercials, less breaks, quicker events. And so I've said on this show,

I would be willing to pay more to make those events shorter. I don't think you're alone in that regard. The events were hard to watch. So I'm curious to see the changes. I'm curious to see what they bring over, what they don't bring over. It's an interesting time for sure.

We talk about the broadcasting. Now we switch over to the Fox side of things. Oh, and by the way, 300 million, not 300K, I should say. I thought you said 300 million. Maybe not. Someone corrected me. Okay. Michael Keesa getting the call up on the Fox desk for this past event.

Also pictured there to his left, Michael Bisping, who is retiring, but still on the Fox desk. With Jimmy Smith and Karen Bryant. Jimmy Smith does a really good job on these, by the way, because he's very polished and he's a little removed from things. I like having a retired guy, but props to our guy, Michael Kisiv, were finally realizing this. The hair looking. and glorious. He has been talking about this for so long. Yeah. And quite frankly, I'm surprised that it took them this long to at least just give him this chance.

So hopefully he gets more. An update here from Ray Borg. Great. Let's turn up the volume. Who showed their love and support over these last five weeks, they've definitely been tough. But today, we get to go home. Amazing. Look at that.

And we're out of here. Thank you, everybody, for love and support. And we'll see everyone soon. We've been in Denver. Heading back to New Mexico from Denver. We've been, obviously, everybody. The whole MMA community has been following the saga. So far, so good for the Borg family.

Incredible. So happy for them. And the green chili sounds phenomenal, too. Yes, it does. Sticking with our baby theme, Bronson. Oh, yeah. T.J. Dillishaw featuring his son with the T-shirt that he came out with,

with him as a youngster. the on the, what do you mean he came out of it? He's selling that T-J. Yeah, T.J. T.J. Dillisaw is selling

this T-shirt. The Killishaw T-shirt. What is that? I haven't seen that. It's just him, like, it's like a old elementary school photo and on the bottom it says

Killishaw. Wow. Gangster. That's interesting. Yeah, you didn't know about the Killishaw shirt? No, I did not. Well, Bronson's rocking it.

But yeah, I love this shirt. I love the Killishaw shirt. Wow. That is cool. We'll get you one. Well, thank you. Are you in charge of that? No.

Okay. Look at this. Also sticking with the baby theory. Misha Tate. Getting some rounds in while nine months pregnant. It's incredible. I don't know if this is advisable. I'm not a doctor.

I mean, you're cool as long as you're not getting engaged. Yeah. Do your thing, Misha. Incredible. Look at that. Could still kick both of our asses. Apparently, Claudia Gadalia is the videographer on this. It's a little extra.

Hereford, look at that. She didn't forget anything. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom. Nine months. Incredible. Okay. Here we go.

Robin Black, interestingly, had a breakdown of Sergio Ramos taking down Mo Salah. Artist, Ramos, initiates the step across trip, creates the ledge here. That's the obstacle. He then applies rotational force against Salah. destabilizing him and turning him. What is the key to this takedown? This is a nice job capitalizing on a very mainstream moment. You see it right here.

The arm dragged from wrist control. And now let's put it all together. Risk control to start. Then hyper extension on the elbow to force the body to follow and set the ledge to complete the trip using the momentum creative. It's a filthy outcome. All of Salah's weight and force come down on the radius and ulna. small bones, huge impact nasty. Refes need to protect these athletes.

Yeah, I agree. Don't worry, brother. Liverpool is with you. You'll never talk alone. That's a great ending right there. But here's the thing. A lot of focus on the right, but the injury was said to be the left. Yeah, I think he planted on that arm,

but yeah, it seemed like, here, look. But he's talking about the right, but the injury is the left. Yeah, he's going to plant on that arm, but I think he actually takes the force on the other side. Oh, I see. Like it wasn't in the plant. It was in after this.

You're going to see him hit the ground tough there. That's where the injury came. But yeah, unfortunate. Oof, right there. Yeah, that's the injury. But thanks to Robin Black for that breakdown. Okay, last one. I was so scared during this fight.

So we tried to poison. I was so scared of fighting Nick Diaz. So we poison his IV. But he survived. So I was even more terrified, you know. So all the athletic commission was on my payroll, so they tricked the way and then I made it. And it went through. So I was even more terrified.

So the alien abducted me and put the gamma ray to increase my strength like the Hulk, like a performance-enhancing drug. And the fight was still happening. So right before I put some glass and cement in my gloves, make sure. And still had a crazy hard fight. So now we know the truth. We know the truth about GSP versus Nick D.S. Even more interesting to me, GSP looks slim. No?

