MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 290

Episode Date: July 14, 2015

Ariel Helwani speaks to John Kavanagh, Urijah Faber, Michael Bisping, Ben Rothwell, Firas Zahabi, Todd Duffee, Jon Anik, and Seán Sheehan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And 15. Well again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani inside our New York City studio. Wow. That's all I can say. Wow. What did we experience this past weekend in Las Vegas? Something that we will never forget.

Perhaps one of the greatest weekends in UFC history. perhaps one of the greatest main cards in UFC history. Who cares? Why does everything have to be the greatest? It was magical. It was unbelievable. It was memorable. Something that we'll be talking about for many years to come.

As I said to Dana White in my post-fight interview, I have a feeling that when his journey as UFC president is all said and done, 30, 40, 50, 60 years from now, he's going to be sitting on an island somewhere, drinking a pinocalada. Virgin, not virgin, who knows. Reminiscing about July 11, 2015, UFC 189, one of the greatest nights in our sports history. Everything came together.

You could not have scripted it better. And from the rolling out of the new packages, the graphics, the bells and whistles, the walkouts, it felt like an event. It felt like a big deal. It felt special, and it delivered. It was a tale of two cards, but the most important part delivered.

I got to Las Vegas on Wednesday. And remember, it was my birthday. Remember on this show last week when I said that I've always wanted to be 33 because that was Patrick Ewing's number? My favorite athlete of all time, New York Knicks superstar, greatest center of all time, et cetera, et cetera. Well, there I am at JFK Airport, my 33rd birthday in the morning, and the entire Nick Summer League team is boarding the plane as well.

My main man, my favorite athlete right now, Chris Stapp's Porzingis, is sitting in back of me. Now, why is this important? Because that's crazy. My whole life I wanted to be 33 because of Patrick Green started the Knicks. And there I was on my 33rd birthday, on the same flight as the Knicks going to Las Vegas. That set the tone for the entire weekend. Later on that day, we filmed a live UFC tonight at MGM with all the fans. There was an amazing buzz in the air.

There was so much passion in the air. That's the beauty of these Irish fans. They have this joie de vivre. They're so endearing. They're so happy to be there. And they can party. 10 a.m., 9 a.m., 8 a.m. These guys are drinking.

They're having the time of their lives. They've been dreaming about this moment. And they certainly made the event feel that much more special. Thursday, we had the press conference. And it had been a while since the UFC brought out the press conference. This was the right event to do so. And they did a really smart thing. Chad and Connor were great.

but they didn't have them face off, and I love that, because that made the way in that much more anticipated, that much more interesting, that much more exciting. Everyone wanted to know what would happen when they would finally face off. It was very smart, a stroke of genius. It was Saturday night's main event-esque, if you know what I'm saying. Don't make them touch each other. Don't make them even look at each other. save it for Friday. And then Friday, we had this amazing scene at the MGM where around 10,000 people, a lot of them Irish, attended an event where the main draw was just seeing individuals

take off their clothes and step on a scale in their underwear. That was it. Nothing else was happening. Yet you had this incredible scene play out, chanting, singing, dancing. They filled up the entire MGM,

essentially. The stage was all the way to the back. You know, usually it's kind of midway or even a quarter way.

This time, the entire floor was available for people to sit. And it delivered. And then some was an unbelievable scene. Very emotional.

A lot of energy. That really set the tone. And then, of course, Saturday comes along. Prelims were forgettable, to say the least, and then once Matt Brown defeated Tim Means, everything changed. Thomas Almeda knocked out Brad Pickett. Gunner Nelson submitted Brandon Thatch. Jeremy Stevens knocked out Dennis Bermudas. Robbie Lawler and Warren McDonald engaged in one of the greatest

welterweight title fights of all time, one of the greatest title fights of all time, period. that moment after the fourth round where they stared at each other. It gives me goosebumps right now talking about it. Unfortunately for Rory, who was winning on the judge's scorecards, got knocked out in the fifth, nose shattered, foot shattered. Robbie Lawler took things into an extra gear. The man is out of his mind, but he's unbelievable. Capping off, in my opinion, one of the great comeback stories in UFC history,

he defended the title successfully and with a busted lip that was, It was like a whole, it was like a new mouth. It was that big, the cut. I interviewed him the next day. His entire face was swollen. At least one side of the face, but it was an ugly side. And then you see Roy McDonald's face. The guy could hardly open his eyes.

And he said it was the greatest time of his life. That's how much he enjoyed it. He will be back, but my heart ached for him. And then it all set up the main event. You had Chenate O'Connor, sing Foggy Do, live. You had Aaron Lewis, sing country boy for Chad Mendez. When Connor turned around and looked at Chenade,

gave her the old, we're going to do this, we're going to do this for Ireland. That sent goosebumps down my spine. They finally face off. Connor looks at Chad and says, let's see who's going to back up first. Let's see. Connor runs right at him.

Spinning back kick. Gets taken down right away. Gets bloodied. Beaten up. Loses the first. round, was on his way to losing the second round. And then Chad Mendez goes for a submission. Passes guard, goes for a submission, loses top control moments later with just seconds remaining in the second round. Conne McGregor, who had been calling this since day one, who had been calling

this since before he was signed by the UFC. There's actual film of this. Raises his gold, walks away from Chad Mendez, looks at him, and then goes and joins his team. And then afterwards, as has often been the case. Cona McGregor, very humble in victory, but this time, very emotional in victory. Didn't want to talk about Joseo, didn't want to rub it in, could hardly speak. It was a very emotional night in Las Vegas. It was one of those nights that we will never forget. One of those nights where you are very thankful that you get to cover this great sport and be a fan of this sport. And for everyone who doesn't understand why we love this sport, F them. This was ours. We got to enjoy it was a beautiful moment. Sunday was not bad too, but it was all about $199 for me. So today on this show,

of course, we're going to talk about that a lot. The journey of one Connor McGregor to get to this point, where do we go from here, and just what made Saturday in Las Vegas the ultimate UFC experience. Emotional. That's really what comes. I was spent after all that. So today on the program, we are going to talk a lot about 189. There's a busy UFC week coming up, but we have to make sense of all of this. 335, I want to hear from you. We'll take your calls as well. So that's your time to shine.

And of course, leave us a question or comment in the comment section below. 325, we'll go inside the vault. 305, we're going to talk to your eye, Faber, who is very much a part of the weekend from, you know, being a friend and training partner of one Chad Mendes, but also a bit of a confrontation on Friday with Connor. And then they announce on Sunday he's coaching the Ultimate Fighter season 22 opposite at Connor McGregor.

And that starts this week in Las Vegas. How about that? 245 will talk to Michael Bisping. He headlines the UFC's first show in Scotland this Saturday. 225 will talk to Farah's a hobby about Roy McDonald's loss and where he goes from here. Ben Rothwell was all over the scene all week long in Las Vegas. And I forgot to mention Invicta, Chris Cyborg annihilating once again. I'll get to that.

That was a bit of a weird one for me, but it was a pretty successful night for Invicta. Anyway, Ben Rotho was there. He was all over the place. We'll talk to him at 205 about his week in Vegas. 145. We're going to talk to John Anick, who will be calling the action in San Diego tomorrow. We were going to have Nate the Great Kelly. Fortunately, he's flying, so we'll get him on in the future. And at 125, we're going to talk to John Kavanaugh, the head coach for one your eye of favor about this amazing night in Las Vegas just a couple of days ago. Now, before we get to our first guest of the day, and I'm very excited about that, I do have to remind you that today's episode of the MMA hour is being brought you by the National Academy of Sports Medicine. NASM is looking for people who want an exciting career in the fitness industry where you wake up

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MyUSATrainer.com restrictions apply. See myUSA trainer.com for details. All right. So way back when Dana White attended Trinity College to speak to the students over there and fans, the Irish fans, there was a young man named Sean Sheehan who had been live tweeting this talk. And this is a significant talk because that's where Dana White learned. about Conne McGregor. And that's where I learned about Sean. And over the years, as you may recall, Sean has been a big part of this show, supporting it, supporting myself New York Rick, supporting all our

endeavors. But also, he was a part of those photo contests that we used to do. And he's just been, he's just been a part of the show for a long time. Now he's a great writer forseverem.m.com. He does a great podcast as well. And he's a guy who knows a hell of a lot about Irish MMA. So I thought it would only be fitting to start today's show with our good pal, Sean Sheehan, the pride of Limerick, joining us right now from Ireland to talk about that magical night in Las Vegas. Sean, welcome to the show, my friend. Thanks, it's like coming home. Thanks for having me. It was fitting, and I thought there was no other way that we could start today's show

than with you, my friend. So it's great to have you on the program. Tell me, when Conan Ben-Begger won on Saturday night. It was around 6 a.m. in Dublin, in Ireland, in Limerick, where you are. What were you doing? Who were you watching with? How did you experience it? I was watching with my brother and my father.

It was just unbelievable really. Like, there's something special about late-night fights, there's something kind of raw about. And I suppose I experienced it an awful lot, but this one was kind of different. It was special. like there's there's these were kind of there's a lot of run at the mill fights and you you kind of get used them a bit but but this was different this was big as you said

there with shenade o'connor there um like the aftgan being lit up and did like an irish man in the main event it was just unbelievable like when i started watching m m m ms and and like the ufc i didn't really come from you know like andrew and pt and the other guys in the irish m m ms they kind of came up with the guys i was kind of outside and i was kind of a ufc fan before before ever again. Like when I started watching DFC and the MMA for the first couple of years, like I had never even heard of any Irish MMA fighters. I didn't know about

SBG or any of the gyms running and like I suppose like a lot of maybe American viewers of people like that and the way it's just exploded so quickly. Like Connor McGregor came on the scene in Cage wires, he won the two belts and like it's just exploded so much, it's unbelievable

and like Saturday night was the culmination of all of that and it was like it was a culmination of not just for Irish people but for the UFC as well, obviously like with their start with the drug testing and the Reebok deal and ever end the international fight weekend all. It was just unbelievable. What's it like for you and your family and your friends and just the entire scene over there to see your country represented on the global stage? I mean, it's not often, let's be honest, in which Ireland is a player, you know, whether it's the Olympics or the World Cup. I know a lot of the fans were talking to me

about Italia 90, the last time that it felt like Ireland was really on the, the global stage and making an impact. I know you've had some boxing matches here or there. I know Rory McElroy is doing some things, but to see it, you know, the flag in the middle of the octagon as he's walking out, to see someone like Shnade O'Connor there, to see all the flags, to see the fans at the winds, is it kind of surreal? I know this has been happening for the last couple of years, but this magnitude and then for him to finally win, you know, with his accent and talking about Ireland, this is one of

you. What's that like for you? It really is surreal. I never expected it. Like when I, as I said, when I started watching this board, like nobody knew about MMA and for it to go to where it's got to where it's gotten today is just unbelievable. Like as you said, we have Padraget Carrington and drawing match and stuff like that. But like I suppose it was kind of similar when Katie Taylor won an Olympic gold medal last time. She was our only Olympic gold medal.

We had a few silver and stuff. But like one Olympic gold medal and like we didn't win any of the time before. I think we might have won one maybe like 16 or 20 years ago. That's it. It's rare we have winners in Ireland. And I suppose it's a funny thing. I suppose you're from Canada and the Americans maybe. No, there's too used of it maybe at this stage.

But like we had guys like Roy Keene, he's one of the best soccer players to ever play the game. He was kind of a winner. And like he was in the Irish soccer team when it was a good team. but like it wasn't expected to win if you know what I mean. They're like they qualified for the World Cup and they kind of they didn't have a winning mentality

and like he hated that and a lot of people in the country didn't like that and we had a guy called Keith Wood a rugby player a few years ago and he was the best player one of the best players in the world in his position and we were kind of

he was in a losing team and it's guys like that who kind of change the aura like Ireland have a very good rugby team now the soccer team is not as good as used to be but it started qualifying for things and stuff like that after Italian as well. And like Conor McGregor is he is a winner like we talk about his mentality and it's

it's absolutely fascinating. He has a winner's mentality and it's undeniable. Last Saturday night when he was on his back, a lot of guys could have given up like he wasn't in trouble per se but when you're a striker and when you're kind of a language precise striker who's he speaks so much about movement. When you're taken out to the ground your movement is quelled and you're taking out of your game totally. And for a lot of guys, you know, that could have stopped them or that could have cut him out in their tracks, but not for McGregor. Like, his mentality is just, it's on the flap of him. When he stood back up near the end of the second round, he just went straightly attacking in his belief. And that's something in Irish sports that we don't see that often,

and it's great to see. How did you, your brother, your father react when he won? as you know I'm unbiased now sure look here's the thing I appreciate you saying that and it was almost a test on my part now that you're joining the media core but you know I'll give you guys a pass

because especially someone like you I mean you grew up as a fan of the UFC and now you're making that transition but look we're human beings we're not robots we have feelings too and when it comes to you know pride of your country nationalism all that stuff and you're in the you know

the friendly confines of your home, you can be excused if at 6 a.m. you don't feel a little emotional and prideful for what just transpired. So I don't think you need to be ashamed if you felt that way. I think it's more special than like, like, a support.

Because this is a guy who, like, he was born a month after I was born in the same country and grew up in the same country as me and, like, went through the same thing. And, like, usually when I'm growing up, I kind of get to the age now with a sportsman, kind of my age,

before the Rob was kind of older and stuff, but he's, like, it's really special for someone like me and people of my age, like people just coming out of college and stuff, like, it's been tough economic times for Ireland, and to have someone like that coming true, it's really great. And, yeah, obviously, as you say, I try to remain as unbiased as you can, but, like, you can't help but smile to see someone like that, especially from your own country, getting to the top. What was the buzz like after? So, so Sunday morning people start to wake up.

I'm sure a lot of people didn't stay up like you. I know there are a lot, but, you know, the, the, general population and then, you know, moving into Monday as well. What are they saying on the news? Are they treating this like a big deal as well? Yeah, it really is. It's a big deal. I tweeted out the picture last night of all the newspapers.

He was on the front page of maybe like three or four national newspapers. I'm sure I didn't actually hear, but I'm sure he was on the news. He was definitely on the one of the news channels. He was all over like Andrew was on the radio yesterday. He was on today FM. There's only like maybe three big radio stations in Ireland. You were on off the ball there, I'll come up to it.

And I think Kevin I was on yesterday, and I'm going to be on 2 FM as well tonight. So like all the big stations are covering it. And so it's just the people itself. Like you see people going into shops and stuff and they're talking about him. They're like looking at the papers, looking at him. And I was talking to a friend of mine,

he works like a big office just outside of Dublin. He said everyone like there was like a zombie on Monday morning. I come over and tired after staying up to like 6am on Saturday night. Like the whole country really is talking about it because something like this doesn't happen very often. And he's different as well. Like, and did he won a world title not too long ago, maybe like two months ago? Right. And that was great.

Like people enjoyed it and everything. But Conner McGregor is different. He's just, he's such a character. He's such a boisterous. He like he's like Marmite. he kind of, he, uh, he won an opinion of him. Some people don't like him and other people do like him. But I think Saturday night really kind of changed a lot of people's opinions on him,

uh, especially the way he acted after the fight. Like he was so humble towards Chad Mendez. And I think Chadm Mendes actually got a lot of new fans as well the way he was so humble. But like you saw Carter McGregor where he's girlfriend afterwards and with his father and with his mother. And like he spoke about how his team was there from day on. Like a lot of guys get in there and like, I don't know, the tanker spot. I don't just do more sponsors anymore as well,

but they thank their sponsors and they thank their, like, whoever, and they don't mention it. I kind of like that way. Like, when Daniel Carmier won the belt, I didn't really like the way he did it. Like, he just called out John Jones. He's, like, he said that, but this was a lifetime.

Like, he was the kind of guy who he lost in the Olympics, and he lost his first title to try. And, like, I think that should be a special moment. I like the way Carter McGregor did. No knock on Daniel Carmier. he like it was smart to call out John Jones too but the way McGregor did it I really like that because it was special and he he said a couple of words about Josie Alda too but I think he kept it

very low-key kind of we heard him whisper on a couple of things as well which are different to Chad Mindez but I like that he he speaks all the time about his team and like Conrad's he like he speaks kind of with a kind of a whirlwind but the things he says kind of come true and and sometimes he's very accurate, you know, in the words he speaks, and especially the predictions he made as well. Yeah, I thought he handled the post-fight stuff marvelously.

I mean, he couldn't have handled it any better, and I think he gained new, even if you were on the fence about this guy, even if you think that he is still a Fugazi, if he has no takedown defense, if Chad Mendes were 100%. If he had a full training camp, you think he would have smoked him, he can't help but respect how he had. He said he doesn't even know what the word.

self-made means. He's all about his team and all that stuff. And I think that that was a great example of, once again, he may have changed. He may have a nice, you know, watch and nice clothes now and all that stuff, but he still seems very appreciative of everything and still somewhat wide-eyed about all of this. So I love that. Now, I know that he is doing the ultimate fighter now, and he might have some more time to spend at the Mech Mansion in Las Vegas. But do you have any idea what it will be like when he comes home. Like, is Ireland the kind of place where he'll get a parade? He'll get, like, how will they receive Connor McGregor as champion?

There'll surely be something. Like, obviously, I think he's probably staying in Vegas now, but when Ireland, when Irish teams come home, they get huge receptions. Like, even, like, losing teams from, like, soccer teams and stuff, they get big receptions. As I said, I talked about Andy Leader. He came home to Shannon Airport, which is near enough to Limerick, and there was thousands of people there to welcome.

him on I can only imagine what it'll be like in Dublin um if they planned something like the last time he came home against Dustin Parry I think that like he planned a big party or something that was packed the rap I wasn't there but I heard about he was packed the rafters but I'm sure they'll plan something like you you see the scene a lot of Dublin airports when people coming home like we saw again with Katie Taylor she's one of the examples um it's going to be huge and like I know people kind of joke about the country shutting down for panama Gregor but I'd say it probably will when he comes home. It'll be on, he'll be all over the television and all the news channels and everything.

That's amazing. So, okay, now that you are an unbiased media member, tell us, based off of what you saw on Saturday and just his general game now, do you think he beats Jose Aldo? I think he does, honestly. The wrestling

is obviously still a question which needs to be answered, but I think against Josealdo, the wrestling question might not come into too much. Aldo can obviously wrestle on, stuff and he could take McGregor own. But I think it will be a striker match if he fights Joselna. McGregor's striking is so elite.

It's actually unbelievable. Watching the fight live, he was kind of, you're drawn to the wrestling, you're drawn to, oh no, no, the wrestler question is being asked and he's failing or whatever. And he kind of, they're a miraculous comeback then. But when you actually go back and watch the fight and look at his game plan, like SBG speak a lot about not making game plans and they go off the cuff, but I think you could kind of throw out out of the window after Saturday.

And his game plan was just so good the way he attacked the body of Mindez and he hit him what strikes like a minute into the boat he hit Mendez with a straight left hand that just rocked him and I think that was kind of the start of it but against Aldo I think it's going to be a shootout on the feet

and because McGregor makes it a shootout defeat like Aldo loves to push a guy back like we saw it against Mendez at the end of that second round when you knock him out just after the bell like he pushes guys back and he hurts him like to be McGregor you have to push him back

but that's easier, said to them. Like, we saw five seconds into the fight on Saturday night. He had Mendes with his back against defense after trying that spinning kick. Like, he's going to walk down Aldo and try to fight him where he wants the fight to take less. Like, he'll fight Aldo in his wheelhouse. And I, although, like, Aldo's, don't get me wrong, Aldo's an unbelievable striker. It's a 50-50 matchup, in my opinion. But I think McGregor's power is just, you can't mess with it.

you can't mess with his power. Although, I don't know, although my, and I don't think he's had his time because I think he's just a little bit past his prime, but he's still an unbelievable fighter, definitely. I think McGregor being favoured is just, maybe a tiny favorite. He came out as a two to one favorite.

I think that's a bit, that's a bit much, but it should be a little bit closer. His reach is another thing, and it helps him so much to Landau Strikes. Like we saw against Mindas, when they stood up, late in the second round that he's so precise

and he can hit you from an area which you can't hit him and again I think against Jose Aldo that would be very important and just to add to that point as well I think he'd be more cognizant of his defence against Aldo than he was against Mindez

because against Mendez he spoke about it afterwards that he had to be efficient so he like he had to put maybe his chin out there to get hit to land a couple of strikes on Mindez because he knew maybe he knew he'd get taken down so he had to hurt him

against Aldo that much might be as big of an issue. We might be able to picky shots a little bit better. He might be able to fight kind of a longer fight and land those power strikes over like the five minutes rather than a minute that started around, a minute at the end of the end the round like he did against him in this. Final question. Just need a yes or no here, all right?

If and when Joseo Alto fights Connor McGregor, does it generate more pay-per-view buys than UFC 100, 1.7 million? I have to give yes or no. Yes. Don't sit on the phone. Really. I just said yes or no. No. You got to give me a yes or no. All right. There you have it. No. Fantastic stuff, my friend. Really great. I'm very

proud of you. You're doing fantastic work over at SeveremMA.com, as I said last week. It's a wonderful website. I was very happy to see some of the guys in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, you weren't there, but you were holding it down in Limerick. It's a pleasure for me to have you after all these years on the show now as a media member, and you did an amazing job. So kudos to you, my friend. Congratulations to Ireland. very soon. Really, really great to have you on the show, Sean. Thank you for the time. Thanks for having me, and thanks for all the coin boards and all the help over the years. I really appreciate it. My pleasure. There he is. Sean Sheehan of SevereMMA.com. Check him out on Twitter. He is a prolific tweeter. And also, he has a great podcast as well. Great insight.

If you want to learn more about the Irish MMA scene. All right. In a minute, we are going to be joined by the man who is front and center, the man who is front and center, the man who who has helped shape Connor McGregor into the fighter that he is today. You know, I had a nice run-in with John Kavanaugh back in Dublin when he had, I believe, four fighters on that card, and after every fight he would come back and put up a finger, one down, three to go, two down, two to go, et cetera, et cetera. They swept the card, as you may recall.

Cahal Pendred, Gunner Nelson, Connor McGregor, maybe Neil Sirie was the fourth in case. Am I forgetting someone else? You get the point. Anyway, I told him before UFC 189 that, and Neil Siri, of course, not a member of SBG. I know that, but maybe I'm thinking

of just four Irish guys. I feel like I'm forgetting one. The point is, before UFC 189, I told him I was expecting the same if it went his way. It did not go his way, of course. Pendered lost, Gunner and Connor won, but I'll never forget seeing him after

because you have to understand, John Kavanaugh isn't one of these Johnny Come Latelys. You may have heard of him only recently, and you may think that perhaps he is, you may have heard that, you know, he's kind of like the Greg Jackson of Ireland, et cetera, et cetera, but this is a guy who is really an Irish MMA pioneer. You know, this is a guy who has been there from the get-go.

This is a guy who, Connor McGregor says, you know, if it wasn't for him, he probably wouldn't be who he is today. He had to come back to his house and drag him back to the gym and say, we still have work to do it. Your career is not over. And on Saturday, when I saw him after the McGregor fight, he really had nothing to say. He was very emotional.

