MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour: Special Georges St-Pierre In Studio Edition

Episode Date: November 9, 2017

On this special edition of The MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani speaks to Georges St-Pierre (00:02:43) in studio, Paulo Costa (00:41:24) in studio, and is then joined by The MMA Beat panelists Jeff Wagenheim and Danny Segura (01:19:08) to recap the week in MMA during The MMA [After] Hour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 18665330 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Thursday, November 9, 2017. Welcome to everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio.

If you were paying attention very closely this past Monday, I hinted that we may be talking one more time this week before, us next Monday's show. And I hinted that we'd have something potentially very special for you. And I know a lot of fans, we're looking forward to potentially hearing from the new UFC middleweight champion George St. Pierre on Monday's show. You have come to expect the biggest guests on Monday. And that was the plan. But then we were told that there was a chance Mr. St. Pierre could join us in studio face-to-face. Mano-imano. I have not talked to him face-to-face Mano-imano since 2013, since prior to UFC 167. So I took that offer.

opportunity. And here we are, my friend, in a matter of moments, on this very special Thursday edition of the MMA hour, we will be sitting down with the one and only. George Rush, St. Pierre. He will be in studio talking to us face to face, one of his first interviews, if not his first interview, I'm going to claim it's his first interview since becoming the UFC middleweight champion just a couple of days ago. Of course, you know by now, Madison Square Garden, Saturday night, November 4th, one of the greatest nights in the history of our sport. George St. Pierre defeated Michael Bisping to become the UFC middleweight champion. And in doing so, he is now just the fourth fighter in the history of the ultimate fighting championship to be a champion in two different weight classes.

Randy Couture, BJ Penn, Connor McGregor, and now George St. Pierre can add his name to that list. And it was a four-year layoff. He returned for the first time since 2013, submitting Michael Bisping, which, is no easy task in the third round. What a performance it was, I cannot wait to speak to him in a matter of seconds. Also, after George St. Pierre, will be joined in studio by one of the rising stars in the UFC's middleweight division, the one and only, Paulo, the eraser Costa. Bohaschina will be joining us in studio after GSB. How great is this? And if you're looking for the MMA beat, after all of that, two beatnicks, two panelists, Jeff Wagenheim and Danny Seguer will join us to recap an amazing week in the sport. There's a lot of news that happened yesterday. There's so much to discuss. So there is something for everyone on this special Thursday edition of the show. But let us not waste any time.

Let us welcome in right now to the studio for the first time. The pride of St. Isodal. The pride of Montreal. The pride of Canada. The one and only George St. Pierre. Let me stand up for George. Unbelievable. What an honor, George.

Thank you for having me here. This is amazing. This is an unbelievable honor. Thank you so much for coming. You look fantastic. I'm trying. It's a PR day. so I had to dress up a little bit.

You're doing a lot of PR today? Yeah, it's a lot of interviews and talk shows and stuff like that. You were in New York, obviously, for the fight. Then you went home to Montreal, and now you're back? Exactly. You didn't just stay. It's only an hour away. Right.

So I felt the need to go back to my family, my friends, and yeah, so I did it. This is amazing. I can't believe that. You know, I haven't talked to you face-to-face. We've spoken on the phone a lot, but face-to-face since 2013. So it's great to see you in the flesh. What do you think of my studio? You like it here?

Fantastic. I like the decoration. You recognize this guy over there? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Do you remember that picture? I remember it very well. It was not the same guy that is standing in front of you right now.

You hate that picture? I mean, it's the same guy, but he's not in the same state of mind. Exactly. Do you not like that picture? Does it make you feel weird? Like, does it bring back bad memories? It brings back bad memory because it was not an happy moment of my life. Right.

And now things have changed a lot. Sure. Since then, and I'm in a much happier place right now. You were coming off a win. That's the picture right after the Johnny Hendricks fight. It was a win, but I was winning fights back in a day, like Nick Diaz, Hendrix, but I was not happy. I was like, you know, it was not like it is right now.

That guy right there, in your mind, did you think you were done? Did you think you would never fight again? I'm finished with this. I'm tired of this. I didn't know at the time, but things has changed. And because of the things that's changed, it made me want it to come back. Okay. Like what? Of course, the problem with the performance and ends in the sport.

A lot of the stuff in my life, the infrastructure of my life was very complicated back then. What do you mean by that infrastructure? I build up a gym to do my private training session. I didn't have that before. I didn't have access to a private facility before. So I had to make my schedule around the gym. And it's normal because the gym is there to make money. for the, you know, their members.

And now I really organize it, organized my life in a way that it's very much well suited for me. Okay. How many times have you watched the fight on Saturday? With Bisping, a few times. And I'm going to tell you why, because I wanted to watch it for my personal critics, but also because I got, after the fight,

I went to the hospital. Yeah. People don't know that. I was not at the press conference. and I'm going to tell you why I had a very very bad injury

in the back of my head and I didn't know where it came from and while I rewatched a fight and I think it's in the, I'm not sure 100% what I think it happened in the first round when I had my first take down and I was holding Michael Bisping's legs he

elbow me but the elbow hit me right in the particular spot where it It's the basal region of the back of the head. That's where there is a little bone that attached to the spinal core. And that's why after the fight, I could even tie up my shoes. You know, my neck could even move. I had an incredible swelling in the muscle of the back of my neck.

And during the fight, when I was on the ground, it was very hard for me to posture up, to strike, because I couldn't even do that. And even now, if you look at me, like my head goes good. good this way, but this way I'm, I'm restricted a little bit. It's still, it's a lot, a lot better than it was, but it was very painful. So that's the reason why you went to the hospital? Yes, I went to the hospital because when he hit me, I kind of so blurry a little bit.

I don't know if I had a concussion or something, you know, it might have been a concussion. And when I keep fighting, because when it happened, obviously, the survival instincts kicks in. But when you watch the fight and that particular thing, it looked pretty insignificant. But it wasn't insignificant when I received the shot. It hurt me very bad. It's not the force of the blow.

It's more the precision of it. It's not Michael's fault. You know, you're in the heat of the moment. You fight. I would probably have done the same thing. It's nothing wrong with that. It's just that it happened. And I wanted to know where it came from.

You are very cerebral, like the way you break things down. I think that you are one of, if not the most, the smartest fighters in the history of the sports. You don't get enough credit for that, for your fight IQ. And so I'm wondering when you watch that fight, when you watch yourself the way that you break yourself down, are you happy with that GSP? Are you happy with that performance?

I'm happy, but I could have done better. Really? Like, I could have done worse also. Sure. Yeah, so the way I break that fight down, it's we were expecting Michael Bisping to try to bully me, to come hard straight from the beginning and use a sprawl.

and brawl tactic, so to speak. And he didn't do that. He used a lot of movement, that which cut me off guard. The first round, I was feeling very good because he was holding more his ground, you know, like he was moving, but he was more holding more as ground.

So I was able to exchange with him going in and out. But he made a very good adjustment in the second round. That's when people start saying I was getting tired and stuff. It's not because I was getting tired that much, it's because he was making me

missed a lot and it was contouring me because in the first round my over and right was working very well because I was countering his jab with the over and right and he was holding his ground more so the takedown came more came came easier you know without spending as much energy but in the second round his coach probably said to him to move more and I was not prepared for that kind of fighting style I was we didn't train for that all my sparring partner that were a guy that were trying to take me out you know when they were coming straight at me. And it cut me a little bit of guard. So going back and losing the second round,

I came back in the corner and had to readjust myself coming for the third round. So Freddie Roach told me, he says, now he's countering your over-end because he knows you're going over his jab. He's countering your over-hand by going with a straight right hand. And I got clipped a couple of times. So he said, now what's you're going to do is throw your right hand and come over the top with the left hook. And that's how I knock him down with a counter to his head.

his right hand coming with the left hook and that's how I got I got him and I know that once he I got him down I try to finish him with strike but I want a point I knew that if I would have only tried to finish him with strike I would empty my gas think so I know by setting tape that Michael Bisping like to stand up by going belly down on four point and stand up from there so what I did is I give him a little bit of space instead of trying to hold on to him like I did previously and wasting my energy because he's a bigger man I give him a little bit of a I strike him and I see I couldn't take him out with a strike because he was recuperating very well and defending him himself well. So I give him a little bit of space for him to turn belly down and try to stand up.

While he did that, he had a split second that he exposed us back and I think the ruin. Amazing. It's like you're reliving it right now. The detail that you recall everything is just incredible. Yeah. I mean, when you fight a bigger man, you can't go like this. You know, you have to use different tactics. And in the past, I had a lot of critics for not finishing the fight.

And I wanted to finish so much that sometime I was trying to force thing. And I think, I truly believe in mixed martial art, if you try to force thing, it just doesn't work. You know, there's a whole saying that it goes like this. Say, if you try to knock the guy out, it's not going to happen. You have to let it come. Sure. And I was not trying to knock him out. You know, I was just trying to hit him and be accurate and fast.

And when the left took, come, boom, I knock him down. I was like, I was surprised just as my, like, I was like, oh, my God. And that's how it would come. You know, it's always like that. When I knock out youths, Matt Hughes, with the leg kick, same thing. And Jay-Haron, it happened just suddenly without any warning, you know, and that's how it should be. Towards the end of my previous run, I was trying too much.

And when you try too much to force thing, it doesn't happen as much. It doesn't happen as, it's not as good. The consensus seems to be that you did gas out, that you got tired. You're saying you didn't get tired? I got tired, of course, because I tried to finish the fire with strike. in the second round. In the second round, what happened is at one point,

I knew that something was wrong. Because he changed his tactic. He started moving a lot, and he was making me miss. And when I missed, he was countering me very well. So I was thinking, I was like,

I'm not going to try to follow him as much. I'm going to let him a little bit run instead of trying to stay on him all the time because it's not working. So maybe it was like seen as maybe a, how do you say, in English, the best regime, you know, like low, like... Your energy went down.

So weighing down. I know I was losing the round, and it was only the second round. I knew I won the first one, and I knew that if I tried to overcome it too much, he's a bigger man, obviously, with the extra weight. If he clipped me good, it would be very dangerous. So I said, you know what, maybe I give him the round, and I will recuperate for the next one. What was it like being...

I mean, it's unprecedented what you did coming back after four years. We hear about ring rust a lot, octagon rust. Did you feel the same? Or did you feel initially like, oh, this is a little foreign to me? Place where I felt a little bit ring rust was on the ground. Okay. And the reason is this. All the other situations, striking and everything in the middle,

even the grappling, it was good. But the striking from the bottom was, I felt a little bit ring rust because I didn't really practice. There is no way you can practice ground and practice. ground and pound in practice. You cannot practice yourself getting elbowed in the face. In practice, if you do that, you cut yourself, you're out for the fight.

Right. So I felt a little bit of ring rust in that particular area. Of course, you know, also I try sometimes to load up too much that over and right, over his job. That's a little bit of ring Ross, you know.

But all the, all the, all the place and the fight, all the thing in the fight that I do in practice, I was not so bad. It's just, I would say, the ground and pound. And from the bottom, I was a little bit ring-russ because I haven't done it for so long, you know? I've been grappling with the elbow strike pushing the head

and stuff like that. I haven't done that for a long time. So I should have, my coach, John Donauer told me to practice it more, and I kind of, not ignore him, but I was like, yeah, I think I'm good. I don't really need this, but I should have listened to him and done it more because it's very important when you're on top, you have to control the inside and control the hand so you don't get elbowed and you don't end up having scar like I do.

So it was a mistake of my part. What do you prefer fighting at 170 or 185? Like with that extra weight, how did you feel in there? That's another thing. It's been six months I was shoving food down my throat. People didn't know what really happened. I was forcing myself to eat like crazy, like five, six times a day. And I was eating on a particular specific diet, you know, to gain extra muscle mass.

