MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 289

Episode Date: July 6, 2015

Ariel Helwani speaks to Chael Sonnen, Al Iaquinta, Paddy Holohan, Jorge Masvidal, Cody Garbrandt, Dan Lambert, and Peter Carroll. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Logan, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani inside our New York City studio. Very excited about today's show. We are finally here. UFC 189 Fight Week has arrived. And unfortunately, since we last spoke last Monday, things have changed. Our worst nightmare is confirmed. Joseo, of course, not fighting this Saturday.

We were waiting for this for so long, and I got to be honest. When they first announced that this fight was going to happen in July, as opposed to May, I kind of thought to myself, man, we're playing with fire. No knock on Jose, no knock on Connor McGregor. I just felt like we were playing with fire. Do it Memorial Day. Let's see it. Get it out of the way.

Don't extend it. This is too important. This is too important. exciting. This is too big. This is too historic. They saved it for the big international fight week, and unfortunately Jose Aldo had to pull out. So much has happened in the last week. You know by now that the injured ribs were just too painful. Some say they were fractured. Some say they were bruised. UFC says he could have fought. Conne McGregor says he could have fought. Aldo and his team say he couldn't have fought. So now it's Chad Mendez versus Connor McGregor. And I've had a lot of

enough time to digest this. I've had enough time to get over it. And I'm starting to look on the bright side. Look, at the end of the day, the big question is going to be answered on Saturday. It's not the title fight question. It's not the Jose Aldo question. It's not the greatest of all time question. It's the wrestler question. And there were a lot of people who thought that question needed to be answered before we got to Joseo Aldo. Well, you are getting what you wish for. We are getting to see Chad Mendez, who's on fire, who looked fantastic against Ricardo Lamas, who's one of the very best wrestlers in the entire sport, taking a fight on essentially two weeks' notice against Conno McGregor, who we have said time and again, or many people have

said that he is getting a free pass, that he's getting a silver spoon in his mouth, that he's avoiding wrestlers, that he was groomed from the get-go to fight Josealdo and not fight the very best. Well, all that goes out the window, because not only is he fighting Chad Mendez, he's fighting him on two weeks notice. A completely different opponent to a degree and a very limited amount of time to prepare for him. You cannot say any of that about Connor McGregor. So the Conn McGregor show rolls on. The Irish fans get what they want to a degree. They don't get the Aldo fight, but you still get to see him in Las Vegas and your trip isn't for nothing. So now it's an interim title fight,

which I'm okay with, and we'll get into that in a second here. But things have changed. It's not what we were hoping for. It's not what we were preparing for. It's not what we were excited about. That's the sport we love. Things change. Got to move on. We're still getting two title fights, and Warren McDonald versus Rob B. Lawler, in case you forgot, are still fighting on Saturday Night and Las Vegas. Perhaps the most under-the-radar title fight in UFC history, and I'm not talking about you know, unestablished title, like the flyway title, whatever, or an interim title. I mean, this is legit number one versus number two, and no one's talking about them. And you know who's happy about that more than anyone? Robbie Lawler and Roy McDonald, they love this situation. They

don't have to do any media. No one wants to talk to them. Perfect for them. It's going to be a wild week in Las Vegas. It's Invicta on Thursday. UFC on Saturday, also the Hall of Fame, Saturday afternoon. Tough finale on Sunday. All kinds of craziness. We have so much to talk about, so let's get into today's show. At around... 345, we're going to take your questions and comments. So hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour, leave a question or comment in the comments section below. At 325, my friends, we are going to talk to Michael Lunardelli, who's Rebock's head of combat training. Of course, last week, a very big week for Reebok, they officially unveiled their UFC fight kit.

And it was met with a lot of criticism, some jokes, some complaints, some praise. but it was an interesting time. They did it in New York. There was this fashion show of sorts. A bizarre day because earlier in the day, Lorenzo Fertita and Dana White were telling us that they were very confident the fight was going to happen. And of course, just a few hours later,

the Aldo fight gets scrapped. I want to talk to Michael Lunardelli, who is really the brains behind all of this about the launch, where they go from here. Of course, the Reebok deal really goes into effect on July 11th at UFC 189. and the anti-doping deal also goes into effect, you know, essentially July 1st,

but July 11th is the first show. So it's a, it's a new day. It's a new age. As I said on UFC tonight, things are changing. The face of the UFC has completely changed since we spoke last week. At 305, Patty Hulahan will stop by. He returns to action on July 18th in Glasgow. How about that?

Did I say it right? Against Von Lee. And he has a new big sponsorship. I'm very excited to talk to him about that. Cody Garbrandt will stop by at 245 to talk about his UFC 189 fight. Interesting guy. Really looking forward to talking to him. How about this? A 205, Chale Sunnan, who has not been on this show in over a year. My old friend will stop by. It has been a long time since I spoke to him. 145. We're going to talk to Dan Lambert, co-founder and owner of American Top Team. Talk to him about his involvement on Tuft 21, Robbie Lawler, etc., etc. And speaking, of ATT, Jorge Mazvedal will stop by at 125 to talk about his move to welterweight. He fights in the co-main event of the tough finale on Sunday night in Las Vegas. But first, let us go to the Skype Machine and talk all things. Connor McGregor versus Chad Mendez.

This guy is killing it for the Irish Mirror for Severe MMA, one of my favorite sites, and also Fightland. He is Irish journalist Peter Pizzi. Carol, joining us from Ireland right now to talk about Mr. McGregor versus Money Mendes. Peter, how are you, my friend? I'm good, Ariel. How are you? Thanks so much for having me on again. It is a pleasure, and this time I got your location correct, right? That's it, yeah, I'm not from England. Well on.

By the way, where in Ireland are you right now? I'm in Blanchard Sound, the capital of Dublin. It's lovely. It's very warm. It's a very sticky evening, I will say, or very sweaty. change me short. They got so nervous. I had to change and everything before. Well, thank you for that information. As a person who likes to sweat a lot as well, I can appreciate that. So we are five days now away from UFC 189.

As I've said, time and again, it is the Connor McGregor show, but it's not what we were hoping for, right? It's not what we had been talking about for the last few months. What is the vibe over there now? Are people still, you know, excited that we're going to get to see Connor against a different kind of opponent, a tough opponent, or are they a little bummed? Are they still kind of coming to terms with the idea that it's not going to be Connor fighting for the real belt against Jose Aldo? When the news initially broke, people were very upset, you know what I mean?

They kind of, it was just, I think, because of all the buildup, and we had that huge press conference here in Dublin, and there was a lot of talk about that afterwards in the mainstream media, you know? So good and bad. So we're all kind of built up for Aldo. But as soon as the newest service of the energy forced, I got the feeling that a lot of people already talked. that, you know, the writing was on the wall. But all the while, even when Aldo was match with Connor, you know, the first thing people would generally say, if they were talking to me, would be,

yeah, but what about the wrestler question? You know, that was already over here. Even with kind of, you know, Conner McGregor fans rather than MMA fans, they were already asking that question. Chad Mendez came in, they had that back and forth at the conference call, and now it seems like nothing, you know, everyone's delighted with this. It's the Conner-Megger show, as you said. the people that were going over from Ireland, that's who they were paying to see.

This guy is huge over here. I can't even describe you. You know yourself, you've been over here. He means so much to everyone here. And I think they still get a question answered. If he bet Aldo, they'd still ask about Mendez or Edgar. So maybe he beats Mendez now when we can go through to fight Aldo. We'll have to see what happens.

Have you heard from many fans who have decided against going to Las Vegas because it's not Aldo v. McGregor? No, actually I've got close friends going over, you know, six of my close friends are going over. And a couple of them, when the news came out first, they were, they were thinking about it, you know. But again, when everything settled, it was okay. And, you know, we have basically our fingers on the pulse with Severimai.com, a lot of people come back and forth with us, you know, and talk about the community itself, talk about going over. And nobody, nobody has seemed to be completely put off with the idea of Mendez stepping in for all. Wow. That is interesting.

And I think if, of course, the UFC dodged a major bullet, if McGregor was the one who pulled out, that would have been devastating, you know, to a whole other degree. So they get to keep, you know, the Golden Boy on the card. And I'm wondering you mentioned the mainstream media and how popular he is now in Ireland. How big of a deal is this outside of the sports media? Are there new outlets covering him? Are people, is it McGregor Mania over there right now in Ireland? Absolutely. And, you know, this is what we predicted.

but it was crazy to go into the press conference. I remember I arrived in, and there was two areas. One was for Conner, one was for Aldo. And there must have been 100 cameras around the area for Conner, and not one where Aldo was going to sit. You know what I mean? The champion of the world, and it's incredible, you know,

because the champion of the world coming to Dublin should be a big deal any other day of the week. But for Conner, everyone was all over Connor. and midway true, Aldo, given his scrum, Connor came out, and the media just literally shifted, just all up sticks and moved across. You know what I mean? I can't even judge because I was one of them, you know what I mean?

But it was pretty incredible. You know, all throughout this buildup, you know, as I've said, people have been talking about Connor and people are happy that he's still on the card. But I'm wondering back there in Ireland, and I spoke to Connor a little bit about this when I saw him at the Ultimate Fighter Gym when we had our sit down.

I got the sense after that big press conference in late March in Dublin that some people were starting to turn against them. Kind of like when your favorite band is indie and then the world starts to get on the bandwagon and people said, ah, they sold out. Now that he spent the entire camp in Las Vegas and, you know, he's really ramping up, you know, the lifestyle with the Louis Vuitton bags and the clothes and all that, are you starting to sense that there is a backlash in Ireland against Connor McGregor or has that really? not happen yet. I don't think it's against Connor as such, you know, we're still having this growing, growing pains with the sport itself. You know, if we go on to any type of mainstream media to talk about the sport, one of the things that will always be brought up is, is how barbaric it is, and you have to go through that process. And, you know, as far as what people think of Connor,

you know, some people, they get onto them about silly things. Like, they'll have, they'll have groups with the way he speaks, the way he enunciates words. But like if you had guys coming from Dublin over to America trying to sell whatever, you know, Chevys or whatever it is, you know, they're not going to understand what we're saying anyway. First of all, he had to do that. Like he was never going to make money speaking in a Dublin drawl. You know, it's little things like that. They don't like how confident he is. In Ireland, we're used to kind of, like, reluctant champions nearly.

You know, you know, people that kind of show you away from the limelight and, you know, say, oh, well, you know, let's see what happens next. we're not going to get ahead of ourselves. Whereas Conner's like full bar ahead. But that's what he appeals to our generation, the generation that was kind of coming out of college and coming out of school and this like financial wasteland. And we had nothing. And Conner's a guy who chose his own destiny,

put everything he had into it and has made himself a millionaire out of it, you would expect anyway. You know, so I think it's two sides. Some people just don't understand the sport. They don't like what he's. he's about. They don't think he's a good role model. Now, this is a minority. You have to understand.

This is a minority, but they don't think it's good to have this sport in the mainstream and this guy at the front of it. But again, the people, the fans of Connor, outweigh them people, you know, 100-fold. There's murals of this guy all over the city. It's all anyone's talking about, you know?

Who would you say is the most popular athlete in Ireland right now? It's obviously, it has to be Rory McElroy, right? No, he doesn't, it is, it is Connor, really? It's, Carmen, really? Yeah, like, even, like, as far as popularity, you know, look at the Google searches for the last two years. He's the most Google athlete.

He's talked about more. He kind of speaks to the people. He's inflammatory. You either like or me, you don't, but you're going to have an opinion. Whereas Rory McElroy is going to play in golf, you know what I mean? There's not much going on there, let's be honest. You know, obviously, Rory probably makes a, a hell of a lot more of money in the sport that he is in,

but certainly Connor, Connor will be the most popular sportsman we have, we have over here at the moment, I'd say. For people like yourself. Maybe, maybe, maybe it's up on, you know, maybe I'm not seeing him probably, but I work in the, in the newspapers over here, the national newspapers,

and who's the force going to get MMA into the newspapers over here? And I know, when I have something about Connor McGregor, they'll literally stop the press if it needs to go in. Like, the night Aldo's injury happened. Yeah. I rang them at 10 o'clock. That's their deadline there, like, we'll give you the extra.

or we'll clear the space, whatever it is, you know? Wow. Are there any national media members who have never covered MMA before that will be going to Las Vegas? Yes, yes, there is. The Irish Times is the most prestigious paper in Ireland, and Ken Early will be coming over to cover the sport for them. You know, I wrote an article before for him.

It probably wasn't good enough. He's coming over to finish the job. You know, I'm wondering because for Irish fans, for people like yourself, you know, the hardcore fans, the fans who have been following the sport since before this Irish explosion, is it still surreal that you're in this position that all eyes are on Ireland, the biggest fight weekend for the UFC, that, you know, he's the main event, that he's fighting for a belt, or have you guys gotten over that already? Because you remember, Connor, you've seen him, you've covered him since, you know, he was just, you know, a guy with a shaved head, fighting for Cage Warriors and other promotions.

The fact that you're at this point, have you had a chance to get over all that, or is it still somewhat crazy for all of you? Yeah, it's crazy. And I mean, that's a big part of his allure to the Irish people as well. You know, we're coming up. You know, you look at our soccer team. It's been some depressing years as an Irish soccer fan. You know, every time we come up against the big boys, we fall short. You know, even rugby, we have a fantastic rugby team.

But again, we come up against the big boys and we fall short. But here's this guy rubbing shoulders with the best to the best. And he looks like he belongs there. And he talks like he belongs there. And he fights like he belongs there. That's huge for us a little small island over here to see that, you know? And yeah, and for me personally, yeah, it's every time I walk into one of these events and I'm sitting on Press Rowell, it's insane to see the guys even seeing Robbie and Aritam and John walking out and everything.

Like, you know, I used to watch John make that walk maybe 10 times in one night with the amount of how much is he had in the other scene. You know, he'd be in and out. Like, you wouldn't have time to stop. And so it is. It's certainly pinch yourself kind of moments when you're. sitting in the MGM Grand about to watch, you know, one of the biggest fights of all time. I'm sure that's going to be a very special moment for all the Irish fans there. And interim title or not, and I know you're not a sports historian, but in your opinion,

if he wins on Saturday, where does that rank in the history of Irish sports? It's big. It's big, but the fact that it is the interim total people will always say, you know, well, what's he going to do with the champion? You see, that's automatically that an interim title will do it. that. You know, over here, obviously, a big boxing culture. People didn't really understand the interim thing when it emerged first. We were asked a bit about it. It's going to be huge to see him in there with a belt, though. And you know, he's going to treat it like it's the

undisputed championship. You know, there's no doubt about that. And, you know, and he's going to say that, you know, Aldo didn't fight him, you know, and he had the chance and he didn't. And I'm pretty sure, like, if he wins, you know, that's, that's going to be an even bigger fight now. I can see it being even bigger because of all this. It's like, it's like adding to the countdown. You know, it's like another, it's another five minutes in the countdown. And it's, it's huge, you know, it really is. Are you surprised that he agreed to fight Chad Mendez on two weeks notice? I think it's incredibly, incredibly brave. I think it shows the kind of guy he is. And, you know, there's no doubt, there's no doubt in my money. that, you know, UFC said,

look, we can put this back a few weeks. We can wait for the rib. We can do it in October. But he's very loyal to his Irish fans, you know. That's one thing I'll always say for Connor. Like, he really, he loves his fans and he knows how much this is costing people. He knows that people have saved for a long time

to come over for this event. And, you know, he said it, sure. He said it on ESPN when he made the announcement. You know, there's tens of thousands being spent here from the Irish, probably more, probably way more than that, but he wants to perform for them. And I know it's going to be a really special night for, like, obviously you were in Dublin. A lot of guys were in Dublin, but to hear you're, I know, they're at, you know, the Parier fight as well,

but the numbers that are going to be there that night and the electricity that they're going to bring with them, you know, it's going to be a phenomenal night, I imagine, even the atmosphere, regardless of the result. Let's say you're a part of Team McGregor, perfect world. Would you have rather face Mendez on two weeks notice, or, Frankie Edgar on two weeks notice. What's the better matchup in your opinion? That's a tough question. I think I'd go, I think I'd go with Mendez.

Frankie Edgar to me is a very, he's a hard fight. You know, he's the hardest point in the business because he's going to stay in your face. You know, and stay there for five rounds. You know, look at what he did the Cubsonson. It was incredible. You know, it was absolutely incredible. I think Mendez

there's a bit of back and forth there for a long time of Mendez he even brought it up when he signed the contract the balls on the forehead incident so it kind of was more of an immediate sell so I understand why the UFC did that and I thought you know I thought Frankie

or Mendez could have got it I didn't really mind either way but one thing I do know is that Mendez has hit the gold rush here with this fight because it's the only way, you know, he could have got straight back onto Aldo. Like, if he wins this title on Saturday night, he gets his toured shot at Jose Alco after two defeats, which is pretty unprecedented. Yeah. So, yeah, I probably would have went from Mendez. You've seen him train. As I said, you've watched him for a long time. How would you rate

Connor McGregor's wrestling? That's the question we're going to get answered finally on Saturday. They keep throwing out this 100% takedown defense ratio, but let's be honest. No one really tries to take him down in any of these UFC fights. How would you rate his wrestling game? You're dead, right? I actually, I was privileged enough to go across and have a look at the camp. Now, this is a long

time out. We were seven weeks out from the fight there. And the training session I got to do was a lot of wrestling involved, and he looked great. You know, this is against the guys from SVG. You know, Owen Roddy was there, obviously a legend of the sport over here. Artem Loboff, more of a stand-up guy. Tom, has a great grappling

base. But I saw him mix it with these. guys. And then, you know, we look great. He looks really strong at grappling. The Irish fans kind of know that it's there. You know, I've seen him training the good bit. And we know what he's capable of. It's kind of, Sean Sheehan actually put it quite well. He kind of said, these questions we have about Connor become fatal flaws immediately. They're not questions. They're used as a flaw against them immediately. And I think that's a really good point. Because we haven't seen, we haven't seen him kind of toy up with someone. We haven't seen him defend the single leg against the cage. You know, we haven't, we haven't seen him going to do that kind of thing.

And I hope Mendez goes in and asks that question. You know, we really do. I hope he goes in and asks that question. Yeah. What a site that would be if the fight starts like a Chal Sondon versus Andrew Silva and he takes him down right away? I mean, could you imagine? Yeah, yeah. Wow, that place is, I don't even know how that place is going to react. Exactly. I imagine, yeah, yeah. And the thing is, actually, that was one thing we saw him doing quite a lot of was kind of just watch them kind of getting back up so quickly.

And it reminds me of Jose Alder the way he gets up so quickly, you know what I mean? He kind of feeds him that leg and then he'll go off in the other direction. Kind of does kind of a different kind of way it down. He kind of creates space with his guard and he kind of hops up.

It's all kind of nearly one movement. But I'm looking forward to see how that goes down against Mendez. I know everybody is. And obviously we've seen Mendez's incredible wrestling pedigree and I just hope, I really hope that, you know, we've seen so much of men there standing on trading in the pocket now.

You know, he's the guy that people want to ask this question. Let's see if he can do it, you know? Omar's intrigued as everyone else. You're one of the lucky ones who got to go to the McMansion in Las Vegas, right? What does that seem like? It looks to me like an Irish train station when they showed on Embedit. I mean, there's an amazing amount of people there. I don't know how that's enjoyable for him, but I guess he likes to be around his friends.

What's it like in there? Yeah, it's really, it's really, it's really was kind of a fun vibe when I was there, but, you know, it's very intense when they're talking about fighting. And the one thing I've taken from it as well, Jose Alito didn't come up that much. You know, I always wonder, because I always wondered, you know, this kind of, there is no opponent and stuff like that. You know, and they tell me that, like, I'm always wondering it. Like, is I really like that book? All he was kind of talking about was like world champion, number one, when I get this belt, that kind of stuff. You know what I mean?

and it's funny, it's a funny place to be because the whole mansion is like a training area. You know, the whole, like they have, they have a matted area in the basement where some of our severe amegos are sleeping, where's sleeping while it was over there. They have a madden area there for jihitsu. They have Reebok heavy bags coming into the house all the time.

And like at any time, there's guys shaping in front of each other, you know? I can remember looking how own Roddy was cooking dinner. Own Roggie was cooking dinner on the grill out the back and in between like flipping stakes he was doing like showing Lee Hammond

one of the younger because a punch combination and then Lee would go around and doing a punch combination all around the pool like it's it's kind of like that it's they're so immersed in this fight you know what I mean

like that's I felt like a bit I felt a bit weird I know these guys a long time but I felt weird coming in because it was all fighters you know that was it was all about this fight when I was there six seven weeks out

it's all about the fight I loved when we saw them you see all these these Irish fighters and credit to him for remaining with the same team. And I'm used to seeing them all kind of pale, pasty, and they're all glowing with their nice tans and their hair is all flowing and stuff,

just living the good life over there in Las Vegas. Okay, before I let you go, I have to put you on the spot here. You know I got to do it, and I hope you're going to be as unbiased as possible. Who is going to win on Saturday and how? Connor McGregor, second round. Second round.

K-O. That's what it's. That's what I think. I think he will knock him out because I think Chad likes to stand with guys now. And look, he absolutely can because he has dynamo power on that right hand. You know, he's folded about five guys with his right hand now.

And he's very good at getting in and out. He has that, I think that's from his wrestling background the way he can shoot in, you know? Because we've seen him, like, shoot in with the off-hand right, catching guys handy. But what Chad Mendes does is he backs up. He backs up an awful lot. And I think Connors is going to.

keep press them down when that happens. You know, I can see him staying on him. And if a gap appears, I really do think that Conner's angles and his shot selection is that clever, you know, I think he can confuse a lot of guys that he puts something extra on his punches, as Owen Roddy was saying to me, put something extra on his punches. So they kind of, they're nearly like delayed hitting you. So you don't know when they're coming. And that's when the lights goes out.

But I think, I think, yeah, I do think he's very capable of knocking Chadman is out. and I think it won't be in the fourth round but I think you will do it in the second round. Wow. And a big week for you guys. I'm reserving the right. You know, to be honest, I've stopped predicting because guys get too mad at me.

I see them backstage and they get all, you know, they get all defensive and sensitive about the whole thing. So I've stopped doing it, to be honest. I have a pick in my heart. What's that? I'm one about them. Neil Siria at the bottom of the card again. We talked about this last one.

I thought you were going to tell someone to cart that out for me. Look, at least he's on the card. you got Pender Nelson, you got Siri, it's good enough. I know you and Syria are like BFF on Twitter, but, you know, let's keep the biases in check. What? He hates me. He hates me. He charges me money for interviews that, man.

