MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour: Episode 486 (w/ Artem Lobov, Brendan Schaub, Dan Hardy)

Episode Date: June 24, 2019

On this episode of The MMA Hour, Luke Thomas speaks to Artem Lobov about his big win over Paulie Malignaggi at BKFC6, their heated rivalry, what’s next, more; Dan Hardy about the big UFC events coming up in July, UFC Greenville, more; Brendan Schaub about BKFC 6, more. We also take your questions on the latest news in MMA on Sound Off and A Round of Tweets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It is Monday, June 24th, 2019, and this is the MMA hour. Welcome, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I am the host of this program. Thank you so much for joining me. A very special edition today for two reasons. One, it's the one-year anniversary of me beginning to host it. And number two, special announcement at the very end of it. I think you're going to want to hear. So, with that out of the way, though, we have a lot to get to today. Trio of great guests. Number one, from the very first show that I hosted, Dan Hardy will be here. We'll recap the action from the weekend with him. Also, from the first show I did, former UFC 5. podcast, extraordinaire, comedian, and so much more. Brendan Schaubb will be here. And then the goat himself. Fresh off a win over Pauli Malinagi at BKFC. Artem Lobov joined us, I think, at about 120 Eastern or so. Plus, you will join me.

You will be my guest, as always, not one, two different ways. First, with the tweets, using the hashtag the MMA hour, we'll respond to some of those. And then with the calls using the phone number 844-866-24-68, or, of course, using the hotline. You can just email the voicebook, B, Emily Hour at boxmedia.com. So, yes, I took over this show about a year ago, I think a year ago tomorrow. So, this is the one-year anniversary, and with that we will have something to share in terms of news.

But you've got to join me all the way through the show today and at the very end. But I hope to make it worth your while. Okay, let's get the tweets going if we can, though. How's that? Whenever you're ready. All right. First question gets answered soon as the clock starts. There it is.

I never get that right. There we go. All right. Where would Rafael Lavato Jr. be in the UFC middleweight rankings right now if he fought for the UFC? I'd say top five, top five, maybe even top three.

I don't think folks understand how good he is. He's good enough to either hurt you on the feet or defend himself on the feet, right against, let's say, better strikers. And on the ground, who is better than him on the ground in the middleweight division? You could say Demi and Maya, but Demi and Maya couldn't take Levato down.

I don't think. I think he'd be too slick for it. And I don't think Levatos to hardly take... He's 35, but he hasn't taken hardly any damage. So you never know who could win, who could not, you know, whatever, but easily top five. Easily. All right, next. How impressed were you with Duran win? Do you think middleweight's...

Middleweight, excuse me, is his correct division. I was very impressed by him. That height differential and that adaptation by Eric Spicely was so great when he went for the clinch because if someone's taller than you, those knees up the middle, not just through the clinch, but through other attacks, they're always going to be there. So for me, I was very impressed, but I do think that's going to be something he's going to have to work on through the entirety of his career because that's always going to be a problem. So, but, you know, fast hands, good boxing, stand switching, aggressive. Seemed like he was pretty powerful.

Good wrestling, obviously, which you'd seen this fight and many others. I was very impressed. The guy's a tank. Has some growing to do, but is a tank. Next. Past six editions of BKFC, how far do you think the promotion can go as far as popularity plus? after the fight between Pauli and Lobov, do you think it will attract more

MMA fighters and or boxers to Bradknuckle? It will attract more if they can get paid more, which remains to be seen. How far do you think the promotion can go as far as popularity? As far as they can drive rivalries and produce stars, which to me remains very unclear. I'm not saying not that I would bet against most things.

Like when you watch this fight, like to me, you can score it either way for me. If you want to score it for Pauly, fine. If you want to score it for Ardom, fine. Artem did more damage, I think, pretty clearly. So yeah, I scored for Arden. But Pauley kind of outboxed him, but Ardham kind of out damaged and muscled him, especially in those later rounds, and then the end of that third.

So it's like, how much did you really learn? Like, if it was a pure boxing event, it seems like Pauley would have done pretty well. And in MMA, obviously, Arden would have smoked him. And you got something that was kind of in between, but it wasn't bad. It was just Pauley didn't throw him. I don't know how much you really got out of it. It was fine. I was interested in it.

Don't even wrong. I'm not above it. but what did you learn? I don't know. Next. Thoughts on T. L. Sanin's comments about you. Yeah, you know what was so weird about that? First of all, you watched the video I made to think that there's anything but compliments in there,

you know, is just funny. But here's the thing. Why would you make a video full of verifiable, demonstrable, either outright false statements or badly misleading, ones that I can easily show to be that, which by the way, I intend to. Why would you do that?

It's like, why make a video that is so easily disproven? You want me to tell the truth? Okay, careful what you wish for. Next. Do you think Reebok will have an issue with Duranwin's Nike swoosh tattoo? Who cares? Next. Okay, what are some of the unique challenges in covering MMA as a journalist compared to other sports. And would you classify what you do as journalism or something else? I guess sometimes what I do is journalism. I don't think I do enough of it to really claim the title. There's like three journalists inside all of MMA, just to be clear.

A lot of people claim that title and then are nothing but sycophants to power. So, no, I don't think I deserve the title and I think most of my colleagues don't. Some do. What are some of the unique challenges? As you can see, if you don't have unrelentingly nice things to say about fighters, they'll make mean videos about you, which is they're right. but sort of silly. Let's see.

There's not a lot of money in it for most of the people in the space. And I don't think a lot of people are actually interested in real journalism. I think what they're interested in is entertainment journalism, which is not really journalism, but some kind of weird version of it. Which, by the way, if that pays the bills, there's nothing wrong with it exactly other than when you claim, oh, like, this is real. No, it's not. Like, if people aren't threatening you on a daily basis, it's not actually

journalism. Journalism is going after the most powerful people and holding them to account. Anything less than that is just entertainment. Next. Next, next, next. Time we have remaining. With Artem's win and BKFC, do MMA fighters farewell in bare-knuckle boxing more than actual boxers? It seems to be the case as of late. Dirty boxing clinchwork and general tough does seem to help them out a lot. Thanks, lads. Yeah, I think they do. I think the boxers are just not used to some of those, the grittiness, the gloves. I absolutely think so. I think it's much easier for, by the way, it's much easier for an MMA fighter to get into Jiu-Jitsu.

It's easier for, not easy, easier for them to make these lateral moves into all of these composite sports. So yeah, I think so. I think a lot of the boxers are used to some of the degrees of finesse. And you saw some of that. Like when Pauley could keep distance and get the jab to the body and all stuff, he was doing great. But like, later on, he was tripping over himself a lot, too.

It was kind of weird. All right. Let's go to our first guest. If we can, he joins us now through the magic of Skype. And just a great guy was on the very first episode of this show that I hosted. I said, well, we got to get him back on for the one year anniversary. Plus, there was so much content over the weekend. Who could go wrong with this guy? The one and only Dan Hardy is here. Hi, Dan.

How are you doing? Yeah, there he is. Look at Dan. Dan, did you travel this weekend? It seems like most weekends you travel. No, I was at, well, I was actually cornering this weekend. I was down in London at Bellator. with Terry Brazier. So as soon as his fight was over, I was back on the motorway, back home to watch the UFC card. So I've consumed pretty much everything that there's been, but I wasn't

at a UFC event this weekend, unfortunately. Look, can we start with the Belator main event? Did you see that? Sure, yeah, yeah. All right, so what are your thoughts on Levato? By the way, again, look, I'm going to get as many predictions wrong as I got right, but I just had a sense just knowing who he was from Jiu-Jitsu and watching him in Belator previously. Great finisher with Jiu-Jitsu. athletic can wrestle. You just knew this was going to be a problem. Musasi's amazing and it was very close. Your sense about how Levato did and why he won.

You know, he worked with strengths. I think that was ultimately it. And Gagar was never able to get ahead of him. I mean, the thing is with Gagar Musassi, you know, sometimes he shows up and he looks like a world beater. And other times he shows up and he just doesn't seem to be able to get out of third gear. And I think that some of that is down to him and the way that he, shows up and I think some of it is down to how his opponent showed for the fights.

I mean, you know, Lovato's a very, very interesting and dangerous guy the way he fights. You know, he's got a lot of experience in the grappling range. I just feel like he was able to work to his strengths more. He was able to get out of the gates faster. And I feel like Gagor was never able to really get started. How much of that not getting started can we credit to Lovato, though? Always getting after it in the first, excuse me, the first, yeah, second round. fifth round and maybe the first of the third,

always going for takedowns within 15 seconds of the beginning of the round. I get your point. It's well documented. Everything you're saying is true. On some level, though, I feel like Lovato deserves some credit to stifle him. Oh, yeah, 100%. 100%. I mean,

I just feel like Gagor just didn't look himself and Lovato showed up on the night. I feel like those two guys can battle back and forth. I feel like they'd be as interesting training partners as they are opponents, to be honest, with the way that their games interact with each other. I'm sure that Gagard's going to look back on that and see lots of ways in which he could have

found his way, you know, found his way into the fight and been able to better Lovato, but it just wasn't his night. You know, I feel like they're, I feel like they're quite evenly matched on their best days. So where would you put Lovato top 10? Where would you put I mean, I guess you have to kind of put them top 10 at this point. Where would you put them roughly, give or take? You know, it's hard to say because I feel like we kind of, we kind of the lost Musassi in the UFC rankings right at that time when he was starting to really find his groove. You know, right after he beat Uriah Hall in Manchester and he started, you know, he was trash talking at the press conference. It's the first time we'd seen that version of him.

And then I think, you know, the controversy around the Wyman fight was a real setback for him. And after that point, he stepped out of the ranking. So I don't really know where he is now. I don't really know what drives him because before he left the UFC, what was driving him was to be the best in the world. and you know and I'm not saying this in any way because I'm a UFC I work for the UFC but if you want to be the best in the world at the moment you still got to be in the UFC that's why it's difficult to compare because we we kind of don't know it's not it's not that we don't know where Musassi is we knew where he was we just don't know where he is now and

it's hard to compare where Levato is definitely top 10 though and I think you know with with the style of fighting that he's got he's an interesting antagonist to a lot of the guys in the division right now you know someone I'd love to see him face someone like Jacare. Can you imagine that? That'd be a real tussle. It's just difficult to compare because the rankings are separated. I'm all for crossover fights,

and I'm sure that a lot of people would be surprising me saying that. But like we saw the Horaguchi fight the other week in Bellas, I'm a big fan of that. I want to see these guys be tested, and I want to see the promotions invest in their champions. I mean, ultimately, you know, if you think back to, you know, what's the movie, Troy? when they call upon the champion of the army to fight instead of the whole army fighting.