It appeared to me like he had tears in his eyes. It was a beautiful moment and one that was very much well deserved. If you think about grooming fighters from their amateur careers to this point, in a very small gym, an unimpressive gym, to the UFC title, interim or not, whatever you may think, to a huge event like that in Las Vegas from a small little place like Ireland, that's an amazing accomplishment. And you think about that, that's not taking guys from Albuquerque or even Montreal, California. This stuff just doesn't happen in sports. Certainly not in Ireland. It just doesn't happen. And so we had to have him on the show to talk about

what this means to him, to his country, to his gym. One of the best stories that I've seen unfold since I've been covering this great sport. So let's go back to the Scott Machine and welcome back once again, the king himself sporting the robe this time and sunglasses, the one and only John Kavanaugh. Congratulations, my friend. Thank you very much. I've been looking forward to this phone call for a long time. Yes, as of I. And where are we right now, by the way? And where are we right now, This is the mic mansion. We're back. I'm still here.

I'm leaving today. Have you had enough of Las Vegas? Definitely. I've been here. It's been about 10 weeks now, so I'm looking forward to going to Sunni Glasgow in two days' time. Well, I appreciate you carving out some time. I know it's very busy for you over there, and you've got a lot on your plate, so thank you so much. Tell us, so what are we, we're three days removed.

What's it like? you put into words now because when I saw you immediately after the fight, it's a moment I'll never forget. It was beautiful to see, but you really had nothing to say. And it appeared as though you had tears in your eyes because I can understand, I don't fault you. It was very emotional. How do you put it into words now what you accomplished with Connor McGregor? I guess there isn't really a way to do it. You get so many flashbacks of how it all kind of started with us and meeting his mother there. on the night and his family.

And yeah, I'm better at armbars and proteins than I am at trying to describe what this night was. Did you have a chance to smell the roses throughout the week? From the way-ins to, you know, the calm before the storm on Saturday, to Chenate O'Connor, all that. Were you laser-focused or were you able to appreciate the magnitude of what was transpiring because of you and your guy? Yeah, I guess every now and again you have to stop. You know, that's really the point of it all. Otherwise, what are we doing this for? And when we hear another new record is broken or the likes, you know,

Cheneid O'Connor's going to sing him out. There's just so many things happened in the lead up to this that made it obvious that it was going to be one of these nights. And even when I was, I don't know if you saw when I was leaving the cage, I was walking back to the dressing room with Connor and just kind of had an arm around each other and just kind of stopped on the walk out back to the change rooms

and just looked around the audience and went this is it, we're going to be old men talking about this moment so let's just stand here for two seconds and look around and absorb it, take it in. Thus far, what has been the greatest byproduct of this victory? A phone call, a message you received anything in particular that really, you know, caught your breath and said, wow, I can't believe

how special this was? I think it was, I think it was my mother crying. Oh, wow. That would probably be, that would probably be it. And I didn't know my mom and dad, they went to a party back home and they stayed up to watch it. My dad doesn't stay up past 9 p.m. for anything. So the fact he was up at, I guess it was,

5.30 a.m. or something like that back home. He managed to stay awake all night to watch it and was very proud. That was big for me. Wow. That's it's making me a little emotional here. When did you speak to them? I got a message right away after it. I wasn't able to call my man back until I guess it was about, you know, I tried to call them about I guess Irish time about 7 a.m., but they were asleep, but then I spoke to that evening. My man was still there was still taken, and it was very cool. So let's talk about the actual fight here, because what I loved about it was Connor backed up everything that he said.

He went straight for Chad from the get-go. Really, I mean, I think he almost caught Chad by surprise. Did you know he was going to do that? Well, he's done a lot in all his fights. Yeah. You know, he basically sprints across the cage. and it's two things. One, it does get them on the back foot.

And once you start thinking defensively, it is kind of a slippery slope. And two is that I still don't think people genuinely understand just how much joy Connor gets out of competing. It's really his happiest moment. He doesn't have me given out and tell him to mind the contact level he can go as hard as he wants. And, you know, it was going to be a good challenge,

Chad is a fantastic fighter and he's so excited to see what's going to happen. Maybe the flying knee, that caught me. But still, it was a good start of the fight. I got to trying to live up to that incredible co-main event. So it was good that he got off to a fast start. And he was taken down rather quickly. What were you thinking? Okay, great.

Let's get this out of the way. show the world that were competent or were you at all nervous? What were you thinking at that time? Yeah, I did. I did raise an eyebrow at the choice of jumping into a flying league. Well, it was nice within the opening 10 seconds of the show that, you know, he can play a guard and it's MMA. It's, it's, you're going to be on your feet. You're going to be on your back. But he was back go put in a blink and again I'm sure that was I'm sure that was another small psychological

win in the fight I thought Chad won the first round do you agree? I think I read somewhere it was like a minute and a half was where Connor was on his back in round one

that's three and a half minutes then on the feet and I thought for the three and a half minutes he was very much in control and I I actually just rewatched it this morning. And I noticed after about 40 seconds, Chad takes a backstep in a deep breath. And I think it was already starting to tire within 40 seconds. I don't care how short your training camp is.

That's something to do with training camp that's going to have you tired at the one minute mark. I think it was to do with just what it's like facing Connor and to be caught with some of those shots. Those front kids are something we're working on and those will take the light. life out of you. You know, obviously in boxing, it's, it's, boxers work the body, but you have to get on the inside. The nice thing about the leg, you know, obviously there's extra reach on us. You don't have to worry about the counter, but I guess, I guess in short, no, I think in terms of fighting, Connor won the first round, in terms of MMA scoring, which I really think has to be looked at again. I can, I can see how an MMA scoring I might have been given the chat, but I just

don't think it should be an automatic round win if you get a takedown. I think we should be looking at other things, how the sway of the fight is going, which of the two look comfortable. Much damage was done and, you know, kind of had that cut above his eye from one shot, but I think the writing was on the wall

about how tired he was getting by the end of round one. So obviously you guys were very confident going into the fight, but do you think it's a different fight at all if Chad does have a full training camp, meaning does it go into the later rounds? Does Chad do anything differently? Do you think it changes because that's something that will obviously be brought up. If they have a rematch at some

point, that will be used against Connor. What do you make of that argument? Well, it's not come out yet, but I'll tell you. We didn't do one live round of MMA sparring or wrestling for this training camp because Connor had, Connor had an injury and we weren't able to train in full pace. So this wasn't us at full capacity either. At the party, after the fight, actually not Saturday. I didn't see Connor Saturday tonight, but on Sunday night, we all went out. And we had a few drinks and sitting down and I said, I've got to be honest, like, when we were walking out to this fight, it was in the back of my mind we hadn't done a single round of live wrestling. And, you know, I had my eyebrows raised and I thought, well, let's see what happens. And he was. And he was. And he

was laughing out of it too. Now, the injury is completely healed now, but it wasn't until about two weeks before the fight that we felt it was 100%. But we still didn't do any full rounds because

didn't want to exasperate it. If the injury still was there, I didn't want to bring it on. So really, the first round of full wrestling was done in that fight. Wow. And I think his timing a little bit

on the sprawl and dealing with the shot was not quite there. Start getting better as the fight went on. But do I think a rematch, if it does happen down the line, would be different, yes, for both of them. So can you shed some more light about this entry because it was rumored for a long time? Is it the knee? What happened?

I don't want to go into it too much. I'm sure it's all going to come out. I can just say that it's fine now. Okay. No surgery? No. Okay. As you could see in the fight,

he was, you know, that was the first full test on the knee. And he flew through it. And he was able to deal with all positions. You know, there were some scrambles. There was a lot of wrestling. And it held up and there's nothing wrong. So we're 100% confident that it's perfect now. But still, like I said,

walking out. It was kind of funny. Those hundred of a second thoughts you get in your head that, all right, we're about to go into a fight with the, you know, a lot of people say the number one guy and he's this division one wrestler, everybody's always spoken about. And we've not done any wrestling. So let's see what happens. This is going to be fun. After actually being in a fight and having to use the knee at, you know, obviously full strength, take downs and all that. Do you have any idea how it's feeling 24, 48 hours later? Did he have to get it checked out?

No problems, right? No after-aftermath issues? Wow. Yeah, yeah, it's, I won't lie. It was definitely in the back of my head. And when Aldo pulled out, I thought maybe this is a good way for a good opportunity for us to pull out. But like I said, like I've told the story already, there was certainly no way Conor was

having any of that. He was way too excited to compete. But now that it's all set and done, it passed with flying colors. There's no issue. Was there any point before Aldo pulled out where you were afraid you said, this is too big of a fight, we need to delay this? You know, it's kind of my job to weigh up everything. Sure.

You know, I look at pros, cons. I'll think about all possible scenarios. when I just, when I spoke with Connor and I saw this absolutely unshakable confidence, then I knew it was the right decision. I knew it didn't really matter who it was going to be, the way he was feeling mentally about this. And like I said, the wrestler question has been answered a bunch of times for us over the years in the gym anyway, we have a lot of high-level wrestlers training with us.

So coupled with that, I was absolutely confident that we've made. made the right decision. How do you feel about him having to stick around in Las Vegas to coach the ultimate fighter and will you be a part of it as well? You know, to be honest for Connor, Connor likes to be busy and he likes, he loves fighting and there's not a whole amount of other things he's all that much interested in. Like when we were here, we used to Sunday was rest day and we used to do kind of different groups of us would do different things on Sundays like go to water parks or go downtown or, you know, we had kind of different things we enjoyed doing. Connor rarely participated in any of those things.

He just, you know, Sunday was rest days. We just stayed on the couch and just kind of got ready for training on Monday watching videos. And that's really all he's interested in. So for him to go straight from this into coaching on the ultimate fighter, I know it's going to keep him focused. And it's kind of a fun thing for him to do. As for me, I'm leaving to. day I'll be home for a day and then I go straight to Glasgow with Paddy. I don't really

see myself coming back out to play any part in it. Maybe I'll come out for a few days but I don't think so to be honest. I have a lot on back home now and I haven't seen my gym in quite a while so I want to spend some time there obviously see my family and there and there's some big things come up as well back home in terms of like just from my gym straight-blast gym I it's the 10th anniversary of having summer training camps in Europe for SBG. And my coach is coming over. And so, you know, we have a lot going on. So I don't think I'll be able to come back over.

Do you have any idea what it will be like when he does come home? I mean, what kind of reception? Do you think they're going to plan a parade for him? What's it going to be like? And do you have any idea when he will come home? Because it seems like he's a little book now. Yeah. Well, I guess the filming of this is going to be another, I guess,

it's six weeks or wow or something like that so what's that then that's September is it as late as September? Yeah yeah end of August

yeah late late late late late yeah late yeah yeah I see the odd thing tweeted to me and I read the I still think I'm in a we're in a bit of a bubble here you know

it's I don't really know how big this is yet like some people have messaged me you know it's this is going to be something I think that in 20 years' time, people will look back and still, you know, remember, there's a great achievement in an Irish sport and, you know, a lot of very nice things like that. And I suppose I'm, like, almost on the next day, on Sunday, I was in my head. I was thinking, okay, what's Paddy's Wade at? How many days for the cut?

He's facing a very dangerous opponent. What day do I get there? You know, I kind of went straight into, like, U.C. Glasgow, mine. set. And I've always sort of been like that, whether win-lose-or-draw on Saturday night, the sun rises Sunday morning, and the job continues, you know. In a perfect world for you, when does the Aldo fight happen and where? Again, you know more about this than I would, but I'm hearing the New Year's Eve, I run about New Year's Eve show. I think they do it like January 2nd or something like that.

that. Like, let's be honest, it's going to be in Vegas. There's just, there's no way that's not going to be the case. So, yeah, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, it's January 2nd in Vegas, I'm, I'm very happy with that. I already got the all clear from Orlet that I'm now to spend Christmas here. So, uh, well, obviously she should be with me. Sure. We wanted to go to New York for Christmas this year. Oh. Well, if it doesn't work out, we'd love to have you. Yeah, yeah. Well, who knows? Maybe even if I'm here for that training camp, if I can shoot over for two days,

maybe I can sit beside you there and... Oh, that would be an honor. That would be an absolute honor. Now, do you believe the fight will happen? Is it going to be one of those white whales that, for whatever reason, doesn't happen? Or do you think these guys are destined to fight? I really hope so. I really hope so.

I think we're in a golden era of MMA and that all the best fighters are within the one organization. We don't really have the political issues that happens in boxing. And, you know, we obviously the big Mayweather Pac-Man fight, like a lot, I'm not a boxing expert, but a lot of people said that it might have been better five years ago or ten years ago. Whereas for now we get to see people in their prime against each other. Like that Connor and Chad fight was fantastic, you know, two guys such high level. And not to mention, of course, the Lawler and story. What the hell of the story?

It's still early for me. I appreciate that. And I might have a slight hangover. I'm not going to lie. No problem. I hear the hair of the dog or whatever they call. I learned something new this weekend. It's called Hair of the dog?

Hair of the dog, something like that. Drink more is what they tell me. That's just an Irish way of coming up an excuse to keep drinking. Exactly. But you think it will happen in the fight? Yes, I guess. I'm an optimist. So I will

I'll say yes I'm sure Yeah I'll say yeah Okay so how about this Do you feel like he's champion Or will he only be champion Until he beats the champion

I feel like he's the champion I think he's done Pretty special things In the UFC In quite a short period of time He's been willing to accept any challenge I don't know there's many

fighters with what he had in front of him with two weeks and all this would have accepted and not such not even such a great a great change of opponent like with such a great change of style sorry is what I'm trying to say

I remember when John Jones was was going to fight someone and he pulled out and Chale Salon was the replacement do you remember this? Yeah UFC 151 Jones yeah of course course you do your encyclopedia.

He refused the change of opponent. And I remember thinking at the time, I thought that was very strange. Like, why would you do that? Especially for him being from a wrestling background, it wasn't like it was going to be such a huge deal from the, you know. And we're all due respect to the son and he's a great fighter, but he, not the most dangerous opponent he could have faced. So for Connor Tooth, he did and accepted. that changed. I think that showed a championship mentality. And from DeGwynne there, we're basically no, we couldn't do any full-paced wrestling training. Everything had to be done at a slow flow

pace. It's pretty special, I think, and speaks volumes to his mindset. Connor talks about visualizing this and we have clips of him talking about being a champion and all that stuff. But what about you? You know, did you believe that this would happen for you in your country and your gym? Did you believe, do you remember the first time where you thought this is an actual possibility? This is something that I want. Because, you know, there are a lot of people like you who are in Europe right now, gym owners, great coaches who will never see this, who will never experience this for various reasons. They don't get the right guys. Things don't, you know, who knows what happens. You're at the mountaintop right now. Do you remember thinking, okay, this is what I want,

this is how I'm going to attain it? Do you remember like the first time you were actually dreaming about all this? You know, I've always kind of had the approach. If you take care of like minute by minute, then year by year seems to take care of itself. Like so I've always had the approach that whatever I'm doing, tried to do with a hundred percent, you know, full commitment, 100% commitment. And so every training session I did, I always felt I was in the best gym in the world now. The physical surroundings were all in these kind of damp little industrial units. But I always felt like we were, you know, we were training like world champions.

and that we had the best training methods and we had the best technique. And if I did every training session like that, then sort of weeks became, months became years. And of course, you know, when I seen Conner's ability in the gym, I've always seen a hell of a lot more of what he can do in the gym than people have seen what he can do in fights because the fights tend to be very brief.

But when I've seen that, and it just did seem like it was going to be a matter of time. I do realize and I know look plays an uncomfortably large role in most people's lives more than people would like to admit. And, you know, things have happened to me over the years that have just been great and we were prepared. So when the opportunity came along, we were able to take it. But there's been a lot of incidents over the last couple of years where the diverging roads could have easily went the other way.

and you know we're we're just on the regional circuit still but we kept out of and here we are final thing for you what do you think the the byproduct of all this will be you know where i come from in canada there was a guy named vince carter who played for the toronto raptors basketball team he was an american and this was in the late 90s basketball wasn't really popular in canada and now 15 or so years later the canadian national basketball team is amazing We're producing some of the best talents in the world. And every single one of these guys, we're all 20, 21 years old, all states because they grew up watching Vince Carter.

I feel like the same thing is about to happen in Ireland. You'll have 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, who are now soon going to come to your gym, if they haven't already, and you will now have this dynasty because of this one man. Do you feel like that's going to happen? Has it happened already? Well, I think you have Nate the Great on your show today. He bailed on me. He bailed on me, Nate.

How about that? He big-time me. I have another one on my hands. Unbelievable. 10-year-old and he bails an hour before the show. I drag myself out about the book. Amazing, right? Anyway, yeah, I mean, you could use another one in your country, man, GSP, I'm sure.

Sure. For what he's for, MMA in your country. And, you know, I enjoy reading books like bounce and stuff like that. And they speak about this effect. There were some, I was reading about some Korean girl. And until then, there'd be no female professional golfers in Korea. This girl won some, I guess, PGA tour or something. And again, they saw that effect about 10 or 12 years later.

There was thousands of young Korean girls that had done 10 years' trainings and she'd won starting to come out and win stuff. So I guess we had it in Ireland as well with a rugby player, Brian Ardriscoll, that was world-class. He inspired a generation. So I think it's going to be the same for Connor because the guys that train with me know that the word talent makes my eye twitch. I really hate that word. It's kind of like saying there's something magic, magical happened.

I don't believe in magic and I don't believe in talent. Connor was inspired for whatever reason a bunch of years ago to pursue this dream. And he killed himself in the gym every day. and that's what I saw for the last 10 years. Now people look at them fighting, oh, you're so talented and like I said, it really really bugs me. We get to sit down and have a conversation about that another time,

just how much that word annoys me. No doubt people are going to keep sending me a message now and I'm telling us. But anyway, so when I look around my gym, you know, I teach a teenage class in my gym and I'm looking at these guys that are 12, 13, 14, and they're already moving on ways that, you know, took it maybe a year or two.

for the likes of Gunner and Conner to get there, it's amazing. And all they do is hang out in the gym all day long. Sometimes with my sister, Anne, who managed gym, has to shout them to actually kick them out. But what are they going to be like when they come into their late teens, early 20s? What's the next generation going to be like? And I'm excited to find out. Beautiful stuff.

Again, thank you so much for taking the time. I know you're leaving today. I really, really appreciate it. I want to thank you also. You had some very nice words to say to me before the fight. It meant a lot. Something I'll never forget. I'll never forget you embracing with Connor at the top of the cage. I'll never forget seeing you after. I mean, your introduction, you and your team and getting to know some of your your fellow fighters and

coaches has just been a beautiful thing over the last two years. You guys are all so, so classy, such gentlemen, it's just a pleasure to be around you guys and cover you guys. And I couldn't be happier for both you and the rest of the team. So enjoy it. And now good luck to my main man, Patty, on Saturday. Keep the good vibes rolling. and I'm sure I'll talk to you very soon. Again, thank you very much, and congratulations to you and everyone else. Thank you so much, Eric. We'll speak soon.

All right, there he is. Head coach for the UFC interim featherweight champion. Great guy, John Kavanaugh, couldn't be happier for him and the squad for what they accomplished. A beautiful moment in Las Vegas. All right, went a little over there. Hopefully New York Creek is on the ball, and we'll figure things out. Yeah, let's do this. All right.

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Hurry to draftkings.com now and use promo code hour to play for free this weekend. First place takes home 20 grand, finishing the top 10 and quality. to win the Reebok Prize package, which includes two tickets to UFC Fight Night, Dillishaw v. Brow 2 in Chicago, hotel and airfare, and tons of Reebok gear. Enter our now at draftkings.com. Draftkings.com. That's draftkings.com. How about that? Great stuff there. All right, let's move along now and welcome in our next guest. This is the man who will be calling the action on Wednesday tomorrow in San Diego. Great Fight Night Card headline by Todd Duffy v. Z. Frank Meier. Also, he called the action

on Sunday in Las Vegas ultimate fighter finale. My good pal, John Anick joins us. There he is. Whoa, look at that set up. How about that? Mr. Anick, supporting the money team. I don't tell Brian Stan. I'm supporting Floyd Mayweather, okay? Okay, I won't. It's our little secret. Now, I have a bone to pick with you,

John. I love you. You're the best. However, you've been counter-programming the MMA hour. You know this with your podcast on Monday. There's a bit of a spill over there. Well, ultimately, it was the only window we could get into the studio, but we don't count a program the first two and a half hours of the MMA hour, so it's only the second half. And, you know, we bemoan the fact that we can't get you on the show because you're busy doing your own.

That's the only reason we haven't booked you. I've enjoyed it greatly. You guys are doing a great job, you and Kenny Floreen, so keep that up. I know you can't do it this week. So I figured we get you in the podcast, you know, rotation here with an appearance on our show. We've been talking about 189. We've been enjoying, you know, reminiscing all that stuff. Where did you watch the event?

because I knew you were working the next night. How did you take it all in? So Brian Stan and I went out to dinner, and then we were going to go watch the fights from the Fox desk inside the building. We started moving in that direction, and Stan was just getting hounded every minute, taking pictures. And we wanted to do a little bit of prep for the finale. So Brian Stan and I actually watched the event in my hotel room on UFC FightPass.com.

And I guess in some part, we regretted not being in there to experience the atmosphere. But, you know, I was there for Mayweather-Hatton in 2007. I've experienced similar big fights like that. But of course, this went down as the greatest, you know, main card, at least in UFC history. So I think both of us are a little bit regretful here, you know, on Monday morning. Okay, so it's actually Tuesday, by the way. You're calling the fights tomorrow. That's right.

What did you make of the fight? You know, some people say the questions have been answered. But were they answered? I mean, he was taken down. He was bloody. He was beat up. And, you know, Chad was – and John Kavanaugh just told us that Connor had a significant injury, but Chad only had two weeks.

he passed guard, went for the submission in the second round, and it proved to be a huge mistake on his part. In your opinion, were the questions answered, or are they still there for Connor McGregor? You know, I think largely they were answered. I know you and I both picked Connor McGregor to win the fight. You know, I believe when Carter McGregor wins going forward, title defenses or otherwise,

he's probably going to get taken down in those fights and he's going to get up and knock the other guy out. You know, I'm not so sure that his takedown defense is a weakness necessarily. His chin obviously held up. He's a terrific scrambler. I do think the fight would be different if Chad Mendez had a full training camp. You know, the number one reason why I picked Connor McGregor to win the fight was because Chad Mendez only had 17 days to prepare and five or six of those were in Las Vegas,

not to mention all the media obligations. So I do think the fight would be different, but I would still probably pick Connor McGregor to win. You know, my big question mark going in was if and when Chad Mendez took him down, would Connor McGregor be able to get back up. If Chad Mendez had the strength of a full training camp, I think getting back up would be a little bit more difficult. But, dude, I mean, Conor, you know, you picked him. He hits like a truck. He's huge for the division.

His mental game is as strong, if not stronger than anyone else is in the sport. And in this sport, confidence and self-belief goes so far. It's why Robbie Lawler won the fight against Rory McDonald. And it's why a lot of these guys, I think, rise to the occasion because they believe they're the best in the world. And, you know, I also want to say, too, Conner-Grader turned 27 years old today. You know, we all talk about that Mayweather-Hatton fight and how 25,000 Brits traveled to see Floyd Mayweather, Ricky Hatton. That was the biggest fight of Ricky Hatton's career. This fight, this past Saturday night, is not going to be the biggest of Connor's career,

and he still was able to do this type of, you know, just have an event of this magnitude. So I'm just so excited to see where, you know, this sound 27-year-old can go. Yeah, that is a great point. It only gets bigger from here. It's not the Aldo fight. Do you think the Aldo fight, you know, we don't know what this will do on pay-per-view, it's too early, but do you really think the Aldo fight can do over $1.7 million, which is, you know, They haven't confirmed it, unconfirmed, the record for UFC 100.