You know, he's a boarding him with life. You don't understand. Well, he's a working man, so he can use all the money he can get, right? Yeah, he's greedy. He's greedy. Well, I will say this. It's a big week for you guys. I know Invicta has some Irish flavor as well.

And, you know, one of the best stories to come as a result of all this Connor McGregor stuff is I love the fact that it has brought us, you know, brought some attention to new young journalists such as yourself and, you know, Severe MMA doing so great. It's really, you know, helped your site rise and Graham and Sean and Andrew. All you guys doing fantastic work, phenomenal work. So that's a really cool byproduct of the Connor McGregor effect, which makes me really happy to see. So I look forward to seeing all of guys in Las Vegas, safe travels over there. and I appreciate the time. Great insight as always. Thanks so much, Harry. The mayor is the world of us. And thanks so much for giving us this platform as well. You know, that's been huge for us. We really appreciate it.

And we're always going to be big fans of the MMA hour. And you, of course. Thank you, my friend. I'll talk to you soon. There he is. Peter Carroll, as we cut him off. Great stuff from him. You can check him out on Twitter at PT Carroll.

He is a great writer from Ireland. of course, their coverage always slanted towards the Irish fighters, but it's always interesting to get, you know, the viewpoint of the people who have been with this team, following this team, covering this team from day one. Truly, that's the case. So it's a big weekend for them. It's a big weekend for Irish fans. And it's a big weekend for the UFC because on Fight Pass, of course, Invicta on Thursday,

Cyborg, main eventing, and they have three titles on the line, which is sometimes the kiss of death. And then Saturday, 189, two titles in the line. And then the tough finale on Sunday, also in Las Vegas. And we're going to see that play out on Wednesday. We'll know the finals. But the main event is, of course, Jake Ellenberger versus Wonderboy Thompson. Very interesting fight on the card.

The co-main event, if you will, is Cesar Muchanch-Fehra, against our guest at this time. Jorge Mazvedel, is he there? Have we finally reached him? Jorge, are you there? What's up, man. Hey, there he is. I'm very happy that you're finally on the show because, you know, I didn't make a big stink out of all this,

but you were kind of unofficially banned from the show for a brief period. Did you know that? Oh, man. Why are you bringing up my past, man? Come on, man. Oh, it's a new day. That's a 155, George, man. We've got to leave that alone, man. Fair enough. That's a great point, and I'll leave it alone right now. So you are going from 155 to 170, and I thought you had great success.

Of course, your last fight was somewhat controversial. You thought you won. A lot of people thought you beat Al. like Quinta. Ultimately, why... You thought I won too. You're good, generous. You're a good MMA commentator. You know I want to, man. Okay, so why are we moving up to 170 then? I've been wanting to go to 70 for a long time. I've been... After Melendez's fight,

my next fight with Wilcox had a real tough time cutting weight, and around that time, I already said, man, I want to go to 70. You know, I've been... I run a tremendous amount of miles just to get down to, like, the 70s, you know? So I just been thinking, man, I don't... I want to see how I'll perform if I don't have to wear myself out so much, you know, the week of the fight plus all the running I do in general, you know, I just want to go out and compete, you know. And the main thing is at 55, I need a good amount of time to prepare for it just to make the wake cut.

At 7, I could just take fights as they come, you know, and just compete as much as I want, you know. So how much better is life now that you don't have to cut those 15 extra pounds? Oh, life is sweet, you know. Life is real sweet. I mean, I'm sleeping a lot more, you know. Once you get down long and way for some reason, you don't sleep as much, it's a lot better life. So are we back to the brownie for breakfast diet? Not as much as when I was a kid when I was younger that I could eat that and I gain any weight off of it.

I still have to diet and stuff. At the start of camp, I was like 194. So I still had to make a diet and not go too crazy, you know. That's one of my favorite stories. I remember when you were fighting in Strike Force, perhaps even prior to the Melendez fight, them showing you waking up and what would you have like a chocolate brownie with ice cream? and some hot fudge even to boot. Is that what you would have?

Some hot fudge even. Some ice cream. Don't forget the ice cream. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What kind of ice cream? If, like, I'm doing good with the money and I could afford it, Hagendaws, man. Hagenas is splurging. Splurging.

Wow. And if you're not doing good with the money, what do we go for? Depends out. We got some supermarkets out here to make really, really good ice cream. I don't know if you ever heard of public should make, like, really, really good ice cream. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you get, like, a whole gallon of it for cheap, you know? Okay, okay. And then are we still, do you still have a lot of fast food? Are you still into all that?

Not that much because like I told it was kind of heavier. I want to make this weight cut real smooth. Okay. A lot of Spanish food is what I've been eating a lot, you know? My dad's back home with me, so he's been cooking like a motherfucker, so I've been eating a lot of Spanish food like always. Like, what are we talking? What's Spanish food? Oh, we're talking about rice and beans and pork tops, d'otonas, you know, avocados, all that. Now, how did you feel when they moved this car? It was supposed to be in Florida, right?

Which is where you live. Yeah. It would have been great for you. No travel. And now it's in Las Vegas. What do you think of that? I actually like it like that better. I like fighting out of state.

I don't really like fighting in Florida too much. Oh, really? Why is that? Too much pressure? Too many distractions? No, no pressure at all. But everybody that you went into school with wants to call you for a ticket. Somehow they get your number.

I don't even know how people get my number. And everybody wants a ticket or everybody wants. Yeah. Like, hey, man, get me, get a backstage pass. Some crazy. I'd like that. I'd just go out of town and take care of business. You know, at the end of the day's my job, I don't want to, I don't want no extra distractions, you know? And this is the tough finale card, American Top Team, obviously, representing against the Blacksillians, you're an ATT guy.

Did you watch this season? And if so, did you like it? I didn't watch every episode. I barely watched TV. I caught a couple episodes, and I was there a lot of them for the fights live. I was there for a lot of the fights. So I didn't see too much of the episodes, but I did see a couple of them, the ones that I saw I liked. You liked it? You thought it represented well. You like the drama between Dan Lambert and Glenn Robinson. Yeah, man, I like how Dan shuts him down.

I mean, I don't think I've seen one altercation where Dan had his foot in his mouth. It seemed like every time Glenn made himself out to look like an ass man, but Dan's a funny dude, you know? Yeah, yeah, he is good. He's got the gift to gab, and we're talking to him in around 15 minutes or so. So you were very vocal, you were very upset after the I Quinta loss. Did you ever consider just saying F-A? because I know you felt this way about a few other decisions. I mean, you kind of feel like you should be undefeated in the UFC, right?

I definitely feel like that. I mean, the rules from Kraviloff, I could see why people would say he won. You know, if I thought he won the third run. I thought I won the first and second on close margins. But that one, I could see people would lean towards him because I've seen that tape, and he wins a third run and some of those other rounds are close. But the Kenana fight, I didn't, I've looked at the tape several times, and I just, I don't see, like, I threw more.

I landed more. It was no damage on my face. I never got taken down and controlled. So it's just, you know, it's mind-blowing to me, but whatever, you know. What did you make of his post-fight interview when he told the fans to F off? I mean, I felt like I got to him. You know, that was kind of like the ass-wop and combined with the fans not being on his side, that it just made him explode, you know?

That's how I feel. Because if he would have thought, really, he would have won him, he wouldn't have blown up like that, probably. You know, he would have just been like, all right, whatever, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hit the moving. So I'm wondering, did you, like, did you feel at that point, you know, enough of this crap? I'm tired of this, having these losses or these wins turned into losses that I didn't deserve to lose.

Did you ever feel at any point in that process? I know it was back in April, but it wasn't that long ago. It was just two months ago. Did you think, ugh, enough, I need to take a break from the sport? I did feel like that initially. Right after I was very upset. But I definitely knew right then and there that I wasn't going back to 55, you know? And I just wanted to compete and have fun and get as many fights as I could in a year.

So I just knew exactly at that point I wouldn't go back to 55, you know. This is a funny fight because it feels like it's a 55. You just came from 55 or 55 against a 185 or the guy used to fight. You know what I mean? Like, are you worried at all that he's going to be too big for you? Well, fine, not, man. I don't think he's going to be too anything for me. I think my speed, my reflexes and my wrestling ability is just going to make for a great fight for him.

I don't think this guy could take me down to save my life. and I haven't seen too much tape of them or nothing like that, but those 85ers are slow, man, compared to 55, you know, especially somebody like me that's on the faster side of the 55 or so. I don't think there's really any threat he has for me, you know? So they're playing off the whole ATT Black Zillion thing with this fight, of course. He's a Black Szilian guy, he's Vitor's protege. How real is that for the team?

Like, is there a true rivalry where you guys get extra amped up when you're fighting a Black Sillian guy? You really hate them, you want to beat them? Is that a real thing for you? Definitely. You know, definitely. Just because we're both so close to each other, you know. We're both out of South Florida. You can't claim to be the best team in the world if you're not the best team in South Florida, you know?

So we definitely got something to prove with them. And, I mean, you know the whole backdrop. A lot of them used to train at ATT, and then for whatever reason they decided to start up their own camp, and then bad mouth ATT, and then we bad mouth them, and then, you know, the rivalry continues on. But I don't think they're in the same league as I think if you pull the numbers, or you can have somebody to shuffle the numbers and after the shows over, you'll see that

we have a much better record than them in the UFC or any show period, any show across the globe, we have better records than them, you know, as far as competing goes. Did they ever try to recruit you? No, I ain't ever try to recruit me. What would you do if they came to you with a boatload of money and said, come over here?

Everybody has a price. What are we talking about? A million bucks. Well, isn't that the rumor that they paid a lot of these? Isn't that what Dan says, that they paid a lot of the guys? That's what I've heard, too, from several sources, but I don't know, you know. I have no, I don't, that's what I've heard from other dudes, you know. Right, right. But when I was on the show with, I forgot his name.

He's fighting Haider, not in the ultimate finale. He was saying they know that nobody's been recruited. I know guys personally they had told me. I'm not going to say the name, but they told me, and these were up-and-coming guys, not big-name guys, that they were getting $2,500 a month, plus expenditures paid in the house to live in. So I was like, if these guys are getting that, imagine the upper shalant guys, you know? Yeah, yeah. You know, when you first came into this morning, and even recently, people always talk about your street fighting background, and Kimbo comes up. And now Kimbo is a part of ATT, and he was preparing for his Shamrock fight over there as well. Is that weird for you at all? Do you have any issues with him? Is it strange to be in the same gym as him now?

No way. Me and him always been cool since the day one. We've always got along swell, man. That's my partner. Yeah, yeah, Kimball's my boy, man. Did you help him prepare for the fight? I know you're obviously doing. from weight class and all, but... Not really, he had a different time that he would come in as opposed to me, so I barely got a scene for this camp, but for other kids, we worked around and rushed him a little bit, and I just showed him like a thing or two, how to get away from the cage or something like that,

you know, but we've always been cool since I've known him. And what's it like preparing? You're preparing, you know, now in the same way class, at the same time, you're fighting same weekend as the champion, Robbie Lawler. Now that you're fighting at 170, did you work with him a lot? No, we didn't get to work much either, this, because Robbie was doing, he was coming in at different times as well. Oh, really?

Yeah, he was coming in at a different times, you know. The gym is so packed during, during, like, prime time hours that we've got to split up camps for guys, you know. So guys could get different times, you know, like the heavy weights are coming different times, certain welter ways are coming different times, you know? So I didn't get to help out Robbie much. We wrestled a little bit and stuff, but we didn't get to work as much as we usually to do for other camps. Since you're fighting the same weekend and in the same way class, wouldn't it behoove you to train with him? Yeah, definitely, but I'm fine like a tall dude also, you know

So I needed, I went on and got Tulles'est sparring partners, you know Like six foot and one and two and up, you know Robb's not about my height Are these guys outside of ATT or you're just looking at the guys Within ATT? No, no, no, these are guys from ATT Okay

All right, so you think that this is it? You're done with 155 or is this kind of just a way to, you know, reboot the career? I was definitely down in 55 and then when I heard that they're going to ban IVs I was like there's no way I can make 55 I lose about 18 pounds the last two days of just straight water you know so that for me there's no there's if they take IVs away there's no way I could go to 55 are you hearing that if it was like this like they like they like they made like let's say they just banned it 170 it was either 55 or 85 I go to

185 before I go to 55 with no IVs wow really it's that beneficial Yeah, I can't. I could. My body fat at 173 is 5%, you know, so the rest is just straight water that I lose. I still got to get the 56, so I just ain't got that much body fat at that weight already, you know? Are you hearing the same thing from a lot of your teammates, your friends who are UFC fighters, Beltor fighters, et cetera, that they are going to change weight classes once this goes into effect. Actually, Beltor isn't at play, excuse me, but UFC fighters once this goes into effect in October? I've heard a couple

I've heard more complaining and bitching and stuff I haven't heard officially like guys saying they're going to go up and wait but I haven't heard not one person that's happy about it and I just don't understand if they could explain to us

exactly why they're saying it's because of steroids you could fill through out the steroids with the IVs and stuff but I mean I don't know man that has to be a way that we get hydrated and keep it safe you know didn't someone from the UFC perhaps even Jeff Novitsky

come talk to you guys about this were you not there Yeah, somebody went. Yeah, somebody went. I wasn't there that day, but still, I talked to the guys that were there, and it wasn't a thorough explanation. It was more like, this is what's going to happen, and that's it, you know? It wasn't, we need a voice. The NMA community needs a voice.

Somebody that we go to the table and negotiate with it, because this would be more up to the fighters than anybody else, you know. It's the practice that guys have been doing for years most of the career, and all of a sudden, from one fight to another, hey, no IVs. I know you've been doing it for 10 years, but that's in them more IVs. It's kind of crazy, you know? Like a fighter rep that you can voice your concerns to and then they can talk to the UFC, right? Like you've seen other sports.

Yeah, like you see in every other sport. You know, union, something. We need something to stand behind us, not something that's motivated either by money or for their own benefits. You know, we need somebody standing for the fighters. So this is a hot topic as of late. Do you actually think it will really happen one day? Are you starting to feel like the fighters are all getting on the same page here? I'm hoping so, man

And the ones that ain't in the same page I don't know if they're on drugs or what it is But everybody should be in the same page You know, we're all fighters Whether we like each other or not This is how we're going to make the bulk of our money You know most of us at least Some of us might go into acting or robbing drug dealers

I don't know but for the most part Everybody's going to make most of the money here So we need to stick together and get those paychecks You know So the uniform comes into play You'll be wearing that on Sunday as well How do you feel about it? Uh, I got mixed opinions about it, you know, um, but at least his steady paycheck.

Yeah. How much, what tier are you in? Uh, I don't, man, this is funny, because I don't even know, because I know they count in the Strike Force fights. But only when Zufa owned it. Yeah, only when Zufa owned it, so I think I got like, I think I got maybe two or three fights in Zufa owned it. I'm not sure.

I got a, I got a double check. Okay. And I got seven fights in the U.S.C. Not, so I think I'm at 10 fights. This will be your 10th. 11th. Oh, right, right, right. If you have 3.

Okay, got, got it, got it, got you got. Yes, I got the 3 in Strike Force. I think when I fought KJ, the UFC had already purchased it, I think, and then Melendez, I know they owned it already in Wilcox. So I definitely got two from Strike Force. I got to see if that KJ one was in effect already. So if you are in the 11th fight range, you'll be getting 10K. Yeah. Is that good?

Is that better than you what you got for the Iiquint to fight? Yeah, yeah, better than what I got for that I went to fight. In my case, yeah, it's way better. And by the way, you fought KJ. Noons in June of 2011. They purchased it in March of 2011, so that is at play. You know what kind of sucks? You know what kind of sucks? Well, it doesn't affect you right now, but eventually it just puts you minus one.

The Evangelista fight was literally days before. That was March 5th, and I think it was official like March 11th, so that one doesn't come into play. That's kind of annoying. It does suck. You shouldn't even tell me I didn't even know. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But for now, you are at 11, so that's obviously good news. And when the Reebok thing came out, I believe a lot of people saw that you were affiliated with Cuba. Is that, is that accurate, that you're going to be reping Cuba? For what? You said?

You know how, like, all the, I don't know if you know this, but all the uniforms are tied to the fighters' home country. so like Rory McDonald is reppping Canada and McGregor is repping Ireland, et cetera, et cetera. And I believe if you look up your name, it had you at least back last week tied to Cuba. Is that what you wanted or was that just

what they assumed? How did that happen? Hell yeah. That's what you wanted. You wanted that. Yeah. That'll bring kids to my dad's eyes. That's awesome, man. You'd rather Cuba than the U.S.? Yeah.

For me, it don't matter. I mean, as long as my family and my fans is happy. Maybe it hurts my pockets. Maybe it doesn't. I don't know. No, no, it doesn't. Yeah, I'm proud to be Latin.

You know what I'm saying? I'm proud of the blood that runs through my body, you know, so I'm definitely happy. It's like that. Well, I guess you'll find out in just a couple days, right? Because you're going to get a bag full of gear and then you'll find out if you're up in Cuba or not. Yes, sir.

By the way, how do you feel about the whole Conner-Megger thing? I mean, that's really the most talked-to-the-who-the-who-the-who-well-week thing of the whole weekend. Are you a fan of his? What do you mean? that were just like the Connor McGregor phenomenon, the attention that he receives, how popular he is, you know, how much people talk about him,

are you on that, you know, are you on that same wavelength? You get why he's so, he's so interesting for fans to talk about media, to talk about all the attention, he's main event, interim title, and this is kind of unprecedented stuff here. Yeah, in one side of the year,

because the shit talking is always going to be like, you look at WWF, people don't watch it, because they're doing backflips off, the Cajun, and they, They watch it because people are talking shit, you know what I'm saying? That's all they're doing, just talking shit on it. And he's doing it pretty good talking to shit, but now it's his actual chance to back it up.

You know, now he's fighting a stud in Chad Mendez. Everything that he's ever done or said, now is when it counts, you know? Because if he loses, people, it's going to be that much worse. But if he wins, it's got to blow him up, you know? And I think Chad's a stud, and I think Chad's going to whoop his ass, man, tell you truth. You know, you think so. Not even a close fight.

No, yeah, it could be close fight. It could be competitive, you know. McGregers is well-rounded everywhere. I've seen him popping off his feet, but that was a conceiver, you know? Mendes is a different type of wrestles, a different type of athlete. I think Mendes wins, man. So since you're fighting on Sunday, will you even watch 189? Yeah, yeah, I'll definitely be watching it.

Will you go to the fight? I need the UFC to give me some tickets. They were stalling on the tickets on me. All right. Well, hopefully they hook you up now. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's a really interesting fight, of course, playing off the whole ATT-Blackzillion rivalry. Jorge Mazzvedal against Cesar Mujanch.

It's this Sunday on Fox Sports One co-main event. Great to have you on the show, Jorge. Finally, the beef has been squashed. The suspension has been lifted. You're crazy, man. I didn't even know we have beef, man. I'm just kidding. You're the man. I appreciate the time. Good luck to you on Sunday. Thank you, I see you out there, man.

All right, there he is. Jorge Mazzvedal, big fight for him in the welterweight division this Sunday in Las Vegas. All right, let's stick with the ATT topic. all spring long we've been watching ATT versus the Black Zillions on the ultimate fighter the first time that they did this new concept first time outside of Las Vegas. And the big rivalry on the show from day one has been Black Sillians owner slash founder Glenn Robinson versus ATT co-founder slash owner Dan Lambert. And it's a big weekend for ATT not only because it is the tough finale on Sunday,

but because one of their own Rob B. Loller defends his welterweight title on Saturday night against Warren McDonald's. So we wanted to talk to Mr. Lambert about all of that and this reality show fame that he is enjoying. And he joins us right now on the phone. Dan, are you there? I am. How are you?

I'm great. Thank you for the time. I wanted to ask you first about something Mazvedal just brought up. He said a lot of the fighters are upset freaking out about this new this new IV rule that's going to come into play come October as kind of the father figure figurehead over there at ATT. Are you hearing a lot of those complaints as well?

Yeah, I think the main cause for the, you know, the quote-unquote freak out was just the lack of notice that we had when we had Mr. Novicki and some representatives from you saw to come by the gym and they were giving us, you know, some of the highlights of the new policy. And they said that the IV policy was going to go into effect July 1st. You know, we had guys fighting July 11th, July 12th, you know, shortly thereafter. That wasn't a lot of notice. So there was certainly an uproar in the gym when that came out. I guess the UFC dealt with that, at least on a short-term basis, by giving a bit of some leeway in a grace period until October 1st. But it's going to be somewhat of a drastic change. And I'm not sure the discussion over that is finished at this point.

Do you think we'll see a lot of guys change weight classes as a result of this? You know, I hope we do. I'm not a scientist. I'm not as up on some of the exact details on the rehydration process and how it's going to compare with IVs compared to without IVs. But if some of the preliminary indications that I'm hearing are going to be true, I hope we do see some guys change weight classes because it sounds like there may be some serious health issues that could be involved should guys

select to stay in their weight classes and try to rehydrate other ways. So I'm not sure we've got some people on it. I've got some people reaching out to some people with better knowledge than I have on the subject and people are going to have to reevaluate a lot of things. So what about this reality show experience for you? It's wrapping up on Wednesday. The finale is on Sunday. It's largely been about you versus Glenn.

You had the relay race on this past Wednesday show where you beat him. Full disclosure, I also reached out to Glenn to come on to this week's show at the same time as you just to sort of wrap it up. But, you know, he had some concerns and politely declined, which, you know, I have to respect. For you, as someone who has been a part of this sport for a very long time, you know, what, over 20 years or so at this point? And you've largely been in the background. I mean, you're not a guy who demands a lot of attention for himself, does a lot of interviews, et cetera. What has this experience been like? You know, I wasn't too keen on doing the show at the first offer.

You know, our team is about our team. You know, it's not about any individuals. It's not about any coaches. It's certainly not about the owner. It's about the fighters and it's about a team. And, you know, we've spent a lot of time and a lot of years trying to promote it that way. When, you know, when the offer came out to do the show, you know, I wasn't really aware of the fact that they were going to try to focus in on, you know, my rivalry with Glenn, for lack of a better word. We agreed to do the show because we thought it would be good exposure for our coaches, for our fighters.

It's going to open up a door of opportunity to get some additional guys into the UFC, which is getting harder and harder as the roster expands. So we agreed to do it. You know, it was a good experience, I would say that, you know, the main reason. that I was interested in doing the show is because I just kind of wanted the people to see what Glenn was really like. He spent a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of publicist's time and money in trying to create this false narrative of who he is and how he started his team. And I was just banking on the fact that, you know, over six weeks of filming the show that a real guy would show up. And along the whole, we finally saw him last week. So I was kind of pleased about that.