I mean, that's kind of the way I like to see it. So I'd like to see those champions cross over and face each other. And I hope that one day we can get to that stage. One more question about this sort of as a general overview, which is, you look at a fight like this and you say to yourself, okay, clearly you have to be well-rounded because if you didn't have the striking skills of Lovato, which were a step down from Musassi. I think we can all agree to that.

You know, you'd be in trouble. And if you didn't have some kind of wrestling, you'd be in trouble. And if you didn't do strength and conditioning at a high, really pinpoint level, you'd be in trouble. At the same time, though, it seems like that jiu-jitsu level ace in the whole, it's still valuable in modern MMA. I feel like we tried to get a homogenized all things be good. Maybe being a jack of all trades is not as good as being the one who can do some of those things and still has that one little edge. What do you make about specialization in modern MMA? Well, I think what we're seeing right now is a reinforcement of what we learned in the very, very early U.S.

We learned that, you know, that jiu-jitsu ground-fighting skills are the dominant style of fighting in, you know, in most scenarios, because most fights move fast enough, they're chaotic enough for guys to close through striking range and end up in some kind of clinch or grappling range at some stage in the fight. And, you know, obviously, if I'm building a fighter from my perspective, I'm starting with the ground up, to be honest. I'm starting at a young age with the ground skills, and then you kind of bolt everything onto that. because once you've got the confidence on the ground, that's almost like a fighter's foundation. You know, and with someone like Levato or Damian Myers, a good example, someone that's got such a strong foundation on the ground,

anything that they build upon on that foundation is going to be much stronger, which is why you see, you know, a strong wrestler like Taran Woodlick selling so well in the striking range because he knows he's got that in his back pocket. And the difference where, you know, from my version of,

from my journey in the sport, is that I came from the top end. It was almost like I was building the roof before I built the foundation. It's kind of how I see it in hindsight. So as a striker, I'm starting with the stuff that's floating around at the top. And then I was playing catch up during my career, trying to fill in the space underneath, which is, you know, clinch work, take down defense, you know, submission defense,

and then attack at the bottom. I didn't, I built the wrong way around, you know, in a grander picture. So I think that specialization at the moment, all is proven to us is that jiu-jitsu is the strongest foundation you can have in the sport. My argument then would be that wrestling is the strongest foundation because then you can dictate the Rangers. But it for me, this, you know, MMA is not about dictating Rangers. It's about finishing people. And I think if you've got a strong specialization in grappling and striking, the wrestling is much of a muchness because you can exploit at the other ends of the spectrum

where your opponent's weak. Let's talk about the UFC card. Korean zombie is back. Just absolutely obliterating Moikano. I actually want to talk about Moikano in a second. I made this point on Twitter the night of the fight. If you were around in the sport when he was fighting Dustin Poiriers back in Fairfax, Virginia, you can't, he was like the original Justin Gagchi to an extent, something like that, where Dana White was wearing his shirts, he was known as Mr. All-action, and yet world-class, still very good. I think the casual fan, Dan, kind of forgot about it. Not the hardcore fan, but the casual fan. Wow, what a reminder that was on Saturday night. What is your take on how he did?

I was just so impressed with his timing, with his composure. And the thing is, as well, something that we've seen very little off throughout his career is what it means to him. You know, when he got upon the fence afterwards, you can see the emotion. You can see how much it means to him. And that, for me, shows a lot because that means he's going to carry that into his next fight. I just, I think he's a very exciting individual. And I was at American top team, you know, a week or so ago watching Moycana prepare. And I mean, that just adds credibility to the victory to me.

Mojano looks very, very impressive. He was sharp. He was able to maintain range with every one of his opponents very well. He was able to establish their timing very well. And that was something immediately was apparent against zombie. He just didn't see him moving. You know, it was almost like he didn't believe he was attacking him with such confidence at such speed. Here's a question that I don't know the legitimately, sometimes I say I don't know

the answer because I'm just being nice to a guest, but no, I'm being dead serious, Dan, I'm really looking for some help. I'm lost on this one. Other than when it's obvious to everybody, when do you throw in the towel on a prospect? And here's what I mean. Morcano's obviously very good. He's beaten good fighters. But I think the UFC, every time they bump him up that next level, whether it's Aldo, whether it's Brian Ortega, whether it's zombie. They keep trying to see if he can get that level. And so far he hasn't. He's age 30. Now, Sage Northcut is much younger. Aaron Pico, even younger than that. They're in different stages. But that's sort of my point. At what point can you say, this guy's going to make it, this guy's not? Because I don't

know the answer. What do you think? Well, I don't think there is an answer. I don't know. I think it depends on the individual. I think on a grander picture, I think we focus far too much on the destination in MMA. And it's a sporting mentality. We want to see the winner. We want to see the finish line. We want to know who the champion is. And the reality is that there'll always be another champion, there'll always be somebody else. And what we've seen from fighters in this sport is that because we don't bank so much on an undefeated record, because we are more forgiving in MMA and we do see people rise and fall and then rise again.

I mean, like, if I was a boxer, after two losses, I'd have been counted out. You knock me out in London and I'm not getting signed for another decent fight. You know, whereas in MMA, I was back coming, event against Anthony Johnson in my next fight. This is a, although it can seem like a very cruel sport, it is very forgiving. And from a martial arts side, like, it's not about a destination. It's about a journey. Like, you know, at what point would we have hung up the gloves on Michael Bisping

if it was up to us, you know? And it would have most definitely been before he won the title for a lot of people. We're still, we're looking at that for a cowboy now. I know he's coming off a loss, but I don't think that throw shade on the fact that he's still got a lot of potential to do something big in this sport. I mean, he's already a superstar as it is. I just, I feel like the ebb and the flow is so much more important than the destination. And for Moikano, he's, you know, I don't know how old he is off the top of my head, but he's certainly not as old as me.

And, you know, there's still time for me. So I don't check out on people until they check out on themselves. And Moikano's not that guy. Fair enough. Morcano's 30. So there's still plenty of time. He's not, he's not by any means a finished product either. So by the way, I asked you this a year ago.

You still mulling a return? You know, you know what? I'm always mulling a return. And I'll get a few days of training together. I'll be dragged off somewhere else in the world to talk about somebody else fighting instead of myself. I did spend a week at American Top Team, though, doing some filming with Amanda Nunes and a few of the fighters there. Every time I'm around Conan Silvera, I always start feeling like I'm starting a training camp. He's just, he's got that talk.

He's got that, hey, when you come in, when are you going to move in? We've got a room for you in the ATT dorms. We're going to, we've got this coach to work with and that coach to work with. And, you know, I'm there watching these fighters prepare and daydream. and then I'll come home and I'll hit the bag for a while, as you might have saw on my Instagram. I'm moving well. I feel good. I'm moving well.

I feel like this. I don't think I'll ever be able to fully retire. There's no point I'm going to be able to set my gloves off and leave me in the octagon, especially because I want to come and hang on the wall in my gym as well. I don't leave gloves behind. Yeah, I would love to fight again. I absolutely would. I've got ideas in my head of who I would like to fight and where I would like to fight,

None of that's relevant right now. What I need to do is get myself into a position where my body's moving well over a couple of months. And the USADA testing pool will give me that time. I've just got to jump in instead of dipping my toe in the water every now and then when I see Jeff Novitsky. All right. Let's talk about the other fight this weekend, the bare knuckle one. I was not one of these guys who was super opposed to it. I thought, okay, I heard that Malinagia was making stupid money for this fight.

Like the kind you could not turn down, really not turned down. Huge figure. I don't know what Artim got paid, but hopefully it was a lot as well. And I wasn't against it because I thought it was kind of interesting. It's like a boxer who's been retired for a long time but did really well in boxing versus a UFC fighter who did okay. But had new bare knuckle. MMA translates better to bare knuckle and was full of just verve to get out there. So that was kind of interesting, right?

I'm not sure what I learned. What did you learn? I learned the same from this, from this recent event as I have done from the previous ones, is at the moment everyone's fighting bare knuckle like it's not bare knuckle. And that's what I'm seeing throughout the whole sport. And that's why I knew Pauleywood struggled, not only because he wasn't a particularly powerful boxer, but because he's got very delicate hands.

You know, you take away that padding. And the other thing as well, the amount of boxes that I know that I've trained with that have damaged their hands, and the amount of martial artists that have punched many, many people in the skull with four-ounce gloves on and never hurt themselves. I feel like there's a different condition

that comes with even hitting with MMA gloves on. I did probably the first eight or ten years of my training with no gloves on at all. Sometimes I'd wrap, sometimes I wouldn't bother. And it builds the structure of the hand to make a fist, like a square block. You look at a boxer's hand in a glove and it's shaped like this.

And if Paulie was breaking his hands when he was wearing gloves, he was always going to hurt himself when he wasn't. So how do you keep off someone like Artum? You know, but the thing is like as much as we love the way that Artum fights and we say, you know, you know, that he's maybe representing MMA in some way. He's not. I mean, Artim's a fun guy to watch and he's a brawler. You know, he's got some good skills.

But as far as MMA goes, his journey didn't work out well in MMA. You know, he got to the UFC and he had some good scraps. But he's a brawler. He's a fighter. And that's why we love him. It's not a representation of MMA for me. And it's not about boxing against MMA. it's about two guys that like fighting that have fighting skills that have got a problem with each other and they want to test.

And the only thing I will say about the Beernuckle boxing thing is that if the first Beernacle Boxing event would have happened at the same time as the first UFC event, they would have evolved together in different paths, obviously, but together. You see, MMAs changed so much since that first event. And Beirnacle boxing, as it is right now, has got loads of people coming from different combat sports and trying to figure out how to fight Beirnuckle. And if you go back to like, you know, the 1900s, you know, early 20th century, if you look at photos of bare knuckle boxes, the way they stand, the way that they fight, the way they throw their punches, I've got loads of old boxing literature in my library. And, you know, you compare the way that those guys stand.

