MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 438

Episode Date: June 12, 2018

Ariel Helwani speaks to Robert Whittaker (00:05:37), Malki & Abraham Kawa (00:25:24), Colby Covington (00:50:05), Carla Esparza (01:09:05), Chris Weidman (01:29:07), Al Iaquinta (01:50:19), Tyron Woodley (02:09:51), Mike Jackson (02:37:07), Curtis Blaydes (02:53:48), Matt Mitrione & Sean McCorkle (03:10:23), Mark Hunt (03:30:06), Kamaru Usman (03:49:54), Yoel Romero (04:05:07), Holly Holm (04:17:22), Urijah Faber (04:40:39), Dominick Cruz (05:00:45), and NewYorkRic for The MMA [After] Hour featuring Ric's Picks (05:15:04). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 18665330 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with... The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, June 11, 2018. Hello again, everyone. I'm Mario Halwani back inside our New York City studio.

Great to be here with all of you. Hope you had a lovely weekend. I had a fun one in Chicago. It was great to be there covering the event, UFC, 25 is officially in the books. What a great card it was. Of course, we are going to talk about that card and the aftermath of that card from all different angles on this show. So hope you buckle up for a fun ride. Of course, as you may have heard, this is my last time hosting the MMA hour. Obviously, a mix of emotions. We've had an amazing run for nine years. In fact, our first show

was almost exactly nine years to the day. June 16, 2009. Here we are, June 11th, 2000, 18 and on that show, our first and only guest was a young man named Uriah Faber. So on this show, I thought it would be fitting to end it all with the California kid, who has always been very gracious with his time, who's always been a friend of the program. I wanted to start it with him, and I wanted to end it with him nine years later. So we'll be hearing from him a little later on in the program. We'll talk a bit about goodbyes and see you later's and the run. and New York Rick

and everything else that you guys have been asking me about we'll talk about that later on, back into the show. But I have always believed and I've always tried to make this program about the stars, about the fighters. Without the fighters,

there is no show. They have been the most incredible people to cover over the past nine years and I'm not stopping to cover them. Of course, I'm not retiring from MMA but for this particular show they have done so much for its growth. And so this show

is about the fighters. And I didn't want to have some kind of show where it's just us reminiscing and getting all emotional and mushy and sappy. No, there's a card to cover. There's a card to talk about. There's a lot of big names coming on today. In fact, the most amount of guests we've ever had, so that's a nice little note for our last show. 15 in total. And I just, I wanted to go out like we've always gone out. Every Monday with a stack show with the biggest names in the sport, I am so proud of the fact that we have created from nothing. To me, the most important show in MMA, the biggest show in MMA, and it's with the help of the fighters, of course, who came on,

but the help and support of the fans, and of course the help and support of Vox Media who purchased this site back in 2011 and took the show from AOL and made it into what it is today. So it has been an amazing run. I will certainly miss sitting in this chair, but I'm not going to think about that right now because, as I said, we have a lot to discuss and we have a lot of people to talk to.

So we'll get to all that stuff back in for now. Let me run down today's lineup. And then we'll get to our first guest of the day. So like I said, Uriah Faber will be on at 525. We'll talk to him, 505. We will talk to Holly Home. There's a switch there. So Holly Home will be on at 505.

Talk about her big win over Megan Anderson on Saturday night. Camaro Oussman will be on at 445. Talk about what happened at PF3. in New York. And by the way, I'm wearing the same shirt, in case you're wondering, I'm wearing the same shirt that I wore back on June 16, 2009. How about that? It still fits after three kids. Isn't that amazing? Same shirt. Nothing else is the same, by the way, well, except for me wearing the shirt, but I thought that that would. I get, I get, you know, nostalgic about these things. Anyway, Kamar Usman at 445. 425 will be joined by Mark Hunt. Talk about what's next for

him. Maybe talk about if he does shooies as well. Of course, his friend, Tai Tui Vasa, with a big when on Saturday even came out to My Heart Will Go On, which was just amazing. What a star that man is. What a legend. 4.05 will have Matt Mitrione and Sean McCorkel on the program. Longtime fans of the show may recall that they both used to come on and give us the Mitrione McCorkel Minute. And so I thought it would be nice to reminisce with both of them. We haven't talked to Sean McCorkel in quite some time. And I thought it would just be fun to have him back on. So they will join us at 425. 4.05. Excuse me, that's 405. 345. We'll talk to Curtis Blades about his big win over Alistair Overeign. Mike Jackson will be on at 325. Talk about the win over

C.M. Punk. 305. Tyron Woodley will be on to talk about his win over, Hafeld dosangos and having to fight him next. Ally Quinta, he'll be on at 245, one of our favorites. Is he fighting Justin Gaichie? We'll find out. Chris Wyman talked to him about the recovery, the main event on Saturday, wanting next, all that and more. Carlos Sparzel will join us at 205. Talk about the controversial loss to Cloudjugadalia. The aforementioned, Colby Covington, will join us at 145. Talk about the winover RDA.

YOL Romero will be on at 125. But first, let us go to the phone and say hello to the reigning, defending UFC middleweight champion, the man who was victorious on Saturday night, the man who overcame many an obstacle on route to defeating Y'Oll Romero, via decision. The one and only Robert Whitaker is so very kind enough to join us right off the bat here on the program. Robert, how are you?

Yeah, goodbye, how are you? I'm doing great. I really appreciate you joining us, and I know you're on route to the airport or maybe there already, so thank you so much for squeezing us in. Congratulations on the win. One of the best fights I've ever seen in person. First, I have to ask you, how are you feeling? How is your body feeling after that fight? Yeah, I'm doing great. You know,

the hands, Officer Burkin. I threw an x-ray. I was a clean break at least. So I think it's going to have a pretty good recovery. But apart from the broken hand, it's been scraped and bruises. You know, I'm in good spirits. My understanding is that you broke the hand in the first round.

Is that accurate? And do you remember exactly when you broke the hand? That is accurate. I don't remember when I broke, but I do remember not being able to feel my hand from my fingertips to my forearm. And I knew something was up. because I've never felt like that before.

I've spoken before multiple fights, but it's never been like that numb completely. I couldn't even close it and curl it. Wow. So what kind of pain, like were you in an excruciating amount of pain for the final four rounds? It hurt, but more or less it was just numb.

I couldn't feel my right hand very well at all. How does it feel right now? It's getting a cast right now, so it's feeling all right. and it's so, but it's not too bad. The castles keep me in place. Did that change? I mean, obviously you couldn't throw the right as much after experiencing that.

How drastically did your game plan change as a result of that injury early on? It definitely slowed up my output fairly significantly. Not been able to throw the right hand, which was definitely hindering me a little bit. But the game plan was just to start with a strong jab, tip off the legs, and also having such great success. test with that. I made it numerous jabs and the hooks and I was keeping away with the kicks all very effective. So it wasn't working against me too much. Have you had a chance to rewatch the fight in its entirety? I have. I have. What is it like when you're watching the third and fifth rounds?

What is it like seeing yourself withstand that kind of punishment, that kind of damage and keep on going, you know, barely almost going to the... Like, are you in awe of yourself? We are all in awe of you. I'm wondering if you're able to be in awe of yourself when you watch that. I wouldn't say I would have a bit more of myself. It definitely, it's definitely cringy to watch. I don't like watching myself get dropped. He used what it is. But, you know, he hit me. He put my ass back on my ass by tons. I never felt once that I was, I was ever going to go away from the fight. In the third, I actually, I get back to my feet and I start laying on the offense once again. I get back to him, get back to work.

The fifth, the last one was a little different. He started wrestling by, wrestling me by the end of it. But, yeah, he takes a punch. He doesn't look weak. So, you know, he was still to say that he could get quite hard. At any point in the fight, you recall being nervous, do you recall thinking that maybe you were on the verge of being finished? Not at all.

You know, I can remember visibly thinking, you know, it doesn't look good. Saying from, from a perspective from people looking for, outside, but in no way was I ever going to go away from that fight. It did shock me, it put me down for a second, but I was working my way back up. I got my legs under me, and I went straight back on the offense after that. So, you know. This might be a hard question to answer, but I'm wondering, where do you feel like he hit you,

you know, the hardest, and the third or the fifth? That's where it seems like he did the most damage. Which one do you feel like you were in the toughest spot? Probably the fifth round was the harder rounds of the two But the third round I went down But I got back up

And then I started actually going on the offense again I started landing good elbows I started letting good kicks again And I think the third round I actually I started to come back again once again You know after establishing dominance In the first part of that round as well

The fifth round was a little different It was a little harder It was at the end of the fight Yeah he got another good shot after, you know, getting that shot in the third. And, you know, it was a matter of just bringing in the fight, taking it where it comes, getting through the hard troops, you know, he hits very hard

and finishing the fight on you in the fifth round that I had done enough to win the fight. I just had to get to the end of it. Did you feel as though he was a tougher puzzle to figure out this time around than the first time you fought him 11 months ago? Yeah, definitely. You know, there were reports saying that Rockholds,

said when he fought him, he felt like he felt like he was kicking and punching concrete. I 100% can verify that this time round when I was fighting the punches and kicks. I was calf kicking him clean and my foot was coming back sore. You know, it looks like I was hurting myself more than hitting him than he was getting hit. So, yeah, he's a tough guy. He was a very tough guy. Now that you've had a chance to watch the fights, which rounds do you feel like you decisively won? You know, I decisively won the first second and fourth round, I believe. Even the third round, I think, you know, a lot of people don't realize that you can drop someone in a fight,

but if you don't capitalize on it or walk away with that, or utilize that moment to the best of effectiveness, then you essentially didn't do much. You know, he did drop me in the third and fifth rounds, you know, props to him. And he did go, you know, completely crazy on me during those. times, but there wasn't a lot of executive strides. He didn't put me out enough so that, like, in the fourth round, I still managed to come back and get

back to work at the end of the third. I came back and started laying down the head again. You know, it's all making the most of the opportunity. Were you nervous before they read out the scorecards, or did you feel pretty confident that you had done enough? You never know with these judges, of course.

You never know, there's always a nervous. there's all no one's clear with only decisionally because you never know with the judges

it's always in their hands and you can't control that but the biggest thing though for me was in around 5 and getting through

getting dropped again in round 5 and at the end of the fight was that I knew I had done I had done the work necessary to get the win I felt like I was attacking him

from round 1 to around 5 apart from the two times he got those good shots in yeah that's that's my opinion. I asked you about this on Wednesday about the layoff and whether you were concerned the

layoff would make you a little rusty, but you reminded me that you've been taking long layoffs throughout your career. But considering the stuff that you had to overcome, you know, the illnesses and the injuries and things like that, did you feel like it took you a little longer than maybe you expected to get going in the fight or not at all?

Not at all. You know, I'm not in one, round two. We're coming by last rounds in that fight. All my game plans and everything was very effective against him. I shut my dabs with Chris, my crosses while I could draw him. We're very close. Hulks, kicks.

Everything was gone really well. He's a tough guy, and he hit very hard, and he stuck through with the fires. He wasn't ever dirty himself. I didn't receive a lot of output from him, apart from the times he got those two good hits off and then went quite all in on those. Apart from that, though, I felt like the game plan works extremely well, and I stuck that quite well The part that I still

can't quite figure out is why you were asked so many times about a trilogy fight. You're now two and O against the man. I can't imagine you want to do that a third time, right? I mean, it seems it would seem preposterous to have to fight this man a third time after just doing it back to

back. Am I wrong or are you actually open to this? No, it's totally like exactly right there. I think when went to Rogan asked me in the Oxford on the other night. He

set a rubber match and for one, I had never heard of the term other match so he called me off guard there. But on second, I have just beat the boogeymen of the division twice back to back. I don't

think this is how the division or the UFC conducts business is where we get the champion to fight one guy who on both occasions doesn't make weight for a championship part back to back to back to back. Like, I'm not going to fight no one ever forever.

Right. I feel like for now you've proven your point. And speaking of the missing of the weight, by all accounts, by the UFC's account, by your management's account, you were a model fighter throughout this entire process. And I give you props for that.

You just wanted to fight at the end of the day. But could I ask, at any point, did you think to yourself once you found out that he missed weight? You know, we've seen people call the fight off and you were certainly in your own right to do that. Did you ever consider not taking the fight? You know, I told a lot of people that because I was trying to get,

I was trying to get my opponent to think about it a little bit more seriously, to take it a little bit more seriously. I am a profession in all things I do. When I sign the contract and it says 185, I make sure I'm 1805 on the day. I get in bright and early and I make sure I'm one of the first people on the scales. The thing is I didn't need to. to take the fight. I could have walked away my purse money

and not taking the fight. I was in my own. I had a right to do that. But the thing was, I had a lot of fan here. Chicago was super pumped to see the money as then. There were a lot of people who wanted to watch the rematch for me and y'all. And, you know, at the end of the day I had my fight up. So I thought,

I'm going to take this fight. You know, I flew a long way here. Someone's going to get into a fight. Did you have to psych yourself up to take the fight? because there was a period where we weren't sure if he was going to take the fight and there was that two-hour period where he was trying to make weight and we didn't know if he'd be healthy enough?

Was that a roller coaster of emotions as well 24 hours before a fight? You're not supposed to think about those things, but you had to. How did you react to all of it? Yeah, my biggest thing was just worried about me working sure I was doing my job properly. So I made the weight

and then my next job after that was resueling, rehydrating, preparing for a fight. Whether or whether or not that the fight was going to take place, was left with the man and John my fight team. Obviously, I want his health to be looked after, and I want him to look after himself

and to be healthy for the fight. But my biggest concerns was just preparing for a fight that may or may not have happened. Were you hearing the same rumors that I was all week long, that he was a little heavy, that he was having trouble, making weight? And if so, did you allow yourself

to think about those things? The thing was, I don't listen, I try not to listen to rumors. I really lock myself in my room and kind of, kind of distance myself from more rumors, media, and whatnot fight weak in particular. But I knew after the last fight with Rockhold, and seeing him at the way in when I fought him a year ago,

that the weight tart wasn't going to be easy for him. Regardless of whether he made it or did not, it was not going to be easy. So I always knew he was going to have a hard time. That's why, you know, early on I said, may not take the fight if my opponent's not waiting and everything, but it is what it is. You know, we still went out there,

we still put on a great fight. It was a great performance from him as well. And, you know, it was my day. I got the nod, and I'm happy with that. And just curious, why didn't you put up more of a fight? Why didn't you ask for a weight cap or for more money or anything like that? Because I came to fight.

There's no point putting weight caps or anything because, you know, he didn't make weight the first time. I think he's going to worry about the other side. stuff after that, to be honest. And I don't need to, I really didn't need to put myself through the thought process of giving his weight cut and his business any of my attention. Like I said, after I had made weight, I was focusing only on rehydrating and then preparing for the fight that was going to happen because I knew it was going to be a hard fight.

Whichever Yohra decides to hook up, whether he did or did not, whether it was going to be another opponent. My biggest goal was just to make sure that I'm in the best condition to fight whoever they put in front of me. And last thing on this, what did you make of the story that he told about having his final weight cut short by an hour? Did you have any issues with the Illinois Commission? Do you believe his story? You know, I don't want to discredit the goal at all. Like, that's not what I'm here to do. But it's on embedded the timing that he was given. He was given much more than an hour. You can actually watch it.

The commission for me, and in my own opinion, was perfect. I went in there, it got me through real quick and easy. I was on weight on point, and I was rehydrating by about 9-30, which is absolutely the best case scenario. For him, I'm not sure. You know, it sounds like he left it a bit late.

Sounds like it was a bit harder for him. But I'm not him. I didn't go through his experiences. I'm not discrediting him at all. You know, he's a great athlete, and he was very respectful towards me all flight weeks. So, yeah. Okay. Do you need surgery on your hand?

Yeah, I'm going to need surgery. It's a clean break, which is going to be good for the recovery. But as soon as I land when I get home, I'm going to get surgery to put a pin in some and it should go well. Okay. So do you know how long you'll be out for? Not yet. But like I mentioned before, it is a clean break. It's as good as a break to be.

So it should be pretty well. It should be pretty good. Are you hopeful to fight again in 2018, despite the hand, you know, because you hadn't fought since July of last year, you had the illness. Is that your hope and plan to fight before the year's over? 100%.

You know, I'm going to go through my rehab and get surgery. I want to do my rehab and I'm going to go. And, you know, I was very well to be fighting before the year. There seems to be a two-horse race as far as who's next for you between Kelvin Gasselman and Chris Wyden. Do you have a preference? I don't have a preference no

I'm in the business I'm fighting the toughest dudes out there and I think I've shown that with my last few fights I think Whiteman beat gasoline before so I don't know

where that leaves the horses okay so right now you're leaning towards you're thinking that they're going to give Wydman the shot

you would think so because Wythambeed gasoline but you know who can say like I said I'm just going to fight whoever the UFC put in front of me. Is that something that interests you that fight? Like, is that a fight that gets you excited?

Both fights get me excited. They're very good fight of both of them real top caliber athletes. One in the previous X-Champ, both are great fights for me. Okay. And final thing, do you feel like now, and I know it's not something that you care about, but maybe deep, deep down, do you feel like you're getting a little more, I feel like now Robert Whitaker is finally getting that respect. Not so much that you've been looking for,

but to see you being showered with praise like this is pretty darn cool. Do you feel that way? And is it nice? Can you acknowledge that maybe it's nice to finally get that respect? Yeah, you know, I'm really happy to be able to the respect I think my skill set deserves. I've gone in there every time and I've just put on shows for everyone. I think a lot of people can now, you know, rest assured that whenever I step inside such, the obstacle and I'm going to be the best rock week

that they've seen and they're in for a good night. I thought the toughest students are in. You know, everyone, all the guys that have a lot of other opponents have been dodging. I've been taking those fights and I'll be beating. So, yeah, you know, I think the

respect is deserved. Well, it's well earned and it's well deserved, as you just said. Robert, congratulations on a phenomenal fight. Safe travels home. I hope your hand gets well soon. You have a safe and successful surgery. And again, thank you so much as you're about to leave Chicago for jumping on with us here. It's an honor and a real privilege to talk to you before you leave. So again, congratulations.

And thank you for that amazing performance on Saturday. Thank you so much for having me. Sorry about the noise. I am at the airport at the moment. No problems at all. It was a real pleasure. Thank you so much. Safe Travels home to you and your family. Thanks for having me. All right. There he is. The reigning defending UFC middleweight champion. His name is Robert Whitaker. He is finally starting to get that respect. Again, this isn't the kind of guy that is going to go out and talk smack. It'll never happen. It will never happen with him.

But if you can't appreciate a fighter like Robert Whitaker, if you can't appreciate what he overcame, whether or not you think he got the nod, whether or not you think that Romero won three rounds or two or not. Look what that man withstood. Look what happened when your Romero hit Luke Rockhold with those kind of shots. Look at what he overcame in the third and fifth rounds.

Look at what he had to actually. beat and pull through. It's just amazing. It really is amazing. Yole Romero may be one of the hardest hitters in MMA today and in the history of the sport. The guy is a freaking truck. He is an absolute truck. And they both fought great. I'd love to see another five rounds of that. Maybe not next. I think Robert deserves a little bit of a break. And Ywell, to a degree as well, we're going to be joined by Ywell in a matter of moments. And I don't think he has any serious injuries to deal with after that fight, but how do you not, I mean, how do you not appreciate what Robert Whitaker and Yol Romero did in that main event? It was amazing. It truly was. In the end, the Ozies go two and one.

Megan Anderson lost, Tai Tui Vasa won, and of course, Robert Whitaker won. So a very important night in the history of Australian MMA, they end up, you know, with a plus 500 record. So that's really good for them. But I do feel like Robert is starting to get that respect. And I think it's well reserved and I think it's it's certainly well earned. There are a lot of different angles to this story of course. We talked to the Robert's side of the story. Now let us talk to the O. Romero's side of the story. In a matter of moments, we are going to be joined by Yol Romero, but first, before we are joined by Yol Romero, let us say hello to his managers, one of which was actually by his side throughout the entire weight cutting process was also even in his corner looking very good in that

I Ledju Reebok shirt. Let's try to do what we did last week. And there they are, the brothers. Malki was too busy getting a haircut last week, so he couldn't come on. But now here he is. Bald as can be in honor of his great friend Dana White. It's a great look, Malki. You're looking fine. Look at my great friend, Dina White, huh?

Yeah. Wow. I got a great... Come on, bro. I'll never compare me in Dana. This is crazy. Because you now look like... You now look like five years younger than your younger brother.

That's what I keep telling me is to get in the... gym, man, but, you know, he doesn't want to come with me. I don't know why. Why not, Abe? Too busy? Okay. Now, what happened to your head, Abe? Why do you have a band-a-dage on? Stress. You got cut in all of that? You know, I feel you. When you get stressed, break out. So.

How about Abe Cowah, back-to-back weeks on this program? He went nine years without an appearance, and now he's on back-to-back-to-back weeks. I know. I know. I told him. I said he needed to start getting his face out there, so. He's good. How was that? Are we going to be joined by O'L?

Or is he big-timing us? Yeah, I don't know where he's at. I'm waiting from the show up. He started raising. He's got both his coaches here, and they're sitting here waiting on him, too, because we have a big meeting that was supposed to start at one. And then we got you as well, and, you know, how that goes. All right.

So while we wait for him, and hopefully we'll be able to talk to him for at least a few minutes, I want to ask you guys and Abe I believe you were there and Maliki I know you're obviously very caught up on the whole situation so take this however you want tell us about the controversial moments on Friday

as you know he's trying to make weight he comes down he's 186 UL's 186 initially and then they tell you guys okay from this point I believe it was I believe it was 1046 AM central time you now have two hours

to come back down here and make 185 on the dot and then apparently according to you and UL some weird stuff happened. So to either of you, what exactly happened here? Can you tell us from your mouth what happened? So once we got off the scale,

we were then taken by the head of the commission, the Illinois commission lady there. And she said, for you to get the two hours, we have to clear you. I said, okay, cool. I took about 20 minutes. Being there, the UFC doctor as well was there. They used one of their own doctors.

And she said, if you want, if you want the extra two hours, you have to take one of our doctors up with you. We said absolutely no problem. It's not going to be an issue. So not only she sent one doctor, she sent two doctors and the UFC sent their doctor,

Dr. Davidson, to come up as well. So we ended up having three doctors in the room. That whole process, though, took about 20 minutes to get cleared. The time started, though, from the moment you got on the scale. So you've got to think, now we're already at like 1106, I believe,

by the time we get him back into the room. When that happens, the whole plan for this was to be on weight by 11 a.m. That was the plan. Once 5 o'clock in the morning came around, I got texted by three different people telling me, and these are UFC officials telling me, hey, as long as he's within three pounds by 11 a.m.,

on the scale, he'll get an extra two hours. So I get with George Lockhart, I tell George, hey, if for whatever reason we need to do, let's use those extra two hours. Why would we kill our guy trying to get him down that bad, that fast? If we could stretch it out, let's stretch it out. He goes, oh, you're an idea. Let's do it.

So the whole plan was to use those two hours. So everything that we did from that point going forward of the Wakeup was to use the two extra hours, slaughtered to us. So fast forward, we get up to the room. They send two EMTs to check his vitals. His vitals were perfect. Not perfect like you and I were walking in, you know, we're fully hydrated, but perfect for someone who's weight cutting.

So not only did the commission doctor clear him, the UFC doctor clear him, but now EMT cleared him as well. From that point, it took about another 10 to 15 minutes before he actually got into the tub because it was, it was, that's the way everything worked out in terms of time. He got into the tub. Within being into the tub within about five or so minutes, the doctor, the old man, I don't remember his name came in.

Well, I'm sorry, he didn't come in. He was already in there. He asked you all, hey, how do you feel? You all says, I feel great. guy asked him while he was in the tub how he feels said he feel great he says okay well uh uh you're he goes i feel like a superhero the guy goes well you know all superheroes die he's like whoa that's geez he's just say that to a guy's cutting up you know so press fast forward about a minute later he gets a call from the uh the lady commissioner

the head of the commissioner the commissioner saying hey he this is over getting out of the tub he's got to come downstairs. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, this doesn't make any sense. You told us we had two hours. We're only an hour into this. This is the hour that we were going to cut. This was the time frame that he had to cut between the bath and the towels. I say, I'm going to go downstairs. I'm going to go downstairs. I'm going to go there and ask her directly, why she's pulling it? Now, stay in the tub, you all don't get out. I go downstairs. I, you know, introduce myself and I ask, lady, you know, why are you cutting the short? She goes, I don't feel comfortable him cutting weight. I said, but you cleared it, and you have your doctor up there. You have another

doctor up there and you have the UFC doctor up there. Plus you have EMTs there. What are you afraid of? And she goes, I don't, I don't think he looked good going up there. I said, but that was an hour ago, you could have stopped this an hour ago. And if she would have stopped it an hour ago, I would have kept my mouth shut and said, you know what, this is her personal opinion. She's leaving it to that. We would have obviously fought, but it made more sense to do that then that to let him go

a whole other hour in her mind of him cutting when she wasn't even cutting in that hour. He was actually resting in that hour. So for her to say that, you know, she's just going to do it. I said, well, there's no, you don't have a medical opinion telling you otherwise. She goes, no, I'm making an administrative call. I said, this doesn't make any sense. You're going to pull a guy in the middle of the wake up. We haven't even started yet.

She goes, there's, there's no discussion here. You need to be down here right now on the scale. Going back upstairs. I told you, well, you've got to get out of the tub. Take your time getting out of the tub. Take your time. Everything. That was really it.

And then from there, it was just kind of, you know, get down to the rest of everybody knows. Right. Um, what was it ever in question that he would take the fight after all of that? Yeah, I mean, you know, the thing is that at that point he, you know, there's not, no longer for a belt. Yeah. That's what he, you know, it's what he wanted. And, you know, in his mind, it didn't make sense for him to fight a fighter or not a fighter, but to fight a fight that's for a championship belt where if he wins, he doesn't get the belt, right? So he was like, well, listen, I might as well, if this is the case, right?

And let's not fight. And let's fight when the belt's on the line. and then you know we kind of really started talking to him about it and then he he said now you know what you're right let's just fight so it was like a conversation for a little bit and then it went away he wanted to fight it's you know as you guys can see he went off and he laid it all out in the line so it was a hell of a fight Is there anything that can be done now with the commission? I have to say, I mean, I wasn't there when you guys were talking to them, of course. But I mean, even the fact that they started 20 minutes early to me, like, I missed the first six people who weighed in because they said it started at nine. And then I hear your story. And I started thinking, like, did they just want to wrap this thing up early?

I have no, I asked UFC, why did they do it early? They have no idea. What can we done, if anything, about this? Well, here's the thing. I don't know about starting early or pulling guys off the scale. I think the commission has the right to kind of do a lot of what they want to do. So there's guys down there trying to weigh in early and they let him do it. I guess they probably could.

You know what I mean? No one's going to wait for us to, you know, sit there and take pictures and do all that. So I think they could do that. But this whole telling him he's got two hours or deviating from the rules, not going on the word of what the doctors are saying to me is an issue. So I've already this morning, you know, put an inquiry into some, you know, to three attorneys to look into the matter for us and to check to see what's up. But if there's something that I can do, we're definitely going to sue the Chicago Commission.

I'm not going to play around with him. The thing is this, here's the problem for me. These fighters come in there, and especially after watching this fight, watching what he did, watching what Robert did. They both went in there. Robert took a beating. Yuel took a beating. They spent the night in the hospital.

I mean, when you watch guys do that, right? And look, listen, at the end of the day, it worked out the way it did, right? Robert Wahn keeps his belt all good. Let's just assume Yel would have won. What would have happened then at that point? You know what I mean? Robert's still the champion? Now you got Robert sitting here saying, well, I'm going to have a rematch because I mean,

or no, I'm not going to fight him again. and then now we would be sitting here, a guy who beat the champion, right? Two weeks, two fights in a row beats the champion without no doubt. Just at some point it doesn't make any sense. And look, again, him not making weight or him, you know, being in the position in the first place, I think sucks. And that's something that, you know, that we're going to look into on our part of how to make sure going forward. Because he's never missed weight before.

And then now all of a sudden, this is going on for him not to miss weight again. So we take responsibility for that, obviously. But for the commission to tell somebody you've got two hours to cut weight and then to take 20 minutes out of it to clear him. And so you're not really giving him two hours. You're giving them an hour and 40 minutes. To then an hour later, come in and say, hey, I'm sorry, I changed my mind. I kind of got to go because that's really what it sounds like for me, too.

You know what I mean? It doesn't make any sense. You got, you had three doctors up in this room. Not one of them made a phone call or told anyone in that room, I'm not comfortable with this. As a matter of fact, from what I understood from different people, not just my brother, from Dan Lambert, who was the owner of American top team, to Ywell's coaches, to everyone that was in the room, including the doctors. Really have no idea why this is happening.

Have no idea why we're being pulled. everything is fine. They asked him at the beginning of the cut when he got into the tub how he said he felt great. There was another 30 minutes or 35 minutes that they just stood around and waited for him to kind of like

and wait for this process to finish and all of a sudden they got a call that he needs to come down right away. So, you know what I mean? It's a little disappointing because in reality you kind of tarnished this fight by taking away.

You know what I mean? By him missing the weight you kind of tarnished it a little bit because if he doesn't miss the weight we're talking about, you know, I think right now, I mean, is there another fight that's happened this year

that's been as good as that one? This was probably part of the year right or wrong. Yep, yep, yep, yep, I agree. Okay, so if you hear from any of these lawyers that you reached out to, if there's a case, you're going full force, you want to sue the Illinois. I want to correct you just, not the Chicago, the Illinois Commission, right? Correct.

Absolutely, 100%. Yeah, because, I mean, you know, you got to think he's got, you know, 20% in his purse that he lost. He lost another $50,000, you know, and fight in the night that he wasn't eligible for. And, I mean, you got to think he was a pound over, he comes back down, you know, in a shortened weight cut and it was down point eight. We're talking about less than a quarter pound is what we're talking about. And you know what I mean? When he got on the scale and at the end of the day,

and he was sweating on the scale while he was on there. So another 15, 20, probably would have dropped that quarter pound two as well. And he wasn't afforded that opportunity. Now listen, the commissioner is in her right to do what she wants. I just think there needs to be some sort of rational explanation. And then the truth is too, at some point, somebody's got to stand up to these commissions, man.

Because you pull one off New York the other day. One of other clients got pulled off after the doctor, they sent her to cleared her. There's nothing wrong with her. And then she gets pulled off the card. And it's like it's all good. It's not all good. These fighters are paying for camps.

They're flying people in. They're going months. And in my other client's case, years without a fight because of different circumstances, some her fault, some not her fault. And it's like, oh, well, too bad. You know what I mean? We're just going to pull you off. And then, you know, the truth is you look at the UFC and everybody's like,

well, she's going to get a show money in her show, you know, and her win money. And it's like to keep putting it on the UFC for mistake. stakes that these commissions do, right? And at the end of the day, I appreciate the U.S. because they take care of a lot of this stuff. But at the same time, at what point do we hold these commissions, you know, responsible? So at this point, I just feel like my hands are tied, man. I'm not going to sit around and watch this anymore. So if these three attorneys tell me there's nothing there, I'll find the fourth or a fifth or somebody that tells me or something.

And if I know the attorneys I talk to, they're going to find something. So we'll just, you know, in the next two weeks or so I probably plan on filing something. Abe, you were with him the entire time face-to-face, just mentally and emotionally. I know it's hard to quantify this sort of thing, but do you feel this took a toll on him? Because I remember looking at him at the ceremonial way, and his head was down. He seemed a little down, obviously.

You're about to fight for a belt, and now the belt is no longer on the line. Do you feel like it kind of screwed with him up just a little bit going into the fight in those final hours? Yeah, absolutely. I can tell him he might be on the phone with him that it did. I mean, him not wanting to fight wasn't because he doesn't want to fight you off wants to fight everybody.

He doesn't really care. The issue is that he was like looking at it from, you know, the whole perspective of how far he's come and everything he's trying to accomplish, the fact that, you know, the situation in Australia, you know, took a toll out on him too there, you know what I mean, like how the whole thing happened. And he goes and gets a knockout and, you know, we're all hoping for the best in this case too. And, you know, let me tell you some, by the way, Robert Whitaker, you know, hats off to him, had a hell of a fight.

I think the kid is tough as nails, man, and he's slowly become one of my favorite fighters as well, too, you know, watch. And I don't like anybody that's not on my roster realistically, except for a few guys. He's starting to become one of those guys. I actually, like, you know, I hope we get to fight him again at some point. You know what I mean? Because he's just, he's tremendous competitor. And just curious, before the fight,

Dana White was talking about, you know, I'd like to see him go up to 205, maybe fight Gus Feson, number one contender fight. I see you shaking your head, Abe. How do you guys feel about that idea of him moving up to 205? Just 2005, our brother's going to explain that.

Listen, I'm not necessarily against him going to 205, but there's certain things that have to make sense for him to go up there. The reality of it is he walks around the 205. You know what I mean? And he's also five foot, you know, five foot nine, five foot 10, right? And Dufferson is 6, 5, and John's 6, 5.

And, I mean, you know, it'd be cool to watch him fight for me. You know what I mean, at 205 against us, they wrestled each other and all that other stuff. But, I mean, you know, you start asking them to fight guys like Duxes in, and then, you know, eventually a guy like Bones. I mean, you know, number one contend match, and then what? You know what I mean? It's not, it's not as easy as just to say, let's go do that.

You know what I mean? But I get it. Listen, a guy misses weight twice. I've got my reasons why he missed the weight. There's some things that he switched up the last two camps that, you know, we weren't necessarily on the same page with, but again, we'll get that corrected. Like I said, we take responsibility for that,

and we'll get it right. He won't miss weight again. He never missed the wait before. He ain't going to miss it again. He would have made me weight this time, too. He actually showed up to the fight heavier than he did in Australia and got down to less than a quarter pound. And, you know, it's just unfortunate the way this stuff worked out.

But, you know, I think it messed with a lot of different things, not just, you know, the... My understanding is that you guys... guys hired Lockhart and Leaf to do his weight cut on Tuesday? Why so late in the process? No, we actually hired him on Saturday of that week, the week before I should say, and he would have to do media that Monday so he couldn't get to whatever George wanted him to do Sunday, Monday. So as of Tuesdays, when it officially began doing Lockhart's weight cut. But George, George, but Lockhart was actually very comfortable with the only thing he said,

absolutely. I believe we were getting there. Okay. I was just wondering if it was like an audible that you called like, well, we need some help here. Was that always the plan to start? Yeah, yeah. It was. But the thing, yeah, because, you know, like I said, there's certain things that were out of our control that, you know, we, listen, bro, being an agent is not just negotiating a contract. People don't understand.

If you watch what I've been doing in the football world, some of my clients are running those headlines over there, too. You know what I mean? And it's a lot of it is stuff that you hear the stories and you're like, wait a minute. And it doesn't make sense. And then you've got to go through the storm and then you've got to clear the storm. and then, you know, you get through it. And in this case, you know, we did call an audible at the last minute, and it was something that we kind of had to do when, you know, going forward.

Here's the thing. Sometimes you have to learn through these situations. And I think, you know what I mean? Our fighters have learned through a lot of different situations they've been in, different ones. Not going to name any specific, you know, thing. But it just happens. And I just think that, you know, he gets it.

And I think that, you know, if there's a message I can tell all fighters that I normally do, it's the same way that you take your training serious and you get with the best camp that you possibly can, your nutrition, you know what I mean, in your mind, all those things also have to be. be worked with and managed and you have to get the best around to do it. And you obviously know there's guys in this business for a long time handling nutrition. Lockhart's one of them.

And, you know, hats off. Hat goes off to him too because he did a hell of a job and short notice, never dealing with him before to just start working with him and coming in and pretty much, you know what I mean, ensuring that he was going to get to wait and all that. So Lockhart did a phenomenal job. And I can't say enough good things about him. So that was good. And, you know, going forward, I think that, you know, you well understands the importance of his

nutrition, meal plan, training, and different things of that nature. So that's why I'm confident he won't ever miss weight again. But hey, if, you know, if the opportunity is right at 205, then it might be able to play there too as well, so we'll see. Now, honestly, as honest as possible, how did you score the fight to both of you? I actually, listen, I had your well, so in the very first fight between him and Robert, I had Robert winning three two, flat out, right? Pat went off to him you think, I thought you well won this fight.

I thought you well did way more damage. dropping him a couple of times in this fight. You know, I guess that, you know, one thing we have to keep in mind is that the way you score an MMA fight compared to a boxing fight is different. You drop somebody in a boxing match that's immediately, you know, a 10-8 round. And MMA's not really like that.

Robert was competitive in those rounds. So as I got the rules, re-explained to me again, even at this point in time. Some people say it's 3-2 Robert. I saw it 3-2-YOL. Or you can say three rounds, maybe the two, but I gave you well, you know, at least one 10-8 round,

so maybe it was a draw, you know, at the worst case, but I didn't think he lost that fight, to be honest with you. Abe, you agree? Yeah, I think the difference is the fourth round where you all did such a great job in the third round. He kind of took away from the fourth round his performance

because then he goes back out on the fifth round and completely dominates. So talk of 10-8, 10-7, all this stuff, I look at it as he clearly won three, four, and five. I thought so too. That's the way I see. If you want to call forth the fourth-round, you know, a toss-up, you call that one, you know, whatever you want to call it, but I think he clearly won three, four, and five.