So do you feel like at any point, we watch him? watching it, you know, you're on national television, you're arguing, things like that. I mean, I'm sure you don't want to be, yeah, who wants to be, you know, painted in that light. Was there anything that you regretted? And maybe I took this too far. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have said this. Was there anything like that where you were kind of cringing while watching it?

Because sometimes a rivalry, of course, will bring out the worst in people. And there's no doubt I watch some of this show and sat back. I said, oh, boy, I really look like a dick there. But I guess, you know, how are you going to do it? But then at the end of the day, you know, it's just been around too long. to sugarcoat stuff. I call it like I see it. You know, and, you know, I'd rather do it that way. And, you know, sitting here right now, yeah, there's some things I probably shouldn't have said

or the way I said it, but I'll take this opportunity that if I, if I offended anybody out there that isn't on Glenn's payroll, I apologize. What was the vibe amongst the fighters? Because this was a very weird, different type of show where they weren't actually fighting for a UFC contract. They know the finale will play out on a UFC card, but none of these guys were, guaranteed contracts. Did you feel like they wanted it as much as in previous years? And are you confident that some of these guys will get that payoff of fighting in the

UFC once this is over? I absolutely believe the guys wanted it. I just think that it was a little different dynamic this season because, you know, in other seasons it's all about the individuals and, you know, the reasons they wanted is because they want to get into UFC and they want to be the winner. Whereas you still had that this season, obviously guys want to succeed and they want to get that next level. it was really more about the two teams.

People really, really wanted their teams to win. And I'll give you an example of it. You know, the second fight, we threw a young guy in there, Eros, and he didn't perform well, and he got held down, and he had a real disappointing performance from his standpoint. But that evening, the evening of that fight, you know, we're back in the gym training, and he's jumping in there holding pads,

helping to get the next guys ready. You know, he wasn't sitting there dwelling on his loss or feeling sorry for himself. he was more upset that, you know, he didn't get the points for the team, and his main concern was, what am I going to do to help the next guy? So a little bit of a different dynamic in that respect. You know, the Blacksler... Yeah, absolutely.

You know, Blacksillians, for a brief period, they were really struggling in the U.S.C. And they've turned things around to a degree. Are you surprised that they're even around? Like, did you think that at some point this team would crumble because, you know, as you said, they've poached fighters, they've paid fighters, these are your claims. At some point, those things kind of, you know, they kind of collapse.

Honestly, are you surprised that they're even in play, that they're even a thriving team to a degree in 2015, July of 2015? Well, you know, when they first came about, I was somewhat hopeful that it was just a whim of a rich guy who wanted to dabble into something. And when they started out with a bang and brought in a bunch of big names, or bought in a bunch of big names, I probably should say, that, you know, if it didn't go well for, maybe the guy would give up and go on to something else.

But I guess I'll give him a little bit of credit. He stuck it out, and he kept putting his money where his mouth was, and I think he just really, really badly wanted to be a big shot in this business and be on TV or whatnot, and he stuck it out. And, you know, over the years, they have certainly improved, and they've become a very legitimate team. I mean, they've gotten better. They've brought in better coaches.

They've learned a lot of how to run a team. team over the years, which you knew they would, I just wish that they would have, you know, not promoted themselves and presented themselves as the best team in the world on day one and developed guys and waited until they got to the point to where they were successful to claim that spot in the sport. You know, they kind of did it the other way around. Boom, we're here, we're the best, you know, and that's not the way it works. You know, you've got to slowly earn your way and develop as a team. And they've done that, and they've become a very legitimate team. And, you know, the fact of the matter is people,

on their side say that, you know, ATT hates them because now they're good and they're winning fights and, you know, they're getting guys in championship fights and that's not the core of the dispute. You know, we want competition. We like having guys that are good. We're very close friends with guys over at AKA and Jackson's and other teams like that because we like the competition. Everybody in the sports would like the competition.

We don't dislike them because of where they are right now. We dislike them because of the way they started and how they jumped out of the gate. man this is a feather in my cap right now i want to bottle this moment and and save it forever i just got dan lambert to sort of kind of give the blacks a liens a compliment i think this is the first this is historic this is exclusive right here hey you know i call i guess you know i'm not going to hear and say the team they don't have good quality fighters and good quality trainers i just don't like how they how they got to that point so what has robbie luller winning the belt meant for the team ATT. Have you noticed that

everyone stepped up their game, that there's a new pep and everyone's step to finally get that first UFC champion? Did it change anything for the team at all? You know, I think short term, it popped up everybody's spirits. Robbie really is a

great example for everybody in the gym to follow. He's the way he just approaches everything from his professional, his personal life. He's just, he's a real good role model, and I think he sets the bar really high. and let a lot of the other guys on the team say, man, I need to follow in those footsteps,

and then maybe I can get to where he got. So it was a nice pep for everybody. It lifted everybody's spirits up, and it shows the way that it should be and you can be if you do things a certain way. So it was nothing but positive for the gym. How do you feel about the way this has been promoted this fight, this rematch against Roy?

It has really flown under the radar. I mean, I really can't remember the last time a legitimate title fight. has received so little attention. And, of course, that's because of the whole Connor McGregor thing in the main event. That was obviously much hype. Does that bother? I know Robbie couldn't care less.

I mean, this is a guy who'd probably rather do zero interviews. But, you know, from a team perspective, how do you guys feel about this? You know, the most important thing at the end of the day is just winning fights. And that's what's important to Robbie. And that's what's important to us. The promotion side, the fanfare side of it, that's the U.S.C.'s job. That's not our job. It's our job to get guys ready to fight, put them in the best.

position to win and cross our fingers and hope it goes that way. So you have as a guy, and I know you get the sport and you've been around a long time, hasn't bothered you one bit? Not one bit. That's good. You know, my colleague, Chuck Mindenhall wrote a really fun piece about you after Robbie won the belt, about your love of, or in your collection of old professional wrestling belts. I remember you telling me this.

I think we were in Dublin last year when you told me about that. I was blown away by this, that you actually collect pro wrestling belts. What's the crown jewel right now? What's the number one? And how many do you have for those interested, including myself? Yeah, it's somewhat embarrassing, I guess. No, no, I love it. Nerd.

I'm a total nerd. I think at last count I had about 100. Wow. Old actual ring-worn pro wrestling belts, I would say. The crown jewel I had was the original WWWF heavyweight title, and they started the promotion, and they brought him Buddy Rogers to lose the belt to Bruno San Martino to start the promotion. I kind of had to give that back to the WWE because they're doing a Hall of Fame and they found out I had the

belt and they really wanted it and got a little pressure on the guy that got me the belt that makes their belt. So I had to work out of deal with that, so I no longer have that. But I've got a little litany of belts from every old regional promotion in the world dating back to the 50s and the 60s. I've got the first belt Rick Flair ever held in the business, the old Mid-Atlantic tag team title. I've got the old Georgia-Higway Championship belt that was on T's

for all those years. I've got the world-class title. I mean, if you're a fan of old-time wrestling, regional promotions, I've got some crazy belts. It's fun. What's the first one you got? Like, when did this all start? Oh, boy.

I couldn't even remember. I think that it was probably back around 2002 when I first got, and I actually bought a group, a block of belts. There were like 15 belts that an old collector had. He no longer was just in home. I bought those, and that kind of jump started the collection.

When's the last time you bought one? Probably about a year ago. It's weird. They come in spurts where a bunch of them become available at one time, just by coincidence, and then you go through dry spells. The last thought I got was the old WWS belt that on Saturday night's main event when Hall Cogan got jumped by Kurt Hennig, and he destroyed the belt, broke it up into a thousand pieces.

Meen Gene Oakland actually collected the belt, put it in a bag, and had it in his collection. I ended up in from a guy through him. Yeah. This is amazing. That's incredible. There's real fun stories that go along with every belt. It's kind of cool.

What's the most you paid for one? $25,000. What? Really? That's amazing. Which one, if you don't mind me asking? That was the Bruno Belt, the original WWWF everywhere. And they took it back.

It was kind of a weird story. It wasn't theirs. They had the right thing. They just made a request for it. You know, they wanted to buy it from me, and I didn't want to sell it, but the guy that got it for me is a friend, and he does business with him,

so I was going to put him in an awkward situation. So I worked out of trade. They gave him a couple of the current belts. They gave you some front road tickets for a Monday Night Raw, and we called it either. Is that a fair trade? Probably not, but it hooked my friend up. Okay.

Did they give you any of, like, the contemporary ones? Like, oh, this is the one that, you know, John Cena or something like that goes, oh, that's kind of cool. Oh, sure. I've got the last belt, Brock Lesner held there in WWE. And if you remember that WrestleMania or Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit both won the main event and the co-main event, they both came in there with their big titles.

And I was WrestleMania 20. I've got those two belts. You've got those? And how do you know that those are the actual ones? I'm friends with the guy that makes them all. So he authenticate them all before I end up with him. Holy moly. I mean, that's kind of a really fascinating one because of the whole Chris Benoit situation.

Yeah, I actually had the first belt the rock ever won. Wanted at a show in a flea market. You know, USWA, developmental territory in Tennessee, and he actually came to our gym to film an episode of a reality show. He was doing a year or two ago. So we gave him that belt as a gift, and it was pretty cool. Wow, this is amazing. I can talk about this all day.

Okay, last question about... But you're a nerd. Yes, that's okay. That's fine. Probably don't want to hear it. Can I... One last question about the... the belts. To me, the crown jewel, the number one that you got to get, and you might have it,

is the Montreal Screwjob belt. Do you have that one? No, I do not. I've never heard of anybody that does have that. That would be a pretty cool one, right? Do you have them all displayed somewhere in your house or your office? I've got them in a closet, take them out and play with them every now and then. With kids or just by yourself, do you parade around like buddy? That's cool. Just by myself. I got a couple nerd friends that come over and play with them, too. Nice. I like it. By the way, how do you feel about the whole Reebok deal? How does that affect you? You know, and me individually as a team owner, it doesn't affect this at all, but I mean, it certainly affects the fighters.

And, you know, we've heard some, you know, some ideas as to how it's going to play out, you know, short term. I don't think a lot of the guys are happy about it. Maybe that changes long term. I don't know. I got my fingers crossed, though. You know, it has been famously discussed that you were interested in buying the UFC way back when before Zufa. How often do you think about that? Do you think, oh, man, if I would have gotten that for $2 million, it would be different, I would done this differently, I could be doing this. Do you harp on that a lot? If it ever comes up, the only thing I think is how fortunate all the fighters and managers are fans are that it ended up the way it did in the hands of the guys it was, because they put a ton of time and a ton of money and ate a lot of losses in it before.

turned around. So I look to think of what the business was back then and how the fighters survived back then. And then I look at how many people have jobs and make living now and pretty decent ones at times based on that. And I'm not just talking about fighters. I'm talking about managers and instructors at gyms and people who work at the front desk and all these dojoes around the country that are succeeding more because of the interest in MMA. And it turned out pretty damn well the way it turned out. Would it have been just you or a group of people? It was actually going to be me, John Peretti, if you remember John.

Yep. And the old W.E.F. Promoter Jamie Levine was involved in it as well. Wow. And did you get outbid or did you pull your offer? No, I actually signed a contract, put a down payment, which they needed in advance to fund the show in New Jersey that Larry hazarded given, you know, temporary approval for them to regulate the payment. one show and the Nevada Commission was going to come and watch that show to, you know, hopefully lead to, you know, further regulation from other commissions. Put the money up for that. Had a closing date scheduled like two months after that show.

And, you know, once they did that show, I guess they had a better offer from somebody else. I just kept getting returned phone calls from Bob Meyerwood. So it was kind of a disaster that worked out really well for everybody. And I would have like to have gotten my deposit back from Meyerwitz. had to sue them, but that's just kind of late it goes sometimes. Did you get it back in the end? I ended up taking pennies on the dollar after a few years and costing a bunch of money illegally because it was just going nowhere.

Wow, so he kind of screwed you. Oh, he definitely screwed me. Do you think you would have poured in as much as the Fortitas did before turning things around? The number was like around $40 million? Yeah, I'll write you a check for it. If you get a cash, we'll split it. I don't have that kind of money, dude. I know, so is... I was going to keep it small.

I was going to do the same three or four shows a year they were doing, and I was just going to sit back and hope that they could get it regulated, and I probably never would have gotten anywhere near any of those goals. So possibility UFC is not even around today. Probably if it had gone that way, it may have stayed around, but it would have been a very, very, very small scale. I just didn't want to see a go out of business. I wanted a place for our guys to fight.

Sure. And did you ever consider getting into the, the promotional business afterwards, you know, something else? There were any of... You know, I had done shows prior to that. You know, I had kind of co-promoted some of the old W.EF shows that Jamie Levine did with him. I did the absolute fighting championship.

We did 20-year show shows down in South Florida, but we were doing that more because, you know, there weren't a lot of shows out there, and, you know, you needed to get your guys' experience. You know, obviously, you're not going to, A, get a guy ready to fight in a big show without getting some experience, and even if you were able to get him in a big show, you don't really want the first fight he's in where he gets punched in the face and put the bad position to be in front of 10,000 people on a big show. So we promoted shows for years just to get our young guys experience because there were no one of a lot of other options.

Once the UFC's popularity took off, shows started springing up all over the place. So we no longer had to promote our own shows because we had other options. Yeah, now you don't have that problem, of course, with so many UFCs. Okay, last thing. Go ahead. It's gotten a little more difficult. It has. It's gotten a little more difficult.

of we can find shows for young guys. We've actually had to start up our own amateur show again. Oh, really? Well, why do you think that is? There's more UFCs now than ever? You know, I don't know if it's just, maybe it's because there's more UFCs than ever, and there's not as much support for the local shows, because, you know, why go to the local show and you can get the big show right on TV literally every week, sometimes for free.

I don't know if that's in or if it's just, you know, it's run its course a little bit, but we've had to go back to the old model of putting on small shows. shows for young guys to get them experience again. So in that way, the ultimate fighter probably a really great thing for the team, right? You know, above all the drama and all that, I mean, a lot of guys probably got some shine that wouldn't have gotten shine. It was clearly a good thing for the guys to get some exposure. And I think it was also a good thing because I think it gave a good contrast between how our team operates and how theirs does as well.

So what's bigger for you? You're going to be in Vegas, right? I will. So what's bigger for you? Is it Robbie Lawler? representing the team fighting for the belt or the culmination of this, quote-unquote, rivalry, if you will, on Sunday? Wow, obviously, they're both big fights for us,

but it doesn't get any bigger than having a champion and having a champion defend the title. You feel confident going into it? Yes, I absolutely, I absolutely feel confident. You know, Lori McDonald's a really talented guy. There's no easy fights in the UFC at any level, certainly not at the championship level, and Roy's a real difficult guy to look good against,

but, you know, Rob, he's ready. He's in the best shape of his life. He's a hard worker, and he's going to be better than he was. The last time he fought roaring, he's going to be the last time. He's going to be better than the last time he fought anybody. All right, I'm looking forward to it. Great to have you on the show. It's been a while since I've wanted to, you know, get you on.

And, again, I can talk about the belt stuff all day. Really fascinating and, I don't know. I want you to keep us posted. You're not on Twitter, right? No, I'm not on Twitter. You don't do that sort of thing? Too old for that stuff. Yeah.

All right. I was going to say you could tweet out when you get your next belt. Let me know. If you could text me, I'd be curious to see what you get your hands on next. I will, because you're probably other than a small group of nerdy friends I have. You're probably the only person in the world who cares. Dan, I appreciate the time very much. Great job on the show. Good luck this weekend. Thanks for having me. All right, there he is. Dan Lambert, co-founder of American Top Team, owner, great guy. It's always fun to catch up with him at the events and dedicated

Old school pro wrestling belt collector. How about that? Pretty amazing stuff. Big weekend for them coming up in Las Vegas with Robbie Lawler defending his Walterway title and the finale of Tough 21 ATT versus the Blacksillians on Sunday. If you missed last week's episode, and credit to Dana White for being honest about how this season has gone, some of the early fights obviously were rather dull. And as I said on this show, the stakes were different.

It felt different because they weren't fighting for a UFC contract like the previous 20 seasons. They were essentially fighting to win the turf war, the South Florida turf war. And it just kind of felt like, okay, well, what are we really watching here? You know, like, well, what's really at stake other than money and bragging rights? But last week's episode, if you have not seen it, I do suggest checking it. it out. The fight is just complete bananas. And there's a bit of an incident afterwards. The relay race is a lot of fun. It finishes. It all culminates this Wednesday and the finale is on Sunday. But last week's fight, one of the more entertaining tough fights in recent memory. No joke.

A very bizarre fight. I mean, I guess I could talk about it because it's not, it's not, you know, it already happened. It's just like a strange, like one of the fighters was out and then he comes back and he submits him and then Glenn Robinson gets all, you know, he gets to a degree rightfully so, very upset, commissions involved, just a crazy turn of events. Forget about tough, one of the crazier fights I've seen in recent memory, period. That ultimate fighter card, like I said on Thursday while doing the M.A. beat, really flying under the radar. and I'd love to know why. I'll probably ask this this weekend. It's not the biggest deal in the world.

But I really feel like if they would have done it on Friday, it would have been a really great appetizer for UFC 189 because you can have this free platform to sell UFC 189 to the public. One last push. You have the culmination of tough 21. It just kind of feels like, and especially, especially, you know, last, last year was special because you had BJ Penn returning and the rivalry and all that. Now, you don't have that angle.

And after what happened to BJ, it really felt depressing. I mean, like, if it would have happened on Friday, I think it would have been depressing to a degree. But we all would have forgotten about it and said, oh, UFC 175 is coming up. No big deal. You know, let's turn those frowns upside down. we'll forget about this and we'll get ready for 175. This time around, it's somewhat missing that marquee fight, and 189 is just so gigantic that anything is going to feel like somewhat of a letdown.

There are some interesting fights on the card. Ellenberger Thompson is a fine fight. You have Mazvedal against Munchan, as we talked about, the debut of Michelle Waterson against our good pal, Angela Magana, Dan Miller Fighting for the first time In a very long time Our pal and Nikita Krilov

On the card So you know, it's not a bad fight night But I wonder if there's going to be somewhat of a drop-off from Saturday. I mean, that's just an impossible Leiden And they're not expecting the same kind of numbers,

the same kind of buzz, same kind of media But for the media covering International Fight Week When you talk about Invicton Thursday and then 189 on Saturday and then this on Sunday, this one's the one that's getting lost in the shuffle. Cyborg fighting is a big enough deal, and it's before the storm really hits on Saturday.

This is the one that's going to get lost in the shuffle to degree. But I'll be there covering it. I'll be doing my usual stuff. In fact, I'll be hosting the Way-in show, which I think is on Fox Sports 2 on Saturday. Saturday is a really busy day with those weigh-ins and the Hall of Fame induction and then 189. What do we know about the induction?

We know that Matt Hughes that was announced is inducting B.J. Penn. I announced, reported on the M.A. Beat that Nick Lembo is inducting Jeff Blatnik, which I think is really cool. I don't know if they announced the Frank Trigg Matt Hughes one yet, and then I don't know if they announced the Bas Rune one yet. those are the ones that are out there as far as I know. But from what I understand, it's going to be a much different event, production. John Anick is hosting it. It's not going to be like your typical UFC Hall of Fame.

I don't know if it's going to be quite like the WWE Hall of Fame because it's still at the Expo and people aren't paying to check it out, but it's going to feel like a ceremony, like a bigger deal. And I think, you know, it's worth checking out if you're there. if only for the BJ Penn factor, because I think it's going to be really interesting to see how he deals with being a Hall of Famer, how he comes to terms with the idea of being a Hall of Famer. I think this is something that he's actually not all that comfortable with right now. And you heard his voice, his demeanor on the show last week. It just, I don't know, it just kind of felt like, man, this is a guy who doesn't really want to walk away, but he has, you know, he's kind of resigned to the fact. fact that he doesn't have it anymore, that he doesn't have that same fire. But as New York

Rick said, and I think he put it best, this isn't a guy who, like a Forrest Griffin or Matt Hughes, can just hang around the sport. I don't think that's the case would be Japan. I don't think he could be an ambassador and just sit Cajside and travel the country. I think it hurts him too much. I think unless it's a very big fight, a very big deal, he's probably not going to watch it. He's probably not going to follow it because he's one of these amazing competitors. That's not taking anything away from Forrest Griffin and Matt Hughes. I think everyone's just a little bit different. and BJ strikes me as one of those intense, competitive athletes who just, if he can't be a part of it, would rather be doing something else.

And he said it himself, he hasn't been training all that much, he hasn't really been doing all that much. It's got to be a tough thing for a guy who immersed himself in the sport, and that's really, you know, it's really been his identity for all those years to all of a sudden now be told, you're a little old, you can't hang, you're a Hall of Famer now, probably an exciting time, but something that you'd, you know, you kind of had been dreading. You know, not really so much celebrating, but dreading, because this is, to some degree, the final chapter, right? I mean, some guys come back after they're inducted into a hall fame,

but in this case, everyone presumes it's the final chapter. As far as MMA's concerned, would still love to see him do some metamorphous or IBJF, something like that. And by the way, while we're talking about next week, since the Ultimate Fighter is on a Sunday, and I'll have to travel back home on Monday, that means no MMA hour next Monday. We're back on Tuesday. So we wouldn't leave you hanging as far as UFC 189 recap and Glasgow is concerned. But the show will not be on Monday. It will be on Tuesday from 1 to 430 Eastern.