And it's far more further back. They use the back of their knuckles all the time. They're not punching like they've got gloves on. And they're not guarding like they've got gloves on. I would say that's the only reason why MMA guys that may be coming across a bit better is because they're used to not having, you know, an extra three inches of padding around their hand. But I think

bare knuckle boxing will evolve on its own. And I think eventually we're going to get guys that are pure bare knuckle boxers. And I'm excited to see that. I can't hate on somebody else's journey. I love fighting as much as the next guy. The criticism of bare knuckle boxing has been it just keeps catching people from the other relevant combat sports on their way down. I'm not saying

I necessarily endorse it, but that's the common view. Do you share some of those concerns that it's not at this point recruiting, or is this Maybe your viewpoint is maybe that's true for now, but if it keeps going, it will get its original entrance. Yeah, I think so. I look back over the years of the guys that have walked through the doors of our gym, and I would say probably 5% of them would have been much better going down the route of Baynacle boxing. And I think if they would have specialized in that, they would have developed the sport in a way that would look very different to what it does right now. I have no problem with it, really.

I think it's unfortunate that that connection has been established because it is an obvious pathway for guys that are no longer successful in MMA. And because there's no, although there are kind of, there's kind of a rough idea of a feeder league that goes up to the UFC, there are certain promotions you can fight to go up. There's nowhere that catches you when you fall from the UFC. So if you still want to continue fighting, there's nowhere that you can go after the UFC

unless you want to go back down to the lower circuits. But then that's kind of a crap shoot as to where you end. up. Whereas if you've been competing at the top level and you've got good exposure, you've been offered decent money to cross over to something different, then I don't understand why people wouldn't. I get it. I absolutely get it. I mean, in a different life in a different dimension, I'd have been a binocle boxer and I would have loved it and I'd have probably had no teeth, but it is what it is. It's just like, you know, like you're a big hockey fan. The amount of players that we get coming over to Europe that are coming to the end of their

Korea can't compete at the top level anymore. They come over here and they rough it in Europe because we have some real brawlers over here. I don't see why anybody should have the choice to cut that option off for anybody else. I just, as you said, this transition period where guys that are finding their way out of other combat sports and that's acting as a safety net for them to make some extra cash. I'm looking forward to that dynamic changing and seeing some proper bin of the boxes develop. Fair enough. What's next for you? When are you back on the road? What projects are you working on? Oh, what's next?

Vegas. I've got Cage Warriors Night of Champions this weekend, this Saturday. I've got three fighters on the card on that, and I'll be there doing some TV stuff for them. And then the next morning I'm flying to Vegas, and I'm in Vegas for the whole of International Fight Week. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing on Fight Night, though. I might be doing some radio commentary somewhere. But yeah, live in life.

Living the best life, I can. All right, very quickly, before we let you run, let's do. do the main event for that UFC car. John Jones taking on Tiago Santos. Look, John might be the best fighter we've ever seen, all right? So it's hard to say exactly what Tiago Santos can do. But maybe you think there's some ideas. You've seen how he's evolved.

You've seen him compete. I made the case for Anthony Smith. Not that I said he was going to win, but if he does, it's going to be under these conditions. What are the conditions under which Tiago Santos can win? The obvious one, really, he has to be himself. he has to not fall into that that John Jones do-do that everyone seems to get caught in. You know, and we saw it so much in these last two fights against Smith and Gustafson.

Guys fall into this trap where they never get started. He stifles every attack with just a poke or a prod or a faint. And the danger for Tiago Santos is that if he gets caught in that rhythm, he'll be stuck there for 25 minutes or less, obviously. He needs to create his opportunities. He needs to stay mobile. He needs to give John Jones a blank face. not recognize him as the greatest fighter on the planet. He needs to attack him. He needs to

damage him. And this was a conversation John and I were having John Goodnan and I, but when we're filming inside the Octagon, which will be up soon, the person that beats John Jones technically isn't in the UFC right now. The person that stands in front of John Jones and plays kickboxing with him and out wrestles him and out grapples him, that person's not in the UFC right now. Because when they're coming to the UFC, we'll recognize them immediately because they'll be special. So the person that beats John Jones right now could be any of the four or five guys that are rising through this division

because they're wild, they're reckless, they're powerful, they're as tall as John Jones, they're rangy, they're aggressive, and we've seen them stopping everybody and we've got the likes of Rackich and Reyes and, I'm forgetting Johnny Walker. I still put Anthony Smith in that group. I think he's even closer to that now.

He's had an experience with John Jones. And he's experienced John Jones from his own defense, which has given him confidence. I think there are a lot of guys in this division right now. Obviously, Santos being the top of the pile, that could be the hand grenade for John Jones's career. It's not going to be an outclass in over five rounds.

It's going to be something explosive and nasty that John Jones didn't see coming. And unfortunately, we don't have the technical guy that's going to beat him, I don't think, right now, but we've got a lot of guys that can really throw a wrench in the works. And that's what we're all watching at the moment. You know, every one of John Jones's fights is which one of these guys can catch him. Well, Dan, it's always great to catch up with you. You've been great to me for a very good long time.

And always appreciate your analysis. And enjoy Vegas, my friend. You are Hunter Thompson, Hunter S. Thompson's number one MMA fan, or from MMA anyway. Enjoy. Thank you, my friend. Always good talking to you. I'll see you soon. Likewise.

There's Dan Hardy. Always has great analysis. All right. So, shocker, Brendan Chobb's giving me some issues. We're getting him now? I thought he could do 110. Oh, 105. Look at that.

I got all these, like, frantic texts from Brendan Schaub being like, I got to push it back to like 4 p.m. I'm like, Brendan. Show's not on it 4. So that's not going to work. But I guess we can get that worked out. Yeah, man, Dan's great. Dan's really great. He was on the first show, and I could talk to him all day.

I think he's right about some of the bare knuckle stuff for sure, evolving in its own way. And everyone doesn't really know, we don't really know how to fight bare knuckle. We know how to fight like with other ways, and we just port that over and maybe it'd success and maybe it doesn't. I think that's a pretty good point because when I watched that fight with Polly I was like, Pauley's doing better as a boxer, but this ain't boxing. So Artem's doing better as like a sort of in-your-face brawler, but it's not in-your-face brawling exactly either. It can be that. It can be boxing. It was just weird to see. It didn't make

it didn't make all the sense in the world. So I don't know. There's that. All right. We're going to get Mr. Shab up here. By the way, someone sent me this. I don't know who wrote it. Oh, Guillermo Bravo. I do not know who this gentleman is. He wrote a book,

apparently in the hands of the judges, which is, I guess, trying to understand the judging perspective. Guillermo, I will read this book, I promise. At some point. I don't know if I read it immediately, but I just got this in the mail today.

I didn't know I had this. So forgive me for, not being able to get to this closer. Yeah, what a weekend, man. What a weekend. So many things going on. I still can't get over that whole Belator main event thing. Being on the Belator app and I'm paying for DeZone.

You got to pay to get Paramount through a cable subscription or even like sling. You got to pay to get DeZone. The Belator app is free, I guess. So that's better. But then I can't get what I'm paying for. on the thing I'm paying for, I will not understand that even a little bit. That is a little bit hard for me to gather.

There's got to be some kind of purpose. I don't think they did it by accident, but, you know, folks, Beltor, it's got to be more hand and glove. You know what I'm saying? It's got to be a little easier to get your things. Yeah, I don't know what to do about that. Any other strong performers from that UFC Greenville card? There was a couple. Andrew Lee looked physically imposing on Montana de la Rosa.

I noticed that when they were in anything. De La Rosa has good jiu-jitsu, of course, great jiu-jitsu, but Andrea Lee was just a physical powerhouse up in that thing. So she was a strong performer. Eric Spicely, God, it broke my heart about Eric Spicely. I mean, I'm glad he got the win. I got the bonus, all that stuff. They don't misunderstand me.

But, you know, taking the fight on short notice, he got to fight Duran win on short notice. That can't be easy. And then he had minus 2.30 in his bank account, which he said on Twitter. I'm not, you know, ricking any news. Now, he got the bonus,

so that part's great, but it's a rough life, man. It's hard to be a fighter. Hard, hard. Hard way to make a dollar. Take my hat off to these women, men. That is not easy. Not easy at all. Paul Daly looked nice, by the way,

against Eric Silva, I thought. Second round on, for sure. Nice been for him. James Galaher got back to his winning ways, too, man. It goes back to the whole thing. it's like they're matching up Valerie Lareda for her early stage career the right way. They're matching up Dylan Dennis for his early stage career the right way. Galaher, they were matching up.

Seemed he had a bit of a stumble so that they regrouped. I thought he got a right kind of opponent. I thought he looked pretty good. You know, definitely get back on that winning track. And did you hear what he said after the fight that he had an injury, that he was going to pull out of the fight, that he was going to quit fighting altogether, and he just gathered himself and went out there in March 4th. I've said this before, man.

Like, I know he pisses off. a lot of people because of his act or whatever, or whatever it is, like the stuff he does. Would he want to call it an act or not? But in person with me, you know, he's incredibly nice, incredibly nice and always has been. And I really appreciate that. All right. He's tardy for the party, but we got him. Podcasts, extradinary comedian, former UFC fighter, friend of the program.

The one and only Brendan Shob is here. Hi, Brendan. What's up, brother? Look at that crisp HD. I get to see your face way too close. What about, dog? Like a FaceTime. All right.

So you got to go to where? Calgary this past weekend. Where'd you go? Yeah, I was in Calgary. How is it? How's Calgary. I like Calgary, man. I don't know.

It's like, I don't know why, but it's one of my best market. Canada's good to me, man. I love Canada. Canada is a underrated country. It's amazing to me. How many Americans have never been to Canada? I agree. It's like the state, but wait cleaner and everyone's nice. And they have great food. And for whatever reason, maybe it's just the spots I go to, like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, but they have the best-looking women in the world as well. I've heard, I've only been to Montreal and Toronto. I've not been to the other one. So I'm kind of dying to go. All right. Well, by the way, their customs, though, took forever. How long it take you to get through customs?