Adi Atar told ESPN.com, and Audi is, of course, Conner's manager, that could do over 2 million. What do you think? How big is this? Well, I think two million pay-per-view buys is ambitious, but I think to give any sort of, you know, outlook or prediction when we don't know the numbers for 189, I think is largely fruitless. You know, I would say, I think 1.4 million buys for Aldo McGregor is a slam dunk, you know. I think maybe the prelim numbers on Fox Sports 1 weren't as high as we thought they would be for UFC 189. I'm not sure that's going to be any great indicator when it comes to this pay-per-view. You know, at least my gauge is just when I hear from people in my life that I hear from once or twice a year,

and they're talking about Connor McGregor, and they're talking about ordering this pay-per-view. And my phone was buzzing nonstop from people who didn't really know what MMA was an acronym before six months ago. So I'm excited to see what this number is. I think certainly it will be north of one million pay-per-view buys. And, you know, I'm hopeful that Al-Dohrigger will be a monster. You know, I do have so much respect, though, and I know you didn't ask me about this, but for Joseo Aldo because, you know, Brian Stan and I thought that he would make the walk

because it was a $4 million payday, and it just speaks to how much he cares about his legacy and how serious he took Connor McGregor as an opponent that he wasn't just going to make the walk if he was 50%. He, no amount of money was going to make it okay for him to lose this fight on Saturday night, and that's why he didn't make the walk. And obviously the payday is going to come around again

because Connor McGregor won, but I think Joseo DeVeado deserves a lot of credit for, you know, I think upholding and caring about his legacy more than a lot of us maybe thought he did. Yeah, that is a great point as well. It was a huge gamble on the UFC's part and Conner's part to take this fight, to make this fight. It paid off and then some because now I think the Aldo fight becomes even bigger. So let me ask you about this.

Were you in Sweden when he made his debut against Marcus Brimidge? Were you calling that one? I was actually – my wife was expecting our second daughter, so I did not do that one. I did his fight against Max Holloway with Joe Rogan in Boston, but that's the only fight of his I've called. So my question, and then, of course, you know that fight, you watched all that stuff. did you think he would turn into this? Because I feel like for the last two years, I've gotten a lot of crap from people saying

I'm overvaluing him, over-hyping him, he hasn't been tested. But yes, I understood that he wasn't tested. But I feel like I could sit here pretty confidently and say, I saw this. For people to not see through the talk and all that stuff and the way he was being pushed, it was silly to me. Did you feel like he had it in him to do it? Because it was very evident from his debut

that this was a special fighter, yet it always baffled me that people couldn't see it. Yeah, no doubt about it. You know, Kenny Floreen, even though he picked Chad Mendez to win, has been talking about McGregor since 2013. You know, they keep going to that sound bite. That's why everybody's talking about Connor McGregor. So I have long seen him as an elite special striker.

I think my big question mark was the physical strength. Because when you have someone like Chad Mendez and maybe to a lesser extent, Frankie Edgar, on top of you, sometimes you just can't get up. And so that was a big question mark for me was the physical strength. And I think he proved a lot, despite the fact that Mendez, you know, was a little bit compromised when it comes to his preparation. But when I was in Australia for the Adelaide show earlier this year, I had to talk with Demetrius Johnson.

And he said so much of modern-day MMA success is about not just controlling distance, but understanding distance. And he believes that Connor understands distance better than most fighters on the roster. So when I heard DJ, who I believe is the number one pound-for-pound guy in the space, say that, that was a great indicator for me. So, yes, I have long thought Connor McGregor was elite, you know, even though I thought from a betting standpoint, point maybe the value went away when Chad Mendes swelled to plus 180. I thought Connor McGregor was going to win by second round TKO, as he suggested he would do. And, you know, even though the betting line is swollen against Jose Alto, I'm going to pick him to

beat Jose Aldo as I was going to do if they met last week. That was actually my next question. You're picking him. Yeah, I just, I like that matchup matchup actually better for him stylistically. I think the one thing that gives me a little bit of pause is. Florian talks so much about just how strong Jose Aldo is. He's a guy who's been in there with Gray Maynard, and he just feels like Aldo has this unbelievable strength,

and it's something that we don't really talk a lot about when it comes to Jose Aldo. So that gives me a little bit of pause, but, man, I mean, I'm not picking against Connor McGregor right now. There's just no way. You know, it's funny, leading up to this event, everyone was saying how they felt bad for Rory and Robbie that no one was talking about them,

and I did as well, but I also kind of felt like they were happy no one was talking about them or asking to speak to them because they hate doing media. And now here we are again, just days removed, and we're still not talking about them, and they may have put on the fight of the year. What did you make of that fight?

And in particular, did you think Rory was just a few minutes away from winning the belt because I had him up three to one? I tweeted as much. I said, Rory McDonald's about to realize UFC gold at 25 years old. I was one of the few people who had him up. Yeah, as three judges did, three to one going into the fifth and final round. You know, I got an avalanche criticism for that on Twitter, but I stand by it.

I talked to Joe Silva, and he was okay with my scorecard, so I'm good with it. But no, I mean, I just, I really felt like over, over 25 minutes, you know, the pendulum swung to Rory. I think in a 15-minute fight, I would favor Robbie, but over 25 minutes I favored Rory. I just have so much respect for both of these individuals. For Robbie Loller to become this verbose guy, I mean, we make a lot of his technical improvements as a striker, and rightfully so, American top team has done wonders with him. But for him to drop the word fruition in his post-fight interview, I mean, I don't even know this guy anymore. But, you know, I touched on the confidence and the self-belief when it comes to Luller a little bit earlier. And I just think, you know, for a guy who fought five times in a span of 13 months, he had almost 90 minutes of Octagon time in 2014.

He had to not, you know, I'd say borderline begged the UFC to give him some time off and not have this fight in April or May. You know, because Rory was off since last October when he beat Stephanie. So had this fight happen in April or May, I wouldn't have loved Robbie Lawler. But the fact that he was able to get seven months off, I thought was really a big factor in this fight. But, yeah, I thought Rory had outpointed him up until that moment. And, of course, in that third round, when I sent out the tweet, I really thought, you know, had that round been 15 seconds longer, Lawler wouldn't have been able to hold up.

But I'm curious to get your thoughts, you know, and I'll listen to the rest of the show. But when it comes to Rory now, 25 years old, but a lot of MMA miles, he hasn't absorbed a lot of concussive damage per se. Yeah. But I got to think that this is a pretty big blow for Rasa Hobby and Rory McDonald. Yeah, and we're going to talk to Farahs about that. in around 30 minutes or so. I am very curious to see how he rebounds.

I will not lie. I don't know if it's because I've known him for a while or known about his journey, or maybe it's because we're both Canadian. My heart ached for him, especially the way it ended. You know, with the punch to the face, which it almost seemed like he had a delayed reaction to

and he really truly felt the impact of that punch. Fractored his nose, fractured his foot. I really felt sad for it because I know how badly he wanted this. Not taking anything away from Robbie, It was truly remarkable how he went that extra gear and went for the finish with the busted lip and the busted head, all that stuff. But man, I really, like, I almost wanted to cry for Roy.

I felt really bad for him. I have no problem saying that because we know how much, this guy obsessed over the idea of being champion. And he had been groomed for this, you know, taking over for GSP and all that stuff. Ooh, that was a tough moment to watch. And now you see that gif of him kind of falling down with all the book.

Ooh, God, that was hard. Yeah. Yeah, Ken Flo sent it to me. And I think Kenny and all of his teammates, former teammates took it pretty hard as well. I do still believe, though, in my heart, you know, that this is an eventuality, that at one point in time, whether it's an interim belt

or otherwise that Rory McDonald is going to be strapped with UFC gold, but this is an appreciable setback, and it's going to be interesting to see how that camp sort of, you know, rebounds and sort of gets him back in fight condition, you know? Interesting thing is, what do they do with Robbie next? You know, we have Hendricks, you go with the third fight,

that's fine, they were two great fights, and Anil Woodley has been campaigning very hard to get that fight. There's no other good answer out there. I mean, you have Matt Brown who's back, but I don't think he gets a title shot yet. I don't know what to do. What do you do? What do you do with Rob B'Lar?

Of course, it's going to need some time, but after that, what do you do? Well, I think there's going to be a groundswell of support for Carlos Condit. I'm not sure that he doesn't need one more win, you know, but I want to see the Hendricks Woodley fight happen. I mean, Tyron is deserving of that fight. I think you can make an argument that he's deserving of a title shot. So I feel like Tyron Woodley is a guy who's sort of been. criminally underappreciated.

You know, it's not that he's been without blemishes in the UFC. Of course, he lost to Rory McDonald, I believe. But I'd like to see one of those three Woodley Hendricks or Condit be the next guy. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Condit get the opportunity because he's sort of ubiquitously regarded right now as the most entertaining fighter in the sport. I'd like to see a little mini tournament. Woodley Hendricks, Brown, Condit, give Lawler some time off once again

and let the chips fall where they may. Now, you are in San Diego. The train rolls along. You did a show on Sunday. You do a show on Wednesday. How difficult is that for you, by the way? Two shows in the span of what, three, four days? I know you do a lot of prep, an incredible amount of prep. Is this a little challenging?

It is. You know, it does crunch the preparation a little bit. I think a lot of people don't see a lot of things that happen behind the scenes. You know, I got my voiceover equipment right here. You know, we're tracking Nashville, you know, while I'm here in San Diego. So we're always a few weeks ahead of this UFC machine. But, you know, to have a fight on Sunday night and then the format meeting for San Diego on Monday was just a little bit much. So it's a little bit of a crunch in terms of the preparation.

Thankfully, unlike Daniel Cormier, my voice is holding up just fine. So that should be too much of an issue. But, you know, my sisters get married in Boston Saturday night, and so I'm not doing the Scotland show. So I think that would have been maybe biting off a little bit more than I can chew to do three in a span of six days. So I'm not even sure if that assignment would have come my way, but that's why Goldie will be working with Stan. Well, Mazel Tov on the upcoming wedding, that's great news.

By the way, I've been wanting to ask you this. what is up with your presence that leads to all these wacky post-fight interviews as of late? We have Ben Rothwell coming up. You've had a bunch. Even, who was it? Maximo Blanco, you were great.

When he called that Conno McGregor, you're like, really, guy? Come on. Connor McGregor, let's slow our role here. Why are guys acting so weird around you these days? Well, I hope Maxie didn't think I was denigrating him there, but, you know, I was just trying to get more than a three- or four-word answer. And then I was certainly caught off guard when he called out Connor McGregor.

But yeah, I mean, somebody joke with me that I should get, you know, shirts printed, the law firm of Rothwell-Romero and Ia-A-A-Quinta after this. Oh, my God. Ia-Quinta is—IA-A-Quint, it was Snacks Keller, by the way. Iaquinta is the one who I get the most—people ask me the most about that post-fight interview. Why did you follow up? But the Rothwell one is pretty interesting because I have never received as much criticism for anything I have done on a UFC telecast and continue that interview.

And if you do notice, I mean, I was amused, I smiled, I paused for about three-stop. seconds thought about just walking off which i know ben would have loved me to do but then you know my inner monologue is you know that was the the fourth first round finish on the main car we're super light on tv oh and by the way that was a pretty slick submission and he hasn't told me anything about the fight so uh you know i won't say regrettably but i did make the decision to follow up and you know i'll take all the criticism that comes with it thankfully my boss was okay with the decision and actually felt that i should have followed up so i was okay with it but yeah man i don't No, it's been a strange run for sure.

You know, it's interesting. Chale Sondon sort of pioneering when it came to post-fight interviews and just sort of, you know, from a promotional speaking standpoint, I thought he was very much a pioneering guy. But not a lot of people followed suit. With Connor McGregor, you're noticing everybody's following suit. Robbie Lawler, Chad Mendez, starting to, you know, bark on the microphone. Ben Rothwell and other guys are starting to cut promos. So I do believe I have to be more prepared inside the Octagon for these moments when guys are going to start cutting promos.

but I can't say that I would handle it any differently because, as you know, it's a casual audience a lot of times on Fox Sports One, and I'm not sure that they're looking for promos being cut as much as they are looking to hear about a submission that they don't know what it is. So I've got to live with it, but it was certainly an interesting night. Last thing before I let you go, and I appreciate the time. I know you have the wayans coming up in just a few hours. I'm not going to ask your prediction because you're calling the fight, but I am interested to hear your take on this. The main event tomorrow is Todd Duffy versus Frank Mear, a very interesting fight. veteran had this great win over Bigfoot Silva to get back on track,

and then Todd Duffy really did a great job of picking a fight with him. Todd is the favorite, if I'm not mistaken. Does that surprise you? No, it doesn't surprise me. You know, I think Frank Meier has more ways to win, but I just think that the line speaks to the more powerful athlete, who I think is closer to his prime. You know, Angelo Reyes has worked wonders with Frank Mears boxing.

He's always been a pretty good offensive striker. But I think they have to work on short enough his defense, getting his head off of the center line, because as you know, Todd Duffy hits you, go down. And Mear, you know, it's his 25th UFC fight. I mean, that chin has been tested. And largely in recent times, it hasn't held up. So I do believe that Duffy deserves the distinction as the favorite. But, you know, I think it's going to be contested on the feet.

You know, I'm not convinced that Frank Mears going to be able to get this thing to the canvas. So it's a very interesting main event. And as you know, A.H, we always love these heavyweight main events because we get off the air sooner. So hoping for a first round finish and then we'll turn it over. of Fox Sports. Hey, big, big cage or small cage? Do you know? Big cage. Big cage here at San Diego, yeah. Okay, we love that discussion as well. Great work, as always. I look forward to your call very much. Great stuff on Sunday.

And tomorrow you're working with Kenny, right? Kenny Florian, yes. All right. I know him well as well. Thank you for the time. John. I appreciate it. Good luck tomorrow. Thank you, buddy. Look forward to seeing you on that desk, by the way. UFC 191. I'll be there. Oh, yes. Can't wait. Appreciate it, buddy. There is John Anick. Check out his podcast with Kenny Florian. It's the John Anick and Kenny Florian podcast. they are doing great stuff. They are getting a lot of great guests.

They're getting a lot of great interviews. And they're sort of counter-programming us, but it's okay. I love them. And I say, the more podcasts, the better. Great shout-out to our friend Snackskill over there. The guy is going to clip that off and replay it a thousand times on his Facebook and his Twitter, and it will be all very incoherent, and he will love every second of it. So let's move along now.

As I mentioned at the top of the show, One of the fun stories of this past week in Las Vegas, International Fight Week, was the inclusion of Ben Rothwell almost everywhere you turned. He was omnipresent. He was all over the place. He was at Media Day. He was at Invicta. He was at the Expo.

And if you recall, we had him on the show right after his win over Matt Matrione, and he was a little disappointed that he wasn't invited to the Fan Expo. But then all the – I don't know if his fan base has a name. we'll get that in a second, but they all rallied, and they got him there, and he took advantage of that moment because he was everywhere, living it up, so I wanted to know how the week went, if you enjoyed it, highlights, low lights. So we welcome them back to the show right now. We're talking to Ben Rothwell right here on the MMA hour.

Ben, are you there? I am, sir. How are you doing? I'm doing great. 10 minutes later than we had scheduled. Oh, no. Very disappointed in this. I'm sorry.

Your producer just got ripped up. Good. Go pat him on the back, tell him it'll be hard. All right. Well, he's got a lot of problems on his hands right now, so I appreciate you doing that as well. He needs to be kept in check. So you got there.

How did you get there, by the way? How did you make it to Las Vegas? Come on, please. Ben, Rothwell fan club. So is that what you're called? You're my fan club? No. I'm not the fan club.

I'm wondering, do we have a name for your fans? You're the president. You're the president of my fan. Do we have a name for your fans? Like, is it the Rothwell Maniac? Something. Do we have a name? You know, we're working on it.

I hear a lot about getting Ross and you got Ross and doing this. So they're like the Rossanites, I guess. Okay. So you put it out there. You put it out there that you wanted to come to Vegas, right? How did it get done? Was it just the impact of the MMA hour, the biggest show in MMA? You just had to say it, and that's all it took?

It had something to do because you made some tweet. You tweeted about, they had brought out the official, like, who was going to be there. You're like, I don't see Ben Ruffel's name on this. So you were putting it out there, brother. I mean, let's get serious. You were the very first person. I didn't even know I was going that I was on the UFC's list when they finally changed it. You were the one that told me.

You were the one that UFC hadn't even told me. I think that's the honest to God truth. You were the one that told me that I was going to be signing for the UFC. And then I was like, oh, look at this. And it's like a day later got an email and started talking a few people. I was like, yeah, so you guys are having me sign. They're like, oh, yeah. I was like, you want to tell me what's going on?

So the funny thing of this whole thing is actually because you hooked me up. You made some, you made some connections. And if I'm throwing in the bus, you just got to tell me. No, no, no. This is great. Please keep the price coming. You made the connection. We talked to Dave Scholar because of you.

Dave Scholar made the whole thing here. Wow. Beautiful. Fans are not. I mean, come on, you made the connection and you were the reason that I signed for the UFC. All right, all right. Now I'm blushing. Was I going to be into Vegas or not?

Yeah. I told everybody I was going to pay to get my way there. and I was a man of my word. We had our own, I had my friends and a friend from Australia. He's working on, he's trying to create a little bit of the MMA. He paid for my flight and they got me out there and I got a hotel at the MGM, which was an awesome move on my part. And we got ourselves out there, you know,

and I was the one getting myself to all the press conferences and to open workouts. That was my choice. The UFC was like, oh, yeah, we need you to sign an hour on, Saturday, and we just signed for this company on Friday. Like, if that was it, like, yeah, I would have signed an entire three hours from what the UFSI settled. And it was so great. Hey, man, to have an opportunity to have the booth and have the camera and to sign in the UFC booth, it's still cool. You've got to think there's only 40 guys that got invited to that.

So I'm not complaining. It was awesome. What I think was great is the fact is that I signed besides that hour and a half on those two days, the hours upon hours that I signed all week long walking around the MGM. I felt like I had my own expo. I walked around the MGM and was just like headlines of people. And then you've seen it at the open workouts, the press conference, not just me, but there was Ariel. He had his own line of people, and I hit my line of people, and we're like high-fiving and like, yeah, it was great.

By the way, these fans will forever be known as Rothwellians, this coming from Nile Fleming. I like that. That works. What was it like for you? I know you've been in this sport a long time. You've had your ups and downs, and I think you were not feeling the love not that long ago. And now here you are all over the place, and the fans were showering you love. There's a great clip on our Facebook of you kind of going through the line of fans at the open workout,

and you're just like, that's awesome. I forget the word you said, but it was hilarious. I was just like, that's what's up. That's what's up. There it is. You were loving it. You were being showered with praise, as you should be. What was it like for you?

I mean, let's not get me wrong. I think it was funny as me, me and Uriah were walking down to the casino. know, and people like, Ben, Big Ben, and he was standing right next to me, and he kind of just kept going, kind of, like, laughed, kind of kept going. And I was like, I pointed, I'm like, you guys didn't want his his autograph, and they're like, oh,

you're right here to go. It's just funny because I stand out. I think I'm Big Ben, like people easily can pick me out. They recognize me as a UFC fighter. And this is something I've been doing with since, like, I went to some of the expos in the past, you know, Redgear would bring me out in, like,

2012, 2011. So I was used to sit in at a booth and signing for eight hours on both of those days. I just don't think anybody else noticed. I didn't go last year for any reason. So I was kind of used to it. Like people like, people like, see me. But people were just like, yeah, Big Ben and then I'd sign an autograph and it was like, they were cool. Now it was different. People were like, they were talking about my fights. They're talking about what parts of my fights they like. They wanted to hear the laugh. When I started dancing for them, it was completely different. And there was a lot more interaction with almost every single person I got to talk to, which

To me, I think that's important. They actually got to know a little bit about me. They're like, well, me and Ben Raffa had, like, a conversation. That's something that they're going to remember, and I'm going to remember them. And, you know, it's just backing up what I've been saying all along. I'm fighting for something more than myself. What was your favorite moment of the whole week? Oh, boy.

That's tough, man. There was a lot. I had, like, I had fun moments, like, all over the place, you know, so it's tough. you know, it's just like, I don't know. Was there one moment that stood out? Wow, you know, you got to run into this person or a fan told you something or, you know, I don't know. I mean, that was a pretty special. Were you at 189?

You want to know what it is. You want to know what it is, man. You want to hit you up with this. There it is. Hit me. Something that really is good to my heart. Vitor Belford has been this for a long time. When I talked to him at the Expo, I told me, man, I've said some funny things or whatever.

It kind of made joke like, you know, you might hear some negative. things about his past. And I didn't want to bring up all the details of what it was, but I think he knows, but it's just like, like, dude, put all that shit aside. I'm like, I've been watching you since I was a kid, literally, and I started all in the sport. I'm like, you know, you're a legend, man. I don't care. I don't know, anybody can say anything. Dude, you've done so much for the sport as a whole. You've gotten, you know, so many fans involved the sport. And he just, like, kind of just like, thanks, brother. And then he proceeded to just take it over and tell me how much he believes in me and that I'm, like, how he sees it how humble I am. And he knows how

powerful I am and to be doing things the way I'm doing it. He's really proud of me and I just was like I was just blown away. I was just like and he like really like he just kept praising me and just had nothing but the nicest things to say about me but like the guy knows me

like he's been watching. He wasn't just like he just wasn't just says this to everybody just to be you know political like he really does believe in me and I believe in him man. I was just like I just seen a martial artist that's went through a lot in him and and like I said, like him or not, that man

was the nicest human being. And you're pretty cool, Ariel, and you're a nice guy, but B. Thor Bulfur was the nicest human being. I met the entire week there. That's amazing. And you want to see, yeah, the biggest surprise, it was, dude. I was a fan of his because it was like Washington play. Lakeshue and Nock people. It's a different level.

He, he's, I've watched martial arts turn him into a true martial artist. And he's a good, he's done with this sport. He's going to go on and live a good life. He's on his way. He's on, he's going to be something more than a fighter. I believe in them. I believe in that. And that was a really cool experience to share with him.

So you were there for 189 as well, right? You took it in. Yeah, I got to be in the arena. The UFC game through. They made a special box area. I was in ringside. I actually was in the opposite. I was way up by the nosebleeds, but I was right behind the sound system. They built, there was only like,

there was like a few fighters and you know, whoever they brought. So there was only like eight, ten of us up there. But it was awesome. We had our own security guard. And it was like a set of stairs that went up into our own, like, our own little box area and was catered food. So the UFC totally hooked us up. They did not have to do that. And that was super cool.

And I was excited. And I got a cool picture because we were way up there, I got a cool picture of the whole arena. You know what I mean? It was like when you're sitting ringside, you can't see, you know, how daunting a filled arena of just screen fans is. And I literally was just, I wanted to fight so bad. I was just like, that VUFC to be in the arena, I was like, you guys can see that I'm on a different level and I'm changed and I'm on my way. But to go into that, being there for the week was huge for my career and huge for me. But then to be in the arena and be a part of that event and to feel the energy and to feel what I'm fighting for, it did.