What happened is I was walking around about 197, 198 pound. And when I came to New York to make the weight, I was at 185. I made the weight at 185. It's like my buddy refuses to go back up where it was before. it went back to 191 pound. Like my muscle, the muscle memory of my body, maybe, sort of speak, went back to my, not my old weight because 191 is still bigger

than what I was before, but I didn't came back up all the way. After the way in. Yes, the night of the fight, I was 192. Wow. I was not 198 where I wanted to be. Wow. Your body just kind of shut off. Yeah, and the morning of the fight,

I tried to force myself to eat to put it all back, and I threw up my breakfast. Really? Yes, I went back in my room and I threw up my breakfast and I called my nutrition and I threw up my breakfast. He's not so bad. You know, the importance is your hydration, your electrolyte.

We're going to make sure you're well hydrated. I say, yeah, but I'm not very hungry. It's like my body was shutting down. Wow. I couldn't recover. It's the first time I've done this in my life. So maybe we did some mistake. But the importance is that I felt good.

And even when I was trying to put on some weight during the, the weeks before the fight, especially in breakfast, I was forcing myself to eat my four eggs, you know, because I have a quantity of eggs to eat. And even sometimes after two eggs,

I was having, like, reflux, you know, like I was chewing up my breakfast. And this happened, like, pretty much almost every morning. I felt like I had to chew up, but I forced myself. I was like,

wow. And then tried to eat it, and it was very hard. It's not a very healthy to eat like this. So now what I do is I'm fasting now. Oh, really? Yeah, I've been, nothing?

I do one day on, one day off, one day off. I'll do that for one or two week because I need to clean up my intestine. I had like very severe cramp during my training camp and it was very hard. You know, I couldn't sleep some night. I was having cramp because of the stress probably and all that. And it's not an healthy way. You know, when you try to feed yourself like crazy and force it, it's not natural. And I did it because I wanted to gain weight.

and I needed to put the muscle mass to be able to fight a bigger man. How much you weigh right now? About 1,992 maybe. So obviously I was going to ask you at some point what's next, but you shouldn't fight that middle weight if you feel that way. Why would you ever do that against yourself? In my contract, I have to fight Robert Whittaker. But, you know, it didn't go that bad.

If you look at my fight, you know, it's, you know, I was maybe I was smaller, but I was faster. I felt more athletic. I felt, you know, I had an advantage in a certain area, but maybe on a size and a weight department, I was not in my advantage. But if you're feeling that bad going into the fight, the cramps and throwing up and forcing yourself,

that's not very enjoyable, is it? Well, I chew up my breakfast, but then after my nutrition coach, Jean-Francois says to me, he said, look, he said, don't force yourself, eat. The importance is that you're well hydrated, you're well hydrated, so just go as you feel. And I went like this, and I felt good.

It's just, and I tried to put too much weight. That's my problem. I wanted to mentally to be big. But the important is not to be big, is to be fit and well-hydrated. You were very honest. First time I've done it, Ariel. Maybe I've made a mistake.

Maybe it's my fault too, you know? So we learn from it, right? One of the fascinating things going into the fight was how honest you were. In particular, there was a documentary that aired on TSN called The Mind of GSP and you said how much you are afraid at times to lose and to lose

and to fight, and you don't particularly enjoy fighting. These are things that go on in your mind. I hate it. You hate it. You hate fighting. Yes, I hate it. Why do it? Why do it?

I'm going to try to explain it the best I can. People, they all only see the good, the positive, the big picture. They don't see the big picture. I mean, they see me now, happy. The good thing about fighting, the lifestyle I have, I love the lifestyle that I have, like give me the freedom. I can train. I have a martial artist's life.

Like I live like a samurai, you know. Every day I try to reach perfection. I try to be the perfect fighting machine. Even though perfection is not perfect, but I will try to be as much as I can as much as I can obtain to be. It allowed me to have the freedom to do whatever I want. So if I work hard,

I will have good results, you know. You're a result of the symbol of your work, and that's what I love about it, you know. And I have no boss. I do whatever I want, whenever I want, with whoever I want. And the only, there's no perfect job. The only bad thing about my job is sometimes I need to fight. You know, I need to go and fight.

And fighting is fun. But the week of the fight, the uncertainty of fighting, the fear of being humiliated. Because we do a crazy job, you know, there's two guys that get into a cage. is only one guy going to be reward of victory. The other guy that will lose will do all that for nothing. Right. You know?

And the odds are relatively 50-50, right? So it's always the fear of being humiliated, of losing, the fear of done, that I have done all these crazy sacrifice for nothing. And this is crazy. This is almost unbearable. You know, the week leading up to the fight, you're very stressed.

unbelievable. And I don't like that part of my work. I hate it. Especially, it's mostly the waiting part. I love, I love fighting when I'm in the gym and I train with the guy. I love exchanging knowledge. I love training. But when I'm fighting, the pressure of it, it's crazy. It's unbearable. I hate it. But if I pass that, if I go through this, it will allow me to have the lifestyle that I love to have, you know, my freedom, my lifestyle to train like a samurai, to be able to be like a, train like a martial artist to pursue the great thing in my career. So there is no perfect job. I'm sure there's things about your job that you dislike.

Right. But you like, I like my job more. There's more positive thing about my job than negative. So that's why I'm doing it. So what was it like in the locker room on Saturday? in the hours before the fight. Was it worse than normal? Oh, that was crazy.

How nervous were you? Let me tell you about this. Let me tell you about that. So before I left for the medicine score guard, that I have my last meal. Okay. I'm eating. And I hear the guy speaking,

like in my crew, in my team, there's most people they speak English, but there are people that speak French, right? Because I have French, francophone background. So I hear them speak. Don't tell George. Oh. So I go at the table and I'm like,

I'm eating him like, is a A man, one, Amen is a training partner of mine. And they're like, everybody's okay. He's like, no, he got knocked out. I'm like, shoot, is he okay? They're like, I don't know. I think so. I'm like, man, that would be very bad.

Yeah. So I finish eating and I'm like, damn, you know, one of my training partner lost, unfortunately, I feel very sad for him. So then I go in my locker room. Then my other training partner who's in my locker room, Joseph Deffi fight, and he's doing well, but he got clipped with an upper cut.

He got knocked out. again. I'm like, oh my God. Then there's another guy in my locker room, Mickey Gall, he lose too. No, I'm starting it's like, is it a freaking curse in my locker room? You know, because sometimes when you, before a fight, you become a little bit, how do you say

like, you know, like these things like they superstitious? Superstitious, you know, like man, I'm in a bad locker room. I have like a curse locker room. Everybody's losing. So I'm thinking, I was like, no way. It's like, not me. I'm going to put everything back on track. It's like, I'm not losing this. I try to convince myself, no way, I'm going to do this. So then we're warming up for the fight,

and now I'm with my trainer. We're thinking it's like, okay, now there's a, the two ladies are fighting. Normally ladies, like, not all the time, but there's less percentage of knockout and finishes in ladies than men sometimes because the power, the woman is normal, is different. So I'm thinking, okay,

is going to be a five-round. And then the other guy, TJ and Cody, is going to be a five-round too. So I'm going to have a good time for warm-up. So I set my warm-up to have a good time for warm-up, like at least a good 40-minute. Then the fight started, bang, Rose knockout, Joanna.

I'm like, oh, my God, okay, let's go. Then I finish wrapping my hand. I go crazy. I start warming up. And then after a DJ, boom, knock out Cody. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm freaking out. try to accelerate my warm up.

Then they called me out. Everything from there went very fast. Okay. Was it weird not wearing the ghee to the cage? It looked weird for us who was watching you. Yeah, it was weird because I have a kind of a ritual that I do normally before the fight. I put my ghee in front of the mirror with my bandanae and I'm talking to myself. What are you saying?

I'm telling it. I'm talking to myself in the mirror, trying to convince myself. This is like a routine I do. Nobody knows this. I'm telling myself, I look at my Sunday mirror, and I'm telling myself, I said, I said, you're the best, tonight is going to be your night, you're going to win.

You're going to win this because you're better than him. Try to pump me up with something to get positive stuff, you know, even though I'm scared as hell, you know, and I have doubt in my mind. I try to make myself positive and pump me. I'm trying to make me believe that it's impossible for me to fail, you know. And then I'm walking in. And then when I get out of the locker room,

that's when normally the, the walkout start. You know? And I always do the same thing. So I know that the UFC guys come to pick me up in the locker room. So I always time it in a way that when they come to pick me up in the locker room,

that's when I go take a, I go piss one more time. And then I put my cup because you don't want to put your cup before because you have to, you know, it's a tight cup, you have to attach everything. Then I put my cup,

then I put my pants, then I put my ghee. But now I didn't have my ghee. So what I do is, they say, I said, okay. I went to the bathroom. Then I went to the bathroom.

Then I put my cup. Then I looked myself in front of the mirror and I said, yeah, I'm going to do this. I'm going to make a story tonight. Then I'm scared, but I try to convince myself. Then I take the walk and I do my thing. You know, that's how I did. So you just said, I'm going to make history tonight.

I'm the best, this and that. This is the discussion now afterwards. You're now just the fourth man to hold the belt in two different weight classes. You come back after a four-year layoff. You didn't lose the Walterway title. Can you tell me to defend. definitively, do you believe that you're the greatest of all time now? Did you put an exclamation point?

You've never tested positive, no PEDs, right? It's a good question, but I'm going to tell you something Ariel, and I'm going to be very humble in my answer, and I'm going to tell you what I truly believe is the truth. That's the truth about fighting. And when I started fighting when I was young, I remember I was young and a little bit different up here. I wanted to become the best fighter because I wanted to be the strongest men in the world.

as life goes on it taught me different there is no such thing as the strongest men in the world it doesn't exist there's no such thing as the greatest you can be the best but you can lose

for example you can have the best football team the best soccer team or baseball team it's the best team but it would lose to a team was not as good that night because that particular night they didn't play the best game.

So the important in this sport is not to be the best fighter. And there's one thing that I'm very good at. I'm very good to be good when it count. That's one of my best quality as an entertainer, as a performer. You know, you can call it a fighter or an entertainer. I'm very, very good to turn it on when it's time to turn it on. That's one of my best quality. There's a lot of guys who are very good,

but when it's time to pull the trigger, they can't do what they're freezing or mentally they have issue, they have this. Me, I'm very good to be good when it count. And if you talk about the fight with Michael Bisping, last Saturday I fought Michael Bisping in a fight. I won. At that particular time, that particular place,

I was the best man that night. It doesn't mean that if I fight Michael Bisping tomorrow, that I will still have my hand race. Maybe it will beat me next time. There's odds, as always. Maybe nine times out of ten I will beat him or maybe 50% of the time. Or I don't know. You know, we'll make up our own odds in our head.

I'm confident as a fighter when I'm going to a fight that I'm the best. But for me, it's not important. It's important for me that at that particular time, I fight the best fight that I can fight. That's what I focus on. I'm not focusing on trying to convince myself I'm the best. because it's a relevant. The best team, the best fighter can lose sometime. There's no such thing as invincible person.

Everybody can beat everybody at any given day. And I've learned that in my career against Matt Serra. I've learned it the hard way. And that's what sometimes separate a good fighter than a bad fighter is if he can he pull the trigger when it count. Can he perform under the light when time come to perform. That's what makes difference.

Michael Bisping isn't the first fighter to accuse you of taking steroids, but he got very personal going into this fight. Do you feel like he crossed the line and was it personal? Did you want to prove to this guy that, okay, you said a lot, I'm going to shut you up.

Did it ever feel? Because you did a good job of really not saying much. You never took the bait. Yeah. He accused you of a lot. My position against performance and syncing drug is,

is everybody knows. Yeah, well documented. And he, I don't believe he, even believe it himself that I take steroid or that I took steroids. I never took anything in my life. I never took steroid in my entire life, you know. And the thing that people don't understand is I'm not against steroid.

Be careful. Now I'm going to say something. I'm against steroid because in our sport, we sign an agreement that we agree to perform without biological weapon. We agree upon that. But if you're, for example, an actor, you're an actor in Hollywood

and you have a role that will give you millions of dollars and you need to gain, I don't know, 50 pounds in one month. Maybe you have no choice to take steroids. I try to gain pounds, to gain weight, like muscle mass in six months. You see what I did, it messed me up a little bit my body. You know, it was very hard, but I had to do it because that's the way I sign up for, you know.