You know what? Not too bad. Because you don't have to fill out the paper anymore. Everything's automatic. Pretty good. Bro, I went for the... And you can get... And you can get Nexus, bro. You get Nexus. We just skip every thing. Yeah, my wife has that. The thing about it is, is I saw GSP fight Shields and I had to go to Toronto. Oh, my God, dude. It was... It took two hours to get through customs. I wanted to kill somebody. I'm glad to hear it since improved. All right. Let's see. talk about BKFC, your boy over there at Showtime, Pauli Malinaji. What'd you think? So I was watching it in between shows. So I had a 730 show and then a 1030. So I watched it in between. So I was a little distracted. So I haven't got to watch it again. But I thought it could have went either way. I thought Paulie, I kind of edged Paulie out with three rounds. I thought he did enough to win three rounds. Wasn't the,

the excitement and the fireworks I was hoping for. I thought Polly fought very kind of timid. He thought very boxer-ish, especially only having five rounds. He started off at like a 12-round pace. I thought it was very slow, methodical, kind of outclassed him, outpointed him, just throwing jab. I thought, all right, this is what he wants to do, that's great. And then Ardham was very hesitant, could see his,

he couldn't get Polly's timing down. He's kind of whiffing. I don't know. I thought it was a weird, weird exchange. I thought the whole thing was kind of awkward. I can see how you gave it to Artem. I was at Matt at the decision. I actually liked as much fun as I like to make fun of a bare knuckle.

I thought the pacing was good. I don't know what the broadcast was like because I didn't have volume, but I thought the pacing in the show was good. I thought the overall product was not terrible. All right. So this is what I thought when I saw it. The rounds you want to give to Polly are what, first second and third? Yes, correct.

One, two, three. Yeah, so the first two, he clearly won. The first two, he clearly lost. The third, I thought he was winning up until that one late punch, and maybe that stole the round. It's really kind of hard to know. But, like, in terms of, like, was this a good thing for Pauli? He got super paid. He got super paid.

I heard he got. Did he? What super paid? What super paid, Luke? I heard he got seven figures for that fight. You heard that, too? All right. Well, then he got super paid.

Listen, if he got paid seven figures, hats off to him, he deserves it. For the longest, and you know, to be honest, him and I were supposed to do a food truck diary together when I was in New York. But because I've been so critical of him, I think, you know, we decide not to do it because I've been very outspoken on, why is he doing this? He's the best analyst in the game. You know, he's punching down. Why is he doing this?

And then one morning I woke up. I'm like, what do I care? If Polly wants to do this, he can still be one of the best asses in the game, but this is just kind of a side hustle for him. If he's making seven figures, we're all talking about it. Listen, Vato fought this weekend, Lusasi, Korean zombie. There was some phenomenal fights. No one was talking about those other fights.

You know, everyone was looking forward to Polly versus Arda. So, you know, at the end of the day, if that's what makes Pauly happy, I'm all about it. I, you know, I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. I don't know why I cared so much going into it, meaning I thought it was a bad look for Polly, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I was wrong.

He got paid. We're all talking about it. You know, he didn't get knocked out. If he would have went in there, got knocked out, then it would have been an awful career move for him. But we're all talking about it.

He's all right. Yeah, in the end, when I watched the fight, I was kind of anticlimactic to a degree. Artem did what he was supposed to do, I think for the most part. And if Polly got paid,

what I heard he got paid. and that's the way the fight turned out. I guess I'm ready. I guess it wasn't that big a deal in the end. It's sort of the way I look at it. I wouldn't have liked a clear-cut winner, meaning I would have liked Paulie to outclass him.

My prediction was, and I text my friends, I don't know if I announced this on the show, but my prediction was, I thought Polly was going to piece him up early on and then struggle with his hands. I'd break his hands, and then Arden would win be a decision.

That's why I texted to Rogan. I tried texting to you, but my service was bad, so I'll snap, screenshot that for you. That's why I text most people that I thought Arden would win via decision due to Pauley whooping his ass so bad, breaking his hand. Yeah. The other part that people don't realize, too, is Pauley has a good chin. I knew Arton was unlikely to knock him out.

I knew it was going to go the distance. I just didn't know what was going to happen in the interim. Very quickly, if we can, let's talk about this. Levato Jr. beating Musasi. What do you make of it? I, man, I think Musassi is one of the best. You know, and I was really surprised that Lovato beat him. But, you know, Levato's undefeated, big dude.

It's impressive, man. His story is great. His story is phenomenal. One of the greatest, if not the greatest American Jitsu kind of competition, Jizuuizu practitioner of all times. So, I mean, he's just doing his thing, man. I think it's good for Beltoe. I really do.

Where would you, beating Musasi puts you where in the rankings? That's tough, right? Top five. But I wouldn't say he's the best in the world, top five. I'd like to see a rematch. Yeah, I think you think you're going to do one? Yes, I do. Yeah, I bet they do.

They probably do because Musassi's obviously a really important signing for them. You know what's funny? I was going back and prep for this interview, Brendan, and I was looking at a video that you did with who's the blonde from, I forget, I'm sorry to refer her to that way. I don't know her name. She is from FS1. She was originally Colin Cowards co-host.

Oh, Kristen. Christina Leahy. Lehi. Christina Lehi, you did an interview with her, and in that interview, you called, this is before the fight, you called Anthony Joshua Most Overrated. People got real bitter, and then he lost. I wonder if people have a sense apologized. Oh, that's so silly.

Yeah, people, whenever I say anything about Anthony Joshua, especially the people over the pond here freak out. My whole thing I was calling him overrated is because I want him and Wilder to fight. So I thought by doing that, it would get to him or his handler Eddie Hearn. And it just keeps Wilder versus freaking Joshua in the news because I want them to fight. And I know they were close to making a deal. So that's why I was doing that. I was trying to poke the bear there.

And then it pokes the fans, though. Yeah, but nevertheless, I don't think he's overrated depending on what one means by that. But he did lose ultimately. And I've heard even some analysts, I think it would maybe Teddy Atlas. I don't know. I don't want to say that exactly saying they're not sure. to what extent he can come back from this. I wonder,

was it strictly trolling, or was there any merit to that position? I don't think, listen, it's kind of a three horsemen race, right? So you got Wilder, you got Fury, you got Anthony Joshua. And I think it's all about matchups. I think Fury beats all of them.

I do. I think he's the number one heavyweight in the world. And then I think between Joshua and Wilder, it's a toss-up, man. So I don't think he's overrated, but I think out of the three, he definitely doesn't deserve the most merit out of the three. So he's kind of the poster child, especially for DeZone and for, you know, Europe.

But in America, not so much. I think Fury is kind of taking that title. Especially after his performance, what was it, a week or so ago. All right, Korean zombie just absolutely melts Hanato Moikano. I was trying to tell folks years ago, back when you were a UFC fighter, long time ago, Korean zombie was sort of the original Justin Gaci. That's not quite right, but it's something like that. And here he gets out and reminds everybody at what time it is.

What is still the upside? How far can Korean zombie go? Man, I like where he's at. I think, you know, when he kind of went away to serve his country, I thought it did him, you know, a lot of benefits. I think he's healthy, not as much brain trauma, maybe a little relax on the damage there. He still has the greatest walkout shirt of all time, if you remember.

We were all wearing it, man. But even Dana White was rocking that shirt. We all rocked that crazy a zombie shirt. I forget who made it. The tri-coaster or something like that? They're definitely not found anyone. Yeah. Something like that.

But go ahead. Literally, I would love to see him get a title shot. I really would. I think he has a great story. He's marketable. He actually changed his name to zombie. So I'm a fan. And Moycano, age 30, goes up against Brian Ortega.

That's Brian Ortega, right? He's very good. He was beating him for most of the, a fight, but then loses. Goes up and fights Aldo. Maybe you could say the fight was stopped a little bit early, but still was getting pieced up a little bit. And then, in this one, you know, there's just nothing to say about it. It's as clean as day. I was asking Dan Hardy about it. Like, when do you make a call about what someone's upside is? And his answer is, you can't until it's all over. Okay, fair enough. I certainly don't know the answer. I wonder, though, what you make of

what, we talked about Korean zombies upside. But what about Moikano now? It's tough to tell a guy his upside, right? Because we've had guys. especially in the UFC who it looks like game over, then they go on these crazy runs. So I really think it's up to the fighter to decide. You know, if it's something internal where he doesn't want to be there, he's one foot in, one foot out, if it's a matter of him just getting older.

But I think with both these guys, you know, I don't see that. So I don't think it's tough for the media to say, oh, you know, I think his ceiling's here. We kind of don't know, especially in the lighter weight. classes. We really don't know. Why are the lighter weight classes? Because I feel like they have such a ceiling to advance to grow. I just feel like their skill sets. You know, they come in with such a high skill set. It's just a more of a mental kind of click to get them to that title shot. Whereas heavyweight, they're older. They're not going to pick up a lot of the skills. They kind of, they are who they are.

A lot of times with the lighter weight class guys, everyone's talented. One through 15, 15 can beat one, 13 can beat two. I think it's more of a mental thing because they're so damn skilled at the lighter weight classes. Was there ever a moment of your career, not when you were like, I don't know if I want to do this anymore, but when you thought like I'm not getting any better, where you thought like I just, I think I'm stuck here. Did that ever happen?

No. No, not for me because I started so late in the game and I got kind of catapulted to fighting these monsters. So I knew my ceiling was high, but the marker against me was experience. So there's things I knew I did really well. And even though I was fighting veterans like Ben Rothwell and O'Gera or Crow Cop or, you know, Gonzaga, I knew my athletic ability would get me far, but I knew it could only get me so far. Because it just takes time to learn the skills that these guys developed over years.

So I thought my ceiling was really high if I stuck with it, but I was aware of that experience with a kind of the common theme there with these bouts I had. You ever had Soma Fighter confess that to you in the gym being like, dude, I'm, I'm just stuck here. I can't get better. I've been trying for years. I've plateaued. No, not really.

Not really. You know, I think the only, no, not really. No, because all the guys I kind of trained with, they were monsters, you know, from, from Bisbing to Mark Munoz, Leodomachita. like they were so, their skill set was so high. I don't think they need to get better. They just need to train smarter and rest their bodies. Who is like the-

I was always the young buck in the gym. Most gyms, I was always the least experienced. You know, I was never kind of a leader in the gym. I was always the young buck. Interesting. Okay, let's transition if we can then. Oh, no, one more about this. Of all the people you trained with,

I don't mean like who was the craziest, but who is like the most intense at all times. Not wild, but like just kind of dialed in constantly. You know what I'm talking about like that wrestling coach? Oh, Bisbing for sure. Why? Bisbing, uh,

because even in the drilling, the pace was so high. He was nonstop. It was like he was very, he was safe about it. But even when he, we were just doing light kind of drilling to get ready for wrestling or whatever was,

his pace was so high. He'd get a workout from everything. I could see why his cardio was so good. And he was all business. You know, like, I might joke around here and there. If Chair was there, if Munoz or Machito, like, I'd joke around. But with Biz being, it was just, it was all business. He was there.