I, like, I teared in my eye because I was getting so intense. I just was like, I just could have went and fought anyone. Wow. What was your moment of UFC 189? And, like, you know, the fights, the walkouts, the video pack, it all that. So, like, what was the moment where you were like? They kept one-uping every fight one of itself, because every fight was awesome. I mean, right off the kickle.

What an awesome flying knockout. It's like, oh, wow. And then there's like, Gunnar Nelson doesn't have a boring fight. He comes out, throws a stick to dude in the face, gets a beautiful choke. Then it's like Stevens lands an insane jumping, standing knee that just flattens his guy. It was insane. It was one of the baddest knockouts ever. and then obviously, back, you know, I've been trained with Rory.

I mean, I've watched, I'm sorry, I'm getting all my name's going to. I've been watching McDonald a long time. I was a super tough guy. I knew Robbie had a fight, but Robbie's a guy that I've been watching, you know, I've trained with him for six years at Militish's, and then watching them resurgence of his career. Yeah, I think it's really touching to me because him and I are described as when old becomes new. So it's like, I feel like I'm just, I've always been,

he's always been in the mix sooner than I am, so I'm okay. Like, yeah, he got the boat first. I kind of feel like I'm the heavyweight version of him. Like, him and I are right now making our names, like doing our thing. And he's doing it huge. Like, wow, how motivating. And what an incredible fight it was.

I mean, fight of the year, fight of ever. I mean, there's a lot of things talked about it. So then he's, he finished. He hits him. And, you know, the way Rory went down, it was just like, it's just a guy is so damn tough. I mean, you can't take anything away from Rory McDonald. I mean, my God, he had.

he had that fight what damn near ended in the rounds three and four and he just ate that shot and you could just see he did not want to quit most people would have went black out and the kid's so tough

he's fighting it he's like no my body's shutting down why it was just it was sad it was heartbreaking it was heartbreak my god it was so you know

cool to see Robbie win and such an amazing fight they're both champions I mean really they're just awesome and I was like oh my God you know it's like so cool it's huge event and then the main event

Yeah. And when you're in arena with that, you know what I mean? An arena just literally about to like make the stands fall down and the roof's about to blow off. And then, you know, for McGregor to just do it, you know, Connor to just come through and do like everybody's going to tip everybody's tongue. Like, can this really happen? Can this guy really do it? It was like, wow, what an event. So last week I reported that Travis Brown's manager expressed interest in fighting you, but of course things have changed since for Travis Brown. He's dealing with, I guess he's kind of been put on the sidelines because he's been dealing with some personal issues. I believe she's still his wife accused him of domestic violence.

So the UFC is now figuring that out and his manager is denying it. And it appears as though he has some stuff that he needs to work out. all that being said since we last spoke a month ago. Do you have any idea what's next for you? Oh, no, no. You can't just bring up that and drop the manager and not think we're going to talk about. Well, you reported that key call. We're just going to think Travis, we'll just put Travis Brown aside for a moment.

Let's just talk about Travis Brown's manager. John Foscoe. Your name and what you give us to media, you know, as a media member and what you tell the public. It means a lot. And your word means a lot. And I talk to you for a reason because I believe in you. Thank you. And I believe what you report in. And when you said, when you came to me, you know,

John Foscoe says they want to call you out this net. What do you think? And I said, and I also wanted you to say, as I wanted you to say, without hesitation, I said, I will knock him the fuck out. I'm like, no problem. I'm like, obviously his management wants him 0-1-3. No problem. And then

you're like, huh, and I don't know if you got to say it or what. Well, I'll tell you this. I ask them, I asked him if I couldn't say, you know, fuck on Fox. I asked him if I could say F, and they wouldn't even let me say F, like knock him the F out. So I had to say just knock him out. I'm sorry. But you did? I did.

I did. I did say that. Did you emphasize that I said it without hesitation? I'm not sure. But I said you responded rather quickly. I don't know if I use those words. Okay. That's good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's important that they understand what they stepped in. But, you know, does it make sense for me to fight a guy in position? No, but I like getting paid. Sure. Let's go. You know what I mean? Why doesn't it make sense?

Because he's, what, he's lost his last two fights and I'm on a three-fight win streak. Well, but isn't he higher ranked? I mean, at one point in time, see, honestly, I don't even care. I'm here to fight. Like, you guys know who I want to fight. You know what I want to do. I've made it very clear. But, you know, I'll fight.

Like, he wants, he's trying to do something. I just think it's, like, not smart of his management at all. I'm like, this is who you pick. Like, I guess you're, management doesn't like you traps from. That's what I would say. But anyway. Now it's a move point.

Moving on. Yes. Huh? Now it's a move point. So what's funny is that I'm at the Muscle Farm signing booth. And I'd say the guy, the owners, they're awesome, super cool guys. Really glad I get the signed for him. Had a good time in their booth.

But John Foscoe's in there. He does a lot of business with them. And then I get, I'll get that, hey, hey, hey, Ben. I'm like, oh, what's up? He's like, yeah, John Foscoe. I'm like, oh, didn't you just call me? out and instantly it's like I could tell on his face he could not believe like what like couldn't believe it I'm like yeah you just just report just two days ago as a matter of fact you want you want

you want Travis Brown to fly me and that's interesting I'm like I'm like that's great you know cool and he's just like what I didn't see that I'm like really I'm like yeah it's all over there's even a story about it and it's all over the media right now he's like well I don't watch to me I don't look at that media stuff like but you're managing top 10 heavy you ever and you see you don't watch the media I'm like that's interesting He said it right to his face, and he, like, steps back a little bit more, and I'm just kind of like, I'm looking at him like, why are you lying to my face? You know, we're supposed to be men of our word.

Why don't you just say, yeah, Ben, I think it's a good fight for Travis, blah, blah, blah. That's cool. But instead you're lying, and you're now telling me he goes, what Ariel said, he goes, well, he's putting words in my mouth. So now, not only that you're disrespecting me, you're now disrespecting our media and a guy that his name is based on what he says. Yeah. Wow, man. Way to cross lines, bro.

Oh, wow. And that's how he left it. Really? That's it? As you put words in his mouth. So they don't want to fight you? I don't know. He certainly acted dumbfounded. Why would I pull that out of my hat, right? I mean, where would I get that from? I specifically had a conversation with him about it. Anyway, again, mood point, right? We don't even have to worry about it right now. Hey, and the only thing about him is we just want to talk about is I don't want to talk about.

the bad situation is, but I just feel really sad that John Foske took to choose to use words, and they're just, he's got to defend his client, that's cool, that's his job, but don't use words like, we're excited. One woman was, you can tell, I don't sure what you say, she had physical abuse done to her, and don't

blame it on, she does CrossFit. All right, that was off. I just want, like, that just makes our sport look worse, and the sport's already had enough black guys getting to him, and it's, it's, it's, why I'm saying, because it's, when I say I'm fighting for something, yeah, and I'm fighting to, build a sports integrity, we need good people.

And there's a lot of good people in a sport, but they get overshadowed from things like that being said and from events like this happening. Okay? Yeah. So we need to fix this, and guys like Ted may just need to be quiet. All right?

Fair enough. Now, what about you? What about you? What are you getting? We're hoping, man. I've been making some, you know, you know who I want to fight. I've been St. Andrew, Junior DeSantos,

and, you know, I'm just, I hope something and get happens real soon. From what I hear, we're waiting on opponents, like, they got to hear from opponents. The Joe Silva talked to me, he said, you know, the heavyweight division is crazy. It's upside down on its head. So I can see that. I mean, a lot has happened, and it's very exciting. Obviously, they got things to figure out.

So I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed, hold the fans keep saying, yeah, we want to see Ben fight, you know, whoever they want to see me fight. But obviously, I would say pull for the guy that I've been asking for, and hopefully make something happen soon. Not to be... I'm ready to promote, like, I'm in a different level where it's like I'm obviously gonna... Like, one of these guys, I'm gonna promote, like,

let's do this. Yeah, it's about time some people start to figure this out. Now, not to be the bearer of bad news or any kind of buzzkill, but I could see a scenario in which Arlofsky gets the new champion Verdume and Dos Santos gets Overeem.

So then what do you do then? What do I do then? I don't know, and it's just... You know, Travis Brown's out. out of next that leaves what Kane and Stepe, and then Stepe's got to fight somebody. Yeah. You know, so they like, then

if he, all those guys are taking, then he's arguing with me who gets to fight Kane because he wants to move up in the rankings. And then... Who's calling you during your live appearance on my show? I mean, that takes some nerve. It's the customers that want to join our gym.

Oh, wow, okay. Well, then I can... That happens a lot, so I apologize that we're busy. I'm sorry. You're at the gym right now? Yes, sir. Has business people... picked up since you you you had that great win over mad and you're on this role now and your popularity is flying through the roof has business picked up it's it's one of those things where um we we've been and for about three years and i were doing a lot to figure out the gym and build it

and to do some right things and we made some changes before the overreying fight that were already coming around making a gym better than the overreem fight i had the most ridiculous month we've ever had in all business since we had a gym and any gyms that we've been involved with, it blew away anything, the amount of sales of just everything. It was a whole month of September, and then it didn't really stop. It wasn't like as crazy as it wasn't that September, but like, yeah, October on, like, the gym has been very busy, very noticeable busy. Everybody says, when are you getting a bigger gym?

And Johnny Guy go, man, if we got a dollar for every time someone asks that, we could just retire because it was like that. Everybody just walks in there, oh, my God, when are you getting a bigger gym? And then, you know, we've just been riding that wave, and then I come and follow it up with this last win. And it's just been really, really fun just to own a gym and to have such an awesome thing going right now. And then everybody that's been, that made the gym what it was, you know, and they were here with us since the beginning and that are still coming now to see it. You know, like, I think they're all the highest ranked people. They're on top of everything.

And they're just really excited. And, like, they're just so happy to see the gym be what it is. and it just makes it awesome. When you do class with five people, it's like, oh, when you do class with 35 people, there can be negatives and pros to both. There can be,

but when you're doing like a kickboxing or high energy class, it's fun to have a lot of people around. The energy, it's just like in the arena. Think of it that way. Do you want to fight in front of 1,000 people or a sold-out arena of 20,000 people?

I, for one, love 20,000 people. Yes. Okay, and that's, you know, so it makes it better for everybody, and we're just enjoying the way that we're on right now. You mentioned something to me via text. Your wife had to push drunk some people. What does that mean?

So, let's talk about the fans, too. So it's like, I'm sure you hear everybody talk about. Fans are awesome. It's so cool to be there all week. So I took all the pictures. You know, I was happy to be there. But there was some funny parts, though. So I say it's the good, the bad, the ugly.

So the good is, you know, dealing, you know, being with the fans, everything like that. The bad is the fans, so Saturday night is actually. I loved going to the events on Wednesday and on Thursday because it's like it's easy. Everybody's sober for the most part and fans are easy to deal with and they talk in the way I can understand them. You know, what is he talking about? Because on Saturday night, people get very, very drunk and they still are coherent enough to recognize me and want a picture. But now they're like hanging on my shoulder and talk right very close to my face and slur speech and I don't understand what they're saying. and it makes the experience a lot tougher.

So that's the bad part. It's like they're excited, but the drunk people. Well, then they're also, like, stumbering around, and they walk into my wife, and they don't realize, like, whose wife that is? They don't have got to worry about me because she, like, shoved the dude straight on his ass. Wow.

And I just turned and kind of laughed because he bumped into her pretty hard. And it was this funny because everybody was like, oh, shit. I'm like, oh, what are you doing, dude? Because they see him do it. And he's like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but it was just funny because she had to, like, you know. She's a tough lady.

She had to put them in check. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Yes? The ugly part comes from this. This comes from Connor McGregor. Oh. It comes from Ireland. Oh.

So, dude, Irish M&A fans, amazing. Like, I got stopped by many of them with the flag. You know, they're great, dude. They are truly great fans. I think what helped build his name in Ireland. Yes. But Ireland comes with another piece. They come with a group of people, a good-sized group of people.

a good-sized group of people that came to this event and I don't think of ever watching them in the event ever. In fact, they came strictly to get into the arena and shout O'le, O'le, O'Leo, O'Lea, and I'm sure you remember that. Yes. And it's legit

and it's like, wow, it's great for the sport. Like, I'm sure Dina White and the U.S. you don't care. Like, nope, they bought a ticket. But when I'm talking to them, they're coming up to me, they have no idea who I am. They're like, oh, I'm taking pictures. And I'm like, and this happened more than once. So I'm saying this was in the arena. people that had no idea who I was only noticed because people were taking pictures with me

and I'm just like who you got in the Robbie and Rory fight and they're like looking at each other and like one of the guys in the middle is like slaps the guy and he's like duh does the hat on the poster and they're like oh and they just kind of like started instantly talking about something else to like because they had no idea they had no idea what the hell they were there for other than two screaming or you know at least that was I mean look funny Some could be jumping on the bandwagon. You can't fault them for that. Maybe they're just learning about M.M.A.

What is awesome what it is, is that because of an event like that, I bet you they start watching everything now. And they're going to find out who's who. And they're like, remember that big hairy bastard we ran into? And then they're like, oh, I'm not going to remember me. It is cool, man. That's how we're going to make more fans. Hey, one last...

I'm just blown away by the money that was spent, like, to get there and not even know what the hell is going on. But anyway. Well, you mentioned you wanted to... to clear up something about wrestling that was said about you on a website? What is that? Thank you. You're awesome. You're an awesome interviewer. Well, thank you.

Good job. So I did a video and I'm like going crazy on the interview and I'm like, F this, F that, and I'll kill everybody. Wow. It was cool an aspect, but except the guy brought up with, the interviewer goes, the most

dominant of the disciplines, wrestling, and I lose my mind. And it sounds almost like I'm dogging wrestling, but I don't. I mean, first I don't want the public to understand. my teak-downs and teak-down defense are as essential to my MMA as punching someone in the face. Okay, they go hand in handy. They're very important together. It's the fact that he said the most dominant.

And it's just, it's a slap in the face to everything because it's like, did you really not watch the first UFCs? Did you not see what changed everything? It's Brazilian jihitsu. And if I'm going to, if I tell anyone, you have to one discipline, you can only learn one. What are you going to learn? It's Brazilian jiu-jitsu. You don't even hesitate. Wrestling and fight, okay, there's, I don't remember the last.

there's an open, open weight tournament for kickboxing. Imagine, I'm going to, okay, I'm going to fight this 155-pound guy, and he's going to get murdered, okay? Now, take, I don't remember the last open-weight wrestling, Olympic gold wrestling tournament, okay? Because a heavyweight, a skilled heavyweight is going to slam a 155-pound dude on his head and throw him around. Yeah, there's some very talented 155 dudes that are going to scrap with me. It might get a takedown, but I'm going to make them fight for it. We're going to fight. And there's a chance that I might beat them too.

Okay? That's the, you hear that there's a fight. And if we fight, if we're on the feet, they might think they're going to fight with me, but I'm going to smash them. Now, let's go to Brazilian jihitsu. Not only do we know that there's open weights, but now there's 155-pound fighter.

Worset, there's a 135-pound part. In fact, I train with one that will annihilate me on the ground. And I'm a very big man, and I know how to do jihitsu, and he will annihilate me. That is what makes jiu-jitsu beautiful and so powerful. And I can't say that. So when he said that, I felt like, man, what are you saying? There's no way.

There's no way that you can compare it. The art form involved in jihitsu, it separates itself from every martial art. It's what revolutionized our sport. Give it some respect, my man. And I think that was over his head. Ben Rothwell, keep doing you, my man. This is a beautiful thing.

This is a beautiful flower. flourishing in front of our eyes. I appreciate the time. It was great to see you. Enjoy yourself so much. You had a huge smile on your face. I loved every second of it. Well done.

Being all over the place in Vegas. And really, you know, connecting with the fans and the people. They're loving everything you're throwing out there. I appreciate it. And check out Ben Rothwell's Periscope. It's a little late, but you're going to do one right now, right now. Yeah. Thank you.

You just dropped the bombs of your boy. Ben, and in your show. I'm going to have Jen sir from me right now. I'm going to do a tour of the gym right now. Awesome. Check that out. We'll talk to you soon. Ben, take care.

Hey, thank you so much. Best to you. All right, there he is. Ben Rothwell doing great stuff. All right. Now let's move along. We got a big show coming up. The UFC's debut in Scotland.

Notice I'm saying Scotland because I keep screwing up the name of the place, but I'm going to try it right now. Glasgow. How about that? Glasgow. Main event? Michael Bisping.

He's coming home, sort of. He's fighting Tiles, ladies. A very important fight at 185, and he joins us right now. He is such a busy man, but he has carved out some time for his old friend, Ariel Halwan. How are you, Michael?

I'm very good. You know the PR people here at the UFC told me to ditch this interview? What? And I said, listen, I said this interview with Ariel Hawanna is worth 10 of those piece of shit interviews that I've had to do all day. So there you go, my friend.

Put that in your pipe, but smoke it. I appreciate that. I often say that the... I'm getting evils right now. The UFC Europe team is my favorite PR team, but now they've just dropped down my rankings. I can't believe they would say that. I thought we had a...

Well, there you go. Michael, I appreciate the time. I know you're very busy. Is it true that the whole family is there with you? That is correct. They are here driving me insane. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Of course, we're staying out here. We're going to have a holiday, a vacation for the Americans listening, and catch up with some old family. And they were going to come out a few days after myself, you know, maybe come out the day before the fight. And I thought, it's kind of silly. You know, let's all travel together. and they're a healthy distraction anyway.

The hard work is done. I'm going to go training when I get done talking to you. But really, as I say, the hard work is done. It's a little bit of training, a lot of talking. You know, having those guys around will not be a distraction. I was a little worried. I'm not going to lie when I saw you guys all packed up. I think you had a limousine or something.

You were headed to the airport. And I was like... We're a very big deal, you see, Ariel. We only travel in limousines or... Of course, we don't get the police escort like Conado. but one can only dream. But wait a second, I felt like, all right, you know, you're going there for business. You know, you have to be focused.

It's a very important fight. It's a homecoming of sorts for you're back in the UK, all that stuff. So, you know, I was a little worried when I, is Michael taking his foot off the gas here? Don't you worry about me, Ariel. Okay. Do not ever worry about me, my friend. You just worry about yourself. You're looking a little thin and pale these days.

I think you may be working too hard. I agree. Regarding myself, I am in my room. My tie boxing coach is there. Way down at the other side of the hotel where I can't be bothered is the Bissing contingent. Okay. They come and they are cold and they go when they are told. Okay, fair enough.

All right, now I feel better. By the way, speaking of Connor, before we get to your actual fight, I mean, this is a European, same management team. I know it's not sharing, you know, the UK. He's from Ireland, but don't get mad of me. Close enough, right? Let's be honest. Close enough. Close enough what?

It's close enough. to the UK, Ireland. Yeah, well, you know, it's just a completely other country, but yeah, sure, whatever. What did you make of his win on Saturday? You're American, right? What did you make of his win? Were you proud for the guy? What do you think?

It was fantastic. It was fantastic. I thought he did great. You know, Chad Mendez obviously brought it. We all saw the, you know, the effect of having no training camp for Chad Mendez, but Connor did what he needed to do. You know, he thought, fought through some adversity, and it was a great finish. He did fantastic.

I'm proud of him. and congratulations. Did you think that he would turn into this kind of fighter when you first heard about Connor McGregor? And by the way, tell me when you did first hear about the guy. Oh, for sure. Did you think so? Yeah?

Absolutely, I did. Absolutely, I did. And Connor may recall, or maybe he won't recall because, you know, we've had a few evenings together of Connor and I. And I told him, I said, listen, you know, on one of the very first evenings that we shared together, I said, you'll be the champion one day and this and that. I can see him. I said, you're an inspirational fighter.

You're inspired people and things like that. So, yeah, listen, it's only right that Connor is achieving such greatness. You know, I mean, listen, the guy talks to talk. He walks to walk. He's a promoter's dream. You know, when he was sucking on his mother's teat to try and get some protein in his body, I was doing this in the UFC. So he learned everything from me, so I'll expect a royalty check through the mail at some point. That's only natural.

But other than that, God bless him, and well done. When you see a fellow European raised gold and the emotions that come with that, I'm not, what's that? Nothing, go on. Okay. Finish your statement. So what does that do for you as you're about to embark on your own fight week and your own fight, an important fight for your main event fight?

Does that make you feel like, man, you know, I wish I could experience that. Does that bother you? Does that piss you off? Does that motivate you? How do you react to that site? No, no, at all. I wish him all the best and I'm very happy for him. team and everybody involved, of course, why wouldn't I be? In terms of myself, it doesn't piss me off.

I've never once looked at anybody in the UFC and thought, I want their career, or I'm jealous of what they have, or this and that. I've always been very content with my lot. You know, I've achieved a lot of stuff, and I'm continuing to do so, and I'm putting, you know, dollars in the bank account, which is why we all do what we do. Yes, we enjoy our jobs, or we don't enjoy our jobs. I happen to be very passionate about mine, but it is a job as well. And I'm doing very well. Never once have I looked at somebody else and been jealous or anything like that. So no, no, fantastic.

I had a house full of people watching the fight on Saturday night, and we were all very happy for him. Quick turnaround for you. You just fought in Montreal at the end of April. Are you okay with this turnaround, or are you only doing it because it's a show in Scotland? No, well, I mean, that is part of the reason why I'm fighting tonight. Of course, the fight was in Scotland, and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to fight in the UK, and I wanted to be a part of the first fight in Scotland.

But, of course, I wanted a quick turnaround. Maybe I could have done me in the next couple of weeks. You know, everybody likes a bit of rest. Of course, after my last fight, I went straight into another training camp. I think I had a few days off, and I was helping Kendall Groff finalize his preparation for his next fight because he helped me. So pretty much I had no rest. Of course, I was glad to finish the training camp.

I was a little burnt out towards the end. But that doesn't mean that my body was burnt out or I was over training. It just means mentally. Mentally, it can be a drag, you know, because you're doing so much. And camp after camp after camp. So I'm glad now that the training is over. It's five week. I'm talking to people like yourself.

And now it's fun, you know? All the hard work is done and I'm ready to do my job on Saturday night. I recall when you were doing such a fine job of co-hosting UFC tonight on Fox Sports 1 in early May, We were on the show together, and I told you that I thought the fight that made most sense for you next was Talas Ladies. And unbeknownst to me, Joe Sylvan, Dana White, hang on my every word. They always listen to my two cents. And look, here you are fighting Talas Ladies. However, I recall you saying that he was beneath you and the fight didn't do all that much for you.

So were you disappointed when you got this matchup? No, I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was given several options and this was the one I chose. And yes, he was beneath me. but unfortunately, you know, not unfortunately. The facts are the facts. He came back to the UFC, and he's on a five or six-fight win streak in the UFC,

and he's doing very well. Of course, he's always had the jihitsu pedigree. Now he's attempted to knock people out. He's had some success with that. He's a more complete fighter. So he certainly brings a tough challenge, you know. My opponent before, that was Luke Rockhold, you know, the number two guy in the organization.