And same time, same place, just a day later. So definitely make note of that. I hate missing the Monday show, but there was no way around it with the Sunday night show. I wouldn't get back in time. I take the earliest flight, and I still land at like 3 o'clock here in New York because of the time difference. So there was no way around it. We'll have to make do. And there's going to be a couple other Tuesday shows coming up, one after UFC 190,

because the flights only leave Sunday night from Brazil and then one after Labor Day. So stay tuned for that. So we are supposed to have Chelle Sannon. As you can see, I am kind of buying some time here because he is MIA. How shocking. And this was a big deal because if you know anything about my history with Chale, our relationship, our friendship, hit somewhat of a rough patch late last year. And in my mind, to be quite honest, I thought, you know, there's probably a

chance that I'll never talk to the guy again, let alone have him on my show. I was that hurt by some of the things that he said, some of the, I don't know, the words that he used and the things he lobbed in my direction. But time heals all wounds, and we've reconciled. And so I extended the olive branch, not really an olive branch, the invitation to have him on the show. And in the back of my mind, I wondered, you know, I wondered what would happen. And here we are 15 minutes after he was supposed to be on the show, and no sign of Mr. Sunnan. So while we try to get him, we were supposed to have Inside the Vault after Chale. Let's do Inside the Vault before Chale, and we are still trying to get him. As they say in the business, we are efforting to get Mr. Chale Sunnan, and hopefully after Inside

the Vault, we will get him. Now, this week's Inside the Vault is very timely because this past weekend was the four-year yeah the four-year anniversary of UFC 116 what a fantastic show that was highlighted of course by Shane Carwin versus Brock Lesnar an amazing moment a great comeback Lesner had not fought since UFC 100 he had the diverticulitis issue

it was just it was it was devastating we thought he would never fight again and he comes back to fight Shane Carwin a year later and is getting mulled in the first round. Josh Rosenthal really could have, I mean, it's an amazing thing when you watch it in hindsight because a lot of refs would have stopped it. He did not stop it. Lesnar survives

and ends up submitting Shane Carwin to retain the title via arm triangle choke. Great moment afterwards where he's on the mic and he's pointing to the crowd and all that, and he's just over the moon. It's an amazing sight. It's a great moment. Maybe

second to his win over Frank Muir at U.S. 100 as far as UFC career is concerned. So that was also the night where Chris Lieben came back on two weeks' notice to submit Yoshihiro Akiyama via Triangle Choke, an amazing win for Chris Lytle over Matt Brown, Stefan Bonner, Christophos Sosynski was a fun fight. George Sotaroplas beat Kurt Pellegrino in a fight that a lot of people thought might be a number one contender fight for Pellegrino, if you recall.

Just great fights top to bottom, a lot of finishes. Remember the Gerald Harris, David Branch, chaos, slam. an amazing night and it was just, what, three months removed from UFC 112, where Dana White told me in Abu Dhabi it was the lowest moment of his UFC career, his tenure as UFC president. And then he comes back three months later with UFC 116, and he tells me it was the best night of his UFC tenure. He was the happiest guy in Las Vegas. The event was a home run.

And this past weekend was the four-year anniversary of that. And it really feels, you know, these July 4th weekends, if you will, are a culmination of sorts. It's kind of the UFC's WrestleMania. And it feels like the same kind of buzz is back. And they're really putting all their eggs in the Connor McGregor basket here and promoting him and trying to make it a special show. So it reminded me of that show. And if it is a success with the record gate, $7 million gate and the sold-out tickets, I feel like we might hear from the same kind of Dana White on Saturday night in Las Vegas if all goes their way.

So I wanted to revisit that interview. I wanted to go back to July 3rd of 2010 and look back at my post-fight interview with Dana White following UFC 116. Here it is inside the vault. Ariel Hawani post-fight at UFC 116 with UFC President Dana White and Dana if UFC 112 was one of the lowest moments of your career. Was this perhaps one of the highlights of your career?

This is literally the best night of my career ever. I don't know if I've ever felt this way about, fights are, it just, it was a great night. Every fight I thought was dynamite. These guys came out and gave 110%. And again, you know, I always feel like a goof when I say this about grown men, but I'm proud of all these guys tonight and they delivered. It was a great night for me. The trials and tribulations of Brock Lesnar, it's an amazing story over this past year. It's been almost a year since he sat here and you know everything that happened after UFC 100. When you saw him submit Shane Carwin, what were the thoughts I went through your mind?

I couldn't believe it. You know, and sometimes in the press conference, you know, you guys are asking questions. You know, I actually want to ask a question and say something, but I hold back and don't do it. You know, what he did tonight, he had the mount. And to jump off and go for that submission was dangerous. I mean, that was a very risky move. You saw it happen earlier on in the Chris Lytle fight when Matt Brown had that submission, you know, and had it forever, and it looked like he was going to get it, but didn't.

It's a dangerous submission against the guy like Shane Carwin. He went for it and he pulled it off. you know, you really got to give them the credit and the respect for doing it. You said in the press conference that you badmouthed Josh Rosenthal before he even did anything. And then you gave him props. Ultimately, the right call I thought it was, but I'm curious your take. Yeah, you know, I just get so nervous, man, with the reffing and judging. Coming out of that Akiyama Lieben fight, I wanted to see what the judge's score card said.

I wanted to see who they had winning that fight. And that was a tough one to score. I mean, that fight could have gone either way and possibly even for Akiyama. know what I mean? I think he did a lot of damage, had Lieben hurt many times, but Chris, and to hurt Chris Lieben is no easy task. So I think even in losing tonight, Akiyama gained a lot of respect. Back to the question you asked me about the reffing. And yeah, I saw him in there. And listen, I have my moments with all the refs when, you know, you know how I am with those guys. He did a great job tonight. I think that, you know, the fight was close.

to being stopped. You know, there could have been a couple of guys that might have jumped in. But like Brock said in the press conference, he kept moving and stayed busy and looked like he wasn't hurt or out of it. And I think Josh did a great job. We'll get to Akiyama in a second, but I'm just curious about the first round once again. Do you think critics will look to that round and say, you know what, Brock might not be as tough as we thought he was? No, he's tougher than we thought he was. He's definitely tougher than we thought he was.

But, you know, the guy continues to grow as a mixed martial artist, you know. he doesn't have the greatest stand-up you'll ever see. You know, he pulled off his first submission tonight. You know, he's a wrestler who's evolving and learning all these things. That's why when I talked about the ring rust with him, you know, listen, he's in great shape. They said he had an awesome camp. He's in the best shape he's ever been in. You know he's healed up 100% from his illness that he had.

Now it's a matter of growing. Every fight that he has, every training camp that he has, he's going to learn more and more. If you look at how he lost by submission to Frank Mear in that first fight and how he dominated Meir in the second fight when Meir was going for the same submissions. It's pretty incredible. Very special moment. Chris Liebman and Stefan Bonner, two guys who are part of the Ultimate Fighter won, win the fight of the night here in 2010. And they've had to endure a lot, right? I mean, Chris Leibon, we know the story, Stephen Bonner the same.

Talk about what they did tonight. Yeah, those two have been through a lot. And again, I don't like to say I'm proud of grown men. But listen, I'm proud of those two tonight. They've been through a lot of stuff. And I was actually starting to wonder myself if Stefan, you know, Stefan still had the desire and the fire to fight. And he looked tonight like he looked in the finale of season one of the Ultimate Fighter Man.

He just kept coming forward. I don't think I've ever seen a guy run more times in a fight that I did tonight in that fight. It was a dog fight. It was an absolute war and a fun fight to watch. Final question. You said that Kane Velasquez is next for Brock. Lesnar, when do you think we'll see that fight? I need to talk to Brock about it and I'm a big believer and let's get these guys right back in as soon as we possibly can. You know, farming sounds fun,

but that's not what really pays the bills. All right. Thank you very much for the time. Dana. Congratulations on a huge event. Thanks, brother. All right, so there you have it and he was true to his word because they came back rather quickly to book Kane Velasquez versus Brock. Lesnar, that was at UFC 123. I'll never forget that day. It was, what a scene inside the, was it the MGM? I forget. It was definitely in Las Vegas. I remember it was so cool because all the pro-wrestler buddies of his, yeah, it was the MGM, all the pro-wrestler buddies of his, they were in the front row, Goldberg and Jim Ross, and who else was there? Goldberg, Jim Ross, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Paul Heyman was there, of course,

course. It was just, it was a different time. But pretty amazing when you think back, just shows the magnitude of UFC 189 the gate that night. The gate for UFC 116 with Brock Lester, big bad, Brock Lester, title unification bout, was just a bit over 2 million. Just a little over 2 million. 12,000 plus as far as the attendance is concerned, but just a little over 2 million. How about that? Saturday night? It's 7 million. Seven million. So when you think back to the power of Brock and his popularity, 2 million versus 7 million. Maybe times change, inflation, blah, blah, blah, but that is a huge feather in Conne McGregor's cap. And I do believe it is the Conne McGregor's show. As I said, they had to keep him on the card because that $7 million was about

the rivalry. I mean, there was a huge amount of interest in that fight. There is no doubt about that. but it was because Connor, I said even before the Denisiever fight. Aldo needed McGregor more than McGregor needed Aldo. McGregor, excuse me, McGregor was going to poke. He was going to poke whoever the champion was. If it was Chad Mendez, if it was Frankie Edgar, it doesn't matter. McGregor was going to poke that guy. Aldo needed someone to finally bring out, you know, that fire in him,

to give him the foil that he needed. Every great champion needs that. McGregor was that guy. You get what I'm saying? I mean, this really was a testament to how great of a salesman and how big of a star, Connor is. And if you're not buying it now, then, you know, there's really nothing else the guy can do. $7 million gate.

You know, everyone's still holding on to their tickets for the most part. It's a pretty amazing thing. By the way, before we get to our next interview, and I have located Chelsaunan, and I think he fell asleep. He's on baby duty, and we will give him a pass because I know how it is. There was a report yesterday that Daniel Cormier is out of his fight against Alexander Gustafin, like that fight was going to happen at UFC, what was it, 191 in September. Well, I reported several weeks ago, at least two weeks ago on UFC tonight,

that he was never in play to fight in September. He wants to fight in Houston, UFC 192. He has no ACL, his doctors told him. He's not going to have surgery, but he does need to have some biological injections, as he told me, PRP, stem cell injections. And he did this last year to great success, and he feels like it's going to work this time. So he's going to have to rehab for around four to six weeks, and then he'll be able to train and be ready to fight in four months in October. That's when he wants to fight.

Houston is just four hours away from Lafayette, Louisiana, which is where he's from. So he's not – he didn't suffer an injury this week or something like that. I see a lot of people blaming him, aka, that's not the case. This is old news, and we know why. It's not that big of a deal. So everyone just chill out for a second. All right, let's move along. It's a little late.

We've been waiting. We've been buying time. We've been having a good time. But we can finally confidently say that joining us via the magic of Skype right now is the one and only Chale P. Sunnan. And there he is. In the flesh. What is our excuse today? for your tardiness, 25 minutes late.

What's happening, buddy? I have the worst excuse of the world, which is oversleeping. Probably my most least favorite thing I like to hear somebody say, but I was on baby duty. And I closed my eyes, man. I got nothing else to say. Wow. And it's 1130. Except I do apologize.

It's 11.30 over there. Is this your wake up for the day, or did you take a little nap? A little bit of both. I was up all night. Yeah. And yeah, so I'm probably only on about 45 minutes sleep right now for the night, but I took it right in the middle of my calling time. I apologize. And by the way, Mazel Tov, congratulations to you and your beautiful wife for having your first child. What's it been like? Two months old now? Two months? Yeah, one month? I appreciate that, man. No, man. It's been great. It's one month, a month, and one day.

It's a beautiful thing. Now, there's so much to talk to you about Chale, and I got to say. it warms my heart to see your face here on the show. It has been a while. I believe the last time you're on this program was our 200th episode, way back when. And I got to say, as I was talking briefly, you know, beforehand, there was a time where I thought maybe you would never be on this show, that we would never talk again, that we would never be friends again. You know, we had a bit of a rough patch, right? We hit a rough patch in our friendship, but I think we've gone through that and we've conquered that, we've reconciled, but I must say, I don't know if you shared the same sentiment. It felt like this was the end, the end of a great thing

we had going. I was I was a little bit hurt by some of the things you said about me, but I've gone over it, and I, and I still want to have you in my life. So I feel like I need to address that and throw that out there at the top of this interview. Well, it took you a while, you know, you weren't exactly the easiest guy to make up with. And I was even sending you text messages extending an olive branch that said war between us, in capital letters, that we were in the middle of a war. And you finally got a hold of me, and you finally got a hold of me And you said, you know, you think, this is really cool. You know, you think I wronged you and I think you wronged me.

We both might be right. How about we call it a draw? So now I send you random text in capital letters and just say draw. That is true. Truth be told, I was just getting tired of your text, you know, begging on two knees, just saying, please, I need you back in my life. I miss you. I miss you.

I mean, okay, I was like, man, I didn't know I was such an important part of your life. I might as well give this guy a bone here and, you know, and finish this up as you're about to become a dad. So that's really, I mean, you were very persistent. But I was ready to move on with my life just for the record. So I wore you down. That's what you're saying. I wore you down and finally and finally con.

All right, well, good for me. There we go. I'll take it. It's amazing. It's a draw either way. It is a draw either way. And I'm happy to move on from all of that. So you haven't fought in quite some time.

And, you know, of course, over the last year, it's been such an interesting thing to watch your evolution. I really think that's the best word to describe it because sometimes when a guy, you know, leaves a sport, retires, whatever. He kind of goes away for a little bit. You're as present, as visible as ever. From your podcast to ESPN, now you're calling people up, posting things. You've got a t-shirt line, bad guy ink.

I mean, you really haven't taken any kind of a break. Was this all part of the plan? Did you expect to be as, you know, present in the MMA space as you were while you were fighting? You know, I've never felt the difference. I can remember being really busy in MMA. having shows with you and doing other things and having matches and having you ask me and go man what's it what's it feel like you're the face of the company everything's going great and I used to tell you all the time ago I don't know any difference my day is the same every day my dog wakes me up at

530 in the morning and I take him for a walk and make coffee and I go to practice and I come home tired every day and get a little sleep and do it all over again I remember telling you that it was a very sincere answer. And I can remember also doing interviews with you go, oh, what's it like? You must be really down or lull. And I'm looking around going, I mean, I got to tell you, I've never been high and up and feeling great about things. I've never really been down about it. It's just, my day is very routine. It's the same thing for me every day. But you didn't have a moment where you said, all right, I need to reinvent myself. I need to think outside the box. I mean, you have thought outside the box, podcast, the t-shirt stuff, the phone calls. I mean, ESPN is a

tremendous platform, but you had to work a bit, you know, to remain in the space. You didn't have that moment where you sat down with your people and said, okay, this is our plan of attack, this is how we're going to do this to remain as well. I mean, you're in the Embedded. You are a major part of the last episode of Embedded for UFC 189. That's a pretty special thing. That takes talent. Embedited's a cool show. I saw that. I was. I was a very good. really do like it, bet it a lot. You know, not a whole lot, Errol.

I mean, I mean, listen, if I, if you're looking for a quote of some sort, I will tell you this, if you can't turn chaos into cash, you don't know very much about marketing. And I will tell you that I will create cash out of chaos every single time. And that statement's going to piss a lot of people off, which is only going to make me, happy. And it will also make Eric Bischoff happy, right? Wasn't that the title of his book? Controversy equals cash? Something to that degree. Something to that effect. Yes, yes. I didn't read the book, but I think you're right about that. All right. So let's talk about this embedded situation. Why did you tweet out Chad Mendez's phone number? Well, Chad Mendez messed with the bull and then he got the

horn. I talked to, here's the thing with Chad. I was trying to get a hold of Chad for a week or so. I wish I had my phone and I would hold it up so I could show you. And Chad has an iPhone. Yeah. I have an iPhone. So Steve Jobs, before he died, God bless him. But one of the features that he made on that phone is when you text somebody, you can see when they receive the text.

And then you can see when they read the text. So as days were going by of Chad not getting back to me, I was then texting him and letting him know, hey, I can see that you've got my text messages. Must be awfully busy, not getting back to old chale. So finally, I gave him a five second countdown. Five, four. I was texting this to him. Three, two.

And then he got put on Twitter. There you go. Wow. So it wasn't the sleepwalking thing that he put out there on Embedded. This was something. No, it wasn't. But I did appreciate that because I thought it was a real dick move after it was already done.

It was a little tough to put the toothpaste back in the tube on that one. So Chad let me off the hook. But he did get a new phone number of which he did not share with me. Oh, wow. So he has not reached out to you. You guys haven't talked about this. You're still on bad terms. Oh, no, no, no, no.

We definitely talked about it. I was making a joke. But he was in the process of getting a new phone number when I talked with. And he was cool about it. And I saw the piece on Embedded where he compared to the Stepbrothers, which was pretty cool. And what's funny about this is... He could have been a lot more upset about it. Sure, yeah.

I commend him. You have the same management, you know? So I would imagine he'd be like, yo, man, what's going on here? Why are you blowing up my spot? I'm getting ready for this fight. That didn't create a problem with your management team? No. Come on.

You got to have a sense of you or now. I'm the one that's wrong in the situation. Really easy for me to say, but come on. Come on. If the roles were reversed, it's funny. At the end of the day, that's a very funny thing that happened. So if I tweet your phone number this evening, you'll have a good laugh. I would admit that it was funny.

It would be very annoying. Here's what I would say, because Chad was going to tweet my number. And I just said, listen, in the name of sportsmanship, you've got to get your own joke. Now, I do expect that I get paid back, but you've got to get a little bit more creative. You can't just use my move back on me. Fair enough. Now, speaking of that management team, Mike Roberts told me recently that he believes. leaves in his heart of hearts, you're not done fighting. You may have retired, you may have walked

away, you're a year into your suspension, but it's not over for you. Was he telling me the truth? For MMA, yeah, he's wrong about that, but he, sorry about that, Mike. I put an earpiece in so you can hear me better. I got like an echo chamber around me at times. But he's told me that before, too. He's told me, I just, I just, I don't think you're done. I think that there's more so. That is his opinion. He wasn't just talking out of school on that one, but I am not going to fight again if that's what you're asking.

So he's not telling us that, I mean, his gut is not accurate. You're done fighting. You will not fight again? I am done fighting. You ever get the itch? You were talking to BJ Penn about it last week. Sometimes it's hard for him to watch because he wants to, you know, be in there. What about you?

Who told you that? B.J. Penn, little name drop. Oh, did he? Yeah. and I wish BJ would fight again. No, yeah, yes. To your question, do you ever get the itch? Yeah, I think so.

But for many things, you know, when I left amateur wrestling, I watch it all the time and always get the urge to be part of it. But, you know, I have a lot of fantasies and goals like that. But no, I'm not going to return to the Octagon. I've been talking about you a lot. lately, and perhaps that's my subconscious way of missing you and trying to draw you back to this show. And by the way, I'm impressed that you're on the show because I know you never like to do this show, so it's a great honor for me to have you here. I've been talking about you a lot

because I keep comparing the Connor McGregor Josealdo situation to you and Anderson Silva, if only because I feel like you did more for Anderson than Anderson did for you. You propped up Anderson. You gave him that foil that he had been lacking for so long, and that's what Connor did to Joseoaldo. So do you see the same similarities there between the two? Yeah, that's absolutely how that happened. I don't know in the final analysis if I did more for Anderson. You know, he was very helpful for me too. We both needed that dance partner.

But Anderson was a very poorly drawing champion, and he was a fantastic fighter and everybody respected him, but he didn't have that base tuning him to watch him. Roy Jones Jr. had that same problem as a boxer. He never had that opponent. He was number one ranked and all of that stuff and all that crap, worthless, pound for pound. And he had it all, but he still wasn't business-wise having the greatest luck for a guy with that success. Jose Aldo is in that same spot.

The guy is an amazing talent. And he's a poor drawing champion. And it's a little bit confusing. But it's not like making a batch of cookies, man. And if you throw all the right ingredients in, you're not guaranteed that the recipe is going to work. There's an it factor in this business. And where Jose Alito misses it, I'm not totally sure because he is a fantastic talent. He's a handsome dude.

He's been around a long time. He's got all those things you throw in the pot, but the cookies just don't turn out right. And this would have changed. Connor McGregor was that missing it that that batch needed. You threw out the term long ago make that walk. It's a part of the MMA lexicon now. Aldo's not making the walk on Saturday. Are you surprised?

Yes, I'm very surprised. Business-wise, you know, Jose Aldo can't do an interview where he doesn't bitch about money. It's been coming up for years now. He's complaining about money. And this was the big money fight. This was the biggest money fight of his career. And it will never be back. He can get this fight again down the road, but it won't have the buildup and it won't have the same payday.

So from that regard, I was surprised. Now, I want to make sure I'm responsible about this because you never, ever kick a man when he's down. And if Jose Aldo broke his rib, that is so incredibly painful. You add on to it everything that I just said, that he'll never have this kind of fight again, he'll never have this kind of payday again. In those regards, he's really down. and I don't want to pile on him. I also can't help but be very surprised that he didn't continue on with the contest. And we're getting mixed reviews.

Some doctors have looked at that x-ray that he put out and said, that's not a broken rib. That's a crystallization of cartilage, and it starts to get a little bit complex in that regard. I'm looking at it going, I don't know a whole lot about medicine, but that's a broken rib from my living room where I'm looking. So, you know, if you really suffered a broken rib, man, you just can't fight. with that at times it's too tough and let me tell you the underlain story here ariel and jose's never brought this up but he should i've suffered rib injuries but i've never had a broken one i've

had dislocated and popped and even that which is a big step down from broken it hurts so bad but you can't really move you can't even fully breathe and take a deep breath of air so the the point is he going to make weight how if he can't move around you josie old is a big guy he's been talking about moving up to 155 pounds for a couple of years now. That's how big he is. He's not getting any smaller as time goes on. So when you're that big and you can't make weight, you can't move to get those pounds off,

there's no way that you can make the walk the following night in a championship contest. So I think that that's probably really the underlying story here. And I haven't heard Jose bring it up, but as a fellow athlete, I think that's what really happened. And then how about putting in Mendez when, of course, the big money fight is Aldo risking that, you know, with a wrestler against McGregor, a lot of people think wrestling is is kryptonite and it's going to be a big mistake.

Do you think that this is too big of a risk on the UFC's part? No, there's no, there's no risk, man. The show's got to go on. You don't, you, you never preserve something for tomorrow in a business like this. I mean, I could go back just recently this year. We were never supposed to see Daniel Cormier versus. versus John Jones. You know, it was supposed to be Gufferson's fight,

and Corbyn was supposed to sit back, and that ended up doing record pay-per-view numbers. You win the ones you can win, when you can win them. And that's it, and you don't plan for these future fights. And that's all speculation and done by the media, but on the second floor at the UFC, where the decisions are made, man, you take what you can get, when you can get it. All right, that's an interesting insight.

You had a chance to hang with Connor McGregor in Bristol recently for some shoots for ESPN. Some have aired, some will air. Was that your first time meeting him in person? No, he had come out to Fox a couple of times. He was on UFC tonight at least once. That's right. And, yeah, and I met him some other times. I hung out with him at a fight one time.

I did a Q&A in England. and it got ransacked. What do you call that? It got crashed. The Q&A, I was on stage in England and a drunk Michael Bisping and a drunker, Connor McGregor, he had handed microphones

and they stormed the stage. And it turned into a very fun and kind of a classic evening. Actually, if you ever go back and find the video. So, no, I knew Connor before. So my colleague, Chuck Mindenhall, wrote a very nice feature about your day in Bristol. It was posted yesterday on M.AFundi.com.