He was clocked in. And, you know, that's why he became a world champion. All right. So let's transition if we can. Coming up here, not too far away, UFC 239, John Jones taken on Tiago Santos. I asked Dan Hardy, this. I'll ask you something similar. Under what conditions could it happen?

that Tiago Santos wins. A sniper shoots John Jones and the ankle walking into the octagon. I know people are trying to hype this up and sell paper views. There's just there's not a light heavyweight alive who's going to beat John Jones. There's, they're not even close. He should probably be a, you know, a minus 3,000 favorite for every fight he has in the light heavyweight division. I'd be interested to see if Luke Rockhold gets healthy and how he looks at light heavyweight, you know,

so maybe there's something there because he's a bigger, strong dude. He's good in every aspect. So I have hope for Luke Rockhold against John Jones, but outside that, there's nothing there. He's just stacking up bodies. He's the greatest light heavyweight of all time. I'd love to see him at heavyweight, but as far as light heavyweight, it's me a tough sell, man.

EOC's going to, it's just going to have to take the Mike Tyson approach. Just, hey, watch John. this guy up. So are you not interested in a third fight with Kormier or you rather you would like to see it. You just don't think it'll happen. I think it happens because I think the U.S. is going to throw the book at D.C., which they should. And I'd like to see it at heavyweight. I like heavyweight. Listen, I've seen it twice, man. I know John was on stuff, whatever. We've seen how that pans out. But at heavyweight, that that that huge gap that there is between D.C. and John, it comes down a little. It comes down to a little.

at DC, he can knock dudes out at heavyweight, and, you know, he landed some good shots on John in those matches. So I like DC's chances at heavyweight better. Does he beat him? I don't know, but at least there's that unknown factor. I like heavyweight. All right, I'm good, man. I've seen it twice. I don't care for it. But at heavyweight, John Jones, D.C. trilogy, heavyweight world title. What are we doing? That's easy, man. That's easy sell. All right, Jorge Mazvedal taking on Ben Ascran. Here's the, question. If Ben wins, do you think he will be able to effectively lobby on his behalf for a title shot? Yes, easily. You know, Ben's biggest problem is going to be figuring out Jorge Mazvedal, not

if he wins, if he's going to get a title shot, because he's so good at talking his way into these big fights, he's going to take care of that. And, you know, it's on record. I'm a big Ben-askin fan. I love Ben. So I think he has his handsful with Jorge. You know, that his first UFC fight against Robbie Lawler was, if you're a Ben Asking fan, was a scary one. So, you know, I'm interested to see how it goes because Horaceville is an absolute nightmare. But no matter what, if Ben were to win, I would imagine he gets his way in the, for the tightest shot. Now, ahead of Colby or in the queue behind him?

I don't know, man. It's dicey, right? Colby, it's, is it? I don't know. You look at the history of UFC and the decisions they make, you know, Kobe is kind of, no one's really talking about him, is he? So obviously he's going to try to come up with something to get in the news here. I probably show up to the press conference stuff like that or he's going to do something,

but we're not really talking about him. When's the last time he broke down something Kobe Cointin did? When's the last thing? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Like out of sight of mind, especially with the UFC, they do not care. Interesting. Yeah, I talked to him about Fleet Week, but point taken, you're talking about like with the MMA stuff.

All right, Amanda Nunes, Holly Holm. what chance do you give home here? Oh, look at that face. She has more of a chance than that. Oh, no, I like, no, no, no. I was raising my eyebrows. I like Holly Home's chance. I think she has a great chance.

And I always, you know, when I'm talking about if you want to make money on fights, I don't know what the odds are on Holly there, but, you know, I like your chance as a whole lot. I think Amanda Nunes is the greatest female fighter of all time. But, you know, Holly Holmes, she matches up well with her. I really like Holly Holmes chance there. What would you like for Amanda if she's only got two fights left? This one and what the cyborg rematch or something else?

Back down to fight Valentina at some point because Amanda has talked about, well, I don't know if I'm going to stick around. We'll see how this goes. Either one of those is interesting to me, but I got to tell you, the one now it's a little bit more interesting for me is the Valentina one. Now, Valentina clearly lost the first fight. I thought she won the second fight. You could do a champ champ thing in the middle, right?

Yeah, I like the champ champ thing. Yeah, I don't, if she's only going to do two, I like the Ballotina thing because she's so hot right now, you know, after that freaking walk-off home run to the head kick. But yeah, I do. I think Baltina did beat her. I agree with you there. The champ champ thing, I'm all about that.

And then if she does whatever happens there, if she does lose and, you know, you got all your your money on Balatina as being the next huge star for female. So, yeah, I dig that. I wouldn't mind the sideboard rematch. But no one's really calling for it, are they? I don't at all. Yeah, not a whole lot. You're the first person I've heard about it.

Oh. All right. So what's next for you, my friend? You are on the road like it is a contest. What do you got going on? Just on tour, man. Standard road dog comedy stuff, man. I'm here now at the freaking,

I'm trying to get my Rob Derrick freaking enterprise on, man. So I'm in Below the Belt Studios now. They're building out, finding the kid's studios next door. And I do king of this thing in the other door. so I have the whole kind of squad here under one roof. So working on that, man.

Yeah, I'm on tour. I'm in Brea this weekend, and then I go to Indy and Cincinnati. What's your favorite? Favorite city not named Washington, D.C. to do comedy in as what? DC improv's great, man. Honestly, it'd be hard to pick a favorite. I'm really, I'm in love with Cleveland, man. I did a venue there called Hilarities.

Cleveland was great. I love Portland. They're all pretty good, man. There's never been, the only kind of dice one I ever had was St. Louis. I probably won't go back there. It just wasn't ran very well, but all of them were great. St. Louis, that is an interesting place. I saw Kimbo fight Ken Shamrock there. I was staying downtown.

Everything was closed. I'm like, how was everything downtown closed? I don't know. At St. Louis. Yeah, St. Louis gets a little dicey. However, best barbecue and best pizza I've ever heard in my life. They have a pizza there. It's kind of a deep dish.

If the pizza is so good when Obama was the president, they would fly this guy into the White House to make pizza for it. And Obama's from Chicago. Think about it. That's how good the pizza was. All right. That was the only good thing in St. Louis. Here I am.

Everyone's like, you can go toward the Anheiser-Bush thing. I'm like, I'd rather die. So I'll skip that. Thanks. Yeah, good. All right, Brendan. You were on the first show I did here. you're on the one-year anniversary. Thank you, my friend. Best of luck to everything you're doing. We'll catch up soon.

Thank you, man. I appreciate you. As always. Take care, brother. There he goes. Brendan Schaub, ladies and gentlemen. All right, we have one more to go. It's the goat himself. Old Artem, he out there, did what he had to do. Got there and beat Pauley Malinaji. It was weird, though. Like, in the end, I thought, I thought if Pauley lost, it would be like this, oh, moment. Maybe it was a little bit, but it felt like both guys kind of shook. I mean, they did shake hands. Polly bowed to them. Like, they kind of, like, waved off the beef.

It was, it was interesting. It was, I'll be honest. I didn't think that we were going to get that. I thought it was going to be one of those things where it was like, remember when, I think it was when Bisp being beat Rockhold. And then afterwards, at the presser, they were still going after each other. Still saying terrible things to one another.

I thought it was going to be like that, but no. In fact, well, in fact, I'm glad to see that it wasn't that way. I was going to get a little bit concerned. to be honest with you, but yeah, they seem to have mended fences. And I don't know what the numbers were on the gate or the pay-per-view, but it looked like it was a decent sellout. They had media there.

Decent crowd? Who did you have on the call? It looked like you had Sean Wheelock. You had Chris Lytle and I think Antonio Tarver, if I'm not mistaken. That was pretty good, right? you know, because Tarver obviously knows boxing. And Chris Lytle, if I'm not, I could be wrong about who it was,

but I think that's who it was. He obviously has boxed. And obviously he's done to me as well. So there's that. All right. I believe we'll go to him now, though. Great win, man. Solid win.

And getting out there and I think what I hope is putting the rivalry to bed. The goat joins us now via phone. Artem Lobov is here. Hi, Artim. How are you? Hey, how things, man? Thank you so much for having me on the show. Well, I appreciate you making time for us, Artem. First things first, I always ask this after a fight. How are you feeling? How are the injuries? How is everything?

Yeah, I feel good. My left hand is a little bit sore, but, you know, nothing broken. A couple of cuts here and there, but as you would expect, you know, coming out of a very metal boxing fight. Yeah, I would imagine. Now, let me ask you this. Did any of the previous cuts that you suffered in the Jason Knight fight, Did they reopen? Or are these new cuts? I know, they were all new cuts, but to be honest, like, over my career, I had, you know, hundreds and hundreds of cuts and stitches on my face. So, to be honest, there's probably all-cats issue on my face.

So, you know, at some point in that, it's all cuts opening new cuts, but, you know, it doesn't really matter to me. So I got the wind. That's the only thing that I care about. Yeah, you certainly did. Are you happy? Well, let me ask you. Okay.

Let's start here. Is the rivalry over? You know, when you fight someone, you know, this is kind of the pickle of conflict that you can have. You know, once you fought somebody, that's it. There's not much to it anymore. You know, you've went in there. You've settled it like, man, do one-on-one.

And that's it. After that, I don't think there's ever a point to kind of carry it with you any of that negativity. You just know one with your life and be positive and just enjoy your life. and leave a happy person. So that's how it is for me. I noticed that when the fight was, like,

the second that the final bell rang, Pauly bowed to you and said something. Can you tell us what he said? No, she just said, you know, it's all respect and, you know, whatever, you know, whatever was done, you know, sorry about all that. It's in the past, whatever, we built the fight, and it's all nothing but respect, and that's it pretty much.

Yeah. Was that kind of buildup? Was it exhausting to, like, have that kind of animosity all the time? Not really, to be honest. I just concentrate on the fight. I just concentrate on my training. You know, having fought and the UFC have helped me, you know, to deal about the situation. Because UFC is such a huge promotion.

And when you're fighting there and, let's say, I was the main event, sometimes common event. You've got so many media attention on you. You've got, you know, people watching the whole time. So that prepared me for situations like that, I feel. So I think I handled it pretty well. All right, so let's talk about the fight itself. It looks to me like you won the last two clearly. I thought he won the first two, third round, a little bit up in the air.