Or if you're sick, if you have an uncurable disease and you need to do, take some steroid to feel better. Or if you're old and your testosterone go down and alt-wise, you need to do it. It's okay. I'm not against it. But for a sport, for performance, I am against it. Because we sign up an agreement saying that we're not going to use any help, any extra illegal. weapon. That's why I'm against it in our sport. But if it's for a well-being for a other kind of situation, I don't mind. It's medicine. It could be medicinely helpful for certain people.

Speaking of agreement, you said just a couple minutes ago, in my contract it says I have to fight Robert Whitaker. You mentioned this before the fight as well. Yes. But when you were asked by Joe Rogan in the cage and even today, like you don't say, I am going to fight Robert Whitaker. You say it's in your contract. The middleweight division doesn't believe that you are going to fight Robert Whitaker. They think that you're either going to leave, drop the title, do something. Tell us. The matter of white division did not believe I was going to fight Michael Bisping either. And I did, and I win, and I won in a good fashion. Can you say definitively that you will fight Robert Whitaker next year? It's a lot of things. I can't say because it's a lot of force now.

What do you mean by force? There's a lot of different thing that can change. Mixed martial art is a sport that change all the time. And like I said, I wanted to come back to make a story to do something that's never been done before. I know it's in my contract, but you never know Dana can come back with some proposition or whatever.

I don't know what's going to fight him. Does this get you excited? It's written in my contract. If it gets me excited, I don't know. Like, I mean, he's an excellent fighter and he was in Montreal before and he's an incredible martial artist. He has a lot of respect for you.

He's a great champion. I have only positive thing to say about Robert Wittaker. But you're not going to go to Australia to fight this guy, right? I don't know. That's crazy. Look, I just finish a very hard fight. I'm still bruised up a little bit. My neck, I still feel.

I need some vacation. I'm going to go in vacation, clear up my head. Where are we going? Can I come? I'm going to go somewhere exotic with a beach and sand where nobody knows. Exactly. Run away from this. Yes.

This old circus of mixed martial art. I don't blame you. Is there any chance this is your last fight? Is there any chance? Or can you say definitively you will fight again? I don't know. I'm very happy now. What's it was going to?

I'm very happy. I wanted to take one fight at the time, solve one problem at that time. And from there, take a decision, you know. And I did this. I think it was good for the UFC. They made a lot of money. And it was good for me as well.

It was good for Michael Bisping. Michael Bisping is someone that I really admire. He's incredibly brave. And he's a true example of determination in the sport. You know, like he's the man, like he went very far. You know, he's incredible. And I was very honored fighting Michael Bisping because of his mind. He was very outspoken about performance-enhancing drug.

He said a lot of things about me. I don't take it personal. I truly believe that he said it to make the fight more exciting. And actually, I should have said thank you to him because we sell a lot of paper views. Yes. So you can't say for sure, though, that you will fight again. Right now.

I can't say for sure anything. Anything. I don't know anything. Do you want to fight Connor McGregor? This is the fight. Everyone comes up to me this week. I want to see George fight Connor. Does this interest you at all?

Why are you bringing in on? Everybody is asking me this question. Tell me you're not the only one. It's like I always ask. I say, why everybody is asking me this question, you know? Like he's competing in different wake But maybe meet at 170, because he's fought at 170. He said a lot about you as well.

I'm not the kind of guy who's going to, you know, as a fighter, I don't challenge guys that compete in smaller weight class division. I think it makes you look bad, you know? Like, I don't want to do this. And I'm very happy for Connor. He raised the bar for all of us. You know, what he's been doing, it's a, he raised the bar for all the fighter, you know. And he does it for himself, but he does it for all of us in the same time.

Even if maybe he doesn't realize it, he does it for everybody. And I think it's good for the sport. It's good for the fighter, good for everybody. When do you think you'll decide what you'll do next? I'll take a few weeks. And then I'll decide. I have no desire to hold on the title and freeze the division. Okay.

That's not what I want. So there is a chance you might say goodbye to the division and the title as well. That's possible. The chance that I will fight Robert Whitaker, too. I don't know. You really don't know. But, yeah, nice try. It's not going to work.

It's not going to work. It's like a fight, George. You know? I'm Bob and weave now. Bob and weave. I do not know. Okay. I don't like to say things.

Like, I do not know. And Dana is the boss. We'll see what's going to happen. And I just need some vacation now. That's when I burned out last time because I was like, tried to think too much ahead of time. And sometimes we try to think about ahead of time, things that you're thinking about.

You're wasting your interview. because they don't even happen. Right. Two last very quick things, because I know you have to go. And by the way, I'd love to see you at the State of Olympic in Montreal. Imagine that, 70,000 people watching you fight.

Montreal deserves that. It would be amazing. Two last things. You know, Tim Kennedy tweeted when you won, hey, the MMAA now has two champions on its board. T.J. Dilashon, George St. Pierre. Now that you're champion, will you try to make changes in the sport

now that you have that power? We try to recruit a lot of, people and we do we do that not to to create problems for you have sure sure we want to elevate make it better yes to make it better this will happen if it's not today or tomorrow or in six months or in a few years it will happen at one time if we want the sport to grow it will happen it's just there's a lot of force now in trying to pooling fighters in different this direction you know like ultimately what we want we all want the same thing we want to have a better

fighting better condition and better salary and and and i think it's fair it need to be fair for everybody okay four years later you happier yes you should change the picture and take a good one now with the belt yes exactly and i saw you go to the ymHA in montreal and and give it your coach over there a place that i used to hang out as a kid all the time that was beautiful giving your the belt. I gave every single of my belt to, except one belt I kept for myself in my house, but every belt that I gain, I give it to someone that helped me down the line. Because the belt for me, it's not really what is important. What is important is the souvenir that I keep of that memorable night. Sure. This nobody, a belt, I can lose it. Someone can rub it, can rub it to me.

But this memory that I have, this moment, it's mine. And even though sometimes in life you have a heart, hard time with something, I can always close my eyes and remember that moment and it will give me a smile. And this is something that nobody will ever be able to take it away from me. And so my last belt, I gave it to Victor Zimmerman, who's my wrestling coach. And I think it's the first time I saw him smile in my life. He was very happy. And I've been training under him for more than 15 years.

He's a very hard coach. But I think he was hard with me and all the guys because he wanted to make the best out of me to come out. And I'm very thankful to him for this. George, I'm so happy for you. Congratulations, my friend. Really, you are an inspiration. Thank you very much. You are a role model for Canadians.

Canada was so happy to see you back. It's an amazing thing. You know how highly I think of you. So it was really nice to see you come back after all this time and perform like you did and win and smile and do it your way. So congratulations. Felicitation. Thanks to you, Ariel. You always be very kind with me

and man, you're the best way you do. Thank you. I remember UFC 65, I went to a bar in Montreal, champ sports bar, to watch you beat Matt Hughes before I was ever a journalist and the place erupted. And it was that moment where I said, I want to be an MMA journalist because one of our own, a Montrealer, was doing what you were doing.

And so it was an inspiration for me. So congratulations, enjoy it. You're going to the New York Stock Exchange now, so enjoy that as well. I got a lot of stuff going out. Thank you, George. I'll stand up here. Thank you so much for coming in. Thank you, guys.

The one and only George St. Pierre. And we'll talk to you soon. Okay, keep us posted. There he is. The UFC Midway Champion. What a beautiful moment. What an honor. What a privilege to have him in studio.

Can't thank him enough for stopping by. He is, in my opinion, the greatest of all time. He did what so many thought he could not do on Saturday night. He is now the UFC Midway Champion. And like I said, he is one of just four fighters in UFC history to hold a belt in two different way classes. Amazing. Randy Couture, BJ Penn. Connor McGregor

and now George St. Pierre. What a great moment. And honestly, I mean, to have, this is not just MMA royalty, my friends. This is Canadian royalty. This, I mean, the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau tweeted about this man. Congratulating him.

At Canada. The Twitter feed tweeted, congratulations to him. This is not just another fighter. You see what he means to Canadians. You see what he means to the sport. You see how fighters react to him. Paulo Costa coming in in a matter of moments, asked to take a photo with him. This man is revered, is idolized by everyone. And certainly fighters, he has played a big part in the evolution of the sport, one of the first to wear a suit to press conferences, to, you know, hold himself,

present himself with class and dignity. Just, you know, what more can you? You know, what more can you say. So we'll see what happens, non-committal. We'll see where he goes from here. We'll see if he fights again. We'll see if Robert Whitaker gets that fight. It's going to be an interesting story to follow. So we do need to update that photo because that does represent maybe it's a great photo taken by Eastern Lin, but maybe we need to update it with the photo from Saturday night, him winning the middle-white title. All right, how much fun was that? That was amazing, but we do have plenty more show for all of you. I am very excited about this. We speak about the middle-weight division. George St. Pierre is obviously the king right now, 185, but there is a man named Paulo Costa,

aka the eraser, aka Bojasinia, who is a budding superstar, who is the future, in my opinion, a name that we will be talking about for a very long time, and now he is going to join us in studio. How great is this? You talk about a legend, George St. Pierre, now we bring a future legend, a Brazilian legend, please, come on in. There he is, Paulo Costa, maybe the most good looking man I've ever seen in my life. How about this? Amazing. And Eric Albaracin, his almost like his spiritual advisor, his wrestling coach, his right-hand man.

Eric, it's so great. You flew in from Phoenix overnight to be here in studio. So thank you for coming in. Thank you. Thank you, Paul, as well. I mean, wow. You're here in studio and you just fought on Saturday. Why are you still in New York, by the way?

Why didn't you not go back home to Brazil? Yes. I'm here to know the city. To, in vacations. It's the simple. It's a vacation. with my girlfriend here to walk for the start of liberty and in some place here. First time in New York?

Yes, first time. You like it? So much. It's amazing, right? Amazing. He's a wonderful city, and I love the series. By the way, did you have a chance to say hello to GSP? Yes.

Yes, I saw he there, and he's a very nice guy. Did you watch him when you were younger? Did you know who he was? Was he a role model for you? He was an idol to you when you were more young. Of course. I grew up watching JSP in TV, so this is very important for me.

Shake his hand and talking about the fights and about the match of arts with him. Was Saturday night, so you beat Johnny Hendricks Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, the most famous arena in the world, one of the best cards in UFC history. Was that the greatest night of your life? Yes, of course.

The biggest fight of my life and the biggest name, my biggest opponent's name too. So Johnny Hendricks, I'm very glad to Johnny Hendricks for this opportunity because he's accepted the fight in the same time when he listing my name and he comes to fight. So I'm very grateful to Johnny Hendricks for this opportunity. because he's a former champion. He's not, uh, he's not just anybody. Yes.

So he's a very, very big famous. Do you feel like your life has changed since Saturday? Do you feel a difference in the way, I think, you know, I was watching football on Sunday. And Tony Romo, who's a very famous football player and announcer,

he even called a player on, on one of the teams, the eraser. And so I was listening to this. And maybe he was watching the fight on Saturday. Like this thing is catching. I feel like people now, you know, it's different from the last fight in Brazil. It feels like doing it in New York on this card.

Do you feel that as well? I feel this. The things happen very more fast here in America of my country. See faster. Yes, faster. So my name now is in the top 15 ranking. So after this fight. So I think.

this great opportunity is changed my position right in the UFC I want to go back to the beginning and correct me if I'm wrong I read that when you were young around like 15 used to get into a lot of fights you were kind of like a shy kid and that's why you got into martial arts because you wanted to defend yourself is that accurate is that true when you were a a kid you were timid and people were

bullied in you and for so you it's true it's true in my school in Brazil

we have many bully guys yeah you know so I'm starting to learn

how how the fence of these guys and I started training my Thai at nine years oh nine years

Wow. And at 12, I started training Jiu Jitsu too. Why were they picking on you? Why were their, you know, bullies bothering you? I don't know. I don't know. I think he don't like me. I don't know why.