So, you know, it's a bit of a step. Back in that respect, but as I say, he's doing very well and he's making names. He's becoming a contender again. So if I beat this guy, I just beat Doleway. I've been a perennial contender for what seems of eternity. I think a title fight is getting closer and closer. There isn't that many guys in front of me. There really isn't.

Some of the guys are on a hiatus. Some of them will never be the same. Some of them are feeling the effects of injecting themselves with so many steroids that they now can't take that. They simply probably won't ever fight again. They're probably going up in a daycare somewhere and look after a little bit. babies because they're developing vaginas as we speak. Wait, by the way, what about these options that you tell me?

What were the other options and why did you pick Talas? There's a couple of other options that was sooner, and I had a couple of injuries that would have been ready. Okay, and how about the fact that we're in this new era now with the out-of-competition testing in Usada? Yes. How many times have you been tested out of competition before this fight? No, see, this is the thing I've been tested zero times.

What's up with that? No, no, well, you know, Listen, I don't think it's actually been fully implemented yet. Okay. Now, of course, we're going to see, you know, frequent out of competition testing, which is fantastic, harsher penalties, more stringent testing, and that's all great. And I believe it will clean the sport up, you know, to a certain degree.

Facts of the matter is human nature, as long as there's been professional sports, people are always going to try and cheat. And I think human nature, some people are still going to try and do that. People, when you fight in the main event, they know they're going to be tested, but they think they can outsmart the system. There's always going to be people that try and do that. Will they get away with it? That is the big question.

So now there's a higher percentage that they're going to get caught, but it's not guaranteed they're going to get caught. I just hope that Talis Lytis is a moral man. I hope he can look himself in the eye, and I hope that he does the right thing, and it hasn't been cheating. Have you been impressed with his career resurgence? I mean, who expected this? The guy was out of the UFC.

I don't think many people saw this coming. You know, he was out of the UFC and he had some wins and he came back. And, you know, for me, that's the sign of a true fighter. You know, because a lot of guys, they have a career like he did. And he had a title fight. I had some big fights. And then they get cut from the organization. And they pack it in.

They become a coach or they go back to Jiu-Jitsu or whatever it may be. Talley's actually went and fought all over the world, racks up some wins and got back in the UFC. That to me tells me that he has the heart of a fighter and that he won't give up in the fight, that he has the will to win. The fact that he fought his way back, that's very impressive.

But also, when I look at his fights, which I have done, his strike has maybe got a little better. But when I look at his old fights, which I also have done, I don't really see any difference. You know, I still see the same fighter. He still throws the same shots and he still looks for the takedown. So, you know, I don't really see him being all that much improved. He looks a little bigger.

He's obviously been on a very stringent, strengthening routine. And, you know, that obviously paid dividends. Do you have concerns? No, not at all. I never have any concerns. No, no, no, no, when you did the quotations there. It was just a reflex. I don't know why I did that. What about this picture that he tweeted?

He sent you a message. What's up with that? Well, you know, he attempted, I think. I think that was his attempt. Now, either he doesn't speak very good English, which I know is not the case. So he held up a sign, which was, you know, he said he's going to win by submission. That's great. Of course he thinks he's going to win. I think I'm going to win.

You know, people talk about trash talk. I've never been a trash talker. You know, I just say I think I'm going to win the fight. And somehow that's deemed as being trash talk-esque. Right. There are those quotation marks again. And so that kind of opened the door a little bit. So I responded, you know, but good for him.

Of course he thinks he's going to win the fight, as do I. That's what makes it a fight. That's what makes it interesting. And that's why people should tune in this Saturday, Fox Sports 1, 12 o'clock, midday. Explain something to me here for a second. someone who grows up in England, how do you really feel about Scotland? I know it's part of the UK, but is it really, like, are you guys friends or is there a rivalry there? Like, how are they going to receive you on Saturday?

Well, everybody in Scotland has the same color passport as I do. You're all the same passport. I can get in the car and I can drive to where I was born, well, not born, but where I was raised, I can drive there in two and a half hours. So, you know, it's not like some great land over the other side of the horizon. It's Great Britain, of course, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales. We've all had history over the years, but we are all united. And I believe I will get, you know, the home field support on Saturday.

You know, there was a referendum as to whether or not Scotland wanted independence. I don't get involved in politics and things like that. That's none of my business. But they did choose to stay a part of Great Britain. So, you know, I guess that's positive. I chair for Andy Murray, the tennis player. Hopefully Andy Murray will chair for me. He's Scottish, by the way, for those.

American list. Is he going to be there? Is that what you were saying? He's going to be in attendance? That's a big get. Maybe an example of a Scotsman, you know, that I cheer for, and maybe a Scotsman may in turn cheer for an Englishman. Now that you got back on track was, right,

now that you got back on track against CB, do you feel like, okay, this is it? I'm posting on track, I haven't got back. I never got off track. Well, I may have lost a fight because Luke Rockhold headbutted me, cheating. The total amount somehow drops his level and head butts me. That's always a little.

suspect to me. I think Rockhold's going to beat Chris Wydenman, your boyfriend, unfortunately. I like Chris. I really do, but I think Luke's going to beat him. I'm going to beat Talley's. I'll beat some of a idiot later in the year, all autumn, wherever you are in the world, whatever you want to call it. In the autumn, I'll beat someone else, and I'll rematch Luke Rockhold for the belt, and I'll take what's right in mind and give him the hiding that he rightly deserves. Oh, my God. What has seen that would be, right? But it all planned out. So easy.

So easy. Come on. Wow. I love that. I don't know what the big deal is. All I had to do was write it. So now you're visualizing it, but you feel like, okay, this is it. This is, I'm, I, let's be honest.

You did lose. It's hard to get it to actually, you know what? I correct myself because these days in the UFC, you can get a title shot if you get knocked out. It's that easy. It seems to be. Who are we talking about? Alexander Gustafson. Oh, yes, that's right.

Yep, yep. He did. It's a weird time. I mean, all these people get title shots. I mean, why can Michael Bispin get one? For God's sakes, I mean, you've been around for so long. You're so damn popular. I think if you win this fight, you should get a damn title shot.

It's enough. You will go, come on. You guys are getting title shots off losses. If I was to get a title shot, then, you know, I don't think there would be an uproar or an outcry. People would be like, yeah, okay, cool. Bispin's getting a shot. I've been in a position for fights for title fights before. I've been in number one contender matchups.

Unfortunately for me, I fought people that took steroids and they robbed me of those number one of those title fights. I lost those fights. I lost the number one contender fights. Lorenzo Fetita came into my dressing room when I fought Vito Belfort and said, listen, Anderson's in the house tonight.

If you beat Vitor, we want you to call out Anderson. He said, don't start a riot because Brazilians are crazy. But if you want to call out Anderson, be my guest. The floor is yours. Now, of course, I lost that fight. I can't be banned at the UFC. That is down to nobody, but me and Vitor treating his backside like a dartboard. Wow.

Okay. Well said. Fair enough. Hey, final thing for you. What about this guy, Darren Till? Is he the second coming in England? Who's someone that you're really excited about from your home country? You know, that's a good question.

Darren Till certainly has all the makings. He's got all the ingredients. My tieboxing coach, Das Morris, he's. just out of the shot here. He runs a huge moitai show in England called the main event. And I was there recently and he said, Darren Till competed

on that event. And what did he knock someone out? The champion? The green champion, he knocked him out. We were talking about him a long time ago. And not only that is very marketable. He's charismatic. Of course, fluent in Brazilian and Portuguese. And, you know, it seems to be the complete package. So, yeah, of course, why not?

I feel like there's, what I'm getting at is, As I was talking about with John Kavanaugh just a couple of minutes ago, much like what Connor's doing in Ireland, you've been doing for a very long time in Europe, and I feel like now we're starting to see the effects of your success come to fruition, where all these young Europeans, and in particular, Englishmen who are coming to the UFC, and really no longer can we say, oh, the English can't wrestle or anything.

Complete packages are coming into the UFC, and I feel like this is 100% byproduct of your success for the last decade in the UFC. So kudos to you. Yeah, well, you know, I mean, I appreciate you saying that. I don't know if I wholeheartedly take that compliment because, you know, of course, I've been around for a long time, but I don't necessarily think that I was the inspiration or the...

I do. The turning point for people taking up mixed martial arts. Well, it's very kind of you to say. And, of course, if that is the case, then that's fantastic. But, you know, I don't wrestle with my laurels and disappear at my own backside. I think about these things. I'm still just a man trying to achieve what I can in this life,

trying to do what I can, trying to make the most out of everything. I remember a guy called Tate Fletcher, who was on The Ultimate Fighter, Season 3, and he said to me on the show, and I'll never forget this. He said, you know, and Tay, if you follow him on Instagram or what, he's kind of a deep guy, it's kind of trippy, weird, out there guy, actually. And I probably shouldn't have even listened to him because he's off his face. He said, we all get given a grape. And what we do with that grape is up to us.

Some of us might just eat the grape, or some might take that grape and turn it into wine. Well, you know, I've taken that grape and I've turned it into wine and I want to continue making wine This is kind of going off on a tangent. I like it. I like it. I like it. You know, I will continue making wine, Ariel, and hopefully we get to drink it one day. Wow.

Let's end on that note. I appreciate you coming on. I thought my... Let's end on this note. Saturday night, Talis Lytis is getting knocked out. After that, whoever's got the belt, Luke Rockall, Chris Wyman, Jackeray, your old. mayor or gay Jesus whoever it is i'm coming for you make no mistake boom thank you michael best of luck to you you're the man yeah appreciate it there he is michael bisming wow um great

stuff there there is only one michael bisming we will miss him whenever he leaves he main events on saturday night actually it's saturday night in scotland but it's saturday afternoon here in the united states fox sports won a very important fight for him against tisleous ladies all right let's move along. This man has been very patient. We've had to move him around a couple times on today's show, but here he is. We've wanted to talk to him for quite some time. You know, I remember when I could call up Farah Zahabbi and say, hey, Farah, can you come on my show? And without question, he would be on. But these days, he's so popular, he's so in demand that I really have to work hard to do it. So I'm happy he's here. Faraz, are you there? Oh, he may have hung up. Mr. Zahabi.

I called it. He's too big time. We'll get him. a second, hopefully. Of course, he was in Roy McDonald's Corner. That's what we want to talk to him about. Let me tell the world that this is happening. What a fun show today, huh? Michael Bisping, always bringing it. And how about, oops, how about my friends over in Europe? I often say that the European UFCPR team is by far my favorite. And then I come to find out that they were trying to convince Bisping to not do the show. What's up with that? Anyhow, let's move along. And welcome back, Mr. Farazahabia. Is he there?

Hey, Ariel, can you hear me now? Yes, I can hear you. Okay, good. I was talking before, but you weren't able to hear me. So you heard my intro there where I said you're getting... Yes, I did. Thank you very much. But now are we even...

You shuffled me around a couple of times today, and I accommodated you. Yes, I appreciate that. So are we even finally? 100%. I apologize... You have the best show, and I'm always happy to be on it, man. Well, thank you. Thank you. Okay, so let's talk about Saturday.

I was just saying to John Anick that it actually, I have no problem saying this, it hurt my heart. It truly did. I was very sad for Rory and not taking anything away from Robbie, very happy for him. He fought very well. But when you know Rory and his journey and everything he's been through and for it to end like that, it was hard to watch. What was it like for you who knows him better than most?

Well, you know, it's hard to watch because, you know, we're so close yet so far type thing and worked really hard for this, but this is a hard life. You know, you can't focus on the setbacks. You've just got to focus on what to do next. And I think it was a good lesson. I think he had become stronger from it. I think, you know, if you look at Robbie Lawler, he lost his first fight with Hendricks, arguably in round five. And he learned from it, and he won because I think of that loss.

And he learned from that loss, and he moved forward. I think Rory's going to do the same. He's going to learn from this loss. He's never done around five before. It was the first time he was in championship rounds. Lawler has done it before. He's experienced. And that experience, you can't learn.

You know, you just can't learn. You have to experience it. You have to get that chance in the Octagon to do it. And I think Rory got that chance, and he'll be better for it. Did you think he was winning the fight going into the fifth? Yes, yes, absolutely. I think I had it exactly like the judges had it three to one. And I told Rory, right before going in the round five, I said,

all you have to do is, you know, just be the smartest fighter in the world, and you become a world champion. You're winning. It's three to one. I was clear. I mean, I had the exact same card as the judges. Yeah, as did I, by the way. Did you have any idea what kind of injuries he was dealing with going into the fifth round?

Because I do know that he had fractured his foot by that point, right? Yeah, he did. I wasn't aware of fractured foot. I knew his nose was broken. There's nothing I could do about it. You know, we brought in the cut man to help him work on it, but at the end of the day, you know, there's nothing you can do about it. I just wanted him to adjust and make sure he doesn't get hit again,

but he wasn't able to avoid getting hit again, and it was just too much. Did you feel as though if the third round had an extra minute or 30 seconds he would have finished the fight. It seemed like he was so damn close. So it's very possible, yes, of course. You know, I mean, you saw Robbie who was wobbling back to his corner. You know, he has that tough attitude. He was, you know, he was cheering on the crowd as he was dave.

You know, just shows his experience, you know, his heart. But I think, yeah, if he were hit him a couple more times and he went down to a knee, Big John would have stopped it. I thought also it was very close to being stopped in round four, but it wasn't enough. You know, Robbie is very sturdy. He's very strong. He's a veteran.

He didn't panic. and that's stuff that comes with years and years of fighting. You know, he said it back. That's 10 years coming to fruition, you know, 15 years of fighting. And it's true. It's true. It takes that long to become a master, you know, and Rory's on his way.

This will make him stronger. This will make him better, like we always say. And it's true, you know. Setbacks make you stronger. What was Rory like all week? And in particular Friday after seeing the Wands and just the magnitude of this event being a part of this event, it was a huge deal for him finally getting a chance to fight for the belt?

was it getting to him at all? Was he a little nervous? What was he like? It was just normal. This is usual. Honestly, he's been fighting since he's young. For him, it's just a fight. And of course, you know, there's a pedal on the line for sure.

But at the end of the day, the routine was just normal. We didn't do anything different. We just prepared for Robbie like we would if it was not a pet of fight, you know. Was what we saw on Saturday the game plan? Did he execute it? Yeah, he did. He executed it beautifully. You know, he went for the finish.

He worked really hard, and I think it tired himself out a bit. Robbie kind of got his second win, laid in the fifth round. Again, you know, Robbie's been deep in the five-rounders before, hard five-rounders, and this is Roy's first time, and I think he had to save a little more for round number five. And I think he put a little bit too much in round number four, possibly, you know. So that's interesting. You say that because I thought, you know, from my very amateur perspective, that maybe if he was a little more aggressive in the beginning of the fourth,

round, he could have capitalized on those wobbly legs that Robbie appeared to be on, but you were happy, or maybe you thought he was too aggressive? Is that accurate? It could go either way. Okay. Nobody knows. You know, if you went, would have went more, maybe he would have finished him. If you would have went less, maybe he would have read out a decision.

Who's to say what would have happened? Nobody would know. But in my opinion, you know, I think Rory has to learn that five-round fights is a different type of cardio. It's a different pace. And, you know, I've prepared a lot of, you know, George, for a lot of 10-rounders, five-rounders, you know, I think we've done like 10, 10-5-rounders, I can't remember how many, but it's a different pace, you know, I think Rory was fighting a three-round pace, and Robbie

was on a five-round pace, and that's why it made a huge difference. You know, I think it was a three-round fight, Rory would win two rounds to one, and it would be pretty decisive, you know, I don't think anybody would argue with that. But at the end, the five-rounders, five-round fights are different fights, and I think we have to, Rory has to explore that more, and hopefully get a few more five-round fights in this career, and he'll really start to understand what a five-round fight is. Because 10 more minutes is a whole different world. Right, right. You know, it's far more, it's far more aerobic than aerobic. So it is, it's almost a different, it's almost like, it is just a whole different world? Those head kicks were so effective. Is that

something that you guys actually pinpointed beforehand and knew that they, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. Because, you know, you can't, you can't defend everything. And so he was defending their job, he was giving us something else, you know, and that's how I like to look at it. We, that was game plan You know, he was at Game Plan B because Robbie was fighting a certain way. We're focusing on a different method of attacking him. I believe that the way you're standing, there's always an opening, and he was just open for that night. And luckily, we're prepared for it.

There's a gift floating around of Rory after the fight. I don't know if you've seen it, but again, it's kind of hard to watch of him on the ground. They come and try to clean him up, and he just kind of collapses. What kind of shape was he in when you got in the cage and were able to actually, you know, touch him, hold him, speak to him. He was fine. I think he was just upset. I think he was just like, man, you know,

he felt like he was just there at the finish line. He was just more disappointed, you know. And I talked to him after, and he was like, he's ready, he loved it. He had a great time. He had a great experience, you know, after we left from the hospital, he was fine. And he was really excited to fight again.

He told me what to fight again. He was really excited about getting back into it. He had a blast. But when he realized there was only four minutes left and that he was leading, because he didn't, it was someone in the moment. He wasn't thinking about the previous rounds. And we watched the fight and we talked about the fight.

He was really, he was like, look, I was just at the finish line. So I think it was a lot of emotions there, too. But Rory's not a very emotional guy, you know. So I think it's going to be short-lived and he's going to get back to it. So he actually, he tweeted that, that it was the time of his life. He enjoyed all of that. Yeah, it was a time of our lives, man. It was a great time.

It was a great adventure. Wow. Absolutely. So you went to the hospital and you tweeted out this amazing. picture, a beautiful picture. What a picture. I mean, that to me encompasses... It is a great picture. Oh, my God. The legendary stuff. What did they say to each other?

Yeah, they shook hands. They hug, you know? It was like, just friendly talk. You know, Robbie's a great guy. He's a family man. He's a very respectful guy. And that's the most beautiful part of the sport, you know, and that's what I was important. That's why I put out that picture. I want everybody to see, you know. These guys are good guys. They're family men. You know, they're gentlemen like everybody else.

They entertain everybody. They push themselves to the limit. It's nothing personal. It's just sports and it's just fun and it's just entertainment. And it's about martial arts. It's not about, there wasn't a monomoffity at all. Who initiated the conversation there? Well, I think, I'm not sure. I think when I saw Rabu made eye contact, we said, hello,

I said, come over here, take it, he was all for it and came in. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, honestly. But we just like, he was in the same room as us. Wow. That's great. So as you were bringing him in, we're like, hey, what's happening? We're all happy to see each other. We took a quick thing.

It wasn't awkward? His family? No, not at all. Not at all. He's a nice guy, Robbie. He's a very good guy. I have a lot of respect for Robbie. Especially, you know, I've seen all of Robbie's fights, you know, since back in the day.

So I feel like I know the guy already. You know, I've seen his so many of his fights. I've seen his losses. I've seen his big wins. I've seen everything, you know. So for me to meet the guy, it was a pleasure, you know. I've been following his career for so long. Do you know if Rory needs surgery on his nose or his foot?

I don't think so. They said it looks straight. If it is crooked, they might have to feel. fix it. But there was swelling, too much swelling for them to know. They said they're going to give it a week for the swelling to go down, but from what they can tell it was fully straight. After the foot, they only put one of those, like, temporary casts on it. I don't know if he's going to need a cast at all. I have no idea. Was he able to fly home? Yeah, yeah, he flew home the next day and he's doing good. You know, I heard... swelling is down. Okay. He's in good spirits, no problem. Yeah, yeah, he's doing good. I heard two things predominantly after that fight. A, George St. Pierre wants none of that. And B, this now opens the door for George St. Pierre. Now the coast is clear. What's your take on all that? Well, you know, I haven't talked to George yet and, you know, whatever he wants to do, I'll support him, you know, and, you know, for me, he's a great spot to wait of all

time so he can do whatever he wants. You know, if you want to get back in the game, it's up to him. She wants to stay out of the game. It's up to him. There's nothing to prove. I remember in Montreal he said he was going to be there to watch Warren and help him prepare for the fight. Why didn't he go? He had other things. You know, I think he just shot a movie. He just came back from Europe. He's just shooting a movie, a kickboxer, etc.

So he's his agenda's full. He was just watching it at home like everybody else. Oh, so he was watching it, though, right? Well, of course, of course. Yeah, yeah. I didn't miss a big fight like that. Of course, I'll watch it. And you haven't talked to him since.

You have any kind of insight into what? We've been texting each other. We text each other. What do you say after it? Well, he was just like, you know, good job, good try. We'll get back to it. And that's it. Okay. Where do we stand now with him?

You don't have to ask you that. What do you mean? I just told you. I haven't talked to him. No, no, no. But before the fight, I mean, what do you think? Now with the new drug testing and all that stuff, what do you think? I think it's definitely a step in the positive direction, you know. But I think George, he just has to train for fun and do what he feels like doing. He doesn't owe anybody anything now. So if he feels like he wants to take a fight on, he might wake up tomorrow and feel like he wants to take a fight on, I'll back him up.

If he doesn't feel like he doesn't feel like it, there's always another fight. There's always another thing to do, you know. So for me, I don't think I need to put him in that situation where we need to call on him and put pressure on him. He's just got to do what he wants. He's paid his dues. He's done his fight. And that's it. You know, just enjoy your life.

He's put in this time. I feel like, what's the point of coming back at this point? I mean, you left as champion. I don't know. There's nothing for him to prove left. You know, for me, there's nothing from him to prove left. So if he wants to do it, it's out of pure sheer enjoyment. it and for the kicks of it, for the adventure of it all.

He's given up so much of his time and energy in his life to do what he did, and now he's enjoying his time as a retired champion or, you know, a sabbatical, if you want to call it, whatever you want to call it. And tomorrow if he calls me, he says he wants to do a fight, I'll be there for him. But I don't want to be the guy who's pressuring him. I don't feel he needs to answer to anybody. He's done what he has to do. Right.

But he's around the gym a lot, right? Is he helping you out? Yeah, of course. He comes and he trains on it regularly, but right now he's been traveling and shooting a few movies now. He's done a couple of movies back to back, so he hasn't been in the gym as much. One last thing on George,

do you think you'll ever tell us what he's going to do because I feel like we keep bothering you guys with these questions because he left the door open. I don't think he just says I'm retired. I don't think he's decided. You know, that's the bottom line. He's just getting some perspective. He's trying new things in his life,

and he's going to see what he likes to do. He's still a very young guy, and I don't know if he's going to find another interest or if he's going to get bored with his day-to-day routine. And right now he's shooting a couple movies. Let's see how that goes, you know. And by the way, I say that he has nothing to prove and all that. I would be the first one to salivate if he does come back.

I'd love to see him back because I love watching him. But I can understand if he doesn't want to do it. Now, two quick things before I let you go, what happened to Mike Ritchie? He was about to fight for the belt. And now we just found out he's out. What happened there? He had an injury in the gym.

He broke two legaments in his wrist. Okay. Tendons in his wrist. So he's out of the fight. That's a bummer. Yeah, it sucks. Are you still doing the commentary for a Titan now that they're on Fight Pass? Yeah, yeah, I am. I believe I am. I'm flying down this weekend there.

Okay. Do you have any other fighters on the card or was just him? We have Desmond Green fighting as well. Oh, that's right. And final thing, I saw this video of you training with a man by the name of Dan Bilzerian. Yeah. This internet legend of sorts. Yeah. You were holding mits for him. What was going on there?