What do you mean? What were you thinking he would look like? No, I feel like he's slimmer than usual. Feels like maybe he's on his way down to a certain weight. Did you not feel that as well? I think he looks about what I expected him. I don't know. Looks slim to me.

Yeah, you know what? Maybe you're right. He was looking bigger as he was making his comeback. Yeah, maybe you're right. Let's see. Very slim. Look to be in great shape. Look to be in great spirits.

But he just looks... Disappointed a little bit that he admitted cheating in this way. Listen, Nick Diaz has had a tough week. So why kick a man while he's down? I think this was ahead of that. I don't think... I just feel weird making light the whole situation.

Oh, come on. Have some fun. It's my guy, 209. Okay, that's it for Rick's Pecks. We'll do some questions. Okay, what do you got? What do you got? Okay, we're going to start as we start every week.

So a lot of people were giving me grief over not posting a question of the day today, but I posted one on Sunday, which was the question. It would have been the question today. And I felt like Sunday was a more apropos time to put it out because everyone was online and weighing in. So without further ado.

Yes, the question, who did you score the fight for? This being the main event of USC Liverpool, Stephen Thompson or Darren Till, with over 50,000 votes. That's insane, right? I feel like, yeah, I feel like that timing helps. That's the most you've ever had, right? Yeah, double, triple, what we've ever had. 58% saying Stephen Thompson

42% saying Darren Till 58% Wow it really went up It was a lot closer last I checked Yeah Because the voting is closed right Voting's done now Wow 58%

How about that I'm surprised it's not more I saw a lot Scoring the fight for Thompson Wow how about And now did you You didn't share who you scored it for right I did but

To refresh or not on the show Not on air To refresh I score quartered for Darren Till. Which round? I had it 48, 47. I definitely gave him

the second. No, I definitely, yeah, I definitely gave him the second and I definitely gave him the fifth. Yeah. I think the third was the one that I leaned his way, but I think could have gone either way.

Potentially even the first, but I think it was second, third, and fifth. I thought Wonderboy clearly won the first and the fourth. Or not clearly, to be honest. None of those rounds were clear, but I thought Wonderboy won the first and the fourth.

third could go either way. So I had a 48, 47 for Till, but that was a single watching. Wasn't really, you know, willing to say definitively, I think this guy won because I don't think this is the type of fight that you can say that really. I don't think it was that definitive.

Although I saw a lot of 49-46 Thompson, and people were very sure about that, and I can't claim to be. I can't claim to be. I thought Till won some rounds there outside of the fifth. Do you like the Sunday afternoon? card? Well, it's alleviated

by the fact that we had off here in the States on Monday. Sure. I wouldn't love a Sunday afternoon card if everybody's going to work on Monday.

Yeah, but it's still afternoon. It's not like you're staying up. No, it gets so long though, then you're waiting for the post fight. It's not, it doesn't contain itself

that easily. Yeah, you lose your day. Yeah. It's long. I like Sunday morning. The morning's fun. Give me Sunday morning, now we're talking.

Australia card, something like that. What would you do for him next? Till? I think you got to you gotta pull the trigger you got to go title shot What? Yeah

What's wrong with you That's it That might be your worst My worst take Yes of all time Of all the bad Title shot No what do you do next

First of all There's a freaking interim title fight happening So that's just stupid right I mean it's already I wouldn't put them against either Of those fights winners No I mean

Hopefully the winner of that fight Is fighting Tyron Wood For the title yeah Well we'll see We see how those That's not a guarantee who would I actually put him against I mean

I think Mazvedal is a good one Masvadol is a good fight but is that Keep building him a little bit Is that like any different than Thompson? I feel like Thompson is Of course it's different The tougher no no I don't mean stylistically I mean like

Is there somebody who could probably Get him Get him more attention for a win Or get him Pushed up the rankings further You know The rankings, they're going to do whatever they want To me, you want to showcase him in the States?

Great. Put him against a guy like Maswidel who's game. The buildup will be fun. You just want a little more of a spotlight on him here in the United States. So that's what you need to do. Look, the end of the day, it went their way. But let's be real, they rolled the dice big time. They put the number eight guy against the number one guy in that division, a guy who went

the distance with the champion twice and fought to a draw once. So they rolled the dice. And it could have, I mean, different judges, I do believe the crowd played a role. But it was super close. If he loses, that's a setback. It wasn't a setback. Great. They got the result that they wanted.