Do you think these people now know what you're doing? I think that are those most bullies, you know what you're doing? Yes. I think, I think they know. I keep a relationship with one or two guys and now they are very nice guys They love you now

They love you, they're not going to mess with you Were you a small kid? I mean now you're just like a physical specimen But we're... Yes, when when when I was a kid, I was small Okay Your father and your brother played football, right? Your father was amateur, your brother was professional.

Why didn't you go down that route? Why didn't you become a football player? I don't know why. But I try to play football, but I have many better skills to fight to play football. I don't know. But I think it's like this.

I think it's like this. I think I have more ability to train Jitsu and train martial martial martiales than to fight. Yeah, he had more skills to do jujitsu and start MMA than to play soccer or football. Were your parents in favor of you going into fighting? Did they want to see you do that?

Or did they try to get you to do more traditional sports like football? In the begin, when I started, he does approve. No. No. But after my great results in Brazil, I'm a former champion of two big events in Brazil.

and my mom in special, he said, okay, if you do you want to make this, go ahead. Wow. Okay, so then they gave you the okay. Yeah, it's okay. Now she's approved.

Why did you decide to become an actual pro-MMA fighter? Like, it's one thing to train Muay, jujitsu, but to do this as your career because you used to do real estate, right? Yeah. The real estate? Yeah. You, before,

you went to buy you guys, because you could turn it. And you liked it, from what I understand. You liked being a real estate agent, right? Yes, but this is my job to... Apoyat, yes. It was his job to support his career. To support my career.

Oh, okay. My training is not a rich family, you know. Okay. So I need working hard to pay my supermen's, to pay my training. So I make this job to... to support my training. Now you have money, right? You got a bonus.

You're fighting. Do you feel a lot more comfortable? What does it like to have this money now? Yes. What I'm going to do with the money? Is it? How you're feeling? You got a money?

Yes. It's very important. Yes. It's very important because now I have calm. I have time to training, to focus in my career. Yeah. I don't need more. teacher

the classes give lessons personal training I don't need more and I can

focus all my time full time in my career is very important for me but but I'm not like expense so much I like

I like a vestry a good a lot of a car, and to buy a good car, buy a nice car, buy a nice house, not too much more than that.

Right. Simple things. You know, MMA fans may not know this are UFC fans right now, but you were on Tough Brazil 3 with Vanderlay and Chale, but then you didn't go into the UFC

right after the show. So first, what was that experience like being in the house with the cameras and all the drama with Chale and Van dera? Did you enjoy that? Because it seems to me like it's a miserable

experience. Yes. Did you enjoy being a part of that? I don't enjoy a lot. No. No, because I stayed there for 40 days. 40 days. Wow, geez.

And don't have a cell phone, don't have nothing, not have TV, don't have internet. So stay in the house with 16 guys. I don't see there before. So, so day before. and it's not a good experience for me. But like personal is, I'm, I grow up. Like, you know, as a person, it was good for that. Yes, because matured.

Right. Yes. Do you think that's why you didn't do well on the show because you didn't enjoy it because you weren't happy? Because you're undefeated as a professional, but on the show you lost. Yes. Do you feel like that's why? Because you just weren't in a good place?

Yes. this is a big problem because I need to make way in a week every week. Yeah. So I have a problem because I'm a very, very muscle guy. And my weight is like 210. So in the show, I need make way in every week, 185. Wow. So it's a big problem.

Wow. And I feel very weak, you know, very tired to fight. And I think this is my, for my my own problem. That was the problem with me being in there, was the constant fatigue from having to make weight every week. Right. It drains. Often when there's like a young superstar or someone that they think could be very good,

they'll sign him. and he'll go into the UFC even though he didn't do well on the show were you surprised, were you disappointed, were you upset that you didn't get into the UFC right away that after the show they said, okay, thanks but no thanks and you had to go fight elsewhere?

Yes. I'm, I'm, uh, I'm, uh, I'm, uh, I'm, uh, I became very too, um, after the show no, that the show no, that the show. But I continued training, I continued, uh, doing my things and I, uh,

I was going to my space and conquisting the chitos nationals. Yeah, I was very sad that the UFC didn't call me after, but I looked forward, I kept the path, I kept training, and conquering more Brazilian titles. Yeah, and you did that, and you, correct me if I'm wrong, you were actually called when Anderson Silva was about to fight, Yeraya Hall, and they said you want to fight, because Silva had the gallbladder problem,

and you thought that you were finally going to make your debut on like five days' notice, after one day Yariah Hall said no, right? Yes. So you were that close, you were willing to do it. You were willing to fight on five days' notice.

And then he said, no, that has to be devastating too, right? That has to be very upsetting. No, no. No? Not because in this moment, yeah. I am in preparation for my fight

in Jaguar fight. Okay. Fight for the belt. One week after this, this fight. Okay, so you were ready? Yes, I keep focusing in my fight. But,

it's of course I like to fight against a high half in the UFC but in the same the same time I keep my focus in my fight one one week after you know but you're so close to making it finally

that wasn't frustrating yes I knew but I knew I knew I knew in the short time my time will be calm You knew that they were looking at you, that you were on their radar. So that was some kind of consolation.

Yes. Exactly. Okay. And then you get to fight. But you get to fight again in Brazil, somewhat short notice. Was it short notice the first fight in the UFC? It was somewhat short notice, right, against Gareth McClellan? So, first, a little.

Yes. Yes. That went well. Of course, the second fight went well. When did you learn how to speak English like this? I feel like the last time we saw you, like in June, you didn't speak any English. Yeah. Is that to him?

when you when you started learning English like a last one of a lot of a lot

yeah I come here to America to train for four times so this is upgrade my English yeah

but I studied English in Brazil because I know the importance of speaking English here and and

I I will I will I will study more to speak more the next time here, but it's very important. But I'm very dedicated and focus and my goals. And this is my next goal, speak English with Florence.

Let's talk about the name for a second here because it's fascinating because your brother was the big rubber. You're the little rubber, right? Bojashina. But then at some point you decided, okay, for the American fans, it's a hard name to pronounce. So I'm going to go with my real name, Paolo Costa. The Eraser. Yes.

This man showed you the movie, right? With Arnold Schwarzenegger. You sat there and watched and you're like, okay, I'm in. This is my name. He made a mad scientist. He's doing this. Yeah. Yes.

You feel comfortable with that, though, because Borrashina is your name. Yes, yes. But Borashina is very Brazilian name. Okay. Very special for our Brazilian. Because some, some Brazilian words, some Brazilian words is very difficult to translate for English. Sure. Sure.

You say, every word in Brazil, we finish with Inia is like a video. Yeah. But English is, I think, is very hard to understand. But the razor have a same, parisido. Same meaning. Yeah, save meaning because erase, right. Eliminate. Yes.

eliminate. Borasha, borashina, or borash in Brazil, in Portuguese, is, have the same mean, like erase,

you know? You can use to flexible, flexibility, or erase. It's the same. It's amazing. I think it's a brilliant.

Here in New York, Madison Avenue, they brand things. I think it was great for you to have this coming out party with the new name. Eric, let me ask you,

you've trained Lioto Machita recently, the Pitbull Brothers, Big Nog, Little Nog. You've trained Henry Sohudo. You're with him right now. He's getting ready for, you saw him on the Ultimate Fighter, Brazil, but you only started working with him for this camp.

And you're a wrestling coat. I mean, that's your base. So for Hendricks, it makes a lot of sense. Why are you so high on this man? Wow. I knew once he got into UFC that he'd be fighting a wrestler, so I sent him a message. And he wrote me back when he finally got Jenny Hendricks.

He came out to Arizona. I invited him. I said, come on out to Arizona. and we'll get you ready. And I was so big because one of the first days, I showed him a move. And he started drilling it in front of me and he was going to the wrong leg. It was a defensive move.

I said, no, you can't do it this way. You got to do it this way. He's like, are you sure because I do it this way? I'm like, listen, I'm the coach. I'm telling you. I got Olympic champions on the team. Listen to me. So he goes out there, wrestles one of these ASU sundevil wrestlers,

and he takes him down the way he wanted to do it with the wrong And then after he did it, he goes, oh, he goes, sorry I did it wrong. But he got to take that. But it worked. I'm like, is he messing with me? Is he, is this, it's like I told you so, but in a nice way, it was funny. Then he did it again or another move. Henry was showing a move to like a high-level wrestler and goes,

Eric, show me this move. I said, no, that's a black-moval move. We got to crawl before we can walk. That's too high-level for you. Next day he goes out and hits this front, this chest, like that two-time Olympic gold medalist showed us, Sergey Bill of Glasso, showed me and Henry, Henry was showing somebody

he wanted to do it. I was like, no, you got to crawl first. He goes out and practice and hits it on somebody three times against a high-level russell. I'm just thinking to myself like, this kid's special. He's a phenom. He's a phenom. And that's why I'm so high on him, because in

the one or two practices, this guy was taking people down, and I was like, wow, this kid's going to go far. So I've trained those guys, I can tell. Yeah, you've been in there with them. Speaking of the phenom, Vitor Belford, you've trained with Vitor in the past. And you wanted to fight him.

Yes. But he's not happy about this. Yeah. What happened? Because I trained with Vito for two times. He called me. But I'm not his friend. You're not his friend.

You're not his friend. No. And he's not my friend, too. Okay. Understand. Yeah. So, and I am professional. OFC, call me.

then me come from not for me for Validj is my old my agent and he said okay

we have a new fight for for Paulo here against Vito before and what you what you think about

and Valid call me and say say that for me and I say of course let's go let's go now

what I when when is this fight and and Validji call again to me can say okay

let's do it and Vito say no because he's he come now I don't know why because why Vito don't like this fight but too much to lose

he's too young of course I can understand why the same way I thought it was a mistake for Johnny Hendricks to fight you I was surprised that Johnny Hendricks said yes to you it's a great fight for you because he's a name it's a great fight for the UFC but for him I think it's crazy He should be fighting older guys because he's a little bit older. Because he don't feel fear to fight.

Right, that's true. So you think that Vitor was afraid to fight you? I think so. Wow. And do you think that he felt betrayed, that you would say yes? You trained with him. I brought you in to train with me. How could you say yes?

Do you feel that at all? You're saying? You're saying that you're trying to try you. No, no. No, no. Because he... Is it the same with Anderson? Yes.

Yes. He made it the same with Anderson, Silver. But, but Victor, Vito, uh, Vito, called me and pay me and when his fight, uh, he called me when he will fight, uh, when he would fight, uh, when he was going to fight Chris Weidman. Uh, the first time,

when he was going to fight Chris Wyn. Oh, okay. Yes, but, but the fight is down. Yeah, yeah. Chris Wydon, yes, Chris Wydman enjoyed his ribs. And he don't, he don't say with me again. He, he, he, he, he goes, for, for house and let me there.

Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. Where? In Florida? Really? And don't talk with me more. And like, it's not good.

Okay. I'm not good guy for me. So you still want to fight him or you move past him at this point? I know, and we'll get to Derek Brunton in a second. But do you care about Vitor at this point or are you finished with Vitor? Yeah. I don't have, uh, uh, uh, uh, a peser of this, all, can't say, uh,

Apesar of this, even he doing this, I don't have a highvada and not... I don't have a hold of

against him, even though he did that to me. Okay. I'm... You say, I still can't do you like to

fight against the top ten. Yeah, that makes this. Do you feel uncomfortable when people talk about your looks?

Yes. You feel uncomfortable. You don't like it. No, no, I like. I like, I like. I feel constant. Have you done modeling and things like that?

you're one of them no never never that's shocking come on come in a

camsette this yes no no I'm gram I

see you yeah I I make some pictures photo yeah

yeah yeah some photos yeah to to a grief in Brazil

okay but just a one job it's not it's not my you can make

a lot of money doing this you know that right yes I can feel about

yeah I feel like, I'm sure, like, all day. And I know you have a girlfriend, right? Yes, I have. Okay, but I'm sure there's people that come up to you all the time. Does that make you feel uncomfortable? No. It's good to be loved.