How did you get roped into that? Well, they called me up saying, Hey, Dam Duzern wants to work out with you. I'm like, okay, I didn't know who it was. I picked up, said, all right, fine, I'll do it. We just did it. It was just on the whip. I was in the gym anyway, so I just trained him for about an hour.

This is a very rich man. I hope he paid you very well for this. Did he pay you well? I'll send you your percentage. I'll send you your cut. What was he like? This guy's kind of a... Very nice guy.

He's a character. Very, very, very sweet guy. Very, very, very nice guy. Very quiet, soft-spoken. Oh. And I trained him hard, and he took it. You know, I messed him up a little. You know, I hit him hard.

I made him work hard. Really? It looked like he was going hard. He told me, yeah, he told me he did Navy Shield training. I want to test him out. He's a tough guy. I heard that you were going to... I heard you were going to try to get him to fight CM Punk.

Is that accurate? He's a hard puncher. You'd be surprised. Really? It's hard, but he's got a powerful shot. Wow. Yeah. He's like a purple belt in Jizzo also.

He'd be interesting. Yeah, that would be an interesting fight. He's a... He's a seasoned grappler and he hits really hard. I couldn't help but think, like, what is Farah's thinking right now? When I saw this little video, what's going through his mind? And I hope they're paying him well for this. I'm just looking out for you, my friend.

Thanks, man. I appreciate that. Faraz, a pleasure as always. I'm glad we're back on good terms. Congratulations on a great fight. I know it didn't go your way, but it was amazing. One of the best I've ever seen showed a lot of heart, and you should be very proud. So congratulations on that, and we'll talk to you soon.

Thank you. talk you guys. All right, there he is. Farazahabhi, I'll be joining us. Great stuff from him, as always. A hard one to watch if you're a fan of Roy McDonald, but gosh, you've got to give

Robbie Loller a lot of credit. In my opinion, he was down 3 to 1, and how often do you see in a title fight, no less, the champion with the belt slowly, you know, moving away from him, off his waist, to the challenger, take it up a notch and go for the finish

in the fifth round. It's not something you see often. And it was a very close. three rounds to one. And I can understand why people, including Robbie Loller, who I spoke to on Sunday, would think that that's, you know, debatable at best. But he took it up a notch and he has that extra gear. The guy is unbelievable. What he has done since returning to the UFC, nothing short of amazing. I don't know one person. I don't know one person who predicted this. This is a guy who was sleeping at press conferences, who was losing to fighters who at one time were way beneath him.

and ever since he came to the UFC as a welterweight, he's completely changed. He's a world-class fighter. You know, he's putting something together that I certainly didn't expect, and I never saw anyone call it when he came. When they booked him against Josh Kosteck, I was like, oh, the UFC's trying to get rid of Robbie Lawler. Let's book him against a wrestler.

He has this big contract from Strike Force. Let's book him against a wrestler and, you know, maybe restructure that deal, pay him something, whatever. And he annihilated cost check and went on this great run. The only time he's lost in the UFC was against Johnny Hendricks, and let's be honest,

he was a minute away of winning that fight. He was a minute away. It was a takedown that sealed the deal for Johnny Hendricks, in my opinion. And now there's an interesting situation playing out at 170. As I said earlier, I don't really think that there's a clear-cut number-one contender.

I want to see Hendricks v. Woodley. I think that fight makes a lot of sense. I think it would be a great fight. And I want to see if Woodley could get over that hump. You know, he's had some opportunities against Jake Shields, against Roy and McDonnell. He's had those shots, and for whatever reason, couldn't seal the deal. This would be a big opportunity. And then you have Matt Brown who came back and Carlos Condit, who Annick spoke of.

I think that fight is one that we've been waiting for for a long time. Remember, they were supposed to fight a little less than two years ago on. Fox and it didn't come to fruition. I would love to see that one play out. I actually think it was it was supposed to be Brown Condit. Brown got hurt and then Woodley was the one who stepped up and got the Condit fight in Dallas. And that was the biggest one of his career at the time. Jorge Mazvedal did a great job of calling out Matt Brown, a perfect callout. What do you say? Hala at your boy. Mazvedal looked really good at 170. He had been searching for that knockout for that finish for a long time. He found it in a higher

weight class. Apparently, you know, all the talk of him blowing up and not paying attention to the weight, perhaps a little premature. He said that it was just a slight miscalculation. He ended up making the weight. When we were doing the way-in show, we were told that he wasn't going to make the weight, but he did make it shortly thereafter. And I'm really curious to see how he looks at 170. All of a sudden, 170 is a lot more interesting than it was a week ago. with him doing so well, with Wonderboy Thompson, looking so great, a new face. I know it was his fifth win in a row, but this was a great win for Wonderboy on a big stage in his first UFC main event.

And Gunner Nelson getting back on track in a big way. A lot of people want to see Gunner Nelson versus Wonderboy Thompson in October in Dublin, including Kavanaugh, who spoke about that on Twitter, tweeted about it. I think that makes a lot of sense. I mean, think about that. that striking matchup, right? Think about the styles there. Gunner is so much fun to watch

and it was cool to see his power come to the forefront. Okay. So as I said at the top of the show, Uriah Faber was a very interesting character throughout the weekend in Las Vegas because

good buddy of Chad Mendez, we know that. He was there all week. He wasn't in his corner, but he was pretty close by. He was at the open workout and all that stuff. He had been going back and forth with Connor McGregor for quite some time. And it was obviously a fight that he was interested in when Aldo was initially injured and we got that news.

He sort of campaigned for it. Very briefly just threw out a tweet. And then on Friday, right before the way in, the Fox Sports cameras caught Faber and McGregor getting into a bit of an altercation. That was a nice little subplot. going into Saturday. And then after the McGregor went on Saturday, they announced on Sunday that Faber and McGregor will be coaching Tough 22.

Faber Team USA, McGregor, Team Europe. Well, this is all very interesting. So we had to call upon our good pal. Uriah Faber, who was just on the show not that long ago to help make sense of it all. Here he is, the California kid, Uriah Faber, back in the house. Uriah, how are you? What's up, dude? How are you?

I'm great. Wow. We have a lot to. talk about, my friend. Yeah, man. Let's do it. While the week. Okay, so they announced on Sunday after all of this that you're coaching tough opposite

Connor McGregor. When did that deal happen? How did it come? Was it already in play prior to the fight when you had the altercation? I know you have a history with the guy, but tell us how it all happened. I don't know if you really count that as an altercation. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah.

no, this has happened, yeah, it had been talks for a long time. And I think there was at one point where, you know, had Connor lost to Algo, I was going to coach against him, had he won against Albo, Chad was going to coach against him, that was weeks and weeks and weeks ago. And then, you know, then when the whole change in opponents happened, they just, you know, I mean, I didn't know anything until like two days ago for sure, but they had been mentioning it. And then I had to have a discussion with Lorenzo and kind of sit down and hash things out about, you know, what this all looks like. Because it could put me out for a while as far as competing goes. Right.

That was kind of a bad experience for me. The last time I only thought one time when I had done the coach, the coaching thing. So I'm just had to make sure that it was going to work out for me. and, you know, but I said, yeah. I mean, you don't really turn down these opportunities. It's going to be a great season. Connor's character. He's blowing up.

And I think most guys get swallowed a lot of coaching against him. I was trying to think who else they would have coach against him, you know, as far as being able to banter back. back and forth, et cetera, and, you know, there's a chance that we were going to fight. Right. He won the fight so that that's not going to happen right now. He's got to fight Jose Albin next, but, you know, I'm still at 145 pounds or 135 pounds either way. So it's a fight that could happen in the future.

So it makes sense, and it'll be fun. And I want to give these guys my all the guys that will be coached, and it's going to be awesome. So it's a rare one as far as the American Tufts are concerned. because typically the coaches do fight at the end. Was that a sticking point with you? I mean, that's kind of the goal at the end of this rainbow here. You get the payoff. You get the fight.

That's not happening this time. How do you feel about that? You know, I feel like, you know, Connor is such a big fight for anyone right now. And I think, you know, it sets it up for the future. I don't think that it's a fight that won't ever happen. Okay. So you can continue to build that anticipation. I'm going to continue to get W's.

I think I don't know when they plan to have me if I have to sit down and talk to Lorenzo when I get back and Dana when I get back and kind of see what they have in mind for when I'm going to fight next. But I have a ton of obligations coming up and staying really, really busy and staying in great shape and everything else. So I hope fighting sooner than later. Well, this is going to take what, around six weeks or so? the plan? Yeah, something like that. Okay, so then you'll be done come like September or early, early September, late August, right? Yeah, yeah. How do you feel being around the guy all the time, like having to go through all that again? You know, it's not the most comfortable situation ever, you know, but we'll see. You know, I don't really know until you get there and then I'll go from

there. I mean, my main focus will be making sure that I give these guys a great opportunity. You know, this is a big opportunity for the guys that are going to be on this season. I mean, this is like life-changing stuff. So because the fight is not happening between the two of us, but possibly

in the future, I'm sure there'll be some banter back and forth. You know, I've got a whole team of guys with team off the male that will most likely be, you know, opponents for for McGregor for the next 10 however many years however long he'll be fighting etc

so uh you know that's an interesting side of this story also I've got you know a guy like Lance Palmer who's a world series of fighting champion who's who's uh you know arguably one of the best guys in the world 145 we've got uh Andre feely who's a 45

we got Chad Mendez's a 45 Connor we've got Chris Holdsworth who's bigger than all of our 45-pounders, but it's been a 35-pounder that might be going up there. You know, I mean, we've got a ton of guys that are possible opponents. So it makes sense to have, you know, continue to be in the face of Connor and figure out who's next. So explain to us what happened on Friday,

because once this news came out on Sunday, everyone said, oh, it was rigged, it was fake, it was just to build for the show. But, you know, I have a different perspective in talking to the camera and all that, and I'm fairly confident that that wasn't the case, but from your perspective, what exactly happened there when you guys ran into each other? What is up with that? Tell us what happened.

It does look like it was rigged. I was thinking the same freaking thing. So, I mean, it was super weird in general, but it is what it is. So I was in backstage, and there's, like, common hallways, et cetera, and there's, like, one that men's, this bathroom with one toilet in there,

one sink, you know, everything else, and then there's a female one. So I'm waiting in line for the bathroom, and there's someone behind me. He's like, hey, did you check the girls? Because there's a lot more guys in the backstage of the UFC event and there are girls. I said, no, I'll check it.

I said, watch the door for me. So I go in the bathroom and, like I told this guy, yeah, I'm just going to go, you know, go to pee real quick. I'll be right out. just make sure if anyone comes and they know I'm in here. So anyways,

I'm washing my hands and someone's like trying to shake the knob and I'm like, this is weird, and I'm like shaking the knob. So I opened the door and it was somebody trying to open the door for Connor and as I'm walking out,

he's walking in it, and we're just like honestly like nose to nose. And super random. Wasn't in anybody's in, you know, locker room or anything like that. It was just in a hallway. And it just so happened

that we get face to face. And the guy looks like he was going to die, man. It was crazy. He goes, says, like, what's tough little man? And he, like, rub my head, and then I grabbed his stomach, and I was feeling his ribs and his scrawny little ribs. And I was like, man, are you going to survive? And he did like a, like, I felt like it was kind of a maybe,

I don't know what he was thinking. He was like an arm drag to a double. And I just, I mean, he was doing a move. and I just had instincts to turn back We're doing like a little wrestling so I did a redrag and ended up You know holding both his arms Because I don't know what this guy is fucking thinking

So I've holding both his arms against the wall I don't know if he's gonna lose his shit Or what's going on in his head And then he's like, get your fucking hands off me I'm like dude I don't have my hands on you motherfucker I mean It was just It was completely off guard for me

and then he just walked away and went to the bathroom and I walked away too. It was kind of confusing. So it wasn't like a real off vacation. I don't think he was like really actually trying to fucking go for a massive take down on the cement right before way ends. Right. You know, it was just kind of falling in things. And I don't know where it got heated a little bit. I guess when it was.

I love that smile as you walked away. You were smiling at him. It was, and you're wearing that Reebok outfit, which I got to be honest, it takes some getting used to, especially for you. I don't know why with you it takes them getting used to, because I'm so used to you wearing, like, the torque stuff, and I don't know, it just was like, what is your eye favorite walking away in that outfit? The whole thing was just very amusing. Yeah, it was. It was strange, you know? But I thought it was funny.

I mean, it was just weird, you know? Like, what exactly was he trying to accomplish there? and, you know, because I didn't know if it was going to escalate, escalate, I just, you know, put him against the wall and, like, kind of saw where we're at. And I still don't know where his head was at. Okay, so. He honestly felt frigging horrible. I was like, dude, this guy's going to, this guy's a blow over and a, if a breeze came right now. Wow.

Well, in the end, he wins. And it was a fight that looked good for, for Chad. you know the first round, I thought he won, and the things were going well, and then he has him on the ground, and he's in his guard. He's on the round forever on the second round. He was winning the second round as well, would you say? But then he goes, yes, but then he goes... He's winning the whole fight.

He goes for the submission. He passes guard, goes for the submission, and then that proved to be a big mistake, because that gave Connor an opening. What did you make of the fight up until that point with Chad dominating, and do you believe if he had a full training camp, he could have actually finished him or not finished him, but maybe even won the fight. Well, there's no doubt in my mind that it would have been a different fight 100%. And you got to see, first off, Connor is a tough dude, no doubt.

He was eating elbows and taking punches. The guy likes to fight, too. You know, he's waiting for his opportunity and finish the fight when he had his opportunity. 150% it would be a different fight, and I think for sure that Chad would win. I mean, the takedowns were effortless. Now, you've got to understand with Chad. Chad never gets out of shape to where he's like a party animal

and doing drugs and getting belligerent, things like that. But Chad is a hunter. That's like his passion. As soon as his fight camps over, he's like hunting, meaning he's up at like six in the morning, like scouting the duck route and looking for deer poop and crap like that.

You know, like, that's his life, right? So I know Connor trained his butt off as a huge opportunity for him. He's fighting Jose Alba who isn't lost in 10 years, et cetera, et cetera. You know, this is a big huge opportunity. Chad trains for two weeks.

And he's been, you know, he did a tough mutter, which is, you know, a good little run. He hasn't been in the gym. He taught like two wrestling practices. And, I mean, you know, as you saw, his game with the takedowns was pretty open. I don't think that Connor showed that he's a very good grappler in the least bit. He showed that he's got great stand-up that he's probably the biggest guy in the weight class. He's got a huge head for the weight class and take a punch and likes to fight.

Now, on a different note, if Chad Mendes were training for the biggest fight of his life, for the biggest opportunity of his life, but the big he's been working on for eight, knowing about it for more than that for 10 to 12 weeks, you're going to see a different chat, a guy that would not fatigue. And then it becomes who's able to implement their game. Can Connor land those punches?

And can Chad land those takedowns? But Chad landed a bunch of big solid punches as well, you know? Did Chad gas out in, like, the first minute, as people are suggesting? Man, it looked like it a little bit. I mean, he didn't completely gas out, but, you know, he had one sparring day in that two-week camp because you don't want to risk injury, etc. But one geared up hard sparring day, and if they ever played the footage, he was feeling terrible. You know, like he almost didn't finish the last two rounds because he was so frustrated that he didn't feel. I don't want to feel like this.

I want to feel fucking good. he's screaming and fucking bloody nose and everything else and then he pushes through and finishes the two rounds and then we put him through like a five round uh like conditioning thing and he felt terrible during that um but you have to you have to jump you have to jump into that um you have to jump into that uncomfortable feeling in order to feel you know what it's going to feel like in a fight and he was not happy about how it was feeling but knew that he had to do what he had to do, you know? So after that, it was just conditioning

and everything else to try to get in the best of shape possible. But, I mean, you know, Connor, I heard Connor say he dominated the whole fight and everything else. I mean, it's got to be comical at some point. I mean, he's got to be joking on that front, but he did do a great job of taking his opportunities

and being fluid and powerful with his punches. What about his coach telling me? earlier today that he did absolutely no wrestling training at all because of his injured knee? I believe it. I mean, I'm not going to say they're lying or anything, that's for sure. But, you know, I mean, it doesn't...

This is what I'm trying to say. Just like stand-up, I mean, Connor's stand-up is fluid and poised and he's got some tricky stuff that's really... It comes really natural to him. And he said he's in boxing his whole life. You can see that. Chatt has been wrestling his whole life. So in a camp, could he get a little bit better at defending a takedown, for sure?

Is he going to close the gap and be able to stop, you know, the grappling on that level? I don't think so. But, I mean, of course, it would be a different fight for both guys. And props to Connor for stepping up and taking a fight that is, I mean, that's got to be a scary fight for his coaches and everyone else. when he knows he hasn't been able to do any wrestling because of his knee or whatever the case is. So props to him for taking it, but of course it would be a different fight on both sides. Do you have any idea exactly when Chad broke his thumb and do you know if he needs surgery? I believe he's already in a calf and he does not need surgery.

It was a break. I'll have to double check on that. He said he doesn't know, but he thinks it was on the first takedown. When he first took him down, he's kind of holding his neck and smile on a corner. Connor, like, threw a knee and he just like a nice little bounce and dropped him to his butt. And he said that he tried to punch over Connor's hands that were covering his face. And I think his thumb caught the top of Connor's head as he like brazed with a punch. So he said it was right off the bat, which is funny because, you know, he still kept throwing punches.

And even after the fight, he just said, I think I might have broke my thumb. But it wasn't like, I definitely broke my thumb. So the adrenaline was going and everything else, but that couldn't help the situation. It was a lot of misfortune for Chad on this big opportunity, being on two weeks notice, not being in the greatest of shape for a huge opportunity like this, and then having a little bit of bad luck with a thumb break, which is a big part of your game. But, you know, no one could tell what was going on. So it's exciting for the future for Chad.

You know, a big fight with Connor is definitely going to happen in the future for him. I think they both learned a little bit about each other. I think definitely exposed some of Conner's weaknesses, and that was the big question. Like, how good is grappling? Now we know it's not that good, you know. But he is a tough dude, he's a talented dude, and he's a champ right now. I recall you saying that when the going gets tough, Connor crumbles. And I've heard that from other alpha male members.

as well. Did what he did on Saturday, did that change your opinion of Connor and in particular his heart? Because you said this, right? Correct me if I'm wrong. You said that this is a guy who crumbles under the pressure. He was dealing with a knee entry. No. You didn't... A hundred percent. I never said he crumbles under pressure. I said this guy has a... He looks for a way out. No, no, no. Would you let me talk to Mr. Instigator? Go ahead. Go ahead. You know what you... The point of me is you know exactly what I said. And you'll remember when I tell you. Okay. Connor tap to a knee bar.

Yeah. That is something that's something that you can't change. That means he gives up. He has a history of giving up. He has a history of when he's, you know, in pain or the threat of pain or whatever, choosing to give up, which is honorable in our sport, rather than sacrifice, the pain of the knee or whatever it may be. and fight through it. So he has a history documented that he will give up in a submission situation.

He fought, he lost to a choke too. He didn't look like the choke was on very long. He tapped out, he gave up. He got a knee bar. I think it was the first round. Guy, you know, put pressure on, he tapped, he gave up. He doesn't crumble under pressure. He has the ability to give up when his body is in harm.

But I think he's got a lot of heart. It's just, you know, that's the truth. He said it about Porier. He said, Porier gets rocked. You've seen him get rocked a couple different times. We have a history that. Connor said that about Porier. We know for a fact, Connor will tap out.

But he didn't on Saturday. So that's my point. So I guess I use different words, and I apologize for that. I was sort of paraphrasing, but I feel like we're saying this. Oh, yeah. You have a big accent. Your guy makes a lot of mistakes. No, no. But I feel like we're kind of saying the same thing.

Happy to give up? Crumbles under the pressure. I mean, it's kind of the same thing, right? I mean, if you're happy to give up, you crumble under the pressure. Sure. I mean, if that's the way you interpret it, what I was saying is he has given up in the past, and I believe he'll give up again if he's put in this situation, which he wasn't this weekend. Okay.

So my question at the end was going to be, were you surprised he didn't give up, but you don't feel like he was ever put in that spot? No, he never, he was never even, You know, Chad out his neck at one point, and he rolled out and defended it well. But he was never put in a, like, a solid submission now. Okay. Did you see him in a solid submission? No.

I mean, yeah, he went for it. He went for the guillotine, but he couldn't slap it on. So no. But, you know, maybe you were envisioning it. I don't know. I was just trying to see if you were able to, you know, make amends before we get on the ultimate. I'm trying, I'm trying to see, you always think I'm trying to set, you know, make fires. And make amends with who?

You know, with your pal Connor. Well, I didn't say anything that's not true. Did he not give up to a knee bar? Sure. But I do feel like it was maybe a long time ago, a different guy, right? People evolve, people get better. Yeah, maybe. Well, we haven't seen him get caught in submission yet, so we don't know that yet.

Good point. Fair enough. Hey, you fought Jose Aldo. Maybe you do. Maybe you do. Do you think he beats Aldo? I don't know, man. He looked pretty good in the stand up there.

He looks really good on his feet. You know, Aldo is actually his, you know, his base is actually jiu-jitsu. But we've seen him get tired when he grapples as well. I think it's going to be a good fight. I do feel like Aldo is still the more well-rounded fighter after watching, I mean, Conner's grappling display. Do you think he did a good job with the grappling, in your opinion? I mean, I honestly don't think he showed that much. I mean, he got out of that submission, which was, you know, commendable.

Chad was just in his guard, and I think he did okay with, you know, keeping him there and closed guard. And he did land some big punches. I don't know. I don't feel like we saw enough of it to really weigh in on it. But, you know, I'll be honest, I'm not one of these people who said Connor had many holes in his game. I don't believe he's as bad of a groundfighter as people think he is. So you thought he had a good display of grappling? No, I thought he lost the first round.

I thought he was on his way to losing the second round. So I'm not saying, I mean, obviously that wasn't a good beginning of the fight for him. Are you scared of Connor McGregor, Ariel? I just told you I thought he lost. I just told you I thought he lost the first two rounds. How did you think his grappling was? Was it good or bad? Well, look, how many submissions did Chad go for?

How many submissions did Chad go for? How many submissions did he go for? Uh, two. One? I saw one. One. I thought one. One. One, yeah. And who got out of it?

I can't remember, dude. Well, he never had the submission in. He just went for it. He went for it, but he was able to escape. So that's a pretty good showing, right? Sure. So I thought it wasn't okay as far as grappling. As far as wrestling is concerned, it wasn't great because he was taken down. But as far as his actual grappling, I didn't think it was a bad show.

How many times are you taken down? off top of my head. I mean, I could look at the stats. I think it was like three or four. Okay. And honestly, though, Chad's the best, I mean, aside for maybe Cormier,

and since he doesn't really show it how his MMA takedowns are yet, but I would say Chad's the best takedown. Yeah, he looked great. I mean... Enemy fighters, so that is also hard to really, you know, really hard to judge

because Chad takes down everybody. I think it was one of those fights where both guys come out smelling pretty good because Connor took the fight to him as he said he would, he backed up his talk, and then Chad responded with takedowns and ground and pound as we expected him to do so or, you know, that's his forte.