I'm not sure if you saw it, but he noted that there was, for lack of a better word, this sort of strange tension between you two. Like, you didn't really hang out or talk to each other. Is he onto something here? Is there that between you two? I sure didn't feel it. I had a lot of fun with Connor and with Chuck.

I thought Chuck was great, too, but Chuck was an observer. Sometimes the observer sees better. Yeah. The coach can see better sometimes than the athletes that are in it. But if there was, I sure didn't know it. Now, I did have a conscious effort to kind of stay back and leave him alone.

I have been in his shoes before, and it's very exhausting. And it wasn't any different out there, man. He was getting pulled in all sorts of directions. He had two hours of sleep. He was an hour late to the set. And I'm glad he was. If he wasn't, then he would have had an hour of sleep. They started filming at 6.30 in the morning, East Coast time.

He had flown in from the West Coast, which jams him up three hours right there. He's got his diet going on. When we get to the set and we film these different segments, he got through what ESPN calls the car watch. And that's where they just run you from show to show to show. So he's very busy just with ESPN obligation. And then media had been given passes such as Chuck to come in. So on any kind of commercial break or downtime, then he's getting pulled in different directions for MMA media. So in the process, his phone's going off.

He's tired. He was telling me his schedule. He had to leave from Bristol to go to New York for the Reebok deal, to go to L.A. for the Conan O'Brien deal to finally go back home. And he's now refused all media up until the fight. So he thinks. I can assure you he's going to be doing more media before the fight. But he put his foot down and said, I've done.

So I think the way that compromise will work is whatever he does, he'll be doing from Vegas. So, you know, I did try to consciously make sure I gave him whatever space that I could, but that was still limited, man. If I wasn't talking to him, somebody else was. So when people say he's the second coming of jail, that he uses your material, all this stuff, is that a compliment to you? Do you feel like he's not on your level as far as selling fights, being a showman, all that stuff? How do you feel about it?

No, he most definitely is on everybody's level, you know. I mean, he's forged his own path. He's going in a slightly different direction. but no, there's no insult there. And I'm personally entertained by it. You know, I thought he was great. I thought another guy that was greatly underrated for his time was Rampage Jackson, though. I thought that Rampage's stuff all the way back from his pride days was very entertaining.

And, you know, so I like that stuff. I get into it, and I appreciate it. And, you know, I know he's got to work hard to do it. And at some point, he's going to need to settle down. and refocus and go out and have his fight. What do you mean? Do you mean in the future, or do you think that it's getting to be a little too much right now?

Oh, no, it's crossed the line of being too much. Really? That's just a reality to the situation. Yeah, you know, athletes go out. We're kind of programmed to say the things we think we're supposed to say, it's too much on Connor right now. And media will ask him that. Is it too much?

And, you know, so you don't want to put some of those things into your world. you want to deny him and keep them out so you can take care of business. But, yeah, of course it's too much. When a guy's on an opposite side of the country and he's got three more stops before he can get home, he's 22 pounds overweight. He's nine days before a fight, and he's running on two hours sleep because of all of it. It's too much. Was there ever a point? I know you mentioned in the article, oh, yeah, you know, the spending is a little, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's, you know, it's troublesome, if you will,

because you see a lot of athletes run out of money. you weren't that same kind of guy. He's kind of like 1980s Rick Flair, if you know what I'm saying. You know, like the fancy clothes and all that stuff. You didn't have that same sort of style. But did you ever have a point where you had to kind of correct yourself? Oh, no, I'm spending too much. I'm living this stuff because you had worked so long to make the big bucks. Yeah, no, I never had to go through that, but I think to your point, it's because it didn't happen for me until a little bit later. You know, when you're a young man, you do a little bit of that. I see guys do it all the time. You know, you spend a, like you're always going to make it. Rick Flair did it to use your example. But, you know, it's pretty common and particularly with younger men. So I think that Connor's in that phase a little bit

and he's having some fun. And he talks about him. And he says that he blows it all. But he says that's how he stays hungry and keeps himself motivated to go out and win more. So whether he's having a good time or it's just good old fashioned irresponsibility, I'm not really sure.

Time will tell. But I didn't personally have to go through it. No. Are you in favor or against the Reebok deal from a fighter's perspective? Against the what? The Reebok deal coming into play this Saturday for the first time. Yeah, you know, I think it's pretty cool. I left right before this announcement came out.

I've been out a year. I was given a two-year suspension in July, so I'm literally halfway through it. And I think they announced Reebok in either July or August of last year. So I just missed the boatman. I don't have a lot of details, but I can tell you it makes sense. The sport was certainly headed that way. It cleans the sport up a lot. You know, I think those are some of your motivations as leadership to do it,

to go out and really establish something and get some of those other brands out of there, just from a visual perspective. Because don't forget, we are a show. People forget that constantly. They talk about the sport of MMA. MMA is a sport this much. and although the other 99% is this is a show. This is visual.

So this cleans it up and this really helps things. As far as the business side of it and cleaning up and making sure guys' sponsors are organized and their checks come in on time every time, that's a really good thing too. So I would imagine everybody's broad strokes here, but they're pretty happy with it. So some might say the origin of our Rift was PEDU's in MMA, and we battled over this for quite some time. How do you feel about the UFC linking up with USADA? The origin of you and I? Yeah.

Yeah, you know, hook it up with this. Let's just see how it works out. I think if you're looking for an agency to come in and test guys, you're talking about the gold standard there with USADA. So in that regard, you know, it's going to help a lot. I think with anything, you're going to run into some roadblocks. You're going to hit some speed bumps that you didn't see coming. And so, you know, let's have this discussion down the road and see how some things go. But it was a big move.

It was a big and bold move. They're testing the professionals the way they test the amateurs. And, you know, I don't think you can find a better partner out there in the world of drug testing. As a lot of fighters upset about IVs being banned come October. Is that something that you use a lot? I feel like this is something that a lot of wrestlers use, right? Yeah, you know, and we were sanctioned by Usada as well. USA wrestling and the governing body for wrestling, we were sanctioned by Usada.

And, you know, you come out of the way in and there'd be a whole, you know, be like an army tent, if you will, set up, where guys would then go and get their IVs right they're on location. So I don't know when that rule came into play. And I would imagine that, again, that's a broad stroke because Usata tests are for the supplements you put into your body, not how you put it in. And IV is a level of administration. I would have to imagine what runs through those tubes and into your vein is what matters,

not the actual IV itself. that somebody needed to rehydrate, you know, those are medical orders. I don't think that Osada would stand in the way of a doctor's opinion of a guy was dehydrated, but I did read the headline of the article that said flat out IV. I got to imagine there's some fine print there. Yeah, it sounds like, I mean, in the Wada Code, it is banned for rehydration purposes. They said they're going to give the fighters until October to, you know, figure it out and see if they have to change weight classes.

So I think that's going to be something interesting. As Dan Lambert put it earlier in the show, he suspects that things might evolve over time. So we'll see about that. Now, let me ask you, are you going to Las Vegas this weekend? Well, Aaron, you're saying that there is a rule, there is a water rule that they are subject to, that they've suspended the rule until October? They just came in and said, hey, this is a rule, but we're going to ignore it for a few months? Essentially, yes.

With what authority? With what authority do you suspend a rule? Well, this is coming from Travis Tigart, who told ESPN.com's Brett Akamoto that when they travel, Jeff Novitsky, the individual that the UFC hired from their perspective to lead this charge, travel to a bunch of gyms, and inform the fighters that the IVs would be banned come July 11th, right? When this all comes into play, there was a big concern brought up by the fighters, and now they've said, we'll give you to. to October to figure it out. So yeah, to a degree you are right. They are suspending it. Do you have a problem with that?

Because now you're picking a choosing, right? I don't know if I have a problem. Well, they're definitely picking and choose. I just didn't know you could do that. I didn't know with what authority you could do that with. I related to laws. I know for laws, whether it's federal or here in Oregon where I'm sitting, no, one person cannot come in and suspend the law.

They would have to enforce it and say this is the law, whether you like it or not. I like it. I think it's a civil way to handle things. Sometimes you do need an education or a gap period. It makes a little bit of sense, but I didn't know with what authority you could do that with. So, all right, you just told me something. I didn't know that. Will you be in Vegas this weekend? No, we will be covering the fight from Bristol, from the studio. And we made a big push to come out there. And by we, I mean, us analysts and the crew, we all wanted to do it on-site in Vegas. And ESPN will do that if it's a big enough fight. So we thought, well, for sure, we're going to be coming to Vegas. And I don't know if with the change in Aldo v. Mendez or if there was some other logistical error,

but all I know is we will be covered from the studio, live from the Sports Center studio in Bristol. Do you ever get nostalgic? I mean, when I think of this weekend, I think of you versus Anderson, too. I mean, that was a tremendous moment for not only you and Anderson, but for the UFC, the sport, that way in was just unbelievable. Do you ever get nostalgic and say, man, you know, God, I miss those times. You know, I wish I could go back to that. Do you ever think like that?

Yeah, pretty much, pretty much the only joy I had in the sport is from memories like that. At the time, at the time that you're in the sport, it's very hard to enjoy it because, you know, the life that you're leading is a lot like the one that Connor is leading right now that we just talked about, where it's no sleep, it's no rest, it's no fun, it's go, go, go, go. people pulling in every direction with the stress of the big match coming up with the way in, with taking care of the competition itself. So it was never very fun. There was never a point where you could, you know, sit back and smell the roses, if you will.

It was always go, go, go, go, go. And so, yeah, I think I do look back a little bit. And the memories are fonder for me than the experience itself was. Yeah, when I think back to this weekend as well, that's when we had our famous black and white sit down when you came out after your issue after UFC 117 and the whole thing with the Nogueras and the bus and all that. I mean, we had some nice memories on this weekend in particular. That's why I think it's nice that we've reconnected this early July. Drop! We called it a draw. What about the decision that went into making me your first official guest on your highly successful podcast?

I mean, you knew right off the bat you needed to come out. You could have gone to anyone, Stone Cold, Vince McMahon. You could have had any guest possible, Dana White, but you went to Old Halani. Why is that? Why did you think that would be the best move? Well, and I was right. You know, hindsight's always 20-20. I was right.

Ariel Hawani was the best move, you know. One, I've always enjoyed working with you. Two, I consider you a very good friend. But three, you know, you're a master in this space. You're a guy that is kind of like a military. soldier. You can give orders, but you're also very good at taking orders. You can go both ways. So I thought, well, you know, who better to have on my first attempt in some kind of a journalistic space, at least, than the journalistic master himself? So I gave you a call.

So now I'm a journalist. Well, again, I called it space. And that wasn't so much to slide you as much as I don't want to be brought in to that fake world of MMA journalists. out there. Sure, sure. I will stick with being an entertainer. Do you enjoy interviewing people? Do you enjoy being a host? I don't like to interview people.

I love to have conversations with people. I love to have somebody on that I find interesting and then just go out there and visit. But no, I don't like, and it's turned into that before, man. I've had some guests that, you know, I thought after the fact, why didn't you just say no? When I asked you to come on, if you didn't want to come on, if you didn't want to come. Mon, why don't you just say no? But I'm not the FBI, and you are not under subpoena to be here. Don't make me pull these things out of you while shining this bright light in your face.

Just text me back and tell me no. But make sure you text me back. Sure. Chadmendez. Favorite interview thus far since you launched the show? Oh. Or favorite conversation, I should say. Yeah, Jim Cornett.

Jim Cornett. was my favorite guy to just sit down and listen to. More than to talk to was to sit and listen to. He had a ton of stories. Now, I'll tell you one that I was very excited for, and almost too much, was, do you watch The Office? I'm a huge fan of the old NBC hit the office. Yes. Okay, I had Rayne Wilson on who played Dwight Shrew.

Oh, wow, that's a big one. Yeah, it was a great one, and it wasn't a terrific interview. You know, I don't know him. I don't know what his interests are. So talking about stuff was a little bit more difficult, but for me, it was a thrill because I watched that show so much. I'm so into his character and his career, so that that was kind of a kick to have him on. Dream conversation.

Who's the one guy that you've said from the beginning? I need to get him. You haven't gotten him yet. Or a woman, I should say. Hmm, a dream conversation. I don't know. You know, I've had a few of those. I've had, what, six months of shows at four shows a month, so I've been able to talk to quite a few people that I've wanted to.

But I have one tomorrow that I'm recording that'll drop tomorrow night, but I'm going to have Mick Foley on. And, yeah, Cactus Jack, Mankind, you know, how incredible is that going to be? So that'll be a lot of fun. Talking to those wrestlers, particularly the ones that are retired, is great when they let the curtain down. They discuss the psychology and things that they think could be implemented in M&A that are and were implemented in the world of wrestling and entertainment. So I always learn something through that. You know, not only do I get to hear some great stories, but I get to learn something myself. So I'm looking forward to Mick.

Who wins Chale, excuse me, Connor or Chad? Who wins Connor or Chad? Boy, you know, I got to think Chad Mendes wins that fight. And if it's competitive even, I would, uh, I'm going to have to see it to believe it. But I just watched some Connor McGregor last night. I re-watched this fight with Dennis Seaver. I had watched that live initially.

I re-saw it. And then I went and I watched this fight with Porriere, which I had missed the first time. I'd never seen it before. And as good as I remember Connor looking in the Dennis Seaver fight, he was better, almost twice as good as what I remembered. You know, I remember him going out there and dominating that fight. thought he got taken down a couple times. I was wrong about that. You know, Siever did kind of tackle him and off-balanced him, but it was never a takedown. Connor's hips came right back out. He came on top. His punches were good.

You know, his kicks were good. He changed his stance. He was a little bit awkward. He's better than I thought he was. And that happens in M.M.A. You know, I remember John Jones, we had to see him fight repeatedly to buy into it and go, oh, okay, he's just this good. John Jones was beating guys so handily that we all chalked it up to, oh, we must have had a good night or, oh, that other guy had a bad performance. It took us a while to realize what we were seen. That could be the case with Connor McGregor, but all the same, I'm not there yet. I look at him and I go, you know, there's a talented guy. I don't look at him and say, man, that's a great skill set.

So, you know, just because I have an expert view on things and I've been in the sport for so long, I'm like anybody else, man, it takes a little bit of time. So if he can pass the Chad Mendez test, I don't think there's too many more questions out there that he's a great fighter. Right now, he's a very good fighter. But that's it. That's as high as you can go with it for right now. Final question, and I appreciate the time very much. It's a two-parter because this almost kind of feels like my retirement interview with you

because I never had a chance to talk to you after you retired. and I'll be honest, I miss talking to you, and it's great to have you back, and I hope we can do it again in the near future. I want to know from your perspective, you may have talked about this, you probably did, but I haven't heard it. What is Chil Sondon's legacy? When it's all said and done as far as MMA fighting is concerned, in your opinion, what do you want your legacy to be, and what was the high point? Maybe not the thing that we all kind of saw, witnessed. I mean, there's the obvious with Anderson and all that. But in your mind, when you think back, what was the moment that was like, man, I am living the dream here?

This is a, I can't even believe this is all happening to me. Wow. Wow. The second one, I'll probably need a little time to reflect on. So I'll give you an answer today with the right to reserve a change. Because I had a lot of great memories, man. I had a lot of great experiences. I don't think I've ever had a better experience in the sport than coaching the ultimate fighter.

I got to do it twice, but I got to really build relationships there that'll last forever. I stay in contact with every one of those guys, contact with the coaches, contact with the opposing athletes and coaches. So those were definitely the highest points that I ever had was coaching the ultimate fighter and being given that opportunity. And as far as legacy goes, you know, there was a time of my career I would get asked that. arrow, I'd get red hot. I mean, where was the time my career? Everything pissed me off. Any question you asked me was going to set me off one way or another. But that one specifically, because I never got it. I had to deal with these other guys sitting around talking about their goddamn legacy like anyone should give a damn about them. You know, I graduated high school. I loved

high school. I donate to my old high school. I coach it my, I do anything for my old high school. But the last thing I'm going to do is wear a goddamn letterman's jacking around. when I'm out of high school, and there's guys that do it. Look, when you move on from something, move on, and sports are for kids. If you're able to stick around a sport and do it as an adult, if you're given that opportunity, you made that kind of commitment to it, that's all house money. But these guys that cling to it and want to be remembered for something they did

in a kid's world, in a kid's sport, that's a weird thing to me. And I never wanted to get trapped in that. I thought, you know, I'm going to be a fighter for a very limited time, and then I'm going to have to move on and do real things in life. You know, be a father, be a husband, be a member of the community, and do these things that really matter, not some sport that I go do in a steel cage three times a year. And I was very defiant that I do not want to hear about somebody else's alleged legacy because I compare it to the guy out of high school, riding around in his transam with his old Letterman's jacket on. I don't want to be one of those guys. When time passes and you come through it, though, you do have things that you were proud of. And, you know, I was very proud of the fact I would fight anybody at any time, period.

And I would never come in with an excuse. And if I had a broken rib, you damn sure would never know about it. If one of my teammates came out and did an interview about how we broke my rib, he's no longer my teammate. It's as simple as that. I would never discredit the sport or my opponent by reading my injury list before or after the fight. I've always thought it's a very underhanded thing to do. And it's a very cowardly thing to do to come out and say, you know, I'm hurt, particularly if you win a fight. I've seen guys winning fights and then come out and say, yeah, and I did it with a broken arm.

Or, yeah, and I did it with this knee. I mean, now you're turning on your opponent. your message there is very clear. You're saying, I beat you, and had I been healthy, I would have beaten you even easier. So, you know, as far as the legacy goes, the one thing that I was proud of was that I would always compete. I was looking to compete.

I was never a bully. I would take on anybody at any time. And if that was the number one guy in the world or that was the number 100 guy in the world, it didn't make any bit of difference. If somebody wanted to fight, I would show up and fight. Amazing. There will never be another Chelsea Suna.

an amazing answer and it exceeded my expectations. By the way, anyone ever reach out to to be a promoter of sorts to run their organization? I'm surprised that hasn't happened. You know, I've actually been promoting fights since 2001. I've held over 100 events. I'll tell you this, Ariel, there's two organizations on the face of the planet. And feel free to correct this statistic. You are any of your fans.

So there's two organizations on the face of the planet that can date themselves back to 2001. Zufas and Mons. Not one other organization, amateur or professional, has withstood the test of time. And I've made that statement before, and Terry Treblecock came forward and said, well, King of the Cage was actually around in 2001 as well. But that was a totally different business model. He was loaning his names to casinos. That's totally different than going out and bringing in fans of the live gate. So nobody understands this business like Ida.

You've got the boys at the UFC in the leadership role, and then it's me. And I know this sport inside it out. I promoted it. I participated in it. I've coached it. I'm proud of those things. And, you know, our organization out here will continue to thrive. And we've created 15 fighters that have gone on to fight at the UFC, one judge, one referee, and one timekeeper.

They all started our little promotion out here in Oregon. And we're very proud of that. Chale, we have taken up too much of your time. I appreciate it greatly. It means a lot to me that you would come on the show. I thought for a second that you pulled the old switcheroo on me and you wouldn't show up after you said. But I knew, I knew, no matter what, you were always a man of your word.

You always showed up when you said you would, so I appreciate it greatly. And I wish you the best with your new venture as a father, both to you and your lovely wife. And I hope we run into each other soon. It has been a while. Great to see you, though. Thank you so much for the time. Let me leave you with one final word. Yes.

Draw. Kaboom. No, I'm just kidding. That's not the word. Here's the word. Kaboom. There he is. Chill sunning.

Great stuff, as always. You got to love it. All right. We went a little overtime there. I apologize. I look at my email and I see a UFC statement on Gilbert Melendez. So let us read that. For all of you, following his bout at UFC 188 in Mexico City on June 13th,

UFC lightweight Gilbert Melendez tested positive for exogenous origin of testosterone metabolites. The UFC has a strict, consistent policy against the use of any illegal and or performance-enhancing drugs, stimulants, or masking agents by our athletes as a result of the positive test. Melendez has accepted a one-year suspension, effective from the day to the bout for violating the UFC fighter conduct policy and promotional agreement with Zufa. Regrettably, I tested positive in my post-fight urine sample for UFC 188. I did not inject anything, but I am responsible and accept the consequences for the results. I will make sure I am better educated about the products I use and their implications.

Going forward, I will ensure no products I use will contain banned substances. I'm sincerely apologetic to everyone who supports me, including my fans, sponsors, and the UFC I value your trust and respect and will do everything. of my power to keep it. Melendez will no longer compete as scheduled on July 15th. UFC officials are currently seeking a new opponent for Ally Quinta who was scheduled to face Melendez. Wow. Shocking news there, breaking news there. And that is courtesy of the UFC just sent 12 minutes ago. Pretty incredible stuff. For now, let us move along. Let's go back to our Skype machine and let's welcome in our next guest. Straight from Ireland, there he is, the one and only Patty Hulahan.

Patty, how are you? How are you going to go, my man? You're right? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for joining us. It has been a while. I haven't seen you, I believe, since Boston. And it appears as though,

actually, no, I saw you in Montreal when you were there with Ashing Daly. I'm thinking it wasn't that long, are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's going on with the beard? I like it, a little longer than usual. Just been, just being stuck in the gym. You know what I mean?

I haven't been thinking about any air. Going to the barbers lately, so I have been working out of doing for days. of our free time, but who knows? We're going to keep it? Who knows? I don't know. I don't know. Well, things have changed for you, my friend.

I mean, we've come a long way since Boston. All of a sudden, on Friday, I believe it was, I saw you tweeting about Lions Tea. And, of course, we did that interview. I know your great affinity for tea. Have you finally secured the tea sponsorship that you have been searching for for so long? And we were close now.

So, the other day was kind of like, I was letting people know that this is the tea I've been drinking all my life. My forefathers have been drinking since 1902 it's been here in Ireland and there. So we haven't done a full deal where they say, we're going to make you a rich man to look after you for the rest of your life. Are they at least hooking you up with free tea? Yeah, well, I get free tea. My man gives me free tea all the time in anyway.

I always had a tea deal. That's right. You're not looking. for that necessarily, but you are slowly linking up with them because they're tweeting about you. I mean, you're doing like little spots for them. This is amazing stuff. And you said to me on Twitter, your mom claims

that this is your greatest accomplishment, right? Your greatest achievement. She's a fight fan. She's a T fan and, how would you know, a soap drama fan. She's into, like, think we have shows over here from England called Coronation Street and EastEnders and these things.