Now let's learn. You want to bring him to the States? I don't think that's a horrible idea. He had his fight in England. He's fought overseas. He's never fought in America. I don't think it's a bad idea. I think Mazvedal makes a lot of sense.

The other options out there, of course. Usman. I think that would be my... Again, if Covington loses, I really want to see Usman Covington. Yeah. because of their back and forth and their history. I don't hate the idea that Neil Magni had.

I mean, who's calling out Usman? There's Neil Magny. Yeah. Who's calling out Usman. There's still a Ponziabia who's out there. I would think if you don't see, I think Mazvedal is in the wrong spot. If I think if you don't go Usman, you go Ponzanibio for tell. But some of these top welterweights just have to face off.

Like that is just. Oh, that's, that's, I think we need to see what happens. With the interim title fight, I think that will explain a lot. Everybody can't just be waiting for title shots. We need to see some... But Till's not asking for a title shot. You're the one telling us that you can't get a title shot. Usman, sure, as hell isn't making it a secret that.

Oh, I see, I see, I see, I see. Usman has to fight somebody, and I would like to see Till. I think Usman is interested in that fight. I would like to see it. Yeah. I would like to see it. If not, though, Till versus Ponzanibio could be a damn fun fight. Not that Mazvedal couldn't.

I just... I don't know. I don't think. that's the fight. Magni, obviously, in the mix, like that was a really good performance. I think,

uh, yeah, these guys, there's, there's too many, there's too many people on streaks now in the top, uh,

in the top 10 welterweights. We need to see some of these matchups. I agree. And Maya's kind of in no man's land now. Yeah, my is at a tough spot. Yeah. Okay.

Just a gunner Nelson, but that happened already and it wasn't good. We saw that one already. Oh, the long time. Okay. Regarding the scoring, this question dovetails from our previous one. Should MMA judges be set in a separate area from the fight with no crowd sound? This has been discussed in the past.

I believe it was CFFC that dabbled with this as well. I don't hate the idea, by the way. Or earmuffs, headphones, something to that effect. I definitely feel like the crowd influences. And I don't feel like the judges are going in there biased, but I definitely feel like a crowd is going to react. very positively and emphatically when their guy is doing what they perceive to be great things. And honestly, sometimes they're not even landing.

And so I think it would be cool. Again, I'm open to that. I'm open to open to open scoring. But then if, so I'm open to the idea of earmuffs. I'm open to the idea of having them in separate rooms. But what are they watching? What kind of monitor? Well, yeah, then that changes the idea of them being cached side to judge from these angles.

I'm open to open scoring. I like evolution. I like when they play around with things. I think you have to introduce them separately though. Of course. I don't think you want to start

introducing multiple things. I think you want to try one, see if it works and then maybe introduce others. 100%. You don't want to rush to throw in too many elements and then it just becomes

something completely different. I ultimately don't think it will make much of a difference, unfortunately. But I'm open to seeing something else because this is not good as the way it's working. And to be honest, the scoring system itself

is still a big factor in this and not, you know, this can't all fall on the judges' plates. This is a close fight. This is not the one where you go, oh, the judge has messed up so bad. To be honest, this is just a close fight. Those rounds could have gone either way. This is not, this is not the one

to plant the flag on judges are terrible because there's plenty of times for that. This was just a close fight that to be honest, would have been different with a different scoring system. In this case, I don't think the judges are the ones that were out of line here. Well, look, if it was pride, then

there's not much controversy, right? No, Till had the most significant moments in that fight by far. And at the end... Had a knockdown. Yeah. Yeah. One thing that, you know, I'd like to also see as I'm here being all nitpicky, octagon control

isn't the factor that people make it out to be, and you keep hearing people on TV say, Octagon Control, octagon control. It's not octagon control. Yeah. It really comes, you know, first and foremost is damage. And so, I mean, those leg kicks were very, you heard, you heard Stephen talk about it. They were very impactful.