So it's one of the, and then, you know, a mistake and then it's one of those fights that Perf, as you mentioned, leaves the opening for a rematch. You could say, oh, and that's the beauty of the fight, right? So everyone comes out looking great? 100%. So they?

My dad's here taking pictures and me talking to her. You know what I did you're taking pictures of me talking to you. I love your dad. I love your dad. So when do you go to Las Vegas? I leave in like an hour. Oh, wow. Okay, so I'll let you go.

I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were leaving so soon. Then I really appreciate the time. Do you need any advice for me? anything, any kind of pep talk, you're going into the eye of the storm here. You have, you have, you have won the lottery, my friend. This is what everyone wants. They want to go up against, Con.

I know you're not fighting, but you're getting a lot of camera time with them. There's going to be a lot of talking. You are the guy who can represent for your team, for the rest of the featherweights that don't like this man. Do you need me to tell you anything to get you in the right mental space? Yeah, I'd like to get some advice on how to be passively aggressive with your questioning. Wow. How do you, you know, allude your things and then deny them? No.

And then, you know, get under someone's skin. Any advice on that? No. I'm sure the best at. No, I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. Quite frankly, I'm hurt by the insinuation. So here's the deal.

I want to get your opinion on this. Okay. Connor, Frankie, who wins that one? Who do you think? Connor versus Frankie? Well, okay, can I? I'm going to go It's a tough one

That's the tough That's the tough one there Can you tell me first I have no idea I'm asking your opinion I'll go with Connor How does he get him K-O

Gotta be a K-O Does it? Why I guess it could be a decision Yeah it could be a decision Frankie's tough to finish Just ask Gray Maynard Yeah

right now. Okay. So then who you got on Aldo McGregor? Right now, right at this moment, things can change. Right now, 100% Aldo 100% McGregor. I'll go with Connor. Look, can I just say something? And I'll say this because it's on the record.

I said it in an interview before the show on Saturday. I said it on Fox Sports Radio on Friday. You can get the tape. I said this is going to be the worst analysis that you've ever heard. heard about a fight. The worst. The worst. But I just believe that there's some kind of destiny involved here with this guy. I just feel like, I just feel like it's all coming together for him. I don't know why. I don't know if he made it happen. I just, there's just something about him that I feel like he wielded it into happening. And that's why I thought he's...

You know, hey, you can see it in his old interviews. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I see that too. I mean, the question is, who else is thinking the same thing, you know? I guarantee you Aldo had the same thing. I know when I was growing up, I was thinking the same thing, you know. But it is things coming to fruition, but this is the fight game, man. It's a very interesting, very interesting sport, and there's a lot of different ways to win. I'm excited for all these opportunities. I'm excited for myself to get in there.

I'm excited for Frankie Ferraldo. And I'm pumped. I mean, there's no doubt that Connor is really taking things up a level and getting the notoriety in the sport. I mean, it's a good thing with the sport all the way around. And so I'm pumped for it. And it's going to be interesting being face-in-face of this guy having to listen to him for six weeks. I'm looking forward to that, too.

See, this is why I love your eye favor because you can recognize that a rising tide lifts all boats. And I think you're kind of the perfect. You're kind of the perfect foil here because you got a bullproof chest and waterproof back. You'll let things slide off much like you did on Friday. A lot of other people would be like, wow, I got all crazy if there was a small altercation. I don't like that word. You're right. It wasn't an altercation.

And quite frankly, I think too much was made of it. Yeah, we don't really know what it was. It's so weird. Yeah, so, but you'll laugh it off. It helped sell paper views. It was a nice little push, a nice little new subplot wrinkle going to the fight, but you'll laugh it off, and I'm curious to see the dynamic. Will he get under your skin? No one gets under your skin.

Will you get under his skin? Yeah, not really. Right? No one's gotten under your skin. Who got under your skin? Yeah, not really. Not yet. There you go.

It's going to be hard to get out. I don't know, Pubio. You know what? We had a, I don't know. we never really talked about the first interaction and, you know, Connor and I had a backstage interaction before and T.J. was there.

And I feel like I already got under his skin a little bit. I think he got under T.J.'skin in a little bit. There's a lot of tension growing with this team and McGregor, and I've been enjoying it myself. Like I said from the get-go, I've been a fan of Connor's antics and I like watching them fight, but make no mistake. I mean, we're coming after that bell of 145 pounds,

and we've got a whole list of guys, Lance Palmer included and Chapmane's included, to get that W. And so that makes it exciting, man. And we'll see. We'll see if we'll get on each other's nerves or under each other's skin or whatever. I hope, unlike the seasons before,

that they don't cook the books with the European fires. They're trying to build the European market. I know that I have seven guys from our team trout and the ultimate fighter. None of them made it. Oh. Even two of our top guys. So I hope, you know, I've seen him with Bizning,

give him a great team of Europeans and give us a, you know, a hum, a whole hum group of Americans for the casting. So I hope they're not cooking the books because that's going to make it a hard season. I like that term, cooking the books. By the way, one last thing. Who's your coaching staff?

That's a surprise. Oh, really? Any out-of-the-blue characters, non-Alphimal guys? No. Okay. Well, so much of a surprise. But I guess everybody doesn't know. We have relationships with different coaches from all over.

So we've got guys that are kind of satellite coaches that come in on occasion. We have like 40-some-like guys. So maybe someone you haven't really, with us before, but, you know, for the most part, it'll be the, you know, a solid little crew. Wouldn't it be something if you and Bang Ludwig are kind of like assistant coaches together, co-head coaches? That'd be fun. That'd be good TV. Yeah, it could be good. I don't think that's going to happen, but, you know that. That's why you're, this is, this is the advice I was asking for you.

What do you mean? How to, how to take inside knowledge, turn into something that irritates someone. and then act like nothing happens. That's... Every time you come on my show, I feel so good about myself beforehand and then I end the interview feeling very bad about myself. Oh, yeah, right, buddy.

Oh, yeah, you have no clue you just stumbled into that one. Oh, man, you're a crackup, dude. All right, well, on that note, I wish you the best on the show. Safe travels to Las Vegas. Keep us posted. I know you can't say much, but if you can, let us know.

And congrats on getting the gig. I'm happy for you, contrary to popular belief. Oh, I believe you're happy for me, I guess. Let me ask this. Okay. Because there's always a thing. Who do you think would have been a good coach on the show opposite Connor? You?

You were the perfect choice. That would take me out of the equation, though. Aldo. Because I was trying to think of it. Do you think Aldo would want to do it? No. but you're asking me in a perfect world. Gotcha.

Right? Yeah, would you have in your perfect world would Alos speak better English? 100%. He's doing himself a major disservice here. Look at what it did for Machita and so many other Brazilian fighters

as by Junior Dos Santos. He has to try to connect with the people. It's very important. Browal too. Right. Yeah. I feel like Alba's made a little bit effort, but maybe attack it more

wholeheartedly, huh? There needs to be an effort. I think people really love Machita now, more so than ever, JDS as well, because you try. You know, you have to try. Even Anderson, when he started trying a little more, I think it did a lot of good for him in America. With Anderson's thing, it's normal. It's normal. It's okay, but it's normal.

It's true. I know what he was talking about. Yeah, this is what I do. This is how, you know, it's a fight. normal. I got it. Of course. Oh, by the way, one last quick thing before I go, because I really do have to go. It was big news. The best part about Embedded, we saw your girlfriend.

Oh, yeah. That was great, and they even outed her. You met her before. I don't know about that. All right. Well, I meet a lot of people. It's hard to put it. Yes, go ahead. And for you, have I met your wife? I don't think so. You've never had the pleasure.

No, I haven't. But I'd love to have... You've got to bring her around on occasion. Well, you know, we... have kids and all that, but I'd love to have you over maybe Shabbat dinner. My mom will be there. It'll be a very nice thing. What kind of dinner? Shabbat. Shabbat dinner. All right. That sounds good. Bring your dad, bring your girlfriend, your sister, anyone. All right. Master Tong.

Yeah, there is Master Tong. Yeah. He's like the Waldo of the Thai world, man. Bring him. Find him. All right. I thought you got to go, man. I got to go, too. Okay, okay. Take care. Thanks, Jirae. You got it, buddy. All right, good luck to him. There he is, Uriah Faber. He's going to the Ultimate Fighter in Vegas. Okay, I've made him wait long enough.

I don't know even know if he's still there, but I hope he's still there. Todd Duffy is main eventing the show tomorrow in San Diego, and he's fighting Frank Mir. It's a big deal. He's joining us for just a couple of minutes. Todd, are you there? All right, what's up here?

How are you doing, buddy? I'm good. Thank you. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, but I guess it was maybe my way of getting back at you for that interview you gave me a couple months ago. well you liked it you said were you lying to me

well I was just I didn't want to make you feel bad oh so you're lying to me that's terrible no I'm kidding so I interviewed Frank Meir did you see that interview it was posted yesterday I don't know if you saw it but he he said that he feels like he has to do extra media going into this fight because your name's not really

pulling any tickets what do you make of that I mean I could be the case I don't know I think I'm a guy like to set out for two years and people are still talking about, people still want to see, I don't really think that's the case. I mean, I think it's the fact that you got two huge blockbuster cards

coming right before us, and we're kind of smack in the middle of it, you know? And then the co-main event falling out. I mean, he's just looking for any of those yet he can make, probably. He also said that, you know, he's trained with you before, and you're sometimes a guy who, like,

for five minutes you feel like you're on top of the world, and then for the other five minutes, you're kind of questioning yourself, and so I guess, what he was trying, you know, he was trying to maybe insinuate that mentally you can break sometimes. What's he talking about? I mean, I don't think that's a case. I think he saw, you know, he, he saw me train, like, the last six weeks of Mike Russo camp where I had, like, an MCL tear, meniscus tear,

I got shingles. I didn't really have a support system that I, you know, that anybody needs. You know, I think he's just trying to get in the head somehow, maybe, I don't know. You know, I think he's just, like I said, if he's looking for anything he can get a hold of to kind of build his own confidence, maybe. But, I mean, and it could have been maybe a maturity thing, you know. I was 23.

I've only been training for about three and a half years, and, you know, I had a lot to learn at that point. That is true. So you're 24 hours away from the biggest fight of your career. First UFC main event. Put us in your mind right now. What's going through it? You seem very relaxed.

Yeah, I was actually just, I was reading articles on you. who left the Amazon deals and whatnot while on you and your right to finish up. I'll be sitting here. I'm about to eat here in a little bit, and then I just finished up some little yoga, and I think we've got to go down to the room to go right over the way in here a little bit.

Do you have to cut any weight? No, no, no, definitely not. I started camping about 260, 222, and then, you know, as you get in better shape, the weight kind of comes off. So you asked for this, right? I mean, you wanted this, you worked hard for it. Does it feel different?

Do you feel a little extra nervous for? What, you know, because this is, when you ask, when you go out of your way to pick a fight with someone, you got to back it up, right? Yeah, of course. I think anytime you get in a fight, you got to back it up. You don't want to go out there and not perform. Right. That's just, you know. So it's not much different.

It's a fight to fight. Do you don't feel extra nervous, nothing? No, honestly, I don't know if it's a maturity thing if I'm just getting older, but now I like it. I'm kind of probably getting calmer. Wow. Seems like, you know, I do experience nerves early in camp, but I'm like three months out, you know, 10 weeks out. Just to try to build that, you know,

you know, just to make sure that I'm pushing myself and doing the things I need to do. But the closer I get the, you know, I don't, I mean, like all week is been pretty relaxed, probably more relaxed than my camp was, you know. Are you buying the talk that Mier is back, that, you know, the win over Bigfoot signified that he's a major player here? Do you think that was kind of, you know, that that was a rare thing and you'll be able to set him back? Like, do you feel

like you're going to see the best Frank Meere here? Do you think he's on the downslide? I could, man. You never know. I have no idea what he's doing or what he's got going on. I don't, you know, I'm not too concerned about that. I'm worried about myself and just controlling myself. As long as I come out of the fight, there shouldn't be any problems from me. Did you, did you think a lot about your time training with him? Do you have any insight in him? Yeah, not really. Like, I just, you know, I saw things that, you know, I learned things about him.

I'm sure you saw things about me, but I was just so young. Like, it was such a, I was such a different person that I don't, I don't really, don't take much from it, to be honest. You know, the things I knew is that I was competitive. And we didn't really train, train. Like, he had a different methodology of training, and we didn't really, I mean, he may have came in on some shark tank drills, like a minute go while I was sparring. with guys, something like that.

I don't know. I haven't thought so much about it, man. I'm not, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't really merit any weight for me. How do you finish him? I don't know what I want, man, you know, it could be a five-round beat down, it could be a quick knockout, it could be a TKO, it could be a submission. What do you want?

I'm going to take whatever he gives me. What do you want? I just want the W, man, I don't really care outcomes. I just want to go out there and perform with my abilities. That's, you know, that's my focus and the win will come. Okay. last thing, will your advocate be there? I don't know.

I don't know. Yeah, I don't think Blake's going to make it out now. What? You don't know where your advocate is? This is your mouthpiece. I'll try to get a fight. Wouldn't it be funny if you're on the stage, like when Annick's about to interview after the Wayne or you're backstage for Fox and you're like, you know what? One second. And then your advocate comes out and does the interview for you.

That'd be great. You know where he is. Of course. Well, you didn't think about that because he's not there. Oh, I did. But, you know. Surprise? Maybe this is a reason to tune in at 7 p.m. on Fox Sports 1.

Maybe. Anyhow, I appreciate it, Todd. I know you squeeze this in there, and I don't think we've ever had an interview on Way & Day before because there's usually not a Wednesday show. So thank you very much for the time. I wish you the best. What?

What are you doing a Tuesday show for? We'll have that happen just because all the events this week? Yeah, because there was a Sunday card, and I couldn't get back in time for Monday. Oh, okay. It's kind of fun. It's kind of like a pre-show for the Wednesday card. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. I hear what you're saying. Did you get to watch 189, by the way, because I know you were traveling. No, yeah, I saw it. I mean, it was a great card. It was fascinating. Like, nobody's even talked about the fade-away me, Jeremy Seasons. Everybody's really mentioned to Matt Brown.

Nobody's talking about. Crazy, right? You know, Sunday card, there was some great fights, too, man. It was just a great weekend of fights, dude. Like, just George Mopsielle's elbow. This post-fights speech was hilarious. you know, it was just, there was a lot of the weekend, man. It was a great, you know, Connor came through.

I thought that was pretty, you know, in the words of Joe, wow. Yes, very well said. But did it inspire you as a guy who's about to fight just a few days later and you're watching that? I would imagine that would get you a little excited, right? Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, it gets you kind of the zone, it gets you in that headspace. It was fun to watch that card, man.

It was a... Where did you watch it? Great fight. I watch my health on pay-per-view? You ordered it? Yeah. Oh, wow.

Yeah. By yourself? No, I had a group of friends with it. That's fun. Yes. In any event, good luck, Todd. Thanks for the time. All right, thank you.

Okay, we'll look forward to it. It's tomorrow on Fox Sports 1. It's Todd Duffy versus Frank Mears. Always great to talk to Todd Duffy, and I appreciate him taking out some time right before the Wands. The Wands are on at 7 p.m. on Fox 4th 1 today in like three hours.

Wild. All right, we got around 30 minutes to go, so let's get to it. What do we got? What do we got? Okay, we got two quick calls. Let's go to the phone lines. I want to take calls earlier, but things ran a little long here. Let's go to Russell and Colorado.

Russell, are you there? Yes. Hello. What's on your mind? All right. I have a couple of questions for you. Let's get your opinion on something. Okay.

Okay, let's do it fast, right? A lot of us after the fight. Okay. What, what, what? Go ahead. A lot of us after the fight, we stayed around for the post-fight conference, and, you know, everybody's, you know, trying to say, you know, what excuses for Connor or for Chad or whatever. But the biggest thing that came out, I want to get your opinion on, is, was Chad Mendes,

did he really have his heart in it, or was he just sitting in as a substitute, you know, doing them a favor? You know, he really wouldn't, you know, go on the record. you know, about how he felt about it. I want to get your opinion. Are you implying that this was fixed? Is that what you're doing? No, I'm just saying, you know, he had a short fight camp,

and he's like, you know, I really don't care either way it goes. I'm going to go in there and try to kick his ass, you know, give it my all. But, you know, if it doesn't go my way, you know, it is what it is. I didn't get that impression, to be honest with you. I thought he really wanted to win, but he handled the loss of the class. In the back of his mind, he probably thinks. thinks full training cap, don't break my thumb, things might be differently, but look, he handled it like a pro and he got paid a lot and he had a very strong showing which leaves the door.

If he would have gotten annihilated from the get-go, there's not much of a need for a rematch, but he was very strong in the first two rounds and I think this definitely keeps the door open. Look, he should be rooting for Connor to beat Aldo because if Connor beats Aldo, he's on that short list. I don't think he has a lot to be ashamed of. At the end of the day, he took a fight on two weeks' notice against one of the best fighters in the world and looked pretty damn good.

Made a mistake here, got gas there, et cetera, et cetera. So what's he going to say? You know, you walk off with your hell high. I will say this. All the talk of it being fixed is so ridiculous, and if that's what you're implying, I have to say goodbye because it's ridiculous and I can't even address that.

I mean, did you see the punches that were landed? How's that fixed? Enough of this bullshit. He was really going for it. It's just he didn't show a lot of emotion. I'm so tired after, you know, every fight where it goes the way that the promotion probably wanted it to go, where everyone just starts crying that it's fixed. Enough of that bullshit.

I'm so tired of that. No, that's them. That's not me. I know he put it in. And give Connor the credit he deserves. He came back from adversity. Come on. The guy took a punch.

Many punches. Survived wrestling. I mean, enough. Just give him his credit and move on. Okay, what's next? Because we got to go. He does get the credit. that he deserves, but another question I have for you is,

what's with all this passive support for Connor McGregor, for, you know, for true fans who stand behind their fighter, you know, it's like, okay, I'm not going to take nothing away from him, but they're like, oh, well, he's pretty tough, you know, they're giving him all this passive support. I just don't. Which, who? I just don't see what's going on there.

Who, the fans? Yeah, like, if fans are, like, jumping back and forth from, you know, who they were going to support in the first place, now they're kind of with Connor, now they're kind of with Chad. You know, pick one and go with it, you know? Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with, you know, supporting a guy or giving him props if he, if he look good in a fight.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all. A lot of people were very slow to give him credit, and now they're finally coming around. All I could say is there's nothing wrong with seeing a guy as a youngster and saying this guy has the ability. This guy has it in him. And for whatever reason, maybe it was the talk. maybe it was the way he was being positioned.

People didn't want to do that, and I thought that was very silly. I joke with Jeff Wagenheim about this, and he's like, oh, he hasn't been tested. Fair enough, he hasn't been tested. But that doesn't take away all the great things that he's doing right now. He was only beating the guys put in front of him.

He was only selling out the shows that he was on. Dublin, etc. Ratings for Boston, etc. Don't not give him credit because he hasn't fought Aldo yet or Mendez yet. And look what happened. He got that shot on short notice, and he won. He deserves all that credit and then some.

Let's go to Evan in Maryland. Evan, are you there? Hey, Ariel. How's it going, man? Huge UFC fan here from the East Coast. Just listening into your conversation with the other guy, you make a lot of fabulous points. I highly, highly, highly doubt that it was fixed.

There's no way you could even fix something like that. You know, Chad was doing his thing. He did a good job, considering he went two weeks notice and I agree with you. By the way, by the way, not to interrupt, there's no such thing, there's no such thing is highly doubt.

It did not happen. It did not happen. I can assure you as much, as much as, well, a second, as much as Zuffa may have wanted to have that Aldo McGregor fight and they all did, they'd be stupid if they didn't.

It is criminal. It is criminal. It is criminal. It is criminal. You will go to jail. It is not worth it. So this idea of fixing a, fight is absolutely ridiculous. I agree with you. Okay,

your question. I agree with you, Ariel. I'm not arguing to you at all. Anyway, I enjoy the whole card as a whole, and I think the other fights needed to be talked about more. Like, Rory and Robbie, that might even be fired at the year since far. That was I loved it. That was a great fight. You know, in my opinion, Robbie was down

three to one, and then the fifth round, Robbie just landed that bomb and broke, shattered Roy's nose. That got ugly after that. I mean, Robbie just showed heart of the champ, you know? Like, I like the guy a lot.

It was a great performance. The entire main card was unbelievable. Oh, yeah. I don't like to get into this whole, you know, greatest ever, greatest ever, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because I feel like we talk about that now. You know, Arlowski Brown, greatest round, blah, blah, blah, who cares? It was amazing.

It was worth the price of pay-per-view and then some. It was probably worth any money that someone paid to be in attendance and watch that spectacle. and what was best about it. I mean, one of the great things about it, I should say. Those five fights, and if you add Brown, amazing. Those are fights that we'll be talking about for long-time, great performances. They'll all be in the next Bobo Riley video.

They made it feel special. They made it feel different. The fun part about WrestleMania is that it always looks different, right? It feels like a big deal. And this felt like a WrestleMania, to be honest. That's the thing that came to mind. from the videos on the 3D stuff on the octagon mat to the walkouts, the new graphics. I mean, of course, you can't do that every time.

But it all felt new and special and exciting. And I really like that. I really like that it felt, you know, sometimes they all look the same. It's nice to see that sometimes they can think outside the box and present something that's a little different because that adds to it. That makes it more memorable, my opinion. They couldn't have scripted a better show. It was a home run. and in the end, the mega fight survives.

And in the end, Chad Mendez comes out a bigger star. And in the end, Robbie Lawler comes out a bigger star. Roy McDonald comes out a bigger star. I mean, you couldn't have scripted a better show than that. Really? It's amazing. Okay, let's go to New York, Rick, who was actually in attendance at UFC 189.

He was in Las Vegas. And it was the craziest occurrence that brought him there, right? I mean, this is a guy who was in Vegas. looking for a ticket. Actually, he wasn't even looking for a ticket. He was looking for a place to watch it. And then some amazing soul, some kind-hearted man, reached out to you on Twitter, a man who had, he didn't even have a real avatar. He had an egg avatar. He did. I was a little skeptical. Seems suspect. Tell us the story. What happened? Let's do it quickly. So I was eating dinner in Vegas. I was there for the Invictive fights.

Obviously, I wanted to watch USC 189. So I tweeted out, Can somebody help me find a place in Vegas that's showing the fights? I come to find out later that most of the viewing parties and all that stuff were sold out. So I got a few joke answers. I got a few answers of viewing parties, but when I got there, they were sold out. But then one person, Ari Hertzberg, shout out to Ari, who actually came by the show today. Great guy. Sent me a message on Twitter that said, I have tickets in Section 9, Roe C, seats 2 and 3.

So now obviously I wanted to make sure that this was legit So I look into his avatar And it seemed like he was trying to sell them before that So I was like, you know, what's the worst that could happen? I sent him my email and a minute later I got tickets from Ticketmaster So I was in the building. Thanks to Ari. Now you only got to see the Co-Main and Main, right?

Only as it, you know, those were incredible. Those are the ones to see. Well, this is my point. You're tweeting, where can I watch 189? and you get the tickets within minutes, what the hell were you doing for the first three quarters of the card? Running around trying to find a place to watch it.