So, T, in EastEnders, is as far. as my man's knowledge really goes on the outside world. So what do we have to do to make this a reality to finalize the deal? What do you need from us? Well, I think the guys are kind of, the ball is in their court now. They know that. I have the T, I have the pull on the T, you know. So who knows?

We might take over that T company if they don't have it. But I met all the guys from Lions and things like that. I think that pretty killed. So I think the future is going to be safe there for a little island. And they're a major brand here in Ireland. So that's success in itself. That is amazing. I only wish that we could have seen you at least once fight with a Lions Tea logo on your shorts.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen now with the Reebok deal. But still being linked with them is an amazing thing. How did they even find out about your love of tea? How did it happen? Did they tell you? There's a small Ireland that we're on here, you know? so the newest travels fast, as they say. Yes.

So I think they heard through Twitter and John's brother, actually, John Cabinet's brother actually works for the PR team, James Cabinet. Wow. So we had a man on the internet already as well. So he kind of let them know and we proved to him that I'm the man for the job. So it's time to work out now and I'm looking forward to that. Well, that is fantastic. I actually hope it comes to fruition sincerely.

I think that would be a great story. Now, of course, a lot of your teammates are in Las Vegas right now preparing for UFC 189, the Mac Mansion, as we've been calling it. You're not there. You're fighting the following week in Scotland. And some of your teammates, like I said, are not only there, but they're actually competing on the card, like Carl Pendred and Gunner Nelson, Neil Seary, of course, not a teammate, but a fellow countryman. Did you want to be on that card?

Would you have preferred to be on that card as opposed to the Scotland card? I didn't really mind, but this is Conner's time as well, and I didn't want to crowd the atmosphere out there. And I think the next level is all fighting in different countries at different times and getting wins on different shows. So it would increase, you know what I mean? We all just follow the same kind of pattern all over again. And same as well, this is Conner's time. So I wanted to maybe split through a different part of the woods and separate two. maybe for this time, you know, and the next time

I'll be back being the berserker. This time's going to, it's going to be nice to go over there and as I always, we have team major here to light our guys as well so every one of them gets to see how the UFC machine works or gives everyone a different chance

to be, so there's me, John and Ash always there, but then there's always a tour the spot. First time I give it to James Galaher, second time was to Artham and then we have Richie Smullen in this time on the corner. So it's about a growing process overall of us as well.

It's not just about me. So I know that I'm going to be able to have a big opportunity to give the guys and show them what it's like and get there and what the dream is about. So it's great to be able to do that as well and get the fighting to Scotland. Now what about your training? Because a lot of your training partners and your coach has been away.

I mean, I don't even think you've been in the same city for any portion of this camp. Has that been problematic? No, not really sure. Most of the guys that I would train would be here. And we have a lot of guys that are here nearly 10 years. And they're coaches in the club. Like we have Chris Fields going on kind of all my sessions.

And I don't have to worry about the timers and say. And getting the guys to show up. And anyone will tell you that I'm always hands on deck with every single one of the guys here. And I'm always out of the hand out. So the minute I needed a hand and I said, listen, guys, you need to pull this together. and this is what we're going to do. I didn't even even say, I'm more.

The guys just pulled together, and the level of the guys here is crazy on the small guys. We have, Ireland's top amateur, or the federal weights, and a serious talent here on the team, and anyone that's going to drop the boy around and that knows that.

There's the guys here to push you every day, and you have that UFC car on your back, so every day they're coming for you. When you see the way they're living over there in Las Vegas, that mansion. Does the party you kind of wish that you can

experience that as well? I'm in the Plaid Mansion here in Jobs Town in the Main Street Pat

so yeah no, it's great and all right it's absolutely amazing to be able to see all the guys

living like that and especially then a year ago again Conner's spreading the border again to the other guys they're getting to see what the fruits

of the labor can be and put the point in and this is what you've been guessed So it's not just an individual thing here at SBG, you think. It's a lot of guys building at the same time. And when we climb up the rocks a little bit, we wait and we bring the other guys up a little bit.

And then they plash you out and then you're trying to catch up again. And that's the way it's constant improvement. And the fact of John being in the way, and we live in a different world these days. You know, he might as well be here because we have like give WhatsApp and videos and session layouts and back and forward talk. And so it feels like he has never left. I'm a big guy now, I think, you know, and I'm looking forward to putting this kind of camp together. And my training as being, I can't fault it.

And I meet John then in Scotland. And it's going to be great to see the guys and all again. And kind of get that strap. It's going to be a nice little boost as well. I mean, move forward. The Viking ship goes on, area. Yeah, and I would imagine also you're so close with your son, it would be tough for you to be away for so long, right?

Yeah, yeah The getting away part kills me With my son sometimes But he's getting older now Which is great Which is going to be an awesome experience And a glorn An amazing lifestyle to grow up in

Travelling around the world Watching the UFC, I suppose And being England to people Like Lorenzo and Dana Because he just doesn't shake His hands And he doesn't cure you Who anybody is

You know what I mean He's a hard man to impress But I love that about And he's able to come to Scotland now one of my friends Adam is getting getting a full expenses paid trip to Scotland's tickets to haul up

but he's got to be the babysitter so it'll turn out where Ternan is looking at him That's amazing So this is going to be his second time seeing you in the UFC Right Yes it's going to be his second time Being at the UFC

And they're watching how the ship works What was his experience like in Boston What did he tell you afterwards about it? Oh he was There's some fault I caught that when I seen him and it's amazing he went into school and told kids like

they all was just in Boston the weekend at the UFC TV garden and kids are like kids are asking me on the road was he in Boston? They don't believe he just believe this boy they're starting to believe now the thing is he doesn't wait for approval he doesn't he doesn't care what these guys think you know he just he just knows and it doesn't really faze him he's

he's waiting for his torn he can't wait for it's his torn area that's what he keeps saying right Can't wait a life roll, be better than you. What do we... Is he going to be a fighter? I hope not. Okay.

But he can do whatever he wants to do. It's his life and he'll be able to go whatever road he wants, as long as it's positive and create. He can do whatever he wants. But if he's going to be a fighter, he's going to find a heart, I think, because the shadow was always there for... If he was a fighter, he always has to go up in that shadow. But I don't like him to go on to be a...

Dentless and wine or something. Fix your peep every time. I do something, something handy and safe. What are you drinking, by the way? Oh, Coca-Cola. Tea, obviously.

Okay, okay. I just making sure. I thought maybe it would be coffee or something. I was like, come on. No, this time of the night, you, man, I don't sleep on the day there you. I don't know. And it'll be waiting,

just sitting up waiting for stuff to kick off. But tea, you know, I'm just been training now, and I get to go home now and have something to eat, sit down on my chair, right my foyer, stay with the dog,

and watch you, watch you film and go to bed and come back and do it all over again. It's to be able to, my life is more in structure when I'm training for fights, I swear. It's on, it's just to be on,

there's be on a rope when I'm not training for life, fights, I'm all over the time, but I don't know what's going on. If you have things booked, and they be getting told a half a half a hour before it,

and not have a lot part of the journey, You're not fighting on UFC 189. I know you're fighting the next week, but it does feel like in some ways the culmination of this entire Irish boom of the last couple of years, in particular for your team with Connor McGregor fighting for the belt.

How will you watch it? Do you have plans? Tell us how you're going to take this in. And it's going to happen at what, like 5 a.m. or so, right? Sunday morning, your time. So how are you going to watch this thing? And are you going to watch it live?

Of course. And you know, Ireland. Everyone's getting up their job there, you know? Now one gives this shit. You know what I mean? Everyone's having to tromb the dogs out. You're just putting the kids up for adoption, giving up the jobs,

and they're all just getting ready for the ground for him. So it doesn't matter who he's following. The whole country is here, and trust me, when that hand gets right, is be quiet and listen. The whole country's going to jump at once. You're going to feel it. You're going to hear,

EDA! It's going to work out. And then the week later, then we go to the way later, and we go to war ourselves. Yeah. How are you going to watch it? Where are you going to watch it?

I'm watching it in a place in the city center called Harry's on the Green. So it's a good place in there that I'm looking forward to going in and watching the guys that are they booking a little spot out for me. I'm going to have a friend or a few friends in there. I'll be eating some lettuce because we'll be deep in the trenches then. Right. So, yeah, but I look forward to them. I'm going in with a few friends.

It'll be the last kind of time before I flew out in Scotland. and yeah it's going to be it's going to be great as a fan and as a fan and it's just a Conno McGregor enthusiast as well I'm looking forward but I can't wait I can't wait to see see it for John to see it for Conner's to see if O'Connor's family

this is 10 years in the making coming coming to where from patient now you know what I mean this is a this is serious you know what I mean this could be like looking into the future for myself sure and that was actually my next question so you're fighting Von Lee a tough guy a veteran of the UFC.

How far away, like, you feel like you, you are ready to take that next step now? Is it all coming together for you after Von Lee? Do you want to be talked about in those big contender fights? And, well, I think, I think the next steps are in your head, you know what I mean?

I think if you were starting thinking that this guy is the next level above me, and I don't think anybody, it really is a huge step above me, you know what I mean? Stepping up through the division, looking up through the ranks and things like that. And I,

I have never ever met anybody in my life that even going around travelling to gyms and sparring people that has made me feel like oh like that guy's a lot better than me he's a higher level guy you know what I mean

I had that feeling I know what it's like when I first walked into SBG and John took me and tied me up like a little girl that was probably the first time I had that feeling and I've never had that feeling

no one has in my weight division or anything like that's ever been able to make me feel like that so I will go in there and I'm going to and I'm here with my ass and the thing is crazy, tricky and technical as well. So, yeah, I have to be very good way of putting your hands and feet on me, you know.

You might lose them. And by the way, is the plan to win, obviously, on July 10th and then fight on that Dublin card in October that they just announced, is that what you want? Yeah, definitely. I want to win that. I want to fight on Dublin and I want to win that. If they come back to Dublin, I don't think anybody would be able to say that I shouldn't be on that card, you know?

Oh, yeah, man. You really... I put the first popper the last time. you really set the tone. Do you have an opponent, like a dream scenario in mind for Dublin in October, or someone you'd love to fight there? A dream would be to come out, knock someone out, and down the way, say, that was a great knockout,

who's a million in Europe again? So it's not so much about the opponent. I don't really, to be honest, I don't think about a lot of stuff that I can't control. That's it from John and being on the team a long time, but in anything in life, I don't really, it's water about stuff I can't control. As an example, I had concrete

coming up in my back garden the other day. I was doing some concrete. I did a bit of DIY in my spirit of time, you know? And it started raining. My mom's like, oh, the concrete's coming and you're not going to be able to do this, and you're not going to be able to do that. It doesn't bother.

You can't control the rain, you know? And then the rain cleared up, and the concrete came on. Life milled off. Very well said. That's a great life lesson. It's always great catching up with you, Patty. and I appreciate you sticking around at the gym a little longer this evening for us. It means a lot.

I hope you get that deal with Lions. I'm praying for you, my friend. It really warmed my heart when I saw that, especially when you were doing that little spot on the steps of the cage, telling people to come out to the city center to hang out with you and stuff. It just was great. I loved it. It was really a beautiful thing.

So I'm happy for you, my friend. Best of luck to the team on Saturday, and best of luck, of course, to you on July 18th in Glasgow against Von Lee. It's a great fight and I'm looking forward to it very much.

Me too man, I cannot wait. Just a real quick before you go, congratulations to James Galaher getting a

fourth win for Team Ireland on on a amateur champions out of Vegas. Oh yes, the I-M-M-A-F,

right? That started. Yeah, I think it's the International Mix Martial Arts Federation. And he got it

he got the win today? Yeah. The first win, yeah, he just put a number of the first one out in the whole competition and the first win on the map for Ireland now. So congratulations, James, Mauna. The invasion continues. Perhaps a, yes, perhaps a sign of good things to come later on this weekend. Thank you so much for the time, Patty.

Best of luck to you. Thank you very much. Look at yourself, my man. There he is. The one and only, the hooligan. Patty Hulahan stopping by big fight for him on July 18th in Glasgow, Scotland. All right, we got, let me see here, what's going on. Lots going on here.

As far as the Gilbert Melendez situation is concerned, a bit of a shocker because of, I feel like that team has been outspoken regarding PDUs. Let's see if I can get Mr. Apologize for that. Still trying to digest that entire situation. Gilbert Melendez testing positive, but great stuff there from Mr. Patty Hulahan, and we do have one guest to go.

We're going to be joined by Cody Garbrandt, who is in action this Saturday at UFC 189. He'll be fighting Henry Brionis, and he is a member of Team Alpha Male. Great guy, great backstory. I'm looking forward to talking to him. I do have an update. Michael Lunardelli of Reebok,

Reebok's head of combat training. I was informed via text earlier in the show that he apparently has a meeting that he needs to attend, and he will not be able to join us on this particular episode. I was really looking forward to talking to him about, you know, the way it was launched, the way everything went down on Tuesday in New York, what the future holds, some of the concerns, the criticisms, all that good stuff. But unfortunately, he will not be able to join us on today's episode of the M.A. Hour, so we're going to have to wait for that one. Hopefully in the near future, I still think that this is an important topic to discuss, and he is the man to talk to about it all. So like I said, in a minute, we're going to be joined by Cody Garbrandt. Our own Chuck Minnall has been writing some great stories about Cody since his UFC debut. If you're a casual fan of MMMA, I feel like you would have heard this one by now, maybe a little more so than a casual fan,

but this is a guy who's 6-0, a member of Team Alpha Malele. It comes from Ohio, but has been training with those guys for the last little while. He defeated Marcus Brimidge at UFC, what was it, 182. That was the Jones-Cormier fight, a very last-minute win, if you will, just 10 seconds to go in the third round. But the great story was that he has this amazing relationship with the young boy named Maddox Maple, who had been battling leukemia. In short, they made a pact that they were going to make this deal, an agreement, if you will. Maddox beats leukemia. He makes it to the

UFC. And not only does he make it, he wins. And that came to fruition in January. Maddox beat it. Cody picked up his first UFC win. So he returns on Saturday at UFC 189 to fight Henry Bionis, and they're taking it up a notch, as Chuck wrote about, and they also did a wonderful feature on Ultimate Insider. Maddox is actually going to be walking out with Cody to the cage, a beautiful moment, and one that it appears UFC matchmaker, Sean Shelby, played a big role in making into a reality. Really just fantastic stuff, an amazing bond, and really heartwarming stuff. A great ambassador for the sport,

a young man who is doing great things, really excited to welcome Cody Garbrandt to the show for the very first time. He joins us via the Magic of Skype, and there he is, the one and only no love himself. Cody, how are you? Good, how are you guys? I'm doing great.

So you are in Sacramento right now? Yep, at the gym, Alphemer Headquarters. Alpha Mill headquarters. So what's the vibe there? I mean, you were fighting on the card. Obviously, people are excited. You're getting ready, but now things have changed drastically, right?

The stakes have changed. because Chad Mendez fighting in the main event. Once that happened, once that came to fruition, what was the vibe like at the gym? Oh, we came in, and we had all kind of coloring books around, and we played duck, duck, goose, all week, and it was electric in here, so it was awesome. It was great to have him on the car, and the energy, you know. You know, it's always energy. He's always here in the gym, especially, you know, now he's fighting with Conner-Regger,

and, you know, it was awesome. Did you help him prepare for this fight? Yeah, I mean, you know, we have a bunch of stable of guys, you know, that helped him. And I gave my input on, you know, Connor and his striking style on how he approaches it. So we collaborated all of us together as, you know, some of the other teammates and figured what was going to – Connor was going to throw at him, what would work, you know, and just getting them ready for it. How often do you spend – or how often – like, how much time do you spend in Sacramento as opposed to Ohio? Because you still live in Ohio, right?

No, I actually moved out. to Sacramento. It's going to be a year. Okay. Coming up on a year, July. So I live out here. I go back in between fights. I like to go see my family and friends and, you know, Maddox and all those guys back home. Just stay grounded, you know, just to keep grounded, you know, in between fights, go to see them, come back home. My uncle wasn't my striking coach, so he lives in Ohio. I go and, you know, hit pads with him, you know, work with him and

come back out here. So I was just talking about this wonderful relationship that you have with Maddox, who you will be walking out to the cage with on Saturday. And this is an emotional story. It's a great story. You've done so much for him. He's done a lot for you as well. You know, you were kind of a troubled youth when you first met him, and you've really cleaned up your life and you're very successful now,

and you're living your UFC dream. What's it going to be like as you walk to the cage? You're about to get into a fight. It's a high-pressure situation, tense, anxious. There's a lot going on. But this young boy is going to be with you, and he means so much, and he represents so much. to you? I mean, is it going to be hard to focus

on the task at hand? Do you feel like you might get a little too emotional? How are you going to deal with that mix of emotions playing out in front of your eyes? Man, in the fight, I'm a very emotional fighter, so I feel off of my emotions. And, you know, watching that kid, you know, over the past

four years, battle for his life. And finally, you know, he couldn't walk, you know, when he was taking the chemo. Seeing things he couldn't do as a kid, be able to walk him down in the cage and let him live out a dream. It's going to no matter what Henry throws at me or comes prepared for, I'm going to be ready for. So I'm going to use that motivation, just holding his hand, walk him to the cage.

And I'm going to use that as motivation in the cage when my things get, you know, you never know what happens in a fight, it fights a fight. But I'm going to dig deep and I'm going to make this a memory that he lasts for a lifetime. You know, I'm definitely going to get the win. And I'm going to look to knock Henry out early on in the first round. So we know about the pact of him, you know, beating leukemia and you making it to the UFC. Was this part of the deal as well? you guys walking to the cage to a UFC fight?

Yeah, he's always walking me to my fights in the past and when he was healthy enough to walk. And it was something he dreamed to do and he said, I hope the UFC let me walk, you know. That's what I want to do when he was taking. He had about seven months left of chemotherapy. He had to take and that's one thing he was, I don't know, kept him optimistic.

Like I said, he said, I'm going to walk into the cage. We made our bonds to each other, made our promises to each other about, you know, he's going to be cancer, and I'm going to make the UFC, I'm going to bring you there. You know, and so I want to walk me to the cage. So that was one of his dreams and goals was to be able to walk me to the cage, you know, fighting for his life every day. He's so optimistic that he was going to be able to walk me to the cage. And it's just great, you know, says so much about the UFC and the company,

letting him be able to live out a dream that he's dream, you know, he woke up every day fighting for his life. And now he gets to, on July 11th, you know, live out a dream, we do the cage. How old is he now? He's nine. He's nine years old now. He was diagnosed with five and a half years old.

And August 25th, he'll be in remission for a year. It'll be a year in remission. There was a bit of a scare, though, when you made your debut, right? Were they afraid that it was coming back? Yeah, they didn't tell me to have the fight, but he was in the wheelchair. I just didn't want to question, you know what I mean? I just didn't want to question. I was happy they was out here.

And they didn't want me to worry about it as well. But, you know, I knew something was up. But, you know, we made the best of it, you know. The kid's such an optimistic kid. I'm an optimistic person as well, so we feed off that. You know, he had to be in the wheelchair from Vegas. You know, he was in some pain. So made the best of it.

You know, I was driving him around, the MGM, popping in his wheelchair. He's taking him everywhere, making him feel like a kid, you know, and just having a good time with him. You know, he's very, it's good to be around. You know, he gets out here this Wednesday, so I get to hang out. them, you know, just, it's a calming feeling, you know, having him there and just, you know, treating him like a regular kid. Has he ever said to you, I want to be just like you, and I want to be a UFC fighter as well? He always tells me how he's how proud he is of me and, you know, that I'm his hero and, you know, he's so thankful I helped save his life.

And, you know, hearing those things, you know, his parents say the same thing. But coming from a nine-year-old, the kid, you know, just, you know, just. Most of my heart, man, like I said, he's always had a special place in my heart ever since the first day I met him. I left his house, and I sat down with his parents and talked to him, and just made a huge impact on my life and put my life in retrospective. So I'm so thankful for him. Like I said, we met on unfortunate circumstances, but so we made the best out of it. You know, here we are right in a story that's, you know, it's, you just, I'm glad to be a part of it. Yeah.

It's an amazing thing because you're not family, you're no blood relation, yet. the way you talk about him and look at him and it just you could tell that this guy means the world to you this little kid means the world to you which is not something you see off it doesn't seem fake at all which i really commend you about yeah i mean i said i just i don't know what it is you know it's the kid that comes in the room and he just lights up the whole room where he's got that million dollars smile and you know even way it's going through the darkest days you know he always put on a smile and that's something that i was like man there's a little kid fighting for his life and i choose to fight you know i choose

to have fighting in my life. So, you know, waking up every day, coming to the gym, you know, it helped me stay ground and motivated, everyday motivated. I choose this, I choose this profession. This is my dream. This is a kid that has no choice. He has to play for his life every day. So it's just, you know, grinding out here with the practices, you know, three times a day. I leaned on him towards strength. So, you know, and he don't even know how much he's helped me out in life and in fighting. So until he's older, you know, we have a couple beers together. I can, you know, it'll be able to understand that. By the way, once the fight actually happens, where will he be?

We got tickets for him, having this family. My sponsor takes care of that. It's travel expense and everything. So, I don't know, he's walking me to the cage, so hopefully I don't know the UFC, when I have a nice seat for him. I know it's a packed house, but, you know, wherever. I'm just glad he's there.

Like, he was at my debut, and the lady that was a security, let him down to, like, the front row where we were walking back to the cage. Oh, wow. It was cool to see. I get him big hug. He was crying. He had his little flag with him.

It was just great. I gave him the biggest hug, and I just, you know, he felt like he felt like he felt in me, you know, something that we dreamed about doing. It was great to have him there. And it was awesome. It was awesome. Does your relationship with him make you want to have kids of your own? Oh, yeah, definitely.

Definitely. I've always wanted to have kids. I think I'd be a great father. I don't know. I just, you know, when the time's right, you know, definitely the time's right. When I'm towards the end of my career, I definitely like to have kids. I've always said I like to have two boys and a girl, you know, two older boys. boys and a girl so the boys can, you know, that's how we grew up when I, you know,

if I'm older brother and a younger sister, then we had more siblings. So I four brothers and three sisters. But that's how we grew up when I was, you know, we had two older brothers and younger sisters. So that's kind of what I would like to have. But time will tell. And then so much going on with you. I get an email recently from TMZ telling the world, wow, this is breaking news about your love life that you're dating page, I get a press release about this. What is going on here? Did you want the world to know all this?

Yeah, go ahead. It's out there. But did you think it would be this big of a deal? Like, I don't usually get emails about, you know, fighters' love life. Yeah, I didn't think so either. I mean, she's a superstar, so I guess it comes with it, huh? Yeah, I guess so.