How would you grade your performance? Yeah, I mean, it definitely could have been a better performance. You know, there are things to work on. But I felt I won the fight, Jeff, and, you know, I was always the one pressing the action, you know. He was kind of harder to make the fight happen because he was moving back all the time and didn't really, you know, stay in the pocket and exchange. even he wouldn't boxing often. It's understandable, you know,

bare knuckle is not boxing. You don't want to take any shots here. So he was a bit on his bike, but I felt I pressed the action. You know, they also didn't let me work any of the clinch, which I was really surprised with. Because the rule in bare knackle is, as long as you're throwing punches,

the clinch, you know, they don't break up the clinch. And then all the time I heard the ref shout at me, stop punching, stop punching, you know, break, break. I was like, what do you mean, stop punching? As long as I'm punching, you should be allowing the clinch to be to be to happen but for some reason he wasn't he literally was breaking up the clinch sooner than they would in a boxing fight like boxing fight there is no

clinch but they still let them work in the clinch longer than they did in my fight so that was very surprising to me you know that was a big part of my game plan but you know I still feel I adjusted well you know I landed some big shots on him I I opened up some nice cuts and to be honest you don't even see uh the biggest shot that I landed was right to his chin so There is no mark, but he definitely hurt him and he was rocked. You know, he wobbled. You know, it was a difficult task at hand. You know, I was fighting a two-time ball boxing champion in basically a boxing match

because cringe wasn't allowed. And I feel like done okay. Yeah, you did more than okay. He certainly won the bout as well. What did he, what was it like to fight him? Like, at first he was kind of elusive. He didn't throw a lot of punches at the end. You did.

He had some good movement. here or there. What did you learn about Pauli as a fighter from being in there with him? Yeah, I mean, I learned that I feel comfortable with the guy of his level. You know, he's a boxer that was a world champion before. And, you know, I certainly didn't feel out of place there. So to me, that's all good news. I feel confident to move into the boxing world now and try to fight there. See how I do.

You know, people always say, oh, you'll do bad against this guy or that. But with me, you don't have to wonder. I'm willing to put everything on the line and show the world how I do. Yeah, that'd be, okay, so what is your immediate plan? Obviously, to heal, but do you foresee a return to MMA? You're going to keep up the bare knuckle, or is it the idea that, hey, whatever promoter wants to pay the most, that's where I go? Absolutely.

Look, I'm a price fighter, you know, whoever pays, that's where I fight. But, you know, I would love to try a boxing fight. MMA, of course, this is always going to be something very close to my heart. This is where I started. So, I will always fight M.RMA. Why not? So whoever pays the most, that's why I'll be. But real quickly, before I forget,

were you able to talk to the commission or the referee after and ask them why the fight was officiated that way? No, I know why. I mean, the reason for that is because the referee is not experienced in the sport yet. The sport is very new, now, even though this is a very, very old-school sport. but for now, for this period, it's very new. So referees, you know, they sort of try and maybe Georgia's as a boxing fight,

but it is not, you know, it's a different sport. So it will take a better adjustment, you know, for them to keep up with the sport, but, you know, it's no problem. How do you feel about the damage in bare-knuckle versus the damage in MMA? It seems like cuts are an issue, but maybe some of the other punches or not? Well, absolutely, you know, cuts, of course, are an issue because the, knuckles are bears. Of course, you get cut up a lot easier. But, you know, once again, like you said, you know, you don't have to worry about, you know, knees that are invited going to your, you know,

pace or kicks or elbows. Yeah, I mean, it's a combat sport. So, of course, there's going to be dangerous and there's going to be dangerous and there's going to be, you know, it is dangerous. But, you know, we get rewarded for it. So it's all good. By the way, did you get a chance to talk to Connor about this? And if so, anything he said of note? Yeah, I spoke to Connor. She said that was a good performance. I dominated the fight.

You know, I pressed action all the time. And he said it was a very good performance and a great win for me. You didn't feel like you were defending anyone else's honor other than your own. Or did you? Did you feel like you had something to prove beyond just yourself? You know, to me, a fight is a fight, you know, I just want to win it no matter what. But this one, of course, was a lot more personal. This was an emotional build-up, and the win was a must-year.

So it was a very important win. This is definitely not my favorite performance, definitely not my best performance, almost exciting fight, but it was a must win. You know, I couldn't have lost here, no way. And I didn't. I brought the win home, and that's the only thing that matters now. So what is the plan for the rest of the year? Give me the Artem Lobov competition schedule for the next six or seven months.

Well, that will depend on the offers. Like I said, you know, I'm ready to fight. I love to fight. This is what I truly love to do. So fight itself is no problem for me. I enjoy fighting often. But, of course, it will depend on what is on the table. I have to now get in contact with a few promoters.

and see who is willing to bring me in, you know. We'll see. I'll keep you updated day. Are you happy with the pay so far at Bareknuckle FC? Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, look, my pay on this fight again, you can take any of the UFC cards, and I get paid more than the 90% of the fighters there. Like any UFC card you look at there, it's usually like one or two guys that might get more money than me,

but I get paid more than the rest of them. So, you know, I am very happy with my pay. I got to tell you, Artum, you might as well just accept this nickname of The Goat. Everyone calls you that now. It makes sense. Do you like that nickname? Look, you know, I love humor. You know, to me, I find it funny. Why not?

You know, humor is always important. You know, I've had all kinds of situations in my life. You know, sometimes I didn't know what I was going to have food tomorrow or not, whether we'll be able to afford our house or not the next day. But, you know, something you say a little joke and you start smiling and it feels a little bit better and you have that will to keep going and keep grinding forward. So, you know, if that makes people smile, brings a smile to people's face, why not? Let's do it. But here's the point I would make, Artem, it may have started out a little bit, you know, tongue in cheek. But now it's like, I don't know, it's taken on a new life where it's like a real, it's a title of affection, I think, from the MMA fan base.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not even sure how it's type it, but somehow, somehow it did. And, yeah, I mean, like I said, I don't mind. You know, I'm all good. I'm going when it comes to this sort of things. Do you think Pauly should, like, really retire this time, like not fight anymore, like, just be done with it? I think that's what she wants to do anyway.

I mean, you know, he's had a big career. You know, he's almost forced at this stage. I'm sure he's, you know, fighting you, you know, you get, you have to truly love it, you know. You have to truly, truly want it. You have to have that fire burning in you in order to be able to do it successfully. If you don't have that fire, it is a dangerous sport. You don't want to stay there any longer because you can get very, very seriously hurt. So, yeah, I'd say you probably will retire at this stage and, you know, I wish him well.

Do you think, and again, I'm not asking for an insult at all. I'm not asking just for the truth. Do you feel like he didn't quite have that same competitive energy that was needed to win? Well, I definitely felt that I wanted more than he did, definitely. All right, well, Artum, I got to tell you, man, great win for you, great win for your team, great win for all your supporters. And I know that you've got a little bit of healing to do, have a nice vacation, enjoy the money you have earned because you have certainly earned it.

And we thank you so much for your time today. Thanks a million. I appreciate the time. There he goes. Artim Lobov. And I say this affectionately, the goat himself. All right. With the time we have remaining

Jesus Christ It won't stop today With the time we have remaining Let's do this Let's do the sound off How about that? All right Let's talk to my man

He is the What is Danny Sigora? He is the Oh, I got a good one When he comes up on the screen He is the Duvon to my Zapata How about that one there Danny? You mean

My Selection Colombia champions to my Copa America. They're playing well. They're playing well. I mean, undefeated, three wins in a row, beating Argentina, defeating top-notch teams like Qatar, living the life, man. All right.

Columbia's looking good. They are looking great. Well, thank you for putting this together. How were the calls, my friend? Very, very good, man. Really? Yeah, I mean, ever since we started the show, the call's just, there's been some down weeks, but for the most part, everyone's just stepping.

It's a steady climb. Stepping it up, yeah. All right, well, without further ado, Let's get right into it. And at the end of that, I'm going to make an announcement. And then after the announcement, come in here, okay?

All right, cool. Sounds good. All right, let's get to these calls. All right, well, let's start with the obvious, the biggest star of the weekend, The goat himself. You just spoke to him.

Nice guy, by the way. Artim Lobov is a nice guy. Artim is a super nice guy. And he's great with media, shows up to fight. I think that's why they call him the goat. He's hard to dislike. He's very hard to dislike.

Yeah, yeah. I think the only criticism people have about him is his association with Connor. And also, like, he was trying to fight in the UFC, and there's a question of, you know, was he winning consistently enough against the right kind of opposition? Right. To maintain a roster status. Yeah. Which is a fair question.

But as just a guy, it seems like a nice guy. Great, too. Yeah. Well, let's talk about it. Hey, Luke and Danny. This is Deeringen. I'm calling from Dallas. How about some Cowboys?

Hey, looking at the numbers on YouTube view and this overall viewership for their lowball, Malinagia fight, would you guys consider Artson Lobov to be an actual star? just curious Have a good one I think in our world he is Yeah Yeah he is Who was the A side in this fight I think it was

Ooh man that's a good question I'm gonna say Polly But I'm gonna say Polly as well But in the same way that like Okay I know there was some debate over this But sorry Mayweather was the A side against McGregor But the whole point was McGregor was all the energy was behind McGregor

Exactly It felt the same where Pauley was the two-time world champion. Exactly. He was the boxer, but all the energy. The prestige was with... Was with Pauley. But with all the energy, all of it was behind Artum. This wouldn't have been a big fight if it wasn't...

If Artum wasn't involved. You know what I'm saying? Hurtain was the key ingredient there. The two mixed perfectly. Exactly. I think in situations like that, he can be. He didn't get the knockout, which really would have just taken him into the stratosphere. But I'll tell you this, man.

Man like, dude, when he fights, people tune in. I think he has certainly, at bare knuckle, he has certainly done himself a service. This Pauley rivalry has done him a service. So how big of a star? I think it depends on the fight and the conditions and the situation. But he, for a guy with his record, that's about as big of a star as you're going to see. I'll put it that way. Yeah.

I think he is a star in our space. Like people, I mean, BKFC6 was trending this weekend. And a lot of it was because of, you know, who he is. And if you look at, you know, how this caller pointed out, like the YouTube numbers, BKFC did great, man. And there's a lot of interest in Artem. And also, I feel like he's super underrated as far as media goes. Like, the dude knows how to cut a promo. He certainly does.