Yeah. Well, he did a very good job of not letting it visibly show how impactful they were, which is on his part, you know, obviously tremendous. Because you could see the bruising, you could see how badly he was being hurt there without letting him, you know, show that his, his, his movement. movement was impacted visible limp or anything like that he did well to to fight that off um but uh yeah till did some damage with that okay uh leum asks after creating quality atmosphere at uc liverpool do you think the uk should get a pay-per-view at least once a year the problem with that is of course that it would happen at three a m four a m like the manchester card did well it's funny you say that he says we don't care if the main card starts at three a m to accommodate for

american audiences hungry hungry for a pay-per-view in the UK. Yeah, I know, I appreciate the fact that he may not care. I don't know about everyone else. I like the fact that he's speaking on everyone's behalf. In the UK. But I get what they're trying to say,

or I get what he's trying to say, is that he wants, you know, high-quality cards. I thought this was pretty decent. I mean, you get Till, that's huge. And Gunner Nelson, the rest of the card was a little thing. Look, some of it didn't play out. I think top to bottom, the Utica card is better.

That's fair. And I just think that there's, you know, top to bottom more interesting fights. But it's hard. You know, like this is the same thing that is brought up time and again for the past decade. UK wants better cards. To me, just be happy that you're getting cards. And of course, you don't have to go to the cards. You don't have to pay for tickets.

But the whole product is a lot more thinned out. And so, you know, everyone wants Connor. It's like this show. Oh, weak lineup. Oh, where's Nate Diaz? Where's Connem Gras? Like, of course you want those people. Where is Nate Diaz?

And where is Connem? Where are those people? Where's the interview with Nick Diaz from his jail cell? You. So anyway, yeah, I get it. But just be happy, all right? And by the way, if you live in England, you got Belator 200 on Friday and this card. Put those two cards together, a pretty damn good card.

I don't know if it works that way. But at least they got to watch Bellator live over there. Yeah, unlike us. Unlike us. Unbelievable. A little tough. Unbelievable. Okay, Michael asking, did Darren Till's performance on home soil make him a star, much like the Cleveland fight card did for Steepa, the Ireland fight card did for Connor? Did you feel like that helped push that forward? To a degree, the build up all that, yes. You know, those finishes were different than this one, of course. Those were very clean.

Connor finished. Diego Brandeau, Miotich finished, Alster Overeem. So this one's a little different. The narrative, had he done that to Wonder Boy, would. have been all praise, all this, and then, of course, there's the way in. So I don't think it's as clean. I do think him walking out like that. I mean, again, not that long ago, this guy was fighting on the fight past prelims on these throwaway Brazilian events. So, like, he looks like a star. And there's a trickle-down effect there.

Trust me, there's a trickle-down effect there. That video's passed around all over the place. People are like, who's this guy? You know, it's like when Ricky Hatton used to come out to Blue Moon in Manchester. It just feels bigger. So, yes, there is a degree of that. I don't think it's 100% that because of the fact that he missed weight and because of the fact that the finish wasn't as clean.

But he is a bigger star today than he was this time last week. There's no doubt about that. I agree. That's it. That's it. By the way, one thing about the Utica card that I wanted to mention, very, very good poster. Very underrated poster.

I don't know if I've seen it. Very underrated poster. See if I can pull it up. I must say pleasantly surprised. It's on the Wikipedia page. Very good poster. See it? Let's see.

Let's see. What do you mean? I like that poster. Clean. She's the big heads. No, I like the big. This is different. This is way different.

Head to head. The big heads head to head like that is not something they often do. Very good poster. So put that in your bank. Anyone who says that I'm being too negative. And the Belter people, they're like, oh, I see you ripping on our card. Belator 200. it's not live.

I mean, two weeks ago, I'm talking about Beltor 1.98 being a home run and all this stuff. You can't please anyone these days. You don't hear from anyone when you shower them with praise. Say one critical thing and all of a sudden you're a hater. Unbelievable. Shorty Torres, Jared Brooks.

Who's the favorite? Ooh. Hmm. I'm guessing Torres? I don't know what to make of that one because, yeah, I'm going to go Torres, but I don't know. I actually don't know. Torres minus 200 plus 185.

That's going to be. interesting because that is going to be a step up like getting getting to this level now is going to be a thing and I think Jared Brooks is a good fighter so I'll be I'll be very interested in that fight I think it's a great pace in that fight is going to be nuts very interested in that one that's the opener

yeah well that what better fight to open that let's kick it off Johnny Eduardo Nathaniel Wood Wood yeah minus 275 plus 252 another another huge debut right there like that's big those top two fights they just signed to the biggest prospects in the sport.

Yep. And one of them is actually called the prospect. Jody Escobal, Jessica Aguilar. Aguilar is going to be the favorite, I guess? I mean, she's...