Yes. I understand like funds. Yeah, they love you. Just the funds, yeah. I was told this great story. I hope you don't mind if I bring it up. You, I think Eric was with you, too. You guys were at Costco, which is a big grocery store.

You thought you were at Walmart. You thought you were at Walmart. You guys are, you're going around and you have a massive. Tell us the story, Eric. You were there, right? I really did. Well, they're right next to each other, Walmart and Costco. Yeah.

We were in Costco. I hadn't been home for a while, so I didn't recognize, noticed the difference. But two carts, you know, an hour of shopping, food for this guy is a lot. So we had a lot of food for his camp. As I'm going to the cashier, I'm like, man, when did Walmart become bulk? And it was like, wait a minute. We're at coffee. and you need a membership, they're not going to let us buy it.

We're going to have to leave and all this stuff was for not. And then I thought to myself, wait a minute, make sure you go to a female cashier. Yes. And just use your accent, tell her you thought it was Walmart because that's, tell the truth. Yeah. And see what happens. So then I said, I'll be off to the side watching because I don't want her to see me. Yeah.

So by the time he's getting through, by the way, this lady has white hair. Okay. White hair. Older. A little bit old. She had white hair. She had white hair. By the end, she lets him pass, and she put her number on the receipt.

Wow. For him to call. Put her phone number for you? Yeah, yeah. Wow, that's amazing. She had no problem that you weren't a member. No. He said, please, please.

I think we could have went back there and they got it for free next time. Wow. But she's not very old. She's like a 40. Oh, okay. What you called? No. I thought she was.

No. I thought she was, the hair was white. Nice lady? Nice lady? She was. Yes. Does that happen a lot? Do you get a lot of phone numbers?

People give you phone numbers? No, it's not every time. Okay. It's like sometimes. I mean, it's good to be you. But you have a girlfriend. I want to make that very clear. You're very happy.

Yes, five years, right? Five years. Wow. She's in Stan. She's stand. Yes, of course. Very comprehensive. Very beautiful woman as well.

You're both very lucky to have each other. So after the fight, you say Derek Brunson, right? And then he says, He's continuing on Twitter. Oh, look how many tests. Oh, he only does one. But you've been tested 10 times this year, right? Yes, I'm tested, I think 15 times after I'm come to FC.

Yeah. The last month, the just left month, four times. Wow. So when you don't have anything else to say, you make up. excuse. Yeah. This is what Derek Bronson say now.

Does it bother you to be accused of this? I mean, this is, we were just talking to GSP about it when someone says you're on steroids. You feel insulted? Does it bother you inside? You're insulted? Yes, of course. Of course, because I'm quite clean.

He's trying to take something from you. He's trying to discredit what you've done, right? He's trying to destroy this to a repetition. Yes. Yes. But it's crazy because. Zad is here for everybody. Yeah. Everybody is testing.

So it's a... Derek Bronson talk a lot of shit about me, but he don't... Because he has a fear. He's scared. He don't want to fight against me. So he makes... He creates skills.

Ah, you... You're not fight clean. But he's crazy because I have my test. used and I call for UFC in Brazil to help me to

send me all my tests to put in my social media. Okay. Yes, because I have more of 15 tests. Wow. So you want to prove to it? So do you feel like this is going to be a problem for you as you continue to go up that guys are going to say no, no, it's going to be hard

to get fights? Yeah, I think no, I think I think I think the people don't want to do the idea for what he is saying this bunch of

this bunch of they're not going to they don't care what he's saying that I think they're still going to accuse him

but okay yes he's always he's yeah what about I mean

Derek Brunton is it because he just beat Leo to Machita is there another reason why like why did you

pick him of all the middle weights yes because he's number seven okay and I think

he's arrested too like But his OS is not so good like Johnny Hendricks. Right, right, right. And he like Derek Brown also like a fight and stand-up and I'm true. So, and I'm not to have a question. I can erase him too.

Yeah, I can. Derek Browns, I can erase you. But I will not erase you completely because I will make you famous. Wow. In my score. Wow. The score of knockouts. My record of knuckles.

I love it. I love it. That's amazing. So do you, like, have you heard anything from the UFC? Do they want to make this fight since Saturday? You came out and said Derek Brunson. Usually they like it when a fighter comes out and says, oh, I want to fight this guy next. Have they said anything to you or your management?

No, not my manager. In the same week of my fight, me and Eric and my coach talk about this. who came be the next after my fight against Johnny if I won Johnny and when I finish my fight

I say his name because he's a good name for me. He is hot, yeah, I mean it's a great man. Yeah, he's hot. But do you think that they're actually going to give you him? Do you think that he actually... You actually will fight him? You're going to do you? Yes, I don't know.

You don't know. I'm ready to fight against Derek Brons, against top 10 fights, but I'd like to fight against him. Yeah. When do you want to return? Yes, I'd like to return. This is one more point good for a fight against Derek Brons

because he fights one leg before me. Yeah, yeah. So we have a time to go lead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think in March, March. March is good. Okay. They're coming to a Belem, right?

Bellam in Brazil. Yeah, in February. Too early? You don't want to fight in Brazil? I think it's too early. Would you prefer now to fight in the U.S.? Yes. Okay.

Now I prefer. I like so much fighting Brazil because the fans in Brazil is very hot and he pushed our Brazilian fights. But I think fighting America is special because we can show our working for more people. Do you feel like you called yourself

the next Brazilian legend? Do you feel like Brazilian MMA is a bit down right now that you have to bring it up that you're going to be the guy? Yes, exactly. Yes. I feel this. You feel it. We need a new hero in Brazil because we have many legends of the last generation but now we need a renewal this and I think

I am the biggest name to to push this thing. feeling. I'm the biggest thing to carry the torch. Right, right. Of the great Brazilian legends, Anderson Silva, Vitor, Belfort,

Joseado, Antonio, Rodrigo Nuguerre, which do you think is the greatest of all time? Who do you want to surpass? Right now, you know, you have... Of Brazilians? Yes, Brazilians. Who in your opinion is the greatest? In my opinion, Anderson Silva is the number one. Number one.

Okay. It's like a Peron football. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the biggest name of all time. But McGregor come... You love McGregor. right? Yes, I love. Yeah.

Yeah. Because he makes history. Sure. He's unbelievable. He's awesome. Confident. Confidence. Yeah.

And he, he speaks what he think. And he's true. He's not a fake. Right. Have you ever met him? You ever meet Connor? No. Never met him.

Never. But I do like. Have you ever met Anderson? Never, true. Never. Never. Interesting. Never.

Would you ever fight Anderson? It's a great honor for me. It's a great honor because it's my vision. Okay, so you would. No problem. No problem. It's good for me. It's my idol.

So I think it's amazing. He's a, but I don't know because he's a superstar and maybe he wants a I make super fights. How long before you think that you're in the title discussion? Because right now we have obviously GSP Robert Whitaker, Luke Rockhold, Jacques-Rae, right? Chris Wyden. So there's a lot of guys at the top there who want.

How long do you think you're in that discussion with these guys? I think now my name is in top 15. 15? Yeah, what are you now? Yeah. What number? 15. 15, okay.

I think. Parabenz. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think one more fight to go to top 10. Okay. And one more fight to go to top five.

Okay. And top five, I can go to title shot. So like two more fights? Yeah, two or three fights. When do you go back home to Brazil? Yeah, go next Saturday. Okay. Yes.

Where do you live now? Belhoizant? Belizont. Okay. And so when you go back, what do you think it's going to be like? Do you think that it's going to be a big celebration for you? Yes. Yeah.

It's a big celebration. Go to the inside of country. Oh, okay. I like to relax. Yeah. To clean my mind and recover my energy to the next challenge. You're going to go on vacation or something? Yes.

Where are you going to go? To inside of country. Oh, okay. Countryside is going. Yeah, not outside of Brazil. You want to stay home. Yeah. Yeah.

And be with your family as well. Yes. My family is. is inside of country. Oh, okay, okay. You don't live with them? No. No.

Did you think that all this would happen to you? You're 26, right? 26. Did you think that this would be happening this early in your career this young? Like, did you dream of this or is it happening a little sooner now? Yes. Everything's happening very fast. Everything's happening fast.

But when I make my first fight in the FC in the beauty and I gained, I gained my bonus, I start to believe I can. Okay. But it's my dream. Stay here with you. This is your dream to be on my show. Yeah. It's true.

My dream. Yes. Stay here and put my name in the herking. Yeah. I have my dream and I'm very happy. But you know, we've seen this story before. You know, I remember there was a guy named Eric Silva, good looking guy. everyone was talking about him, knocking people out.

Now, unfortunately, it didn't work out. So you look at those stories and make sure that you're focused, that you're not going to get distracted, that you're going to keep getting better, surround yourself with people like Eric, yeah? This is very important. That's the dream, yeah. It's very important.

So how do me about with the great people, the nice people, keep my head in the place, keep my focus. and train hard for the next fight because the next fight is ever the fight of the life I think this and let's go

let's go let's go let's see what what's going to happen let's go forward let's see what's going to happen in the future UFC is going to Las Vegas

first week of March for a pay-per-view I feel like that's the perfect place for you right Las Vegas have you ever been to Las Vegas never I feel like that's a great spot for you for the next fight. You agree Eric?

I love Las Vegas. But it would be a nice unveiling for him, right? A big card. Nice. Yeah? You like that. I like that. I feel like this time next year we're going to be talking about you in the title picture.

This time next year. This time next year. This moment, the year of November, like, November, 2018, everybody will say, everyone will say, you're going to talk about you about the title. Oh, nice. Yes. Sounds good. That sounds good.

All right. Well, I wish you the best. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming in. You're the man. Eric, thank you so much for coming in. You're the man as well. I wish you guys the best. Shalom, my friends. You did such a great job last Saturday. I'm in awe of you. Really, you're doing so many great things. You're performing so well. You're a great ambassador for the sport. I hope you get that fight against Derek Brunson. And, you know, the accusations can stop and you guys can fight and improve who's the better man. Thank you for coming in. And safe travels. Yes, absolutely. Safe travels back home.

Joe over here is going to walk you guys out. Eric, thank you as well. Thank you for coming. You just want to stick around. You're having the time of your life. This is great. Thank you, Paolo. Thank you. All the best to you and your family. And what a star. Do you want to say something? Take care. I'll like you like that. I'll make you fame. Yes. It was great. This guy's like the mad scientist. Thank you so much, guys. There he goes. Paulo Costa. Bohaschina. Unbelievable. What a guy. A future superstar. A future superstar. And Really, I mean, what more can you say about that man? Wow. Just gaze into his eyes, right? in a moment we appreciate him stopping by of course we appreciate eric stopping by appreciate of course gsp stopping by what a great day it has been wow this has been a lot of fun i could do this every day right can i do this every day would they let me come in here every day they probably wouldn't there'd probably be a nightmare for them but it's been fun it kind of feels like a monday but it's not it's a thursday and you know what we usually do on thursday is we usually do the mMA beat

and i know that a lot of you are used to having the mbid on thursday you like having the mabed beat. I like doing the MMA beat on Thursday, and so much has happened. So because we did this special edition with GSP, with the future, Paulo Costa, we still wanted to give you an MMA beat. It's going to be a mini version of the beat. We've got two beatniks here, two panelists. We've got Jeff Wagenheim of the Washington Post. We've got Danny Segura, of course, the Colombiano himself of MMAfighting.com. In a matter of moments, they're going to be joining us in studio to talk about the week that was the news of this past week, look ahead to Norfolk. What a great card that is.

We talked about that a lot on Monday. So what we're going to do now is we're going to transition over to our exclusive Twitter feed. That's MMAfighting.com. MMAfighting.com. That's where we'll be doing the MMA after hour. And we'll be talking to Jeff and Danny about the news of the past week. Like I said, 217.

Norfolk, we'll talk about Dominic Cruz being out of 219. Of course, Frankie Edgar out of 280. out of 218 against Max Holloway. Yesterday was a bad day. A lot of bad news yesterday. But it has been a very newsworthy week. So we wanted to do that. So again, it's mhmap fighting.com.