But, I mean, listen, Ariel, here's the thing. I'm not trying to take away from Robert's from Roberts. No, I know. I'm just curious. Yeah, yeah. No, because I got to, because if Robert's listening, I don't want him to feel like we're sitting over here on what he did or did it do. I'm not trying to be biased at all. At the end of the day, I really believe you all won, right?

But, I mean, it's one of those fights that it was so close that I'm not mad that they, that they picked him if I'm not biased, right? Sure, sure, sure. Robert did such a phenomenal job. And I mean, he's so tough, dude. It's, it's like it's amazing to see what he did under all that pressure and some of the shots that he took. So, you know what I mean? I'm not mad at the decision.

It's just, you know, like I said, listen, I thought Andre Arloffsky won his fight too. You know what I mean? And that one I thought it was a little bit more clear to Andre than the other way. And we lost that one. That one I'm a little bit more bitter about, again, none of the kid fighting a guy like Andre, I thought that a great job. But I thought Andre just, you know, showed up way more than the other kid did. But, you know, listen, dude, in this business.

if you leave it to the hands of the judges, you live and die by that sword. You're going to win some and you're going to lose some. I've been on the side where my guy won when he probably shouldn't have, and I've been on these sides where, you know, fights like this, you end up, you know, losing them when you probably shouldn't.

You know what I mean? Two more quick things. It doesn't look like you all will be joining us. Is that accurate? Yeah, I don't know where he's accurate. It's all good. I mean, who needs Yoel when you got these two pretty faces here, right? You guys have provided us with great information.

Two quick things before I let you go. First off, I know, he was taking to the hospital, any serious injuries? Nothing. He's good. He's all good. The eye? What about the eye? We're getting another look at it today, but as of right now, he looks like it was just really superfiitis. Okay. Is that him? Right. Come on. And,

no, yes? Yes? No? No. All right. Malkey, let me ask you because Dana White spoke to TMZ, I think, on Saturday, but it came out today saying that Brock Lesnar is interested in John Jones. And I know John has to get through his USADA thing. We're waiting that. We spoke about it last week. But I just wanted to know what your reaction to that was. Let's go back to John's last fight.

Let's just replay the callout. Shoot. I mean, now is when he decides to get back to us. I mean, hell, that fight since the day that happened. So, I mean, my reaction to it is that I'm glad he's in. Because, you know, we're 1,000% in two. So, you know what I mean?

We just got to get through this USADA stuff and hopefully we can make that fight happen. Would it be fair to say once that is over? with, you have Brock, you have Steephe, you have Daniel. Is it fair to say that that's the most, you know, interesting fight for you guys? That's the fight that he would want the most. You know what? Listen, here's the thing.

At the time, right, you know, you knock off Formier, so you think I'm not fighting him again, there's no reason, right? And then Cormiere goes to heavyweight and then he, you know, gets into this thing with Steepen. And now you think, okay, if Formier beats him at heavyweight, right, what do you want to do? So I still think Brock Lesnar's the fight. I love that fight. as a comeback fight, I think it's just, you know, there's certain guys in the sport that really, you know, can catapult people.

John's one. I think Brock's another. You know what I mean? Guy like Connor, a woman like Rhonda, you know what I mean? They can really get you somewhere. And I think John and Brock together just for the whole sport as a whole, I think it takes it to another level. And I just think that's the biggest fight that we can have as a team. I think it's the biggest fight that UFC can make. I don't know of another fight out there. I don't care who you've been Connor versus this guy, that guy, that can be bigger than a John versus Brock. I mean, you're talking about a heavyweight fight. You know what I mean? That's John's first, you know, foray in the heavyweight territory. And if John goes in and who's to fight Brock, I think, you know, it's just amazing for everything involved.

It would be the biggest fight that the UFC probably has put together in a long, long time. I don't know of another one that's as big. And then on top of it, you're looking at, you know what I mean? Now John's in the heavyweight division. And then you can sit there and look at his poor being the champion, is Steve A the champion? And what does he want to do? Does he go back to 205 and, you know, get his belt back and then come back to heavyweight? Does he stay at heavyweight and win that belt?

And maybe, you know, do a two-division thing. I don't know. It just opens up a lot of things, but I just think from a big fight perspective, I don't know if there's a bigger fight than that Brock Lesmond fight. Have they actually offered you the fight yet? No, I mean, you know, they can't offer us anything right now. We don't know what the circumstances, what you saw that looks like, although I'm pretty confident that, you know, those things will hopefully,

you know what I mean, work themselves out, you know, in a good way for everyone involved. And, you know, hopefully we can get to something sooner rather than later. but other than that, realistically, you know, for them to come and say, we want you to fight Brock Lesnar, I'm like, all right, cool, give me a date, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So realistically, you know, we would think. But I mean, look, if Brock's in, you know what I mean, obviously, you know, John called them out. So I don't think that, you know, I'm wrong by saying that's the fight you want. But, you know, who knows if something presents itself that could be bigger than that fight at the time, you know, maybe that's the fight that we do. All right, guys, appreciate the time very much. Great stuff. of you, if I could just have you all on the screen, even for a second, if he shows up,

if we could just sneak him in there for a minute. Because I don't, listen to my last show, guys, I can't be a guy who promotes things and people not show up. So just text me and we'll slide him in for a minute, just to say shalom, all right? Yeah, but listen, but you know what, though? You knew we were going to be on the show and you didn't promote us. So at the end of the day, you know, I said his man to get out here. It's on the website. It's on the site. You're, you guys are there. Listen, I have a question, though. This is the last show for you on this thing, right? Yes.

On MM power. Yes. But is it, the EMMRA? But is it, do you not doing this on the ESPN thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm doing a very, very, very, very similar show on ESPN. But it's the last time in this chair. Nothing's really changing.

It's just on a different place. It's not going to be very corporate. You're not going to put on like a suit. Nah, no, no, no, no. Yeah, for real. Glad shirt. Hey, don't pretend like you're upset about this. These two guys, he's always telling me, we love you, but you're not at ESPN.

You're not with the big dogs. Now what do you have to say, all right? Cheers to you. You know what? There was a way to hang this up. You're full of it. No, if there's one person that stood. Listen, I was there in the fire with you, but you don't ever forget that.

I know, I know. Much love. Much love, guys. Listen, I'm probably responsible for 80% of the news you break. Don't ever forget. I made you have your phone. Okay, relax. Now you're starting to sound like Dana White.

It's amazing. You shave your head and now you start to sound like the guy. Well, technically, the guy didn't put you on a little bit. I mean, you know, that's all stuff he had. I'm saying so It's all good I do I do

All right Abe text me when he comes all right thanks guys appreciate it good stuff there

I don't know what he's talking about here man I don't know what he's talking about now there they are Malky Abe Cowah great stuff all right let's move along one of the other big stories

on Saturday Colby Covington is the new UFC interim Welterway champion yes it's true and he's going to the White House let's talk to Colby

right now he's joining us via the magic of Skype Colby are you there there he is there he is is. Colby. I see your mouth. What's up, Haldane? Push that thing up. I want to see your whole face. Push it up. The camera. Oh, the camera? Yes. I just want you to go. This whole shiny belt is so nice, man. I see it. It's beautiful. What is it like? Is this surreal? It's everything I envision. I'm living the American dream, Helwani. Just the kid from Oregon

setting goals and crushing them, just like President Trump. What have you been doing with the belt? Have you been parading around? You're still in Chicago, right? Have you been parading around Chicago with it? I haven't been parading around. You know, I said before the fight, what I came here to do. I came to beat up a Brazilian geek, and then I was going to bank some Midwest freaks.

So, you know, I had a late night in the bedroom last night with the belt. You know, we were taking turns, having a threesome, and spanking the girl's asses. One girl wanted to wear the bell. So we've been putting the belt to all kinds of good uses. You're like the new Tim Sylvia. You've heard the stories about Tim Sylvia and what he used to do with the belt, right? No, I don't want to hear anything about that dude. That dude's got two last feet, man.

Nothing with that guy has any interest in me, the real American dream and the new Walterweight champion. I see your smile. Look at that smile. You've been... How much did you enjoy last week in Chicago? How much did you enjoy the whole process? Oh, I loved every second. of it, you know. I've been telling you what I was going to do the whole time, man. I'm a man

of my word, Hawaiian. I told you what I was going to do from the beginning. And now I'm telling you what I'm going to do next. I'm going to break Ty Quill Woodley in front of the whole world, just like in the training room, an American top team. It doesn't feel surreal that you're actually holding the belt. Like it doesn't, like, you haven't had to pinch yourself just a little bit. No, not really. You know, that's why you didn't really see me do like an excessive celebration. You know, I expected this. I've, I've been training my whole life. You know, I've been training since I was seven years old. I'm 30 years old now.

So 23 years training and a lot of hard work. Eight years in American Top Team, homegrown. I'm the first homegrown champ from American Top Team. It's easy to go get a champ like Joanna, you know, where you come in, a good skill set. But for someone like me who came fresh out of college with not a lot of MMA experience and straight into a homegrown champion from American Top Team, you know, it was a special moment for me and Dan Lambert on Saturday night. Yeah, I can imagine. What's going on?

Everything okay over there? Yeah, one of my chicks was trying to come in. I said, hey, chill out, man. I got an interview to do with Taiwan. I appreciate that. Thank you. Have you watched the fight? No, I haven't been able to watch it.

Where can you watch it at? I don't know. I feel like maybe on Fight Pass or something. I mean, you're the freaking champion. I'm sure they could give you like a coupon code or something, right? I would hope so. I'm going to have to make some calls, man. Yeah.

Well, I was just wondering, which rounds do you think you won decisively? Oh, you know, I definitely felt like I won the first three rounds. decisively and definitely the fifth round. There was no doubt. The fourth round, you know, he got a lucky take down and, you know, he didn't really do any damage. So, you know, I thought I won all five rounds pretty clearly. Oh, really? So you weren't worried at all before they announced the scorecards? No, I wasn't worried at all. You can tell, you know, an RDA's posture out there, you know, he knew he was a defeated man. He was putting his head down. He knew that the win was inevitable for me. So I wasn't worried at all. I knew I won that fight.

I thought it was interesting and effective how you obviously pushed the pace. You were in his face for the majority of the fight. One time, though, and I can't remember which round. It was later in the fight. Maybe it was the fourth when you ran to him and then he caught you with a big punch. How much did that hurt you? Oh, it didn't hurt me at all, man. You know, he didn't put any significant strikes on me.

It wasn't like any big punches. So, you know, I got an iron chin. You know, there's a reason, you know, I put a lot of hours in the bedroom, so my cardio is always on point. But, you know, there wasn't any significant punches. as they landed on me. My understanding, so if you think that, okay, you won, what you said, at least four out of the five, if not five, I mean, at that point, one would say, okay, that was a pretty one-sided

of fight. Did you think it would go that easily for you? Did you think, honestly, that it would be that one-sided heading in? You know, I thought it was going to be a lot easier. I trained very hard. You know, I know I'm on a different level than Ralphie Dos Nachos. So, you know, like I said before, you know, he's, he's a lightweight. All the media that were hyping him up to say he's God. You know, he was definitely the second best welterweight in the division behind me. You know, I'm obviously the first best welterweight. But, you know, all the media that was hyping him up saying he was unbeatable, he beat Robbie Lawler, he beat Neh, Magnet, destroyed Terrick Saffney. You know, I knew that they were all going to be a downfall after this fight. Now they're

probably making headlines with excuses for him. Oh, he should have never been at lightweight. Oh, he's washed up. So, you know, I thought it'd be a lot easier, but, you know, still a dominant and clear win and we all know who the best well to wait in the world is. So you say number two, you actually, it's a nice belt, yeah, you feel like he is actually better than Tyron? Oh, without a doubt, man.

He would melt Tyrone Woodley. Tyrone Woodley, you know, all he does is take steps backwards. He can't hang with RDA's pace. You know, RDA's got a very good gas tank in himself. So there's no doubt about it. The RDA would definitely melt soy boy, Hollywood boy, Tyrone Woodley. Okay, so then you

win the fight. It's all good. The fans are booing, you're doing great, you're on top of the world, and then you head to the back, start doing media, and it seems like Michael Bisping is trying to teach you a lesson or two. What did you make of that whole exchange on FS1? You know, he's an unprofessional, a little one-night twerk. You know, every time the UFC brings me out, you know, I'm always professional, I'm on time, I make way, you know, there's never ever any issues with Colby Chaos Covington. I always do the right things.

And, you know, what he did on Saturday night was a complete joke. That was my time and my moment. and he was trying to, you know, steal my spotlight. He knew the light was so bright, and usually he can't see out of that one eye, but my spotlight was so bright that, you know, he just couldn't help but try to jump in. But, you know, the thing is, it's crazy that he doesn't, he forgot what happened from American forefathers, Dan Henderson. You know, you would think that he got humbled from the last time he messed around with the red, white, and blue.

I'll come across that pond, break that little one-eyed nerd face. Did you tell, you know, the UFC, you didn't appreciate that? Did you, did you complain? Like, they make you do this interview, and all of a sudden you have to get into this back and forth with a guy in another studio. Did you voice your displeasure with that? See, that's the thing, man. I'm not like any other fighter, you know, I don't ever complain, man. I just take things the way they are.

You know, I'm not like Tyquil Woodley where he complains about the fans. Oh, they're racist because they don't like me. Oh, they're racist. They don't want to watch me fight. No, you're just boring. No one wants to watch the whole human form of NyQuil. So, you know, I didn't complain of what's my pleasure. It is what it is, you know?

I have no, it is what is. You want to take shots of me from the Fox Sports guest? There's a reason that they're moving over to ESPN. There's a reason that you're going with him over there with Hwani. He ain't going over there. I appreciate that. Thank you. So I understand, this is my understanding, and you may know more than me,

but my understanding is that President Trump is aware of you. What he thinks, if he's inviting you, I don't know that. And please tell me if you know more. But President Trump is aware of what you have been saying and of your interest meeting him. And I do know for a fact, because it's been put out there that Donald Trump Jr. commented on a photo of you and someone else. I forget the man's name. Please let me know if you know as well. What could you tell us about their interest in having you over there?

Yeah, the great Cameron Haynes, one of my very good friends from, you know, he's been messaging Donald Trump Jr. you know, he took a picture with me in the backstage with the belt last weekend. And he's been in contact with Donald Trump Jr. They're friends. So, you know, he's trying to, Cameron Haynes, my good friend, trying to get me into the White House. I can't thank him enough for that. And then also, you know, after the press conference, I talked to Dana. And Dana's like, you really want to go to the White House?

I said, absolutely, man. When I say things, I mean him. I'm not here just to say things. When I say, I mean it. So he's like, okay, we'll make it happen. So, you know, we're going to go to the White House. There's no doubt about it. This gold, shiny belt is going to go on Donald Trump.

Trump's desk and and I can't wait to be there, man. I'm a real American, man. I'm very, I'm very happy to be American. You know, the red, white and blue means so much to me. All the men and women that sacrifice their lives so I can have my freedoms, you know, I really do appreciate them, unlike those silver spoon athletes. And I'm not just talking about the Phil Cedophia evils. I'm talking about any sports teams or athletes that want to kneel during our national anthem.

These are a bunch of prima donna millionaires that are getting paid, you know, and they're trying to voice their political opinion on their time when they're getting paid all this money and they're living the American dream and they want to disrespect our country and our president? A complete joke, man. If they want to try and disrespect someone, they should come over to America Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida. I'll teach them a lesson of respect. I'll slap some respect. Are you a fan of Donald Trump as a person or is it just because he's the president and you believe

I got to respect the president? That's how I was brought up. No, I was always a big fan of Donald Trump, even before he was president, you know, just his business tactics, his bargaining skills, and just the person he is, man, he's got a, he's a very respectable guy. And now that he's the great leader of our, of the free nation, you know, I, you know, I have so much respect for him. And it would be a true honor to put this gold belt on his desk, like a real American world championship. And you, you truly believe this is going to happen. Yeah, I do truly believe it's going to happen. Dana White's got connections to Trump, you know, their friends.

Donald Trump Jr. has already expressed an interest to my friend, Cam Haynes, that it's going to happen. You know, there's a lot of media outlets that are reporting on it. I think it's gotten back to Trump. And, you know, if all these other, you know, no one wants to watch the football league anymore. I can tell you that, you know, numbers are dropped. World and the greatest athlete in the world who's making this sport great again, going over to Donald Trump in the White House, sent president Trump to desk.

you think it happened soon? Yeah, I do think that it happens soon. I think that will happen within the next month or two. Wow. You know, I know I got to go on a little, I got to go on a little media tour with this. They're going to send me all over the country, maybe all over the world. You know, I'm internationally famous now. So I know they love me in Brazil.

I might go run for Brazilian politics over there. I heard their president just got impeached. I'd love to make Brazil great again. But in the meantime, you know, first I want to go visit the White House. And, you know, I got some places to see and some honeies to, do. Right. Now, I don't know if you noticed this, but Tyron tweeted about you a couple times on Saturday. And if you look at the replies, there are like 95% in his favor, people telling him shut him up, kick his ass, things like that. All of a sudden, everyone loves Tyron. It's a crazy

thing. Have you noticed this? And if so, what do you make of it? You know, that's the thing. I can't notice anything that little dweeb says, because he blocked me on all social media outlets, Hawani. I don't block him. He can say whatever he wants to say about me. You want to say something to me, Tyrone Woodley, say to my face. Go to at Colby Cove, M.A. tweet at me. I'll tweet right back at you. You need to stop unblocking me like the little Hollywood soy boy that you are.

But, you know, I don't see anything he says. You know, everything he says is fake news. He just tries to come out in the media. He's trying to steal my spotlight. He knows I'm the real world champ. He's got that fool's gold at home. So, you know, if he wants to say something, he can either say to my face or unblock me and say it to me

and let me see it like a real man. Do you think he takes the fight against you? Are you confident that now, has to happen? To be honest, I mean, I don't know, man. I mean, it's one or two things. Either he runs away to Hollywood and he goes and does these stupid backup little rap videos in the back of stupid Whiz Khalifah's things. I mean, go listen to those. It's like listen to the chalkboard. Or, you know, he lets me embarrass him in front of the whole world, like what used to always happen behind American Top Team doors. So you used to beat him up when you guys used to spar?

Every single time, every round. He literally never took one round off me. I mean, first round he would be so tired trying to get auction into those muscles the second round it would just be easy pickings for me i'll pick them apart do whatever i want to him so you know that's the reason the real reason he didn't never wanted to talk to me again after i gave him enough beatings he's like no i'm not doing this no more you know you can ask all his coaches you know didn't thomas saw it live on a j foxing coach over in illinois uh you know everybody knows it they've all seen it they know what's going to happen tyrone woodley knows what's going to happen he felt it. He knows the pressure.

You know, he's a little too pump chump. He won't last more in two rounds. He said yesterday that John Jones has offered to help train him to beat you. What do you make of that? You know what I make of that, Hawaii? Oh, no. We lost him. What timing?

He's going to come back. Wait for it. Oh, you're back. You said, you know what I make of that Halwani and then I lost you? You know what I make of that, Hawaii? I make of that that, you know, first off, John Jones needs to grow up, Helwani. And secondly, come on, let's be honest. You fought more recently, Halwani, than both Woodley and Jones combined.

Those dudes don't even fight no more, man. They're too busy. They don't even know what to do with their lives. They're trying to get acting careers. They're trying to do these little movie roles. They're trying to do rap albums. I mean, those guys are a joke, man. All they do is top.

They don't fight no more. So when I asked you about Jones at the press conference, Why did you not want to address what he was saying about you on social media? I just have nothing to say about him anymore, to be honest. You know, I got 10 pounds of gold right here. This thing is so beautiful. Like, he's not going to be in my moment anymore. You know, I have nothing to say about him.

You know, he's fuck John Jones, you know. He is who he is. You know, he needs to grow up. He's a little child, man. He's buried himself. I don't have to bury him. Do you regret saying what you said about him last week in the media about steroids and things like that? Do you feel like you said too much?

No, I don't regret it. I don't regret anything in life besides, you know, the time I tried to attack my buddy Joe Rogan, who, by the way, has one of the best podcasts in the world. But, you know, I don't really get anything. I saw you guys were very lovey-dovey on Saturday, hugging each other. It was, there was no bad blood there. Yeah, Joe's my boy. He always has been my boy.

You know, I got nothing but love for Joe and everything that he's doing. You know, his podcast is the best podcast in the world. So it was good to see Joe and embrace this moment. How many times has Joe Rogan had, had you on his podcast? I mean, probably, I mean, not directly had me on his podcast, but, you know, he's talked about me on his podcast multiple times. You know, he sold, he sold this fight for me. You know, he put that little twirp, what's his name?

The little weed kid, I don't know his name, Sugar. Shana. Yeah, whatever that little kid. kid's name is, you know, he put him in place for me. You know, he knew that, you know, as soon as that little kid started talking about me, Rogan's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, back up little kid. You know, he put him in place. And so, you know, I got a lot of respect for Joe Rogan. He's the man. Okay. Last thing before I let you go, Colby. And again, thanks for doing this, as I know you're heading out soon. Tyron is coming up in an hour. Anything you'd like to say to Tyrone

Woodley? You know, Ty Quill, there's nowhere else to run, no where else to hide. What you're going to do now? You know, no more rap albums. I know all the people hate me, but if you really want to hate me, go look on Google and try and listen to this dude rap. That's why he's trying to come fight. That's why he's begging to fight me now

because his rap album's failing. He's got baby mamas to pay. That dude's a joke, man. It's B-list acting career that goes straight to DVD. It is no more. Don't worry, Tyquil. I'm sending you to sleep for good, motherfucker. Thank you, Colby.

Appreciate it. Congratulations. And good luck getting that meeting. with President Trump. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. America. We'll talk to you soon.

There he is. Kobe Covington. The interim UFC welterweight champion, although Tyrone Woodley maintains that he is ready to go, but the guy is holding a belt. He is holding a belt.

You saw it right there. He is actually holding a belt. Whoops, as I almost dropped my drink. So he is now in line to fight Tyrone Woodley. And again, if you look at Tyron Woodley's social media, people are behind them. And that's something that I've told Tyron in the past. They will get behind you.

You may like being the bad guy. You may not like being the bad guy. It's nice to be loved sometimes. And they are loving him. Just look at the replies. He has never gone replies like that. At least not in the – no, I shouldn't say that. As champion, ever since he beat Robbie Luller, it's been a little bit different.

He has a lot of support. more so than I've seen when he went up against Wonderboy, when he went up against Damien Maya, even when he went up against Robbie Lawler. That was a different time. They are supporting him, and I think it's good for him. And I think this is now one of the most anticipated fights of 2018, certainly the back end of 2018. So we'll see what happens. We'll talk to him very shortly. I'm looking forward to that very much. Okay, let us move along now and say hello to our next guest. We'll stick with the UFC 225 theme. One of the most important fights on the card, took place on the FS1 prelims involving strawweight contenders,

Claudia and Carlos Sparza. Of course, Carlos Sparza, the former Invicta and UFC Straway champion. In the end, it was a split decision win for Cloudiaiaia. We did not have an opportunity to talk to Carla on Saturday, so let us say hello to her. Via the magica Skype, always appreciate after a fight when someone comes on. So let us say hello, and there she is. Wow, that's much better Skype than Kobe Covington. So thank you for this, Carla.

How are you? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. How's it going? Things are going well. So you say you are doing great. I know that was a, you know, a five-year journey with Claudia. And I know you were disappointed in the result. You know, just about the fight itself and how it ended. How do you digest this on a Monday morning? It's a little bit difficult. You know, it's not getting your hand raised. But honestly, I didn't walk out of the cage or, you know, I'm not feeling now like, like, like, I'm. I should have my head held like down. I'm feeling like I should have my head held high. I personally feel like I won the fight. I know a lot of the fans agree with that.

So, I mean, I feel good other than, you know, half the paycheck. You know, I feel pretty good about the fight. Have you had an opportunity to watch the fight? I actually just watched the fight right now, yeah. Oh, okay. So while you were watching, did you kind of score it? And if so, which rounds do you think you won? I personally think I won rounds one and three.

I definitely think throughout the fight I inflicted the majority of the damage. I mean, you know, as you can see, I really didn't get beat up too bad. I felt like, you know, she got some takedowns and she was able to, you know, kind of, she was just holding on for dear life and didn't really inflict much damage in the fight. And it's a fight to me if you want to win, I feel like you have to do something, you know. so why do you think they scored it for her like do you have any sort of idea as to why the judges would give her the nod um you never you never know i i definitely uh think that she got you know more takedowns and had more control time you know um i maybe just certain judges kind of score

more heavily on takedowns and in control even if there is no damage uh really being done So I think a lot of judges tend to not be on the same page. You know, I mean, obviously it was a split decision. So, you know, one judge thought differently, but, you know, it is what it is. And I don't want to be like a sore loser, you know, but I personally, I know that I just felt that I won the fight. It's amazing to me that that is still brought up because I feel like most people who follow the sport know that just to take down, with no damage inflicted afterwards, doesn't really, or shouldn't really mean much. And yet it seems like you score take down here, even if the opponent pops back up,

those are, you know, heavily weighted. And it just kind of boggles my mind. And it's frustrating for me. I can't imagine how it must be for the athlete involved. It has to be frustrating, right? That you never really know what kind of, you know, judging criteria. I don't care if it's new, old. It seems like every judge has its own criteria.

That has to be frustrating, right? Yeah, exactly. I wish everything was just kind of across the board, like, you know, there was a standard in judging so that you kind of knew like, okay, this is what I have to go and do because you never really know what you're going to get with the judge and what he kind of scores higher or values more in the fight. You know, if there was, I think, a set standard, I think we'd have more of an idea how to, you know, just game plan for the fight and what weighs more heavily and what, you know, know, is more likely to get you the win. Considering the history with her, was this a bit of a tougher pill to swallow? It was a little bit. I'm not going to lie, the fans and, you know, like in the crowd, the crowd and then the fans online definitely made it a little bit easier. You know, I feel like, you know, just a lot of people were expecting me to get kind of crush, you know.

I saw a lot of people putting rest in peace, Carla, good luck on this one. and I felt that I opened a lot of eyes. I feel good about my performance, you know, other than obviously not getting my hand raised. You know, I feel good. You know, and like I said, we spoke before the fight. I'm just kind of glad to get this one, you know, this finally put behind me. You know, I've never been scared to fight her even though she's kind of suggested that. I showed up to fight her two times in the past and she didn't show up.

So, you know, I was just kind of glad to put that to rest. Did you guys say anything to each other after the fight? No, I just, I just shook her hand, you know, like I was trying to be respectful to coaches, you know, regardless of whatever happens in the fight, just in my opponent, shook her hand. I mean, personally, I have things to say to her, you know, I mean, flat out, like, this is not an excuse to, you know, because I, because I lost, because honestly, I felt that I still won, but, you know, she, she cheated in that. the fight. She, uh, she's, she greased, you know, before the fight. Um, I was considering saying something to the ref in between the fight. Uh, you know, I was going to say like, you know, she's greasing, she's greasing, but I didn't really know how to go about it. Um, it's, it's pretty shady to me. And I rewatch, uh, the, like I said, I finally rewatch a fight and I was just,

my hands were slipping right off. Uh, even in the, when I was trying to grab arm bars in the fight. My arms were just like slipping right down. You know, she's a cheater, but it doesn't really surprise me. You know what I mean? In my opinion, she's been a dirty fighter throughout. So it is what it is, you know? Wow. That is, that is quite the revelation. Had you heard leading up, I know the community is kind of small, had other opponents told you this that, you know, you need to watch out for this type of stuff? No, not at all, not at all. You know, but just throughout her career. Like, you know, I just felt that she's, you know, I'm not, like I said, not too surprised that she's, you know, a cheater and she, you know, found a way. It's kind of upsetting, you know,

because like I said, I felt that I wanted anyway, but I felt like that things could have even, you know, been more dominant on my side had that not been the case. And, you know, I just, Claudia, you're a cheater, like straight up. It's not cool. you know, but it is what it is. So it's done with. Have you ever fought someone who you thought was greasing? Have you ever been in that position before? Not in my recollection, no.

Not that I can remember, but I mean, fighting a wrestler, like, you know, I could see why somebody, you know, would think to do something like that. You know, my last fight, like I was trying to sink in the arm bar. I've been working, you know, I felt like I've working on a pretty hard, solid arm bar, and I felt like I felt like, I had it set up a couple times this fight, but when I like locked higher on the on the arm, my arm just kind of like slid right down.

And it was like, you know, I was at the end of the second I, you know, I was going to, you know, say something to the ref, but I was just like I didn't and I kind of regret it. But I don't really know how to have gone about that really. I haven't been in that situation before. Do you regret not saying anything? Yeah, I do. I mean, I don't know if it would have made a difference or maybe they could have tiled her off or I don't. I really don't know.

Like, I don't know too much about this. I've heard of people doing this like over the years and back in pride and, you know, just, you know, over the years. But, you know, I'd never actually experienced it before. Did you even say to your coaches or you told them afterwards? I told them afterwards. Ah. I told them after. And, you know, like as soon as we stepped off, I was like, I was like, that's.

F and BS dude. I was like she was freaking greasing. That's not cool. You know, I was, I was a little bit upset about it, but, you know, it was just a fight. Like I was, you know, I was like, it is what it is sometimes. When you're walking on, you hear the booze like that. Does that make you feel a little bit better? Yeah, you know, I, I definitely felt like I had the crowd behind me and, uh, going out, I felt like she had a big support. I know a lot of the crowd was like cheering for her. She has a big fan base, but, you know, walking out, I felt like I definitely had a lot of the crowd behind me, and, you know, it definitely makes me feel better, but it doesn't, you know, it doesn't get me in line for a title shot. It doesn't fill my bank account, you know what I mean?

So that kind of sucks, but sometimes when there are, when there are these controversial decisions, the UFC brass, whether it's matchmaker, Dana White, someone will come up to the back and say, hey, for whatever it's worth, I thought you won that fight. Did anyone of note in the UFC say that they thought you won? I actually had a lot of people, you know, say things like that to me. I don't want to put anybody's, like, name out there or anything, just out of respect. Sure. You know, because I know they're employees and I don't want to, like, put it out there.

But, no, I definitely had a lot of people, like, saying things to me. And, you know, it definitely made me feel better. And hopefully, you know, I don't know, hopefully down the line, I can work back up to a title shot. I know this kind of sucks because this kind of bumps me out of the running, you know, even to work my way up. But I feel though, you know, as long as you have that history with Rose, which you do, that's not going away, I still feel like you're, you're in that, you know, that radius with a win or two. So I don't feel like it knocks you down as much as perhaps on this Monday you may think. Yeah, I guess only time will tell, you know.

I mean, I'm here to fight anybody, whoever they put in front of me. have never turned down a fight. So, you know, whatever is next for me is next. But I mean, whoever is, you know, in that in that title position, you know, I'd love to have that belt once again, you know, and I want to keep getting better and better. You know, I think a lot of people, you know, took note this fight that, you know, I'm not going backwards. I'm continually trying to evolve and get better and work my way towards being at the top again. It also feels, even despite what happened on Saturday, it feels like it's coming together for you. Like in the past, maybe you were taking these long breaks and you would win one and drop.

And I know officially in the record books there's an L there right now. But do you feel like you're fighting better than you ever have for like a prolonged stretch in the UFC? Oh, yeah, definitely. I've been working, you know, the last couple of years continuously. And I just think it's coming together more and more each and every fight. And I think that people have been finally taking notice that I'm not just a wrestler anymore that, you know, I can stand up, I can kick, I can knee, I can elbow, like everything, you know, and I think, you know, I'm not even close to being done. I'm in my prime right now and I, and I just want to keep working my way up. One of those goals for the future, would it be to get another shot at her?

At Claudia? Yeah. Shoot, girl, fight you right now. I'm just kidding. But now I would love to fight her again. It just kind of sucks just the way that I went down. And I think if she had kind of dominated me, I'd be like, you know, she was just a better fighter. But just with the way that things went down with the controversial decision and then with the greasing and all that, I just, it kind of, I still feel a little bit open to it.

I'd love to fight her again. You know, I'd love to get that chance to punch her in the face again for sure. I was just wondering if the experience soured you on the idea. And despite the fact that it was a controversial loss for you, you want nothing to do with her. I'm sorry. I want nothing to do with there. I know the reason I was asking was because I'm sure you know I was wondering if even though you'd love to punch her but because all that other stuff happened that you're just like you know what I don't need to deal with this anymore it's such an emotional rollercoaster fighting her yeah no but I if anything it kind of sparked more of an interest for me I'm like oh dang yeah I want to get back in there and get things how I felt that they you know get my hand raised against her I feel you um by the way just curious about your hair. Do you usually keep it braided this long after the fight?

Yeah, I actually usually take it out like today. So today will be the last time. I'm sure there's some sweat and some nasty stuff in there. But, you know, it always looks so cool to me. Unless I get it all bloody, then usually I'll leave it in for about a day or two. Okay. Who does that for you? Do you find a local person or do you have the same person who does it every time? actually the UFC like lines people up you know you're just like did they ask you do you want your hair braided yes or no yes and they just set somebody up send them in zoom and yeah i know it's pretty cool and victa used to do that too they actually used to have somebody they fly somebody out and have someone on site so it's pretty cool that they um kind of take care of that and i old school back in the

i used to have to just like look somebody up on craigslist and hope they weren't going to kill me yes yes Did you ever have someone who tried to kill you that you hired? No. No, fortunately, knock on wood. Did you ever have any lemons, like really bad at their job who had no idea what they were doing? To be honest, probably like the worst job that I had was, and I feel bad for saying this, but in Canada, because there tends not to be so many, like, ethnic people. And I think they're not so used to, like, you know, having to dig in and do, like, deep braids. and yeah, that was a little bad, but no, nothing too crazy.

It's generally stayed out of my face for the most part. Is this, are you referring to Halifax? Was it when you were in Halifax? Yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah, that wasn't the best. Halifax. Yeah, I mean, not to say that, like, white girls can't do hair, you know,

but like I think when you have more of like an ethnic community, you definitely get a lot more practice. And is there a reason why you choose white? Actually, it's, well, it shows the better in my hair, but my fight colors were white. So I actually, and the new white color for the UFC is like chalk now. So it's kind of a little gray too. So have a little bit gray mix in there somewhere. Oh, wow.

I always try and kind of color coordinate with whatever fight color I'm wearing. Like when I fought in Halifax, I was blue. So I kind of put like blue and white in my hair. Yeah, I actually got the idea. because she's the first one who kind of really started doing that in her bites, and I always thought it was really cool. Who's that, sorry, you broke up when you were saying their name? Oh, Felice Herrick, my best friend.

Oh, right, of course, of course, yes, of course. I still miss the cookie monster outfit. I'm still partial to that one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I love to theme it up with the cookie monster stuff, for sure. I wish I could, I kind of miss being able to pick my own outfits. I'd love to find like a cookie monster singlet or something again. but, you know.

Oh, well, those were the days. I appreciate you coming on, though, Carla. I appreciate it very much. Great fight on Saturday. I know it was disappointing. But thanks for coming on and talking about it all, and I'm looking forward to the next one. Right.

All right, there she is. Carla Sparza, the former Invicta and UFC Strawway champion, and quite the revelation from her. Would love to hear what Clyde Gidea has to say about that. she claims that Claudia was greasing, well, prior to the fight you grease, and then, of course, once you start to sweat, it comes out and it makes things a little slipperier. That is quite the

accusation. We have heard this before in the past. People have accused others of greasing. I remember famously BJ Penn accused George St. Pierre of greasing during their fight at UFC 94, and it has come up before. But I feel like it's been a while since. it's come up since someone has actually said this about an opponent. So we'll see what happens. I mean, that was a very important fight. I'm sure Claudia will respond in very short order. Speaking of BJ Penn, as we're about to be joined in a matter of moments by Chris Wyman,

and I thought that Robert Whitaker's response to Widman, and in particular the question about Wydenman was very interesting. But we'll get to him in a second. the best part of Saturday night for me, the absolute best part of Saturday night for me was seeing BJ Penn and Matt Hughes. They were in the media room. It appears as though they're filming some sort of thing,

whatever it may be, whether it's a documentary or a miniseries. But they're definitely filming something with Matt Hughes and BJ Penn because they had a pretty big crew following them, filming them, with the audio boom. stick and all that stuff and more. But just seeing those two together, considering their history,

and now that they are so close, joking around, of course, it was the first time that I had the opportunity to actually see Matt Hughes with my own eyes, shake his hand, speak to him a little bit. He is walking on his own. He's in very good spirits. His speech is a little bit affected, but he's absolutely 100% there and talking to you about the fights and remembers you. He's all there. In fact, BJ even made a joke at his expense, which was incredible. I asked BJ

I asked him something about, they said that they had gone on a road trip from, I believe, Hillsboro, Illinois, which is where Matt Hughes lives, and BJ picked him up, and then they went to Chicago to go to the fights, and I asked them who drives because

BJ's coach, Jason Prillo was telling me that B.J's not the best driver, all that stuff. It came up a couple days prior. So anyways, I asked that. And then he said, yeah, Matt, Matt even drove. You know, he drove for a good portion of time, although we don't let him drive through train tracks. I was like, holy crap, I can't believe you actually made that joke. And they were both laughing, and it was all good. So it wasn't too soon or anything like that. And we're approaching actually a year. It was, I remember it was just a couple of days after the Mayweather McGregor announcement, which was a year ago this week as well. So I was, I was blown away.

that he made that joke. But it was so nice to see him together. And in good spirits, happy, really good, really good stuff. I was really glad to see them together, especially those two of all people. So well done to both of them. It was really nice. I was happy to be back there to see them. All right.