It's an amazing thing. Life must be good for you right now, though, right? Life's good, you know. I'm getting, you know, I dreamed of these days, and they're upon me. So I'm about to have my second UFC fight. You know, Chad's on the car. I think life's great.

You know, Matt, you know, everything's good, man. The vibes, the energy. I'm excited to go out there and show my skills on Saturday. I've been working hard ever since my last fight. And my eyes are on the prize. I want to keep climbing that UFC fan of weight ladder and reach my ultimate goal. You're 23 years old, right? Yeah, I turned 24 actually tomorrow.

Oh, wow. I turned 33 on Wednesday. How about that? cancer babies that's right so you're a very mature young man and you're six to know did you really think though

considering the stuff that you were dealing with you know you're kind of going down the wrong path not that long ago did you think that all this would happen so soon for you in your MMA career I mean a lot of great things cool things are happening to you at a very young age really coming out here I always believed in myself

and lead in my skills but coming out here at Team Alpena really a really catapult of my career Being around these guys as champions and the mindsets, I got with positive people and had positive outcome from it. You know, these guys, you know, I just finished on my last practice with them today before I fly out tomorrow. And I just, you know, thank them all. You know, I wouldn't be here without these guys, you know. This is kind of my last chance.

I came out here just on a whim. Like, hey, I'm going to check out Team Alpha male. I'll see what this is about. See what my skills are at comparing to the UFC stars that are. out in this gym. So I came out here a week and that's all I needed was a week. The first day, the first time I stepped on a mat, I was like, this is where I wanted to be in the energy. And, you know, kind of really, I had all my fights. I was wanting to know when I came out here. I grinded out the next four fights, came five and a no, got the call from the UFC. And I just been, you know,

dedicated myself to, you know, eat, seat, and breathe in M&A, and this is what I'm going to do. I'm at a young age and it just shows that anything's possible with hard work for dedication. Was there someone on the team that really took you under his wing? You know, I took to a lot of the guys, all the guys, you know, kind of like a brotherhood, you know, I felt really close and they were very welcoming. I didn't even say Araya, you know, Araya definitely, looks like a big brother, definitely a big brother to me. And, you know, say, hey, you get a 5-0, you're trained, work hard, you know, you're going to have been a star. So I believed in him and I listened to him and I moved out here. It's the best thing I made my life, man.

I'm Trevor Graper for, you know, Ryan and everything that he does for me. And didn't you kind of put Sean Shelby on the spot? Isn't that how you got the contract? Like you saw him? I think in Texas in Austin. And you were like, come on, you got to sign me. Is that what happened? No, I mean, I was helping out Joe with his fight.

And my manager was there. Hey, you know, Sean Shelby was he. And Sean was there. Yeah, Sean just came up to me. He was like, hey, he went to play? And I was like, yeah, definitely. Shook his hand. It was right there.

Wow. I even known him getting signed. I was just kind of like going out there and hanging out. It was cool. I just seen off behind the scenes of the UFC and came up. Didn't even think I was going to get signed. I came up to me to offer me to fight with Grimmage on short notice. I'm a fighter, you know, a fighter's fight, so I was definitely all about taking the fight and going out there and fighting.

Of course, you're also known for your tattoos. What age did you get your first tattoo? 13. I was 13 years old. Damn. That is a baller right there. And how many do you have now? Do you have any idea?

I've lost count. I have so many hours. I have so many hours of art work. I had a sponsor when I was younger. My name was Dallas Brewer that, hey, it's the sponsor me, you know what I mean? Just getting me tattoos. Wow. I'd ride my bike to the tattoo shop, you know, get tatted up. Come on with a new tattoo. My mom's. And at that time, you know, she didn't have a new tattoo because I had so many. Right. I can't tell her how much did that hurt? But what about the neck? How much did that hurt? I mean, the Adams apple? any that hurt?

I think I psyched myself up. I was like, you know, like, oh, this is going to be a son of a gun, you know? So I psych myself before I got the tattoo. And it wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad. I would say my stomach was one of the words. I was younger when I got it, too, on the stomach. So my stomach was more painful than the neck.

But they all suck, dude. All tattoos suck. But you regret having so many? No. No, it tells me. It's a story. You know, I mean, like, I'm not going to care. When I'm older, it's like, it's all part.

I mean, every tattoo has a store. And the time of my life, you know, is where I got them. I'll never get a tattoo. And, you know, so. Do you have any, say what they want? Any free real estate left, or are you all covered up? No, I got, I got some more projects. I'm going to do that's hard.

I'm always in the gym. Yeah. There's so many attacks. Zondrey Feeley's trying to catch me, so I can't let them catch me in the whole stomach and everything. I got a few planned after the play. I take, like, a week off, get tatted up all week. and yeah, come back.

Okay, before I let you go, what's the prediction on your fight, but also Chad's fight? Let's go on the record, because you're the one who called that, you tweeted that he was, that he was getting the fight before anyone knew it.

How did you know? I just, I just can tell, I mean, if Otto's going to come out with a live injury, I just knew he was gonna, you know, I can just, I don't know, for some reason, I do float therapy,

and that's where a deprivation take you see all these crazy visual games. You might say, everyone thinks I'm crazy to die, but if you get into float, you know the float tank uh you understand so i see all these visions and dreams i've seen all my last five fights in the way i've predicted them wow and i saw chad there i saw chad there getting warm it up in the same room i was for the fight on the same day i was like it only had to be like he's gonna fight connor and uh yeah i tweeted out and here it is you know he's fighting but uh i'm gonna go

out there i'm gonna definitely stop henry from reaunus um whenever to fight whenever i want to knock him out i want to knock him out but i want to get a first round finish um i've finished everyone that i you know, first second round. It's time, you know, now that my hands go on the first and really show how how dominant I am going to be in this division. And what about Chad, since you're this Nostradamus-like character? McGregor falls in three. Okay. That's what he said as well. Falls in three. He's not going to, I mean, Tad's one of the best. He's a freak athlete, Chadman does it. He's a freak athlete, you know, power in both hands. He's been grinding since

he was a little kid wrestling, you know, he's made it to the high-o, NCAA, NCAA Division I finals, you know, Connors doesn't prepare for that. He can say he's trained his whole life to do his eight kids. Wrestling is a different piece. When you wrestle your whole life and you're driving on the mat, it gives you a different mentality where, you know,

Connor falls in three. Connor falls in three. All right. Henry and won, Connor and three. Okay, we heard it here first. Great to have you on the show, man. I really appreciate the time, especially after your last training session. You're doing a great thing with Matt. and I tip my cap to you.

It's a really beautiful story. I can't wait to see it play out on Saturday at UFC 189. I wish you the best of luck to you and the team, and I'll see you out there, my friend. Thanks. I'll see you out there. There he is. Cody, no love Garbrandt,

joining us from Sacktown. Sacramento, big moment for him on Saturday night at UFC 189, a beautiful moment. Walking out with that young man, it's great to see a pro athlete doing that for someone, and they've really really,

been helping out each other. Love seeing that stuff. If you haven't seen that Ultimate Insider piece on when he came to Maddox's house and broke the news to him, I do suggest checking it out. Also, I suggest checking out Chuck Mendenhall's two stories on his relationship with Maddox, beautiful stuff as well. All right. Let's take a couple of quick calls very first. fast and then we're going to go to your questions and comments. There's a lot to get to breaking news, all that good stuff. Let us first go to Jason on line number one. I'm not sure where he's calling from, but he is our good friend Jason.

Hashtag, biggest UFC fan on Four Wheels. Jason, what is going on, my man? Hey, man. How's going? Good, good. You? I'm great. Just garing up for this great weekend ahead.

Will you be there? Yes, yes, definitely. I couldn't miss it. Couldn't pass it up. Awesome. But another great show with a great guest. The main reason I'm calling is because of International Fight Week is this week. And I know how you're a huge fan of putting out these sport challenges.

So with UFC's charity bowling event this week, I thought that the number one NMA journalist should take on the UFC's biggest fan on four wills and the loser donates to the charity of your choice. What do you think? So we're going to battle each other in bowling? Is that what you're suggesting? Yep. There's a big charity bowling event on Thursday.

I'm going to be there Thursday morning. I figured that we could do it before if you want, and we can come up with whatever wager you want, and the loser donated to the charity of your choice. So I love the offer, and I appreciate it, and I'm not ducking you, but New York, Rick, can attest to this. I was just telling him before the show that Thursday might be the busiest day in the history of,

MMA media. They have three media things. They've got a press conference, an ultimate media day for the 189 card, and also an ultimate media day for the fighters there for International Fight Week. And then right afterwards, it's Invicta. There's Invicta on Thursday night as well, and I have to cover it. Yeah, so how can I do it all? How can I go to Invicta? Now I know how you feel when Vindo doesn't answer your challenge. Wow. So it's like that, huh? All right, fair enough. One of these days, we'll make it happen, but this Thursday, too tough. But I appreciate you putting it out there. Hey, I forgot, I got a bid out on Chuck Weddell and Joanna, so hopefully maybe if my bid fine enough,

I can bowl against those guys. Oh, so I'm the third choice. That's what's going on? No, no, no, no, no, no. I've been planning this challenge for a long time since the Vick back in Kansas City. You asked New York Rick about it. All right. Fair enough.

But, no, you're definitely my first choice, definitely. I appreciate the call, man, and I look forward to seeing you out there in Las Vegas. Yeah, well, I'll be there for sure. Thank you. Another great show. All right, there he is. Jason, laying down the challenge. Thursday is crazy, though.

I don't know how it's all going to actually happen, but we'll make due. All right. What do we got? Questions now? Gosh, so much going on. Stacked. Stacked show, breaking news. We tried to get Ally Quinta, but no word, right?

Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine. His fight happening in nine days. Poor guy. He was supposed to fight Bobby Green. Now Gilbert, this is shocking. I still haven't really digested it. I mean, this is Gilbert Melendez.

Not one of those guys that you would think, right? I mean, you think. You know, I've said this many times. You know my attitude. There's almost, there's like less than a handful of guys that would shock me. And even then, it wouldn't be shocked so much as like disappointment. Yeah. It'd be like BJ Penn.

and then outside of that, really, like, one or two other guys, and even then, I'm reluctant to even say their name because they're probably going to pop at some point this year. So this, where does this one fall? This is this not a shocker to you? Not really. Like, this wasn't one of those three, four guys? I mean, there's certain guys that you put in that BJPen category. The rest are all fair game. I mean, it's like Chris Widman, maybe.

It's the people who are rallying very actively against this, Tim Kennedy. like that who's going out of their way to say... I feel like a scrap pack kind of guy. The 209 guys were kind of in that category, right? No? I think their complaints are much less about drug use in MMA, whether it be performance enhancing or otherwise, and more about rules of MMA

and extending it to 10-round fights and things like that. But, you know, I also think that mentality is very specific to the Diaz brothers rather than, you know, the whole team. you know, Jake Shields had his own issue. That was a little bit, you know, initially when it came out, there were no details revealed about it, and then he kind of spoke about it a little bit later.

But it's not the first time in, you know, that team. Wild. That said, it's not one that, you know, you go, oh, this guy's got, you know, superhero muscles, and it's somebody who you think right away is somebody who's going to test positive. But at this point, nobody, nobody surprises me.

But it seems from his statement that, you know, it was a situation where, you know, this is what he's claiming, a situation where he took something and he wasn't aware versus, you know, actively trying to cheat. Now, you know, that's everybody's kind of excuse, but we'll see, you know, what comes to light.

But you know what? At least he's not fighting it. Yeah. You know, he said, I'm sorry, I messed up. At least he's taking the, and this doesn't excuse doing anything illegal, but at least he's taking it. taking the blame.

Now, it's also interesting that this happened before the anti-doping policy actually kicked in because it kicked in, or it kicked in on July 1st. So this is, wow, this is just shocking stuff. You have to wonder if maybe he would have fought it harder if it was a two-year versus a one year. Wow. Just incredible. And the UFC was policing that event. UFC was the commission there in Mexico.

So, I mean, that's a positive step. Good for them. and one year out. Yeah. I think, you know, this is going to continue to happen. And I think this is a byproduct of us, you know, wanting or, you know, whoever the people that were rallying for a cleaner sport. Yeah.

This is what we're going to start seeing. So get used to it. This is why I said last week on UFC Tonight that the story of the first half of the year, it's not the sexy story that John Jones is or, you know, the world tour with Conne McGregor and Reebok and all that stuff. But the story of the last six months. months, without a doubt of my mind, is the UFC partnering with USADA because of what it will be in the next five, ten years. And the story of the next six months is also what's going to happen now? Because I feel like this is going to happen more often than nod. And it's going to be really

interesting to see how the UFC rebounds because now we're nine days away. And I mean, that's a good card. And, you know, the card will go on. It's not like it's going to get canceled. But that was, in my opinion, the most interesting fight on the card. That was the people's main event by far. I mean, the main event of Mir versus Duffy is fine, but to me, I Quinta getting a shot against Gilbert. That was just fascinating stuff. Yeah. It's a shame to lose that fight. Okay.

Connor McGregor's star power. Connor McGregor is undoubtedly a star already in the UFC. We just saw him on the Conan O'Brien show, which to my knowledge, only Rhonda Rousey has been on out of all the UFC fighters. Is that that big of a deal, though? I mean, it's not the big four, right? I still think it's a pretty big deal. I mean, Conan was the host of the Tonight Show. And shows, you know, or rather, you know, if I have my facts straight, which I may very well may not, I believe, you know, NBC wanted to put Jay Leno back in there.

Wait, wait, wait, are we going into the history of the late night wars? Oh, I know the entire history. Why are you trying to educate me on this? So what I'm saying is Conan O'Brien was essentially one of those guys. In fact, he was, you know, the prime time guy, him. He was Jimmy Fallon. Well, no. When he had the Tonight Show, he was the guy that was going to replace Jay Leno.

I forgot Jimmy Fallon has taken the Tonight Show. show. So yeah, he was where Jimmy Fallon is. So I think he still has that cachet, even though he's on TBS, that I consider that a big deal. Maybe, you know, maybe I'm alone in that, but I think Conan is still a relatively big deal. But it's not, you know, broadcast network television. It's cable TV. So that's what, you know, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to poo it. I'm just being an A-Hole here. It was fun seeing the two Irishmen together. In any case, with a win on Saturday, yes. For Connor McGregor, do you think he rivals Ronda Rousey as the biggest star in the U.C? if he's not already there.

You know, I got to be honest. I mean, $7 million gate, right? It's hard to really, look. Well, it depends on what you mean by biggest. Yes, exactly. That's what I was going to say. Because Ronda is opening doors that have never even been an option to be open before. I mean, she's on the Morning America show.

She's on the view. I mean, she's opening these doors. I mean, Kelly and Michael, incredible, right? Yeah. He's not going to open those doors. just not going to happen. But could he be a bigger, you know, moneymaker? That's a possibility. And that's an important thing to account for. He said it himself, he said it himself that he's only gone in the UFC right now that could sell at a stadium. Now, you know, he's going to

say a lot, but I actually believe that. I believe that he's the only fighter in the UFC right now that can actually saw a stadium. Any stadium in any part of the world. So if you put like, if you put active fighter. So George and those guys, they don't come into play. Rhonda's number one spot would have to be California. That's where she's from, and probably that's where she's the biggest draw, I would say. So let's say you put Rhonda in the L.A. Coliseum.

Can she sell it out? I don't think so. You put Connor at Croke Park in Ireland in his most optimum situation. He sells it out. You put John Jones in, I don't know, a giant stadium, Yankee Stadium. I don't think he sells it out, right?

I mean, depending on the opponent, I think they could sell out a stadium with John Jones. You think they can? I think, you know, D.C. versus John Jones in a stadium. Okay, D.C. Jones 2 at the Carrier Dome and Syracuse, maybe. I think they could sell out a stadium. But I think the point is still valid that Connor McGregor makes and that most people will recognize is that he is box office.

Yeah. and depending on what you mean by biggest star, he may be already the biggest star. Has Connor had to do more work than should be expected of him during the buildup to 189, especially given the fact that there's another championship. Lawler and Rory are boring talkers, I realize. Cross-country flights for kit releases and media obligations

while having to deal with an opponent change seems like a lot to ask of anyone. I know he says he likes the work, but if he loses this fight, he loses a lot of future earnings. So essentially this person is saying, does he have too much media responsibility on otherwise? You know, the Reebok thing,

and all that. And by the way, I love his final comment. Thanks and Baba Booie to all, or to y'all, I should say. I was surprised that he made the trip, but look, he said it perfectly when we spoke to him, you know, this is what I have to do. This is what separates me from everyone else. I guess it remains to be seen whether or not it's too much, but he had to go from, he had to go from Vegas to Bristol on Monday to New York on Tuesday to L.A. to do the Conan show, then back to Vegas. That is a lot, right? Is he the biggest star? I mean, this is the indication. This is the guy who, this is the guy who they're sending around to do that. So I think it's a lot to ask of him, but it seems like he's

a guy who understands the game and is up for the challenge. And he says that once he's there, he loves it and he thrives and all that stuff. And, you know, I was talking to someone about Rory and Robbie, and Robbie was up for it to go to that thing in New York. Connor was coming cross-country. Rory wasn't all that into it, but, like, what are you going to say at that point? You're the one who has to make the shortest trip from Montreal. So kind of put the pressure on Rory to actually come to New York and do the whole thing.

But, hey, you know, we'll see. So far, he's handled everything beautifully. He's really stepped up to the plane. He's turned into a megastar. $7 million gate is incredible. It's the second biggest gate in UFC history. And in my part, in my opinion, it's largely in part to him. I mean, he's the reason why this is actually happening.

If Connor does win the interim belt on Saturday, do you guys think he can still fight in Dublin in October? Like he said, he wants to. If he loses, I know the chances would be higher, but no one wants that. Well, almost no one. Also, great show last week, right at the heart of everything. it. I just don't see that happening because the Dublin show is a fight pass event. If he loses,

like this man said, Castor Lee Rocks, I think that it could definitely happen, but honestly, even if he loses, I have a hard time seeing it happen. Now, he says he really wants it. He's a persuasive guy. He might make it happen. But Conno McGregor at this stage of his career fighting on a fight pass show, it seems like he's surpassed that, right? I mean, he's one of the very, I mean, him, Ronda. We just had a championship fight on fight pass. Yeah, but it's different. He's not.

I'm not saying it's exactly the same. I'm not saying they're at that level. But I am saying that, you know, if there's a way to kind of draw more eyeballs to fight pass and continue to push that, Connor McGregor fighting there after a loss, I mean, rightfully, he'd have to headline a pay-per-view as the champion. But after a loss, you know, I think it's unlikely at this point, but I don't know if it's completely out of the question. I would be surprised. I think he's a part of it. He does media, all that stuff, guest fighter. But unless they change it and they make it into an FS1 event or something like that, I don't know. Look, it would be incredible business. So many people would sign up to FightPass who probably aren't signed up.

But if he's the champion, you could rule it out. If he loses, I think you have a better chance. Okay. Robbie Lawler has grown leaps and bounds since coming over from Strike Force and winning the UFC title. but many people don't think he won the second Hendricks fight and the first fight where Rory is very close. Do you think he needs to beat McDonald in convincing fashion to truly be validated as U.S. Walthorway champion? I don't think so. I mean, it was a close fight against...

A lot of people believe that you have to defend it once to really be a champion. I don't believe that. You win the belt, you win the belt. If you could beat Roy McDonald again, I mean, that's pretty damn impressive. But I don't think he has... I mean, the fact that he's even in this position,

this is a guy who lost to Lorenz Larkin at 185 in Strikeforce was completely uninterested as far as his career went. I mean, remember that Fador press conference with Dan Henderson in Chicago? He was sleeping. He had checked out. He was, I remember when he came into the UFC and was scheduled to fight Josh Kosteck, I thought there was a horrible matchup that they wanted to get rid of him. He had a big contract.

He was going down to 170, which sometimes at this stage of one's career is kind of like that Hail Mary effort to remain relevant. And he's fighting as champion on the biggest show of the year, thus far, and probably of the year, period. I mean, it's amazing that he's even in this spot, and it's amazing how good he has looked. And his only loss in the UFC since coming back was a razor-thin decision to Johnny Hendricks, which, by the way, he was in the fight. I mean, he really lost it in the final minute. Comes back after winning twice to defeat Johnny Hendricks in December,

and now he defends the title against Warren McDonald's, who we already beat at UFC 167. And if he could beat again, I mean, wow, what can you say? So I don't really think he has anything left to prove as far as, you know, is the championship worthy. This is all gravy at this point. I didn't see this coming. I didn't see this coming.

I thought, I mean, I thought this was kind of the end for him. He was going to have a few fights in the UFC and that was it. Who saw this coming? Who's the one that predicted this? Nobody. But I also think that with guys like Robbie, who are essentially, you know, fan favorites, those close fights tend to kind of, you know, disappear. We remember them a little differently.

Like which one? Like I'm saying, you know, the fight with Rory, close fight. The fight with Johnny, close fight. If that was somebody who, you know, rub people the wrong way or, you know, people weren't rallying behind, that may be a sticking point. That may be something that people bring up. Well, you know, he barely scraped by with this person. But with somebody with, like, Robbie, who everybody seems to love, that doesn't, that doesn't, that doesn't stick out so much and we kind of just want to move on to the next fight.

No, I get it. But before coming to the UFC, like I said, he lost to Lorenz Larkin. He had lost three of four. His only win was that crazy flying knee against Adlaan Amagov, lost to Jacer, lost to Tim Kennedy. And then in the UFC, I mean, finished Josh Koshak, TKO, finished Bobby Volker. That was also a KIO, a great KIO, beats Roaring McDonald. And I think he deserved to win that one.

The Hendricks' loss was close, as we mentioned. beat Ellenberger convincingly, beat Brown via decision, but no one thought that that was a bad call, and then comes back and beats Johnny Hendricks, split decision, but, you know, I don't really think in hindsight

a lot of people had too big of a problem. So, I mean, it's not like he's been, you know, squeaking out these wins left and right. It's been pretty damn impressive and dominant. So it's one of the great comeback stories in an MMA history, period. Okay, speaking about some of those guys,

real quick. Yes. Matchups for the following people after USC 189. Woodley, Hendrix, and Condit. You weigh in on this for a second. I mean, I'd love to see, you know, it seems that Hendrix is next in line,

and it seems like that's, you know, what's been said already. So I would have no problem seeing, you know, Hendricks versus the winner. And then I'm down with a Woodley Condit rematch, although I know that, you know, some people don't really want to see that. I'm down for that.