MMAfighting.com. If you're watching us on YouTube, if you're watching us on MMAfighting.com, Facebook, take a break from those. Go exclusively on Twitter. I tweeted out the link earlier. Again, it's mhmap fighting. Dot Twitter.com.

That's what we'll be doing the MMA after hour. Really, it's the MMA beat. It's a mini version of the MAP beat. It starts at a matter of moments. right after this. It's called the MMA After Hour. We'll be joined by Jeff Wagenheim and Danny Segura. Stand by.

We're coming up right after this. Ah, yes. The MMA After Hour is here. A mini version of the MMAB. Let's bring in my two pals, Danny Segura and GSP. Dare I say, we continue to get better looking as the show goes on. We go from GSP to Paulo Costa to these two fine gentlemen. Jeff Wagenheim and Danny Segura.

How great is this? Jeff, how are you? Danny, how are you, my friend? Good. It's good to have you guys here. I imagine your first question is whether I've ever been a model. Yeah, a model, the phone number thing, that whole bit. This has been a lot of fun.

And so usually we do the beat on Thursdays, as you guys know. I wanted to do like a mini version of the beat because so much has gone on. I don't know how much you guys heard at the GSP interview, but I'm just at most of it. Okay, I'll ask you first, Jeff. Do you think he fights Robert Whitaker? What was your impression? My gut says no. I mean, he was kind of, he was very good at, as he said,

sort of bobbing and weaving at all your questions. He didn't want to talk about retiring. He didn't want to talk about other possibilities. My gut says no, but I have nothing to go on to those. Sure. Just based on what he's saying and reading his body language, what did you think, Danny? I would say no. When you asked him about it, I mean, the way he talked about Robert Woodrick, I mean, he was very respectful.

He was like, you know, he's a great martial artist, but he didn't really seem too excited as perhaps maybe the Michael Bisping a fight that he really vouched for it. He didn't come out definitively and say, okay, this is what's next. He keeps saying it's in his contract, which is true, which is a fact, but he's not actually committing to it. So let's just say your team GSP,

you're Dana White, you're the UFC. What is the best spot for GSP? What do you want to see him do next? If I'm those guys, I want him to take the biggest, get the biggest money fight or the biggest splash, which I'll obviously would be the, I'm the guy whose name, I promise I would not say, but you know who it is.

You could say it. But for me, not GSP, the guy that I think, I want to see him fight, I want to see him go to his natural weight division. I want to see him, you know, fight Woodley. But it seems like the UFC, or at least Dana White, has no interest in booking Tyron Woodley with anybody. Wow. Okay, so you actually don't want to see him fight Whitaker. I just don't think that that's his, you know, I don't think that's a, great weight class for him. So I, I, I,

plus I think that there's a, there's a ton of people who are in that way class who are, you know, who, who, who could angle for that spot for that spot. So, I mean, I know you could probably say the same thing for Walter Wade, but, you know, GSP was long-time Walterweight champion. Yeah. You know, he was, he could be a two-weight champion again. I mean, so, you know, he could sort of do in reverse what the Irish guy did. Why are you so against saying? I promised somebody on line that did. You did. You actually promised someone. Why? What's wrong with the Connor? I mean, he's right over there. He's a big part of the sport. What's wrong with him? Somebody said they would give a $100

donation to a charity. Really? If I didn't. So you would actually advocate for him to relinquish the belt, GSP go down, or do you want to see him be a champion like Connor did? Yeah, I'm not sure how the way things are these days. You know, it's so, You don't want someone to be a champion in two different ways. I don't. I don't. I mean, holds things up, right?

Yeah, I also feel like he's at that point in his career where he just, where even though typically I'm so all about the belts, I feel like he's at this point in this career. He is such a legend that the next fights should be fights that are really kind of blockbuster fights. And maybe, you know, maybe a Whitaker fight is that in the sense that it's in terms of competition. But seeing him return to his long, the way, the way, class that he for a long time dominated, that'd be kind of cool. What do you do?

I don't know. I would like to see him defend the belt. There's obviously a really famous saying in MMA, you're not the champion until you've actually defended the belt. I feel like if, you know, and don't get me wrong, what he did on Saturday night was amazing. But I feel like if he were to either retire or go to a different weight class, say at 170, there would always be like a little asterisk there. Like, you know, he won the belt, but, you know, he didn't really beat anybody at 185 to get it.

and he didn't really defend it. I would like to see him defend it, restore some order in the middleweight division, you know, get that title unification bout with Robert Whitaker. And if he gets past Robert Whitaker, I think, you know, that just takes his,

you know, the level of his achievement of gaining the middleweight crown. That just takes it to a whole other level. And then after that, I think he could, he's in his own right to vacate it and perhaps chase that money fight with Connor,

you know, or Tyron Woodley, whatever. You think this chance he never fights again? I think it's possible. I feel like, yeah, I actually feel like it's, possible. Like he didn't definitively say no to that either, right? Which is a crazy

concept. You come all the way back, right? You do the whole thing and then you say, peace out. Yeah, I got to admit that part of the reason I came early. Okay. It was because I thought that was what he was going to win now. Oh, really? Wow. I kind of felt like. Why? Why did you feel that way? I don't know. He, you know, he decided to come on your program a special because he knows that this is the program. I thought that he was, I thought that was what was going to happen. Really? I was kind of expecting it. Wow. So you wouldn't be surprised. If he doesn't fight again. I would not be shocked.

In fact, I would say that if I were, you know, thinking about all the different possibilities, it would be just as likely in my mind that he doesn't fight again as, as Whitaker or Walter Waite, any of those possibilities. I would say that I would weigh that one just as heavily as the others. I mean, he just accomplished something great. I mean, he just became part of a very selected few that have been, you know, champions in the U.S. in two different weight classes. And the way he did it was amazing from what it seems.

apparently the pay-per-view did very well. So, you know, if you're going to retire, retire on top, GSP's always been a very smart fighter. If he were to call it quits after this one, I think, you know, that'd be very GSP-like. Yeah, he left the sport at a time when he was sort of mentally sapped. Yeah. And he knew enough to get out of the sport at that time.

And think about some of the other great fighters, because I know that we've talked about it is after he won this belt. Is he the greatest ever? Think about some of the other people who you would put in that category. You think of a guy like Fado or Emilianenko, and think about what his career was like once he sort of lost a little bit. He's, you know, sort of losing fights, and then he started winning fights against kind of nobody. I mean, that's kind of what he's done. Then you think about a guy like Anderson Sova.

You know, he's won one of his last six fights. He didn't know when to get out of the sport. GSP knew when to get out. Then he decided he was ready to get back in. But who's to say he's not ready to, he just didn't want this challenge and then. Yeah, and it's fascinating to hear him talk about how much he actually hates fighting. This isn't something he spoke about in the past.

You hear that from the Nick Diaz's of the world. He said that, but I get the impression he really doesn't like doing this. He likes the aftermath. He likes the training. He likes maybe the buildup, but the actual weak and the stress and the tension, you know, why keep doing it if you hate it that? I sort of feel like the moment that the referee waves him and his opponent together, his distaste for it seems to go away.

I don't see that in that moment, but certainly in the moment coming up to it. I mean, he talked to all that stuff he talked to you about, you know, in the back when he was thinking he was in the jinxed locker room. And all that stuff was really fascinating. It's, it's, and I can imagine, you know, like there's very few moments where I can imagine myself in the place of one of these athletes because they do things that I certainly would never do. But that's the one where I think if I was in the back waiting to go out there and be locked into a cage with another highly trained professional. fighter, I would be kind of nervous as well. And I don't, and then here's a guy who has more skills than just about anybody in the planet

and he has that emotion. But I think that happens to everyone. To a degree. Of course. Like Matt Brown has talked about how he wanted to take an Uber and leave the arena. Donald Seroni has said that he gets super nervous. James Vic actually did an interview with M.M.A. Junkie this past week

and said like he has seen fighters freak out in the locker room and he thinks that they're mentally weak. Why would you freak out? So I think that there are two different sides of the spectrum. But yes, it is a actual thing, right? You're going into a cage with another but I think once you're in there, you know, once you're in the actual fight, all that goes away and then, you know, the reward of winning

is way greater than, you know, the little stressful moment that I guess you go through in the locker room. But yeah, I think, you know, it was really interesting just be talking about all this and I feel like to a degree it bothers him more than maybe more, you know, other fighters.

But, you know, it's crazy how long he, like, kept the title for and yet he feel... All that stress. with all that stress, and he doesn't really enjoy fighting, and he was back-to-back fights. And I feel like he really enjoyed this process. Is he the greatest ever? You know, it's funny because, like,

John Jones comes back, beats Kormier, and everyone sees he's the greatest ever. DJ goes ahead, breaks a record, does the Mighty Whiz Bar. He's the greatest ever. Now GSP does this, and, you know, I think he really did cement himself as one of the, he's by far, I think, the most decorated fighter, you know, his resume, name value of the people he beat, you know, two titles in the UFC. For that sense, I think, yeah, he's the most decorated fighter ever.

As far as skill-wise, I still like to put Demetri's up there. Just because I feel like Demetri's is such a complete fighter. But, I mean, if you were to tell me that GSP is the greatest ever, I wouldn't really have much. You know, it's up there for sure. Yeah, I mean, until the last full paw of John Jones, I would have said that far and away, that there was no discussion that it was John Jones all the way. but once you get you pop for an anabolic steroid, you know, that puts a black mark on you that I think is really difficult to get away.

And then, you know, Anderson Silva, the other guy, like I said, one win in his last six fights. Now, I know Anderson Silva at peak was probably better than anybody that I ever saw. But I think you have to include somebody's career. If they stay in there, their career kind of, you know, continues. And he continued at a high level but was losing. GSP, the only two losses on his resume, he avenged violently. I mean, both guys that he lost to, he went back and dominated and, you know, held one belt for a long time, goes and wins another belt there are at their four-year absence. I just can't see anybody else who has who I could put above him.

Does he get extra points and conversely do John Jones and Anderson Silva lose points because of the PED stuff? For me. Yeah. For me. I mean, I think that, look, you can't. From what I saw in the octagon, John Jones was the most amazing fight I ever saw. Anderson Silva had moments when he was that guy. But once you taint yourself in that way, I think you lose some points.

I wouldn't discredit them at all. If there was no GSP out there, I might still rank one of those guys, number one. But GSP exists. Any GSP has, to all, to all appearance, has been a clean fighter and advocated for others to be clean. And to me, that gives them huge points. Yeah, because, I mean, once you fail a test, like, we're not really exactly sure how much PEDs actually enhanced in MMAs. We're not really sure. But, I mean, it could be a decisive factor in, like, winning or losing?

Probably. So, especially now that, like, USADA's in place and say a guy posseur and then they were fighting before the USADA era, then it kind of makes you question. Like, hmm, you know, maybe, maybe they were on. Maybe they weren't. Who knows? But there is that question. With GSP, he's passed every single drug test. you side up post you know

fascinating to hear him say that he's in favor or okay with steroids if it's like for a movie or something like some people are just across the board I don't want to see it but to make that distinction I've never heard him say that I mean I never heard him say either but I think it is a kind of a silly thing for people to just count that I mean I know

people that you know that they have asthma and they take a steroid sure I mean there are plenty of medicinal or therapeutic uses of steroids and I don't think that the whole point is that for these for this competition, these are substances that allow you to train better and train longer and and trade harder and recover when you otherwise might be depleted. And that makes you,

allows you to make yourself a better fighter. GSP has had to make himself a better fighter in a natural way. And that's a disadvantage. So sure. Jeff, let me ask you this. You've been covering sports for a long time, I think like 60, 70 years, right? Something like that? Not quite. About 55. Okay. Yeah, yeah. You were in. in the arena on Saturday. I was in the back. I actually never stepped foot at MSG. He was doing like the scrums and things like that. Being there, you know, you've been to a lot of events.

MMA or not, I mean, was that one of the greatest sporting events that you've ever, and especially like those top three, like that last 90 minutes or whatever it was, what was it like being in? And especially like the world's most famous arena, MSG, it's not just any arena, right? What was it like for those that weren't there? It was absolutely incredible. It really was.