In a matter of moments, we are going to be joined by Chris Wyman. Chris Wyman was in attendance on Saturday. He was at the fight. He was sitting Caged Side. And he was actually... sitting right next to your eye, Faber, who will be joining us a little later on. I know he's very interested in getting back in there. It has been a while since we've seen him in action.

He was last in action in July of last year, Long Island. He defeated Kelvin Gaslam, and now it appears as though there's a two-horse race. I wonder if he heard what Robert Whitaker said about him. Let us ask him right now. Let's go to the magic of Skype and say hello to the former UFC Midway champion. The great Chris Wideman joining us right now. Chris, how are you? Just get out of the shower or what?

I just got done working out. I'm still sweating. And I just, yeah, I just showered real fast. So I apologize for looking nasty. No, it's all good. I thought you forgot about the interview. We were having a hard time finding you. No. I've been thinking about it all day. I'm so excited to be a part of the show, the last one ever. Yes.

It's an honor. It's an honor, I know. Thank you, Chris. So we have a lot to discuss. I'm going to get to Roberts' comments in a second, but you were there at Caged side. You had a front row seat. Just curious, who do you think? won the main event? It's one of those fights where I had no idea.

It's what I think it depends. It depends if you think it was a 10-8 round or not. I have to go back and really watch it. I don't understand what the judges are seeing these days. You know, I look back at Stephen Thompson versus Darren Till. They say he lost the fight because Darren Till was pressing forward the whole time. And then you look at Valentin when he just lost the San Maldi, he was the one pressuring forward.

And they said that Albi won because he was landing the better strikes as Blonte was coming forward. So you just never really know what the judge is going to do. I feel like this point. So you don't have a take? If you're the judge, if you're the guy there, who do you think won? And I know you're not always scoring fights as you're watching them. But when the fight was over, did you give the nod to Romero because of those big shots or the opposite? Well, it's weird because I definitely one and two, went to Whitaker.

I have to go back and rewatch it. but I was in my head at the time, I was thinking three, four, and five was you all. Okay, yeah. And you can make a case for maybe a 10-8 in the third, maybe a 10-8 in the fifth. Yes, and you can also make a case that way to go one-on-one of those rounds too. Yeah, maybe the fourth.

Is it fair to say, considering you have a history with YOL, that you were rooting for Robert, that you felt, okay, if Robert wins, this is clean, we move on, this opens the path a little more for me to get back in there? I was thinking, I just didn't like that y'all didn't make weight now twice in a row. So just from that perspective, I just thought that was wrong, I'm professional.

And so I was kind of leaning towards Whitaker. And then I was talking different people. Everyone seemed to believe that if Whitaker won, that was a better situation for me. Okay. I just asked, Robert was on the show earlier. I know you usually love to watch the show live, but I also know that you were training. Did you happen to catch that interview? No, I didn't.

What do you say about me? Well, I asked him, at the end of the interview, I asked him, you know, it seems as though there's a two-horse race to fight you next. He probably needs hand surgery, but he said that he definitely wants to come back before the end of the year. And I said, you know, between Kelvin Gasselman and Chris Wyman, that's the two-horse race. Of course, what are you thinking? Who are you leaning towards? He's a fairly respectful guy. He's not a big smack talker.

But he kind of like was surprised that I even asked him the question. he's like, well, didn't Chris just beat him? So it seems pretty obvious to me. And I'm paraphrasing here. And I'm like, all right, so it sounds like you think it's going to be Chris. And he's like, well, yeah, he just beat him. So that's what I'm assuming is the general take that he had. So how do you feel about him saying that?

I was surprised. I thought you're going to go the other way for a second. Well, how about that, Chris? How about that? That's good. That's good. How about Whitaker? I like Whitaker.

He's smart guy. So that's awesome for me. I think, obviously for me, that would be best case in errors to fight for the title. Fight Whitaker, I feel like that's a guy I match up and really well against. It's a guy I go out there and I believe I can finish. You know, I feel I'm the most decorated guy in the division. I've had the most title defenses. I had a rough patch.

You know, I went undefeated my whole career. I lost one. I happened to lose three in a row. you know my mind I felt like wasn't in the right spot I came back and I put myself back where I needed to got my mind back and I went out there and beat one of the top contenders Kelvin Gassum I just I felt like I dominated the fight

and I went out there and finished him so I feel like you're only as good as your last fight and I finished the other guy that we're talking about in my last fight so I feel like I definitely deserve the shot at the title and that would be a good fight Yeah, Kelvin Gassum came to the media room, did a little scrum, and even the fans were tweeting me when I was tweeting that you were there and hoping for the title fight next. And they both kind of said the same thing.

Wyman's one and three in his last four. The other guy is, I think, four and one. Kelvin Gassum is four and one. What's your response to that? But why? Because if you start doing that, all right, you're picking what is the worst look for me. If you're going to go back and look at my whole career, if you're going to start with my first. losses, it's going to look bad.

But if you look at my whole career, I thought only the best guys in the world since I've been in UFC, and I've done pretty damn good, have the most tired of the defenses. And I went through a little rough patch, and I found my way out of it. I didn't have any rough patches

before that. There's a lot of losses in Gasolum's career that don't look so good. We have one comment, we have, we actually afford each other. So, I mean, I think that really answers the question. I went out there and I finished him. So he had the same opportunity, you know, and he went out there and lost me.

So you were there in Chicago. Did you happen to run into any of the big wigs, the brass? Do you have a sense as to what they're thinking? No one told me that I'm definitely getting the shot. No one definitely made it like I wasn't. I talked to Mick Maynard. He's a really good guy, a fair guy. And he was just saying, he was just waiting on my hand.

He's asking me how my hands are doing, and I told him I just got the clearance. They said, just take it easy for the next three weeks, and I'm good to go. I just got done sparring, kind of play sparring for the last, I don't know, 45 minutes. I feel really, really good. I feel like I'm in the prime of my career right now, and I'm ready to go. I said, I mean, September, October, November, right around that time frame makes a lot of sense for me. Now, I don't know what's going to happen with Whitaker with his injury. What did you say?

He has to get surgery? he thinks he yeah it's a clean break but um he's flying home right now and uh he he feels like he'll have to have surgery yeah so i mean i'm not a hand doctor but i now i am kind of yes yes i know a little bit more than the average person with the hand surgeries um and hand injuries and as long as he didn't tear a ligament uh i think he might be all right usually breaks i mean a pretty clean cut for four to six weeks recovery and uh usually pretty good to go hopefully that's the case and we could maybe fight in that Madison Square Garden card

in November. Wow, that would be something. I get chills just thinking of that. Now, that would be 16 months or so since your last fight because the MSG card is in November. You feel good about after the two surgeries and the time off jumping right in there. I mean, Whitaker's super tough, you know how

good he is, jumping right in there to a Tetafilis. Is there a part of you that says maybe I can squeeze one in you know, and shut everyone up and cement my place as the top guy, a tuna fight, if you will? Well, let's say if I'm ready by October, September, late September, October, then it wouldn't make sense to fight then if I'm going to fight again in November. So it just depends. I really don't have a problem. If I really have to fight another fight before the title fight, I'm ready.

I feel like I'm the best in the world. So anybody I have to beat, I got to do it to prove myself. So whatever it is, it just so happens. Everything kind of worked out for me. You know, I had a good fight against Gasselham in my last fight, and he's the other top contender. And I went out there and finished him. So I did what I had to do to prove myself that people feel like I need to do something else. That's fine.

But do yourself a favorite. Look at my whole resume. Look at the guys that four and look who I beat. You know, everyone's going to have a time in their career where they're a little off. And I had my time when I was on top. I didn't lose at all coming up. But I figured it all out. my head straight. And I feel like I'm the best I've ever been.

I don't know if you saw the Post-Five Press conference, but Dana White had two interesting things to say about this situation. The first was that Kelvin Gassum was supposed to be sort of like a standby opponent for this card. But then he said that he had some sort of personal issues and it seemed like he was a little bit annoyed that that didn't come to fruition. And he also said that your hand is still, you know, messed up and, you know, that you're kind of on the sidelines for now. You've just, you know, talk. about the hand here. So I'm wondering what, if anything, you thought about what he said about Kelvin. Did you know about that? Do you have any further thoughts on that?

I didn't see the post-flight press conference because I was, I mean, the whole event, I mean, I got back to my hotel around like 2, 2.30, and then I'd be up at like 4 a.m. for my flight. I had a 6 a.m. flight. So I didn't have time to really watch anything. But my hand is great right now. You know, they fused my, you could take a look at it. I don't know if you can see really. It's kind of nasty scar. But basically, this is fused like a rock now. And I feel like you're punched through a wool of this thing. It's really, really strong.

They got some titanium plate in there or something. Staple it down with some screws. And it feels amazing. So I'm ready to go. Hopefully around that September, October, November, you know, time period. Can you straighten? And I mean, I guess my hand is better, my hand is better than Whitaker's right now. That is true. That is true.

Can you straighten your thumb there? It looked like it was kind of locked in position. Can you actually like move it around? Like this? Yeah, okay. Yeah, this is my thumb. Wow. That's it. And you, and you're, are you fully cleared for sparring?

Like, no limitations? They actually, I got my hand. They actually made, look at this. Look at that thumb. You see the difference in the length of the thumb? Yeah. One really long thumb now. And they actually turned my thumb.

So when I grab a wrist now, Usually when you grab a wrist, it's like this part of your thumb that you're squeezing with. Yeah. I'm trying to get you to see it. Now he turned my thumb so it's going to be more surface area is going to be down. So actually my grip is going to be stronger than ever. And I feel like my grip strength was always one of my strengths. So I'm excited to use that and grapple.

Have you actually been able to use it yet or you're not quite clear to do that? So, I mean, I got my cast up, I guess, like two weeks ago now. And he just said, he said for the next three weeks, just take it easy. They did a caskin, an x-ray on it. It came back 100% healed. The bone is completely fused. So really, I can't really do much damage to it. But he said just for the next three weeks, just don't go crazy.

So I've been drilling. I've been wrestling, like doing drilling and wrestling and jiu-jitsu. And grabbing things, it doesn't hurt at all. I feel great. Wow. Okay. That's amazing. Is this actually going, is this better than you thought it was at this point?

After surgery, are you surprised by the progress? progress? I feel so I had a fusion on this hand. I was two and oh just in MMA and I had a fusion on my hand. It took almost a year and it was such a painful experience and once the doctor said they had a fuse this hand, I was not too optimistic. He told me it was going to take six weeks, but to be honest, I don't know if I really believed them. And at six weeks, I really almost, I feel like, I feel amazing. It's been, it was six and a half weeks when he took the cast off. So I guess we're eight and a half weeks out now, and I feel, I feel amazing. I was kind of expecting some bad experiences, and it's been nothing but a great recovery.

I can't imagine. It must feel like a wait. Just the fact that you're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after the frustration of the past year, that in its own right must feel like a massive relief, right? Yeah, man, it was definitely some tough times during this, during the, this thumb injury. You know, after I fought Kelvin, I had to get surgery on my thumb. And first, they took a tendon for my wrists and used that to create a new ligament. And I was trying to stay optimistic, but the recovery was terrible. I was in so much pain.

And I was trying to push through. And it took eight months to find out that actually when I did punch Kelvin, it was such a hard hit. This is what they're telling me. It was such a hard hit that the blood supply to the bones never came back. So after eight months, my bones just literally fell apart in that. Oh. So I thought I was pushing through scar tissue, but it was actually just bone decaying and falling apart of holding my bones and stuff.

So it feels so amazing now to be able to be pain-free and to see the light at the end of the tunnel. By the way, I don't know how I feel about this sort of newfound bromance between you and Michael Bisping. I mean, this has been a big rift between Bisping and I. Now I see you guys playing video games, you're tweeting him things upon retiring. I mean, he's for the longest time, you know, said that I'm partial towards you.

I'm biased towards you. And all of a sudden, I see you guys, boys behind my back, I can even get the memo that all was okay. The ceasefire was, you know, was on. So what's up with this? How did this all happen? You're an instigator, man. Why don't you tell everybody, did you text me and him at the same time when we were together?

Yes. I can't believe this makes my heart. My heart is so warm seeing you guys together. Did you say something like this? Yes, I did. And it's true. My heart was warm. Yeah, I mean, so we did an EA sports thing together, and I have a lot of respect for Mike and everything he's accomplished. It really is like a Cinderella story what he was able to pull off.

And what happened with his eye, I feel terrible for him. He told me when we were at the EA sports event that he was probably going to retire. That was before he announced it. And I had some wine. He was like, look at my eye. and it sucks, man. And that happened when he fought out for it. So that's why you got all this,

he's definitely got a lot of hatred for him and it's understandable, especially because did he fail for PDs after that fight or I'm not sure maybe before? Yeah. I don't know, but either way, he failed a bunch of times. There's no secret that he was on,

I think he was on the TRT maybe at that point. Yeah, yeah, that's the word. But either way, it was, I feel for BISBing, and I got a respect for him and everything he's done in his career. and we always had beef going back and forth. You know, he always wanted to fight me

because I was kind of up and coming and I became champion and he was in the U.S. He weighed longer than me. And so he was always trying to drag me down and feel crap about me and got a fight with me. And I was never really interested. And then all of a sudden he became championing and I started talking trash on him.

So it's just part of the game. It's a little good. It's all game and ship. It's nice. I like it. I think it's better when you two are friends. you should be friends, especially not that he's retired. No, he was actually a really cool guy.

I would get along with him. Okay, good. By the way. What did you think of the Colby Covington and Brisbane Exchange? I saw that while I was in the airport. Can I tell you? As a journalist, what's your thoughts on that? You know what?

I'm happy you asked me, Chris. I know the people probably really want to know your thoughts. You're used to ask you no question. You're so good. You're so good, Chris. You're really good. It was on one of my things on my list. I feel strongly

Like when you're in that spot Bisping's spot You have to take off your fighter hat You have to take off You know whatever history There's maybe you could be a little bit A little bit aggressive But to me that's his moment

That's Colby's moment That's his time to shine I don't believe like it's your time To browbeat him To teach him a lesson To put him in his place And I think that that has actually been a big problem

In this Fox era We've seen it before where fighters are put in that spot. And all of a sudden, we saw it with Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee. It's the fighter, you know what it's like being in that spot. You win a fight. Adrenaline is high. Ask questions and get out of the way. But to me, it was awkward to watch.

It felt disjointed, trying to go from each person. And then like Bisping talking to him like he was a little kid and trying to teach him a lesson, it's not the right time nor the right place. And I know the RDA is a teammate, quote unquote, and coach, it's still not the right time. If you're going to be in that chair, you've got to be unbiased. You have to be impartial. So that's how I feel about it. I agree coming from like an analyst perspective, I probably wouldn't have done that.

But I will say it definitely brought in, brought eyes to the TV and the video replays are probably high. And I saw the retweets from crazy. So it definitely brought attention. And I'll be honest, I never really listened to Colby talk until that. So he brought me and I'm sure with a lot of other fans, he brought attention to, to Colby. So I think that's a good thing for Colby. And, um, but I agree with you too. But at the end of the day, it's probably a good thing for Colby.

Sure. But could you imagine in another sport? It's entertainment. It's entertainment. Oh, I'm not. I have no problem with Colby what he's done all week. And, and I think the Trump stuff is actually funny and people are getting all riled up about it. But could you imagine in another sport, you know, uh, Kevin Durant wins? And, and all of a sudden, you know, there's Jalen Rose telling him, you know what, Kevin? I think that you're a pompous, you know, a prick for doing what you. It's like, it's not the time. It's not the time. The guy just won the championship. It's not the time to be teaching someone a lesson. And you know,

and you know what sucks too. I agree with you. And it sucks also because now Bisbing is retired. So he cave and like, Thren to fight the guy. He can't, he can't, you know, make, you know, go find another 85 pound there and put a beating on them and then call out Colby. Like, it's just, he's done. So now he's in a position where all he's, all he has to back himself up this is mouth. I just feel like it's a it's a weird thing to be going back and forth with a fighter like that. It puts himself in a bad position. Yeah. In the end, I think Bispings actually one of the best

analysts that they have and I actually think that the majority of the analysts should be retired because then you are impartial. You're not involved in feuds like Ferguson and Lee. I thought that that was awkward as well. And he's a hothead and we love him for that. I wonder though if maybe he would admit that maybe he went a little bit too far there. But I'm not like personally offended by it, but since you ask there's my two very last quick thing for you, Chris,

before we move along to your teammate, Al-Aiquita who's standing by. Robert Whitaker, you fight him, based on what you've seen. Would he be the toughest guy that you fought for the belt if you get this chance? I mean, he is so freaking tough.

You fought them all. You have fought some of the greatest ever. What do you think about Whitaker at this point in terms of his skills? He's very, very tough. He's elusive, got some kind of like a karate-style background. But I have great training partners.

I have won the boy who actually knocked him out. He's a family member of mine. And just based on that, it gives me extra motivation not to lose to him. When I got my brother-in-law pretty much who knocked him out, how am I going to go to family functions if I go out there and lose to him? So it's definitely something that would play as motivation and give me confidence going to the fight. But he's a tough guy. He's hard to hold down.

But I just feel like between my striking and the way I transition into wrestling and with my grappling with my jiu-jitsu, I just feel like I'm too well-rounded for him. And I kind of, it doesn't matter how tough a guy is. Like, Kelvin Gasselms are very tough, too. He's never been finished before, but I'll find the way to finish him. We will hopefully be talking for many years to come, Chris, but it was important for me to have you on this show

because I remember we met you for the first time on this show when John Valante was in studio back in the AOL days and then shortly thereafter you got Alessio Sakara. So it was important for me to have you on, and I appreciate you doing it. And for your sake, I hope you get that title fight soon. Thank you, man. It's heartbreaking this show is over,

but I know the future is going to be strong for you, buddy. Congratulations, man. I know your success. It's awesome to watch you move on. Thank you, Chris. Talk to you soon. All right. Take care, buddy.

All right, there he is. The one and only Chris Wyman, the former UFC middleweight champion. Great stuff from him. and looking forward to seeing if he does, in fact, it's a two-horse race. We'll see what happens between him and Kelvin Gassum. Now, let's talk to his teammate, Ally Quinta.

He was in the news last week. Reports coming out that he is fighting Justin Gaci in Lincoln, Nebraska. First, the week started with Dana White talking about him on the UFC filtered podcast, and then we had the announcement and then some tweets. Let's hear it from the horse's mouth here. Let's hear it from Mr. Iquint. There he is. In that familiar spot, I love it, with the slides.

Al, how are you? I'm good, man. I'm good. This is crazy. This is it. This is it, huh? This is it. But don't worry. The train will move along and we'll be somewhere else. So don't worry about that. Are you going to be on at the same time? The timing's big. The timing's big. Because I would wrestle in the morning. This is like, I don't know, how long. I would wrestle in the morning. I'd come home. I'd eat a little bit. I'd sit down. I'd watch the M.M.A hour. I'd probably, you know, try it full.

sleep for like a half an hour for an hour and then go back to train at night. It's rough, man. What are you doing? I'm good. Don't worry. It's good, though. I got you. It's good. It's good. Don't worry about me, though, bro. No, no. Listen, I worry about you. I want the routine. I'm all about routine. Same time, Al, don't worry about it. But we'll deal with that later. Okay? Now is not the time for the future. Let's talk about the present. It's good to see you. I'm very confused. On Tuesday, Dana says this fight's not happening. Then it's supposedly happening.

Is it happening or not? Are you fighting Justin Gachey in August in Lincoln, Nebraska? The contracts are signed August 25th, Lincoln, Nebraska. It's on. Justin Gachie, five rounds. Headliner. It's on. What is Dana talking about?

Is he still, Dachetstein? He doesn't know what is going on anymore. So I don't know what they're listening to him about. It's on. We're fighting. We're fine. Okay, so when he did that interview with one of your coaches, Matt Sarah, there was no problem? Like you were like, what's going on here in your mind?

The fight was on? Or did something happen after the, you know? We had a few things that needed to be worked out, you know, and they got worked out. So now the fight's back. The fight's on. The fights on. Okay. You know? You feel good about it? Good enough to fight.

Yeah. Just good enough to fight. They gave me just enough. They gave me just a little bit more, a little something. Well done. Not really, though. I don't know how I feel about it. I don't know.

But I love fighting, and Justin Gage is a great fight. In August 25th is a good day. It's just, it all works for me, you know? So you weigh everything in, and, like, I was telling Volante. Volante was like, dude, what are you doing? you're going to fight in the summer, I need to fight in the summer because if you don't have a fight in the summer,

it's a shit show on the island. I need something to keep me focused. I got a lot done when I have a fight coming up, you know? So it's got to be focused on stuff. I'm focused on getting in shape, you know. Took a little time, a little time off a time. I got to get back. I got to get back.

We got a tough task ahead of us. Justin Gachie's no joke. That guy, uh, it's about a, a round and a half of hell, you know? I got to be ready for a round and a half of absolute hell. Then he starts slowing down about the midway through the second round. But holy shit, that first round, you know, I got to, we got to sit, we got, you know, talk with Ray,

get a game plan going. This is good. This is, this is the first, this is going to be weird. It's going to be weird that I haven't had a layoff before this fight. And I'm going right back into another fight. I mean, he's going one to another. I don't know. He needs time off.

I don't know. He needs time off. That's another advantage for me. He needs a break. I've had a break. I've been on break. I'm good, you know. I took a couple weeks off after Khabib just to heal up everything.

But, uh, I don't know. I think it's not a good fight for him. I don't think it's a good one for him. Not now. Take a little time. Take a little time. Relax. You know, your chin.

I don't know. I need time. He needs time. So are you surprised he took the fight? I wasn't even looking to fight. I was like, whatever. I thought, you know, maybe I was thinking they'd want me to fight in November at the MSG card or something. But apparently after the Khabib fight, I'm in high demand.

and with high demand becomes a pay raise, you know? So I'm not just accepting any fight on short, you know, you got to, so I forgot what I was even talking about. I just started thinking about something else. Did you get a pay raise? A little bit. They made adjustments to the contract. I knocked the fight off my contract and they bumped me up a little bit. So it was as if I won the Kabib fight and I get a next fight will be one fight.

There'll be one fight left on my contract. I'm happy about that. It'll be good. I can either fight it out or then they'll really have to, you know, and this is a big fight. This is a good, this is the perfect fight for me to really show where I'm at, you know. I took that last fight on a day's notice. I think it would have better, you know, more time to think about it, you know, prepare for it. physically, mentally, to, you know, train for five rounds.

This time I'm going to be training for five rounds. And it's an opponent that I think, you know, he's gotten his whole career has just been, he's just been so crazy. Go ahead, nuts, you know, just fight. He fights like a freaking tough guy. But you know what? It's, it's, it comes to a point where you can't do that anymore. Not saying that he can anymore, he will.

He's going to. It's going to be, like I said, it's going to be a round and a half that's just out of control. But I think it's a good fight at the right time. I think it's good. I think we're right where we want to be. This is what I want to do, man. This is where I want to be. Main event, Justin Gachie, guys tough his nails, you know, but he's not unbeatable.

Two guys, you know, he's one and three, one and two, excuse me, in the UFC. So I think it's, it's going to show everyone's going to see where I'm at. I'm going to make it look better than Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Forre did. Absolutely. Is there a part of you that thinks that he's a little bit damaged goods? Like, okay, this is also a good time to fight him because he's wearing down a little bit. He's taking an incredible amount of damage in his last three fights, right? Even the Michael Johnson fight, he was rocked there for a second.

So do you feel like this is a good time that at some point his killer be killed style will come back to haunt him and maybe it's now? Yeah. I think it's come back to haunt him more. the UFC than not you know what i mean this it's not this is not that's not really like a great that's a kind of like a flip it's like a coin toss of a style you just go kamikaze you know let's go either i'm gonna you know it's i think there's i don't think i'm more tab just more just more tactful more game plan oriented you know i i just feel like i don't know is there i don't

know if there's a game plan going into his fight do his coach talked to him about a game plan and Like, this is what you're going to do? Because he does the same thing. Every fight, you know, there's no difference compared to the opponents you fight. So it's not, it's just you got to make little adjustments. I think at this level, it has to be those little adjustments. That's the adjustment that Eddie Aver has made. That's the adjustment that Dustin Poye made.

You make adjustments at this level. You're going to win, and you've got to make the right adjustments at the right time. It's not just, you know, he's got to realize. And it's too, he's not learning anything between those. fights and these fights, you know, so I got to just show that I'm on that level and I'm, you know, I'm better than that. I'm way better than that. So I think it's, I think it's perfect. It's perfect fight. What lessons, if any, did you learn from the Habib fight? Oh, I don't, what lessons that I learned? I learned that I definitely have a lot of things to work on,

you know, that was obvious. I should be the guy that goes in there on a day's notice and beats that guy. I kind of was, I really think I I could compete with him in the wrestling. And I think people are going to, if I say now that I think I could beat him. Like I shot in on takedowns and I could have finished them, but I elected to let it go and punch him because I was just focused on knocking him out. I think I wanted to get that knockout. And maybe it seemed like everyone, everyone was, that was kind of like the game plan.

I don't know. Before the fight, Wavin was to say he, it was the day before. He said that I could take him down. He knows I could take it, you know. And I was like, I was like, yeah, you know. And then it just, the knockout was just in my head. And I was just kind of knockout hungry. But, you know, I can compete with anybody in anything.

I was just a little, you know, you're thrown in there on a day's notice. I don't have any regrets. I just, I did the best that I could. I really did. But I think you give me a training camp. You, you know, I put it all together the way I should. And I'm right up there with everybody. I'm right up there's not a guy in the UFC that I can't beat.

There's not one single guy that I can't beat. I can beat every single guy. It's like you pick a pull. There's some guys that they'll just never beat a top 10 guy. It'll never happen. I can beat every single guy in the top 10. I just have to fight my fight the right way. You know, and that's what it comes down to.

And I think Gachie's a perfect opportunity for me to prove that. you know he's been in there all every fight he's been with has been with a tough guy you've seen how he stacks out with people but he's gonna fight the same way he's gonna come out he's gonna he's gonna throw freaking he's gonna throw it all out there but i just gotta be content on if i got to look you know i can take a beating i'm not that's besides so what is it how's he gonna be me what is he's gonna be he beats on you until what and and and that's not even gonna happen but that's the worst case scenario i take a beating and i come back and i freaking beat him You know, it's what happens.

That's what's going to happen. But the best case scenario is, my scenario, is I go out there and I just make it look easy. Make it look easy. Train, game plan, smart, fight a good fight. There's no reason. There's no reason. It shouldn't be any other way.

You mentioned that they now, you know, knock the fight off your contracts or after this fight, you would have one more fight. Any concern considering your affiliation with Project Spearhead that they'll try to get rid of you like Leslie Smith? Get rid of me. don't give her shit. How about that? I really don't care.

That's the difference is I don't care. They know I don't care. All the rest of the guys, they care. I don't. So I was dip. Cut me. I don't give you. I don't care. There's no, I'm not, the UFC doesn't make me. You know what I mean? I make them.

We make them. That's what no one understands. No one gets it from day one. Those guys that were in the ultimate fighter, what was it? Dana White's famous speech. Do you want to be a fucking fighter, blah, blah, blah. Well, these guys were on the show.

They didn't even know they were going to fight. And now you want them to fight for the same purse, the same amount of money that they were going to get if they didn't. They could have stopped. Everything could have been stopped there. And if they would have just said, I'm not fighting. Pay me more to fight. They fought because the UFC was so, oh, I want to be a UFC fighter. If no one gave a shit back then, if everyone was like me, I don't give a shit.

Why am I like, why? Pay me more to fight to entertain everybody, to do what they did their whole career to do. No way. No way. Done. You know? Right. It's a fascinating topic and it continues to be a fascinating topic.

And we could talk about the TV. And the way, I'm laying in the morning. Well, that was actually what I was getting to. Here we have last week, Dana White's saying that he's going to change it back to 4 o'clock. and I spoke to 10 fighters at the event, a bunch of them tweeted me. I've not spoken to one fighter who said. His sense of reality is gone.

It's gone. It's shot. It's absolutely shot. It's scary. Now he's putting our health at risk. He's going to put the wayans. So why did you move the wayans in the first place? Because he wanted more excited, in his mind,

he wants more exciting fights. How are you going to get more exciting fights? Give the fighters more time to recover. Right? Which is also beneficial to us because it's healthy. You know what I mean? It's healthy for us to replenish. But then what he didn't realize is, no, now people are not making weight more. So this actually was a bad move. Even though it's healthier for the fighters, we're going to move it back to the nighttime because he interviewed a million fighters. I haven't seen one that won it at night, you know. So his sense of reality, they can't, you can't, it's almost like you do an interview with him. Now, it's not about the truth. It's about his agenda. So I don't take, you can't, I'm waiting in the morning. Well, if there was ever a time to come together,

this seems like the first time the fighters are actually on the same page. It's like the first time the fighters are actually speaking up. This feels like. Well, Lorenzo kept him in check. Now that, I don't think, I think he's going to run this thing into the ground, you know. Because now he's just saying, whatever he wants to say. No one's keeping him under wraps. He's saying whatever he wants to say, and you're just going to move the way in? What fighter did you interview? He said, we interviewed it.

We got 550 fighters on the roster. We interviewed more than you. I don't think so. I haven't talked to a fighter that was interviewed where it was talked to about moving the lanes back to the nighttime. I think it's about him, you know? It's all about him. It's all about him. And if it's not about him. He wants to get right in there. It's, it's not, he did great. He did great. You're out. He's got one foot out the door. Just go, man. No one, like, go, go. He's your, he's done. He's done. You know, and I don't give a shit. I don't care. I know, I can see, I'm going to say it. I think, I think 50% of the people don't see it. 50% of the people are just too scared to say it. I think everyone's on board. It's like, you just, you know, you see, I don't know. It ruins the, it

ruins everything. Like a fight with Justin Gachy, there should be no hesitation. It should just make it work, man. Make it fucking work. Right? That's the fight. You want to see? I want to see. I want to be in. They want to be in. Everyone wants to be a part of this thing. Fucking make it work, dude.

Don't go out there on an interview. Don't go out on an interview and say, oh, no, it's not happening. Make it work. You're the promoter. This is your job. Don't put don't put freaking Alistair Overeim on the undercard because he can't sell paper When you're the promoter, you brought in a guy that it's like a freaking, it's like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

You can't fuck that up, right? CM Punk, it shouldn't be a thing that you can fuck up. He managed to fuck it up because Michael Johnson won the fight and now he's talking shit about Michael Johnson. And he's got Alistair Onderyam on the undercard when the guy Razor Blades freaking knocked him out. Razor Blades should be going to win on pay-per-view. He should be the guy right now. He should be upset. Where am I?

You put me on the undercard. I finished Overeem, and you're talking shit about Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson. Like, what's going on? It's a shit. I'm so, I just, I love this sport so much. It kills me.

I'm like, oh, I love the guy raised it. I thought, you know, you knock out, Alist or Overeem. That's the freaking, that's what it's all about, man. That was crazy. Crazy. Oh, it broke my heart, that whole thing. I was devastated. devastated, but

Michael Jackson you were upset with the way Michael Jackson fought. You're upset, you put a reporter in the fight. What do you expect? If you didn't pick a fighter, you know what happened in pride if CM Punk wanted to fight?

Remember Dos Carlos Jr.? Yes. With the mask on? Yes. You want to fight in the UFC? Come on, come on, come on. We're going to put you against Crow cop. Boom! Crocop! Yeah. Now, Crocrow,

Cropov, look at Crow Cup, legend. The guy can fight anywhere for, you know, everyone knows him. This is what they do. They promote their fighters, they're a promoter. You got me, need a promoter, you know? We need a promoter. And I think the fighters, it's this, this way and thing is the, like, the last straw. This is going to kill him. This is going to put him in.

You know, you're going to say, he's going to say something. It's going to get even worse. It's going to get worse. Before it gets better. It'll get better, though. What do you think, so what do you think happens? Do you think the fighters are actually banned together and not weigh in when they're being told to weigh in now and stick to the early morning way-ins? Well, I'm weighing in the morning.

Okay. So, I mean, I think if Justin Gitchie, you know, I think if he, I think he would rather fight in the morning, so he should weigh in the morning with me. You know, I think I heard of it, but there's a few other fighters on the card, and I think they'll weigh in the morning, too. So, yeah, we'll weigh in the morning, you know. I'm pretty sure we're all weighing in the morning. Al, pleasure as always.

had some fun times on this show and I always appreciate your support. And I'm happy that this fight is on. I'm happy you're smiling. And we'll be talking again, but I just wanted to thank you for everything and wish you the best of the time for this. This is great. Congratulations. I remember when I was dying to, I wasn't even dying to get on the show.

I used to just watch the show like this was the, it was the, you know, it was the, every week I'd look forward to it. And then I remember we did our first interview and when I was on the Ultimate Friday. leading up to the finale. And ever since that, we've become like, you know, we've texted each other about what's going on. And it's insane how things work out, man. I'm really, and I, you've always been awesome.

You've always been a great person, you know, upon everything. So I wish you the best of luck with ESPN. Do you think, man, congratulations. Thank you, Al. All the best to you. I'll talk to you soon. You too, man. All right, there he is.

Reginald, there is only one, Reginald. There he was. So it is going down, as he said, August 25th in Lincoln, Nebraska. Okay, I am so excited for this next interview. We have all been waiting patiently to hear what he has to say about everything. And now we have the opportunity to talk to him. Honored to be joined by the reigning, defending UFC Walterway champion, the one and only Tyron Woodley, is joining us right now. Let's go back to the Magic of Skype and say hello to Tewood. There he is. My man, Tewood. How are you, Tyron? Everything good? Oh, my man. Everything is great, my man. How are you doing? I'm doing great.

Wow. I have a lot of questions. I'm dying to know what you think, so let's get right into it. First off, did you watch the fight on Saturday, Colby Covington and RDA? No, I haven't had a chance of watching yet, but I'm going to watch it over the next week or so. What happened to your voice? You know what? It's funny you say that.

I don't know. I think it's just switching time zones and going on flights that, you know, I lost my voice. And I've been, you know, I've been recording as well. So I've been recording the album. So being in the studio, having a raspy voice is actually good. It is? I didn't try to combat it.

Yeah, for the sound that I was going for, it was good. So I didn't really try to combat it. Like, was drinking hot tea or honey and all that shit. So my voice is kind of gone. First off, what did Cara Cuihington have to say? because I know he was on her already. Let's get that. Let's get right to the point.

Okay. All right. Two, brother. Yeah. Kisses, but let's get to the meat. Well, I mean,

he just said, you know, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. You're the human Nyquil, right? That's the real belt. RDA is tougher than you.

This is the easier fight now. Oh, he also said that he beat you up in sparring. There were times where, like, you wanted out. It was always very, very one-sided and sparring.

So he's looking forward to doing what he did behind closed doors. Okay. That's a little... So when can we purchase this fiction film? When does it come out? Let me know when it drops. Because what I've done is, and you know this, because a lot of people have asked me to comment on Kobe.

One thing that Kobe is really underestimating that I will leak these text messages. of him. I'm his big brother. Now, always his big biggest big brother. And he's the one that, oh, I need to help with marketing, man, and, you know, I need to get sponsors, and I need to get in the UFC. He was brought in to training camp,

to help me train for Roy McDonald. And I've never met a more lazier piece of shit than Kobe Covington, a more horrible human being than Kobe Covington. When it was time to wrestle, ask him how many takedowns, he actually scored on me. Zero. Ask him why he turned blue like a,

fucking blueberry when I was choking him out and he refused to tap. So he is an asshole training partner. He's a horrible human being. Nothing that he's saying is factual. And I told him, I called him. And I say, hey, I know you feel like you gotta do

this. This is the path that Connor McGregor made. And you think this is what you got to do. But you really making yourself look bad. I said, I gave you a one little hit on Foxx when I was on air. And that's all. I said, so you can say whatever you want, and I'm not going to respond to it.

That's what you feel like. He said, oh, man, I'm just trying to make money for both of us, man. You know, we'll both eat at the end of the day, light at the tunnel. So I hate to, like when somebody's doing a good job like Connor or Chale, I hate to unveil them. But when you got John Harnett of American Top Team scripting and writing yourself, and when 99% of your social media is my face, you need to check your man visa because you don't lost all points.

Not only he is never taking me down, Ariel, he's never won a miller. a second of a round. He's never, I can't even imagine if he won an exchange of combinations. He ran for me the entire training count. He went home early saying his toe was hurting. When it was time to really wrestle, he had my striking partner Taylor Crawl, who myself, Tiago Alves, we all used him because he's a phenomenal striker. He was in there with a broken wrist wrestling me while Kobe was sitting in the weight room, act like he didn't know what was going on. So the fact that he would even bring that up, I'm going to whip his ass so bad. I've never wanted to hurt somebody in my life.

I've never wanted to beat somebody up so bad. He's so non-deserving to even fight in the title. And he's finessed himself in with his mouth. He's also brain. I said this. Actually, guys at Fox. They said, who's going to win between RDA and Kobe? I said RDA has a better skill set.

but we never seen him fight any person with emotion. He would have had to do that against Connor. He didn't fight Connor, so we don't see. John Jones, hey, don't get John Jones emotional. He going to beat you up worse. Some guys don't deal with emotion well. I think Jose Aato didn't deal with the emotion well. I thought that if RDA allowed Kobe Covington to get into his head,

it will play a factor into the fight. Now, I haven't watched the fight, but I know one thing, Kobe's never knocked a person out in his life, So I'm assuming he wrestled the hell out of him for five rounds. Am I, is that what happened? There was, you know, I actually thought that he showed improved striking, to be honest. It was a relentless pace. He smothered him.