Yeah. Yeah, minus 120 plus 120. That doesn't surprise me that it's close like that. Desmond Green, Glycen T. Bow. Ooh. I guess Des is going to be the favorite. Minus 265 plus 246.

I don't know if I'd count... He hasn't looked great lately, but I don't know if I'd count Tebow out of that fight. I think that's a winnable one for him. Belal Muhammad against the great chance Hong Kong. Yeah, I think Balal. Minus 375 plus 336.

David Tamor, Nick Lentz. Tamor. Yeah, minus 278 plus 256. Lauren Murphy, Sejara, Eubanks. U banks. U banks. Oh, I would have said Murphy. Minus 160 plus 148.

Sam Al-B. No, I think the tough run really opened people's eyes to Sejara and how good she is. I think that's a good fight, though. John Valante, Sam Alvey. Ooh, toss up. I don't know, close.

I'm guessing, uh, maybe Valante, but small. Wrong. Plus 123, minus 135. Yeah,

that sounds about right, though. Jake Ellenberger, Ben Saunders. Ooh. Tying, fun card. Yeah,

that is a, that is, there's a lot of fun ones on this. That's what I'll say. Ellenberger, small. Yeah, 172 minus 172 plus 158

Walt Harris Daniel Spitz Spitz has been impressive Probably Harris Yeah minus 302 Spitz has been impressive I think he's also live Julio Arce against Daniel Tamor Tamer Tammar brothers on the card

Arce RSA yeah minus 175 Gregor Gillespie against The Fisher Yeah fisherman Vince Pichel That's a Man, these are good fights.

Super close. Gillespie. This is the biggest one on the card. Minus 461 plus 420. He's a big prospect. Yep. And last one. Jimmy Rivera, Marlon Marais.

Wow, what a fight. Man, I love this card. You're right. I'm telling you. It's a phenomenal. You're right. I love this card. Rivera?

Rivera? Because he said, I said that he was great on the broadcast, and now he's buttering me up. He was great. on the podcast. By the way, they should keep them on that desk all the time. Who'd you pick? I said Rivera. Is he the favorite? Yes, slight. Minus 110, minus

101. That one's tough. That one's super tough. I'm glad we're finally getting it. They've talked about it enough. Oh, my God. I'm excited. I love that fight. Good card. Good card for Utica. So that is Friday. And by the way, BKFC on Saturday, bare-knuckle fighting championship. We learned all about it today.

Yes. How fun is that? All right, my friend. I'll see you on Monday. Thank you very much. Great job. So, yes, there's the flag yes how nice here we go to all our friends out there so yeah this is Tuesday back on Monday same time and place so stay tuned for that of course we'll talk about utica and we will be on the road to Chicago UFC 225 coming up in less than two weeks June 9th in Chicago Robert Whitaker against you O Romero Colby Covington against Havado Sanjos and of course the much anticipated long awaited return of one C.M. Punk for now you can

hit my music. It is time to say goodbye, my friends. So weird that it's Tuesday. It still kind of feels like Monday. So weird. But this has been a fun show. Always fun to do the show after a big weekend. So much to discuss. So much going on. I want to thank everyone who tuned in. Want to thank everyone who stopped by. Want to thank all our guests today. Thank you very much to the great P.T. Carol, who did phenomenal work last week in both London and Liverpool. Thank you very much to Rory McDonald. Looking forward to what's next for him. And of course, congratulations to the one and only Gagard Kinky Musassi,

who says that he's slowing down from the Kinky game. But I feel like now that he's a champion, you know, he's going to pick it back up. At least I'm hopeful. And I'm also hopeful that they'll make that fight. Roy McDonald and Gaguer Musassi. It has to be made. It has to. Thank you very much.

you Andre Harrison for coming in studio. First time I have a chance to talk to the Bull. And of course, thank you for the gifts as well. How fun was that? Looking forward to his return on June 7th on NBCSN. I won't be there, even though it's in New York because I'll be in Chicago for UFC 225. Thank you very much to Beck Rawlings and good luck to her this Saturday, bare-knuckle fighting championship. How about that?

Thank you very much to Arnold Allen and his mustache. Great job. Congratulations on the big win. Thank you very much to Aaron Chalmers. Keep doing your thing, my friend. Thank you very much to Michael Venom Page. Congrats to him on the phenomenal win. Thank you so much to Stephen Thompson.

Congratulations to Angela Lee. And, of course, thank you and congratulations to Darren Till. Of course, big win on Sunday night. Back next week. Same time and place. Until they say, peace. I'm out of here.