Check your chat. Check my chat. I'm going to weigh in on this. I want to see Woodley versus Hendricks. I wish it was happening around the same time. I wish that it would all coincide because as we've talked about on the show, timing is everything.

But I think rankings-wise, it makes sense. Look, I feel bad for Hendricks that he was promised the shot, and I wouldn't be against it if they give him the shot. I feel bad that he took a fight against Matt Brown, kind of helped save that card to a degree, and now he might have to fight again. but I really want to see Woodley versus Hendricks. I really want to see Woodley versus Hendricks.

I really think that would be a really fun number one contender fight, a great matchup as well. Did you get the message I sent you? Eric? Oh, wait. No, but I can hear you guys. So take me off. There you go.

I'm trying to get someone on the show last minute. It looked like it was happening. Now it looks like it's not going to happen. It's all very weird. You know, and you can see those little dots on the iPhone when someone's writing, sometimes that could be a very tense situation. What are they going to say? Are they going to say what you want them to say?

Are they not? Sorry, I know you guys love when I have the dead air. Anyway, I'd like to see it. I can understand if at this point it wouldn't make a lot of sense because, you know, they want to have a contender in line. And if you have Woodley Fight Hendricks later on, let's say September. October. Now the winner of this fight is going to have to wait for quite some time. I mean, it's just, I don't know. It kind of holds things up a little bit. Sorry, this is all,

this is all happening. It's all very fluid. It's happening in front of our eyes. It's a, it's a developing situation, as they say, on the news. Oh, I think we got it. Just waiting from the yes, Eric tells me right now we are being joined live to this. discuss this breaking news. Gilbert Melendez testing positive, suspended for a year against the man who he was supposed to fight in San Diego, in nine days. Raging ally Quinta joins us right now. Al, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And you got it. So when did you find... Where's that gift? Where's that gift of me going like this and slamming my head on the desk? What...

What, man? This is... When did you find out? When did you find out? I just Mark Romandi messaged me on Twitter Yeah He asked me if I had a A statement

A quote I said about what And he said about Gilbert Melinda And then he was like Oh maybe Oh I'm sorry I had to find out like this

But he He failed his drug test And he testosterone He's out He didn't say he was out He said he failed his drug test Testosterone And I was like shit

Fuck everything but he's still fighting though right and then he said no and oh man just uh yeah it's not good man i was i was bummed because i was really really i was so uh excited for this fight it was a it was a good fight for me man have you talked to the ufc yeah i spoke with my manager and he he spoke with the ufc uh yeah it doesn't look like there's going to be a fight man oh man That is disappointing. So you're off the card?

Yeah, well, the thing was, they were going to, you know, they were going to, Joe Silver said he didn't know who he was going to get. It was probably not going to be a rank guy. And, you know, at this point, for the last, like, couple of fights, I've been dealing with an injury. And I said to myself, I said, after this fight, I'm going to get it fixed. And I'm going to get it taken care of. And then this happened today. And I was like, you know, I've been the last couple, you know, I've been really struggling through training. and I said, I'm going to just, I'm going to get it fixed.

This is like a sign that I just got to get it looked at and get it fixed and, you know, fight it. Fight a full strength from now on. What's the problem? I had a knee surgery, a couple, it was actually right after the ultimate fighter. And it never really, never really healed right. And it's just been getting worse and worse. Every fight I've just been putting it off, putting it off. and now it's kind of, it's affecting my left, so I'm compensating for it.

But I mean, just, I mean, getting through it. And, you know, it's, you know, for a fight like Gilbert Melendez, I was pushing through it. But to go into another fight, not at 100%. I think I'm just going to get it looked at and get set up with a good doctor and get it, get it fixed. It's like a sign, I think. What kind of is? It happens every time around this time, like two weeks before the fight. fight, I'm like, oh, man, you know, I should have just done this last fight. I should have just

take it. And I just, I get, I get to the point where, uh, you know, I fight and then it feels fine because I'm not training like a week after the fight. It feels fine. And I'm hanging out, drinking a little bit. And then, uh, you know, it's, uh, you know, two weeks before the fight, it starts really bothering me. And, uh, you know, I'm at this point right now. So I think it's a good time to just get it fixed and uh you know i'll get a good i'll get a you know uh an opponent that uh i deserve and i'll be back and looking good as ever are we talking aces is this going to be a long layout for you no you know i don't know they said a couple of doctors have said that it's like cartilage behind my kneecap okay um there's not really like a term for it it's just cartilage behind my

Patela. So I had a micro fracture surgery the first time, and there's still some, some corledge behind there that's not, I guess it's, like, irritated. I don't know how to describe it, but it's pretty painful when I try to do squats and stuff. My left leg is a lot bigger than my right leg, and I'm a righty, so that's not, yeah, that's not really good thing. So I'm going to have to get it looked at.

I've been to a bunch of doctors and everyone says, you know, they want to do what's called an oats procedure. And that I might not be, you know, they don't know how it would turn out after the fight. I mean, after the surgery, if I would be able to still fight or not. So I don't know. And now they got the stem cell stuff that can regenerate cartilage. So I'm hoping that, you know, there's something that they can do to fix me up, man. Because I got to get back in there feeling good. I'm in kind of like depressed the last, uh, oh, yeah, whatever.

Wait, so there's a lot there. So you're saying they're not sure if you can fight or not meaning period for your career. Like this might affect your career? Uh, pretty much is what they've been telling me. What? You know, you should kind of, they've been telling me to stick it out, stick it out, because, you know, you don't know how if you'll be able to, uh, what will have to be done if they do the surgery, how you'll feel after, if you'll have a full range of motion to, I don't

know. It's kind of, uh, I've been battling with this for a while. So I think now's the time that I got to get this, get this thing fixed up. And I got to see a really good, you know, I've been seeing good doctors, but they got to be able to do something. I don't know. And when you, when you say you've been a little depressed, I mean, were you sort of doubting yourself going into this fight? No, not at all. I was definitely not doubting myself. I was, uh, it's been something that I've been dealing with. I was ready to go. It was a perfect fight for me stylistically. I brought in guys that really had a good, good style, and I've been doing great with the sparring. So it's just, I don't know, I'm just frustrated right now, man.

I'm real frustrated. How are you digesting this news? You went from Bobby Green, you had this sort of beef with him, to getting a huge name in Gilbert Melendez. And this is a guy who he never suspected him. He's never been in that kind of talk of PDs and all that. And then this happens nine days. How are you taking this all in?

I don't know, man I don't know It's just It's tough It was a good It was just Everything was lining up perfect You know

And then And then Mark Romandi had to send me a goddamn message What a troublemaker I don't know He is right I think if he would have never messaged me The fight would still be on So I'm mad at him

Wow It is a bar I was looking forward I don't know what to make up there Because he is, like you said, he's the last guy you would expect it. I mean, I don't know. Are you happy? Okay, how about this?

Are you happy it came out? So let's say, you know, you never know what a guy is using going into the fight, or would you rather fought him? It's a big name, big opportunity. How do you weigh those two scenarios? I would 100% would rather fought him. I would rather fought him in a week without a doubt, man. I was, I was, I put so much into the last, you know, six, the last six weeks have just been a grind, battling through, you know, injuries, pushing through, you know, I've had great workouts.

Ray Longo spent freaking fourth, that we were in the, what was Fourth of July? What was that? Two days ago. Saturday, yeah. Saturday. It was the fifth. Saturday. We were in the gym.

I sparred in the morning. And then Ray came back at, we had like eight o'clock at night and put me through a circuit. So, you know, that's the, that's the kind of dedication we had going into this fight. That's the kind of respect we had for a guy like Gilbert Melendez. That's how talented he was. We knew what I had to, I had to be, you know, I had to be 100% going into this fight. And, you know, it's just, it's unfortunate, man. I wish, I wish things were different right now.

So how are we going to blow off steam here? How are you going to forget about this? What are you going to do? Man, I just got off the phone with my mom, and she said, don't do anything stupid. So I'm not going to do anything stupid A little Long Beach maybe Some beach some some sun What are we going to do?

Yeah, a little Long Beach You know, I'm going to make up Maybe I'll make up for the 4th of July But right now I'm not even in the mood To like go out and have a good time I'm just kind of I don't know It's a weird mood I'm in right now I kind of want to

I don't know what I want to do I want to break something No please don't Slant my head on the desk again I don't know Just uh yeah I'm just disappointed I'm just, I can't describe it, man. It's weird.

Maybe you'll go out to Vegas to watch the fights, or you don't really feel like being around them? Yeah, I just kind of want to chill, man. Yeah, I don't know. I hear you. We'll see. We'll see how everything works out. Hopefully, hopefully I'll be back in there soon enough.

I'll be, you know, I'm in shape right now. Hopefully they can fix his knee up and I don't know. Two last quick things. It's 100% you're not fighting July 15th now? Yeah, it's a done deal. Okay. And when do you think you'll find out about the surgery, like when you could actually have it? I don't know if I'm going to have surgery or I don't know what they're going to do.

When are you going to decide the plan of action? I'm going to, my manager is searching for the best knee doctor in the entire world right now, and I'll be seeing him as soon as I can. All right. That's the plan. I can't thank you enough. It is great that you were able to come on. I really appreciate it.

for this is this is crummy news my friend I was really looking forward to it wow what a great fight I feel for you I'm sorry I guess it's like that you know you get you know you should have seen me when I got the cold that I was that Melendez was in man I was so happy

and now I'm just I don't know it is what it is what a sad note to end your show I know Jesus like eight eight minutes before one of the biggest fights of the year with McGreg and all that and we're all bummed out here for you we're all depressed.

I'm bummed. It's all right. Damn injuries. Oh, it's not even an injury. Well, I'm thinking about you now. I'm thinking that we're not going to see you for a long time. PDs is a problem. Hopefully, I mean, look, give him credit.

Did you read his statement, by the way? No. You know, he took the blame. He didn't make any excuses or anything like that. So you give the guy credit, but unfortunate, very unfortunate. He's a good, you know, he's not going to. I had nothing more respect for him going into this fight. If he's manning up and he's going to take it on the chin that way,

I have nothing for him but respect for him. You know, it's just, I don't know. You're going to cheat. You're going to get caught, I guess. I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to break this thing, Ariel. Have a good show, guys.

Thank you. All right. Leave them with some good news. This is fucking bullshit. I don't know. Okay. Thanks, Al. Peace.

Be safe. Peace. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Al. There he is. ally Quinto. Wow. Such unfortunate news. Okay, we are running out of time. There's only one ally Quinto,

right? He is amazing. He's incredible. Okay, let's hit two questions real quick, and then we'll do a bit of a thank you at the end. Yes, go ahead. Okay. Cyborg quietly lurking. What's next? If Cyborg claims another destructive victory on the 9th, do you think the calls and debate about her coming, dropping weight, and fighting

Roussey late in this year will possibly once again intensify. How much do you think the current interest in Ronda Rousey versus Batch-Koheia is likely to distract from this at the halfway point of the MMA year? Are you more or less positive than you were in January that we may see the Titanic much-desired clash between Ronda and Cyborg Capital? She's a Zoufa fighter. It will happen. I suspect she wins on Thursday. The talk ramps up. She has one fight at 1-35 for Invicta, and then we see the money fight. And Michelle Watterson's debut, one of the least talked about things coming up this week is the Karate Heidi's debut. Where do you see her in the division already?

And do you think she can be a force in the division considering she's moving up a weight class? You know, I was talking to some of her coaches about this, and they feel like this is actually a better weight class for her, that it was getting to be a little tough to cut the weight, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, what are they going to say? But they feel very confident. I think this is a very favorable matchup, talented fighter. She's putting it all together. Of course, coming off a loss, a great addition, marketable. I think this is a nice debut.

I mean, you know how I feel about Angela Magania. As a person, fighter, tough, all that stuff. But I think this is a winnable fight for her, and I think that she should win. And it's a great addition. It was a no-brainer, in my opinion. Okay, that's it for questions in this short time frame. But we do have a surprise for you. Oh.

While we were on air, we got another. delivery to the studio. Another. Well, I didn't even talk about the first delivery. So why don't you do that first, and then we'll get into it. I want to thank my good friend Bill Steinmetz, who we talked about just a couple weeks ago. We gave him the GSP gloves, and he counters with this amazing happy birthday balloon, Alistar Overimask, and not only that, he hooked me up with edible arrangements again. Now, last year when he hooked us up with the edible arrangements, was that on my birthday?

It was. Amazing. I love those things. I'm going to bring it to my kids. they're going to freak out. So Bill, I salute you, my friend. Las Vegas' own. I hope I get to see you. I never actually met Bill in person. So I hope I see you this weekend. I really appreciate it. Very kind of you, very thoughtful. Such a nice guy, such a great fan and supporter of the show. Really amazing. So thank you so much for that. It is my birthday on Wednesday. I will be celebrating it on a plane to Las Vegas. UFC 189, five week, blah, blah, blah. Could they have delayed things a day so I can spend it at home? I mean, really? Where's the, you know, where's the compassion? for me. But yes, I am very happy. The Big 3-3. My whole life, by the way, I've been dreaming of being 33 because of Patrick Ewing. Finally, here I am 33 years old, two days away. It's very big. That's quite an interesting one. Yes. What else we got? Oh, and Mr. New York, Rick got me these

glasses, these Expo glasses. Look at this. Vintage Montreal Expo's. Is this, this, this is not a shock glass, right? This is more just a cup. Drinking glass. Yeah, drinking glass. How about that? Look at this. Can we see it? There it is. Montreal Expos. Courtesy of New York, Rick. Who knew he was so thoughtful? And? Yes, what else? While we were on air? You can't see that. What does it say? I can't see the shot. Let me see. I could see it with the screen. Read it to me. This says something sweet from baked by Melissa. Oh. Now I'll read you the inscription. Who sent it? Ariel. I hope you have a great birthday week. Thanks for everything. Love Ash. Oh. So of course.

We only have two thoughtful fans. Let's be honest. Ash is the best. I wouldn't say that. The other person. Let's not hate on the fans. But I would say the two most thoughtful. Absolutely.

But amazing. The other... The other individual who got our GSP gloves, right? Yeah. The two GSP glove winners. Now, are you going to send it to them? Because I have to call you out. I did see them in the studio today.

Are you actually going to send these damn gloves out? They are going to get them. Don't you worry. Wow. Alex is getting the addresses today. and they will be sent. Ash is an angel of a woman, and I appreciate that greatly.

Thank you so much. I mean, I feel like the richest man in the world. Here I am doing a show about fighting for one of the biggest fights of the year, biggest fights in UFC history, biggest events, biggest weekends, and people are thinking about my birthday. Edible arrangements.

Baked by Melissa is the best. Have you ever had that? I have. You guys... It's good stuff. Do not touch any of those. They're all going to me. I appreciate it, Ash.

Thank you so much. Well, there's a reason I only showed you the box. I mean, we were in here for... my mom texting me. I mean, it's just, it's a very celebratory. See, this is what Al was talking about. We had to end on a good note. There it is.

Thank you to them. No more questions? No, no, no. Okay, but wait, wait. Let's bring it back. Let's go with the odds. Hit me. One second.

Of course, my internet not working. Have you looked at them? I have not. I mean, I've looked at them like the, the McGregor and Mendez odds because I'm paying close attention to those. Well, everyone's been looking at that, right? No Invicta odds, eh? I mean, typically they're not out

until closer to the event for events like Invicta and Bellator and things like that. Okay, let's go with 189. Sedanio versus Fister. Sedanio. Right. Minus 186 plus 177.

Siri versus Smolka. Hmm. I'm going to go Siri. Wrong. Plus 100, minus 110. That's a very close one. That's a tough one.

Brionas versus Garbrandt. Garbrand. Minus 578 plus 495. How about that? This one, flying into the radar, we spoke to him a few weeks back. Swick versus Garcia. Garcia.

Garcia, minus 386. SWIC plus 345, Howard versus Pendred. Wow. That's a tough one. Yeah. Because I feel like Howard... You're like Mr. John Howard. Didn't you say that he had like the lock of the year or something?

No, the thing about John Howard is he's very underrated because people think he's, I say this a million times. Shout out to MJ Flip the script, who also talks about this a lot. He's considered, you know, this big striker with huge power, but he's really kind of more of a wrestler. I mean, I believe Pender was a dog in his last fight. I guess I'm going to go Howard, but it could be either way on this. I don't know, heads or tails. You're not going to make a pick? No, I'm saying Howard's the favorite.

Oh, okay, okay, sorry, sorry. Well, Howard is plus 105, and Penderud is minus 105. Isn't that kind of like a pickum? Yeah, that and also Smoka and Siri are both essentially pickums. All right. This is a fun one. Tim Means versus Matt Brow. Brown.

I mean, Matt Brown, I think, is going to be the favorite, but that's one hell of a fight. Minus 180 plus 164 for Matt Brown. Yeah. Brad Pickett versus Thomas Almeida. I think Almeida, but I think if Pickett's a big dog, that that's one worth paying attention to. Huge dog. Almeida, minus 800, Pickett plus 674. I don't know about that.

I don't know about that yet. I think Almeida is legit, you know, he's proven that he's, the, real deal, but I don't know about that yet. By the way, I think I read on Reid Kuhn's Twitter feed, Fightnomics, that this is a matchup of the youngest guy on the card, like 23 Almeda and pickets in his mid-30s. There you go.

Oldest guy on the card. My voice just cracked. All right. Gunner Nelson, Brandon Thatch. Gunner. But it will tell me the odds first. Well, wait. Who are you picking?

I'm saying Gunner. Wrong. Thatch is the favorite. Minus 175 for Brandon Thatch. I don't know about that. Plus 165 for Gooner. Guni. I think we saw, I mean, I think we saw that...

I'm surprised. Thatch has a bit of a... Has a bit of a, you know, a ways to go in his grappling game. It looked like Benson, you know, took him down when he needed to. Now, granted, that was his first fight back in quite a long time. It was at altitude. Not, you know, for him, that's not as big a deal because he trains at altitude, but it was at altitude. I'm surprised by that.

surprised by that one. But I could also see Gunner getting a little too happy on the feed and Thatch. Big one for both of them. All right. Jeremy Stevens, Dennis Bermudez. I'm going to go Bermudez. But I like that fight. Wow, this card is quite good.

Minus 1.95. Jeremy Stevens plus 185. Robbie Lawler, Rory Mack. Robbie Lawler is going to be the favorite. But I like Rory in this fight. Wrong. plus 169 for Robbie, minus 175 for Rory. So if we would have had McGregor versus Aldo,

both champions would have been the underdog. How crazy is that? Well, I think what that says is, you know, people don't believe that first fight for Rory and Robbie, and people weren't buying, or people were buying Connor McGregor. And then obviously I know that Connor is the favorite now in the fight.

with Chad Mendes. Yeah. Currently it's at plus 148 for Mendes Connor minus 155. Ellenberger Thompson. Wait, huh? That's on this card?

No, the next day. That's an interesting one. I guess Ellenberger, but I really don't know. I mean, both guys, you know, haven't looked fantastic lately or had time off. So I'm going to say Ellenberger,

but I really don't know. Plus 186 for Ellenberger. Minus 201 for Thompson. Wow, that's kind of surprising, too. That surprises me a little bit. Ferreira versus Mazvedal. Mazvedal. Minus 247 to plus 226.

Correct. Waterson, Magan. Waterson. Minus 560 for Waterson, plus 472 for Magana. Jared Sanders versus Russell Dohn. Done. Minus 270 for Dome, plus 325 for Sanders. Sanders, Darrell Montague versus Willie Gates.

Huh. Let's go Montague. Minus 116 for Montague. Gates plus 108. Blanco Delatori. This is Maximo Blanco? Correct. I don't even know Deletori.

So I guess Blanco. I mean, Blanco is usually... Minus 144 plus 133. Magaliesh versus Josh Saman. and this is cow my godiash yeah let's uh i think uh josh saman plus 128 for josh minus 142 for the brazilian and finally dan miller versus Trevor smith the return of dan miller

this is an interesting one um i think style-wise we'll see dan miller probably be a f uh i'll say miller but also also another one i'm not really sure of yeah miller minus 127 plus 113. I think the grappling advantage is going to be the difference. He's been out.

He's been out. I mean, yeah. All right. That does it. Two good days of fights. Yeah. And Thursday we got Invicta. That's right.

Three title fights. It is going to be madness in Las Vegas, my friends. I get there Wednesday. Tons of media availability, media obligations, tons of stuff going on. This is one of the busier weeks in UFC history. Three events total. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to be there.

I look forward to it greatly. I think that's it. Connor McGregor show. It all comes to fruition. It's not the fight we wanted. It's not the fight that was promoted incredibly well. It's not Connor versus the only UFC featherweight champion ever. But it's a pretty good consolation prize.

It's Connor McGregor finally answering that question. Can he beat an elite wrestler? and it's a guy he picked a fight with and after talking so much over the years especially in the last two years there was no way he was going to be able to back down from this one. So here we go. Connor McGregor, Chad Mendez.

You can hit my music. It's going to be a fun ride to get to Saturday. Hopefully no more drama. And then, hey, if Connor McGregor wins, if we're talking about a Connor McGregor victory next Tuesday on this show, remember, no Monday show. We're back Tuesday because of the Ultimate Fighter finale on Sunday. Wow, the Aldo fight will be even bigger.

That's the silver lining. Mendez wins. You get a third crack. It's not the same fight. It's not as big. It's interesting, but it's not the historic fight that we have been waiting for for quite some time. Unfortunate, but here we go. A great plan B.

Looking forward to getting out there. So today's show was a fun one, a loaded one. Wow. So much happened. I want to thank Peter Carroll for stopping by. Great stuff from him. Check him out. Severe M.MA.

Irish Mirror Fightland. Thank you very much to Jorge Mazvedal. Great stuff from him. Good luck on Sunday. Thank you very much to Dan Lambert. Good luck to him this weekend as well, Saturday and Sunday. Chale P. Welcome back.

Great to talk to him again. Thank you for the time. Thank you very much to Cody Garbrandt. Appreciate his time. Good luck to him and Team Alpha Mail on Saturday in Las Vegas. Thank you very much. to Patty Houlehand. Good luck to him.

And Team SBG on Saturday, of course, Patty Houlehan returning the following week. And of course, thank you very much to Ally Quinta, depressing news. But hopefully everything goes okay with his knee and he gets back in there sooner rather than later. UFC 189, my friends, this Saturday. We'll be back on Tuesday to recap it all.

Can't wait for that. Thank you so much for the time. I love you all. I'll see you next week. Until that I say, I'm out of you. Sacks 5th Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or the right outfit.

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