He just kind of beat him to the punch throughout the entire fight. But something that I thought that I feel is very interesting about this. Like, you're on board, right? Because in the past, you've not wanted to address him. You didn't think you're on your level. You're on board now? This is the thing. He's not on my level.

He never will be on my level. But now he's to the point where it's almost like my duty as a martial artist to fuck him up. It's almost my job as a martial artist for whatever I stand for. I'll talk to Dan Laver today. I said after I woke his ass, I want him off the team. He's a disgrace to American top team, the tradition that it was rooted in. He's a disgrace to the sport. And he's a mockery to the toughest and the best division in the UFC's history, which is a Walterweight division.

and he's a disgrace to it. It's not like he's just going out there and just saying something he believes. He's staging and premeditating very controversial, very racial, very socially insensitive statements, and he can't back it up.

He's talked himself into a fight with me. The problem is when they locked his octagon, I'm going to unleash an ass-whip on him that nobody has ever experienced. And he can't run. He can't outstrike me. He can't out-restriking me. And anybody can get in shape, brother.

You think cardio going to beat me? Let me see you put your chin on the treadmill. Put your chin. Let me see the cardio of your chin because he hasn't been hit like I'm going to hit him. RDA don't possess that power. And he didn't fight Usman because his toe was hurting, but he was trying to fight me. He's ran from the matchups that give him problems. Of course you want to fight me because guess what?

When lose a draw, you make an extra 200 grand, you fight for a world title, you can always say, well, I lost in the world title. He's okay with that. Saying that he lost, he knows he's not going to win this fight. My toughest challenge in this fight is to mentally stay the competitive that I am, to stay to the game plan, and not allowed my bitter hatred for him, take me out from competing and go to one to just fight him. By the way.

Straight up, like straight fight him. Right. Dan Lambert, you made that request. What do he say when you made that request? Yeah, I can't disclose what he said. Okay. Dan Lambert is not very fond of, you know, Dan Lambert, he's like my dad. I call him pop, and I've never asked that.

You know, me and heck the Lombard had our beef, we squashed that. You know, I'm pretty sure it's all undisclosed beef within the gym, and it has never came to that. But just for, like, I carry pride in that flag. I've never fought for another team. Yeah, I've trained with Antonio McKee. I've trained at A.K. training at Wancourt.

Recently, I've been doing a ton of training at Rufusport. I would consider myself one of Rufusport guys as well. But for someone that has started as an amateur, not even as an amateur, I started at American Top Team as a coach. I was a coach for Dean Thomas, Tiago Elvis. I was a wrestling coach.

I wasn't even technically what you would call a fighter yet. And for me to come from a coach to an amateur fighter, to a pro fighter, to a world champion, I take pride in what American Topton stand for. He's a disgrace. He's a shit on the bottom of my foot when I walk through the park. That's what he is. So the fact that he's making these ridiculous,

what did I run from? I was going to fight Nate Diaz because it's a big money fight in December without the shoulder surgery. When I was off for that fight, I was going to fight him and then get the surgery afterwards. I told the UFC, I don't know for sure if I can fight in June. I think I can.

But if you guys want to promote a fight and make a fly, I've never pulled out a fight. I don't want it to get close to that date and I can't fight. I say July 100%. You recognize area. I haven't been out to sport for a year, right? Tell me another division that the interim titles put up in the fight has not been out for a year. Name me one other champion in the history of our sport. Have you ever seen it?

Well, this year has been weird with the interns, but certainly not one who has been as active as you have been as champion. I mean, because you have four fights. So after four world title fights in a year, I suffer an injury. I try to go without having a surgery. I committed to fighting Nadeas in December prior to the surgery. And you got to realize I got the surgery in December 19th. It's what, June. And I'm cleared to go.

So if you think that I didn't go get three series of stem cell and I didn't rehab like a fucking madman, I didn't buy a $12,000 stem machine to expedite my recovery, I didn't force a UFC to give me an additional two days of physical therapy because I'm not a person that's just trying to get to the day to day. I'm a war champion. So I made them give me five days. I made them buy me a game ready ice machine. These are the things I've done. And I said I'm ready to fight in July, June, July, August.

So the fact that this fight took place, it should have taken place because the division needed to shuffle deck. The number one container needed to truly emerge. It wasn't a clear one there. So by him beating RDA and beating Damien Maya and winning the Boo Boo Bell he does to me

has emerged worthy to get this ass with him he's going to take and I'm not going to make it fast it's not going to be in the first round I'm going to talk to him I'm going to embarrass him

and I'm going to do it the entire fight and the referee get close I'm going to say move back brother I'll tell you when to step in and stop this fight don't fucking come in here and save his life

let him take this fade let him take this let him take this ass with him because I don't want him to ever fight again. I wouldn't care if he didn't make it out the octagon. And I'm not, I'm dead as serious about that. So.

Does it make your skin, does it make your skin crawl to see him with a belt though? I don't, what is that? What is he wearing? I got, my son got a W-O-E toy, you know,

in a M-A toy downstairs with a belt on that. He can wear, if he walks around with that, and really thinks he's a champion and really act like that's a belt, I'm going to embarrass him in every press conference. I'm going to make fun of him, and I'm going to have the world join in because you're a joke. If you think you walk around with an interim belt, and you didn't knock out the two-time fighter of the year,

one of the most vicious wealth weight of all time, and record-bating breaking time, and take a bell from somebody, you can sit down somewhere. What do you make of his desire to give the best of? to Donald Trump and what he said about the Eagles and the Warriors and about people who, you know, what do you make of this now being a part of the story? Well, he wants to be the Hill because if you recognize Kobe Covington, which nobody, my son said, who is that?

And they follow the sport. So who is that? He's a cloud chaser. He's built his name off as trying to be the Hill. How many times did Kobe Covington fight on Fox or pay-per-view prior to Damien Maya? He was a fight-pass phenom. Every fight that he had was on fight-pass, many of which was on last-minute notice, many of which was in Asia.

He fought on Fox for the first time in his life when he fought Damien Maia, ever. So he thinks, in his mind, he's that friend that's doing that corny, douchy stuff that no friend around him is telling him, dude, you look like a douchebag. Nobody's pulling him to the side and telling him that. He thinks he's cool wearing these sunglasses. He thinks what he's saying is cool. The Donald Trump thing, the thing about the Brazilians, the thing about the nerves, the versions. He's taking the bipolar opposite of what the sport is on purpose.

Otherwise, he would have to fight at least five more fights to be in contention to even crack the top ten. So hats off to him. If you guys bought into this, shame on you. You lay him bamboozoo, you and finesse you. And if our sport is that board with tax. talent and superstars right now that we're willing to accept this bullshit, I feel bad for the sport. Do you feel like the UFC kind of bought into this? Because I do believe that you are right.

If it's the same Colby Cumberton as two years ago who doesn't talk like this, he's not fighting for interim belts and he's not in line to fight you. Oh, for sure. I mean, think about it. You know, we haven't seen the number one superstar in our sport since November 2016. John Jones is out for a second. Ronda Rossi's retired. Who's a big superstar? Who?

You know, we had guys that were on the cuss. You know, Cody Garbrand was right there knocking at the door. You know, he got a lot of star power. We lose in this sport. You get clipped on the chin with a four-h-h-h-h-hlob. Page Venzhen, Seas Northcutt, Wonderboy. It's very difficult not to take a loss in this field. So when our sport was in dire need of some attention and some controversy, he emerged.

He came at the right time. And I can't even hate on it for him. But he's going to get his ass with now. Now he's going to have to get an octagon with a real puncher, with a real champion, and not just the best take-down defense in Wolt's weight, the best take-down defense in the history of the sport. And we put on a single-in and get on the circle, he would not be able to buy a take-down.

I'll talk to Dean, and I said, then, you know what? I'm going to take him down and watch how he react. And I torture him for the whole practice. He ran off the mat, basically crying, storming off, and I have people that are willing to come forth and testify to the training count. Tell me one person that's going to testify that Kobe would my ass in practice.

Tell me one person that's going to lie under oath and let God above hear them say he beat me in anything. He ain't ever beat me in thumb wrestling. By the way, you mentioned those text messages. When's the last time you had that kind of conversation with him where he was like, oh, we're going to get paid? Let me see my phone.

Okay. Let me see my phones. We might as well, Aaron, Let's hear it. Let me see. Cutt, Quifington. Where are you at? Kobe.

My phone probably just don't even like it and discussed it with the fact that his name was in there. And it boarded all messages. I find it. But it was a way, though. I mean, the first thing is, he came to training camp, and he was basically, he basically was talking about oh man I need sponsors and this before he had any

any UFC experience he had one pro fight he had a he had a he had a fight against um fight against um I think is um Jason Jackson what's your name oh yeah was it Jason Jackson he had a fight against him and he broke his hand and he fight it was a terrible fight but he

he toughed it out he had his hand broke so that's when he came to train and count with me this dude was talking about he need a manager to pay him $40,000 to sign with him to manage him. He needed sponsors and all this other stuff. And I looked at him to his face and I said, bro, you need to get your ass a job, bro.

He ain't making no money. All the money to his name, Ariel, he had $2,000 to his name and it came from me. He was carrying it around in the knot like a complete buffoon. All the money to his name, he had in the knot in his room for training. me. He had a rental car. He didn't have to pay for no food. He went to the gun arrangement whenever he wants to. And he sat in that room

was the laziest. When I say lazy, the laziest piece of shit I've ever laid eyes on. And he has great cardio. He's that one guy on the team that don't work out hard. And everybody hates him because he has good cardio. Ask Uriah Favir about him. When he came out to Uriah's gym. And he was so lazy. And he was talking so much shit on the American Top Team. Oh, nobody has sparred me, and I'm just, I'm beating up everybody. I'm beating up, you know, everybody's scared. I don't have no training partners.

And we all looked around him like, I remember it was me. It's funny. Me, Tiago Alvesh, Hector Lombard, Robbie Lala, all at Dan Lamberhouse playing poker. And I said, if he can make it one round with all of us, then I'll give him some respect. Not one of us is going to let him out of a round. So it's just like, I held on to this from

long so long and I let him talk, but I'm going to embarrass him in a press conference. I'm going to embarrass him in a fight. I hope he never fights again. And the UFC should be embarrassed for getting behind this. I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed to have a belt on an organization that really and truly going to sit here and act like this dude

as somebody's champion. God, it's so embarrassing. What have we came to? Is it true John Jones reached out to you and said he wants to help you train for him? Yeah, that's funny because y'all don't wish out to me very much. John said, hey, whatever you need, brother, I want to help you. John, I told John, I said, man, I said, you work so hard for your platform, you know, from

Ashley kicking ass and beating legends in their prime and being one of the greatest fighters we ever seen, don't give him your platform because he put a pulse over bottom. Don't give him your platform. And I, you know what, I bid my own words because I did the same thing. I said, I am going to kick his ass so bad. he's going to wish he was dead instead. He's going to rather, he's going to try to find a way out. I said, so don't worry about it.

He was like, it can't happen soon enough. So if you look at Kobe's page right now, and I challenge you fans that are watching this, go to his page. And if you can go more than three messages on Instagram without sending a picture of me, I'll be willing to give you 100 bucks. I'll be willing to dig down in the wallet

and bring out the blue cheese. The fact is, Though I gave him the last moment because I was fed up, I'm carrying, I got my own stuff going, I got my show on TMZ, I got an album that's about to come out, I've been doing acting coaching, I got movies that are coming out,

I've been on Fox, so I've been working, I've been grinding. He's been worrying about me. I've been making more money, non-fighting than he's made in his entire career. So why am I going to pay attention and give him the focus? Now he's got my attention,

and he got me into a position that I'm kind of actually, scared of what I can actually do with this mental state. Like if I've knocked people out and I've never punched anybody, I've never punched anybody 100% in the fight. Most of my knockouts come because I see it and I react and I get to the face real fast. I get to the chin real quick. It's not the fact that I'm just sitting on teeing off.

I'm going to try to tee off on him so bad that he just wants to quit. And if the referee looked like he's going to come and break it up, I'm going to pause and tell him to take a step back. I'll let him recover before I whip his ass more. I cannot wait for this fight. By the way, I think he might want you to unblock him on social media. Are you open to that? He said you blocked him.

I mean, of course, because, like, you know what? I get, when I'm focusing on greatness and I'm chasing my day-to-day grind, which is, it's crazy. You know me, I'm a worker, man. I'm non-stop. I don't want to see Kobe Covington said this. Like, people tag me. I say, God, don't tag me.

It doesn't bother me It doesn't make me mad It doesn't motivate me I don't want to prove him wrong I don't want to It annoys me So yeah I blocked him He blocked me too though

Oh for real He didn't say that He didn't say that Yeah he blocked me too So get out of yeah He blocked me too All right We're not friends

Why would I like Why would I follow you on social media Why would I look at your Like he had He had 7,000 followers Before he started bumping his gums And what did he jump up to 40 or 50 now Yeah I don't know

He's on your show area to get your followers. Nah. I'm just covering what happened. Can I ask, he says, he says he wants, he wants to fight at MSG in November. Do you like that or is that too far away for you now that you're ready? He might fucking run and get a fight in the street if I see him close enough. Oh. He might get, he might get it sooner.

You know what? Dana hasn't called me because he, you know, I'm not going to say why he didn't call me because I don't know. Okay. I mean, I expect him to call me that night. So, and we stay on the good terms on that one. All right. This is one man. I'm not calling nobody out no more.

People don't respond to me well when I call people out. When I asked for specific fights, I found it out. And you notice how I didn't make a fuss about the interim belt. I called it the boo-boo bell because that's what it is. It's kind of a joke. But I didn't go up and make us think about it. I didn't go and have a fit. I stay busy.

I kept working. I kept rehab. but I kept training. And now at five or six months, I'm 100% Hill, which is a fast turnover for anybody who's ever had a labor return. But now that the fight's done, whenever they want to do the fight. They won us a fight in July.

They want us to fight in August, September, November. He ain't the champion. Take a nice, warm glass and sit your ass down, shut the fuck up, because you ain't the champion. You don't make the calls. Nobody cares where you want to fight at. You fight when the champ want to fight. And if you wear that belt,

around me during a press conference, I will make fun of you. I will embarrass you. If you were a terrible looking suit again, that you got off the fucking clearance rack, that you had somebody put two pieces of staples on the back, you would get made fun of.

So, he has no say-so and when we fight, he's lucky and blessed he gets to take this asshole. So when I'm ready to fight in a UFC deem at the best time, or I can make the most money, then we'll fight. Last thing for you, Tyron, this has been phenomenal. I'm giddy at the thought

of all of this. I can't tell you. I just, it's just a beautiful thing. Have you looked, by the way, at your replies? Those two tweets that you sent out on Saturday. You know, I pay attention to you and the way the fans view you. I cannot remember the last time you had that

kind of support. It has to feel good. It's like 95% kick his ass, Tyron, you're the man. All of a sudden, everyone loves you. So that has to feel good, right? I can't keep, I can't I can't keep up with it because I get, over the last few days, I got 300, 300 messages a day on Instagram.

You know how they go to the requested ones. 99 plus. Yeah. I can't keep up with it. Sorry fans. I'm trying to reply as much as I can. You know, I never really did anything, to be honest, to get a negative image. And I knew who I was, so I never really let it get to me.

A couple of times it bothered, you know, me being able to get the certain fights that I want it. but it doesn't surprise me. And if the fans want to get behind me and they got my back, you know what I mean? I'm not going to hate on them. I don't have no hard feelings. I never had any hard feelings in the beginning. So if now you guys want to see me beat this kid up because he's a joke and he looked

like he smelled like stinky cinnamon, then hey, I will possess. It is beautiful. I have to say, I had a smile. I looked at those replies and I was like, well, it's about damn time. It took two years. But they're finally on, you know, on his band. wagon they finally got his back. Great to talk to you, Tyron.

I know a lot of people are hitting you up. I really appreciate you coming on. And by the way, let us know, when's the album coming out? What date? Do you have a date? Hey, well, I got a song that's going to be perfectly geared for this fight. It's called, I'll beat your ass. So that's going to be coming out in the next two weeks.

So, Kobe Covenant. Matter of fact, Kobe Coventon, you are a bitch, and I'm going to whoop your ass. Up and down the Octagon, you're an embarrassment to the for it. And I hope after this fight, you never fight again. And as I told you in my gym, a long time ago, when I told you to get a job when you were complaining about not having money, and you said, oh, I'll never be a grocery shopper. I mean, a grocery bagger. I'm a pro fighter. I told you, I'm a world champion, and I'll bagged groceries right now. I'll hopefully you go and end up taking their job bagging groceries.

Well done, Tyron. Talk to you soon. Thanks for doing this. All right. There is. The reigning, defending UFC, welterweight, champion. How are you? I had a whole debate with New York Creek about this is just you feel that. Do you feel that guys? Do you feel that? That's why we love the sport. Do you feel that is real? That is not fabricated. This is great. This is this could not have worked out better for the UFC. This could not have worked out better for the UFC. It is a beautiful thing and, uh, wow. Wow. Newark Rick, uh, conceding that he is now starting to feel it. I knew he'd come around. At first he was like too cool for school. I'm not really feeling it. That was, I mean, that was the best of Tyrone Woodley. That was the best Tyrone Woodley we've ever had on this show. Wow. That was great.

I felt it. Did you feel that? That was great. Okay. Let us move along now. We'll talk a little more about UFC 225. Of course, one of the big stories, CM Punk second UFC fight.

He fights Mike Jackson. He ends up losing via decision. It was a one-sided affair after pretty much the first half of the first half of the first round, although punk getting a lot of props for the amount of heart and toughness that he showed. In the end, though, Mike Jackson wins. And he seems to have pissed off a lot of people, not punk, but pissed off some other people in the process. So let us talk now to the truth himself, Mike Jackson, who picked up his very first win inside the octagon on Saturday. There he is. There he is. There's the T-shirt. And he is, I'm assuming, a very happy man

on this Monday afternoon. Mike. How are you? What's up, baby? How you feel? I'm feeling well, man. First off, shout out to the top secret retreat machine. We're here. Okay. I don't know what that means. What does that even mean? Who is that? It was part of the process, how we got here. So I just want to give a shout out to them. You know, I couldn't have done it. You know, it wasn't a solo mission. It was a team effort by everybody involved, and I just wanted to give a shout out to them. Okay. But it's top secret, though. Area is top secret. All right. I won't pry any longer. I promise. So you win. And, you know, I talk to you a little bit, but I feel like the new news has to be addressed first because you win. You're basking in the glow of the victory.

It was dominant. You set out what you set out to do. And, you know, you're playing to the crowd. It's all good. Your backstage, you're happy. And then you get, you get, you know, this brow beating. You get criticized by the boss by Dana White. What was your reaction?

I was, I was trying to, look, I told everybody after the fight, I was going to get some Chicago. dish. I couldn't even enjoy it, you know. And it was one of those things that I was confused because all I kept hearing was I was taunting and showboating. And look, that's not my character. Like, that's not my style, you know. And so I was confused by all of this. And then I hear what Dana White is saying, he's running his mouth. Look, I know Danny's emotional. He's like a little girl sometimes and he gets in his feelings. But when you have a platform like that, you need to take a step back, you know, and I just didn't understand it. Okay. So, Why do you feel like he felt that way?

Why do you think? Like, did you have a conversation with him? He seemed really mad at you. No. Yeah, so what I think it is, it was sort of my style. I guess it was a little bit different. You know, look, I was going out there to get the first round knockout. And I told people beforehand, I was like, see him punk, he's a tough cat.

You know, I landed some solid shots. I rocked him. I landed the solid elbows and hurt him. But he never went to the ground. And for me, I'm not going to run in and try to get a finish on someone and get caught with something silly and then I'm a meme forever in MMA. You know, so I played the smart role and I kept my distance, you know. And then after the first round, he didn't go down.

I was like, well, I didn't get the first round knockout. Plan B was just to beat him up. And I told everybody beforehand, I was like, all I want to do is beat him up nice enough where he doesn't want to do this anymore. And that's what I did. I never went to hurt the guy. And what I've learned through all of this is that Dana White and M. And M.M.A. fans, you guys are savages, man.

It's like they wanted me to get his dude some severe CTE. And I was like, this guy has a family to feed. He has someone to go home to. And I would feel bad. I sent him to the emergency room with just the bumps and the bruising the cuts on his face. And they wanted me to get this dude like severe brain damage, you know? And I'm not about that life. But guess, you know, fighting isn't really meant for me.

I don't have that savageness like I used to when I was younger. Is it your understanding now that you are not welcome back to the UFC? You know, I don't know. I think I went, I reached out to him. I want to talk to him and get his perspective. And I guess he felt that, you know, when. Who's him, Dana? Dana. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, I guess, you know, I want to get his perspective, you know, why he felt that I was taunting and showboating because I was doing none of that. One of the things that stood out to me, he said that I was throwing like these bolo punches. And they took, like, even the fans, I guess, they took that as a sign of me taunting him. And it wasn't that. Like, look, When you're on top of someone and you're punching them, I'm all about effective and efficient striking. I'm not just going to get on top of you and just start throwing punches. And then you're blocking all of the punches, my shoulders get tired, and then I'm burnt out. So what I was doing was trying to find the holes, whether it be the head shots or the body shots, to open. If you go back and look at the fight, when I had my hand, I guess I had my hand up in the air and I was kind of like whirling it around or whatever.

I was kind of distracting him to get to find the opening on his body. And if you go back and watch the fight, those shots landed. You know what I'm saying? And then people are complaining about me looking away when I was punching him. When did it become disrespectful to not look at someone when you punch him? I don't understand what that even means, you know? But when I was looking away, I was looking at my corner. I had UFC Hall of Famer Pat Militage in my corner giving me solid instruction.

I had Kubal Perez in my corner giving me solid instruction, you know? So it's not, again, it's disrespect and it's taunting. I don't understand where it's coming from. And then as far as the internet goes, it's like all of these MMA fans or UFC fans, they're followers. Dana White say something, and then they run with it as opposed to developing their own opinions on the fight. Did the aftermath, the comments, did it sort of sour your mood?

This has been a two-year journey for you to get this fight, to actually make the fight happen, and then you win in his hometown. You should probably be on Cloud 9, and then this comes out, you know, an hour or two later. Did it sour your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, and it's like, look, I, I, again, I'd say what I was coming to do, you know, I was coming into Chicago as a hill, um, but I was trying to leave at, uh, not necessarily, like, a face or anything like that, but leave with new fans and then you have dana white

right now and it's just kind of like through a wrench and all of that, but like I said, at the end of the day, it is what it is. It's these losers's opinions and you know if that's what they want to have their feelings or whatever so be it what did you make of his comment that he said that he wishes that he put the fight on fight pass again we never the whole fight as far as like skill wise it shouldn't have been on pay per view but the reason it was on pay per view is because of seampunk's name you know you can't put this guy on a free on fight pass on the preempts you have to put it on paper view or you just don't lose all your money and again the only reason you brought him in in the first place was to make a shit ton of money.

And that's what we did. Look at the tent. Look at the gate. I got people telling me they've never watched the UFC fighting their life and they bought it because I was fighting. Or they bought it because

Siam Punk was fighting. You know what I'm saying? He made a lot of money that night. You know, so if you put that fight on FAPS, he's not making the same type of money. I just thought that that comment was interesting. Like, if you say, well, I wish I put it on FS1 for free,

then that's one thing. But Fight Pass is your own, you know, subscription service. That's what you're asking fans to pay $999 for. So, like, where is that the place where you put the, you know, the crap, you know, for lack of a better, like, that's not the place. You know what I mean? It just seemed like a weird thing to say about your own product.

Well, see, again, Dana White is an emotional cat. And sometimes he says things in the heat of the moment. And he doesn't, I mean, he doesn't really have a filter. We all know that. You know, so he gets in his feelings and he runs his mouth, you know? And that's not necessarily a good thing. And like you said, just like you said, he's almost shitting. his old product. He needs to have somebody maybe, I don't know, write his lines for him or something

or, hey, you need to like calm down a little bit before you go do these press conferences. You know, I kind of feel like they need to put you on Contender Series now. Like, I feel like you're a legit draw. I feel like this can't end now, right? It can't end now. I agree. You know, if that's what they choose to do, look, I say, you know, I fight for because I love the fight. I don't have to fight. If I never fight again, I'm cool with that, you know, but my thing is, is like I told you what I was coming to do. Like, we're both entertainers.

It's like he won't, because he was upset that I didn't knock his man out because that's his guy. We all know that's his guy. That's why we hear, right? And he was like, oh, Mike Jackson should have finished him or whatever. I'm like, yo, you want me to go give your man brain damage? Like, what, that doesn't even make sense.

And so, like I said, I didn't want to hurt. I even said it a long time ago. I was like, I don't want to hurt the guy. I just wanted to beat him up enough to make him not want to do this in the game. You know, I respect Phil 100% before, during, and after the fight. It's like, I never wanted to hurt this guy. But yet, Dana White and the M.A. fans, they wanted this dude dead. I don't understand that, Ariel.

Yeah, I don't know. I was a little surprised. I was a little bit surprised. Okay, so here's my question to you. My question to you. And I talked to, I talked to Luke Thomas, because we were talking about the whole showboating thing. He said, during the fight, he was watching it, and it sort of felt like I was showboating. We talked in the back.

He went back and watched it, and he said, okay, I understand what Mike was coming from. Who was your thought? Did you feel I was showboating and Tony? I thought there were time. See, this is the thing. When you were in his guard, and I asked you about it backstage, I thought you were doing the look away and throwing. But here's the thing. as you said, those were landing.

So if you're showboating and it's not landing, now I feel like you're open to criticism. But people didn't criticize Roy Jones Jr. for showboating and doing all that when he was landing punches. So it's either like you appreciate a flashy style, different style. Now if you're going out there and doing that

and losing the fight, now you're a freaking idiot, as he said. But you won decisively. And those were the most damaging blows in that moment right there. You know, it's like you can't win. And then the people are like, oh, you suck because you didn't finish amateur. First of all, I told people what I was going.

I carried him. I carried him to three rounds because I didn't want to hurt him. Look, we know what this was. We knew the gimmick match that it was. We're both entertainers, and I went out there and entertained. Look, I don't know if I'm going to fight in the UFC again. So I wanted to get my 15. If I could knock him out in the first round and get the highlight reel,

I wanted to maximize my time in the octaves. guy. And I did that with 15 minutes. And then you have Phil who's, you know, living a dream or whatever. He's not going to fight again because I told y'all he wasn't going to fight again after the ass whoopin. I was going to give it to him. So I wanted to maximize his time in the cage as well. He got his 15 minutes to shine. You know what I'm saying? And so it's like if I knock him out, well, then you knocked out Sam Punk. You were supposed to knock him out. If I carry him and beat, look, it was 30, 26 on all cards. I gave this dude an ass whipping. So I gave him an ass whoopping. And then they're like, Oh, you didn't knock him out.

It's like, yo, like, I got a pick. So let me ask you about the aftermath because I saw that you posted a photo of YouTube talking. It seemed like you were backstage. What, if anything, did you say to each other there? Well, I just wanted to reiterate to him as like, look, man, like I said to before, this was nothing personal. I've, I 100% respect any man willing to step into the cage and fight.

You know what I'm saying? And I saw him. And I was like, look, man. I respect you. Again, there was no taunting or showboating. You know, that's not my style at all. So when I ran into him, I said, hey, man, all the love, all the respect. I hope you're well. I respect you 100%.

And you have, look, he has enough heart to fill the United Center. 100%, man, because I hit this dude with some heat in the first round. And again, he never went down. I heard him. I know I heard him. But he never left his feet. You know what I'm saying? And so, like I said, the dude has all the heart.

and all the toughness, and I respect this man forever. By the way, I can't recall the last time I saw Pat Militich cornering someone at a UFC fight. How did you pull that off? And do you know the answer to that question that way? Because I'm the truth. That's how I pulled it off.

When is the last? That was the other thing as well. No one's the last time he came. I don't know. Okay. Crazy. Look, Pat's old. I don't know when the last time. Probably when his younger days.

Right, right. How did you score that? You just asked him, and he did it. Did you actually train with him for this fight? I did. We did get some work in. I trained, obviously, at Houston-Moytie with Bob Perez, who also we see him in the corner of Derek Lewis. But then I spent time out for this M.A. with Coach Safe, who we saw this weekend as well. And, you know, to be honest with you, I feel Coach Safe. We wrapped everything up. You know, we've, again, plan B was to just

have fun out there, you know. And I did exactly that. And I want to credit this to Coach Safe because we had a solid game plan going to the fight, and I stuck with it 100%. And then as far as Coach Pat goes, you know, we implemented it and gave me some tools, and we utilized those as well. For him, we utilized the elbows very well. That was his game plan.

And, I mean, I'm not an elbow thrower. I like to throw these hands and work with Pat. He was like, yo, no, we need to close the distance, work the elbows. And that's what I did. I followed the game plan to the T. Even the takedown. We were like, hey, if we get taken down, don't worry about it, we get back up.

He got, what was he like, one out of the five takedowns? You know what I'm saying? He got a takedown. I got back up. You know, we followed the game playing to the T. Safe, one of the nicest and maybe one of the most underrated coaches in the game. So you really had a really good group surrounding you there. By the way, did Derek Lewis give you, give you a shout?

Did he give you any love afterwards? He did. He gave me a shot, you know, he gave me some love. You know, he was back in Houston. You know, he had some stuff going on. And also I want to give a shout out to my guy, Miguel Castro. He's out on the team took Cyprus in Houston. We worked the jiu-jitsu game really well.

And again, they helped me all coming together. You know, I had solid camp. I had the I cryo Sugar Land for recovery. I had the urban float in the heights as far as the sensory deprivation tank that helped me out. I had Diamond Cup, protect them a little truth down at the bottom. You know, everything came together very well. And we had a solid camp. Last thing for you, Mike.

So what is the plan now? Are you hopeful that you'll get a call from the UFC, figure this out, you're going to stick around? What is your immediate plan? I would like to, you know, for me, again, I do this because I love it. You know, I want to talk to Dana, you know, because it left, you know, it's not necessarily the, like, his opinion because I know everyone has their opinions and they're going to say what the after say. That doesn't really bother me. But, you know, he used his platform and sent everything. everybody at me. You know what I'm saying? And that's what kind of rub me the wrong way.

And so I don't have no ill will against Danny because, again, I've talked to other people. And from the outside looking in, maybe it did look like I was show bone and taunting. But I just want to convey to him that that wasn't what it was, you know. Now, after we have the conversation and if he still feels the same way, then it's nothing I can do about that. But I at least want the opportunity to let him know that that's not my style. That's not what I do. And that, you know, look, I've been working hard. man. If he wants to give me a shot, you know, if we want to do it on a fight pass

or whatever, I'm cool with that. I know he said Artham would kill me. Look, I will smack the dog shit out of little Artham in those little arms. You know what I'm saying? But like I said, it is what it is. I don't even know if he's fighting again. You know, I don't even know if I'm fighting again. I'm about to head out to Lake Charles this week. I got LFA next week.

I got Nashville the week after that. Your boys hopping on the truth jet and we're boogieing around the country, Ariel. Well done, Mike. Congratulations. You like the shirt, though? You dig the shirt, right? I told you, I was snapping them fingers in the out of head. I told y'all.

Catch that shirt and Mikeatruth.com for us slash shop, though. I will do that. All the best to you, Mike. Again, congratulations. Hey, all the best to you, man. Thank you. All the best to you. I noticed your last one.

You heading over to the S-Pen. I'm going to look after you look-outher up over there, and you better keep the fly sneakers. Don't let ESP and change you. I appreciate it, Mike. Thanks so much, man. Safe travels. Later, my God.

Thank you. There he is. Mike, the truth, Jackson now one and one in the UFC a win over CM Punk and drew the ire of Dana White. And now we'll see what happens to him. Does he stick around? I mean, they've given him a big platform. Do you just throw that away for someone else to pick the guy up?

He is charismatic. He is able to talk a very good game and he had a dominant win on Saturday. So that's going to be an interesting story to follow as well. Now let's move along to one of the other big stories on Saturday. What a performance from Curtis Blades, Chicago's own. Curtis Razor Blades defeating Alster Overeem in the third round. I was actually talking to Dan Mugliata after the fight. We were sitting next to each other.

And he told me that those two cuts that Overeem suffered, two of the most gruesome cuts that he has ever seen while refing MMA, opened up two of them with those elbows. A fine stoppage and a fine performance from Curtis Blades. He is right there in the mix for the heavyweight title. Let's say hello to Curtis Blades for the first time on this program. Curtis, how are you? I'm doing fine, man.

How are you? I'm doing great. congratulations on the win. Thank you. I appreciate you guys having me on the show, especially being your last one and everything. Absolutely. So this is a big deal.

I mean, for you to fight a guy like Overeem in your hometown at the United Center of all places, does this kind of feel like a dream? Like you have now graduated to another level. How are you processing all of this on this Monday two days later? It's still processed and it's still like, like, it's almost like a dream. I think about it, the more I think about all the things I did right, like the my footwork, my movement, taking the knee to the jaw,

still being able to finish the double, getting out of those hill hooks. And then just the finish that last round, putting it all together. I'm just happy I could do it in Chicago at the United's. I think that was, out of all the scenarios, that was the best one, the best way it could have gone down, hands down. It has been a while since you fought in Chicago. Your first couple of fights were there, but obviously not on a stage like this, not at an arena like that. What was the process like for you? Like now that it's over, the nerves, being in the locker room, that famous arena, Michael Jordan.

And all. Like, what was that like for you in hindsight? Actually, the weird thing is my nerves, they weren't like super. They were actually the best. The nerves are always going to be there, but I handled them the best this time. It was almost weird. My coach, even, he, we were in the locker room. He was looking at Instagram, and he put up a post.

And it was like, it was like, um, having, it was like a meme of a dude having anxiety because he wasn't having anxiety and that was kind of how I felt like I was, I felt weird because I wasn't that like anxious.

I felt pretty good going into the cage. Are you usually anxious? Yeah, there's always, like I said, there's always nerves, but there have been sometimes in the past where I've been, close to puke

wow really when was the last time you felt like that probably the Portland fight because I put so much pressure on myself because I had just lost and I just lost but I previously got beaten

by Ngano and I don't know I was maybe I was over analyzing it a bit but I saw as you know if you go Owen two out the gate it might release you. Right.

I can't lose the next fight. So as time has gone on, as you've gone more wind, more comfortable, those nerves seem to go away? Yeah, like they still hit me, but I'm able to hold them off a lot longer. I used to hit me like the morning of Friday day,

and then hit me once we get on the bus or once we go in the lobby. This time it didn't hit me, really until they started playing my walkout song. Yeah, by the way, about the walkout song, I believe it's Mortal Kombat, right? Right. Why do you pick that song?

It just, it gets me going. And you know, they have a lot of restrictions on like, yeah. Like, especially rap music. So I was like, what's the best song I can use just instrumental wise? I mean, it's not just instrumental, but it's predominantly instrumental. And I was like, I thought about it. that was the one it gets me going

yeah so are you going to stick with that yeah people will tell me all the time oh you should use this I'm like no I haven't heard anything better than mortal combat under the current like rules

if they ever left the rules on like music then maybe I would pick a different song but currently no were you a big mortal combat fan as a kid growing up did you play the game a lot yeah yeah I wasn't the best

that I'm not going to lie but I've played it enough okay yeah I wasn't the best at it either but I respect the fact that you come out to that you also got like I feel like you got the full arsenal from Overeem the knee as you mentioned he went for the guillotine I mean you got some classic Overeem in there at any point was it the knee like where he

hurt you the most yeah because the knee I've watched the video like the snippet I've watched it a few times I don't remember getting the actual takedown. I just, I remember like, oh, we're on the ground now. And I just went back to work.

That's crazy. So to take a knee like that and then to not go out and then to actually be in an offensive position, that to me is insane. You think that was just off instincts? Yeah, that's just straight autopilot. Yeah. That's what I've been doing the longest. I can probably get a taked down with my eyes. I just blindfolded.

You're in his guard in the third round and then all of a sudden it just feels like, again, like a video game. Like you got like this boost of power and you unleash those elbows. Was that something, like did you say in your mind, okay, now is my chance? Or was it just like an autopilot thing? You just saw an opening?

I don't know. It was just like, I heard my coach, my jiu-jitsu coach, Cody Donovan and I heard him just posture up right the hands and I just toss it over the proper and land it

and I was like oh I do it again and then land it again I was like each time I hit him a resistance he gave was like it went away and by the end

I hate to say he wasn't really resistant those last elbows but I wasn't going to stop until I was stopped Did you see the cuts up close? It was like weird. It's like I'm watching it, but it's not bothering me. When I watched the video, it bothers me a little bit, but I'm doing it.