So you missed the whole damn thing. I didn't miss the part that counted, as you can see from the flag draped around me right now. I love how all the MMA fighting guys who were so quick to not give Connor credit, who were almost, you guys were determined to tear this man down before he was able to build himself up. Now here you are draping yourself in the tri-color.

back to the tape when I proclaimed Connor the best fighter in the world. No, you didn't. With the flag draped around me. So this guy, Ari Hertzberg, sends you free tickets to UFC 189. Correct. What did you do for him in return? Well, I brought him in here and maybe, you know, he gets a little something in the mail later this month. Wow. What a moment that is. So where did you print the tickets? So I had it via email. Oh, you can just put on your phone. See, it was going wrong. Ticketmaster was messing up. So then I went to the box. office. And I was like, please, this is the situation. Here's all the info. I need these tickets ASAP. And the, the MGM box office hooked me up. I thought that they even, I don't, like,

I never knew that they keep the ticket people out that late in the, in the show. You, you cannot get in after the people, the, the two fighters in the main event walk out. That's the end. Wow. So, because I had a basketball game. I had a little bit of time, but let's say, uh, Rory McDonald or, or Robbie Lawler had knocked the other out. Yeah? I would have been out of luck. Oh my gosh. So, Ari, you're the best. Thank you. It was, I mean, Invicta was incredible.

I went to the Expo, thanks to Aunt Evans. Oh, yeah. To him. Did you go to the Hall of Fame? I watched BJ Penn get into the Hall of Fame. I went to 189. I went to NBA Summer League. I met Bill Steinmetz. Wait, you went to NBA Summer League. You didn't tell me that. I did on Sunday right before I left for the airport. Who did you see? Summer League. I saw the Rockets and the Phoenix Suns. Wow, this is a real weekend for you.

Yeah, and I met Bill Steinmetz, our biggest fan and a really good dude. The cop. Yeah, he was actually at Invicta, but you were, you know, over there, you know, schmoozing on Press Row. What was the schmoozing? I was working. You didn't say hi to me. Thanks, Bill. Well, he didn't want to bother you. He knew you were working because that's the kind of guy he is. Invicta was a great show. They should always do their events on Fight Week, UFC Fight Week.

Was it a good show, yeah. It was a nice crowd and a lot of celebrities and MMA luminaries there. I'm over the whole. If Cyborg's next fight is against some random person I'm not even talking about. I'm done with it. I don't want to see that anymore. I'm done with it. Enough.

Go take the time, make the wait. If not, let's meet at 140. You know, at the end of the day, let's just get the fight done. You know, if it's at 140, it's at 140. Let's just stop this talk. but I don't want to see her annihilate someone in 45 seconds anymore. It's hard to watch. It makes me uncomfortable.

Is that fair? Is that fair for who? Is that fair to say? Like, is Ronda Rousey, you know, do we not want to see Ronda Rousey fight because she's annihilating everybody in 15 seconds? Well, here's the difference. A, she's doing it in a different way. It's, to me, like, her opponents, they're legit opponents, right?

These are top of it. Now, I think there's a big, big gap between her and number two, three, and four. Like, here in the 145-pound division with Cyborg, it's number one facing number like 800. Remember how you were just saying moments ago? Yeah. You can only face the competition in front of you. You can only take who they give you. But that was a natural progression.

This is a champion beating up people who have no business being in the same cage as her. So who would be a 145 opponent for her? This is the problem. But that's not, so that's not her fault. No, so what I'm saying is... I don't want to watch it. I feel uncomfortable. I think that's unfair.

Why is, okay, this is my point. If it could only get done on 140, let's see it get done on 140. We've seen on title fights before, but let's get it done. At this point, let's get it done. Especially if Misha Tate beats Jessica I, there's really going to be no one at the moment. At the moment, the stars would have a line for Cyborg versus. Rhonda. Let's get it done. No argument for me here that that's the fight to see,

but I think, you know, I don't have a problem with cyborg beating who's in front of her. I'm okay with it. It makes me uncomfortable. I'm just being honest. Hey, look. It makes me uncomfortable. She's dominant. She's absolutely dominant. She's too dominant. It feels like we're going to watch a slaughter. It hurts.

And, okay, say what you will about this. When Rhonda submits someone, it doesn't hurt as much to watch. There's something beautiful there. And I could take away something beautiful from a knockout. Don't get me wrong. But here it just feels like someone who is that much better than the competition, getting their

jaw broken every single time. That's what it feels like. It makes me a little uneasy. That's fine. I disagree, but I can understand. All right, let's try and knock out at least a few questions here. Okay. From the website.

But overall, you know, for me, and I think for everybody else who was there, this week was incredible. It was. Okay. What were your thoughts? You mentioned this earlier. What were your thoughts on the production changes

for the UFC? Well, the reason why, by the way, you skipped the second part of the question, the reason why they weren't adopted for the FS1 broadcast is because FS1 recently changed their graphics, and they weren't going to do so again.

It was just like three, four months ago. So now there's going to be a distinction. I don't hate that. I think probably in the end it's best for it to be uniform, but maybe it makes the pay-per-views to fight past shows. You know, when it's a UFC production,

when it's a UFC pay-per-view or F-S excuse me FP Fight Pass show then it will look the way it did on Saturday for the main card when it's a Fox show it will look the way it did on Sunday

I loved it. I loved it. It was clean, it was nice, the flags, it was all very good and the stuff in the cage was great I loved everything about it. I wasn't a huge fan of the intro music because I had heard that they were changing it but there's still the

face of the pain stuff which I don't feel as passionately about as some of my colleagues in the media. Like, I don't cry. I don't cringe. It doesn't enrage me when I hear that song. But in this day and age, I mean, when I think of like the NBA on ESPN or back in today, NBC or Foxport, I mean, you can make some pretty damn good music, some powerful music, some powerful music, some emotional music, you know, some music that really connects with people. This kind of music doesn't. And that's the one thing that I was a huge fan of. That's one thing that I would change. Okay, let's hit these quick.

Don't tell me what to do. Mendez, did McGregor beating him answer the wrestler question? What it did was it answered enough and it left enough unanswered. You know, there's still, you know, every Frankie Edgar presents different questions. The answer presents different questions. How about that? Chad Mendez at full strength with a full training camp presents different questions. Connor McGregor at full strength.

not with an injured knee, presents different questions and different answers. So what it did was, in my opinion, the biggest revelation of that fight was that Connor McGregor has a chin. Conne McGregor can take a punch and then some. Conne McGregor, when his back is against the wall, can survive. Conne McGregor, when things aren't exactly going his way, i.e. take downs, ground and pound, cuts. The man doesn't get rattled. The man goes for the finish. The man can't finish in a pretty short amount of time.

Connor can call his shots and can back up his talk. That's what I learned on Saturday. If he fights chat again, if he fights Frankie, well, different things happen quite possibly. But to me, those were the major revelations. And Connor McGregor is a better fighter today for what he experienced on Saturday, and I think he earned a lot of people's respect.

What do you think of Tough 22 McGregor versus Faber? Well, look, from the UFC's perspective, from Fox's perspective, I get it. This is a brand that isn't as hot as it once was. This is a brand that could use a shot in the arm. And Connor McGregor is without a doubt the biggest star in the sport. He, you know, look, there's this debate between him and Ronda Rousey. Ronner Rousey opens doors that Connor can't.

Ronor Roussey will get them in front of people that Connor can't. But from a business perspective, from a pay-per-view and gate perspective, Connor right now is a bigger draw. So that's why, in my opinion, he's the biggest star in the sport. Do you roll the dice and try to put him on this show to try to revive it? I get it from their perspective. However, from my perspective as a fan and media member, I think a break would be nice, A, and there is something to be said for, you know, we've been there, done that,

and will the ultimate fighter make him feel less special? You know, that happened with Brock Lesnar. It made him feel less special, being there with the jersey and just on the show, and Brock wasn't a great coach, and he was in great TV, and that was part of his appeal. He was kind of this beast, this mute, who would go in there and kill people. Now, Connor has a tremendous gift of gab, and he's must-see TV at all times no matter what he's doing. But I'm worried that 13 straight weeks of him will water him down a little bit.

So I get it from their perspective, and I also understand why people, you know, are kind of like, well, maybe this wasn't the best choice. We'll see what happens. If Connor can't revive tough at this point, then I think that will be it. Rory MacDonald, for years he was supposed to be the next GSP. His skills are undeniable, but he just suffered a very hard loss, both physically and mentally. Do you believe he can make a comeback and get another crack at the title, or is he going to stay a high-level geekkeeper? He is not going to stay a high-level gatekeeper.

He is still very much a player, and I wouldn't mind seeing that rematch. It's one of those rare times where a guy is now down 02, and I still want to see the third fight because he was winning the fight. obviously he has to win one at least probably two more fights before getting into that consideration but this is a guy who beat he beat tyron woodley who's right there lost a very close one to carlos conde but that was so long ago i think he's very very competitive against all those guys so he's no he's no gatekeeper he's still very much a player i i don't recall did the knockdown in the first fight come in the second or the third round the robbie luller fight yeah because he might

have been winning that first fight as well. If the knockdown came in round three, you would think that maybe he was winning that fight as well before he got knocked down. But either way, I mean, I have no problem with them running that one back, even though, as you said, Rory's own two. I feel like John Anick was spot on when he said that, you know, it just feels like Rory is going to be there eventually. And I still get that feeling as well. What about Bantamoy Contender Al Jermaine Sterling sending in multiple questions? Wait, wait, wait. It's coming on Twitter. Twitter questions. He's all over the place here. my Twitter. Don't you worry. It's coming. It's coming. Last one from the website. Less than two months away

before the September pay-per-view, and there's no headliner or even a co-headliner. Page Van Zamp versus Alex Chambers and Benavitas versus Henry Sohudo are official, but that's it. Do you have any more information on any of their fights added to this card? Well, I heard that they were working on Dotson versus DJ for this card, but they want a big main event. You know, that's definitely what they want. And if you look at all the options, none of them work out for September. There's there's really no good option out there. So I'm very curious to see what they come up with because all the champions are either booked

or have said they don't want to fight on that card, wouldn't be ready to fight on that card. I don't know what they're going to do. And I don't know if they can do another main event with DJ. I don't even think he wants that at this point. So it's going to be very interesting. We are less than two months away and there's no main event. Kind of rare.

Okay, let's talk about Aljo. Who is next to get choked by the funky one, Al Jermaine? Who's next? Al Jermaine loves the show. Oh, I'm sorry. This is worth mentioning. Hashtack, he's like really good or something. Oh, yes.

He is damn good. Recently had groin surgery, I believe, but I think he's on the comeback trail. I don't know. You've had more time to think about this than I. What do you got? I don't know. I think he just tweeted us Johnny Eduardo. I'm sure he's got his own...

He just tweeted that? Yeah, he might have. But I don't know, but... If it walks like a duck, it must be a duck. Don't be scared Johnny Eduardo. I'd like to see a ranked opponent. I think that'd be fun. I know there was some talk about Brian Carraway.

He's fighting next week. Where's the Bantaway Division? Johnny Eduardo. Where's Al Jermaine's number seven. Eduardo's number nine. Love it. Eddie Winland's fighting Brian Carraway next week. What about the winner of that?

Where are they, respectively? Eddie is number six and Carraway's number 12. Yeah, I could. If Eddie wins, that's a big one. Right? I could dig that, yeah. But Eduardo, Eduardo hasn't fought in a while. But let's just give some props to the Serra Longo guys

who continue to support this show. Absolutely. Okay, let's put this one to bed. Is it me or did the stoppage look too quick in the Mendez versus McGregor fight? I watched it multiple times, multiple angles, and I'm okay with it. I didn't think it was even honestly noteworthy. thought it was a fine stoppage. So why the hell do you pick this question?

Well, because it's a lot of people were asking about this. He was... And I, you know, I'm a man of the people. I know. I understand. He'd even complain. Chad didn't even complain. His hands were down when he took the straight punch.

So even though he was, you know, protecting himself, quote unquote, he wasn't really looking like he was about to make any moves to get out of that situation. And fine stoppage. Correct me if I'm wrong. It was very reminiscent of the Diego Brandau finish, very reminiscent of the Dennis Siever finish. there's something deceiving about Conner's punches. I feel like people don't really realize how hard he punches.

I don't think there's anything deceiving about it. I think it's about, you know, the same way Anderson Silva knocks out guys. It's not about, you know, swinging from your hip and launching, you know, H-bombs at people. It's about accuracy. And enough of those shots are really going to hurt somebody. And a guy like Connor McGregor has the length and the reach and the power to make guys, you know, crumble like that. And it was quite impressive. Agreed. By the way, someone's saying to me,

why don't you say the same thing about Mike Tyson that you're saying about Cyborg? Like, why didn't people say that back of the day? Because Mike Tyson was beating top guys. Now, he was climbing that, when he was climbing the ranks, he was knocking people out, but he was, he was the same age, same experience, all that stuff. Cyborg's not. Cyborg's older, more experience than these people. These are mismatches. These are 100% mismatches. Now, look, I don't begrudge. By not her fault, though. I don't begrudge her or Invicta. She's got to get paid. They've got to make fights for her.

All I'm saying is, me, personally, I feel weird watching it. I feel uncomfortable. They have to do, she's probably their biggest star, their biggest draw, and she has to get paid. I don't begrudge them. This is a weird situation. I'm just saying, me, I feel weird watching it. Do you get what I'm trying to say? I'm not saying that they're bad people, you know, Invicta's bad people.

They have to book these fights. I get it. I get it. I just don't want to watch it. I'm entitled to that. What's next for Chad? He's 0-13 in championship fights. Is this one kind of a scratch because it was on short notice? What do you think? Yeah, he's, look, he has to hope Connor wins, and then he's right back in there.

But again, he's a lot more popular today than he was after beating Lamas than he was a week ago. He handled the whole thing amazingly. Okay, our friend Luke Murphy, is it okay for promoters to celebrate with a fighter? Why or why not? Should we care? Should journalists care? And we have a picture of Connor McGregor. That was the celebrating with Zufa's officials. I have no problem with them celebrating. Look, he's their business partner.

I just wish it wasn't on camera. You know what I mean? Look, a lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes. And Conner's right. They're all business partners. They're all doing this together. There's a partnership there. There's a union there.

But I don't think it should be flaunted. Now, did they know they were on camera? Who knows? I don't know. to me it's not something that I would want on camera. Got no problem with it. Why? Well, why would I have a problem with it?

Well, because what I just said? The favoritism? Well, if you're, okay, there's two ways you can think about it. Chad Mendes says, well, that's kind of weird. Or like a Daniel Kormeer says, well, I didn't get a toast like that when I won the belt. You know, it leads to problems. It leads to questions. It leads to unnecessary talk.

Well, that's for Chad and Daniel Korme to have the conversation and to kind of figure out for them But I don't have a problem with it. I don't think unless, you know, there's some kind of evidence of it being, you know, a favoritism that's shown in in terms of business operations, then, you know, we may have a problem. But toasting somebody, I'm not really. Well, this is, again, why you can't compare Zoufa to the NFL. They are owners of a team, essentially. So it's really no different two degree.

You can't even compare it to a team. But it's no different than Mark Hubering celebrating with his players. Now, there's two guys going up against each other, so you'd like there to be some neutrality and some distance there. But they just put on a successful event, and they know, look, like I said, they would be stupid if they weren't hoping for the Aldo fight. And Connor's not the first or the last who's probably, you know, been celebrated. It's not, but it doesn't happen often on television.

Absolutely. It would be nice if it wasn't public, but that's not. what I said. I have no problem with it, but just do it behind closed doors. I don't know how the camera got or whatever, but I have no problem with them being that way. It just probably is in their best interest if it's not shown on television. Who do you want to see perform live next? It seemed like you weren't thrilled with... What? Didn't you mention that you didn't love the intros? What? Oh, no, you were talking about the music intro for the paper view. I was talking about face the pain. How did you feel about the live?

musical performance. I mean, I still can't even put it into words. I loved it. You loved it. So who's next? I had the privilege. I hosted the Wayans for a tough finale on FS2. By the way, I'm told, the highest rated Wayans ever, solely because of my presence as hosts. In any

event, Shnade O'Connor was performing in back of us for an hour, practicing. It was unbelievable. They were doing it over and over again. I felt so lucky getting to witness that. And then Aaron Lewis comes. I didn't know who an Aaron Lewis was. Do you know who Aaron Lewis was? No clue.

It was pretty damn good. Of course, funny songs because they're not like your hype-up songs and all that. But I loved it. You know, break it out for a big fight. You can't do it all the time. It has to mean something. It has to be a fight that we're all waiting for. They were talking to Rihanna.

Could you imagine if Rihanna came on after Shnade O'Connor? That would have been insane. Wouldn't have been able to hear her anyway with all the booze raining down. I think they would have given her a little more respect because it was a little less about, you know, America and all that. that being said, who do I want? Rihanna's a good one. You just, we missed that. That is a good one.

I want Ziggy Marley to sing three little birds as Talas Lyddes walks out to the cage in Scotland. That's what I want. Really going to the well. What's next for the Walterweight Championship? What's the next fight up? Hendricks? What if Robbie Campi? It's Hendricks, Woodley, Brown, Condit, may the best man win, give Lawler some time off.

He's off for a little bit, so it's just going to be a little bit. So it's just going to be a mini tournament until he comes back. That's what I want. Okay. What about Josh Samaan? His story is so moving. It's great to see him win in great style. Top 15 opponent next.

I had a chance to talk to him briefly, and I said that I'm a big fan of his right. And by the way, I know some people are like, I can never win with some of these idiots. I was giving him props for his great writing skills and his work on bloodyelbo.com. Yep. We're not going into too much. They don't love when we say. the other websites. So I tried to do as much as I could without, you know, pissing off people, right? For, you know, my bosses. So I was talking about his Twitter. I was talking about his

articles and all that stuff. I thought I was giving him a lot of props. Anyway, I even said it to him in person. I said that he's providing great insight on Twitter and through his articles, his articles are incredibly well-written and very entertaining and enlightening. And as far as fighting his concern, he's great. I mean, he's come back from incredible personal tragedy. A few tragedies. Stepfather died. Of course, his girlfriend died, which is, you know, a horrific dying in a car accident. He had a major hamstring injury, and he's come back to win two great fights, impressive fights over tough guys. He's a lot of fun to watch. He's a great personality. I'm very happy for him. I'd love to have him on the show in the near future.

That's it. A lot of people going crazy about this. this Fyodor Al-Milienenko thing. Would he post some picture or something? No, it was an article that hinted at him coming back. He said, you know, it said he's speaking to organizations, but it was very vague. Nothing really... But he's back.

That's what it says. Or he's claiming he's back. That's what it says in that article. You care to see Fader back. How old is Fadour? I'm saying he's like 35. Then why not? It's not like.

I think at the time that Fador lost, there was a big emphasis on kind of him being over the hill. But if you go back and if you look at it in hindsight, I don't think he's as done as we thought he was. A lot of people are extending their careers these days. And there are people who we've been calling for their retirement who are still fighting, you know, Dan Henderson included, who was one of the people that knocked out Fador. So I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with it. He's 38, by the way. Yeah.

I mean, we've seen, you know, guys older than that still competing. Different climate, too, with, well, at least in the UFC, but hopefully people are starting to smarten up as far as PDs are concerned. So different climate. And look at some of his contemporaries and how they're doing, especially in the heavyweight division, this revival, right? Absolutely. If they can do it, Fioro can do it.

So I'm all for it. Heavy weights can be a little older because, you know, the power's still there. And there's not as much drain on the body with the weight cut. I think I wouldn't have a problem with him coming back. I'll say that. I'm curious if Belator is involved in this. You know, they have him as this guest fighter. They bring him out and all this stuff.

I don't know. That would be a shot in the arm. But historically, those who have broken the bank for Mr. Emileonenko, they don't really get what they bargained for historically. Maybe the UFC revisits it as well. It's going to be interesting. All right, well, we'll see. We'll follow that one. But it appears as though, at least via this M1 global website,

he is interested in returning. Fiorda versus Kimbo-Slicse. That's the one. What do you think does better ratings? Fiore versus Kimbo-Sle-Sleis or Kimbo-Sleis versus Herschel Walker? I think Fedor's got... Really? I think Walker gets it. Really?

I don't remember... See, I don't remember how their ratings did back when Herschel was on Strike Force. Well, it's different because that's like a subscription cable channel, but I think Herschel gets them on ESPN and all that stuff against Kimbo. I think Fader's, I think Fader can get them to the same place, but maybe on, you know. American mainstream sports? Yeah. All right.

Especially, you know what? Especially with him talking about, like, I might come back and stuff to play other sports, not just MMA. Maybe Herschel. But in the MMA world, I think there's no doubt that Fader coming back would be huge. Well, the UFC is back. tomorrow Wednesday. Todd Duffy versus Frank Mier. Tony Ferguson versus Josh Thompson. Holly Home

against Marion Reno. Manny Gambarian versus Scott Jorgensen, Kevin Lee versus James Montasri, and Matt Dwyer versus Alan Joban. It's a full night of fights and it's a very busy weekend coming up because after that we've got Bellator on Friday on Spike TV, Douglas Lima, defending his title.

You got Paul Daley fighting on the card as well. MVP, Michael Page, Always fun to watch him. So that's on Friday. Legacy also on Friday. And then on Saturday, it's Bispin v. Talas Lydides. UFC's debut in Glasgow. And that's a good card as well.

That's in the afternoon. Main card 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Fox Sports 1, Joseph Duffy, The Last Man to defeat Connor McGregor, also on that card. And Titan FC makes its Fight Pass debut with four title fights on Saturday night. That's four title fights. that's a lot. That's on Saturday. UFC FightPass.com.

So a very busy weekend of MMA. We're back on Monday. You can hear my music, by the way. We're back on Monday. Same time. Same place. We were on Tuesday this week. We're also going to be on Tuesday after USC 1090

because I have to fly home from Brazil. But next week, we're back on Monday. I know a lot of you missed us yesterday, but I had to fly home. There was no way I was going to get home in time. I had landed at like 3 o'clock. And I just wasn't going to happen. But we got a good show in.

Very happy with today's show. And I hope you all enjoyed it as well. Great stuff from Sean Cheyenne. Recapping what it meant for the Irish to witness Connor McGregor become the new UFC interim featherweight champion. Great stuff on severe MMA.com as well. Thank you very much to John Kavanaugh.

Congratulations. Love talking to John. Very happy for him. Thank you very much, John Anick. Good luck to him tomorrow. Calling the action. in San Diego. Great stuff as always by Ben Rothwell. He was fantastic. If you saw him in Las Vegas, I bet you have a good story. He was on Cloud 9. Thank you very much to Farah Zahabi. Great stuff

from him. And we certainly hope that Roy McDonald gets well soon. Thank you very much to Michael Bisping. Good luck to him on Saturday. Big fight. Always love talking to Michael. Thank you very much to Uriah Faber. Good luck to him. Coaching on the Ultimate Fighter season 22 opposite the notorious one. And thank you very much to Todd Duffy. First UFC main event. He asked for it. He's going to get it. He's fighting Frank Mear tomorrow. What a show UFC 189 was, one that we will never forget. I had a lot of fun recapping it with all of you. We'll be back on Monday. If you missed anything, check it out. iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, All the Ghost Services, there, peace. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder?

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