Yeah. It's good stuff. So he's, you know, he has done, like, for a guy of his abilities, which I'm not, like, demeaning, I'm saying, let's have a sober assessment about them. They're good in certain capacities. For that, whatever level he is, to be as much of a star as he is, wow, dude, he's doing really well. He's doing really well. Yeah. So I take my hat off to him.

Hopefully he got paid a lot of money, man. Yeah. Hopefully he got paid a lot of money. Because he put in the work, between this and the night fight, he took a ton of it. And forget about the damage itself. All the media he did, like, you're right.

Putting up with the slaps, the spit, you know, of Malinaji. Like, hopefully the dude got paid, man. He deserves. I agree. Yeah. That's a good point. All right. Let's talk about the scoring because it was a little bit controversial.

It was a little bit controversial. Yeah. A little bit. Hey, it's Josh from Alabama. I was wondering how you guys scored the Malinagio versus Lobov fight. Keep in mind, scoring each round separate from another, I was wondering if you scored them more based on a boxing scoring system,

if you went purely with the aggressor in every round, if you went purely with the guy who did more damage, or just the good old hit and don't get hit style of scoring. What do you guys think? And do you agree with the judges? How'd you score it? So I had Polly winning the first three rounds, and then, but I acknowledged the first one was close.

I thought Polly for sure took the second and third, and the fourth and fifth I gave it to Loboff. So I actually had the first two for Polly. I thought he was winning the third cleanly up until he took that big punch. And then I was like, I don't know how they, because he stumbled him a little bit and then pushed him way back, which was more than anything Polly had landed. So I was like, I don't know how they're going to score that.

and then fourth and the fifth easy Loboff. Here's the thing. Loboff thinks he did more damage. I'm inclined to agree. Polly did better as a boxer. Lobov landed the bigger hits. Lobov landed the bigger shots. So who in the end wins?

I can see why Polly thought he won. You know what I'm not about Polly though? There were moments where he was like slipping or evading. And then there's moments where he was constantly tripping over himself. Did you see how many times he lost the balance? Yeah. He seemed to be very rusty to me. That is just not boxing paper.

Like boxing, you kind of stand, you know, in front of each other. And, I mean, there's a movement. Don't get me wrong, but not the type of movement that Artem was bringing, like, literally charging forward. Yeah, yeah. That's the type of movement you get in MMA. And the clinching. I thought, I will say this. Lobov is 100% right that they broke up those clenches too early.

Yeah. On the other hand, I'll give a little bit of credits of Pauley. He had inside bicep ties and then around the head. Clearly the stuff, because folks, I know, he did work with Ray Longo. Clearly the work with Ray Longo paid off a little bit. paid off a little bit. All he could do was neutralized. Yeah. But hey, that's something. Look, the dude didn't show up just to get a paycheck.

Like, he actually put in the work to, like, know his way around bare knuckle fighting, which, you know, is always appreciated. And you know what? I actually enjoy that fight a lot more than any other bare knuckle fight because I feel like with most of the bare knuckle fights that we've seen, it's only one gear. Like, look, I'm going to charge forward. I'm going to throw hooks really hard and really fast. Whereas this, it kind of felt like there was a story within the fight, like, you know, Polly was, like, managing that fight, like, pretty well, I thought. So, yeah, it was an interesting fight.

Very good. I enjoyed it. Yep, there you go. Next. Yeah. Well, a lot happened this weekend, not only BKFC, also. The UFC, also the UFC Greenville was this weekend. So, let's talk about that.

Casey picking up a pretty important win in his career. Hell yeah, you did. Yep. Hey, Luke. This is Josh calling from California, but a PG County native. Shout out to the DMV. Shouts out. question for you is, after watching the Korean zombie starch Moikano like that, I guess,

you know, what improvements have you seen Korean zombie make? And do you think he still has the potential to become either a title contender or title holder? Thank you. Petit County. We're outside D.C. Kevin Durant from there. All right. No one cares about that.

for the question he asked, if I had to ask you, Danny, how he got the name, the Korean zombie, what would you tell me? You might know the answer, but, you know, just what would you say to the, if I asked you that question?

Well, I have no idea how it came about, but I'd say just his style, right? Sort of, yeah. Marching forward, taking big hits, surviving them, and... Here's the funny part about... This is why I think the Justin Gagchi comparison

is not perfect by any stretch, but it's fairly apt. In the sense that, not the original Korean zombie. When he first got the name, you go back and you look, don't get me wrong, he was creative and starching guys, but he didn't have a ton of head movement. He would take huge shots and then just keep going. Now he's slipping punches and then coming over the top and landing on these dudes. So like Justin Gaichi, Justin Gaichi takes a big shot and keeps coming forward. He's

what you would call what, the Colorado zombie or wherever he's originally from, the Arizona zombie? American zombie. Something like American zombie, whatever you want to call him. But Justin Gachie has world class ability. He beats guys fair and square with his own. offense, not just because he takes damage. He's got good technique. So Korean zombie, it's like, if you watched his old, old fights, he's somewhat unrecognizable, somewhat. Now he like skips things and then Lance. If he needs to take a big

shot he can, the big elbow from yeah you're notwithstanding, but I just feel like the big takeaway here for Korean zombie is, he used to be like okay at defense. Now he's really good at defense, or certainly much better. And his offense is much better too. He's grown significantly. In some way, Danny Seguera, the name is not even apt anymore.

Yeah, I would agree. Yeah, and I think when Brett Okamoto interviewed his coach on the ESPN broadcast, he said some like, you know, do you guys have to pull them back a little bit? Like, look, you're winning the fight in the Yair fight. There's no need to rush in. Like, is that something that, you know, you guys are going over as coaching? Like, yeah, being exciting is cool, but like, you know, you also got to fight smart. And that was something his coach brought up.

And he's like, yeah, we made a really strong point. in this camp to like, yeah, we still want to be exciting, but at the same time we do want to, not play it safe, but, you know, play it a little bit more safe than we used to. And I feel like we saw that, as you alluded with, like, the defense. And, dude, the guy putting Hanato Moecano like that, like putting him out like that is, that's just takes skill. So I definitely think, especially given his brand and the fan support that he gets,

I can see him fighting for another title, although he's 32, for sure. Yeah, I actually think he could too. a little bit of work to do, but... Picks up one, two wins, and he's up there. That was a jolt to his career that I think he really needed, and I'm very excited to see. Yeah, I would even say this was... This was a bigger win than if he would have beaten

Yaira back in November. Because Moikano was up in the rankings, right? Yeah, I don't know exactly where, but yes, this was... I think he was ranked like fourth or fifth, and Zombie was like 12th. So now he's gonna... He's gonna jump high. Yeah.

And it's crazy to see, like, how many... like fighters also support him. Like he's such an old school guy. Like, it's crazy. All right. Well, let's talk about another fight that happened this weekend. Some saw it, some didn't shots out to the zone. Dude, what is that awesome?

Yeah, good to Musassi losing to Lovado Jr. You called it, by the way. Certainly did. Yeah. Good stuff. Hey, what's going on, fellas? This is Charles Jalen, calling out of Atlanta, Georgia. A.T.L.J.

Luke, my questions about the Musassi versus Lvado title fight from Saturday night. Now, I pick LeVovato. after I heard a red that Musasi said that he no longer necessarily fights for, you know, the love of the sport, but fights just to make money. And I always felt that Levato stylistically was a great, great matchup for him. They looked kind of large in the way ends when they faced off. So based on what he said, I picked Levado to win. But with that kind of mindset, is that dangerous to take into a title fight with a very game

opponent like Levato was? what are your thoughts about that man and what are your thoughts about lovado being a threat in that division for more fights to come yeah i mean look keep doing your thing man yes thank you sir uh here's the thing about that it's like look every time if you're a champion in any organization chances are may not happen every time but let's just say every time you're gonna be facing somebody who that's the biggest fight of their life is against you and they're gonna prepare like it like never before For folks who may not know, Lovato obviously has this background, but he went down to Brazil with Evolusain, uh, fight team and had just this ridiculous camp. And you should have seen the entourage he brought to Europe. He must have spent a fortune to prepare for this. It's like, I'm sure Gagard trained his ass off.

He's a pro, but did he spend that kind of money? I'd be surprised if he spent, I don't think I've hardly hard. Connor might not even spend that kind of money yet, like 30 people at his entourage. Because that was the crowning achievement of his career. Levato will tell you that personally. So it's just hard to get up in ways that those guys can. Partly, Gagard's had, what, like 50 fights at this point? Some astronomical amount?

Dude, he gets like, of course you can't. I love the sport so much. At some point, it's not what it is. At some point, you're just collecting a check. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's human life. And so on top of that, you got, people say he's the best jiu-git-s guy out of America ever. I think Mikey Musamechi might actually be that. He has three world titles, which I think is the unique.

in that space. But in any case, in any case, you know, one of the very, very, very best, you add up all those factors, skill differential on the ground, hungry as hell, spend a fortune, lifetime dream, you're kind of a little bit, maybe not burned out, but like, you know, sort of it's a little bit part of routine. Here you go. This is where you get. I mean, it's a lot easier to get to the top than stay at the top. That's just a fact, you know. And, you know, I didn't see this result.

coming to be honest. I mean, I said on the MA beat that I thought Gaggard. Yes, you expressed skepticism at my viewpoint. I thought Gaggard. Look, I thought Lovato Jr. was a legit threat, but like Gaggart has seen everything. I mean, you mentioned 50 fights. He's gotten all the looks in the world. And it's not like he's entering this fight or entered this fight with that mentality. He already had that mentality since the UFC. Like, how many interviews, you know, did we, did the media do with him just talking about the money, the money? Like, I want to get paid. I want to get paid. So, you know, I didn't really think of his mentality being like an issue entering this fight,

but I guess you kind of start questioning sort of the hunger and sort of what's left for him to achieve, you know, and I don't know, I don't know, maybe this loss will wake him up a little bit. I don't know. I have no idea. That's a hell of a win streak he was on. He last lost to Yeraya Hall. First of all, 54 fights, nearly closer to 60. Well, it wasn't a 50, but pretty, he's getting up there.