I'm like, uh, so I was like, that's not enough. I wanted a little more just to get the ref. I could see the referee out of my periphery. And I could see him edging in. I knew he was, he was almost about to stop it. So I figured the more blood, the fast didn't stop it. is that like the bloodiest stoppage of your career even dating back to non-USC yeah yeah so now you kind of feel a little queasy about it yeah i feel a little different but

because like if i watch it i can see that like he goes out like after the third one i think i gave him like eight so like the last five maybe last three he really didn't need you know Uh, somewhat apropos, given your nickname. Who gave you that nickname, by the way? Razor Blaze, one of the best that, like, the way it fits with your name is just perfect. Who gave you that? My manager. Originally, I was going by a high school name, and I got in high school,

uh, dirty, curdie. I got that in high school. I was going by that as an amateur. Once we turned pro, he was like, yeah, we should probably get rid of that because you sound like a, uh, uh, molester. something. So I was like, I didn't see it in the first one. He broke it down. I was like maybe

somebody's a-hole might misconstrue it and take it that route. So we went with a race with place. And like you said, I think it's pretty dope. It is. Yes. Very dope. But now I'm curious about Dirty Curti. Who gave you that nickname? And why?

I was high school, high school wrestling. My dad's house. here in Chicago on the south side. It was originally, he moved like two to three years ago, but the old house was like two blocks away from my high school. So my sophomore year of high school, I get bumped up to the varsity.

And like, I don't know, it was just intimidating to take a shower with the varsity. after that's a practice. So my sophomore year, that year, I would get dressed and I would walk two blocks home and then shower. And everyone made it a big deal. Oh, you're dirty, dirty. And it just stuck. It just stuck.

And then, you know, you get bestowed a nickname. The more you fight it, the more people would just make a negative. So I just kind of went with it. And even the coaches started using it. That's what I knew. I was like, yeah, this is going to be around. I just embraced it. Man, razor blades way better than that, especially now that you're a UFC.

Yeah, way better. Way better. But that is a good story. So now you have all these wins against these top guys, two in a row against, you know, two legends. You got a limited amount of time backstage. Oh, excuse me, in the cage with Joe Rogan. You feel like you're the number one contender. You feel like you should get the winner of DC versus Stipe?

I do. Have you been told that you're going to get the winner of D.C. versus D.B. No, I haven't been in Hawks with any matchmaker or with Dana White himself either. So it's just my opinion. And my coach is obviously, it may be biased, but they agree. So that fight is coming up in less than a month. are you hoping for someone over the other in that fight? Are you hoping that DC or Steve-Bey wins?

Do you feel like it opens up a cleaner path to get that shot sooner rather than later? No, I'm hoping that it's a clean fight doesn't have any controversy or it's not like a flash KO. I'm hoping it's like fourth round TKO stoppage. Something like that. And just because I don't want them to be an automatic.

rematch. Right. It's out to wait again. If he wins, though. If he wins also can make things complicated. It goes back down to 205, so maybe Steepay makes it a little cleaner. I do. I do think, and he would be my pick, because I think his length, his kickboxing, he's got

pretty good head kick. We've already seen DC's been a bit susceptible to head kicks in his last fight, not his last fight with his last one with John Jones. That height, he's already down there, you know, we have to bring it up too high. And I think D.C. is the better

wrestler, but I think Steve B. Boxing will off the slight advantage D.C. has in the wrestling department. What if they... I think it goes to... Sorry, go ahead. You think it goes to the judges? I think it goes to steep.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think it goes to Stipe, regardless. What if they say to you, oh, we want you to take another fight? Are you open to that, or at this point you want to fight for the belt, no if ands or buts? I mean, I'm only open to it if it's in Ghana. I was really the only one that wouldn't really be about the money.

That will be about, like, I just want to run that back. And I'm not saying he won Aaron Square. I let him hit my eye to me too many times and that's what happens. Doctors have to be involved.

So he did a great job, but I would like to get a full 15 minutes with him, you know? That's the one that's so you tell you. That's only if I don't get the belt. I mean, the title shot, because I think I'm ready.

I think you can make the argument. It makes sense based upon the rankings and the current matchups. I almost already had his turn, and to be honest, he didn't even look good. So I think me beating Alastair in the fashion I did is a bit. on paper looks better than Volkov beating Verduin the way he did. Not taking anything away from Volkov. I just think my win is slightly better than his.

So I think it puts me ahead of him. We'll be interesting to see how that all plays out for now. Enjoy the victory. What a performance, what a win in your hometown at the United Center to do that to a legend like Alastra Overeem. That is something to be proud of. So congratulations to you, Curtis. Thank you for joining us,

and I hope that you get that title shot you're looking for. Thank you. I hope so, too, man. All right, we'll talk to you soon. There he is. Curtis Razor Blades, one of the top contenders he mentioned, Alexander Volkov. Could they match them up? To me, it seems like it's either that

or he gets the title shot, but we have to see what's happening with DC and Steepay. Stepe wins. Maybe that makes things a little cleaner because then DC doesn't have to go defend another title. But I am curious as to whether or not they'll try to do the Volkov versus Curtis Blades fight. I have no real insight on that one as of right now. Of course, they are going to Russia in September, but the main event for that fight is Alexei Olinic versus Mark Hunt.

At least as of now, maybe it changes with this emerging. So we'll see what happens. Interesting times in the heavyweight division. there are certainly a lot of new faces. There's Tai Tui Vasa as well, who had a big win over Andrei Alofsky. Okay, speaking of the heavyweight division, now long-time listeners,

long-time viewers of this program, dating back to the AOL days, like back when we were a nothing show, back when no one paid attention to us, back when we were just, you know, a little rinky-dick podcast, at the time when we weren't even live. Good portion we weren't even live.

We used to do a segment called the Mitri-Digm. minute. One time Matt Mitreone was on this program and he kind of turned the tables on me for a second and he started to ask me questions and I was like, wow, no one's ever done that before. I feel like we have something there. I feel like we can actually, you know, capitalize on this. I feel like Matt just kind of gets it. And so I used to have him on every week for a very long time to give us his Mitriot Minute. Sometimes it was just catching up. Other times, he actually dropped some jokes about the MMA community. And then his friend, Sean McCorkel, got into the fold and started to do some jokes. The jokes went to another level. Uh, it got a little weird

at one point. And then we all kind of went our separate ways. Matt would come on the show all the time. He's been on the show very recently. McCorkel kind of just sort of disappeared. But I thought for this last episode, I thought it would be nice to have a little reunion between myself, Matt Matrione, and Sean McCorkel. They were a big part of this show for a very long time. And, uh, perhaps against my better judgment, I thought, you know what? Let's have a minute. Let's have a minute. Let's have a have a reunion. So let's say hello now to Matt Matrione, who is joining us via the magic of Skype. There he is, the one and only meathead. And joining us via the magic of phone, which I have to admit is a little bit disappointing. I mean, big-timing us via the magic of phone. What could Sean

McCorkel possibly have on his docket today that is more important than this? Who wants to talk to this guy? Who wants to do anything with this guy? But he is there via the magic of phone. So first, let's say hello to Matt. Matt, you good? What's up, brother? I am fantastic. How are you? I'm great. Sean, you there? Great. Sean, you there? I am. Yeah, I am here. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Yes, I can hear. If you're listening to us on a computer side, just go with the phone. I hear feedback.

I've actually never listened to your show, Ariel, not on the phone or anything else. But, no, I'm actually just on my phone nowhere near a TV, so I don't know where the feedback's come. It's probably Matt's fault, I would guess. Yes. Okay. Well, wow. It's so good. I can't believe he's actually here, Matt. I can't believe we're actually talking to Korky right now. Hey, like we always say, he's a parasite. He just shows up.

I don't know how he does it, but he's always around. Sean, where are you? Yes, please. Well, I wanted to tell you guys, the only reason I couldn't make it, I had court today because I got a seatbelt, or not seatbelt ticket. I got a ticket for using my deceased grandmother's handicapped parking pass. And I was, yeah, I was the guy, the police

officer saw me get out and he was like, is that your parking pass? I was like, well, not exactly. And kind of tried to explain the story to him. I told him I got really sore back and this and that. And I tried to get out of it by telling him that if I don't use it, I almost feel like she died for nothing. And he didn't like that. So he went and gave me a ticket. So I took the chance that I would go to court and get out of a ticket. And I didn't. So I have to pay it plus court costs. Wow. How much? I think it was 160 and then another 60 for the double for not paying it originally. so 120. Wow.

But my actual goal, my actual goal was to use that line again in court, but I didn't get a chance. Just when we thought McCorkel wasn't a big enough scumbag, we find out that he's actually a bigger one. You know what? I'll tell you, he never ceases to amaze. He never sees it to amaze.

Matt, let me just ask you quickly. Are you still friends with McCork? Or it's the first time you speak to him in years as well? No, no. Corky and I are very good boys. He bounces all the jokes off of me, so I can make sure if they're PC or not.

And if they are, then he rewrites them until they're not PC anymore. Okay, yes, of course. Because we all remember how this whole Mitreone minute thing ended, right? Something tells me that there's a chance that if it wasn't your last show, it might be your last show. No, please don't do that. So, Korky and I were talking about this here.

Yes. And, you know, I don't understand why. But I only was able to come up with about six or seven jokes. Okay. And Corky laced up as soon as we got the notification of this. And he is extremely prepared. So, and like a good storyteller, A.H, they kind of all feed off each other. So I'm going to do a minute.

And then Corky is going to have his own time to shine on this one. So if you decide to pull the plug on him, at least I got my minute in first. All right. Fair enough. Okay. So let's not waste any time here. Let's go. Okay.

So without any further ado, the last and final episode of the Mitreone minute. I'm ready? I'm so nervous. Let's get after it. Mine aren't really that good, but I'm sure Corgi's really going to lace this shit up. Okay. So Dana White has announced he will eliminate early way-ins due to a few fighters missing the way.

surprising because he was continually touting the positive effects on fighters' health and the brains all the way up until this moment. I'm not certain if he's doing this to get fighters to publicly beg him, as they have been, or if he's just a pompous, insolent child that's running the UFC. Speaking of early weigh-ins, most fighters love them. We can't wait to get them knocked out as soon as possible. Or, as it's now known, getting king mode. Oh, damn. So I have an issue calling another man King of anything, like LeBron James or anybody else.

And calling Mo, Luaw, Queen is low-hanging fruit. But apparently him losing the baiter the way he did has really humbled him. And he's publicly released a statement, claimed that he's no longer going to be known as king, but he wants to continue using that moniker in some fashion. So his new nickname is going to be fucking disappointment. That's ironic. Talk about Mo like this, it certainly means that I should talk about his heterosexual wife partner,

Roy Nelson. We had to do a mutual media tour. And one of the things that came out on this media tour was that his wife loves his hair. And that's the reason why he still grows it, which is really, I really, I really. And I find that to be, I find his hair to be in microcosm of his career, which is unsightly tattered entirely too long and should be cut short. So this just in, I don't know if you notice, it is, there was something that came out the other day that Roy is officially the ugliest man in M.A., which is incredible because

there is a massive side relief coming from the entire Guido family out of Chicago. Oh. Oh, shit. Yeah. It was a rather weird segue into 225. But UFC 225 just happened. It was absolutely spectacular.

It was on paper, the card was great. The fights were almost all went to decisions. There was a couple of knockouts. It was exciting. It was an exciting fight and a lot of two belts type of fights. It was really exciting. And the return of Phil Brooks,

also known as CN Punk. I've never seen a more bloated hype job on this as far as PR work to get anybody to buy into CM Punk. As a matter of fact, I'm not really sure which one is more bloated the hype job for the CN Punk fight or Dana White's other chin.

Hard at Dana. So, finally, AH, yes. I've got a roast here for you, buddy, and I really want to do it. Okay. But it, is it really mean? You know, I'm going to do this. I'm proud of you, my dude.

You've done a great job. You've done a great service to the MMA community. You've opened a lot of doors for a lot of fans and fighters, for that matter. I myself have actually gotten sponsorships from the mouthpiece work I've done with y'all. And I really appreciate the effort, the time, the shine that you've cast on the sport itself. and the work that you've been able to get other people to come in and do. And from the way you've started to what you've grown into, it's a hell of a job.

I'm proud of you. Also, I'd like to say, just as a side note, I should have done this ahead of time before this because I just wanted to sign off on that. But Rashad Evans, you're a great dude. You're a great friend. And I'm proud of you regardless how that fight went, my dude. I saw the post you made. I liked it on Instagram or whatever else.

And I'm proud of you. And actually, I'll say this much, too. Curtis Blades. You just had him on a second ago. He's a tough ass dude, a really good fighter. I would have loved to see what happened in that fight if Alessair did not get hurt. If he didn't hurt his knee, I would have loved to see what would have gone on in there. I think that Curtis is a damn good fighter, and I think he's still in the UFC. I would have loved the opportunity to fight him or Naganu. And I think that he's got massive balls talking about how he would like to re-fight him to get his full 15 minutes in. I'm impressed by that because nobody really seems to want a fight him. And I think that's a great job. I'm proud of where the heavyweight division is right now. And that's kind of my thoughts. So, A.H, to finish back on you, I'm proud of you, my dude. Great job.

Thanks a lot for giving a shine that you've given all of us. Corey, here's your minute. Did you have a roast? Did you have some meetings to say about me? Oh, I've got them for sure. Oh, they're laced up. But I'm choosing not to do them right now. Why?

I'm choosing to do them. I might tweet them out later on. Wow. All right. Well, I appreciate that. I got thick skin now, you know, but if you don't want to do it, are they that bad? Oh, they're aggressive. They're aggressive.

I even balanced them off corking. He's like, wow. What? Four of them that I came up. Yeah. Can I get one? Can I get one? We'll see if we can do it on Twitter.

Wow. Okay, fair enough. All right, Sean. The floor is yours. All right. You might regret it. No. I actually do want to give you, like, preface this was saying, like I do apologize.

ahead of time for anybody if my jokes offend them even though I don't mean that at all but I know that I'm not for everybody you know what I mean like you know my style or whatever not for everybody in fact somebody told me the other day that my sense of humor is so dark that it was probably raped by its grandmother so um already so um I never really had I was watching Colby coming to this week uh and watching his meteorke rise up never really had much respect for guys who talk a bunch of shit and the don't back it up, you know, guys like me, for example.

But, uh, Kobe really did surprise me, man. Uh, he, Kobe, I mean, he came. He brought it, man. He was doing, he was doing great. Um, I was a little disappointed in him, to be honest, that he backed down from smacking Joe Rogan, like, I thought that kind of showed almost like it's playing. And, uh, besides, like, I don't really know, like, what his, what has kissing Joe

Rogan vass or trying to imitate him ever gotten anybody, you know, in life besides Brendan Schaub his podcast or Brendan Schaub, his t-shirt. line or Brendan Schaubb his spot on the McGregor Mayweather fight or Brendan Schaub his stand-up comedy career but other than that, what has Kissed and Rogan's ass ever gotten anybody? I never understood it, right? And it seems like he's going to have

friends in higher places now if he's going to see you know, Dana said he can make it happen and go see Trump and bring the belt to him since the Eagles and the Warriors have no interest in doing that, you know. But I did see are you still there? Yes, I'm listening.

I'm listening. Don't worry. I was going to say I'm used to laughter, but that wouldn't be true. I did see Dana on TMZ. He said the only problem he's got, the only concern he has bringing a phobia to the White House is he's, you know, afraid that Trump might try to grab him by the arrow, Hawaii.

So. Oh, stop. Speaking of which, did you see, I seen you saw Covington and Bisping going at it on, going out on Fox, I don't know, inside the UFC or whatever it is.

Post-Fight show, Bisping tried to jump in and steal his, still his thunder, which I thought was kind of, you know, classless, which was amazing coming from Bisping. But as I was watching,

go back and forth, I thought, man, this must be what John McCain had in mind when he was called the UFC human cockfighting. I don't know. Okay. So on

On to another topic I was looking at I was watching I was watching how he would How he would do in his fight You know like how he had he improved or anything Everybody kept saying you got to keep in mind He's only been training for three and a half years

Which I found like kind of hard Like three and a half years That's like almost enough time to get your bachelor's degree Like three and a half years That was enough time for Matt to finish his freshman year in high school So I don't know what I don't know what

like three half years. Like that seems like a long time to me, but apparently not. So I was watching them in there. And I couldn't help to think while I was watching it. I was thinking, man, the last time I saw a guy named Michael Jackson lay that many blows on a punk, the next day the police raided Deverelland Ranch. Following through with the CM Punk topic, you know, everybody was talking about, you know, his, like I said, man, three and a half years a long time. They're like, well, you know, he didn't look

bad. He, you know, he's this or that. And I was like, I don't know, the thing that disappointed me the most, uh, watching, watching him really was his cardio, which again, is ironic coming for me. But I would think about that much time to prepare, um, a lower weight class guy, like I thought had been in better shape, you know, but, um, his cardio looked terrible between rounds, you know, I mean, I think the only fighter who spent more time bent over with his hands on his knees in this past year, Ben C.M. Punk is a war machine. Oh, so anyway. I also had a roast for Ariel.

Actually, I was going to do exactly what Matt did. I was going to start to roast Ariel, and I was going to tell you that I really have much bad to say about you, man. I'll never forget, like, you always were really fair with me, even though I had to immediately chase you down for my first interview that blew you up. And then at UFC 124, the co-mate, I was the co-mate event. No one cared about me in Strew, but you asked, for the first time ever you asked the first question, well, when you weren't trying to embarrass Nick Diaz and ask him why he missed his flight. But for the first time ever, you asked me the first question, if you asked it to me, and the whole media like turning a look

and couldn't believe you and have a quest for GSP or Koshek or the main event guys, you know. But I really appreciated that. So instead, you know, I've often touted my quarter Jewish heritage. So you and I are kind of, you know, kinsmen to a degree. You know, I've always said that I'm between a quarter and three eights. I'm not sure being Jewish. So instead I wanted to tell you a story about my family

that instead of roasting you or whatever that we could both really appreciate. Like I was a restaurant one day, and this lady, we were joking back and forth, this waitress seemed a little like rougher edge, and she made a Holocaust joke, which I thought was kind of inappropriate, you know what I mean, or whatever,

like not knowing my ethnicity or whatever, I thought it was kind of rough, and so this actually happened, by the way. She made a Holocaust joke and I thought it was a little much or whatever, and so I told her, I said, you know, that's really funny. My grandfather died at Oschwitz.

And she stopped and looked at me. She said, So I said, yeah, and she goes, I am so sorry. And, you know, I can tell she immediately felt bad. I said, it's all right. It was his own fault. He fell out of the guard tower. So it made it awkward for all of us.

But, you know, I don't know. I really did say that to her. She didn't like it. But, yeah, that's the end of a quarter of a minute, I guess, left in disappointment like so many before. But, no, I really do, man. I text you when I found out about the ESPN deal, man. I'm so happy for you, man. I mean, to really see, I mean, me and Mitch around both have seen where you came from and where you went and that short amount of time is absolutely amazing, man.

For a guy that, you know, is walking around with terrible Jordans in a suit, just, you know, asking guys, like, you know, for interviews to actually being, you know, having your own show on ESPN's amazing, man. And I'm actually, I'm really sad the MMA hours over. Like, I was hoping up somehow transition to still be able to do it as your own podcast or maybe you could turn it over to me or, you know, something like that. but I don't know. That would last one week. By the way, I just want to correct you. I want to correct you. I interviewed you at UFC 119 when you beat Mark Hunt.

Remember? Yes, I had to chase you down for that one. That's what I was saying. You told me you were only there for the main event guys. Yeah, no, you said, I'm only here for the main event guys. And I said, I'm always the main event, Ariel. I've got a camera. I promise.

Yes, I'd have to chase you down, and then you may find me for wearing my UFC shirt. I think you're right, working. No, get out of here. Yeah, I did. That was the greatest night of your. friendship, both of you with the big wins. Mitrione, you fired Malki that night, remember?

I did. No, no, pre-fight, I had to chase you down for the other. Oh, yeah, pre-fight. I had to chase you. Of course. I had to chase you. I was a superstar. Of course, once I was a superstar.

Of course, pre-fight, no, let's not get crazy. Who were you? I still can't believe you fought in the UFC. Remember your next fight was the co-main event with GSP? That was the greatest moment in UFC history when they thought that you in front of a sold out crowd at the bell setter. Sean McCorkill, that place was so disappointed

when it was announced that that was the co-main event. I remember looking around at the crowd. Back then, I used to sit in the stands thinking like, oh my God, the crowd is thinking like, this is the second-last fight. There is no way that this could be the second-the-last fight before GSP. And it was Sean Freakin McCorkel,

who completely shot the bed. Let's just be honest in that fight. That was terrible. Yeah, that was... I still blame Eves Levine, but I did well for a minute and a half. so I completely gas up. I did really well for a minute and a half.

But, yeah, I know that was the press conference I was a song about where you asked me, I was the co-main event, and I could tell no one could believe it. And you asked me, I'll never forget, you said no one besides Brock Lesnar obviously has ever been the co-main event, their second fight in UFC. So how do you feel about that? Like, what do you think? And I said, well, I think it's very well deserved, given, you know, my talent and my ability I've shown in the cage.

And no one got that it was supposed to be funny. Everyone just stared at me at the entire press conference, like all 40 people. And I was kind of like, I think you guys. it, but no one else didn't. I felt saying, even Dana was looking at me like, what the hell? Like when I said it. You know, so I was like, I didn't really know what to say. I gave Matt a joke earlier he didn't use, which I thought was amazing. But since he was cracking on Dana, I was going to tell him that he should, he should say that Dana White, you know, is living proof that with enough hard work, determination, and billionaire childhood friends to finance your dreams, you can accomplish

anything. So. On that note. I had a joke about Yes You know, I can't wait to get on Twitter And light a couple of these things up That I just chose not to do today Okay, fair enough

I follow you still on Twitter I don't know if that will change But I have to say it means a lot You know, I asked New York Rick in the back I said, I think I'm going to have McCorkel-Mittriel-Mittreone on the last episode He's like, no, I don't do it, don't do it And I was like, no way, man

These guys were there These guys were there When I couldn't get anyone to come on this show So I have to be loyal to the guys who were there at the beginning. So it means a lot. It was fun. It was great to reminisce with both of you.

Matt, you're doing amazing. You're on the cusp of winning a Beltor title. Sean, you're in court because you're using your grandmother's parking pass. So I feel like you're both in good places right now in your lives. It's come full circle. Thanks so much for doing this, guys. I love you guys.

Thanks always for doing this. Matt, you're the man. Sean, I'll talk to you in around 5 to 6 or maybe never. Love you. I'll. Congratulations. Thank you. There he is. Sean McCorkel.

Wow. Matt Matreone, it's nice to catch up with those guys. All right. Let us move along and never speak of that again. Let us speak to our next guest, a man who has always been very accessible to us on this program. No one has ever woken up earlier consecutively than this individual. And he continues that streak now because it is 6.30 a.m. Tuesday morning in Sydney.

I'm talking about the KFC King himself. The one and only. Mark Hunt. Via the magic of Skype. Wow. What's up, man? How are you? Wow, Mark, what is this?

This is incredible connection, this Skype connection. What do you got over there, this internet connection? Oh, is it good? Yeah, it's great. This is crystal clear. What do you do? You do some gaming stuff over there? Oh, I'm just playing some chess right now, so yeah.

Yeah, but I feel like you have with a gaming chair. You have a gaming chair? You've got like the heads here. Sir, I'm just, I love, you know, I love gaming. So I just, let me just get off this game. I'm just gaming right now, so it's all good. Are you a big Fortnite fan, Mark? Yeah.

Oh, not really. It's a bit slow for me. Oh, really? I just get up this game. Yeah, please. I'm a bit, I'm a bit, it's a bit slow for me, Fortnite, so. You just had a show him a kawk on there. Yeah, that's, remember that guy?

That's the name I haven't heard, for a while. Yes. That's my first of loss, eh? Is he still talking shit or what? Yes, he is still talking shit, that is exactly. Look how far you've come since then, and look at how far he's come. Nowhere. Well, he was a nice girl, isn't he?

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Would you say, Mark, that that was the lowest moment of your career, maybe life, to lose to a fighter like that of that caliber? I think maybe losing six in a row was a pretty low for me, you know, it was a different time in my life, and losing

six in a row wasn't too good for me at all anyway. So, yeah. Yeah, but that's... I think that was one of my lowest points in life. Ah, man. That is what it is. You know, like I said, I don't think I could have beaten anyone at that stage, but it was trying to come back. It's hard to come back when you're in a low or in a hole sort of thing.

If I would have told that Mark Hunt at UFC 119, that you'd still be around. eight years later, headlining shows, doing what you're doing. Would you have believed me? No, probably not. Wow. I don't believe you at all about that. I would be like, ooh, what?

There's no way. It's amazing. And now, look at the... You are, in my opinion, you are the godfather of Australian MMA. You paved the way for all these guys. And then what about that night on Saturday? A champion? Just say...

Topka, Denver. Your boy, Tai Tuva, I mean, did you watch that? Man, I was excited as one of the best shows of the year. I think it was the best show of the year. I think it was amazing. I think they turned it up, man. The fighters turned it up for the fans, for sure, in Chicago.

It did amazing. Okay, I have to ask. It was a great show. I was like, whoa. Yes, it was stacked. But what about Ty, your boy, Ty? You proud of him? I'm very proud.

He's a great fighter. I mean, Chuck, I've worked with Ty for a long time. I didn't realize how young he was. And, you know, to see him and get it over Alovsky. It's great. I was pumped for him. I know he would have been dropping a lot of shooys for the next week or two weeks for that. Have you ever done a shooey, Mark?

I've never asked you about this. Have you ever done a shooie yourself? I think, yeah, I think I had to do with him when we're in Perth. So, yeah, that was your first? Yeah. probably be my last too so what was in it

what was in the shui um spit and beer I think did he spit in it this is a pretty uh well I feel the boy's spat and I think I think it's a bit

it's a bit unhealthy but uh yeah but I think it was just all drunk dead so it was pretty good I think it was a great show I think Ty did really well it's good to say he showed his

his mental fortitude I mean he got injured I think his nose was broke or something and he still continued her to push the fight which was great He didn't run from the fight He just stood there and fought Yeah and he seemed to be in great shape too

I don't recall seeing him that slim He's a big kid He's a big guy You know so you know There's a wait pretty well And he's quite young So yeah He went to Tiger for the training cap

it was good for him, you know. What about that entrance song? Saline Dion, what do you think of it? I think it's great. I think, Ty's, that's just, Thai, he loves music and dancing, and that's, it's just the style,

eh? That's the style, so he's, uh, yeah. I can't get enough of the guy. He asked me backstage, when I saw him after the fight, he asked me to take off my shoe so that he can do a shooey off my shoe, but I said I had no alcohol so he told me that I could urinate in the shoe

and that he would drink it and I asked him if he's ever done that before and he said yes oh damn that's next level shit that's hectic I think there's customary down the side of the ways for uh yeah

that's hecked there that's crazy who's wow the man seems to have an unhealthy obsession with the shooey of all kinds it seems a little it's just the most disgusting thing

I've ever heard heard. I think there's normal down these ways. So I have to say I'm a little... I'm surprised you've never done one before, before, you know, the fight in February. Well, you know, I just, you know...

Well, that is what it is. You know, he's 25. These guys got a tradition of doing their shoes. But this is the way it is, you know, so... That's right. pissing in the shoe. Damn. That next level shit right there,

homie. Yes. And Mark, what about Robert Whitaker? The heart that he showed, the toughness. What did you think of his performance? It was amazing, man. Oh, man. Even with Ramirez not making wait,

I think yours, I mean, when Robert is, you know, next level, he's amazing. That just showed his real, real warrior,

heart. He, amazing fighte. That was great. I thought that was amazing. I was still pumping about it. It made me excited to get back to trading, and I fucking hate trading. Okay, so let's talk about you, Mark.

It hasn't been officially announced, but are you fighting Alexiolinik in Moscow on September 15th? I don't know. I'm just waiting for management team to see what's, you know, when in my next fighters. I don't know. Maybe, you know, I'm just waiting to see if we can get back in. I've got two more fights left. and hopefully it's it's a

in the year or something I was going to try and set it out but I thought maybe I'd just get these fights out of the way and you know I'm still waiting for a top top 10 guy

top five guy actually but haven't been given anyone yet so I have to wait and see what happens it's waiting for management to let me know when I'm fighting next so hopefully I can get a top five guy I think probably not

but I'm going to get back to training and yeah looking forward to get back to work so you say you have two fights left are you looking forward to just fighting those out and and moving on with your career would you even entertain the idea of resigning well of course depending on that the money is right but you know I've had a lot of issues with the steroids and you know I have my man in a lawsuit with the with the company but, you know, it is what it is. You know, I've already seen way before. I've done nothing wrong here with the situation.

You know, I've just come to work and try to push forward and get my title shot with everything. But, you know, the story, it just hasn't worked out. So we'll see what happens. There's two fights for me at the end of the day. It's fine. I still want to get a title shot. I'll ask for a top five guy.

I probably won't get it. because they probably know I'm wanting to move on. But I want to fight five more times in my career. So, you know, put this off this career here, the UFC. And then if they off reciting, then, you know, I'll think about it. If not, then I'll probably go look elsewhere. Probably seek a couple of three more fights, probably in New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. And then hang up.

Wow. What happens? So it's a headache. where do you where do you where do you think stand with the lawsuit is there any update um i don't know i think you'll have to talk to my manager about my lawyer about that christina i think we just uh um yeah i don't think i can talk about that at all at the moment so yeah so it but it's still thing about it but uh yeah of course i mean like i said i'm just trying to get an even playing field and then I can do that

through the court to the court case through the courts I mean I did ask three or four times when these fighters were to court do something about it

but yet still nothing was done about it just going through saturn and stuff I don't think that's enough I've been thinking about you a lot lately with the news that Brock Lesnar might be coming back how do you feel about this

is it oh man I just it comes back he comes back I just you know I mean I feel sorry for the guy that fights him you know you'd probably be pink for steroids again like a lot of these other guys that are cheating um it is it's it's it it just isn't good I mean I mean

you know they give uh these these guys that cheat all the time the props they don't deserve you know these guys that get caught cheating uh they don't deserve any props at all because, you know, when people, I sit there talking with some people, they mention some of these cheaters in the line of the, like, oh, man, he's a great fighter of this, this person, this person, this person. I'm like, why are you even giving them props for it? They're cheaters.

They didn't earn. They didn't deserve any respect. They've, they've, you know, taken the easy way out to get here. They've, and they've continued to keep cheating. So, I mean, I don't know how the cheating works. I think you've got to take that for long periods of time. But, you know, people should have mentioned these. guys and amongst all the great fighters and athletes.

You're the guys that deserve the props that haven't been cheating. You know, the Stipha, the Demetius Johnson, all these guys that deserve props, give them the pops. Not the guys that have cheated to get here. You know, the D.C.'s. Because I don't think it's fair. So, you know, we give them too many, you know, props about it. You know, they kind of work they've done.

They've done nothing but take shortcuts. What was your reaction when you found out about Fabrice that were doing? Well, I mean, probably why he was ducking to take the fight with me because if he had popped, then he would have been getting a lawsuit too. So, you know, I think all those guys that are fighting guys, and they do pop for cheating, they should take them to court and say, hey, sue their ass. So they get, they don't deserve, you know, if they're not going to get helped with these penalties or the company helping you, then you've got to do it yourself.

I'm pretty sure there's a lot of law firms out there that'll take on cases that you can try and make things even so yeah you know about do you think back to when you fought him in Mexico City and does it make you feel different about that fight? Well of course because who knows I mean who knows if you're cheating then I mean I

you know you know you don't feel like much has changed right well what's changed with the penalties, there's not being enforced. What has changed with the, what has changed with the guy that gets caught? Nothing has changed. I mean, Shucks, he's just going to go through the Oiside process

to get a fine and take some time off. Get some time off so he can come back and make his cheating even more trying to hide it. You know, and they come, oh, how do I get caught that way? Oh, so that's how I got to go this way now. When they got to do the hard work, they just come, they can't do it.

That's the fact that I do know. The guys that have been cheating for a long time, they can't do the hard work properly and get to the sit, to hang out with the big dogs and can't play around here because they're cheated to get here. They can't do it. They can't get their next level. Was that one of the more frustrating nights of your career in Perth

when it felt like you were getting going early? But then, you know, blades kept taking you down. You're in front of your people. And your buddies were winning Pedro and Truvasa. And it just seemed like you were frustrated after. afterwards. Oh, well, the end of the day, man, I mean, Curtis, he beat me and he was just a better wrestler, you know, I didn't think he'll be that strong.

To be honest, I didn't think I was like, damn, this guy's definitely fit strong. And the end of the day, you know, I thought I'd, you know, I probably, I took off the agency after the first round after I put him down and, I mean, after I dropped him and I thought geez, this guy's done. But I ended up me being done. Yeah, there's no frustration there. And then the boys, Tyson and tired, they worked, everyone, they worked hard to get their wins and they deserve it. I mean, I just didn't work hard enough.

And that's why Curtis got his opportunity to get a higher and higher than me. So he deserved it. You know, well done for him. Props to that guy. He's not a cheater. If it comes to fruition, how would you feel about fighting Olinick in Moscow? Is this something that excites you, interests you? Well, I've asked for a top five guy, you know, area.

I wanted someone in a, that's because I'm number six. Yeah, I don't know why I'm number six, but I'm number six now. So if I get someone above me, it would be great. But so, you know, if it's, you know, if it's, you know, if it's number, whatever number he is, if it's someone beneath me, then maybe, because I haven't got the opportunity to rise again. I don't think I'll get another opportunity to rise again, but, you know, maybe I should take some three-round fights and in this contract instead of taking a five-round level.

Maybe I should have thought like that. But it is what it is, you know, if it's that guy, he did call me out. So, yeah, I'll wrap a nice presence for him this time. He'll be trying to, well, that's all they were trying to do is out wrestling. But I think it's well, I've been working hard on my wrestling anyway, so I'll give him the 20-minute round of the guy, the 20-minute round, 25-minute round, dude. Yeah.

I'll give him a nice present. It'll be good. I want to see him try to pull off that choke against you. I don't know if you, I mean, with that neck that you have, come on, he can't do that. What trick is that he does? You know, the Ezekiel choke that he pulls off. You see him to ever do that? It's incredible.

Oh, damn. What is that trick? Is that Ezekiel? It sounds like something out of the Bible. What kind of trick is it? How does that go? How does that go? It's incredible.

He has the guy. he just takes him down by the neck and it's just like a it's like a bear hug almost how he take you never seen him do it no i don't even i haven't even watched him fight to be honest i've watched him on your show wow watched him on your show talking with he when he uh when he was calling down he wanted to rumble and i said oh yeah and then uh you know he seems like a nice guy yeah we'll see about this choke of his if we get to fight and then uh when is that show anyway uh september 15th uh okay yeah sir Let me see my time.

Check my... Your calendar. Oh, shit. Yeah, that's a while away. Yeah, that's something... I'll be ready for that fight, but we'll see what happens. Yeah. Okay. Will you look up the choke?

If that... Yeah, of course. If that's the fight I'm going to get offered, well, then, you know, in Russia. I'd love to get to Russia. You could spot you open up Russia. You know, one of the greatest fighters from... MMA was from Russia. It would be great.

Have a vodka down there with Alexander and Fidel and see about this trick. If that's the case, it'd be cool. Would you go back to Thailand to train for this fight, or are you going to stay closer to home? I'm probably going to go to Thailand. After this, I got a few weeks here. I thought I spent a bit of time at home with the kids.

They forget who I am sometimes. Yeah, let's stay here and shut out with a kiss for a little bit. Then you can hit off to Thailand, probably do some training. And because I think that's Thailand's closer. If it's Russia, it's closer there. But we'll see. Yeah, I'll get it, Thailand for this one. Be good.

All right. Mark, I'm looking forward to it. Great to catch up with you. And nice of you to wake up, as always, for the show. I always appreciate it. My favorite time, by the way, was after your win in, was it? It was the first Bigfoot fight. and then we spoke to you, you were in bed.

Do you remember your son was there and your wife was there and you were speaking to us on your iPad and they were mad that you were shining the light on their face? It was like 4 a.m. And you were so kind enough just two days after the fight to come on. Do you remember that? Yeah, right, anything for the mermaid, right? Anything for the mermaid, hey.

I love talking your show. It's a great podcast, man. Of course, get the knowledge out there to the people for our little voices out here. So, yeah, of course, it's always a pleasure of your show. Thank you, Mark. Great to catch up.

And for us in the show, have a KFC double down for us in honor later today, okay? The two patties. I don't think they're headed down here, so, you know, try that out, in New York. All right, man.

All right, I'll talk to you soon. There he is. The one of the only... Oh, it's talk to you, right? Yes, as always. Mark Hunt, the KFC king himself. Always great to catch up with him. Perhaps playing a little coy with us.

but nevertheless, there he is. Great to see him. And what great Skype connection that is. Wow, unbelievable. All right, let's move along. Let's say hello to our next guest, who was actually in studio last week. He was sitting right over there.

We had a phenomenal conversation. I told him afterwards, I wish we could have gone an extra hour. I was not expecting him to be on a week later, but some stuff has happened and wanted to get his take on it all. So it is a pleasure to say hello once again to the Nigerian nightmare himself,

Camaro Usman, he joins us on the phone. Camaro, how are you? I'm wonderful, Ariel. How are you? And I shouldn't say Marty, right? Just go with Camaro? No, Marty's dead. Okay. We got there with Marty. Now it's just Camaro. Okay, fair enough.