I think particularly if you think about the order of events, Yeah. If anybody were to say beforehand, which of these three title fights is the sure thing, I think we would have all said, you know, that Rose versus Joanna is probably the sure thing for the champion to come out and win at. And it was right from the start when, you know, when she dropped her, when Rose dropped her, I thought, oh, cool, now it's going to be a fight. Because I thought, oh, at least it'll be a competitive fight. But the idea that she was then going to go out moments later and finish her, it was one of the most stunning, results that I've ever seen, you know, in that moment live.

And then the fights that came after it again, you know, T.J. gets dropped in the first round. And I don't know how, you know, I'm not sure what the TV broadcast showed. But when he got up, he was wobbly and going back to his corner. There was some thought that, geez, maybe they won't even let this fight continue because he really was sort of wobbling along to his corner. And for him to then come out and do what he did. And then, of course, you know, GSP coming back from four years, I don't think that I've ever seen a, a UFC event that I would put above this just because of, you know, three champions,

just seeing three title fights is special. To see any belts change hands is special. To see three belts change hands is special. And then to see all three happen in sudden violent finishes. I mean, I just don't say anything better. Also, you have two undefeated champions losing for the first time. It's GSP. It's GSP.

Danny, let me ask you about T.J. Great win, as Jeff just laid out. And we've talked a lot on this show about the T.J. DJ thing, right? And I think that most of us were against it when it was heading into the record breaking fight. But I feel like now is the time to do it. And, you know, Dominic Cruz is out. This changes things a little bit, right? Because we don't know what's going to happen to Jimmy Rivera. Jimmy Rivera now pushing for T.J. Dillisha. But to hear someone like T.J. Dilisha who had just won the belt, his stature, champion, call out DJ. We've never had that before. Like, it's one thing with all due respect to the, you know, Benavides is or the Sehoutes of the world, but like to hear like one of the champions of the UFC now with his resume say, I'm going to go, you know, beat that record or stop it. It's fake, all that stuff and more.

That got me really excited. And I don't often like to see champion versus champion fights, but I feel like this is, there's no one really there at 125. If Pettus wins maybe, but he hasn't been very active. 135 is a little open right now, especially with Dominic getting injured. Do you want to see this fight or do you prefer them to stay separate? No, I do. I think, you know, we're often discussing, like, who's the goat, right?

Yeah. I think Demetri Johnson broke the record, and that adds, you know, obviously, you know, some, you know, argument to his case. But other than that, is also fighting people outside of the weight class. What did Anderson Silva do? He went up to, like, heavyweight and took on bigger guys. What did GSP do? He went up and took up the middleweight champion. I think, you know, if DJ really wants to cement himself as one of the greatest,

I think, you know, the best step would it be taking on T.J. Dillishah. Would it be at 125 or 130? Do you want to see it for the belt? I would even like it to be at 135, to be honest. 135? Why? You want T.J. to go up? Yeah. Because I look at it. The record's on a play. Sure, but I honestly don't see, I don't know. I mean, T.J. Dillishaw seems pretty confident he can make 125. Oh, that's the problem. He's already pretty lean. You know, he's not, you know, I don't see him carrying a little. Like, for example, when I saw Benavita's fight at 135 and DJ, I always thought, you know, those guys could probably fight a weight class, you know, down, you know.

They look significantly smaller than, you know, the other 35ers. T.J. Dillishah doesn't really look much smaller in the other 35ers. So I really don't think he can make. So you think it's too risky. I think there's also some peril. I think there's a little bit of peril here because let's say they fight at 135 and Dillishaw wins the fight. Yeah. Your 125 champion still has a.

belt and you know you look at him as well you know he's still a champion but he tried to go up to a higher weight class and and lost and he failed there and he and you don't diminish his 125 standing is not quite as diminished on the other hand if dillishaw if your 135 pound champion goes and tries to fight at 125 and loses yeah suddenly you know well who's the bantamptonway champion i mean he would be the bantuanian champion they're fighting but now your bandoah champion can't even beat the guy at a wake class below. So I think it causes a little bit of a... Why not just meet in the middle?

Well, because then what's at stake? I mean... I just see who's the better man. Is I not big enough? Just a super fight. But see, if DJ goes up to 135, he can't fight those guys in one. Or it doesn't...

Like, he's not in his best, right? So what if he wins? Right? I mean, because then you're stuck with him as champion. I feel like the story here is T.J. going down to stop the streak, right? I was supposed to fight you before. Your streak is padded. You've been...

fighting nobody's, now come face me. I feel like that's the story here, right? But 10 pounds is a lot of weight, especially when you're, you know, if you're like heavyweight dropping down to middleweight, you know, it's, it's, you know, a little easier. But when you're already 135, going down 10 pounds is a lot. I really don't think TJ can make 125. I mean, maybe you can. I mean, I agree with that that is the story, but I just was pointing out that there is a certain

peril that I think you don't have to deal with when you have a lighter champion moving up. there's a little bit of this kind of a built-in oh yeah but we still have a you know we still have a 125 pound champion and he doesn't get devalued the same way that I think Dillisho would be severely devalued sure I think 130 would be the perfect way because you know Jeff brings up a good point like

sure if DJ wins and you do you do as well if DJ wins at 135 then that sort of creates issues because what is he going to defend two belts is he going to take on the other 35 or is what about TJ so you're going to keep making that cut if he gets the flyway belt 130 you get a little bit of both worlds. Not a severe cut for Dillard Shaw

and it's more possible to make that fight. And it doesn't hurt either way class if whatever the result may be. Yesterday we broke the news that Dominic Cruz is out of the fight on December 30th. This is a big blow. It's a very important fight.

It's a number one contender fight at 135. I really feel bad for Jim Revere. Jim Revereux postponed his honeymoon to take this fight. So, I mean, it's just a gut punch. Al Jermaine Sterling now campaigning for the fight. What do you guys want to see happen there? Do you want to see Jimmy just wait for Cruz?

Do you think that he should be in the mix for TJ? Do you want to see that Al Jemaine fight? Any other ideas? But one thing I didn't, I mean, I did see that news, but I didn't see how long Cruz is out. I mean, I know the other fight that fell out, Frank Edgar, supposedly six weeks. But he's a...

Six weeks for training 12 total. But Cruz, it could be a longer term thing. And waiting is certainly with his role in peril. It does seem as though the Rivera-Aljamean, Sterling thing. There's already some heat there. They don't like each other. There's a lot of back and forth. I mean, as you know, that's not my domain. I'm not a big fan of all that kind of stuff. But when you're kind of desperate for a fight, you might as well make one where people might get into it. And it would certainly be an interesting matchup. Sure. Sure. I feel like Jimmy Rio

has done so much and deserves the title shot so bad that. I would hate to risk it all and take a fight that he doesn't need to take. Because in my opinion, he's already a top guy. I mean, I wouldn't be pissed if he were to go on and fight Dillashaw, I think it makes sense. I think if they don't make the Dillishaw Dmitra Johnson fight, you have to plug in Jim D'Irera. Man, that's a tough one.

As a fan, I guess I would like to see Dillishaw versus Demetra's Johnson just because, you know, that's never seen before. It's a super fight. That's what it really is. But just to be fair and, you know, be just you know, I think Jimmy Rivera deserves it.

But, you know, again, a tough one. But I guess as a fan, I would rather see Dilla Shah, Demetio Johnson go at it. Still can't get over what Rose Numa Yunus did and the way in which she did it. And her post-fight comments and her demeanor, just everything about her. She's such a fascinating individual. And I feel like we have this connection to her because we've seen her grow up in front of our eyes from just being Pat Barry's girlfriend to the Invicta Fighter, Ultimate Fighter. You know, she gets the title fight early on in her career.

She stumbles, works her way back up, et cetera, and she's had her ups and downs. you know, with Pat and in Atlanta against Carolina, et cetera, and she finally does it. And afterwards, she didn't seem all that interested in an immediate rematch. And you can understand that. But on the flip side, remember, we were on this show, and someone asked us a question last week, you know, of the three champions, should they lose,

who deserves an immediate rematch? We all picked Yawanna, I believe, because she had successfully defended the title five times. Yawanna says, come May, I'll be championed again. Rose is saying, I don't know if it makes sense, first round knockout, things like that. What do you think is going to happen? And what do you want to see happen?

I tend to think it will be, there will be a rematch. Immediate. Somewhat. I mean, I think that she's in the driver's seat now. And I, Rose. She's the champion. And I also want to second your thoughts about how she handled, not just the fight. I mean, the fight was amazing and how she performed,

but the whole thing with talking about how just kind of shooting down this whole trash talking thing. And it's really interesting me and think about it. the three non-trash talkers all one. And I think I even tweet this out, there's only really one trash talker left of all the champions, of the 11 champions the UFC has. There's only only one person who treats opponents without respect.

I can't think of the person's name, but I know there's one. Okay, but that's all fair. Not without respect. He's actually quite respectful. In aftermath. Yes, okay, fair enough. Fair enough.

But I'm talking about in the lead-up. And using kind of negativity and using kind of insults and even sometimes going over the line and using, you know, racist talk, that kind of stuff in the lead-up as a promotional tool. I'm never a big fan of that. And now we have 10 of the 11 champions who, I don't think, have any track record of doing that. And I think Rose is really a leading proponent of kind of coming in as saying,

hey, I'm going to compete with you. So I'm a big fan of that. And so I think it's time to let her basket at her accomplishment. I think the obvious fight would be for her to fight against I'm immediate. But I think it's fine for her to sort of sit back and take a little time. I don't think there's any clear contender at that weight class at the moment. Michelle Watershan and Tisha Torres are fighting in December,

but Rose actually has wins over both of them. Yeah. And then especially Waterson, which was recent. Yeah, very much. I think if Claudia Godella would have gone past Jessica Androge, that would have been a no brain. But she didn't. Jessica Drog just recently fought for the title.

So I think everything points for an immediate rematch here. Plus, you know, June and J. Chick wasn't one of these champions where she just won the bell and perhaps defended it once or twice. No, she had it for quite a while. Defended it six times. I think an immediate rematch is a move to make. So a fascinating thing here because leading up to the fight, I was talking to Mark Romandie about this, how Yowana's demeanor was reminding me a lot of Ronda Rouse's going into the

Holly home fight, how she was getting a little too riled up. And it seemed like every time Rose was kind of ignoring it and shutting her off, Yawanna was getting even more riled up and getting off her game and like putting her fist in her face. And then at the ceremonial way it's talking about how Pat Barry disrespected

her coach and things like that. And it just reminded me a lot. And then of course we see what happens. But then on the flip side, she did the complete opposite of Ronda. She shows up to the press conference. She takes accountability her team reached out to me and said, we'd like to come on your show.

I mean, I never reach out to people who have just lost the title fight. I want to give them space. And they never reach out to me either. They don't ask to come on. They don't want anything to do with media. She wanted to come on and talk about it and show everyone, I'm okay.

And she even said herself, don't compare me to Ronda Rousey. But then she says the thing I didn't tap. And then people are kind of giving her crap. Can we give her a pass on that? Like people were like, oh, why didn't you push her? Why didn't you? you know, why didn't you, look, let her say what she want, let her believe what she wants.

She just got knocked out all that. Let's give her some credit. Like we talk a lot about Rhonda and how she handled it. We've talked about how others have handled it well. She pretty, I mean, like, that was pretty remarkable for someone who was on the cusp of tying history with everything she said, with everything she did to lose like that on a stage like this and then kind of, you know, show up and take the heat. My respect for her went up, even if, you know, it looked on television that she tapped, that doesn't really matter to me. I don't feel like that really means anything. She's not taking away anything from Rhodes.

Do you disagree? I don't, I don't, the whole tapping thing or not tapping. I don't, I don't buy that anyway. I mean, I don't, this idea that tapping to being choked is okay, but if you tap the strikes. You're a lesser person. It's crazy. You don't get concussed by you. Right.