He had beaten Talas Lichies, Tiago Santos, Veyer Belfort, Uriah, Hall, Chris Wybman, Alexander Shlmen, Raphael Carvalio and then Rory McDonald Boy, he was putting the lumber to some of these people. Pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. All right, so what do you want to do? You want to take one more question? What do we got? What Chan Champ has had

the toughest road to become Champ? What happens to the future of 125-135 with Suhuda being out looks like until 2020? I don't care about that one. Do the other one. Champ-Chimp? All right. Hey, what's going on, boys? This is Cam. from Ontario Canada just call them in

a question we who had the hardest road to the champ champ double title thanks bud um I think uh might be Henry Saudo maybe

Henry's is tough there's no doubt Amanda Nunes is tough as well I mean knocking out Chris Cyborg ain't no joke man Yeah that's a tough one Connors was tough through the featherweight run but then he just got gift

not gifted But, you know, he didn't have to make a run-through lightweight to get it. You know, people don't talk about this enough, but Dan Henderson's run through Pride was... That's right. He was... Yeah, too, I mean, he got... Now, that's back when they were calling him Decision Dan, so he was getting a little bit lucky, I suppose, but...

So that was an interesting one. B.J. Penn, I would not say he had the toughest road. He wasn't... Was he Champ Champ? He was... No. Sorry. Okay, one, two titles, two different weight classes. Right, right. We're all about champ-champs.

Cormier... No. here's the thing about it. A lot of these guys like they do well in a division then they take the next fight is the fight for the belt and then they just win that one.

I might say Sohudo. I need to think about that for a second. Because Hudo actually had to defend his belt on his way to become champion. I mean, he beat the all-time greatest flyweight one of the greatest fires of all time. Again, I know it's somewhat controversial but okay, he won.

And then T.J. Dill Shaw, he smoked in 30 seconds. And then, dude, you can say whatever you want about those two fights. he went out there and put it on Marlon Maraisch. And I have deep respect for Malamaraish's ability. Yep. Yeah, that might be it, man. To be honest, I thought Marlon was going to win.

Me too, man. Me too. I did not. I completely got that one wrong. I'd have to think about that. Someone could convince me otherwise. You're putting me on the spot a little bit. And it may be recency bias as well.

That's true. But the Marais one, or the Sehudo one, rather. That is a hell of an impressive one. Yeah. All right. Yeah. All right. Don't come in just yet.

Let me make this announcement. Then come in here and we'll do this. Cool. All right. Sounds good. All right, very quickly. Okay. Let me make this short and sweet because there's no need to go and drag on here more than we need to.

So this is the one year anniversary of me hosting this show. I think I did the first one 25th of June a year ago. And so let me just say this outright and then we'll back up a step. This is the last episode of the MMA hour ever. last week's MMA beat is the last MMA beat ever, unless they decided to revive it under somebody else. I'd be saying, oh, Luke, did you get fired? No, no, I didn't.

That's actually my call. 100% my call. Folks would be, oh, no, it's not. No, it really, it honest to God was. I could have continued both programs. I was easily offered that. But I can't. I can't.

So a couple of reasons why. On the MMA beat side, that has been one of the best things I've ever done. But this last year has just royally destroyed my health. I had a physical recently and didn't like the results very much. So I need to dial it back. And coming up two times a week was just a backbreaker for me. And that's nobody's fault but my own.

Like, I'm not blaming anybody. But just in assessing my health, you know, now I got a daughter here too. Like, it was just too much. I tried to do it and I did a full year of it. I made my commitment, you know. But it was just, it was killing me. It was absolutely killing me.

So I don't know what's going to happen with that program. I think it's done. You never know. They could bring it back for a one-off or maybe under another host. But as far as my participation and everything else, that's done. Same with this one too. Now, why about this one? There's a lot I can say.

There's a lot I can't say. Let me just say this. There is a future. I'm not, you know, oh, the leaving the business. Going to go and just working to coal mine. No, there is a future. I don't want to talk about that today. There'll be a time for that.

I'm sure you will hear very, very soon. Don't worry. There's news coming. I want to thank Vox Media. I've been with Vox Media since 2007, 12 years going on 13 at this point. They've been, I've done everything here. You know what I mean?

And I thank everybody who watched it. But for the MMA beat, it was my health. For this one, I'll just say this, man. it was an honor to be here. It was fun. You have no idea what kind of issues we were dealing with behind the scenes. But this is what I guess I want to say. I feel like we're entering a new era of MMA.

And I want to make sure that I'm doing the kind of programming that best situates me to... How do I say this exactly? to do right by the sport. And I feel like to do that, while this has been an unbelievable reward and a blessing that virtually any media member would have asked for, I feel like I need to turn the page

and tackle a new challenge, which you will hear about, I'm sure, very soon. Trust me. So, as I mentioned, I want to thank Vox Media for the opportunity. I was the first, I was the only guy

on the first episode of the MMA beat and then the last one as well. But my health just got so badly damaged this year. I can't, I can't do it anymore. I just can't do it. I can't do it. And I hope everybody understands.

So I think, that's why I mentioned every panelist on that last show. And I forgot Guillermo, I forgot Skylar Aston, I forgot New York Rick. So here I am acknowledging them that they were also on that panel

or they appeared on a panel. One of the true great honors of my career to be a part of that. And this one too. And this one too. I had a lot of fun this last year. My Mondays were always big. They were always challenging, but they were always big. And but it's time for something new. It's time for something new. And yeah, that's it. So stay tuned. You will hear very soon. Don't worry. Okay. All right. With that in mind, let's bring in Danny Sigora. The one to my quadrado. The Hamas to my Rodriguez.

Where is he? There he is. Did you get miced up? Did you bring a cup? Oh, you did? Two. You want to... Oh, you did?

You got me one? Yeah. I was supposed to say, I was going to drink out of this coffee cup, bro. I'm not a butter. What's the one they drink? Got better standards around? What's the one they drink in Columbia? It's the...

But it tastes like it's a different than this one. I can just drop this, right? You can take it down. It doesn't matter anymore. What's the... What's the... It's not like, it's not a Gordiente, but it's the... It has like a V word.

Do you ever see when Anthony Bourdain went to Columbia? It looks just like it, but it has a different name. No idea. He went to Laguarhira. Yeah, and they drank something a little bit different. I lived in Laguerreira for like a couple. Did you really? Yeah.

What is there to do there? Nothing. It's just desert. Mm. All right, man. Let me say one thing about Danny if I may before you do this. Go for it. You can pull it up.

Poe it up while we're doing this. Again, I know there's going to be people who are like, oh, Luke got fired. No, trust me, I trust me, I didn't. This was my elective call. I had a moment in my career where I wanted to make some changes and I got the opportunity to do that. And I think it's important. I actually think it's the right call for all involved. Let me say one thing about Danesiguro.

Behind the scenes is work that you often don't get credit for. And by the way, there's many other people who work on the show. Shouts to Joe, shouts to Austin. Well, less so Austin. Shouts to Alex and Sri and so many people back there. They all do great work. But Danny back here, slaves seven days a week, has a million roles to fill on the site. What all do you do on the site?

You write posts, you travel, you do interviews, you produce this show, you produce the beat. Yeah, social. I mean, it's nonstop work. Let me tell you something. You deserve all the credit in the world. You are one of the hardest workers I've ever seen. You're mega talented. And, you know, again, let's keep everything hush, hush for what's next.

Yeah. But for the past year, dude, I have been so proud of you. You are such a talent. And it was cool, man. It was cool to do this project with you. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. And I had fun, too. And I feel like I grew a lot as a person and professionally too doing this.

And it was fun, man. I really enjoyed it. It was sick. Yeah. And for folks, don't say anything because it just, you know, whatever. But behind the scenes, bro, if people only knew. Man. How many fires did you put out back there?

A lot. Yeah. A lot. Yeah. It was wild. This year took, took. I aged like a dog this year. Yeah, I went from 25 to, I feel like probably like 33 about now.

You ever seen those photos? It's like, here's President Bush or picking up. President Bush, President Obama. The day they get inaugurated. Yeah. And then the day they leave, they look old as shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's me, man.

This job killed me. My choice. There's nobody's fault. It's my choice. But because it's my choice, I want to do something else. Yeah. So we're going to, we're going to, you'll see. You'll see.

Yeah, yeah. All right. News to come. Okay. No, straight up, if you would have... This is a very small shot, by the way. You want more? Slightly.

Don't kill me. If you would have started using honey in your coffee instead of stevia, we'd probably gotten a few more shows out of you. I had sugar in the raw today. Okay. It was pretty good. All right, ready, let's do this. All right.

Ready? Parriva, ba'abho, par center, by-entro. Pretty goddamn good. Yeah. Anybody you want to think? I want to think, you know, Vox Media for giving me the opportunity. You know, I came in this.

without any producing experience. But, you know, I still took up the challenge and I felt like, you know, I did all right, not bad. You rose to the occasion, my friend. You know, thanks also to our editor, Brian Tucker for giving me opportunity. Thanks for all the MA fighting team who's also, you know, helped out to get the show out there. And there's a lot of pieces about the show, you know, from social, from the stories that we write.

So it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And everybody, you know, for the last year has been putting a lot of work. So obviously, you know, I appreciate that very much. And lastly, thanks to the fans, man, because I feel like we got really good reception with the tools that we had and the resources we had. I feel like we made this show our own to the best of our abilities. And I feel like the fans really appreciated that. And that's it, man.

Just thanks. I'm very thankful for the opportunity and the fans. And for Brian Tucker, who has been a continuous believer in me, and continues to be. Again, you're going to see. I would say that, you know, people always ask me like, oh, what's the key to ingredient? Or what's the key ingredient in success? And I'm like, well, I'll let you know when I figure it out. But here's one thing I have noticed.

You don't need to get lucky all the time because that's not possible. You just need a couple of people to look out for you along the way. And then you got to make it your own. And you got to figure it out from there. That's really what it all comes down to. So I've had a number of believers in Vox Media. Perhaps Nate Wilcox has been one, and Brian Tucker has been another. People don't know who Brian Tucker is because he works behind the scenes.

But he's the guy who basically runs the whole site. He's everybody's boss. He has been a continuous believer in me and allowed me to do a lot of things here that I just ordinarily would not have gotten the opportunity to. So, Brian, thank you. Thank you very, very, very much. And that's not where it's like people just don't get studio shows. you have to work for him and you have to get lucky.

And I did, I thought a little bit of both. All right, man. Well, you know what? No more I'm open. No more I'm open. Time to turn that page. Yeah. Turn that page.

Thank you, Danny. Great work. Thanks, man. It was an honor. Appreciate it. All right. And thank you to all of you guys who supported us. We can't thank you enough.

You'll see what comes next. And until then, stay frosty.