All right, well, it's been an eventful week for you since we said goodbye. I saw you in Chicago. You were there. But the reason I wanted to have you on was because you were at the PFL event in New York on Thursday at the Madison Square Garden Theater. and an incident happened with some people in the crowd and this thing kind of swelled and swelled and swelled some mainstream outlets talking about it and I would love to get your take on it all so I just wanted to you know turn the microphone over to you and hear exactly what happened between the fans and you and your manager Ali Abdel Aziz and while you're talking by the way I just want to let you know

we have some footage of the incident and that we were going to play that as well so that in case people haven't seen it they'll be able to get caught up as well visually Man, it's just a crazy situation. I mean, I've always prided myself on being able to avoid situations like that. And pardon me, it's kind of loud as crap in here. I'm walking through this gym. Hold on one second. Let me get out of here.

No problem. Man, I need it quiet. Guys, quiet. We hear you fine, by the way. Oh, you hear me? Okay. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, man.

crazy situation. I'm the guy who I pride myself on always being able to avoid situations like that. You know, I'm the guy who I always see it on TV and I'm like, oh, crap, that happened or that happened or how did that happen? But it was surreal for that to happen to me.

You know, well, with what you see on there is just a little clip on it. just from actually a horrible angle, but a little clip of towards the end of the situation to where it actually, you know, got into a physical. But, you know, what you all, what you miss is all the verbal things that led to that. Okay. Which was, which was the craziest thing to me. It was, let me just, the whole scenario, whole situation were, you know, obviously a bunch of drunk fans, drunk fans were coming in and we're coming in uh into the the auditorium from the back because the way

it was set up the event was set up it was like an auditorium style so when when you come in the back everyone's back is you come in with everyone's back towards you and you're looking down towards the caves and so we go out to get uh get some water to drink because we were thirsty so we're coming back in And while we're coming in, all of a sudden, the National Anthem is playing. So we stop, and I'm like, hey, hey, hey, stop. We don't want to walk to the crowd while the National Anthem is playing. So let's let's let's let's like this thing finish out. So we, you know, it was me and my manager.

So he was standing in front of me at the top of the stairs. And I was behind a couple steps behind. And, you know, he looks back to look at me. I wasn't just nonchial, I wasn't paying attention. But there was a guy, a big guy. next to us and I hear what the fuck are you looking at and wait I'm like well so I'm kind of ignoring and I'm like oh well I don't know what's going on here and then he goes yeah I'm talking to you what the eff are you looking at and then uh my manager turns around and goes hey you what's going on

you got a problem when you're talking to us and the guy goes yeah I'm effing talking to you what's going on you got a problem with me or something so But like at this point, we're like, and this is during the National Anthem. So I stop and I go over there and I'm like, yo, hey, hey, hey, chill, be respectful, national Anthem's playing. And then the guy turns out and looks at me and goes, shut the F up, you, N word. What are you going to do? And I'm like, oh, the National Anthem's playing, chill. So we stop, Ali stops and we let the National Anthem finish up.

And while the guy is still mouthing off through the national anthem, he's still mounding off. So when it was done, I turned around toward, I look at him, and I'm like, bro, have some respect to national anthem is playing. And the guy goes, what the eff are you going to do? Edward? And then at this point, I'm like, okay, this dude obviously is clearly drunk and he's serious and he's right in my face.

So I'm like, you know what? Back up, you're in my space. And the guy goes, you ain't going to do nothing. Well, you think you're effing tough. So at this point, I think he's going to swing on me. because he's more and more aggressive. So I push him off me. I'm like,

bro, back up. And of course, you know, my manager is not happy with the situation. And then a guy grabs him while he's trying to,

because obviously he's going to have my back. He's trying to get, you know, be near me towards me. And the guy grabs him and then I'm the guy is still coming towards me. So I push him off.

I'm like, bro, you need to back up. So I turn around and I, you know, we're leaving. I grab Ali. I'm like,

let's leave. And I don't know if you can see it from the angle of that video that's online. you can't really see it, but I turn around to us to leave, and all of a sudden while my back is turned, I get hit in the bat. Boom, and then it's like three of them, like jump on our lead, and then three of them jump on me. And now it's like, I got to defend myself. I'm in self-defense mode, you know, and I'm trying to throw one guy off me.

And then, you know, it was just all a crazy commotion. Guys are trying to jump on us. And the whole time, I couldn't believe the situation was happening. You know, at one point I had a smile on my face because I'm like, That just happened to me. And I turned around, and the funny thing is security was there the whole time. Security saw the whole thing. Security kicked the guys out, walked us around to the side,

and even apologized to us, like, man, some drunk fans that are being stupid, the walk us down to our seats and kicked those guys out. And the whole time I'm sitting there like, just flat, I couldn't believe that just happened. But, you know, and then, you know, all of, and I'm like, you know, It was quick. It happens like maybe a, you know, three to five minute transition, transaction, and then we get done with it.

And then all of a sudden, you know, I'm like, okay, that was quick. Maybe no one saw that or whatever. You know, there's a few people around, but come hours and hours later, I see that it's all over the internet, the thing's starting to pick up steam. And the crazy thing is the headlines

that they're putting on some of these. I saw one headline that said, I don't think, I know it's maybe like ABC News or something, the headline is said, UFC fighter and manager attacks a fan for kneeling for the national anthem. And I'm like, who dropped the ball there? Like, do they not realize that I'm black? Like, do they not realize that, you know, like, I'm African American? You know, like, why would they write a headline like that?

Obviously, they just want clicks and they just want things like that. You know, the whole thing is just funny to me, how big they made it, you know, but it was just, you know, a stupid, obviously drunk fans wanting to act tough. Were you hurt at any point? Did anyone, like, hit you hard enough to hurt you, open to the ass you or Ali? No, absolutely not. It was just, it was such a quick, like, it was basically a lot of shoving and back and forth, you know. Nothing really connected, you know, but, you know, it was just a crazy, you know, it was just a crazy, that that happened.

And me, of all people, because I always prided myself on being able to diffuse situations like that. And were they escorted out? Do you know that for a fact? Oh, yeah, yeah. They were taken out right away. Okay. Escorted out. I mean, they were, I mean, clearly drunk as crap.

Drunk off there. You know, they were really, really drunk. And I'm pretty sure security had been monitoring them at some point. and are you or ali going to press charges? No, I mean, not that I mean, I got to talk to him about that, but, you know, it's not a big deal to me. That's not what we do. You know, obviously, I wasn't there to fight, and it just happened, you know, but yeah, I'm not, I'm not the guy to call the cops. And some people will, you know, a situation happened, and it happened, and I move forward.

I'm over it. Wow, okay. That is crazy. And it was crazy, it's not so crazy, let's be honest, that there was some sort of brawl at an MMA fight. Crazy to me that it turned into this whole anthem thing. And, I mean, as you said, like, both of you are immigrants. And so, like, the whole thing, it felt like people wanted to turn this into something.

Yeah, like, how can you... First of all, I guess the crazy thing is, like, the reason people kneel, everyone's kneeling, like, you're protesting against, like you hate the flag or you hate them. Not yet, and then you do with that. Like, the reason NFL players were kneeling was basically because of police brutality towards African-American.

Like, and then now it's this whole ordeal where it's all, you know, it's just all, the whole thing got misconstrued. It's just going out of whack. And especially how can you, you put us that we're mad and a fan for kneeling while we're both African-American immigrants, you know, it's crazy to me. Wow, that is not. And so then you just went to your seats and watched the rest of the card? Yeah, we went to our seats, watched the rest of the cars.

You know, we had a couple of other guys fighting. My friend Andre Harrison was fighting, and Lance Palmer was fighting. So, yeah, we watched the fights and, you know, I went back to our hotel and that was a night. Wow, okay. And what's it been like, you know, to have, like you said, ABC News, all these other outlets talking about, what has life been like for the last couple days for you guys? nothing changed nothing at all changed

yeah the same thing um just you know I never wanted to be out in a negative life because that's not me but hey it is what it is

nothing changed for me I'm still the same guy you know when if ever was the last time I mean it got ugly there as you said you know

you're you're being you know they're throwing racial terms at you and all that stuff when was the last time if ever that has happened to you? You know, I was just thinking that, I don't remember, I think maybe in middle school the last time I was actually in a fight.

Wow. A fight outside of training or being in the obstacle. So, yeah, it's been a while. Okay. But you're good now? Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Perfect. You feel, you feel like you've told your side of the story, anything else that you feel

like should be said about this? Yeah, there's really nothing to tell. I mean, it's, you know, obviously the video made it look a certain way and people are going to make their assumptions, but, you know, it happened. And we're over it, you know. I don't know if that video, the one that was circulating, you know, it's kind of hard to tell, but you do see me turn around walking away. And then you see the kind of brawl shake out, but there's another, the angle to where it shows, when you see the guy clearly suck a person. me in the back while I'm walking away. And then the whole thing breaks out.

So, you know, I'm over it. It's done. Yeah. Phone, you know, moving forward. I feel like this guy maybe, or what do you think? Do you think he knew who you were? Like, he wanted to test himself against you or do you think he had no idea? No, no, no, no.

No, I think he had no idea. Because at one point, when he started really getting aggressive with his term to where I thought he was going to swing, there was a moment to where I just stood in front of him. You know, like, you hope. I'm like, do we, maybe he recognized me, and then he's going to, you know, all right, I don't want to not. But no, they didn't care. It was him and his buddies. They really didn't care.

They were really drunk. And it was just, I was like, all right, well, it's time to walk away from the situation. And then it just escalated from there. Damn. Well, I got to say both of you look very good in your suits, you know, getting in, like, you, even when it was done. It looked like you had just walked through a park. All good. I know.

I'll leave that suit. That seat was perfect on him. even not even a wrinkle on it. Well, I know you have a meeting coming up. Now, by the way, can you tell us what you're doing over there, or is it top secret? No, we've got a meeting with Dana.

And, you know, we're just going to, you know, talk over some things. Wow, so it's happening any moment now. Face to face? Yeah. Ooh, do you want, can we stay on the phone and listen? You know what? Let me see if I can bring you guys

to it. No, no. No, I don't think they don't like that too much. You psyched? You excited for this? You're mentally ready for it? Yeah, I'm indifferent. We'll see how things shake out. Okay.

What's going to happen? It's going to happen, so, yeah. One last question before I let you go. Your thoughts on Colby Covington's win on Saturday? What did you think? Exactly what I expected. And it happened, you know, against a guy, like, RDI is a good fighter. He has put a lot of years and a lot of time in the game.

but there's just one thing that, you know, you lack, and that's what, where me and someone like Kobe has the advantage, and that's with our wrestling and our pace and being able to keep that up. But against a guy like me, obviously, that Kobe has no chance to do that because I do that better than anybody. So, you know, congrats to him for, you know, being the, I guess, quote-unquote paper champ right know, so, you know, hopefully that thing gets, uh, this whole mess at the top right now. Hopefully this gets cleared up and, uh, and, um, you know, and I get my shot because, you know,

if a guy that goes in there gets taken down by RDA a few times, dude, you don't stand a chance against me. So we'll see how things shake out, but, uh, that's definitely a fight that I want and that's a fight that I think millions of people want to see. Appreciate it, Kamaro. much. I'm glad that you guys are okay, and I appreciate you coming on and setting the record straight here. Good luck in the meeting.

Thank you, Ariel. All right, we'll talk to you soon. There he is, the one and only Kamarer Ushman, sending the record straight regarding what happened Thursday at the theater at Madison Square Garden. Earlier in the show, we told you we were going to talk to U.S. Romero. Unfortunately, his managers hogged up all the time, but he is back. Let's go to the Skype machine very quickly and just say hello to Uol Romero.

He is there. There he is. Yoel Romero's back. Hey, now it's your second appearance. No one's ever done this. making up for lost time. Wow. Yoel, my friend, how are you? I'm good. My man, good to see you again. Great to see you. How are you feeling? How is your face? I feel good, you know? A little swollen. You see me? Yes, I see you.

To me. It's no man in my yoke. You know? Any serious injuries? No. No. A little swatter, you know, a little swatter for the pushing in the face, you know. 25 minutes poachy, poachies. It's normal like that. So what do you think, you will... Go ahead.

You like it? You see the fight? You like it? I saw the fight. I liked it very much. I thought you fought a great fight. And if I'm being honest, I thought you won the fight. So I thought you won three rounds to two.

And maybe there's a 10-8 there. At the very least, I thought maybe a draw if they wanted to give them the fourth. So, you know, I know it was a frustrating night for you because you really wanted the belt. Which rounds do you think that you won? 3, 4, 5. 3, 4, 5. Are you shocked that you didn't get the decision? You know, I am very professional.

You know, that's the decision for the, for the Jews. But I know I win. I know 100% I win. I know I'm not losing. I'm a little mad. But at the day, the people know, the people see what happened. The people can say what's going on, what's what happened in Chicago. Honestly, I win the fight.

But see what it is. That 24-hour stretch, Friday, Saturday, everything that happened with the weight cut and the commission and then taking the fight. Do you have any regrets? Do you wish you did anything differently? Do you have any regret when we get lost in? Sorry. Um, sorry. My mind work.

A lot. My mind worked a lot because the commission, the commission, I don't know why the commission not making the good, good job. And they're waiting and the, and the, and the, and the, and the decision for the fight too. I don't know why. I don't know why. But it's terrible. It's a very terrible decision when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, I don't know why. I don't know why. But it's terrible. It's a very terrible decision when I, when I have it for only, only 45 minutes in the quarter of the weight, I make it my weight very easy, you know? When I see the time, say, okay, no problem, let's go. I have it two hours.

When I have 40 minutes, say, let's go, we go. I said, all my teeth are. Why? Why, let's go. No, let's go, let's go, let's go. Why? We have more time. No, no, no, let's go. Normally, see, maybe one, one, one, ten hours, I got down 184, 184 in the half, you know? Right now, right now, I, I, I, I, I, I walk with my mind, with myself.

Okay, girl. It's not your fault. You can call you weight, you win your weight, you go to Chicago for one reason, and you make it, you did. You did. For you go, you did. You go to make it the way, you did.

You go to the fire and you win, you did. And you combine with your home, you don't have the bell, but it's not for you. It's because of the organization for the commission. Yeah. It's terrible. It's terrible. One of your co-managers, Malki, said before,

that he is considering suing the commission. How do you feel about that? Oh, there he is. We're going to sue him. I'm going to sue him. It's a done deal? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I'm going to send the paperwork soon. It's going out five minutes. Lika. Okay. There you go. How do you feel about that, U.L? You know, honestly, see, I want to my, my, my, my, my, my, my, I know it's not possible the, the, there's, the, the, the, the, the time, the, the, the, the, the decision. But, see, something we, we, we, we, we can do it for happen and good for me. give me the chance for the fight for the battle again, you know, because normally, I take the belt.

Now the bear still in my hands, you know, because I win the fight. I fight for the ball and win the fight and win the bell. Everybody see what happened Saturday 9th, Joel destroyed normal winning. Number three, number four, and number five rounds. You know? That's a, that's the, that's like. That's it. One last question for you, Al, and I really appreciate this.

Is it fair to say that if you had your way, you would want to get the third crack at him next? That's what you want next? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And you're comfortable staying at 185?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't have a problem with it at 185. Okay. The people want to see, not for this time, for all my career. When I'm finishing, I finish it 185 too. I don't have a problem with a coach my way for 185. I don't have a problem. Thank you.

It's no. It's not at home. This is no mentality is no like a how do you do it no

I don't do I say hey I can do I go up I go up or retire so I see it's not

an option and I am and go up I said okay I'm retired because I don't fight you know

it's not my position it's not my position it's not my mentality you know it's no it's me I am upset I upset

where the way in my life. You know? It's okay. You retire? When I need to go, listen. When I accept

the most, the more big decision in my life is the decision in my life is when I say I go

another country, another country. I accept I need to go up for my staying together for my family in Cuba that's the same that's the most the more the more

the more big decision in my life when I I have it I need to take it and right now see I say the way in my life is saying

you look at all it's done it's down, you know. But it's my position right now. I can go for the, go down for the quarter away. It's not, I don't have a problem, you know. We, me and my team talk together about my quarter away. We know what happened, you know. What happened, the problem, the court away in Australia.

Why we have a little, no problem, a little, problem in Chicago. Normally, if the U.S. Commission, given the time, normally time, there are two hours, it's very easy. You know, I don't have a problem, I fight for the Belf. You know? We talk together very, very, very, no, no,

no, no, very, no, very, no, my concili, honestly. We talk together very honesty, and we together say, yeah, you don't have a problem. We don't have a problem. You don't have a problem. You don't have a problem because, Moki said, you're old. We need to talk very honesty.

What's going on? He said, what's going on? That's what's going on? That's the problem. That's why we have a problem in Australia. why we have a little, a little problem in Chicago. Why? That's the reason.

We say, oh, that's true. You said, that's it. Listen, why you don't have a problem in New York? Why don't have a problem in Vegas? Why don't have a problem in Vegas? In Vegas and Vegas? It's not too much. They have it 309 years, 41 years, 40 years, 40 years.

That's not the problem. When you see that where I caught away in New York, When I have a quarterweight in Bega when I fight with a rover 2, 184, 184 pounds, 184 in the half. Every time, make it strong, strong. Not like a strong. Why? Because we have a time for the fight.

We have a time for the quarterweight. That's what we're talking about. You all thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And I agree with your manager. Greatest fighter to not hold a belt just yet, but your time isn't done. I'm happy to hear that. So thank you for coming on. I'm glad that you're okay and we'll talk to you very soon. Shalom, my brother. Shalom, my brother. There he is. Thank you, Abe. I appreciate it very much. There he is.

Yoel Romero stopping by. Passionate stuff from him. Okay, let's move along to our next guest, patiently waiting. I apologize for keeping her waiting. Massive win for her on Saturday over Megan Anderson in Chicago. The one and only Holly Home is standing by. you? I'm good. How are you doing? I'm so sorry for keeping you waiting. Uel was just opening his heart there and I didn't want to cut him off. So I apologize for that. I didn't mind listening to him. What's that? I didn't mind listening to him. Okay. Yes, he is, he is captivating when he speaks. There's no doubt about it. Congratulations and welcome back home. To me, initially when I was watching that fight, Holly, it was like, wow, that woman is really big. Migan Anderson is really big, compared to Holly Holie Holman.

Of course, you figured it out. But have you ever been in a fight where you felt like there was that much of a size disadvantage? You know, she's very big. And even a little, she actually did seem a little bigger in person. I knew she would be tall. I have a lot of, you know, teammates that are her height. And so I worked with them a little bit.

And then you also wonder if the stats really are what they are because sometimes I say people are taller or shorter than they really are. Like, no, she really is. foot maybe even a little taller. But I had one opponent that I fought in boxing that. She was six foot tall as well and Sophie Matisse. And she

actually is the, she knocked me out like, she's the one box that really, she knocked me out cold and then I went back for the rematch. So there was a lot of things I was thinking going into a fight with the bigger girls that

it's not just, you know, I didn't have very good luck the first time around with the first one, but I knew what I needed to change when I went in for the second fight with her, and I took some of those things from that fight and used them as positive thoughts and what I had learned from it for this fight. I think that helped prepare me a little bit, but it's still a different game from boxing to MMA, especially with somebody bigger because there's the clinch game, and the grappling is a little bit different because you're not dealing with that boxing, obviously. but, you know, it was, everything kind of went how we had prepared to be ready for.

We didn't, I really didn't think that I would be going for, you know, four takedowns. I thought, well, maybe I'll tick her down once if it works out, you know. And not that I hadn't thought to take anybody down in my fights before. It's just that maybe I didn't really just let it go. You know, my coaches are always telling me how you can, take these girls down. Like, you didn't practice all time, and, you know, sometimes I don't think you put enough confidence in yourself for that stuff because you've learned so much.

And I think I just finally let myself know that wherever it goes, I can deal with it. And that's just kind of where the fight wound up going. And I thought, you know what, let's go ahead and try and, you know, just see how far I can go with this, how much we can do with this. I don't want to do anything stupid, get reversed, and get it. underneath or anything like that. So I wanted to play it good and be smart about it as well and not get overly anxious, you know, because it's not like I've been in that position in a fight before ever.

In that moment, like when you're taking her down and you're taking her down successfully, this has to be, I know, I know you're not really, you know, reveling in it in the middle of the fight. But now in the aftermath, for the boxer who had been sort of talked about as this one-trick pony, the kickboxer, right? You didn't have, this has to be a major, you know, a major feather in your cap, right? you have to be, and I can't imagine how your wrestling coach, Israel Martinez, felt about the whole thing, but this has to be something that you're really proud of, right? As far as, like, an accomplishment in a fight where you set out to do, a bigger opponent and dominate her like that with your wrestling,

that has to be a huge deal for you, right? It feels very good. I think that, you know, people, I always talk about her and everything before a fight, and it's not because I'm worried about getting hurt. It's not a worried about losing, you know, and most fighters mean I've never heard fighters say anything different but it's a little thing

that you train so hard and it's the unknown you don't know what's going to happen when you get in that it's a crazy feeling and you know I've heard a lot of people say just believe in your training

you do it every day it's in second nature and I kind of tried to really embrace those thoughts for this you know if it's going to get into these decisions just have confidence and believe in my training I don't know, I practice all the time.

Like, can't I do it? You know, I want to fight. And so as soon as I was in those decisions, and I thought, you know what I'm going to go for this. This is something I would do in practice at this point. So I'm just going to do it right now and let my training kind of take over, I believe, and that I'm just going to do it. I was thinking of a line that Daniel Kormier said recently

when talking about Volcano Osdemier, and he said that there are levels to this game. And I'm not trying to knock me again, but it felt to me like this was an example of that. your resume, your time in combat sports, that kind of came out in this fight, that may be taking a fight against you on 18 months, you know, after a layoff of 18 months, and considering even without the layoff, but considering the difference in the resume and the time that you've spent competing, it kind of came out that she's not on your level. Did you feel the same way? You know, I feel that every fighter has a chance to win a fight because any punch can end the fight. But I know that I've been in there and I've been in some battles with, you know, if I thought she hasn't made a fight like that before, so I thought, you know,

sometimes, you know, there's that little extra edge that I know I've experienced it before, but that doesn't mean that she hasn't had, you know, some parts of her own. And I just kind of, you know, she has a hard right hand and the long punches. We stand in front of a train, you know, the longer, like the more time, the faster it's going, right? It's not that fast, like, when it first takes off. And that's kind of how it is with long-reach punches, you know, by the time they get to the very end of their punch, they can actually have, you know, a lot of power on them. There's certain things that were to fear from her, but I knew that I would be able to adapt to the fight because of ring experience that I have had, and I did feel confident in that.

And just coming in, a lot of people talk about UFC jitters or nerves and things like that. And I don't really feel like she really might get to her. I feel like she was very calm and collected. So I feel like there were a lot of things that she did while coming in as far as, you know, really feeling that she belonged there and being on that level. but I do think that I'm a different fighter than she's faced for sure. And during the fight, I felt the strength. And even though she's a lot taller person, I mean, technique goes with strength as well. And I've been working a lot on that, you know, not trying to just overpower things,

but to use my strength and skill to even be stronger, you know. And I could kind of feel that in the fight. but that doesn't mean that she's not a very game opponent and I'm actually you know, I'm excited to see what she might be able to do in her future and who she might be able to find next.

Did you say anything to her afterwards? You know, she was in my post-flight, press conference and everything and after I was, you know, she was listening to everything about it and of course you're asking everything that you did good and fine and everything

and you thought they did bad and she sat there and watched and, you know, while I talked and I just went up here and said, hey, thank you, you know. It was a pleasure to fight with her. And she's definitely a, um, stand the person, uh, very cordial, very, uh, just motivated and wants to do well. And there's nothing personal or nothing.

And she said, you know, the same. So we actually, um, you know, everything's fun. There's very cordial after, very, what's been like and very professional. Um, we're just there to do a job. Is it possible, Holly, that this was your best performance since the Ronda fight? In other words, your second best performance in the UFC. It feels that way to me, but I'm wondering what you think. I feel like it was maybe the most, have the most flow.

You know, you came for a fight, you don't know how that's going to go. Every fight's a different though, and every fight presents the whole thing. I think I had a lot. I think that if I was the fighter I am now, obviously fighting against when I lost my vote to make sure, I think there would have been a whole different. And obviously, yeah, two years ago and two years of learning on my end. And so, I feel like my performance is really great in the new shape, fight, and go to fight and go fight.

And a lot of this stuff we actually had planned, you know, with some of the stuff we did the fight, not about it, we're worrying that take down that much, but just kind of fighting a taller person. Some of the stuff we worked on, you know, I didn't do in my fight was Gerandimate and and, you know, the Batcharillo fight was really, especially fresher, and that's, like, kind of went how we thought it would. You know, this wanted to be patient, just got frustrated and picked a good shot. So that fight still went how we thought it might be.

Um, that still wasn't a very, you know, I probably could have done a little sooner. And yeah, for our fight was probably a little harder to dominate someone like, bribourg, so I guess they're just different fights, but this fight definitely I felt more focused and was able to put more, you know, of, you know, everything that I've been learning into together. But I think it's just an accumulation of learning over my life fight, for sure. I asked you before the fight about being back in Chicago and just going through all of that. In the locker room, were you getting flashbacks? What was it like?

Did you even think about it at all the last time you were there? You know, I actually didn't think about that, you know, that I had lost there before. I wasn't thinking that at all. Actually, some of the things that I was thinking in the locker room where, you know, we had a lot of... So, you know, Alastres come in Albuquerque for the last part, but you know, for the majority of this time, her, and he's a teammate, and so, you know, we were in the locker room together, and Andre used to be with our team, but he's still a good friend, and, like,

say Gleda, you know, that's actually how I even know Izzy is because Kui used to be part of our team and brought Izzy down. And, and same with Rashad, Rashad is part of the team. And these are, you know, some people leave and it's not really on bad terms, but some people leaving, you don't really keep in touch anymore. But all these fighters actually are, they're friends of mine, like pretty good friends, you know, not just the teammates that come and go that we never really connected. but the whole card was filled with people that, and Sergio Peders, obviously, you know, he works with Izzy, and I don't know him as well. He's never really been like, you know,

or he came down for a little bit for one fight camp before, but just to train a little bit. But, you know, Clay's become a really good friend. Rashad was, you know, he was a really good friend. Andres, he was a good friend, and Alastar was a good friend. And, you know, I don't like to talk to each other. but through the night it was kind of like heartbreak after heartbreak. Sergio had his win, but gosh, you know, it was Clay getting tapped out and Michelle getting knocked out.

And Andre, you know, going always and third and then having to go the way it does. And then Alistair having to get him away and you're just thinking, you know, because that's like wearing your head. These people are, these people are good people to me. And I know their heart aches, you know. Yes, I want them to be healthy, but I know more inside what really hurts after losing sight of your heart. And I was just thinking, you know what, we've got to turn this train around. We're not going down this path anymore.

We need to finish this with a picture. You know, that's what I was thinking. I wasn't really thinking, well, I've lost in Chicago before. I don't want to think about my loss and then all the other, you know, I didn't want to be like in negative thoughts. I was just trying to turn anything that was happening into a positive thought and just, I think that's the most that I was thinking before I walked out. Let's turn this around. Let's get a win.

And let's finish this night off strong. And initially I thought, man, it's kind of weird timing that they would announce that Ronda Rousey's going to the Hall fame right before Holly Holmes fight. But maybe that puts you in the right mindset. Maybe that gave you a little extra push. Did you notice that at all while you were in the locker room? I actually I only watched the fights of the team

I didn't really actually watch that they were talking about that somebody said and then like in the locker room I heard somebody say oh I'm in the Hall of Fame and I thought oh okay I just kind of you know I didn't even think about it and then after the fight everybody was asking me about it with media and that's when I actually realized

I actually didn't watch that part before I went out so I didn't even To be honest with you That was like My head was in space When that was happening I don't really

I didn't even really realize That she was being inducted Until after the fight I don't even know If I heard her name being said Or I saw a clip of her face On the TV in the back But I was warming up

And I didn't really Uh even get Because my mind was just on the fight So much Okay fair enough And that is probably for the best Like I didn't realize That was what was

happening until after the fight. Okay. Do you have any thoughts on that? You know, usually you get inducted a little later on. That's how most sports go, and this is a little different. You know, I feel like I'm proud of her.

I'm happy for her. I know that she was a dominant champion for a long time, so however they do things, something positive rather than negative. The only thing that really gets to me is negative news. So I don't really,

it might be later, it might be, you know, I don't really know how they go about picking it, but I don't have anything, you know, controversial or different or negative to say about it. I think that she did a lot

and, you know, she's what a household name is through what she's done through the sport, so she deserves a recognition for that. And now I'm just curious, Holly, moving forward, You have, it feels like you have, you have the pick of the litter here. Am I incorrect in thinking that if they left it up to you, that Amanda Nunes would be next? I know she tweeted you.

I know you've been asked about this, but two days later, is that what you would like to pursue? You know, I'm going to get with my team, talk to them, see what they think. I always like to see what they think, you know, going forward, go back to 135, sit at 145. I don't know, just kind of put my thoughts together there. It takes me a minute to kind of decompress from a fight. Some people get really excited. Not is what I want next. You know, as soon as the fight is over, some fighters are calling up their next opponent.

And I really like to sit down and digest and taking everything that happened. What I learned from this whole journey for this fight camp and things that I want to take with me, things that I want to leave behind. And I literally, right as I sat down to talk with you, I literally just got home this morning and unpacked my bags and laid down to put my compression boots on right as I'm sitting here. And I'm just kind of taking it all in. I don't really have this real goal of where I, you know, want to force anything to go. I kind of want to take it in stride a day by day and just kind of see what my team thinks.

I'm sure we'll talk about it this week. I kind of just disappeared from my phone and everything yesterday. I was no friends and family that I love very much that went to support me, and I just kind of let myself just not think about fighting for it there, too, and that's kind of where I'm at right now. So we'll see what happens. But, you know, it's hard not to want to get my 135 belt back. That's kind of as far as I've really, really thought into it.

So we'll see what happens. And I 100% appreciate and respect your honesty. I'm just curious, how do you, like, when you get home now for the next week, what does Holly Home like to do to decompress after a big win like that? Is there a go-to thing or is it always different? I just, I like to, there's probably, there's quite a few friends and, I mean, some family is in and out, you know, but I have to kind of say no to a lot of things that are fun leaving out. up to a fight and I kind of go back and just touch base and just kind of do those things that I had to say no to, you know, whether it be coffee with a friend that, you know, we don't ever really get to do daytime coffee if I'm in the middle of training. Maybe it's going to be, you know, sometimes on a Saturday morning, one of my favorite

things to do is my girlfriends and I will just get together and instead of going out to a restaurant We're worried about being at someone's, you know, table too long or even more so that were being too loud. We just like to go to a friend's house and go on the patio and have a couple of months and make some brunch and just chit-chat and just decompress and slow down the pace of life for a little bit on a Saturday and just nobody's watching the clock and just hang out. And, you know, this life is especially with how everything is, if I even, if I've been think how life is now compared to what it was before when there wasn't even cell phones,

you know, there's so much task at hand that even when you're driving in your car, you're already doing 10 different phone calls or you're, you know, when you get home, you're talking with, you know, different things or trying to organize certain things. And everywhere you go, you're constantly in contact, constantly moving. And I feel like life is on a busier, you know, type of schedule than it ever was before. And so sometimes it's nice to just even, even though it's just one day, just we'll go for a little workout on a Saturday morning and then none of us,

we just go to a yoga pan, sit on a porch and just chit-chat, maybe even sit there in silence. We just have their company there. We actually, that's something that we love to do, but on my normal Saturdays, I'm out doing sprint runs,

so soon as a fight's over, I look forward to that a lot. Sounds like a good life. Enjoy it. I appreciate your time very much, especially right off the plane here, Holly. Thank you so much. and again, congratulations on a masterful performance,

and it was so cool afterwards. Everyone giving you props of seeing, you know, some of my colleagues even saying, like, Holly Home is just too nice for MMA. Your post-fight interview was almost as enjoyable as the fight itself. It really is a pleasure to offer you and to watch you. I appreciate you very much. Thank you.

It's always a pleasure to talk with you, Ariel. And thank you for all the time that you've given to, you know, bring me on the show and as well as all the other fighters out there. so we appreciate you very much. Thank you, Holly. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Enjoy your time off. And again, congratulations on the big win.

Thank you. Have a good rest of your day. Thank you. There she is. Holly Holmes, stopping by the women's, former women's band-of-weight champion of the UFC, a massive win.

She picks up her first win as a UFC women's featherweight over Megan Anderson on Saturday in Chicago, UFC 225, a dominant win. Again, I'm not knocking Megan, but there were questions.

And I said going in, I thought I liked the matchmaking. I thought it made sense. But there were questions about the layoff and about just the level of competition if it was actually equal. And I think on Saturday we got the answer to that question. But I have no doubt, mark my words, Megan Anderson is someone to watch, as someone to remember. I think she just needs to fight a little more consistently, get back in there. But she is a force at 145 and there aren't that many of them. Walks around on 175, which is pretty remarkable. So maybe after a couple of more fights gets back on the horse and you're right there, especially in that shallow division. All right. Thank you very much to Holly Holme. And now, my friends, it is time for our last interview of the day. And, you know, New York, Rick and I have been talking about this show. And I have been dreading it for, I don't know, for the last few weeks. And not in a bad way, but it's just, it's always hard. As I said on Saturday, it's hard to say goodbye. So I like to say see you later as opposed to goodbye. And people have asked me, tons of people have asked me, how are you going to end the show? How are you going to say goodbye? And I really didn't know,

and I still don't know. We still have, you know, Rick's picks coming up and things like that. But there was one thing I knew right off the bat. When I knew that my time here was coming to an end, there was one thing that I knew. The one thing that I knew that we had to do was have Uriah Fabor as our last guest. And it's not because I admire him as a person as a fighter. It's not because he's my mom's favorite fighter. It's because he was our very first guest nine years ago, almost nine years to the day, June 16, 2009. He was our very first guest. And what was the show back then?

It was called Fight House Radio. He didn't have to do the show. It was a nothing show. It was on AOL. And it wasn't even live. It was just like a nuisance for him, right? I mean, it was just a nothing. Plus, he was just coming off a loss to Mike Brown,

had a cast on his arm. It was early morning in Los Angeles. And it really meant a lot to me that day that here's a legend like Yariah Faber to take time out to do a live interview, you know, wake up, do the interview. It really meant the world to me. So I felt like, well, the whole time I felt that the only thing I know

that I have to do is have Yorai Favre as our last guest. And so it is a pleasure and an honor to say hello once again to our old friend, the California kid, Uriah Faber, who's joining us right now. As I'm getting all emotional, he's texting. He's not even listening to me, for God's sakes. I mean, really, Uriah, what's going on?

Oh, okay, well, now I feel bad. Thank you. Last guest ever, my friend. First guest, last guest. How about that? What an honor for you. Of all the honors you've received, this has to be the biggest.

This is the biggest one, man. Thank you. I really think, you know, you're a sentimental guy. I am as well, so I appreciate you. You're getting me all choked up over here. So, um, it's crazy, man. Is it really been nine years? Nine years. In fact, I have the tweet, Eriah. You remember because I asked you on the air. I said, please tweet out. Give us some pub. I never asked people to do this. I never say, hey, you're coming on the show. Please tweet it out. But that day I asked you to tweet out. I said,

please give us some pub. Prove to us that you're doing this from your hotel room in California. And you did tweet it. And I have the tweet. There it is. woke up early in LA to do the premiere show for Fight House Radio with Ariel Hawani. You misspelled my name, Yariah. Great interview. And you included a pick. And it's so long ago it says June 16, 2009, you included a pick. And here's the pick right there.

Can you see this right now? Can you see that? I don't know what you can see. You can't see it? Well, there's the pick. There's Yerai in bed, giving us a thumbs up with a big cast on your hand. Do you remember this at all? Do you have any recollection?

I mean, you've done a million interviews before and since, but you have any recollection of this? Well, we've talked about this before, so if I forgot, I've been reminded. So I don't know if I'm actually remembering it or I'm remembering us talking about it, but I do remember laying in bed and doing interviews and have my hands broken and whatnot.

But, yeah, it's kind of crazy, man. It's a surreal thing. I didn't realize it was nine years ago. Yeah. That's wild, man. Time flies, huh? Was that the fight that you had the two broken hands? because we only see one hand in that picture.

Yeah. Yeah, that was, right? Well, I broke my right hand and then I dislocated my left thumb. So I had this cast first and then I had to have this casting because it wasn't getting better. You can see that bump there.

Yeah. And, yeah, so that was a rough fight, huh? Jeez. Yeah, but you pulled through you were throwing elbows like crazy. It was unbelievable for five rounds. Yeah, it was nuts.

Throwing elbows and knees. and getting back up after getting taken down. It was a rough one. So what's up, buddy? So you're moving on to bigger, better things? Is that what's going on? Well, I don't know about bigger, better, but, you know, we all sort of graduate.

Like, you and WEC, right? Yeah, well, I mean, it was always Zufa. So I was always, like, from the get-go. It would have made a UFC. I would have liked that better, but, yeah, 100%. So is you and, you and Chale now? Well, one show is Chale. Why are you turning tables on me?

I'm trying to interview you here. I don't want you to interview me. This is because you guys are best friends, because your enemies. Like, what's your guys' relationship? I think we're frenemies. Nice. That always is fun. Yes, that is fun.

Now who's going to steal that show? Who's going to host which show? No, who's going to steal the show? Who's going to get in, like, the flip action there? No, I think, I think, are you going to subscribe? You're going to, watch? Of course.

Come on, dude. You know, I watch every one of your shows. I know, I know. I have to say. Yeah, be of my dad. Yes, what an honor this is for your dad to have you as my last guest as well. I mean, I'm sure he's very proud. He's going to love this.