I mean, there's a pretty nasty thing. And I don't, so even if she did, I don't care whether she did or she didn't. And even watching, yeah, you saw her hand touched, but, but, uh, First of all, it seemed as though the referee was already stopping the fight, and it also seemed as though it's also possible that she was just, you know, sort of, I don't know, not really on purpose, just sort of just hitting the mat. I mean, it didn't seem, if she said she didn't, she wasn't tapping, you know, I'm just going to buy that. It doesn't matter.

Wasn't the man who was sitting here just a little bit of a tap, Judy Strikes at his career, Justin here? Matt Serra. And, you know, he's considered one of the goats. So I think we shouldn't put too much stock in. tap due to strikes. Who cares? And her thing afterward, I mean, you pointed it out, probably one of the first things

she said at the post-fight press conference was don't compare me to her in a rousey. It was, so it was like, she cut that off immediately. And so she did have that kind of rousy style lead-up, but then she completely turned around and was very cognizant of it. It wasn't, she really... No one asked her about it.

Right. She sort of pointed it out immediately, and I thought that was really good. So, yeah, all power to her. And also, we see people when they lose and have like these huge losses we saw Daniel Cormier, it was just devastated sort of dwell on the loss. Yana was just already, I'm going to be back

and I'm going to get that rematch and you know, she was already looking forward to what's next. All three champions, of course, handled their wins very well. And as you said, they're the non-trash talkers who you sort of expect that. All three former champions now, I thought also handled their losses very well on Saturday.

So I thought it was a really nice night for MMA and, you know, just the honor involved in the sport. By the way, one last thing on Saturday, do you guys want to see Michael Bisping fight again? I think that there was some kind of push to maybe have him retire. He said, I'm not going out like that. Do you care to see him fight again? He has a litany of people he could choose from, right?

From Rockhold to Wyden, to Romero. Do you care to see him fight at this stage? I, um, he's not one of those people who I don't want to see. So there are fighters like somebody else in that card. Johnny Hendricks wants to fight again. I'm not that interested in soon. Certainly not against people like Paulo Costa, right? I know.

I know. I just saw that guy walking out. I weigh him by about 100 pounds, and I'm not going anywhere near him. Yeah. So, yeah, no, I don't think that, but I would not lump bisming in that category. I know that he's certainly suffered damage as I and so forth. And if he were to walk away, I would say more power to you, great. But if he decides that he doesn't want to walk, leave the sport with that as the final moment,

and he wants to take a fight, say, in London. Yeah. You know, great. I mean, I've always enjoyed watching him fight. He's never, I think, other than maybe the one rock hole, fight. He's never had the first rock hold fight. He's never had a fight where he was beaten sort of easily. Everybody who's beaten him has had to really work hard. And I don't think his skills are diminished. So whatever, you know, if he wants to do it. Well, 100% on the same boat. I mean,

when we want guys to sort of walk away from the sport, his guys that have been on a losing streak that are getting knocked out and they're just not themselves. Michael Bisping was doing well against George St. Pierre until he got caught. I mean, yes, he was taken down, but he was also got back on his feet. He was very competitive. And he was just champion. So this is, this is not a guy that's been losing a lot and that, you know, needs to hang him up. I think he has a lot left in him. And he's also a guy that

I think we'll miss him when he's gone. And these type of guys like Uriah Favir, you sort of want to see them walk away on good terms, you know, with a win in their hometown. So I would love to see Michael Biss Sping fight one more time in the UK, you know, against the favorable

matchup, I think a lot of people are throwing out their Yo Romero, Luke Rockhold, Chris Whiteman, all these. One that's not being talked about that I would actually like to see would be Bitor Belfort. You know, Bitor Belfort, I know he's also one of those guys that's towards the end, but, you know, he's coming off. He's coming off a win. That'd be an opportunity for Michael Bispin to get back, you know, a loss that he had. I think many would agree that perhaps this time around if they face is different terms. Yeah, yeah. It'd be, you know, Bito Belfort still carries a big promotional name to headline a card or it be a co-mean event or something.

in England. How about that? I will co-sign that. Yeah, there is a long list. We're running out of time, so let's play a quick, quick game of factor fiction here, okay? Factor fiction, the UFC should now book Cub Swanson against Max Holloway in Detroit after Frank Yedger got injured. News

came out yesterday. I'll say fiction. Fiction. Well, because I'm more interested in the fight than I am in the date. So I think that the Frank Yeager fight is the fight to make if they can wait for Frank Yeager. And if they can't, didn't Joseo

come out yesterday and say he would do it? You'd rather Jose Aldo against Max Holloway. I think if Holloway is going to get a replacement opponent, I think Aldo is a better opponent than Swanson. That is fascinating. And we can't forget that Swanson actually beat, excuse me, Holloway beat Swanson rather definitively in Newark.

Right. A little, what was it, like three years ago or so. And of course he just beat Jose Aldo. No really great answer here. And especially on just a few weeks notice, what do you do? I would like to say fact just because if you look at the top five of the featherweight division is

Jose Aldo, Ricardo Lama's, those two are fighting each other. Who else is in there? Artem Lobov? No, of course, yeah, no, Frankie Edgar, but, you know, Brian Ortega is in the mix. And then the other guy is Cubs Swanson. I think it makes sense.

Plus, I think we've went through a patch in MMA where everything was sort of felt clogged, the middleweight division felt clogged. Connor sort of clogged the lightweight division and the featherweight division. I just want things to get, even Cody Garberan's injury, The fight with Dillishaw was supposed to happen a while back. I just want to see titles get defended, things get moving along.

But it is a title fight. And it was supposed to be, Edgar. And if you're going to replace the challenger, I think it has to be somebody who's, you know, either has been a champion or is ready to be a champion. I think Aldo's. Holloway wants to remain on the card. He's very vocal about that. Yesterday, Holly Holmes agent, Lenny Fresco has told me the cyborg fight is dead. It's not happening at 219.

Fact or fiction, the UFC should now do Amanda Nunes versus Chris Cyborg. because Nunes doesn't have an opponent at 135. Raquel Pennington breaking her leg in a car accident. At what weight class? At 145 or 140? I don't know. I don't know. There's no opponent for both of them,

and they don't have a main event for 219 now. Maybe Connor comes up. There I say. I think I don't know that you've got a champion at 135, and unless there's a compelling reason to have her move up by 10 pounds, I don't know that you want to mess around with that. Okay. So you say fiction.

I'll say fiction. I say fiction. Yeah, I honestly don't think Amanda Nunes wants to fight Chris Cyborg. I think that goes both ways. I just don't see them fighting each other. The woman's featherweight division is very interesting. I don't know who they're going to bring in,

but the person that made sense was Holly Home. I would like to see that if I get booked down the line, if not UFC 219 or well. But certainly at some other event. And things that have been dead have often been resuscitated. I do feel, though, that he's going to stick to his guns on this one after speaking to him, at least for December 30th, maybe down the line, as he said,

but for December 30th, Factor Fiction, you want to see Darren Till versus Wonderboy Thompson, as Dana White said. Now, that whole story is kind of confusing. I mean, the whole thing was, I don't know what to make of the whole thing. The reporting, it would be quite honest, was a little bit confusing.

But it's clear he wants to make that fight. However, Wonderboy's dad told me he absolutely does not want to see that fight happen. He has a doctor appointment today. Wonderboy does to check out his thumbs. But that fight, do you like it next for both guys, or do you side with Mr. Thompson who says, thanks, but no thanks. Yeah, I'm also going to go fiction with that one.

I'm a missed their fiction this time. I guess fiction because, you know, Wonderboy is what, the number two guy in that division. And I think Till needs another fight in order to get to that point. And I'm not sure who that fight would be, but I think he needs one more to move up. Platinum Perry. I'll say fiction.

And the U.S. you need to chill. I mean, Darren Till just came off as the biggest superstar. Everyone's talking about him. And putting him up against Stephen Wonderboy Thompson is a huge man. mistake. We just saw what he did to Jorge Mazvedo. Horri Mazvado was more experienced than Till, a great striker, you know, can wrestle, good ground game, and he just made him look confused. You know, Mazvila just couldn't figure him out. I think Thompson is one of the hardest fights in the division, just given his style. And to put Till would be, you know, very risky. He

would probably get a loss there and then his whole stardom would go down. I would like to see him get, you know, a manageable fight that would still test him. But, you know, that's more closer to his range. And even if you do win that fight, it's hard to look good against one. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, just asked for a word McDonald, right? Last one. Fact or Fiction? This is the best year in UFC's history. Well, Dana White said. I mean,

the president of the UFC said this is the best one. The best. Yeah, of course. You don't know what you guys are talking about. Of course. How dare you? Of course. The absolute best. Absolutely. It's not even close. Fact. Fact. Okay. Well, because we got it from the president of the company. What more can we want to do that? Come on. Of course. Fiction. Come on.

Does not know what he's talking about. Absolutely not. Look, I mean, I really, looking at the calendar towards the end of the year and with this event, they really managed to turn things around. But then all these injuries came out, man. Yesterday was kind of a depressing day. It was. It was just injury after another.

And I really think if things would have kept together, man, they would have closed the year in a great way, especially with this card and the cards that were coming. But, man, all these injuries and the Holly Holm and Home and the Wonder Boy. It's an interesting story to follow two nights. because remember they announced Ronda Rousey versus Amanda Nunes is the main event for the year end show in September. It's now almost mid-November. That shows at a month and a half.

That's supposed to be like one of their, you know, 10 poll events, if you will, and there's still no main event. Maybe Connor comes and saves the day. Maybe someone else, but we shall see. As of right now, Holly Holm and their team say, thanks, but no thanks. This was fun, guys. Did you enjoy it?

It's just like... Our debut, and I had George St. Pierre as my opening act. I mean, wow, this is pretty awesome. And the most good looking man in the world in the middle? Not Danny. Oh, somebody else. Yeah, I mean, what a day. It's the MMA beat meets the MMA hour.

This has been a long time coming. I appreciate you guys doing this. Thank you very much for coming in. Rob, you can hit my music. We are out of time. The guys in the back are going to be very upset at me because I went five minutes over. But there was so much to get in today. We could have gone, this feels weird.

I feel like, because usually I'm on this set and I go like, you know, 75 hours. I feel like I'm actually being lazy today, right? I feel like I'm not really putting it in my. You did a show on Monday. That's true. That's true. You like these guys, Jeff? Yeah, this is nice. This is Fador. I'm agreeing with you.

This is, oh, yes, this is Mr. Hoyce, and this is, I think it's Randy Couture. That's what they tell me. It looks kind of slim, but. Well, there was a lot more that we could talk about, of course, Norfolk coming up. Best fight on that card? Anyone have a say? Matt Brown, not retiring anymore against Diego Sanchez. Of course, Anthony Pettis against Dustin Poyer, Sage Northcutback. Marlon Marlon Marlon Marys versus John Dodson.

John Dodson. That's a great fight. Yeah. Looking forward to that. Also, Beltor back on Friday. So another busy week in the world of MMA. I want to thank George St. Pierre for coming in. I want to thank his team.

I want to thank the UFC for bringing him in as well. What an honor. What a privilege that was. It was so great to have him in studio. Royalty, really. For Canadians' royalty, it was amazing to have him in there. You guys are not bad as well. And then we follow that up with Paulo Costa.

And of course, Eric Albarosin coming in, flying in to do this. It has been a great day. Like I said, I can do this every day. If we get guests like that, wow. What a pleasure. Wake up every day, do that. That is a dream come true. And I want to thank both Danny and Jeff.

for coming in as well. So this has been a special Thursday edition of the show. Back Monday for our regular MMA hour. Then Thursday we'll be back, of course, for the MAB. There's a long stretch of shows where we're doing MMA beat every week. So get used to that. For now, we shall say goodbye again. Thank you so much to GSP.

Congratulations on the wind. Thank you very much to Paolo Costa. Bojasinha. Thank you very much to him for coming in. And congratulations, of course, thank you to Danny, Jeff, the rest of the crew. Pace, I'm out of here. We'll see you on Monday for the MMA hour. Thank you.