Oh, he'll love it. He's probably going to text me any second. I got to say, Uriah, this shirt that you've got, this shirt is really nice. I like this logo that you have back there. You've never done the show from this vantage point. You've got the gym right in the back of you. I think that's a Cade. Yeah, that's a Cade.

Yeah. that's a cage. This is great. That Song Yidong and Mike Malat hit in Mitz back there. Song Yadong is fighting in Singapore. He's our Chinese guy. He's a bad dude, man.

He's got a big fight coming up, so he's taking off in a couple days. You guys can take a little sneak peek of some of that action. Yes, I like it. And who designed this shirt for you? This is grungy gentleman. This is a creation shirt.

I love it. My friend. Lipstein. Jay Slipstein. Skyler's brother. That's right. Skyler's brother, that's right. And Skyler did a fight story with me, a cartoon fight story.

And then I met his brother later. He was actually talking about how great your brother's brand is. His brother's brand is awesome as well. But grungy gentlemen sent me this. It's a one-off, and now everyone's jealous. And we're talking about doing some more collaboration stuff. It's pretty cool. Oh, I like it.

I like it a lot. Well done. Look at you. Always expanding. I always just call you the Oscar Deloio. of MMA, not about the dress-up stuff, but just you have that mind. You have that business sense. Was that a ticket to Delahoya when he dressed up like a chick? I can't see you. I can't see you dressed up like that. So I thought, wow, this is really

nice. It makes me happy to see you guys together. That's great. I have to ask you about Chicago because you were there at Cajside. You saw it all. The fight that you were probably most interested in. Maybe, maybe I'm wrong. Joe. Benavides against Sergio Pettis. You said, I saw on your Instagram, you saw that fight? How long ago? 10 years ago or something? I think eight years ago.

How old Sergio now? Oh, I have to look it up. But I think, yeah, he's in his mid-20s. Yeah, so Joseph and Sergio sparred probably eight years prior. It was before Philly had had his ankle bracelet off from house arrest. And Joseph Morales was only 16. and or 15 or 16 and Sergio, you know, they got to spar when they were just teenagers, and then now they're both in the UFC in the same way, and Joseph and Sergio got some work in.

So it was kind of crazy to see that, you know, it was, it's just weird. Like it's been nine years, you know, time flies. And, you know, I just remember it like it was yesterday, and now they're fighting in the UFC. And I was actually, you know, pretty tuned to Clay's fight all. So he got an unfortunate loss, but I was there to watch him. The whole card was stacked, really. But, yeah, I was good to see Joseph back. I know he's had a long layoff,

and he's been working really, really hard to get the rehab in there. He didn't get the W, but, you know, fought his hard out, and it's a great fight. Who do you think won the fight? I've got to watch it again, man. I thought it was really close. It was kind of hard to say. You know, I feel like Sergio is definitely landing with more precision, and Joseph was more aggressive.

I'd have to go back and watch the fight again. I knew it was going to be close. for sure. What is the mood like there these days? Because I feel like this is a really big summer for you guys. The return of Chad Mendez, Sage Northcutt getting back in there. Of course, Cody versus TJ 2. I feel like you have a lot of big fights coming up in the next couple months.

Oh, it's crazy. We have on that card of Boise, we have four guys. Chad, Sage, Elkins, and Rick Glenn. We have Turu and Sturu. and song that are fighting in Singapore. We've got, you know, guys coming up on the Contender series, and we've got guys, diamonds fighting in the, I think he should probably, I'm not sure if it's 100%

be fighting in the finale, the Ultimate Fighter. We've got Cody fighting, and Benito Lopez are fighting on August 4th. It's crazy. Everybody's working. We've got like 10 coaches on hand, just, you know, guys are doing different things. Right here we've got guys working in the background. So it's wild.

I think we have like 14 fights this month or something like that in the big shows. And you get your hands dirty with all these guys? You train with them? What you think, dude? Of course. I saw you. You know, I, I mean, I liked it. That's my fitness regimen is to train with these guys.

I still like to stay in good shape and it's still my passion. So I actually boxing. I did some boxing the other day for the first time since I retired. That was fun. Did about eight rounds. And then I get jiu-jitsu. a couple times a week, of course, and sometimes I'll hop into practice.

I really coach about one practice a week and then work with some individuals, but we've got a huge coaching staff, everybody's been kicking butt. I heard a rumor, Yariah, that you're competing in Polaris. Is that true? I accepted a match in Polaris,

but it was the same day as Boise. So we had Sage and Chad and Elkins and Glenn, so I had to cancel it. I want to, though. I wouldn't do more of the other. those grappling competitions, they're fun. Who was it against? I've only done the one.

It was against Iminari. Oh, wow. You know, Eminari? Yeah. Yeah, that's what it was against. You say against? That was pretty, is that a Canadian?

That is a Canadian thing. Who exactly was it against? You know, it's funny? When I was in Syracuse as a student learning broadcast journalism, they told me that I must stop saying against. Like it was a thing where I had to spell it out differently on my script.

They said it's against, against, right? Against? Well, you didn't listen to them, did you? No, I didn't. At some point, I was like, you know what? I'm going to forge my own path. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to make my own show in mixed martial arts

and shove it up all your butts. Yeah, robust travel. That's what I say. I'm in the same boat, buddy. That's what we mesh so well. Yes, I agree. Your mom makes you right. Thank you.

I saw on your Instagram, is it true that I thought I had the best mom in the world and I still maintain? But your mom leaves flower bouquets for you when you go out of town. She comes into your house and puts flowers around your house. Is that true? Well, it's not when I leave town. It's just whenever she's in town. So my mom will come in from Santa Barbara and stay at my house and I'm there or not. She puts flowers.

I mean, she'll get flowers from my yard. I don't even know we're there and put these crazy things together. She's awesome. Wow. I grew up with bouquets of flowers everywhere. I lived out 10 acres for a while. And yeah, that's been good. Wow, what a sweetheart lady.

What a nice gesture. She's awesome. Yeah. Do I hear... Wait, I have a question for you. Do I hear wedding bells in the future for your life? I feel like you're slowing down. I feel something happening here.

What's going on? Tell us. Please. That would be a nice way to end this. What could you say? There's no wedding bells per se, but I have been pretty serious with my girlfriend, which has been awesome. Yes. What are we doing?

Are we slowing down finally? Absolutely. Yes? Wow. I've been in the process for a while now. It just, you know, trains are hard to slow down, you know. Yeah. Hit one thing, slow down a little bit, you know, but I'm slowing down big time.

Wow. No place for a wedding, of course. But yeah, it's been awesome, awesome girlfriend, and the gym's been kicking butt and having to have a lot of fun. I still want to have you on our podcast. I haven't launched the podcast yet, but I'm doing them. So that would be, what is it, serendipitous? Is that even a word that would do it?

I mean, it would do it justice to have you do as my first guest on my podcast as I bring in the, the new era of podcasts. I get chills just thinking about it. Putting you in the seat where I get to ask you a bunch of questions and put you, I'll put all sorts of uncomfortable stuff out about you. I know you will. I ask you about you playing in the Olympics. Yes.

And how can you ever plug the brother's clothing line? Yes. Are you competitive or selfish? What's going on? I want to hear you say it. I want to hear you plug your brother's clothing line real quick. Absolutely. It is called 20 T's.

You can check them out on Instagram, on their website, 20.com, 20 Ts on Instagram. Phenomenal stuff. As you know, you've seen it firsthand. Comfortable, but classy, right? Very fashionable. They have some NBA players wear it these days. I mean, they're growing.

They're growing leaps and bounds. So I'm very proud of what he's created. It's very hard to do something like that. All right. Don't forget about your brother, Ariel. to say my mom always used to tell me no matter what at the end of the day your brother's going to be your best friend yes but you didn't have a brother right you had a sister no i have a brother why do i never hear about your brother how many times have you said you read my book and you've never read my book

what is that we're trying i read this book is a great book don't even know i have a brother there's a whole chapter on my brother there of course chapter three on your brother. My brother lives with me at my house. He's always in Snapchat in the videos and everything. You say you love my post. Wait, no, no, no, no.

Now this is where I call you out. First of all, I don't use Snapchat. He's never on your Instagram. I've never seen your brother once on your Instagram. Yeah, he's a big guy with a bait with a beard, the rhino. Do you refer to him as your brother or just as the rhino? No, I reach for him.

my brother. Really? I'll do it today. Okay, please. He's a big fan of your. Oh, man. It's up. It's the rhino.

Damn. Wait, say what? And then he's going to tell you to recognize. I might send you a shirt with my brother's picture on it now. Please. Since you can't give your own brother's love, maybe you'll give my brother some love. Can I also get a signed copy of your book just for my, you know, for my library at home? I thought you had one, but yeah, I'll definitely do that.

Well, not signed. Come on. Your book is phenomenal. Hey, I remember, I know you said you read the book. And also when Cheo was plugging his own book on your show, you brought my book out. Yes, yes. This was your favorite book. Yes, yes.

That was good stuff. Of course, I read the after my brother, but it's all good. I remember the brawl and what was it in Thailand, right? The brawl, you fought all these guys. Indonesia. Indonesia, right. You said, why didn't you put that first? I thought it would be good to start that way, you know, to...

Please. You also said that you enjoyed all the stories, not the advice as much. And I said you didn't read the last chapter where it says make your own rules. You've got to read the book again, but... I know, geez. I really blew this. Wow. You know, I've read a lot of books in my time, so I forget. When did your book come out? It came out like nine years ago? Lesson. I know. You had your shirt.

when I did it's been a couple years yeah maybe maybe 11 or 12 2011 2012 I'm not sure that's a great question time flies huh have you ever thought about doing a second book yeah maybe oh wow got some different concepts of whatnot but uh you know I'm not I'm not like in the process of writing one but I always jot stuff they don't have ideas and and that kind of stuff just that's fun. What would you think about Yol and what'd you think about Yol and and

Whitaker? I thought I thought YOL won. I thought he won three rounds to two. I thought he won the third and fifth and the fourth was kind of up in the air, but I give him the nod. What do you think? You know, it's hard. The only

reason I thought Whitaker could have had a possibility of winning that was because that Yol took the first two rounds off. You know, it wasn't like he was trying. It wasn't like he wasn't trying. He was just like I felt like he was partially feeling Whitaker out, partially like making a statement, you can't really hurt me.

But clearly losing the first two rounds just for lack of effort. And then if there's any close rounds after that, you know, then depending on the judge and you've got to give it to Whitaker. But I think in a fight to the death, I think you all wins. Well, yeah. If it was like pride rules, you all wins. What's that?

If it's pride rules, then Yowl wins. I mean, it just depends how you, I guess it's just depend how you're judging the fight. I mean, I think when it comes to damage,

he had three knockdowns, I think, three different round. Not even if it rocked him. So how crazy is Yol being 20 or 41? And look, I mean, his trap starts at his,

like, up his head. Like, it starts with his head. How about this? He told me yesterday, excuse me, last week on the show, he's 41, he had neck surgery, he broke his neck eight years ago, and the doctor told him that if he didn't have traps like that, he would have died. He would have actually died, but the muscles actually held his neck up and he was able to survive that. If it was me, he said, with my puny neck, I would have died on the spot. Absolutely. You'd be dead.

Isn't that crazy? He probably would have died doing a bunch of stuff throughout his life if he hadn't had traps like that. Like, for example, letting Whitaker punch him for two rounds, the first two rounds. A lot of people would have died standing right in front of Whitaker getting punched and kicked without throwing any offense. He's a specimen. It's pretty impressive. You ever watch those fights live? You ever watch, you know, Cage side and say, man, give me one more.

One more. Let's scratch that itch. do it? On occasion, but there's also fights that make me watch and go, oh, thank God I'm not doing this anymore. But yeah, I feel like, you know, you're always a great backseat driver. You think you can beat everyone up. Yeah.

When you're a championship mentality, you always think you can beat everyone up. And I still have that in me. You know, I could make a case to myself that I could beat anybody at any time. You know, you have to have that thought process. And I still have that, absolutely. That's why I had to jump in and do a grind match with Cody on occasion, go like 40, 50 minutes straight on a grappling match, or go in and jump into sparring with these young guys and just scratch that itch.

I do it like that without the paydays, unfortunately. Give me one more favorite cruise match for all the time's sake. I wouldn't want to fight cruise if I was going to come back. Oh, why not? I mean, we could do that, I guess, but that would be okay. I don't have any animosity towards Cruz or anything. I don't want to do whatever fight was like the most recent and prevalent and, you know, fighting for a belt. Well, I'm happy you say that because one of the staples of this show over the years, like, you know I'm an awkward guy, right?

And the plan was always to end with you, but sometimes I like to be matchmaker. I like to bring people together in the middle of this interview. Your old friend, Dominic Cruz, texted me and he said he wants in. He wants to have a word. So let me say hello to Dominic Cruz. As you just said, you have no problem with him. So let's have some fun here. Dominic, are you there?

What's up, guys? How are we doing? This is great. How about this? Yerai, Dominic, Dominic, Yeraya. Oh, man. Here we go again. What's up, buddy?

Can't get rid of me and I can't get rid of you. Yeah, that's bad news. Is it true? Are you sitting in the house that you bought from beating Team Alpha Male Fighters? This is true, yes. But at the same time, you know, there's been a lot of learning going on in our lives. As you get older, I get older, and we all learn together. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Get it here for you, man. You're getting ready to, who do you want to fight next? Well, you know, I'm just like you, bro. I like the title shots. So, you know, I'm still in this. So, of course, I want to fight for the belt. But right now, I go see the doctor on Thursday.

I should get cleared and then we'll have a good a good case for myself to get back in there as soon as possible. I'm trying to get in there before the end of the year. And, you know, Cody and T.J. are fighting and those are your boys. So I like to see how that one goes. And then, you know, the standings and the division's looking good right now. They need me back in this. I can't wait to get in there and rough some people up. Hey, we started this whole thing, man.

Look where it is now. We can pat each other on the back. I know, man. I have to agree. hating each other at one way. It really set things out, didn't it? That's right. Well, awesome, buddy.

He's getting here. Wait, wait, I have to ask, I have to ask Dominic question. Did you hear what your eye just said about you that he said he had no animosity towards you? Do you feel the same way? Of course. We squashed that a long time ago, and you could watch the Fox interview where I signed a poster. We handed it over. We see each other a lot.

And, you know, it's just the way it is. We fought it out plenty. I think we got enough minutes of fighting in there. that, you know, we got it, we got it taking care of if you ask me. Wow, this warms my heart. What a way to end. This is like Ali Frazier coming together, friends. After all those wars and the bad blood, this is great.

This is a beautiful thing. Well, I really respect the, I couldn't let the whole world hear favor in his chin the last thing they see on your show, Ariel. Come on. Oh, come on. This thing's, this is award-winning chin. That's a sign of testosterone. I must say.

Oh, wow. It does. This is testosterone. Dominic, could I just ask you, who do you think wins that fight between Yariah's two best buds, Cody and T.J. on August 4th? You know, honestly, I thought the first time they faced it, Cody was going to shrink it out. And he was able to drop him, and then T.J. was able to get his grounds back together

and come and get the win. And it's tough to say, you know, TJ's been looking good. I think it really comes down to health with these guys. As both these guys get into the octagon, it's who gets in their healthier at this point. I mean, I think Cody had some back issues last time. T.J. came in really healthy. So we'll see how they show up to the fight on fight night.

But it's that close to the match, in my opinion, that this thing can go either way, and it's just a matter of who comes in sharper and who comes in healthier. Why? You're going to sit on the fence, Dominic? Give us a pick. Come on.

It's our last show. Oh, if you want to put it. Well, since I'm not calling it, I can give you a pick. I think T.J. is going to get it down again. Oh. I, your response. I think the kicks are going to be there for just a little bit more weapons. What do you think, Uriah?

Yeah. Well, I think Cody's going to win, but, you know, it is going to be a good fight. These guys are beasts. I know that, you know, I've seen a lot of T.J., and I've seen a lot of Cody. and it's going to be a game of inches. I think, you know, as much as Cody doesn't really want to make a ton of excuses, he took a whole year of, like, chasing treatment for his back. And this last time he started his loss with a vacation to Thailand,

and instead of going to vacation, he did Muay Thai every day. And so I think that's a good indicator where his head's at. and, you know, it is a very, very tough matchup, but I think the more dangerous guy, in my opinion, is still Cody. And by the way, Uriah, what do you think of Marlon Mariah's fighting Dominic Cruz next? I feel like that's the fight to make. I'd be a great fight. I mean, the one thing that Dominic does better than anyone is take people out of their game.

So I think Marius has gone against guys that, I mean, what's his name that he last beat? Jimmy Rivera. Jimmy Rivera. Yeah, your old friend, Jimmy Rivera, you caught Jimmy, so you know that matchup better than anyone. Yeah. That guy,

he basically is as meat and potatoes as it gets. Doesn't take many risks. It's right in front of you. Like, we'll take a punch to give a punch and has solid wrestling, solid boxing, doesn't make, have many openings.

That's not like Cruz. So Cruz will be a, different animal. Obviously, I think that Marais is the more dangerous guy when it comes to, you know, the finishes he has, but Dominic's, you know, master of making people miss and making them pay and frustrating people. So I'd be, I'd be interested to see that match. I think, you know, I would lean towards Cruz on that one. Wow. Do you like that fight, Dominic? You know, I like anybody in the top five right now after the amount of time that I've been

been out. I just want to come back, face somebody in the top five. get a thing go get a wind going and then uh you know i want to fight for the belt i know that you know that's kind of what needs to happen uh i'm i'm in line right there i think that both the belt holders understand that if they want to fight that's gonna gonna bring eyes to to the television or to to the octagon it's going to be a fight against me in the 135 pound division so you know that's what i'm looking for but i think that uh marais is up there i think there's a couple guys, you know, that are right there. And it's just a matter of when the doctor clears me and when I'm ready to fight. And I'm trying to be back before the end of the year. But again,

I haven't been cleared by the doctor. So I'm trying to just listen to the doctor on this one. So I don't postpone my comeback. Let's end on this note. Can I, as we say goodbye, can I get a favorite moment, a favorite moment from your eye of favor about Dominic Cruz and a favorite moment from Dominic Cruz about your eye of favor? Could you end on a happy note here? This is warming my heart. heart. This is incredible. I couldn't have dreamed to something like this. Thank you for doing this, Dominic. This is such a great, nice way. I mean, this is like

the feud that has like out, like, been throughout the whole show, the history of the show. This is so nice. I'm so emotional right now. Dominic, let's start with you. What's your favorite moment about your time with youraya? Anything about your eye? Let's start with that. I'd have to

go with, you know, probably when we're at the ultimate fighter and I had to take them outside after after a long, like, practice I had, and I had to sit with him in his car and tell him that I had blown my knee out and just look at the look on his face with just disgust. And he was just like, you motherfucker, he was like, he was just saying, like, I cannot believe, you know how much we got in this fight.

We need to do this. Why I need to fight you, man, I need to fight you. And I was just like, my knee's blown out. There's nothing I can do. And we ended up making it happen again, but that was just a really real time and a real moment that I just had to look at him and apologize and be like, yo, man, I'm sorry to do this to us and not just you, but us. And, you know, it was an interesting moment in time that I look back at and try to gather strength at times from that moment. Wow. Interesting. I didn't expect that.

Uriah, what do you have to say? Yeah, there's also a time when we, uh, when we were, uh, the UFC messed up and they put us on his promotional. There's like a changing, of guards of PR people and they put us on this promotional tour. That was nasty, by the way. I know exactly what you're going to say. That sucks. And I literally, I had a hairline fracture in my hand

and I thought I was going to do a like a quick like hello to the troops. And it ends up being a like team building. Like they put us in front of dead soldiers like pictures and talking to us and we had to like it was like probably two months before we're going to fire, two and a half months before we're going to fight.

And we had to spend like three days together and two days was like a grueling, like, bonding experience where you had to like, you know, go through what our military went through. And we had to go save the world at the end of it, this mock thing and get starved. And Cruz had to get his little pretty petite feet. So they had to get him new shoes. So they had blisters. Then he tripped and hurt himself. And I was trying to climb a rope and not let everybody know that my hand was.

was broken and um and we actually for for like that was the first time where we actually got to sit down and and and have a conversation and like liked each other for a second and then as soon as that was over it was back to like all right f you f you but uh he sat and he told me about the first time that he and that was when i fought charlie valencia in arizona for the king of the cage and he was he was just i think an amateur at the time or had like one fight and him him watching me and saying, oh, I know I'm going to fight that guy someday. No one knew who he was and vice versa. And I never knew that that we had met on that day.

So that was kind of interesting. Wow. That's a great thing. The funniest thing about that, though, was it was an obstacle course, and Uri could have jumped over the wall because he couldn't reach the top of it. He was hopping with his little tiny short body and his hair was flopping in the wind. And it was ridiculous. And that was my favorite part.

And him trying to climb that rope was like, oh, my gosh. It was pathetic. I climbed the rope with one hand, basically, to save him. and I did get it over the wall. That's BS. Dominic also said to me this. He said, man, you really are just like a happy hippie guy, huh? I thought it was, he thought it was an act. I was barefoot, long hair and all that stuff. I was like, yeah, dude.

Amazing. You did a dirty on that one, man. That was really hard work. Yeah, that was rough. Dominic, I really appreciate you doing this. This was great. It reminds me that, you know, in 40, 50 years, when the history of this sport is being written, you guys, you guys are the forefathers, you're the trailblazers,

and we could say that we live through these moments. You talk about Charlie Valencia, sort of like the humble beginnings of the sport, and you guys took us on a ride for many, many years. So this was really, really cool of you to do. Thank you so much, Dominic. Great to hear from you. And I hope you get cleared soon.

I hope we get to see you in there sooner rather than later as well. Thanks, Ariel. Have a good night. And Faber, keep growing, bro. Yeah. Hey, you know, you bought the one house. Joseph Benevita's bought three houses by the time you bought one house. You don't know what else I've bought, do you?

I don't care. All right, buddy. Wow, I love it. Uriah, that was great. I had no idea that was happening. He texted me. I've taken up too much of your time, so I will let you go. This was awesome, man. Really, I appreciate it. I, you know, I'm not saying goodbye. I'm not retiring, but I just, I really wanted to have you on last because it meant so much to me nine years ago that you would be first. So thanks for doing it. it back then. Thanks for doing it today. And good luck to the whole team in the next couple of months. We'll be watching. Can't wait for all the fights.

All right, guys. I can't wait to watch you over doing your thing with the bad guy. And, you know, I'm looking forward to the next phase of Ariel Hawani. Still, the award-winning champion, have you lost yet for a quarter of the year? No, I'm going for number eight in a couple of weeks. So number eight, that's pretty impressive. My question is this, if you lose for that award, are you going to retire? No way. I learned from you.

All right. Get knocked down? Yeah, that's right. Come back up. That's it, buddy. All right. It's like when they take the hands away against Mike Brown, just shoot some bows. You're the man, your eye.

Thank you so much. Talk to you soon. All right. Show your brother some love. I will. There he is. Uriah Faber. Wow. How great was that? That's one time that I did not plan it. I did not plan it.

I want to thank Dominic Cruz for doing that. I want to thank Leah because I'm sure she had something to do with that. Thank you very much for doing that. That was really cool. To have those two legends together as our last interview and to have the guy who started it all, that was awesome. Dominic Cruz and Yerah Fabor, how great was that? What a fun show.

I think we did beat the record. one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, fifteen, sixteen, sixteen, seventeen, seventeen, eighteen, eighteen, prior to this, the record was 14, and we still got some more show left. How fun is this? Wow, 18. Okay, let's keep the, oh, my mom just said hello to your eye as she was watching. She's in New York, our number one fan who has never missed an episode, who has never missed a second of this program, no matter where she is, always watching this show. So hello to my mom, who I love very much, and who has always supported me no matter what, do the thick and the thin. I'm happy that you got to witness that as well.

Okay. More show left. Question of the day. Rick's Picks, a little au revoir. But now, my friends, it is time for everyone's favorite segment. It is time. 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 are lots of fun and his hair isn't a bun. Because it's, you already know it. it is. Ricks 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.

Ricks Picks, baby. Here we go. It's time for Ricks Picks. Bound. There he is. Wow, look at that shirt. Woo-wee. Look at that shirt.

That is something. It fits. Like a glove. Well, I mean, we'll talk. We could talk about that. I think Pizzi threw you under the bus a little bit. He, he, uh, what? He wrote exactly what you told him on the sizing.

No, what I say? In the card. What I say? I said, what? Don't worry. Oh my God. It's logged. Wow.

What I said, he showed me the shirt or the kid. What do you got a Liverpool shirt there? Yeah, retro. Oh, he got me one two. It's beautiful. He got me one, too. one sec. Now see that

No, he has his cans off. Got me one too. P.T. What a mensch this guy. I don't know what club that is. Do you? I think this is Everton. No. I just, no, this is a GAA shirt.

This is GAA, so this is Irish. I think it's Irish, but I don't know what club. It is, it is, it is, it is, Ath, C-Leth. Anyway. But, yeah, Pete, he showed me the shirt. P.T. out. The man. He said, yes, of course, but he said, he said, you know, do you think this will fit?

And I said, well, there was a time where he, on this show, did something called UFC fit. Was it called UFC fit? It was, yeah. And at that point, you were like 125. Chill. So I just said you're not, back then, maybe, but now, I mean. Ariel, you don't have to, I'm just saying, that's all. Don't get defensive. Listen, in the history of this program, only one of the person has ever hosted this show, right? This is where we're going with this. Trust me. History of this program, only one of the person has hosted the show. That is the man.

And in my opinion, other than me, he's the only person who should host his show. We have never done the Rick's Picks. We've never done anything together. Come on in studio, my man. Let's do this. What? Let's go. Let's do it.

No. Yes, let's go. But how am I? I can't control the Rick's face. Trust me, this has been accounted for. Kerry over there is going to do it. Come in studio, let's do this. Oh, boy.

One last time. All right. Here we go. Here comes New York, Rick. Walking in. And this is a Dublin shirt. Thank you, PT. In studio.

We didn't have an in studio guest book for today. But guess what? We do now, getting miced up. We're going to do Rick's picks in studio. Mono e mono, face to face. We have never been in the same room. Dating back to the days of SB Nation on 34th Street, dating back to the days when we were in a tiny little meat locker.

What was that? that thing. It was like a makeshift little thing. Unbelievable. But now we will do it face to face in studio. Here he. Look at this guy. We're in the tight jersey. I told Pee-T that I felt like a sausage. Like, I'm coming out of the casing. It's actually, I have to say, it's not that bad. It's not that bad. You know, had the kid and, uh, It's very brutal. Nobody knows better than you. You haven't played basketball.

Yeah, exactly. Since, what, 2015? It's been a minute. Now, my step brother, not step, my half-brother at law. Half-brother? No, step-brother. No. Jeez, you don't even know what your own family is?

My half-brother-in-law is in the back there. Again, he came last week. He's in the back there again. Holly's half-brother. Yes. Want to give him a shout-out? Shout out to Ryan. We've been playing on the weekends.

I'm trying to get back into it. Okay. But not in our league games. Slow and steady. Well, we have a championship on Tuesday. Are you playing? It would be nice. This week of all weeks.

We'll see. We'll see. What's it like being in here? Because when you hosted, it wasn't here. It was the other studio. The only other time I've allowed someone else to sit in chair. This feels good. I can see why you like the end of studio.

I see like why you're a different. while you bumped it up. Plus, this table was designed very nicely by the folks at Vox because it has a nice little opening here. It's much better than the old studio where, look at this. I'm looking at you on the screen. It's just kind of surreal. Look at that.

I know you're very fond of this table. I'm very fond. Yes, I'd like to take it if I could, but it will fit in my car. It's nice, right? No pictures of me? No pictures of you. Last time somebody complained they got it up. Yeah, that's right.

Habib. Look at that guy. Unbelievable. So now we're going to do Rick's picture. and Kerry's going to roll through them. I'll try and see it on... Yeah, how's your eyesight? Not great. Not great at all.

Well, it can't be worse than mine. Okay. What do you think? Oh, boy. So once you see these things, are you going to be able to... Yeah, but I can't read the text? Should Joe just move the... Can Joe come back and bring the monitor a little closer?

No, no, we're fine, we're fine. Sure? Yeah. Ricardo Lamas, with the two legends, you mentioned BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, at the event. Oh. Here comes Joe. He's going to bring it closer.

Can we pull that? Oh, I don't know if we can pull it off. Do we have maybe a chain or a wheelchair for me as well? No, no. So just summarized. Yeah. Ricardo Lama's posting to Instagram, a picture with two legends of the sport. Matt Hughes and BJ Penn, fantastic to see them both at the event over the weekend.

Yes, and very cool that I think he did this after his fight, which he lost. Yeah, he did. So that just shows how much of the event to see. the wounds of war. And I also have to say, I buried the hatchet with BJ. BJ, I think, was a little mad at me because I made a comment about the website, BJPen.com, and I said that it was kind of soiling his name, which I must say BJPen.com has come a long way from the earlier days.

So shout out to those guys, Chris Taylor and all the guys there. But we exchanged pleasantries. We hugged. We did a shock cut together. It was nice. A shooey? No shooies. We texted even afterwards.

So it was nice. Ricardo and BJ supposed to have fought in the Philippines, but never materialized. That's right. I forgot about that. Yeah, significant. Okay, what else to be? Okay, let's go to the next one.

Okay, CM Punk and Clay Guida singing, Take Me Out to the Ball game. We're actually listening to it right now. I don't have a headset on. Look, a tradition for the Chicago Cubs. That's all right. I'll go through it. That's fine. You know what it was said. I know what they're singing.

A tradition for the Chicago Cubs. Unfortunately, both those guys on the losing end of the equation, but a great moment here for two Chicago fighters. Well, what was most notable about this is that this happened like four hours after Punk's court case. That's right. He went straight there. He went from beating WWE to being at Wrigley Field and doing Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I mean, that is unbelievable. Well done. Well done, Punk.

our next one oh yeah yes our very own videographer Casey let's let's let's crank this up oh man that's good

that's a good one I proved to yours it was pretty good you got to learn some French and you'll be a killer thank you guys Mirsad Bechtick getting some love from Mirsad Bechtick

for the mustache mustache bros it is a sweet mustache it's a great mustache big win over Ricardo Lamas as well now I'm guessing this was on a tripod, right?

Was the camera? Yeah. Yeah. Why? Maybe you flip it around to Casey. Let's see the mustache. Well, Casey's the cameraman. He would have to flip it around to himself.

Look, Casey does... Actually, it's good that he was still rolling because that actually happened at the end of the scrum. And I... It was after. Yeah. So he was still rolling. But, you know, Casey's not that kind of guy. He's not a camera hog like, you know, some others.

Who? Who are you talking about? No, no, no. No, I'm just saying. Like, he's the camera. He's not going to turn around on himself. I thought it was a nice clip, though. It's good that you shouted him out.

Okay, our next one. Oh, yes. Tai Tui Vasa, coming out to my heart will go on. Yes. One of a kind of a lot of Tzuvasa. What a good walkout Tia. What a great walkout. I love this guy.

This guy cracked me up. You think he gets nervous before, thanks? No. I can't imagine. I love to be sweating. His explanation as to why he picked this song is it. It's a hit. Yeah.

That's it. One of the very early Rick's picks when we started doing the clips again was him singing Vanessa Carlton. Really? With Mark Hunt. Oh, yes, yes. With Tyson Pedro. Tyson Pedro was there. junior Tafa for a glory kickboxer

all the guys from the Australian That's right, I remember. Were they in an apartment? I think they maybe rent a house But all them were there But now tell us how you really feel about Thai What do you mean? Oh You have a good take

I must have I mean I don't agree with the take But you have a take Love Thai Yes Ty's fantastic great fighter In fact this is why I feel this way I feel Tai Tui Vasa is such a fantastic fighter He's becoming known only for Shui's

and it's starting to I feel like it's starting to wear out its welcome I'm hoping that he's not going to have to do 50 shoeies before this is a bad take no I this is this is how people think of him they associate him with the shoe yes isn't that good

isn't it good to be associated with anything in this day and age everyone looks the same everyone does the same thing to a point but this is fun it's fun not for him you don't think it's fun for him the guy walked into the media room and he's like I'll take off your shoe I'm about do what and if not pissing that down

thing. You don't think? Come on. I think it's working. I think it's great. After the 50th, after you walk down the street, you're Jaliel-Way and all you get his Urkel? Does that look like a guy that cares about this? Come on. I look, if he loves it, if he wants to keep doing it, I'm all for it. I feel bad. I just, I want his fighting to overshadow the shooies. So what you're saying is you're worried that he's going to get typecast. This is the shooy guy. Worry that all he is the shoie guy, I hope that doesn't become the thing. Has this lot, I mean, he first exposes to the Shoe in February in Perth. It hasn't been that long.

No, I don't think we're at Shoey burnout as evidenced by how much attention Shoeys are getting. I think we could approach it. Already? No, there is a diminishing return for it. But I feel like he's the kind of guy who's going to reinvent himself. I mean, witness the fact that he doesn't come out to the same song. Yeah. It's always a fun, different song, right?

Big win over Arlowski. Could get another big win in a ranked opponent, and then all of a sudden the Shuey's go by-bye. I would like to see that. I think this is brilliant. This is brilliant. He loves it. The Reebok shirt. The Reebok shirt.

He goes down from the cage. There's one waiting for him. He's at the hotel. There's one waiting for him. Too many shui. Look at that thing. There it is. The next pick is him doing it.

Well done, Kerry. Look at that. That was a messy shooey, by the way. Or it was just a lot of beer in there. Yeah. I mean. Look at that thing. And then he did another one on the way out.

No, I think this might be the second one. No, I think this was the first. Maybe this is the first one. Yeah, because he did another one where this one, it wasn't clear whether or not the guy spit in it, but the second one, it was very clear that the guy spit in it. Tai Tui Vasa is a great fighter. He's a fantastic fighter. Okay.

Next Rick's pick. Kobe Covington, uh, tweeting, melted that soy boy and made the Walterweight division great again. Next stop for this gold belt, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave with President Donald Trump. hashtag UFC 225 hashtag nerd bash 2018 hashtag mega wow look who's calling me right now

Chale P Chale you gotta wait we're live on the air right chel we're live on the air you're trying to you're trying to you know steal the shine

you'll have enough time our next one a response from Tyron Woodley although we got a much more in-depth response earlier in the show bitch please oh and John Annick reading this out

was fantastic. Yes, that was great. Someone made a song out of it. Did you see it? The thug life. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Bitch, please, I let you bump your gums. Now you got smoke. I'm exposing you. You were and always will be my warm-up round, Tyra Woodley. Okay, let's talk about this. Yes, all right.

You have a take on Colby Covington. This is even worse than the tights we've asked to take. This is one of the worst takes you've ever had in the history of this program. I've had some takes that you've criticized before. I'm happy that we ended on this note. Please, tell us how you feel about Colby Covington. What I said to you, wow, that Colby Covington, he's really moving the needle, he's really getting things done. People care.

Yeah. People are into the fight. They want to see him get his ass whoop. I agree with that. I personally, indifferent to Colby Covington. Zero care in the world. Don't love him, don't hate him, just don't care. He's Glycen T. Bow.

Might as well be. He's, uh, he's, uh... And here's why. He's Frankie Perez. I think he's a great fight. I think he's a very good fighter. Beating Raphael Dos Andos is no small task. But the gimmick is so transparent.

He doesn't do enough of a good job to hide the gimmick. Everything's rehearsed. It's clearly scripted. Repetition of the same lines over and over. That part of it doesn't do it for me. So I don't care. You feel like it's inauthentic. You feel it's disingenuous.

I think that's more than a feeling. I think that's almost a fact at this point. I feel like it may have started that way. Like he was trying. You don't think Colby Coe v. Covington is a Trump guy. You don't think he wants to actually go and meet the president. I feel like he does. Nothing wrong with that. But when he speaks about Trump, it sounds to me like he's a fan. Great. Based on what? Just the way he said, I want to go see Trump. I could say that five times on camera. When he talks about, you know, the anthem and this and that. I don't feel like he's BSing. Don't care. Don't care. Don't care. You don't care. Okay. And that's the only way that the people who are outraged about Colby Covington are making the cycle continue.

I have people who I think are fairly smart and they're like, does he really like Trump? Does he really believe the things that you say? I'm like, you're falling for it. It doesn't matter. The fact that you're even asking me shows that it's working, that you're thinking about it, that you're wondering. Okay, tell me this. Yes. If Kobe Covington was RDA, right?

Same kind of personality. It doesn't talk a lot of smack, very respectful. Robert Whitaker. Would he be in this position? No, not at all. So how is it not working? Okay, let me say, let me say likely not or likely not as fast. It took RDA a while to break into that title conversation at lightweight,

and then he continued that momentum on. Probably wouldn't even gone in the RDA fight. I think Covington is, look, Covington just beat RDA. So there's no doubt that there was a point where he could have climbed the ranks and been in this title picture. Do I think it would have happened as fast? Do I think there'd be as much heat with him in the champion and sell as many pay-per-views? I don't.

So my indifference is not because I don't think it's effective. I think it's very effective. I think there's lots of people who are upset about it. Okay. Now you hear Tyrone Woodley talk that way. That I care about. So that's part of the story. Because Tyron Ridley doesn't talk like that regularly.

Exactly. Okay, but that's half the story. Don't care about the other half. That's so weird. I would, if Tyron Woodley... Are you mad at Colby? No. It's almost like he bothers you to the point where you feel...

That's the thing that I keep seeing. I keep seeing people being so quick to say they don't like Kobe or it's not working or they don't get it or it's manufactured or it's tired. Or any of those things false? Would you argue with any of those? I honestly think that's false. It's not manufactured. It's not tired. I don't think it's tired.

I was sitting at the ceremonial wayans and let's be honest, ceremonial wins, you know, you want to know my theory? You want to know my honest theory about this whole Wayne thing? I think Dana White, with the new era coming up, I think he wants the wayans to mean something. I think that this is what this is all about, honestly. I think he's making a mistake. I'd love to know who we talked to. We spoke to 10 people, face-to-face, all these other people.

I have not met one person, but that's neither here nor there. All I do know is, if that is his intention, he's right, because the ceremonial wanes mean nothing. And, you know, for the TV partner, Fox, ESPN. There's a broadcast product there. It's a thing to sell, right? So I sit there and who are the people going to these wands? The hardcores.

Yeah, the hard cores though, right? They know what happened already. So it's maybe just people who want to see, you know, these guys step on a scale. It's just a fun thing to do and it's free. I was there on Friday. RDA and Covington got bigger pops than Whitaker and Romero easy. Got bigger pops than punk and Jackson easy.

Got bigger pop. That fight got the biggest pop of the mall, the duo. Cheers for RDA, former champion who was never cheered for like that and booze for Colby and then and then at the the open workouts on on on Wednesday the same thing how could you be like

well because how could you say it's tired at the end of the day no no no again you said it's tired again I think it's working I think it's effective I think there are plenty of people who will give it attention just not your cup of tea the end result is important though CM Punk is getting a lot of attention was that fight was that juice worth to squeeze

but look at Colby keeps winning I think Colby's great don't care for the antics. All right, look. Just not my thing. All right, fair enough. Indifferent. But we have to...

He doesn't get me outraged. But I also, I'm not laughing along with it either. You can't say that. It's like, oh, this is fun. This is different nerd tiers. Like, it's kind of fun. As long as he doesn't cross the line, as long as he doesn't get racist or homophobic or anything of that nature.

Yes. Insensitive towards anyone. Like, there has to be a line. Like, to me, oh, soy boy, this that, I can live with all that. Sure. Nerd tears, whatever. All that stuff. The promo of it. Even the spoilers. Just don't follow

the guy. Block him. Who cares? You really need to see tweets from Colby Covington. Don't follow him, don't care. Yeah. But it's, you have to admit. It works. In this day and age, it is hard to elicit a reaction. And I feel like... He does it well. All right. He does it well. So I'm not saying everyone has to love him. But let's give credit where it's do. It's clearly

working. It's working. And look at Tyron. I've never seen Tyron like that. Tyron is... That's babyface Tyrone. Tyrant is agitated. And he's going to get a nice payday out of it, I think. Yes. All right. Do you have anything else?

Oh, yeah. Okay. This is a tweet from an account. I think it's like MMA memes. My vision's a little blurry. This was the post that John Jones copied for his Instagram and then delete. Me martial arts. Me and martial arts.

Him leaning over Colby's shoulder telling him, hey pussy, dishes are still there, hearkening back to when they were roommates and also to the Daniel Cornier beef, thinking better of it and then deleting it. Apparently, it sounded like Tyron Woodley almost talked him into that, into not giving him the headspace. Oh, he did delete it. Yeah, he deleted that. Oh, I didn't know that. He deleted that. That's old school John Jones. And, well, that's true, too, actually. He might have just done it on his own. But Tyrone Woodley's saying, don't give the guy the time. Huh. I was, I was actually surprised he gave him so much time. I was surprised that he went. Which one? Jones or Tyrone. The two. The two.

tweets, the Instagram. It was a lot. I was surprised. Jones is pretty petty, but funny. I think he does it well. Yeah. I like Jones on social media. I like it a lot. No, no, I know, but he doesn't usually respond like that. Yeah. It depends. I mean, he went at Chuck pretty hard. He's gone at Daniel pretty hard, or Gustafs him pretty hard. Yeah, but not someone who's not in his orbit. He does a quick burst and then he disappears. And I like it. I think it's great. Okay, let's go to the next one here. Oh, boy. Oh boy. Well, you don't have to read the whole thing, but it isn't backing.

The text is very small, but just I think more than anything, just saying congratulations. If this is the end of a career for Rashad Evans, what a fantastic one it was. Really reflective in his Instagram post here looking back at when he started this mixed martial arts journey. What a career it's been. But clearly, I think on the tail end of the career, wishing him well, if this is truly it. you know what my favorite part of this whole thing was the end where he talked about the text yeah that was the best like do you know whether to text or not it's right here the first text is always oh i lost it there the first text is always awkward after someone has been caoed with a smiley

face do i say good job nice try i love you or everything will be okay have a blessed day so i actually spoke to rashad what did you text yesterday uh yeah i'll keep that between us however um he did not retire when I asked him. Interesting. He said, you know, he's going to take some time and things like that. And maybe one could surmise that he is leaning in that direction, but I asked him flat out and he did not. I think he's a very interesting case because you don't typically hear people talking this

much about retirement and still continuing to fight. Usually they're talking about retirement. Then they have that fight and realize, oh, I was thinking so much about retirement, I'm kind of done. He's been skirting that line for a very long time, which I find interesting. But we'll see. We'll see. I think it's time. But again, that's for him to decide rather than us. Yeah, what a career. It's hard to see him get knocked out.

What a career. Yeah. That's the thing. By the way, props Anthony Smith. I mean, that guy's a beast and he's a very impressive man. Very good weight class for Anthony Smith. Yeah. I think he's found a home there. And I think he's going to be a nice injection for that division. Also, shout out to Ryan Loco, who took that photo, who Rashad Evans rightfully tagged. Give people photo credit. That is a match.

Okay, next one here. Evans, not Loco. Just kidding. What else we got? Ronda Rousey, become the first female UFC Hall of Famer. Yes, this was interesting. Timing, interesting, for sure. Well, timing on the broadcast.

Yeah. Yes, of all the spots, right before Holly. But clearly deserve it. Maybe too soon. Too soon. Too soon. Look, I love the Hall of Fame. I'm a big fan of the Hall of Fame. I love one of the main people behind the Hall of Fame. He knows who he is. And he's a big fan and supporter of this program. What is the Hall of Fame now? What are we doing with this Hall of Fame? Is it just who can sell

us the most tickets? Or are we trying to turn this into a thing where it's deserved? Part of the Hall of Fame experience, part of the charm of any Hall of Fame. And this Hall of Fame certainly has its issues. It has its issues because, you know, it's a UFC, it's like a ring. It's like, it's like, it's like, yeah, when the Knicks retired jerseys, right? An individual team. So it's not a true Hall of Fame. And this is a private company, and they're allowed to honor whomever they want, whenever they want, it's their, it's their prerogative. I don't have a problem with anyone who's actually in that Hall of Fame, even Stefan Bonner, Charles Masque Lewis. It's all very well deserved. They were all very important

figures. And Rhonda is a Hall of Famer. Absolutely. But I believe there should be a bit of of separation. I believe there should be a little bit of a separation. And I feel like distance makes the heart grow fonder. This feels to me like she is just getting over everything. She is happy. She is content. She is finally opening up about what happening against Holly Holman and Amanda Nunes.

This doesn't feel like the right time to do it. Could you imagine how she is right now? So she started really talking about this when she came back to WWU, like the WrestleMania timeframe, like March April. What about next year? Think about how much more, you know, comfortable and content and at ease and comfortable with the whole MMA story in her life she will be. And I feel, so I feel like it's, it's a little soon. It's, it's, it's a little rushed. And, you know, the motives behind it make me feel a little bit weird.

So to you, the time is more important to build the nostalgia and make it feel bigger. Yeah. Because in a traditional Hall of Fame, and correct me if I'm wrong, like, I think, you'll know a little more about this than me. The time is so that you can have a more clear picture an analysis of the people or the moments that are getting in, right? So that you're not immediately being a prisoner of the moment. There's time to remove you from it so you can have a better analysis. In this case, I don't feel like that's in play as much or as necessary as much. I agree with you that I think any moment or person or thing that's been inducted so far has belonged. So So in this case, I almost don't think that the time is necessary.

Because I think we can look at it with the same eyes and feel like Ronda would have been in regardless. But I do get, if you're trying to turn these into moments, the nostalgia would be important to build. There's so many other people who could go away. Right? There's so many other people. I just don't feel like she's at ease with M.M.A. I don't feel it. Maybe I'm wrong and I'll be happy to be wrong.

Don't get me wrong. She deserves to be in. Sure. I thought Brock Lesner. should be in, you know? And of course, he fought longer than her. And long ago, he debuted. So, I don't know, it just felt a little forward.

And then maybe, I know this is going to come across as me sort of nitpicking. But the video montage, did you see it? I didn't, actually. Oh, really? I didn't see it. Okay. It was just a little much. It was like, you know, like we didn't cure cancer here.

You know what I mean? It was nice. It's all very well. But it was just, like, she made us think differently about this and this. And it's like, yeah, guys, come on. You know, it's like, no, you didn't think it was. I didn't see it. I didn't see it.

I mean, it was so long. It was just like, oh, geez, guys. So I don't know. But, I mean, inarguably, a Hall of Famer, maybe the timing could have waited. And definitely the timing in terms of when in the broadcast. But inarguably belongs there. It's weird because Holly beat her. So, like, is it insulting to Holly to do it, or was it insulting to Rhonda?

Why? Why? Why then? Just any other time. Do it after, like, the tie to Vavas? Any other time. Any other time. Of all the fights.

Okay, let's go to the next one. Speaking of all the fights, this one, a rematch, Demetrius Johnson versus Henry Sohudo 2 booked for UFC 227. Great fight. Love that. Henry's very excited, so he's going to figure him out. Yeah. I do think that Henry got the first.

first fight to early in his career. So I'm curious now, you know, how you can get to figure this out? Interesting position for the division with Pettus now beating Benevides. Yeah, that's true. Another potential challenger for Demetrius now. But I'll also say the best part about this is that it's the same day as TJ versus Cody. Imagine TJ wins, DJ wins. Yeah. Now it feels like the stars are really aligned.

You really have to do it at that point. Okay, let's go to the next one. Do what you were doing before, guys, if you can put it. when you put it here, put it there too. So there you go. Okay, this one. Looking back at you. Alex Nicholson, the huge knee at PFL.

Let me see that one more time. Did you watch PFL? I did. Actually, that was pretty good. Great knee. Yeah, I mean, it was a good card. It would have been nice if the Sean Jordan fight hadn't fallen off. But the graphics were way nice, sir. Yeah, well, it was a much cleaner broadcast.

Graphics were way nicer. And you know what? I didn't hate the standings. No. I thought I'd hate it, but I didn't hate it. It creates good drama. I think it was good. We'll see how that kind of plays out

over the course of the season. This is just the one card. But it led to some great moments like that knee right there. It also made me think, man, if you just let the fighters have two sponsors on their quote unquote uniforms, all the difference in the world.

Yeah. All the difference in the world. And it's not even close. I would even argue that those shorts and stuff, like those are nicer than the UFC Reebok ones. I'm sorry, I give you enough love over the last few months.

The kits are just... Yeah. They're just bad. Sponsor should be part of this. Okay. Next one. Derek Krantz here from LFA 42. I believe... Let's just listen to it. Plans on what to do against you.

How do you think he's going to fight you? I think he's going to try to hit me in my face as hard as he can. Great analysis from Derek on that one. Moving on to the next one. Oh, yeah. Oh, Justin Willis. Doing a good thing here. Saying any former or current foster child under 18 in San Jose

that wants to improve their self-esteem, self-control, self-awareness and self-defense at the top MMA school in the world, it's on me, contact myself, and then also tagging AKA and Javier Mendez. You spoke to Justin about this very thing, you know, the foster care program. Incredible. Beautiful.

Sponsoring children. what's better than that teaching them what a minch uh self-esteem self-defense big pretty get paid uh our i think no not our last one our second to last one anthony bourdain i definitely can't read um the text here but this post um by john danaher uh reposted also by henzo gracie a member of that jiu jitsu school um really i feel like a very like um tied in figure with the m m mj a bjj communities the whole fight community especially here in New York, so many people hurting and missing Anthony Bourdain at this moment. So condolences to the family, you know, every thought and prayer and anything that can be said is, but missing a great figure in Anthony Borda. Oh, what a legend. Did you ever meet him?

I met him one time, yeah. And you met his ex-wife? Octavia, yeah. Yeah. What was it like? What were the circumstances when you met him? I was with Jesse Katz from Roots of Fight. Yeah. I met him. Wait, were you with Chuck Mittenhall too when he met him? I would, maybe not. Weirdly enough, Chuck Mindenhall, and after the beat a couple of weeks ago, was talking about having dinner with Jesse Katz. And I think, oh, Michael Bispin came,

but Anthony Bourdain was there. He just casually. Those are the circumstances that it would happen. Yeah, just so tied to the community. Everybody's heart kind of hurting at this time. Crazy way to wake up Friday. I woke up to that news. Also, Kate Spade earlier in the week, both taking their own lives.

But I was a huge fan of just his, you know, I'm not a big foodie per se, but I was a big fan of his interview style. Fantastic. Simple questions, simple approach. Don't overthink it. 100%. It brings to mind the fact that he had the Diaz brothers on his show, like so much a part of this community. How cool is it that, that table? Did you see that where he had dinner with President Obama?

And they've now put it in a glass case in Vietnam, I believe it was. Yeah. So, may he just touch so many people, so many people hurt. Okay, and this last one, I think is the last one? Okay. Pidi and Gia, one of the initial Rick's Ticks submitters, you're going to need your headphones for this one. Sent us a few messages from some fighters that he was able to talk to.

Whoa, whoa, wait, let's start this again. I do triathlons. They have to cycle through every marathons, get my bicycle on, my swim on. Oh, it's not really neat. But your run has been pretty cool too.

So, uh, congratulations, I guess, or whatever. I don't usually do this kind of shit, but usually people the one we missed, I think was really old. It was very good. Sappy goodby and whatnot. Uh, I don't know where I come

from, people like that get slapped. Yes. Not women, though. No. You shouldn't slap women. No. I'm not going to get into all that, though, right now. It's whatever.

What I can say about that right now is I did not hit her. It's not true. It's bullshit. I did not hit her. I did not. It's a room reference. Oh, hi, Ariel. Anyway, yeah.

It's a good luck at your new job doing ESP or whatever. But you've got to keep. keep one thing, but one thing. You gotta keep fucking New York Rick. That's your boy. Yes. Tell ESP, whatever.

They gotta bring him on too. At some point, don't be all afraid or whatever of your new bosses. Don't be scared, homie. You got to take care of your homie. But anyway, yeah, good luck, man. Whatever.

That's pretty good. Uh-oh. Everything my brother just said is fucking 100%. Thanks you guys at MMA Hour. Always keeping it real. Ariel Hawani and New York, Rick. I think he's better. I think he's better.

I think he's better. These are in his wheelhouse. It's the Machita. The Diaz brothers. And then there'll be a surprise one. I didn't know he did this for the thing. DJ Pan here. I don't have a lot of time.

I just want to say congratulations to Ariel in the MNMM. M.A hour, but I also got to say, Ariel Hawani, if you guys don't hire New York Rick at the new place, I'm going to kill you, and I'm not joking about this. Hey, Christopher Walken here. Wow. Very good walking. Now, I just want to say the MMA hour, congratulations. Ariel Hawani, New York, Rick, you guys, wow.

I feel bad because he had some great. the years of amazing shows, guests, interviews. This is great. All of it. This is really good. Stella. Amazing. Much love from all of us out here in podcast listening land, but especially from your boy,

Christopher Walken. Bon voyage, my good, good friends. Thank you. Thank you, P. One thing I've always wondered was, PDG are two different people? I'm guessing maybe a girlfriend or a wife, I don't know. But who runs the account? PD.

Okay. Big MMA guy. Big MMA guy, big fan of the show. New Yorker? Yes, I think like Long Island, maybe? Definitely a New Yorker. Okay. Definitely a New Yorker.

But yeah, that's it for Rick's picks. We have a montage, right? We do. We have a montage. So this show started June 16th, 2000, it started with your eye of favor. Michael David Smith was also on the show and a guy named Michael Rubens

who was an executive at AOL. For some reason, the show started with him sitting next to me. It was so strange. This is how we're on. And I've told the story many times, right? Let me just tell it one more time. For old time's sake, I'm at AOL, it's 2009. And, you know, 2008, I'm working for MMA rated. That's the first job. And

it goes from April to November of 2008. The site's doing really well. We're breaking all kinds of news. We broke the news that Kent Shamrock was out, all that stuff, against Kimbo, of course. A week later, the site is no more.

I go to San Jose to cover a Strike Force event, headlined by Bobby Southworth and... Oh, who was it? Was it Mike Kyle? In any event, Bobby Southworth was in the fight. And I get the call

a day before the fight. I'm already in San Jose. I flew from New York to San Jose. It was the same time as UFC191, Brock Leicester versus Randy Gouture, but I couldn't go to that because the UFC wouldn't credential me at the time. So for all those people, like my friend...

Is that 91? 991. Yeah, 91. Geez. My friend Mike Pendleton, he, you know, he was talking to me about credentials. Like, it takes a while. Yeah. And I'm in San Jose.

I get the call that tomorrow is my last day. The site has been sold. It's shutting down. We're done. I couldn't believe it. That same night, A.K., the entire damn team gets fired, right? Because of the video game. So what do I do?

I say, all right, well, it's my last day. I'm going to go to A.K., I'm going to get some interviews. Go out on a high note. So we interview Mike Swick and Kane Velasquez, and of course, John Fitch, Javier Mendez. It was a surreal day. Got to be a part of the whole thing. And then eventually we saw that they unbanned them and they came back.

Anyway, just surreal. But I was done. Took me a few months, worked on Prime Time. right, UFC primetime, the BJPN, GSP one, got a job in March with versus.com, which was a bit of a weird job, you know, it's just like working for the website. It's just like, what is versus dot com? But it was great. I'll be forever indebted to those people, you know, Scarborough, who got me the opportunity, but it was when Michael David Smith reached out to me to work for Fan House. And Brian Tucker, who is here, hired me. And I remember taking whatever they offered, I just wanted to get in.

One of the first things I did was an interview with Kung Lee, another interview, with Gina Carrano and we were off and running. And I remember walking by the AOL offices and I remember seeing this podcast room. And I was like, whoa, this is incredible. This is a room and there's a camera and there's a microphone. And it's like, we could do a show here. We can do an actual show like the Howard Stern show. And the initial plan was 15 minutes. 15 minutes. They wanted to give me 15 freaking minutes. We settled on an hour and it was called Fight House Radio for three episodes. and then eventually we found out

that Fight House as a name was taken by a gym here in New York so we changed it to the MMA hour and one of the episodes early on I remember we were going

to the Cyborg Gina Carrano press conference at MSG and we did this episode right after UFC 100 we did this episode we were done and I had to rush

to go to MSG and I unplugged my computer and I unplugged the wrong computer and the entire show was lost it was the computer that had recorded the show

it wasn't live so I just did I just did this whole show show. I remember Kevin Blackstone was on. I'm sure Brian will remember this. Yeah, because he ripped on on MMA. I don't know why I had him on, but he worked for Fan House. And I pulled it, and I lost the whole show. I was so upset. I mean, that's how this thing started. It was, it was taped. The camera was crappy. And then of course, you know, we evolved, we evolved, we evolved, we went to a new studio. Then the site was sold. Remember, the site was sold in 2011?

And Jim Bancoff was on the show. It was kind of like the NWO taking over. And then we had that one episode, the worst episode ever with John Jones in studio. John Jones in studio in that control room. And then we had to take a little bit of a break. That's when you came on board, built the studio, 34th Street. So let's look at the montage here because now you'll have a bit of an appreciation. Here's the beginning that I'm talking about the AOL days. Let's see it right over here. There it is. That's episode number one. You see I'm wearing the same shirt. Same shirt. That's Michael Rubens. That's the executive. That's Josh Adi sitting right next to me. That's the room. Look at that. Unbelievable. Same shirt, little younger, three less kids in my life.

Did you intentionally wear this shirt today for that? Yes, absolutely. Here's the birthday king himself, Alice Jo Overeem. See, and then we involved to that. There was nothing on my desk. Look at that freshly shaven head. A little too short. Overeem looks exactly the same. This was the worst episode ever. This is not John Jones, but we did it. It was WWF Livewire. We did it in the... control room. It was a horrible day. I thought the show was dead. I was so, I was heartbroken after this. I thought the show was dead. And then we evolved to this. This was the first look, right? There's Rhonda, our old friend. You remember building this studio? I do. I carried a three foot piece of

plexiglass to put in the booth to make it soundproof. Unbelievable. It was just like in the corner of this office in the winter, it was freezing, right? We had some good memories there. Yes. There's our friend, the Winnebago man. By the way, I was talking to a former employee of his in Chicago, and he told me that he had never seen Bjorn so mad when we had Eddie call in. You remember when he was on

and Eddie called in him? He said Eddie Bjorn freaked out about that. Then we evolved to this look. Do you remember how tight it was in there? It was ridiculous. The fighters could barely even like... Look at this. Although Rampage maximize the space for sure. Yeah, look at that. I mean, look at that thing.

Look how tiny it was. There was another set in the back of it. You see that? This is so long ago that Gangnam style was a thing. Yes. There's Michelle Beatle, my soon-to-be colleague. How about that? I kind of like this look, by the way.

I know. You liked it. I was okay with it as well. I didn't hate that. I feel like they didn't like it. But I was okay with it. This interview, by the way, is featured in the Conno McGregor documentary.

Yeah. This is when I said, oh, look at you, Mr. Superstar, oozing confident. He said, did you not notice that the first time, Ariel? Because he was late. He was tardy. I was very upset that day. I was like, this guy's 1 and 0. We did that look for a long time, and I do feel like it was, it felt tight because of the...

So you liked when we opened it up here? I liked when we opened it up. Really? Because a lot of people didn't like it. I like the completely open, the glass, the best, to be honest. Sure. It was a nice look. Here was cool because we saw your Benson-Henderson thing over there, right? That's where you used to sit back in the old studio. Yeah. And so I thought that that was nice. And then we came back here. Then we moved to this studio. Yes, we moved here, so we brought back the old look for a second.

This is the Nate Diaz special. It did feel a little tighter, right, when you had the walls. There's just nothing. It's all the wood in the back. You can't see any break in the fold. And here's today. That was a big moment. Look at this guy.

Yeah. Just a few days removed from his fight. Look at the camera angles. I mean. It was, I mean, look at that evolution, right? Unbelievable. Incredible. And, oh, there we're going to.

Look at that. Oh, well, you. Done. That was a good take right there. Austin. We just evolved from GSP to, you know, it's an upgrade, I'd say. Yeah, but it is amazing when you think about it. I really thought that show in the control room, I thought the show was dead.

And that was what, 2011? And we survived seven more years. At the time, were you thinking that this is the biggest thing ever? Were you thinking this is it? Getting into this control room, the one camera, these microphones. I thought it was dead. No, I didn't think we would survive after that episode because that was not coming back there. But before that?

Yeah. When that was a reality, were you thinking, I've done it? No, this is it. Absolutely not. I'll tell you the truth. I think I've told the story. SB Nation was buying MMA fighting from AOL in October of 2011. DJ versus Cruz, Washington, D.C., Kevin Lachlan and Jim Bankoff asked me to meet in a hotel lobby.

And they said, we want to talk to you. Kind of had a feeling something was up. And they said that we want to buy M.A. Fighting. We want to bring you to SB Nation. And as I said to them, I wasn't a big fan of SB Nation at the time. And so I was like, yeah, well, SB Nation, what is SB Nation? There was no such thing as Vox.

There was nothing else. And so they basically made a deal with me. They're like, you stay loyal to us. We will stay loyal to you. Like, if you don't hide tail in a month, we're going to be in this together and stay loyal. And I would argue, and I brought up this point on Saturday to Esther and Casey, I would argue that in the past 10 years or so, no independent media outlet has supported mixed martial arts more than this company. Absolutely. And in particular, those two people. I would argue that no one has consistently, every trip we wanted to do, every show we wanted to do, the upgrade of the studio, MMA Beat, whatever we wanted, special edition, going on the road, hiring more people.

it's the most robust team in the sport, I would argue that no outlet has supported this sport and covered this sport better than this company for this amount of time consistently. Yes, there's a bunch other, and independently with no help. In fact, you can argue that we've done it,

you know, despite... Yeah, despite being independent. Some roadblocks along the way. So they really kept their word. And so when the show was over, from the AOL. I was like, I don't know if you guys really realize what it takes to do this show. It's not like brain surgery, but it's still a live broadcast.

Like, you have to have the right player. You have to have all that stuff. And we did that show. And I was like, oh, this is done. And then they said, no, we're going to figure it out. They found you. You found us? I'd read the email.

No, let's do that for the hundredth time. Maybe we skipped that one. And you made it happen. We were dark for like three months or so, I think. It was December or like late November even. No, we were past that. That was December. You started in January.

Yeah, no, when I first reached out, the show wasn't, the show wasn't live at that time. Right. It was in that period, and then, like late January, February is when it started back up, and that's when I joined it. Yeah. And then once we got in there, I mean, of course, it was tight, but I just wanted to show that work. The worst part was when we would have technical difficulties, like when it didn't, like the show didn't air. I remember Joe Rogan being on once and there were technical difficulties. I remember Benson Henderson making the announcement that he was signing with Bell Tor and the thing stopped

airing. Ever since we moved to this studio, it has been phenomenal. It has been incredible. But I remember back then. And I will say that, I mean, it has been a revolving door of people who have worked on this show. It really has. I mean, and they would never tell me. They would just bring in people. Oh, this is the new guy. Will, an appearance in the back. Today. Original, yeah, one of the original audio. It has been a revolving door. I mean, I couldn't, I, I, I, I, I, I could spend 30 minutes going through all the names. Sure.

But the group in the back, whoever's left at this point today, by far the best. Austin, Joe, Miles, Carrie, Paige, Alex, who isn't here. 1,000 percent. Danny, who's a part of the show in the back. I wish I could clone those people. Honestly, it's not even a question. By far the best group. And look how the show is.

It rolls better than it ever has. So a lot of people ask you about what's next. Do you want to tell us what's next? This will be my last show. This will be my last time doing the MMA hour. What's next is still up in the air, still to be determined. But this will be my last show with MMA fighting and the MMA hour. So we'll see what happens.

I'm excited for the potential. I don't have anything definitive at the moment. Yeah, and a lot of people ask me about what's next, and this isn't the time I don't think to talk about what's next. I've I think laid it out pretty clearly on Twitter a few times, but people keep asking me. But as I've said to you, and I've said on this show before, this isn't the end.

People, you know, just have a little patience. It is not the end. Just have a little patience with me. But, you know, I think it was important for you to tell people because I know you've been getting hit up a lot. And so you still have a job. Oh, yeah. Your employer, John Beer, even texting me during this.

He's probably thrilled to have you now five days a week. A lot of people don't know that I don't work for MMA fighting. Yes. Full time. I have a full-time job. I come in for the show, and this will be the last one. He commented on your shirt. I thought he was going to write something.

No, of course not. I know. The moment you said he texted you, I already knew what he said. You knew he was going to make fun of your shirt? 100%. So yeah, so for now, it's back to that. That's right. It will live on.

New York Creek will live on. I mean, I'm not going anywhere. We'll get your bad takes on Twitter. Sorry, by the way. Wait a minute. Just recently, you told me my takes are pretty good. You had one stretch where it was just phenomenal. I think it was a fight card.

I think I'm one of the pound for pound best, I'd argue. I mean, of course, your calves are headed back to the lottery very soon. I'm sorry about that. I'm sure you're at peace because you saw that. is coming. The timing of the injury announcement, you know, I didn't hate it as much as other people. I did think it was interesting when they were showing on NBA TV like zoom in on his hands and gave to him like, how did you guys know though? Like, why were you zooming in on his hand and no one reported on this? I feel like LeBron's team leaks things. So they say shoot this now,

but you could only release it after? You know, shoot that and then there'll be a time where that becomes valuable. Huh. All right. Wow, that's where we went. The Cavs? I feel like that's... I feel like that's a perfect place to go. The Cavs picking ahead of the next, eighth pick. You have the ninth pick.

We'll obviously get something good and you guys will be left with the drags. Oh, absolutely. It's going to be Jordan Hill. I actually like Jordan Hill. Come on. So, he was good. We got Jordan Hill after Steph Curry

and then before DeMarre Rosen. Kidding me? Anyway, we don't have enough time to talk about that. It's getting late. Maybe we'll do a little bit of the show. show one day. We never know. Anything else you want to say before you said? Yeah, I want to say thank you to Pizzi, the man for, for this. Thank you for the show for so many years. We're not, we're not going to reread the email, but it all happened with one email. Timing, I think was one of the best things in

my favor. Couldn't have worked out better. Lord knows, I've gotten a lot of emails. Yeah, I need it. I can only imagine I've gotten so many. I can only imagine how many you've got, but it worked out. It worked out and I've done almost seven years. Seven years in December. So we're almost there. Incredible. What a run. It was a good run. And you were the people's champ. They always pulled for you. The people, for whatever reason, were very loyal towards you. So I think, you know, they are owed a thank you as well because they always had your back with the MMA beat. Getting you on there, right? They always had your back. The questions, the checking in on me, everybody over the last couple of weeks, Just wondering what's ahead.

It just means the world to me, and I said it on Twitter. You'll see me soon, but I'm so thankful for the audience that I've had over the years. That one time I hosted, my Twitter's never blown up like that before. I owe it all to you, and I owe it all to the fans. I owe a big debt to Brian Tucker and all the other people at MMA fighting. It's been an incredible run on the MMA hour. Do you think you'll get a haircut now that's over? No.

No, of course not. What about shaving? Maybe we could work on that? That might happen sooner rather than later, but the hair, it's here for now. Wow. Okay. Look, there's going to be a time where I lose it. For now, I still got it. It's like you got a pretty good hairline there. I don't think you're losing it anytime soon. Look at that. All right. Now you can say goodbye.

Goodbye, everybody. Thank you very much. It's been real. This show is not the same without Eric. But I'm saying goodbye without you. You can't stick around for the goodbye. No, this is me. It started with me. it ends with me. See you late, Eric. As he leaves my show. I mean, you can at least take the chair, for goodness sake, this guy. Unbelievable. I have to look at the back of your chair. Come back one more time. Oh, yes. That was fun. Great to have him in studio. What a nice little get-together that was. And by the way, we didn't do our question of the day. So let me just get to that very quickly before we

bid adieu, because I think it is important for consistency's sake. Question of the day. Oh, I tweeted a lot today. Maybe in your Rick knows the answer to this. Oh, here it is. 23,000 votes. Robert Whitaker. I asked, who do you think won Saturday night's main event? 47% for Robert Whitaker. 29% for you all, Romero, 24% said draw. So how about that? Look at that. Robert Whitaker. Much love. 22,9.72. All right, my friends, the time has come.

Like I said, I have been dreading this for quite some time. And like I said on Saturday, I hate goodbyes. I like see you later's. But I do have to say thank you. I do have to say thank you most importantly to the fighters, who each and every week I've told you I've left the show and I get emotional because of the time that they take out after wins, Holly home, Yule Romero, after losses, Robert Whitaker on his way to the airport.

good moments, bad moments, retirement announcements, coming in studio. I thought about writing down every single name. It would take me too long to read all those names. You all know who the names are. Every single person under the sun has been on this program. And it's amazing to me to think what it started and where it became. And the part that means so much to me is that the fans who say is part of my routine, I met this young man in Chicago on Wednesday who told me that he's in med school.

And his only escape is this show when he needs a break. And sometimes his wife walks into the room and he minimizes the screen because he doesn't want her to see that he's watching the show. Like that's what some people do when they're watching, you know, some X-rated stuff maybe. He's watching this. This is his escape. And that's just the greatest compliment in the world. That means the world to me that you choose,

each and every week, each and every Monday, that you choose to watch this show, to listen to this show as your escape, because I do that with other shows. You have a million podcasts to choose from. That you would choose this one means the world to me. One thing we did a long time ago that I'd love it if you could do it again. A bunch of people tweeted me where they like to watch or listen to the show from all over the world. And that stuff really means a lot. So feel free to do that if you want, I love seeing that stuff. But I want to thank the fighters. I want to thank the fans.

I want to thank you for your support. I want to thank you for sticking with the show through the good and the bad when it was a nothing show when it wasn't live in that small room during the technical difficulties. Even those people who said, you know, this lineup sucks. I know it's because you cared and because this was the show of record. And of course, there was no more important show in the history of this program than episode 333 in June.

of 2016 because I walked into that studio thinking that my career was over and I don't think it was the show necessarily that saved me. I know it was you guys that saved me. But the fact that I had a show and a platform helped a lot, I think. And it's still till this day the most watched show in the history of this program. I was given the numbers recently and it still is till this day. And that's a day that I will never forget, and that's why I always feel indebted to all of you. I always feel like I work for you and that I owe you everything because you guys saved my career. I would not be covering this sport. No one would want to hire me because I would be on the outside looking in. And we did it on this show together. And so thank you for everything. Thank you for always supporting the show.

Thank you for always being there. Thank you for always listening and downloading and watching and tuning in and asking for more and never complaining about the length. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you to Vox. Thank you to MMA fighting. Thank you to SB Nation. Thank you to Jim Bankoff. Thank you to Kevin Lachlan. Thank you to Brian Tucker. Thank you to Elena Bergeron. Thank you to the leaders of this company who allowed the show to continue for all this time, who always gave us support, who built us this new studio, who rebranded the show. This doesn't happen in other sports. And this kind of thing is very special. So thank you. Thank you so much to the leaders of this company who gave us the opportunity to do this.

This is all I want to do is interview people, and it was a dream getting to do this show for nine years. Thank you very much to my friends, my colleagues, former and present at MMA fighting. You know who you are. Those individuals, you may not know this, but they are very important to this show, not only for their appearances on the program, but also the articles help promote the show, help get the word out about the show. show, it's very important. And this show would not be the same without them. It really wouldn't. And so I really want to thank them and I will miss working with them. But as I've said to most of them, I don't think it's goodbye. I think it's see you later. And I also want to give a special shout out to Esther and Casey because I've been working with them in addition to Brian Tucker. But

you know, on the scene at the events for a very long time, dating back to UFC 104 in 2009. And it has been an incredible run working with them. And I don't think that I was able to do the work that I wanted to do without them. They're incredibly talented. And they just, you know, the work that they put out was so little resources in terms of, you know, no big elaborate equipment, lighting. audio that's like it's just two people. And very often it's just me and Casey, like the punk interview on Wednesday. It's just me and him. Other people would make this whole grandiose thing. And he never needed that. So it's been an honor and a pleasure to work with them as well. I have to thank the crew once again for all the work behind the scenes and specifically New York Rick.

I don't think this show lasts without him. One of the most loyal people I've ever met, one of the the best friends that I have, and I really appreciate everything that he has done for this show. I'm not sad, and I know a lot of people make fun of me for crying. I'm not sad in a bad way, but it's always sad when it's the end of something. So I'm very much looking forward to the future. It's my dream, but I'll miss some of these people. And I just want to thank everyone for being so loyal to the show. you guys are going to kill me for all the gifts and stuff but I guess it's just fitting.

It's been great. So I'm not retiring. I'm just an emotional guy and I care so much about this show. A lot of people have been asking me what is that going to happen to it? That's not my story to tell. maybe one day I'll tell you what I would like to happen to it, but that's not my story to tell right now. For now, this is my last time sitting in this chair, and it's been the time of my life, and I've loved it, and I just want to thank you all for giving me your Mondays and inviting me into your life, your car, your phone, your computer, whatever the case may be, it's just been unbelievable. I'm still covering the sport. I will have a show on Mondays. It's all going to be good.

but this is the end of something that really meant a lot to me and really changed my life. So thank you once again to everyone who helped make it happen. Austin, you can hit my music, my man, for one last time. I remember sitting in that chair with Josh, the guy who was sitting next to me in that first episode. He played me two songs, two songs. The first one that you hear at the beginning of this show and the second was this one. And I said, let's just do the first one for the beginning. Let's do the second for the outro.

And there we were. And thank you to Lenny Hart for allowing us to use her call of my name. Thank you to my family as well. I started this show when I was just a husband and now I have three kids and I couldn't be happier. I couldn't be luckier. And to go home to them every week is the greatest gift. And of course, thank you to my parents. And thank you to my mom who never missed an episode and who would show my dad all the highlights later on Monday evening and to my brothers and sisters as well.

I love them all very much and it's been a great run. And now we'll go off and do other things. Thank you to all who tuned in. Thank you to all who stopped by. Thank you, Robert Whitaker, Bill Romero, Abe Kawa, Malki Kawa. Thank you, Kobe Covington. Thank you, Carlos Barza. Thank you Chris Widman.

Thank you, Ally Quinta. Thank you, Tyron Woodley. Thank you, Mike Jackson. Thank you, Curtis Blades. Thank you, Matt Mitrione, and Sean McCorkel. Thank you, Mark Hunt. Thank you, Kamara Usman. Thank you, Holly Holm.

Thank you, Your Eye Faber. Thank you, Dominic Cruz, as well. And one more time, thank you to all of you. It has been an amazing run, and I can't wait for what's next. Back very soon. Same time, different place. until I say peace. I'm out of here.